Intel Computesticks and TC Syslinux query

[PDP-8]

Putting this here because for me it is more of a puzzle than a bug.

Computesticks are UEFI only (no csm option at all), of course secure boot is disabled.  Iso9660 not recognized as bootable format of course.

I can easily get the computesticks up and running with a manual install using grub2-multi and the distribution files for 64 bit.  Great.  Toss in some extra stuff, and I can get the equivalent of the TinyCorePure64 iso manually.

But the actual isohybrid for tcpure64 can't be burned with "dd", since that creates a 9660 iso format.

That leaves 3rd party bootloaders for playing with the actual 64 bit iso's.  Yes, I know - unsupported but one works for me....

Rufus - fail  -- when used with gpt methods / uefi only, just drops me at the grub rescue prompt.  I'm scratching my head reading the rufus faq trying to dig out what might be the issue, but I'm not a bootloader guru.

However, other distros (like Porteus, Knoppix etc) which seem to use Syslinux, come right up after being burned for mpt/uefi no problem.

And, YUMI-uefi, which seems to chainload it's own Syslinux to Grub, can bring up TCpure64 iso just fine.

So not a major deal, just wondering if there is something unique about TCpure64's syslinux that I'm borking somehow.  I mean, I'm up and running no problem with other methods, but wonder why this hardware and tc's syslinux seem to be confusing me.

Just a query of my own misunderstanding - I *love* Tinycore.  I just want to put it everywhere.

[curaga]

If it's only rufus that fails, maybe better to ask on their forum/tracker/etc.

[PDP-8]

For sure.  It's only on this computestick hardware, so I'm sussing it out.  Ordinarily Rufus has been a rock-solid tool (not just for iso burning) everywhere else.

The faq is interesting, because I didn't know that for UEFI booting with FAT32 only is a myth.  It's a microsoft thing- but you can boot ntfs etc.  Lots of interesting stuff, and a great explanation for what UEFI is all about for newbs:

https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ

Kinda back burner since I have two ways of getting TCpure64 on the machine, but I'll dig in a bit and find out just what is not making Rufus and TC happy *with only the computesticks* - otherwise fine...

Keeping it a FUN project to figure out is key.

note to lurkers: in the bios/setup, you can choose any of the 64-bit os offerings like Ubuntu 64 or even Windows 64 bit and TC64 will boot up provided your stick is recognized....and of course secure-boot disabled.

[PDP-8]

Using Porteus as the host bootloader also works..

Just info I'm collecting to find out what the deal is with computesticks and the tcpure64 iso's...

I can burn Porteus using Rufus, using the gpt / uefi only mode, and the stick is recognized and boots up on the computestick no sweat.

Soo .. placed the TCpure64 files from the iso onto the Porteus stick, modified the Porteus boot config file, adding TinyCore64 to the end as an option - told it the location of the kernel and init, and the usual TC setup stuff and TADA!

Interesting - but yet another viable option for those running computesticks - use a host bootloader from another distro.

I happen to find TinyCore and Porteus a very happy fit with each other, so win-win for me.

[PDP-8]

Some additional info in case anyone needs to do this ...

Here is the relevant info added to the end of the porteus config file.

/mnt/mmcblk2p1/boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg

Code: [Select]

LABEL TC64
MENU TinyCore64
KERNEL /boot/TC64/boot/vmlinuz64
INITRD /boot/TC64/boot/corepure64.gz
APPEND loglevel=3 waitusb=5 tce vga=791 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3
TEXT HELP
    Try to run tinycore64
ENDTEXT
I just made a TC64 directory, and placed all of the TCpure64 iso files in that.  That's the reason for the duplicate "boot" directories.  Just trying to keep it somewhat organized.

Just a quick hack here, and additional configs like using UUID's and whatnot will follow.  Originally I also just copied the CDE directory in the iso to the root directory of an external usb stick, and renamed it tce.  Needs some cleanup but it works to prove a point.

Now to contrast and compare - if nothing else, I'm getting better at shoe-horning tinycore into everything.