piCore 9.0.1 and RPI Zero W

[matteo]

Hello,
I tried to install piCore 9.0.3 on my RPI Zero W (I would like to set up a print server) but I did not get the wifi connection working. I did revert back to piCore 9.0.1 as already reported in the forum, but from wifi.sh, after the wifi password, I get only the message "Failed to connect".
From previous tests with piCore 11.0, the wifi connection was working fine. Do you any clue? I could I solve the problem?

[Paul_123]

Did you follow the same steps.  The procedure and required extensions would be the same.  Make sure you have the correct kernel module extension for wifi and the rpi firmware as well.

[matteo]

I followed the very same steps.
I started from the beginning and again. Etched the 9.0.1 image. Expanded partition etc. From wifi.sh I got only "Failed to connect".
Then, from: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,21134.15.html, I changed onboot.lst from:

mc.tcz
openssh.tcz
firmware-rpi3-wireless.tcz
wifi.tcz

to:

mc.tcz
openssh.tcz
firmware-rpi3-wireless.tcz
readline.tcz
wifi.tcz

But readline.tcz was already copied to the directory mmcblk0p2/tce/optional together with libiw, libnl and so on. Anyway, only the latest file onboot.lst allows me to connect to wifi network. Then I added sudo wifi.sh -a to the file bootlocal.lst and did the usual backup, but at the reboot nothing happens. RPI Zero W does not connect to wifi. Simply, the command sudo wifi.sh -a is not executed at boot. If I do sudo wifi.sh -a again, from the prompt, it "seems" to connect to wifi.
Note: the time from the command sudo wifi.sh -a to connection is sligthly longer than with piCore 11.x.

Wget does not reach the TC repository and says:
wget: bad address 'repo.tinycorelinux.net'

The command:
wget http://tinycorelinux.net/9.x/armv6/tcz/hplip.tcz

gives:
wget: bad address 'tinycorelinux.net'

From the Android app Raspcontroller, SSH takes a very long time and then fails to connect. From the Android app ConnectBot,again SSH and I get prompted to change the expired (?) RPI Zero W password. Weird. Or else, it says "Host unreachable".
I did not have any of such issues with piCore 11.0, wget and the apps worked as a breeeze with piCore 11.0. Is it a known behavour of piCore 9.0.1? Do you have any advice? I fail to understand the logic behind. Thanks.

[Juanito]

I'm not sure it will make a difference, but the latest piCore-9.x release is 9.0.3, not 9.0.1.

The above being said, the supported releases are piCore-11.x and the upcoming 12.x.

[matteo]

Ok Juanito, I understand that. At this point I was just curious to understand what could be the underlying problem.
For the print server with an old USB printer HP P1005, I tried RPI Zero W with piCore 11.0 but being without a hplip package I reverted back to 9.0.3 (the hplip package from piCore 9.x seems not compatible with openssl 1.1 of piCore 11.0). Having problems with the wifi configuration, I followed previous posts on the forum that suggested that wifi on RPI Zero W should be working with piCore 9.0.1. And here I am.

I also tried hplip in the HP .run version, but its installation stops somewhere right after uncompression of the package: TinyCore Linux is not currently supported by the HP  installer.

Next move, I think I will try again piCore 11.0 and the hplip .run installer, trying to find support from HP: I will let you know if the .run installer may be compatible with TinyCore Linux.

[aus9]

there is another way you could try if above fails for you.

http://foo2xqx.rkkda.com/
that link claims "foo2xqx is an open source printer driver for printers that use the HP/Software Imaging "XQX" stream wire protocol for their print data, such as the HP LaserJet P1005"

a bit of reading suggests it will use cups, ghostscript and foomatic but foomatic is I believe what we call cups-filters
I had a peep at printers supported by gutenprint but its not supported

[Juanito]

Sorry, I'd forgotten you were using piCore-9.x because of hplip.

The last time I used piCore-9.x, both hplip and wifi worked OK, but I didn't try to automate wifi logon at boot - maybe you need a sleep command before trying to connect?

I doubt that hplip .run will work due to hplip having so many hard coded paths in its scripts.

[matteo]

there is another way you could try if above fails for you.

http://foo2xqx.rkkda.com/
that link claims "foo2xqx is an open source printer driver for printers that use the HP/Software Imaging "XQX" stream wire protocol for their print data, such as the HP LaserJet P1005"

a bit of reading suggests it will use cups, ghostscript and foomatic but foomatic is I believe what we call cups-filters
I had a peep at printers supported by gutenprint but its not supported

Hi aus9,  I gave a try to that driver. I moved to piCore 11.0 anyway. After resolving the missing dependencies, I got the error while launching the make command: "Error: must install GNU dc with -e option!". Does somebody have a clue about it? Could it be related to a dc/gdc package that I could not find?

[curaga]

GNU dc is a part of the bc extension. Not sure if bc.tcz exists for pi.

[Rich]

Hi curaga

GNU dc is a part of the bc extension. Not sure if bc.tcz exists for pi.

It does:
http://tinycorelinux.net/11.x/armv6/tcz/bc.tcz.list

[matteo]

Thanks, I compiled on RaspBerry Pi Zero W. But I got some errors:

/bin/sh: groff not found
/usr/local/bin/gs: error while loading shared libraries: libidn.so.11: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

and

Error: ex is not installed! Install vim package(s) for your OS

[matteo]

I installed the package vim.tcz from the 7.x repository, I went on and obtained:

ex: error while loading shared libraries: libncursesw.so.5

The ncurses.tcz package is already installed...do I need something else

[Rich]

Hi matteo
The ncurses.tcz package in TC11 is version 6, not 5.

[matteo]

Hi Rich, do you mean that I am stuck again? Also "gs" gives me some troubles...

[matteo]

I changed ncurses v.5.9 from piCore 9.x into piCore 11.x (I made a backup of the newer file ncurses.tcz, copied the old one in tce/optional and made it executable). Fortunately, the wifi at logon is still ok; however I lost Midnight Commander that wants the newer version.

The only error that I still have, while compiling the printer driver foo2xqx, is related to gs:

/usr/local/bin/gs: error while loading shared libraries: libidn.so.11: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

I installed ghostscript 9.22 via tce-ab; libidn2 v.2.3.0 is already installed from the piCore 11.x repository. Any clue? Many thanks!