Problems Installing CorePlus 9.0 on a small machine

[Len E.]

The small (and very old) machine being used is a Toshiba Tecra 8000 laptop,
which has 266 MHz Pentium II processor, 128 MB memory, and a 6 GB
hard drive, partitioned with sda1 as 5.3 GB ext3, and sda2 as a 767 MB
swap partition.

In trying out the various installation options available on booting up
from a USB stick,  most failed by hanging up and not completing the
initial  Loading /boot/vmlinuz or Loading /boot/core.gz  steps.

The one procedure that worked was to select the command line only
configuration, and then immediately follow it with the command
tce-load -wi  Xorg-7.7 Xprogs Xlibs fluxbox wbar tc-install-GUI aterm,
and then the command startx.

I was then able to complete the frugal install command graphically,
but when trying to reboot the newly-installed system, the graphics
would not come up.

As a check, I tried the same approach with a CorePlus 8.2.1 stick,
but the tce-load command failed, not being able to find
repo.tinycorelinux.net.

On a much larger, newer machine, the approach with both the
CorePlus 9.0 and CorePlus 8.2.1 sticks worked just fine.

The most confusing aspect of all this is that after I reformatted the
sda1 partition on the Toshiba to ext3 after the initial CorePlus 9.0
install, the original procedure no longer worked for 9.0, hanging
up one of the initial Loading /boot steps, just like all the other
options.

*****************************************************
Documentation on Tiny Core system requirements suggests that
46mb is enough memory for installation, but maybe not for
CorePlus ?

I realize the Toshiba is a very marginal machine at best, but I'm
hoping to elicit some advice to make this work.

Len E.

[coreplayer2]

Hello Len E

My advise on limited hardware is first; start with the smallest ISO then add extensions as needed.

Secondly, when you install to a USB thumb drive you’ll need to add the bootcode  waitusb= 

 Next, you’ll need to remove the “ cde “ bootcode from the boot config command line

Then you’ll need to inform tc via the boot config command line where to find installed extensions   tce=

See the Core book for examples for all the above

Additionally, I’d follow the same guide to verify the HDD installed boot config file and since the HDD and PC subsystem is old and slow I’d add the waitusb= bootcode using the uuid method to the command line for the HDD install aswell

Once you have installed to a usb thumb drive or HDD it’s best to remove the install CD from the drive


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[coreplayer2]

The core book can be downloaded for free here http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html


It would help if you would show the output of

Code: [Select]

showbootcodes

[curaga]

hanging up and not completing the
initial  Loading /boot/vmlinuz or Loading /boot/core.gz  steps.

This means the bootloader failed for some reason. Try another bootloader; the installer uses extlinux, we have instructions for grub in the manual install page.

[polikuo]

I just boot up this crap with TC 9.0 via extlinux bootloader.
With Xvesa, I have a working X window.
I believe your "laptop" hardware is better than that in general so it should boot.
How exactly did you update your system ?

[Len E.]

I'm getting there, maybe .......

On coreplayer2's suggestion about a smaller ISO,  I
downloaded and installed to a USB stick the
standard TinyCore 18mb  .iso.

It has only 4 initial boot options.  After considerable
messing around,  I managed to get the 4th option,
command-line only, waitusb=5,  to come up using
the modified boot command:
/boot/vmlinuz agp=off vga=791 loglevel=3 waitusb=5 initrd=/boot/core.gz

Even that boot up was peculiar.  I had to enter the command on
4 separate tries, powering the machine off between tries, to
eventually make it work.  I don't know why the machine is so
balky.  I ran a memtest86 test, and the memory checked out
o.k., so I don't know what else could be wrong.

Having finally achieved an initial command prompt, I entered the
same 2 commands as shown in my initial post, except I used
flwm_topside instead of fluxbox.

After the startx, the graphic interface came up, and I used the
standard frugal install, with extlinux as the default boot loader.
In my initial install, I had used grub, so as mentioned by
polikuo, extlinux should be sufficient.

On successive reboots, Tiny Core came up on the Toshiba,
but only in command line mode.  I'm hoping I can install
something with the command line AB installer, to get the
graphics working, but I don't know yet.

I believe the graphics should work, because they looked
ok after the startx command using the USB stick.

Len E.

[coreplayer2]

I'm getting there, maybe .......

On coreplayer2's suggestion about a smaller ISO,  I
downloaded and installed to a USB stick the
standard TinyCore 18mb  .iso.

It has only 4 initial boot options.  After considerable
messing around,  I managed to get the 4th option,
command-line only, waitusb=5,  to come up using
the modified boot command:
/boot/vmlinuz agp=off vga=791 loglevel=3 waitusb=5 initrd=/boot/core.gz

Looks like you're trying too hard..

when trying to boot from the USB modify the boot config so that you have only one boot option and edit the command line like this

Code: [Select]

kernel /boot/vmlinuz loglevel=3 waitusb=5 tce=sdb1
initrd /boot/core.gz
don't forget to rename at least please verify /cde directory renamed to /tce   
If using the standard install you might the tce directory in /boot/tce   the only important issue here is making sure it is not named cde

This is a simplified version, where I would use UUID to specify exactly the path to specific USB thumb drives and TCE directories etc etc..  as per the book examples

[Len E.]

Good news !   I found out the answer to my latest problem:

Because no persistence had been set up,  the
results of the initial tce-load and startx commands
were available for the frugal install, but the loaded
modules had all disappeared on the initial reboot
from the hard drive.

Accordingly, on booting up from the hard drive, only
the command line prompt was available.  I repeated the
tce-load and startx commands which reactivated the
graphics interface.  I then checked which directories
contained the packages from the tce-load command,
and inputted a modified /opt/.filetool.lst file:

Code: [Select]

opt/.filetool.lst
home
etc/password
etc/shadow
usr/local/etc/cups
usr/local/share
usr/local/lib
usr/local/bin
usr/local/tce.installed
(It's worth noting that although the cups subdirectory wasn't
 initially present, but will be required for future printer installation,
 it should be created now, so that the backup procedure works properly).

With the new /opt/.filetool.lst   in place, and with backup being executed in
the normal way,  everything held together on reboot, and the graphics works fine.

I installed htop, and it showed that 61mb of the net 118mb available were in use.

******************************************************************
Thanks yet again to the Tiny Core experts who commented and help me blunder my
way through to a successful conclusion !!

Len E.

    [EDIT]: Added code tags.  Rich

[Rich]

Hi Len E.
Sorry to break it to you, but you got it wrong. The following entries should not be in your  /opt/.filetool.lst  file:

Code: [Select]

usr/local/share
usr/local/lib
usr/local/bin
usr/local/tce.installedThose directories get populated when extensions get loaded. There should be an  onboot.lst  file in your  tce  directory. It
contains a list of extensions to load automatically when the system boots. Dependencies for extensions should not be listed
in that file, the system will resolve those on its own.

If you haven't already, I recommend you take an hour to read this:
http://tinycorelinux.net/corebook.pdf

[curaga]

Indeed, putting binaries in the backup slows down boot and shutdown greatly.

[Len E.]

Hi Rich:

(re:  corebook.pdf:  I have it, and frequently refer to it on specific topics,
        but I haven't read it cover-to-cover.)

Your explanation of how those four directories get populated is an eye-opener.
The mechanism you've described affirms that files created during the installation
of extensions automatically persist after reboots.  Any persistence problems
which arise with extensions are with files created during run-time execution
of them.

The extraneous directory entries in my .filetool.lst are based on my now-eliminated
ignorance of this distinction just described.  In particular, my earlier post on
"How to make printer configurations persist" reflects my thrashing around not
knowing this.

I've noticed now, and failed to notice before, that the Apps descriptions of cups,
hplip, and gutenprint have statements about how "To persist across boots".

Accordingly, I know now that only the 1st 5 statements in the .filetool.lst I described
above are relevant, and they are what I'll continue with going forward.

Thanks for clearing all this up !!

Len E.

[Rich]

Hi Len E.
You are welcome.

I've noticed now, and failed to notice before, that the Apps descriptions of cups,
hplip, and gutenprint have statements about how "To persist across boots".

It's always a good idea to read the descriptions in case there are any special instructions or hints listed.