PiCore on RPi Zero?

[BinaryBen]

Has anyone successfully got piCore running on a RPi0? I suspect it should be fairly straight forward as the hardware is similar (same as) to the RPi 1?

Given that I am new to TCL in general, I thought I would ask before trying myself :/ Actually am new to the more non-main stream linux's in general.

Also, if anyone has gotten it working on a zero, does anyone have experience getting an internet connection working using something like an ESP8266 (or anything outside of an OTG USB adapter)?

Thanks - oh, and hi TCL Forum!

[bmarkus]

piCore-8.0 supports RPi Zero.

[BinaryBen]

Thanks bmarcus. That's great to hear. Is there any news on getting an IP connection from a Pi0? I'm hoping to use a Pi as a development server to SSH into and use Vim, etc. from my iPad

[bmarkus]

Use an USB Ethernet adapter.

[BinaryBen]

Okay, thanks

[bmarkus]

Use an USB Ethernet adapter.

Of course you can use an USB WiFi stick also to get wireless connection.

[Paul_123]

Since you are new to piCore.   It would be much easier to install on a B or better raspberry pi, get all of the extensions that you need using the builtin Ethernet of the B, then move the SDcard to your Zero.

[BinaryBen]

I have 7 loaded on my B currently actually. I have a feeling that I have a lot to learn. Knowing where to start in terms of getting Vim running with the plugins I want, and mosh, and git, etc. is a little overwhelming at the moment. But something new to learn I suppose!

Could anyone please help me understand the difference between micro core, piCore and a "lightweight" RPi distro like Minibian (a stripped down CLI only version of Raspbian)?

I'm curious as to what piCore adds that increases the size compared to micro core. And also, what is missing compared to using Minibian. Can I expect to use the onboard hardware of the Pi, like CEC, the camera port, display ports, GPIO, etc.?

Also, will most of what I learn using piCore be transferable to vanilla TCL on other platforms?

Sorry for the very newbie type questions.

[bmarkus]

No idea, what is minibian. But if you know it, start using piCore and you will learn shortly what is the difference

[bmarkus]

I'm curious as to what piCore adds that increases the size compared to micro core.

piCore compared to Core on x86?

[BinaryBen]

piCore compared to Core on x86?

Uh, I can only presume so? I'm referring to the 11MB Core advertised on the project homepage - it would make sense that it would be on x86.

Does piCore add anything else to Micro Core? Are there provided tools for using GPIO for example? Even better, is there a list of what is added to Micro Core to make it piCore?

[Paul_123]

I would imagine if you read all of the release notes from all of the versions and all of the extension info you will see.

What makes you think the piCore is bigger than Core?    The Kernel is about 4M and the Initrd is about 4.3M     GPIO is built into the kernel, just like Raspbian.   You can add any tool you wish.

The reason why the download is bigger is that it contains the RPI firmware and support for all rpi Boards on one SD card.   Only the correct kernel and initrd gets loaded for the appropriate board.

[bmarkus]

piCore itself is the same as the x86 Core in size and functionality. Kernel is 4.2M, initrd is 4.5M all together less than 9M, look into mmcblk0p1 partition.

SD card image contains two systems, one for armv6 and another for armv7 architecture which doubles the size.

Additionally there are preinstalled extension on mmcblk0p2 partions with sshd and mc (Midnight Commander) to make life easy for headless use which is not installed with x86. You can delete mmcblk0p2, system do not need it. It will work as x86 Core with console.

There are two main differences between Core and piCore:

- piCore comes with MicroPython which is replacing shell in few scripts
- serial console to access system without keyboard and monitor connected

[nitram]

^ If not already, this information should be a piCore forum sticky or pasted as a wiki intro. Followed these forums for months, that one post significanlty clarified piCore. Also on http://tinycorelinux.net/ports.html it is labeled Raspberry Pi, not piCore, which to me was always confusing.

[mocore]

There are two main differences between Core and piCore:

- piCore comes with MicroPython which is replacing shell in few scripts

will the micro python scripts eventually find their way to http://git.tinycorelinux.net  ?