Installation on an EEEPC from USB

[elbarbudo]

Hello
I am trying to install TCE on the "hard disk" (internal ssd) of my EEEPC.
I boot from an USB live image.

The installation dialog runs OK but it ends by telleing me that /dev/sda1 is mounted.

But the mount tool refuses to unmount it.

What can I do?

[elbarbudo]

I found that using the "boot core + installation extensions" allowed to run the installer to sda1.

It ended by the message "installation complete" BUT after reboot, I got  "No operating system" message.

What was wrong?

[Juanito]

Is there an existing installation of tinycore on the ssd hd?

[elbarbudo]

Normally not. The internal "drive" wad formatted from another live distro (Pixel for PC)
Finally I succeeded by choosing the installation to the whole disk.

BUT I lost the grub that was on it.
I used it to boot to the SD card without having to choose the boot device each time.
From what I can see I am unsure I will be able to re-install Grub on the internal drive without breaking the TCB install.

[Misalf]

I believe Juanito asked for an existing installation because Tinycore will search for a  tce  directory on attached devices if not specified via boot code in the boot loader config.

You can install any boot loader you like as long as you are able to create the boot stanza in it's config.
But maybe syslinux, the default boot loader tinycore installs, will fit your needs?

[polikuo]

Normally not. The internal "drive" wad formatted from another live distro (Pixel for PC)
Finally I succeeded by choosing the installation to the whole disk.

BUT I lost the grub that was on it.
I used it to boot to the SD card without having to choose the boot device each time.
From what I can see I am unsure I will be able to re-install Grub on the internal drive without breaking the TCB install.

To chain-load another bootable media, use chain.c32 and it's dependencies (libcom32.c32, libutil.c32).
If you need a menu prompt, try vesamenu.c32 and adjust your config file.

Assume you format your disk to ext4 via tc-install extension:

Code: [Select]

tce-load -w syslinux
tce-load -i syslinux
mount /mnt/sda1
cd /usr/local/share/syslinux/
cp vesamenu.c32 chain.c32 libcom32.c32 libutil.c32 /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/
vi /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

Config file example:

UI vesamenu.c32
MENU TITLE Tiny Core Bootloader
TIMEOUT 100

DEFAULT tc
LABEL tc
MENU LABEL Tiny Core
KERNEL /tce/boot/vmlinuz
INITRD /tce/boot/core.gz
APPEND bla~bla~bla~

LABEL sd
MENU LABEL SD card
COM32 /tce/boot/chain.c32
APPEND hd1

Note that sometimes "/tce/boot/" can be omitted as syslinux usually looks for files from the directory with ldlinux.c32 in it.

[coreplayer2]

BUT I lost the grub that was on it.
I used it to boot to the SD card without having to choose the boot device each time.
From what I can see I am unsure I will be able to re-install Grub on the internal drive without breaking the TCB install.

Say What!!!   

You can use any boot loader, but syslinux and/or Grub will work fine for your requirements without breaking anything...   use the boot loader of choice.   You might have to make a boot config file to support all the available drives and operating systems.   Even syslinux will boot your USB by default, you'll just have to read up on it's boot config file to set the default OS installation.  Usually this is set in the Default line

Good luck

[elbarbudo]

Thank you very much for all the explanations.
This is my very first use of syslinux so I don't know really how it's configured.

Short history : I installed Pixel for PC from an USB key to the SD card of my EeePC : Pixel did not fit on the "hard drive" of the EeePC : 4Go only.

I got a grub boot on the SD card and I needed to choose it from the boot menu in the bios on each reboot.
To fix this, I ran grub-install /dev/sda, without any os on sda from the pixel for PC os.

Then I tried TCE which fits into the sda, but because I was unable to install on the partition sda1, I used "entire disk" and the grub on sda was replaced by syslinux.

My main concern about running grub-install /dev/sda is the fact that the initrd, syslinux etc  files does not seem to be detected by grub :
this may be the cause of "No operating system" message i mentioned in post #3

With all your explanations, I am going to dig a little more and discover syslinux....

Thank you again everybody

    [EDIT]: Removed the MOVE tags to stop the "Thank you" line from scrolling.  Rich

[coreplayer2]

Thank you very much for all the explanations.
This is my very first use of syslinux so I don't know really how it's configured.

Short history : I installed Pixel for PC from an USB key to the SD card of my EeePC : Pixel did not fit on the "hard drive" of the EeePC : 4Go only.

I doubt that being the issue, Pixel is a very small addition to Pi.

Then I tried TCE which fits into the sda, but because I was unable to install on the partition sda1, I used "entire disk" and the grub on sda was replaced by syslinux.

  Yes this is normal if you use the regular TC install method.

I got a grub boot on the SD card and I needed to choose it from the boot menu in the bios on each reboot.
To fix this, I ran grub-install /dev/sda, without any os on sda from the pixel for PC os.

My main concern about running grub-install /dev/sda is the fact that the initrd, syslinux etc  files does not seem to be detected by grub :
this may be the cause of "No operating system" message i mentioned in post #3

Syslinux will be replaced when installing grub boot loader and manager to the disk, either use syslinux or Grub2 no mixing..

To install grub, use the "grub2-multi.tcz" tinycorelinux extension, more info here
http://tinycorelinux.net/8.x/x86/tcz/grub2-multi.tcz.info

after installing Grub2 with operating systems installed already you are best to create a boot config file.  use this one below as a template
I understand you can use grub2-mkconfig to create and search for OS installations, but I've never used it and prefer to make my own like the template below.

Code: [Select]

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
/boot/grub2/grub.cfg  (typical install location)

Code: [Select]

insmod part_msdos
insmod fat
insmod ext2
loadfont unicode
set gfxterm=auto
terminal_output gfxterm
GRUB_GFXMODE=1900X1200X16
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

#Timeout for menu
set default=0
set timeout=5

menuentry "TC-8-x86" {
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 196fcfb2-bd37-495d-b855-41f08201be7d
linux /boot/vmlinuz tz=GMT loglevel=3 waitusb=5:UUID="196fcfb2-bd37-495d-b855-41f08201be7d" tce=UUID="196fcfb2-bd37-495d-b855-41f08201be7d" opt=UUID="196fcfb2-bd37-495d-b855-41f08201be7d" home=UUID="196fcfb2-bd37-495d-b855-41f08201be7d"
initrd /boot/core.gz
}

menuentry "System restart" {
echo "System rebooting..."
reboot
}
This is your controlling goto config file for all OS boot options, Bootcodes, boot manager screen resolution etc etc..

You might have to boot a tinycore cd to find the UUID of the TC install drive, usb or whatever, replace the UUID in the template --set=root  option to point to the tinycorelinux directory and install drive .  do the same thing with tce= opt= and home=   to make your tce, opt and home directories persistent

the "set default=0" option defines which menu item (boot stanza) will be used as default boot system and the timeout

Many more boot options available in the Core Book http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html Chapter 10 - Bootcodes

If the boot manager or linux can't be found reinstall grub and recheck the UUID's and paths

[coreplayer2]

The Grub2 manual can be found here
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.pdf

[coreplayer2]

Short history : I installed Pixel for PC from an USB key to the SD card of my EeePC : Pixel did not fit on the "hard drive" of the EeePC : 4Go only.

I doubt that being the issue, Pixel is a very small addition to Pi.

We must be thinking of different "Pixel's" ;p