How do I install Core linux to the harddrive?

[Ben321]

There's 3 versions, Core Linux, TinyCore Linux, and CorePlus Linux. I want to install just plain Core Linux to the harddrive. Yes, it only has a console interface, but that's fine. While it would be nice to have a GUI, TinyCore has the burden of REQUIRING an internet connection to install, and CorePluss has the burden of being larger than I would like. I'm looking for a version of Linux that is plain and simple and can be installed on ANY computer, no matter how big or small the harddrive is or other capabilities of the computer. Core Linux seems to fit that description.

However, while booting to it from the CD is easy, what I cant figure out at all is how to INSTALL it on a harddrive. Is there any tutorial on how to install Core Linux. I found this http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/install.html via a quick Google search, but it only applies to TinyCore (which as I explained above, does not fit my requirement of not requiring a network for installation). I'm looking for a way to install just plain Core Linux. Is this even possible? If it is, please provide me a step-by-step tutorial on how to do so.

[gerald_clark]

Just get the TinyCore CD and run the installer.  You can choose not to include X.

[Ben321]

Just get the TinyCore CD and run the installer.  You can choose not to include X.

There are only 4 options when booting from the TinyCore CD:
Boot TinyCore
Boot TinyCore (on slow devices, waitusb=5)
Boot Core (command line only)
Boot Core (command line only on slow devices, waitusb=5)

There is NOTHING about installation.

If I procede to press enter to boot to TinyCore, I have 7 icons:
Exit
Editor
ControlPanel
Apps
RunProgram
MountTool
Terminal

There is NOTHING about installation.


I have a feeling that ALL of the core Linuxes were meant to only be boot from a CD, and never installed on a harddrive, which is a sad thing, because there is so much potential for an OS that takes only 11MB of space.

[Rich]

Hi Ben321
I could be mistaken but I thought the install utility was included in  CorePlus. At any rate, if you have a wired internet
connection you can use the  Apps  utility to load  tc-install.tcz. Then click on the  Install  icon.

[Ben321]

Hi Ben321
I could be mistaken but I thought the install utility was included in  CorePlus. At any rate, if you have a wired internet
connection you can use the  Apps  utility to load  tc-install.tcz. Then click on the  Install  icon.

It is included in CorePlus, but I don't want't to install over 100MB of stuff to the harddrive. And you also, in your last post, said to use the TinyCore CD, which is not the same as CorePlus. I took you literally at your word, and used the TinyCore CD (not the CorePlus CD).

Really, EVERY one of these should have the install feature. Even the base Core CD should have the installer (and you should be able to type "install" from the command line, and it should load up an installer wizard that allows you to partition your primary harddrive, format it, and then install Core Linux to it). Such an installer would only add a couple megabytes to the size of the CD, but instead I have to use a HUGE CD (over 100MB) for this? That's NUTS.

[coreplayer2]

Ben you're missing the point here,

Just because you use coreplus to install from you allways have a choice to install only what you choose.  besides, installing to a HDD, SSD or USB is exactly what the installer is for.  You can also install manually if you're inclined too.

You can choose to install TC any way you want, you'll just have to explore the numerous possibilities.

There must be a thousand ways to install TC to a Hard Disk Drive.   There are far too numerous install methods to explain in detail here or anywhere.   

My advise is try not to be so quick to judge, relax, explore a little and ask questions.

I'm sure you'll find TC fascinating once you figured out how to install it.

[Rich]

Hi Ben321

It is included in CorePlus, but I don't want't to install over 100MB of stuff to the harddrive.

The installer will ask what you want to install. CorePlus is the size it is because of all the wireless support. Tell the installer
to not install wireless support and to not install X.

And you also, in your last post, said to use the TinyCore CD, ...

That was  gerald_clark  not me.

[Ben321]

Can somebody make a custom ISO for me, that is based on just plain Core Linux, and add the installer (called tc-installer, from the CorePlus ISO) to that Core ISO image, so that it can be executed from the command line? I don't want my ISO file wasting any more space on my harddrive than they need to. I am really just going to run it from a virtual machine (VirtualBox), not a real PC, and would prefer to not have my ISO taking up any more space on my PC than is needed. So an 11 MB ISO is much better than a 120MB ISO.

[gerald_clark]

You can make your own custom ISO.  Read the remastering articles in the wiki.

[Ben321]

Ended up making my own ISO, from the latest (version 8.0 at the time I did this) version of the TinyCore ISO. It comes with the installer so you can install it and not just boot from it, while taking up significantly less space than the CorePlus ISO. I used 7Zip to pull apart the CorePlus ISO and find the installer files, and looked at its dependencies (DEP files) in Notepad++ to find the other files it needed (and did this recursively as I ran into more DEP files). I took out all the files needed for the installer and its dependencies until I found no more DEP files next to files that were referenced by the other DEP files. That way I knew I had everything I needed for the installer. This left me with about 20MB worth of files for the installer and its dependencies (with file extensions .tcz, .tcz.dep, and .tcz.md5.txt) that I extracted from the CorePlus ISO. These all came from the /cde/optional folder. Then I also had a look at the .lst files in the /cde folder. I noticed that one of the lines in the installer LST file (xibase.lst) had an entry that none of the others x*base.lst files had, which was tc-installer-GUI.tcz and that this line also appeared in onboot.lst. So I now went back to the TinyCore ISO and extracted all of its LST files, and looked at them (onboot.lst, xbase.lst, and copy2fs.lst). After extracting these from the ISO with 7Zip, I edited all 3 of these in Notepad and added the line tc-installer-GUI.tcz to each of them. Now the only problem was putting them back into an ISO. Realizing that 7Zip can't make or edit ISOs (only extract from them), I downloaded a program called MagicISO and used that to add the files all back into the correct places in the TinyCore ISO.

Booting with this new ISO (which is only about 35MB in size) I found there is now a new icon in the bottom bar of the GUI. It's the installer icon. Then I tested it, and it ran perfectly! I was worried there would be some incompatibility, thinking maybe I'd missed something in my reverse engineering of the CorePlus ISO and its boot files, but there was NO problem. It worked PERFECTLY! I tried using it to install the Core (console) version to the harddrive, and that worked. I tried using it to install the TinyCore (GUI) version, and that also worked. After each of these test installations, I booted to the virtual harddrive without the ISO image in the virtual CD drive, to make sure that it could actually boot from what had been installed on the harddrive. And in both cases it booted without any problem. So I can verify that its installation of the console version, and its installation of the GUI version, both work properly.

And in case you don't want to have to go through all the trouble I did, I've uploaded the ISO file I created to Mediafire, and am posting the link here for you to download.
www.mediafire.com/file/2k09kbx6x8ftx2u

[PDP-8]

I remember taking the hard way too.

For total configurability, you can burn and boot the CorePlus iso which is in itself an awesome custom installer.  Sure you can burn and boot the other iso's, and do all the manual configuration yourself, but CP will save you vast amounts of time.

Choose among the 10 different "flavors" of TC you want to install from CorePlus after you boot it.   CorePlus will THEN burn/install what you want to an HDD, or a bootable usb / micro-sd if you prefer, with your choice of a *teeny* cli, or a gui environment with even it's own installer for future installs from *that* and many more options such as custom kernel boot options.

I think many don't realize up front that CorePlus is not just a fatter TC, but is in itself a totally custom installer that will put the tiniest system on your disk, or something larger should your needs change.

Or you can do as above and get in some good system editing practice.

[polikuo]

I took out all the files needed for the installer and its dependencies until I found no more DEP files next to files that were referenced by the other DEP files. That way I knew I had everything I needed for the installer.

If you only need ext* installation.
The absolute minimum requirement for CLI:

--frugal,USB-HDD--
tc-install.tcz
syslinux.tcz

--USB-ZIP--
tc-install.tcz
syslinux.tcz
glibc_gconv.tcz
mtools.tcz
perl5.tcz

If you need fat32 (not recommended), just add "dosfstools.tcz" to the lists above.

Then I also had a look at the .lst files in the /cde folder. I noticed that one of the lines in the installer LST file (xibase.lst) had an entry that none of the others x*base.lst files had, which was tc-installer-GUI.tcz and that this line also appeared in onboot.lst. So I now went back to the TinyCore ISO and extracted all of its LST files, and looked at them (onboot.lst, xbase.lst, and copy2fs.lst).

XBASE used to be hard code in the installer.
It has been refactored to read from file "xbase.lst".

Thanks for the feedback.
For the latest tc-install source code.
https://github.com/polikuo/tc-install

[theYinYeti]

For the record, “installing” TinyCore, or plain Core, or CorePlus, is mostly a matter of copying files and adapting the boot-loader:
http://yalis.fr/cms/index.php/post/2016/11/20/Bootable-flash-drive-for-both-Linux-and-Windows%3A-live-Linux