Return to Microcore but everything has changed!

[lemming]

I had a 'play' with Microcore a few years ago, thought it was great, but did not have a use for it at the time. I now have a need for a robust remote location device and want to use it. However it has evolved since.

My device is a PCengines Alix board which has no VGA (HDMI or anything) and the basic BIOS will not boot from USB (CD-ROM or USB stick).  With the old Microcore  there was a way to manually load Microcore onto the CF card, when plugged into my Ubuntu desktop, and then plug the CF card into the target board and it would just run.  The new Core (Core Base) seems to require a a board that boots from CD and has a VGA display. A few questions about the new version:

1) Is there a guide to manually installing the new Core base to a CF or Sd card using a host Linux desktop command line like the 'old days'?

2) One of the guides talk about installing X to Core base. What is the difference between Core base plus X and Tinycore?

3) I am looking to try a Raspberry Pi with Core base but need Lighthttp webserver that was in the old versions but not the new. Is Lighthttp going to make it eventually to Raspberry Pi Core version?

4) The remote device will not have internet access so will not be able to download modules. Is there a way to copy TCZs to a USB stick for the device to download or can I copy them directly to the opt directory?

[bmarkus]

3) I am looking to try a Raspberry Pi with Core base but need Lighthttp webserver that was in the old versions but not the new. Is Lighthttp going to make it eventually to Raspberry Pi Core version?

There is the mongoose ultra lite web serve as well as latest Apache 2.4.9 available.

[curaga]

There is no new CD or VGA requirement. You can still prepare a media in advance.

To do this either boot another computer from the CF, or if not possible, do so via a virtual machine. "qemu -hda /dev/sdX -cdrom CorePlus.iso" would let you to install to the CF via the gui installer. Of course manual ways also work, and the methods have not changed - install a bootloader, copy files.

Tinycore is simply core + X + wm + wbar, so no difference.

[Misalf]

@  4)

Yes. extensions are stored at  "TCE-DIRECTORY/optional"  (not "/opt") and can easily be copied to this location.
'TCE-DIRECTORY' is either  "/tce"  on your boot device, or can be configured via bootparameter (f.e. "tce=/tinycore-5.x")

[lemming]

Thanks guys for the prompt replies.

@bmarkus
I have not heard of the Mongoose webserver. Is it robust like the well used and well sorted Lighthttp or is it a Beta startup?

@ curaga
"..There is no new CD or VGA requirement..."
All the guides for 5.x versions refer to usb booting (either CD or USB stick) and following prompts on the screen. Maybe the Wiki should have a more prominent (I could not find one) guide for manual loading of a CF or SD card without USB or VGA on the target machine for version 5.x.

Which bootloader is the best to use for CF /SD cards and 5.x? Grub, grub2, or other? (It will be a dedicated Microcore device with no other OS).

@Misalf
Do TCZs contain all the dependencies or do I have to copy other files as well?  Do all apps/TCZs not require any files copied to system directories, (e.g. /usr/bin, /usr/lib etc) to run?

 

[Rich]

Hi lemming
Go here:
http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html
Spend an hour with the book. It's an easy read and well worth your time.

[lemming]

Thanks Rich.

Just what the doctor ordered!

[bmarkus]

Thanks guys for the prompt replies.

@bmarkus
I have not heard of the Mongoose webserver. Is it robust like the well used and well sorted Lighthttp or is it a Beta startup?

You can trust, it is matured, stable.

[Misalf]

@Misalf
Do TCZs contain all the dependencies or do I have to copy other files as well?  Do all apps/TCZs not require any files copied to system directories, (e.g. /usr/bin, /usr/lib etc) to run?

You probably know already by having read the book,
TCZ extensions do not contain dependencies. Instead,  foobar.tcz  comes with  foobar.tcz.dep  , which is a list of tcz extensions that get loaded automatically together with foobar.tcz. If foobar.tcz was installed manually, all its dependencies need to be installed manually, too.
TCZ extensions do not require to have anything stored in  /usr/bin,  /usr/lib  (or /usr/local/*). They are just mounted filesystems (read only) which can even contain user files (/home/tc/*).