TC frugal install on a second disk

[rmarion36]

Hello everybody,

I'm trying to install TC on my laptop. I read a lot of past on this forum (and others) wothout finding a solution. The most clear post I've read concerns the install of TC with Windows7. Both on the same disk.

My configuration is not totally the same. I have 2 disks :
* sda1 : HD with already Windows7 on it. And I want to keep it.
* sdb1 : SSD prepared to receive TC.

I tried the tce-install, install by hand, ... but when I reboot the laptop, Windows7 is starting without the grub2 menu. Even if I change the boot sequence to start on sdb1.

Is-it possible to install grub2 to a another disk than the one for Windows7 ?

Regards.

rmarion36

[coreplayer2]

Hello everybody,
...
My configuration is not totally the same. I have 2 disks :
* sda1 : HD with already Windows7 on it. And I want to keep it.
* sdb1 : SSD prepared to receive TC.
..
Is-it possible to install grub2 to a another disk than the one for Windows7 ?

Regards.

rmarion36

Hello rmarion36

Good choice on the SSD

Sure you can, you can install tc any way you want too... (within reason)


If you really want to Save Windows 7 installation then for safety sake I’d remove the hard drive until the TC on SDB1 installation is complete

Basic steps are
We assume you’ve partitioned, formatted and set boot flags appropriate to your system.
otherwise install gparted extension to fix

Download Tinycore-current.iso to sdb1
Boot to Tinycoreplus or Tinycore-current
Install grub2 to ssd drive
create two directories on sdb1
boot (unless it exists already)
tce

Mount tinycore-current.iso  if you’re not already booted to it

Copy the core files (core.gz or desired Tinycorelinux) and vmlinuz to sdb1/boot

Copy the contents of  tinycore-current.iso/cde/ to sdb1/tce

Note: you might need to change ownership and permissions of some or all files to make writeable.

 
You’ll need to create a grub config file (grub.cfg) to be included in the /boot/grub/ directory with the correct paths to core.gz, vmlinuz & tce directory
Plenty of examples in the forum but we can create a basic config file for you if necessary

Good luck




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rmarion36]

Thanks for your reply,

I will take into account your advice and going to disconnect my Windows7 HDD to only have the SSD available during the TC install.

So If I summarize :
* Disconnect the Windows7 HDD (sda1).
* Prepare the SSD with Gparted to have one primary partition (ext4 on the whole disk). With "boot" flag. No swap because SSD.
* Install TC with the right files and directories.
* Install Grub2 on SSD.
* Reconnect the Windows7 HDD with :
    - Keep the "boot" flag for this HDD.
    - Modify the Grub2 menu with for example :

    $ cat /mnt/sda2/boot/grub/grub.cfg
    insmod ext2

    menuentry "rootfs64" {
    set root=(hd0,2)      --> for the SSD if it is listed on the second rank in the BIOS.
    linux /boot/vmlinuz64 quiet tce=sda2/tce64 text
    initrd /boot/rootfs64.gz /boot/modules64.gz
    }

    menuentry "windows7" {
    insmod chain
    insmod ntfs
    set root=(hd0,1)        --> If the Windows7 is the first disk listed in the BIOS.
    chainloader +1
    }

Right ?

Thanks by advance.

rmarion36

[coreplayer2]

hello rmarion36

Wow there...

For SSD's it's not recommended to use a journaling file system, use ext2 instead.


Thinking ahead to how Win7 deals with foreign file systems, you might be wiser to create a small 200MB partition at the beginning of  the SSD formatted with Fat32  to which you install grub, /boot/corepure64, modules and /boot/vmlinuz files.
create a second larger (remainder of the drive) with ext2  install /tce64  and possibly persistent home and opt directories on this preferred file system. 

the above is optional, but know that Win7 doesn't live well with other file systems, it typically asks to format the partition in question..  So is up to you.

Remember to set the boot flag on your SSD's first or only partition.


initially use the BIOS boot menu to select the desired drive to boot.


You'll need to create a grub.cfg file then most likely modify it a few time until you have the desired effect.

Note:  Use UUID with Grub2 inplace of  set root=(hd0,2)  see http://tinycorelinux.net/faq.html
Also note the syntax in grub2 is
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root B854-8FE0

remove the " text " bootcode which will prevent booting to a desktop
use the " noswap " bootcode  to prevent searching for or using a swap partition

this is an extract from my grub.cfg file as a guide

Code: [Select]

insmod part_msdos
insmod fat
insmod ext2
loadfont unicode
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod font
insmod gfxterm
set gfxmode=auto
set gfxterm_font=unicode
set gfxpayload=keep
terminal_output gfxterm

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

menuentry "TC-10-Corepure64 (on USB)" {
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root B854-8FE0
linux /boot/vmlinuz64 noswap tz=GMT loglevel=3 vga=891 waitusb=5:UUID="b313c2c4-fedf-4c44-bf42-6a6fca54b311" tce=UUID="b313c2c4-fedf-4c44-bf42-6a6fca54b311"/tc10-x86_64 opt=UUID="b313c2c4-fedf-4c44-bf42-6a6fca54b311" home=UUID="b313c2c4-fedf-4c44-bf42-6a6fca54b311"
initrd /boot/rootfs64.gz /boot/modules64.gz
}

you might find this grub menu item better to boot Win7

Code: [Select]

menuentry "Windows 7" --class windows --class os {
   insmod ntfs
   search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid B854-78DE
   ntldr /bootmgr
}
In both cases remember to substitute the actual UUID code