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*SOLVED* CorePlus-5.1 Installer creates swap file on USB flash drive: Why?

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Misalf:
The good thing about TCL is that, compared to traditionally installed OSes, it's quite difficult to 'destroy' it.
If you have made some more or less important customizations, they are probably stored in your mydata.tgz (or core.gz if you have remastered this one).
So, if you don't trust in the changes you've made, you can just create copy of your mydata.tgz file before rebooting (where the mydata.tgz file gets updated) - Or choose the "save"-option at the 'TC Exit Options' if you're sure everything is working correctly.
So you're almost always able to recreate an earlier/working configuration.

Mike7:
Hi, Misalf.

Thanks for the pep talk. I guess I needed it.

But I'm really not worried about making mistakes. The problems I'm having are built-in ones, like the use of Apps. For example, how come there are eight or so extensions (mostly dependencies) listed in "Load Apps Locally", when I never downloaded an extension except as onboot?

And why are almost all of the dependencies of applications that were pre-installed by CorePlus in onboot.lst, now forcing me to remove them one by one, a thankless task that Apps hasn't automated (so far as I can see)?

And how do I know which extensions to delete altogether, from over a hundred in the optional/ directory, probably half of which are unneeded?

Neither Corebook, nor the wikis, nor any here in the forum have been able or willing to explain to me how to do these things. Corebook passes over the Apps functions as if the people reading it already knew how to use them. Saying "Use the Dependencies and Deletions routines for managing dependencies" isn't any help at all.

Here are a few basic questions I need answers to before I can go any further with my TCL installation:
- Why were all extensions, including dependencies, put into onboot.lst by the CorePlus Installer?
- Why are some of these dependencies now no longer in onboot.lst (the ones appearing under "Load Apps Locally", I assume)? Are these dependencies of applications I deleted but which are also dependencies of other applications, so that when I deleted applications these dependencies were retained but are no longer in onboot.lst? (This is one possible explanation. The funny thing is that when I did "Fetch Missing dependencies" the list in "Load Apps Locally" didn't change. Apparently all the missing dependencies that were fetched went right back into onboot.lst, where they don' t belong.)
- How can I remove extensions (using Apps) that don't need to be in onboot.lst without writing them down by hand, one by one, and then removing them one by one?
- How do I know which extensions in the optional/ directory are not needed (firmware, libraries, dependencies of unused or deleted applications, etc.), so I can delete them?

My guess is that the people who wrote Apps don' t use it, using instead the terminal applications tce-ab and tce-load. For them, problems with the use or understanding of Apps don't matter. This is a cynical conclusion to come to, but after hassling with Apps for so long and getting no real help, it's the only conclusion I can come to.

I had similar problems with the Installer app when trying to install CorePlus to a USB flash drive. Everything about the Installer app gives the impression that it's not used by the people who wrote it. They don't use CorePlus, so why should they use the CorePlus Installer? It wasn't use-tested by a person like me who really needs it, so the problems with it never came out (Iike choosing between Frugal and USB-HDD, and the ambiguity of the boot code page).

In any case, I'll bear in mind that, like you kindly reminded me, there is a "Safe Backup" choice at shutdown, where I can save my unchanged mydata.tgz file. That does help a lot.

Cheers.

Mike

gerald_clark:
CorePlus installs a lot ov packages to support a lot of different hardware.
If you want a smaller installation use tthe TinyCore installer instead.

Core is not a normal distro.  It is a toolkit. It is designed for experienced people who need to build small systems.
If this is too difficult for you, you should try puppy or one of the other user oriented distros.

Mike7:
Hi, Gerald.


--- Quote ---CorePlus installs a lot of packages to support a lot of different hardware.
--- End quote ---

But why does it put application dependencies in onboot.lst when they will be loaded at boot anyway (supposedly) by the application they are dependencies of?


--- Quote ---If you want a smaller installation use tthe TinyCore installer instead.
--- End quote ---

I probably would have done so, but I needed the wifi apps. I have no ethernet connection.


--- Quote ---Core is not a normal distro.  It is a toolkit. It is designed for experienced people who need to build small systems.
--- End quote ---

I can't claim to be experienced, but I do like small systems. However, TCL isn't all that small once the regular apps like file manager, browser, sound and media players, image and pdf viewers, etc. are installed. In fact it rapidly grows into a medium-size distro.

No, what attracted me to Core was the simplicity and elegance of the base apps like Editor, Wifi, Mount Tool, and the Control Panel utilities. Their austere look reminds me of the old xwindows in Unix, for which I have a lot of nostalgia, having worked at a Unix work station for five years in the early '90s.

I'm a minimalist at heart. I hate fancy gui's. For example, I've never really made the transition from B&W to color films <grin>, and I defend the artistic quality of B&W movies over color ones. Art was lost with the advent of color, IMO.


--- Quote ---If this is too difficult for you, you should try puppy or one of the other user oriented distros.
--- End quote ---

I do have a Puppy distro on a pendrive (Puppeee4.4-atom). It has some nice apps, very well integrated, and a lovely clean desktop. But later versions of Puppy have gotten more and more fancy and unpleasant, and the nice simple apps were thrown out in favor of ones with bells and whistles that are of no interest to me. There is no longer any support for Puppeee, most regrettably. Progress killed it.

I'm very conservative in a lot of ways. I don't believe in constant updating. I believe applications should be perfected and then used for a long time. I like stability. I'm anti-consumerist and anti-modern.

So I kinda like TCL. Although I feel some dangerously progressive tendencies in it <grin>.

Mike

gerald_clark:
I suggest that you experiment more with Apps and the other utilities.  Even if you make a major mistake, it only takes about 5 minutes to completely reinstall it.
CorePlus puts more than is necessary in the onboot.lst, but trying to analyze your system and decide what you might want would over complicate the installation.
Just because program2 is a dependency of  program1, it does not follow that you might not want program2 even if you remove program1 from the onboot list.

Don't be afraid to play with it.  As you become more familiar with it you will appreciate the utilities more.

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