Tiny Core 11.0 Alpha 1 Testing

[Juanito]

Team Tiny Core is pleased to announce that Tiny Core 11.0 Alpha1 is available for public testing:

http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/11.x/x86/release_candidates/
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/11.x/x86_64/release_candidates/

This is an alpha level cut. If you decide to help test, then please test carefully. We don't want anyone to lose data.

Since this is an alpha cut, we ask that only experienced users test. This cut is not for general use. The features in any alpha are not fixed and may change before a public release candidate is available.

We appreciate testing and feedback.

If you use distribution files note that you need a new vmlinuz and core.gz (or rootfs.gz + modules.gz)

Changelog for 11.0 alpha1:
* kernel updated to 5.4.3
* glibc updated to 2.30
* gcc updated to 9.2.0
* e2fsprogs base libs/apps updated to 1.45.4
* util-linux base libs/apps updated to 2.34
* busybox updated to 1.31.1
* .ashrc removed #alias d='dmenu_run &'

Note:

* we discovered a bug on the 32-bit version, in Intel IOMMU, preventing boot. If you have a high-end Intel system with IOMMU and VT-D, you may need intel_iommu=off to boot the 32-bit version
* the nouveau kernel module is now enabled, but it is in a separate extension and not in graphics-KERNEL. The nvidia binary driver is still recommended.
* Intel compute sticks, etc should now detect their embedded mmc flash
* for 64 bit version only: task_xacct and ipmi are enabled
* we will move extensions from linking to openssl-1.0.2 -> 1.1.1 as 1.0.2 is at end of life
* Xorg-7.7 will move from using the depreciated xf86-input-evdev to xf86-input-libinput, it is still possible to use xf86-input-evdev if required

[andyj]

Trying to build open-vm-tools for TC-11 64-bit, running into a few issues, tce-status -i returns no extensions loaded. Many of them did get downloaded, so at least I have them.

Edit: turns out busybox mount no longer likes bs=4096.

[Juanito]

Ah - my mistake, I fixed that, but then uploaded the wrong rootfs/rootfs64.

The problem is the new kernel squashfs module.

I'll upload the corrected versions tomorrow.

[Juanito]

New versions uploaded.

[andyj]

I need a few little things like libtirpc, procps-ng, and fuse, and some bigger ones like gtk and glibmm. I did manage to get Xorg, flwm, wbar, and aterm going, but I don't know what else I can test at this point until I can get building.

[Juanito]

The alpha testing is probably more about the base, but the balance of the extensions will be added relatively soon.

[andyj]

My idea of testing is: Starting from the base, can I build the rest of the system? Which in my case means "can I build a LAMP stack?"

[GNUser]

I did some rudimentary tests on my X200 laptop:

1. I tested the WiFi stack (wpa_supplicant-dbus.tcz and all its dependencies, including the new openssl) and it's working perfectly
2. SSH client (openssh.tcz and its dependencies) also works
3. All TCE-specific shell scripts I tried are working fine

I can do more extensive testing once more extensions become available.

One heads up is that some BusyBox applets will have slightly different syntax. I guess this kind of thing is inevitable. In particular, the timeout applet now has a slightly different syntax (no more -t flag), which broke some of my shell scripts:

BB 1.29.3 syntax:

Code: [Select]

timeout [-t SECS] [-s SIG] PROG ARGS
BB 1.31.1 syntax:

Code: [Select]

timeout [-s SIG] SECS PROG ARGS


[Rich]

Hi GNUser
That may have been done to make it compatible with the full version found in  coreutils.tcz:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~$ timeout --help
Usage: timeout [OPTION] DURATION COMMAND [ARG]...
 ---~ SNIP ~---
  -s, --signal=SIGNAL
                 specify the signal to be sent on timeout;
                   SIGNAL may be a name like 'HUP' or a number;
                   see 'kill -l' for a list of signals
 ---~ SNIP ~---
DURATION is a floating point number with an optional suffix:
's' for seconds (the default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours or 'd' for days.
A duration of 0 disables the associated timeout.
Now if you write something using the  Busybox  syntax, it won't break if it encounters the full GNU version of  timeout.

[GNUser]

Thanks, Rich. Yes, I do vaguely remember adding the -t flags when I copied these scripts from Devuan (which uses GNU coreutils) to TCL/BusyBox. Now that the syntax is the same, hopefully this is the last time I make edits because of this.

[andyj]

The 32-bit repository is missing zsync, which has zsyncmake that the sorter.sh script requires to make the kernel module extensions. Yes, I'm compiling a PAE kernel. Building some extensions is just easier with more than 4 GB of RAM.

[Juanito]

zsync(make) added

[PDP-8]

mmcblk devices are now seen and can be mounted!  THANKS!

All my machines can see them now, from ComputeSticks, to the Wintel Pro inexpensive little hockey puck computer, along with another cheap box.

I do see a quick benign warning looking to be related to the power-management chip on boot and in dmesg:

Code: [Select]

ACPI: AC: Found Native INT33F4 pmic, not loading
.
.  (a few lines about missing handlers show here
.
ACPI: Found Native INT33F4 PMIC, not loading.
Looks to me like this was part of what was needed to get mmc devices detected.  Not a big deal.

Hey, it works, right on!

[PDP-8]

Unable to change console resolution in grub.cfg

Maybe I'm just too sleepy.  But I created a uefi-only, x86_64 with the alpha distribution files in the repo.  I used this canonical guide

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,19364.msg119228.html#msg119228

Works fine, except console font sizes don't seem to change no matter what I do to

set gfxmode=1024x768x24

or whatever res I try.  This used to work.

I'm also using

insmod efi_gop

too.  This file looks exactly like the earlier stable which allows me to make res changes directly in grub.cfg, but I'll do more research and see if I'm just too sleepy to be missing the smoking gun.

Thanks for the work on the alpha - it's rocking my world so far.

[PDP-8]

It's ME.  Resolution changes are just fine now in grub.cfg in the alpha.

Sorry 'bout that.  Nothing to see here - res changes work just great!