TinyCore Boots to a DOS Prompt

[reg]

No, for the boot options I usually use: quiet text vga=791 

In the very last step where is asks where to get optional stuff from I have tried pointing it at the optional directory on the booted USB stick, both with and without the trailing /

/mnt/sdb1/cde/optional/

I just tried the idea presented by Juanito:

$ tce-load -w Xvesa flwm wbar aterm
$ tce-load -i Xvesa flwm wbar aterm
$ startx

It told me a couple of the packages were already installed but s started and it is the exact desktop from the tinycore-current.  Some of this may be from artifacts of what I was doing last night.  I am going to try loading those packages on top of a "fresh" frugal install but Juanito has me on the right track.

More questions, if you don't mind..

1) Can't you combine the w and i switches in the tce-load command
2) Is this different from tce-ab and searching for the packages and installing them?

Thank you all for your assistance so far.  I am really enjoying this flavor of Linux.

[Greg Erskine]

hi reg,

I use piCore exclusively but I think it works the same.

1. Yes. The subtle difference is the -wi option also updates onboot.lst
2. I believe tce-ab uses tce-load.

regard
Greg

[Rich]

Hi reg

... In the very last step where is asks where to get optional stuff from I have tried pointing it at the optional directory on the booted USB stick, both with and without the trailing /

/mnt/sdb1/cde/optional/   ... 

As I said in my last post, try it with:
/mnt/sdb1/cde/

[Misalf]

Using

Code: [Select]

tce-load -w XYZ
tce-load -i XYZ
makes the extensions get downloaded (the -w switch) and then installed into the RAM file system (the -i switch).
Combining these two switches

Code: [Select]

tce-load -wi XYZ
results in the onboot.lst file being populated with the given extensions to be loaded/installed on-boot.
To circumvent this, there is the  -l  switch (just load). Not too intuitive.

The  tce-ab  script is using the  tce-load  script. Even the Apps GUI is using scripts. If one thing brakes there is only one place to fix it.

[reg]

Thank you for the clarification on the switches.  If you use the

tce-load -w XYZ
tce-load -i XYZ

syntax for loading applications into memory, what happens upon reboot?  Is there a hook left behind so on the next reboot it goes and fetches the XYZ package and installs in into RAM again, or if you want that action do you need to put those commands into the bootlocal file?

Oddly enough about the only place I can see this action being of use (outside of always running the latest version) is in a situation that I am in.  I am working with Wyse thin clients and they have an odd internal configuration.  They have a 128MB SSD and they have 512MB of Ram.  Yes, they have 4X more RAM than they have disk space.  First time I have ever worked with a system like this.

Thank you all for your help so far, and next time I start from scratch I will try pointing the last step at /mnt/sdb1/cde/ and see if it will use the software I already have on the install USB stick for the desktop.

[Rich]

Hi reg

Thank you for the clarification on the switches.  If you use the

tce-load -w XYZ
tce-load -i XYZ

syntax for loading applications into memory, what happens upon reboot?  Is there a hook left behind so on the next reboot it goes and fetches the XYZ package and installs in into RAM again, or if you want that action do you need to put those commands into the bootlocal file? ...

The extensions will still be in your  tce/optional  directory. If you want them reloaded when you reboot, just add their names to the
onboot.lst  file in your  tce  directory.

[coreplayer2]

No, for the boot options I usually use: quiet text vga=791

Besides adding extensions to the Onboot.lst in the tce directory for desired boot-time loading,  using the “text” bootcode does the opposite and will prevent your system from booting to a desktop.   So now you know, remove the "text" bootcode if you want auto loading of extensions at boot.

I’m not 100% sure but afaik the vga= bootcode is only used when loading Xfbdev extension,   
therefore is not required for Xvesa




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    [EDIT]: Corrected spelling.  Rich

[mikezuccaburg]

I tried burning it to a CD 3-4 times but it failed in Fedora & Windows.  My CD-Rs and hardware are pretty old though.

[mikezuccaburg]

Is there a quick fix for attempts to run lightweight distributions that breaks your ability to boot?

I tried to run DSL-N (damn small linux not) from a USB and now I can't boot into Lubuntu again.  Same problem I had with TinyCore on my Lubuntu machine until I re-partitioned the hard disk and reinstalled Lubuntu.  This time it won't reinstall Lubuntu so I'm stumped as to where to go from here.

I'd seriously pay to have a Linux expert close by or something

[Juanito]

Booting tinycore (or dsl) from a usb stick will not have an effect on what is installed on your hard disk.

If you cannot boot from your hard disk it means that either the bootloader was modified or something was deleted..

[curaga]

Something sounds seriously wrong with that machine. Live USB distros do not touch anything.

[reg]

The live versions of Linux that you boot from a CD or a USB stick should not touch anything on your hard disk.  However, most of them will allow you to mount and or run fdisk on your hard disk, and with these tools you can make changes, and you can hose your disk.

If you boot from a live distro and run firefox say, that is perfectly safe.

If you boot from a live distro and run fdisk on the hdd and do more than look, or mount any of the filesystems RW and make changes, sure you can render the machine unbootable.

By the same token, the live distros are very handy for being able to mount the hdd on a problematic system and allow you to make repairs.  The knife cuts both ways.

[mikezuccaburg]

Hmm, bizarre.  TC does say upon booting that it is scanning pre-existing partitions for /etc/fstab - can this have something to do with it?

Nevertheless, it can be made bootable just fine with the dd command someone helpfully mentioned on page 1 of this thread.  I think the problem probably was that the .iso needed to be fixed.  I have not had occasion to reinstall Lubuntu yet but I will let you guys know if it happens again (at least, with Tinycore).

[Rich]

Hi mikezuccaburg

Hmm, bizarre.  TC does say upon booting that it is scanning pre-existing partitions for /etc/fstab - can this have something to do with it? ...

It's just populating  /etc/fstab  with a list of recognized drives. It does not mount them or touch them.