Thanks all for the help and feedback. Toughed it out with my hacked install, cleaned up packages and onboot.list, learned how to use Apps and had to blacklist some wifi modules. Downloaded the CorePlus package so i could strip it for parts (wifi related extensions)!
Re-installed lxterminal from scratch and everything now works as expected - thanks bmarkus.
Gave up up wicd - too many dependency issues, but did gmail the wicd wpa_supplicant-dbus.tcz maintainer. If no response in a week i will ask the forum if anyone is willing to maintain this package for tc-6.
Ended up installing wifi. Thanks for the tips, very lightweight. Glad to have internet working as the Apps info pages don't work without a connection. Still used to Debian manpages - feel kinda lost working on the system but learning.
Praises and observations (not criticisms) from a new TC user with moderate Linux experience:
- TC is the real deal, not a toy distribution
- TC is quite revolutionary and very refreshing
- TC is how computing should be...lean and mean
- The Into TC pdf manual does not have one mention of wireless
- Section IV of the manual presents several use cases but none are related to setting up a wireless laptop, wouldn't this be a common use case?
- Many wiki pages are outdated, confusing new users trying to figure things out
- New users should use the previous old version first (eg. tc-5 vs 6), as the core system and extensions would have been better tested and maintained
- Searching previous forum posts is very helpful
- The community is very helpful and responsive - i really appreciate that - thanks again
- TC forces you to re-activate your Linux brain (in a good way)
- TC is both simplistic and complex, often at the same time!
- Once you understand how it works, TC really makes you feel in tune with your computer
- Debian minimal install has nothing on Tiny Core
- Puppy Linux has a lot of unnecessary cruft
Thanks again for all the help.