Tiny Core Base > Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless and piCore14.x LAN Connectivity
Paul_123:
True, piCore 13.1 (Only 32 bit) did have a few net-usb drivers added to the initrd, however it was not a complete set. And like I mentioned previously, it did not support any of my USB based network devices. So when I packaged piCore14, I packaged it the same way I have been doing the 64bit version....putting all usb network drivers in an extension.
I remember the early piCore versions, when including ssh by default was a big conversation.
As for piCore64 working. If you have a network device that uses the similar chipsets to what raspberry pi puts on their boards, then you just get lucky, since they build ethernet support for their chips in the kernel. I use Raspberry pi configs and package everything the same way.
Where to draw the line in what we put on the image.
CentralWare:
--- Quote from: Paul_123 on January 11, 2024, 10:07:32 PM ---As for piCore64 working. If you have a network device that uses the similar chipsets to what raspberry pi puts on their boards, then you just get lucky, since they build ethernet support for their chips in the kernel. I use Raspberry pi configs and package everything the same way.
--- End quote ---
@KeithA: The instruction sheet I sent earlier was to create a universal image that can be used for virtually any flavor of RasPi (except Pi5 - which is being treated as a completely different monster for the moment) the problem is, you're asking for all of the USB network drivers out there to be included in the universal piCore release... but even if that were done, you STILL would need to go online and "cheat" in order to get wifi, wireless* and wpa_supplicant downloaded to the device in order for the device to then be able to go online for itself and grab anything else it may need.
@Paul_123: Keith brings up a good point for the Pi-0, Pi-0W, Pi0-2 (which have no NIC) and the bigger Pi3/4 which have NICs, but not necessarily users who have a router/switch/hub nearby whereas there's a reasonably simple method we could support NICs/WiFi without touching the existing boot image. (Take the typical USB ether/wifi drivers, wifi*, wireless* and wpa* extensions and CPIO them into an add-on image which can be downloaded onto the SD card via Linux OR Windows (since it's FAT/32) and can be added to the RasPi config in the same manner.) We may not have a fool-proof image for every single USB or HAT based Ethernet or Wireless device on the planet, but in theory, it should cover the majority!) Even if this were just the means to get the device "online" so the end-user can tweak it to their needs and remove it later, it does seem, to me, like a worthwhile venture.
@Rich, @bmarkus, @Paul_123:
If everyone is in agreement with this concept, I still have a few things on my plate that take precedence but I can add the task for later in the month unless someone volunteers for the job. @KeithA LOL... You made this mess! You're going to help test it! :) If you're okay with that, we'll be in contact when the image and how-to instructions are available. Send me a list of the Pi devices you currently have access to and I'll have someone here put a bench together with the remainder. Again, we're aiming at Zero through 4 for the time being; not Pi5. We no longer have a RasPi "One" in-house; testing for that far back will have to rely on anyone who still does.
NOTE: This process is purely theoretical; the outcome should be a success but promises cannot be made until it is a reality.
Rich:
Hi CentralWare
--- Quote from: CentralWare on January 12, 2024, 02:06:21 AM --- ... (Take the typical USB ether/wifi drivers, wifi*, wireless* and wpa* extensions and CPIO them into an add-on image which can be downloaded onto the SD card via Linux OR Windows (since it's FAT/32) and can be added to the RasPi config in the same manner.) ...
--- End quote ---
Just a thought, but wouldn't rolling a copy of the contents of those extensions
into an AllWireless.tcz extension accomplish the same thing?
--- Quote --- ... Even if this were just the means to get the device "online" so the end-user can tweak it to their needs and remove it later, it does seem, to me, like a worthwhile venture.
...
--- End quote ---
Then the user can download what they think they need, remove AllWireless.tcz
from onboot.lst , reboot and test. If they find they missed something, add
AllWireless.tcz back to onboot.lst , reboot, download what they need.
This way they can do everything with the apps tools instead of mounting
partition 1 and fooling with command.txt or whatever the boot config is called.
KeithA:
Hi CentralWare,
Count me in, I would be delighted to help. The Raspberry Pis I have are:
RPiZeroW v1.1
RPi(1) v1.2
RPi2 v1.1
RPi3B+
RPi4B
Since I rarely use the Raspberry Pi 1, I would be more than happy to donate it to the piCore team if it will be of use.
CentralWare:
--- Quote from: Rich on January 12, 2024, 09:32:55 AM ---Just a thought, but wouldn't rolling a copy of the contents of those extensions into an AllWireless.tcz extension accomplish the same thing?
--- End quote ---
Friday Evening: (Before the massive back to back outages/brown-outs caused my UPS units to say "I quit!")
@Rich, the only problem with extensions via piCore on the Raspberry Pi is how to GET the extension ONTO the device - on CERTAIN devices especially.
Hardware specs:
With Pi-4 down to Pi-1 there's an Ethernet port which some users can put to use in order to get things moving forward if they know how to wire in.
For the Pi-Zero-W and Pi-Zero-2, WiFi and BT are the only built in modes of connectivity. Pi-3 and Pi-4 are happy campers... they can go either direction.
Pi 1 and 2 are Ether only. For the Pi-Zero... without the "W" (for wireless) you're without connectivity completely unless you OTG a USB Ethernet or WiFi.
For ALL of the listed units, USB dongles are optional in one fashion or another. NONE with WiFi support WiFi with the initial cpio.
piCore specs:
The piCore image consists of a primary FAT/32 partition and a second, tiny EXT partition (which is expanded later to what ever the max SD card size is -- makes fdisk-ing "automated" for the user.) The FAT partition contains only the necessary files and overlays to act as a hardware boot-loader, a config file which take place of BIOS settings and a cmdline file which steps in for syslinux/grub settings. Being a FAT partition, permissions are "very limited" at best so there's no resemblance of /opt (for bootsync/local), there's no tce directory (so nowhere to PUT AllWireless.tcz if we wanted to) and the only hopeful if we HAD to follow that path is the not-fool-proof "auto search for a tce folder on any block device" in tc-config BUT requires a more intimate knowledge by the user of how to manually set up tce/optional, tce/ondemand and tce/onboot.lst from outside world (ie: PC/laptop) AND becomes an obstacle for if/when the second partition is resized - with the intention of eventually becoming the "real" tce.
UPDATE: It's now Saturday morning and to quote the movie Hook
--- Quote ---Smee: I've just had an apostrophe.
Captain Hook: I think you mean an epiphany.
Smee: No... lightning has just struck my brain.
Captain Hook: Well, that must hurt.
--- End quote ---
What about "Best of Both Worlds?"
We update our piCore DISK image to contain both the normal picore-##.gz cpio, our wireless.gz add-on cpio, the kernel and the normal Pi-Only stuff.
We're now adding ###MB of bloat to a user who does NOT need wirless, BUT, to rid ourselves of that bloat, there's two reasonably simple steps:
* Remove wireless.gz from config.txt in the FAT partition.
* Delete the file wireless.gz from the FAT partition.ALL of which can be done before the SD card is even placed into the RasPi device.
Additionally, this technically COULD be somewhat automated - say, in tc-config we
--- Code: ---if [ $RASPI == "Pi-2" ]; then ASK TO DELETE THESE CHANGES; fi
--- End code ---
LOL - sorry, intended for point, not actual verbiage.
For Pi-1 through Pi-4 we can launch piNoWiFi.sh which asks them if they want to remove the wireless extension, per-se' and we only pester once after the initial setup.
For everyone else, it's likely a vital component save for Pi-Zero (non-wireless) who more times than not these days get used for non-networking purposes in the first place, so an easy launch manually of piNoWiFi.sh tends to this, too. Or so says my Apostrophe! :)
Thoughts and suggestions requested!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version