Tiny Core 8.0 Alpha 1 Testing

[Juanito]

Team Tiny Core is pleased to announce that Tiny Core 8.0 Alpha1 is available for public testing:

http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/8.x/x86/release_candidates/
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/8.x/x86_64/release_candidates/

This is an alpha level cut. If you decide to help test, then please test carefully. We don't want anyone to lose data.

Since this is an alpha cut, although the team has worked through several preview cuts, we ask that only experienced users test. This cut is not for general use. The features in any alpha are not fixed and may change before a public release candidate is available.

Most extensions have been copied over from the 7.x repo - note that the Xorg-7.7 extensions have been updated and the ncurses and readline extensions have changed major versions.

We appreciate testing and feedback.

If you use distribution files note that you need a new vmlinuz and core.gz (or rootfs.gz + modules.gz)

Changelog for 8.0 alpha1:
* busybox updated to 1.25.1
* kernel updated to 4.8.17
* glibc updated to 2.24
* gcc updated to 6.2.0
* e2fsprogs base libs/apps updated to 1.43.3
* util-linux base libs/apps updated to 2.28.2

[polikuo]

Thank you Juanito, for your contribution to this wonderful system.
Just download and test it.
Here's the bug I found specifically for x86_64 platform.

The mke2fs, mkfs.ext* of the new kernel now create file systems with the metadata_csum and 64bit features enabled by default.
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Filesystem

The new binaries conflict with tc-install64, the script needs some fixing.

To install on a new disk, user should manually add "-O \^64bit" when formatting.

How I install tiny core manually:

Code: [Select]

tce-load -w syslinux
tce-load -i syslinux
sudo su
fdisk /dev/sda
o
n
p
1
<just press enter twice to use the whole disk>
w
dd if=/usr/local/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=440 count=1
mkfs.ext4 -O \^64bit /dev/sda1
rebuildfstab
mount /mnt/sda1
mkdir -p /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
cd /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
extlinux -i .
cp /usr/local/share/syslinux/vesamenu.c32 /usr/local/share/syslinux/libcom32.c32 /usr/local/share/syslinux/libutil.c32 /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux/
cp /mnt/sr0/boot/vmlinuz64 /mnt/sr0/boot/corepure64.gz /mnt/sda1/boot/
for installing boot loader.
Important, one must run mkfs.ext4 (or mke2fs) with "-O \^64bit"

FYI, here's my extlinux.conf:

Code: [Select]

vi /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

DEFAULT 64
UI vesamenu.c32

LABEL 32
MENU LABEL 32-bit base
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
INITRD /boot/core.gz
APPEND quiet blacklist=pcspkr vga=788 lang=zh_TW.utf8 base norestore

LABEL 64
MENU LABEL 64-bit base
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz64
INITRD /boot/corepure64.gz
APPEND quiet blacklist=pcspkr vga=788 lang=zh_TW.utf8 base norestore

LABEL 32bk
MENU LABEL 32-bit backup
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz
INITRD /boot/core.gz
APPEND quiet blacklist=pcspkr vga=788 lang=zh_TW.utf8 tce=UUID="1660e367-5775-4838-9d1a-2b6184e35e52"/tce32

LABEL 64bk
MENU LABEL 64-bit backup
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz64
INITRD /boot/corepure64.gz
APPEND quiet blacklist=pcspkr vga=788 lang=zh_TW.utf8 tce=UUID="1660e367-5775-4838-9d1a-2b6184e35e52"/tce64

[Juanito]

Hmm - didn't know what (and I use grub anyway) - thanks.

Maybe you could eventually adjust tc-install64 and submit for the tc-8.x repo?

[andyj]

I'm finding that lxterminal (and lilyterm) require libncurses.so.5, but the provided version is 6. Because aterm is hopelessly broken when using VMware, without a working terminal I'm basically dead in the water. Can you update lxterminal please?

[curaga]

What happens with aterm?

[andyj]

Same as always. The aterm window doesn't refresh when text scrolls when using the VMware graphics driver in Xorg. Once it fills up you have to resize the window to get it to show what text comes after what's displayed.

[Lee]

I'm trying out the alpha on a spare but mostly functional Toshiba Satellite A135-S4487 laptop.

Looks good so far, though I haven't gotten all that deep into it yet.

The firmware-iwlwifi.tcz from 7.x seems to work here, at least for the Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG hardware.

Having some wifi greatly simplifies further playing. 

[Lee]

I got some odd messages when making a backup, though it looks like the bqackup was successfully created.  I haven't tried repeating this yet nort verified that I haven't done anything "unusual", though I'm pretty sure I haven't "Mullerized" it yet.   

Here's a screen log:

Code: [Select]

tc@prpllxr:/mnt/sdb1/boot/core8.0a1/tce$ ls -lrt
total 24
drwxrwxr-x    2 tc       staff         4096 Mar 11 12:06 ondemand/
-rw-rw-r--    1 tc       staff            0 Mar 11 12:15 xwbar.lst
-rw-r-----    1 tc       staff            0 Mar 11 12:20 firstrun
-rw-rw-r--    1 tc       staff          138 Mar 11 12:24 onboot.lst~
drwxrwxr-x    2 tc       staff        12288 Mar 11 19:25 optional/
-rw-rw-r--    1 tc       staff          168 Mar 11 19:40 onboot.lst
tc@prpllxr:/mnt/sdb1/boot/core8.0a1/tce$ filetool.sh -b
/usr/bin/filetool.sh: line 149: can't create /etc/sysconfig/backup_device: Permission denied
sed: can't create temp file '/opt/.filetool.lst4NpKsE': Permission denied
Backing up files to /mnt/sdb1/boot/core8.0a1/tce/mydata.tgz/
Done.
/usr/bin/filetool.sh: line 188: can't create /etc/sysconfig/backup_device: Permission denied
tc@prpllxr:/mnt/sdb1/boot/core8.0a1/tce$ ls -lrt
total 36
drwxrwxr-x    2 tc       staff         4096 Mar 11 12:06 ondemand/
-rw-rw-r--    1 tc       staff            0 Mar 11 12:15 xwbar.lst
-rw-r-----    1 tc       staff            0 Mar 11 12:20 firstrun
-rw-rw-r--    1 tc       staff          138 Mar 11 12:24 onboot.lst~
drwxrwxr-x    2 tc       staff        12288 Mar 11 19:25 optional/
-rw-rw-r--    1 tc       staff          168 Mar 11 19:40 onboot.lst
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          8237 Mar 11 22:04 mydata.tgz
tc@prpllxr:/mnt/sdb1/boot/core8.0a1/tce$


[Juanito]

I'm finding that lxterminal (and lilyterm) require libncurses.so.5, but the provided version is 6

the vte-2.90 dep file contains ncurses5 - I'm guessing you didn't start tc-8.x with an empty tce folder 

[Juanito]

The firmware-iwlwifi.tcz from 7.x seems to work here, at least for the Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG hardware.

firmware-iwlwifi did not work for me...

Code: [Select]

Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
Copyright(c) 2003- 2015 Intel Corporation
iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-17.ucode failed with error -2
iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-16.ucode failed with error -2
iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: no suitable firmware found!


[andyj]

I'm guessing you didn't start tc-8.x with an empty tce folder

Actually I copied the TC 7 VM, booted into TC 8 with no extensions loaded, ran tce-update to update all the extensions, then rebooted.

Code: [Select]

tc@box:~$ ldd $(which lxterminal) | grep found
        libncurses.so.5 => not found
It looks to me like the lxterminal executable is linked to ncurses 5. So not all the extensions were updated from TC 7 to TC 8?

[Juanito]

The vte-2.90 dep file changed, which is a recursive dep of lxterminal and lilyterm

[curaga]

@andyj
Have you reported the bug against xf86-video-vmware?

[andyj]

So far the only program with this defect is aterm:

Code: [Select]

tc@box:~$ aterm -version
aterm version 1.00.01 from 01 August 2007
(utmp,transparency,fading,NeXT scrollbar,XGetDefaults)
According to the aterm website:

Latest Version 1.0.1 was released on August 1, 2007
aterm is deprecated and in a maintenance mode only; there will be no further updates. Use rxvt-unicode instead.

I don't see me reporting an issue with a 10 year old abandonware program to anyone. It's why I don't ask for it to be fixed, I just use something else. I just want something else to work.

[Juanito]

If you modify vte-2.90.tcz.dep to read as per:

http://www.tinycorelinux.net/8.x/x86_64/tcz/vte-2.90.tcz.dep

and download ncurses5 from the repo, things should work with lxterminal and/or lilyterm.