piCore 15.0 Release

[Paul_123]

Team Tiny Core is happy to announce the release of piCore-15.0.  Both 32 and 64bit images are available.

rpi-kernel 6.6.47
gcc 13.2.0
binutils 2.42
glibc 2.39
busybox 1.36.1
micropython 1.19
openssl 3.2.0.

32bit - http://www.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/armhf/treleases/RPi/piCore-15.0.0.zip  (This should run on all rpi boards)
64bit - http://www.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/releases/RPi/piCore64-15.0.0.zip  (rpi zero2W, pi3, pi4, pi5)

A couple of notes:

• armv6/7/7l repos have been replaced by an armhf repo, which contains 32 bit extensions
• When using 32bit images, the pi4 and pi5 will use a 64bit kernel.  please make sure to look at uname if manually downloading kernel module extensions. The 32bit armv7l kernel for the Pi4 is optional if you edit the config.txt on the boot drive.

Changes since Beta3:
 - Reduced partition1 back to 80MB
 - updated udev script for proper rpi serial port symlinks.

Known Issues:
 - Internal Wifi on some Raspi chipsets, there is a driver problem with wpa_supplicant 2.11 (Add brcmfmac.feature_disable=0x82000 to cmdline.txt on the boot drive)

[leg]

Thank you very much for the release! I would need the -T option for the ps command, but BusyBox does not include it. Can I get help with this issue?

[Juanito]

If you use the "provides" function of the apps gui it suggests the procps extension.

[gadget42]

If you use the "provides" function of the apps gui it suggests the procps extension.

i like to follow-along and discover different/new things through forum progression over time.

when i use the "provides" function and search for "ps" it reports many results. how would the uninitiated decide which to use?

i figured out that it was procps-ng via the man page found here:

https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/ps.1.html

[Rich]

Hi gadget42

... it reports many results. how would the uninitiated decide which to use? ...

How to narrow down the results returned by provides:
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,27363.0.html

[Synerworks]

The GUI fails to launch when following "tce-load -wi TC" on PI0-3s, specifically VC4s, and works on PI4-5s. Looking at the DMESG logs, the PI4-5s use simple framebuffer, whereas the earlier VC4s are not. The Xorg log shows it dies out when attempting to load the frame buffer. Anyhow, the short term interim resolution was to WGET the "xorg-server.tcz.*" files from the 14.x repository and replace the components on the 15.x media in the optional folder or copy over the files from your previous piCore14.x image. Need to see what has changed between these releases to identify why it fails.

[Paul_123]

VC4 (With Xorg-3d) works on a 2B+, other than needing to added a delay, or wait for the VC4 driver to initialize at the beginning of .xsession.

[Synerworks]

Already dealing with the kernel 6.6.x difference to deal with the annoying 'waitforX' timeouts, this is moreso with piCore64 though with the v8 kernels, but the reported issue is strictly with Xorg on VC4 boards, namely PI0-3, not using the v8 kernels. The problem remains with piCore15 no matter how long one waits for the driver initialization to complete. Dropping down to piCore14 'xorg-server.tcz' on piCore15 remedies to problem for now, until the actual variance is found. Just loading TC to any base piCore15 image easily generates the issue on PI0-3s, due to their VC4 graphics, not for PI4-5 since they are VC6-7, and using the simple framebuffer 'fbdev' as reported in Xorg.log.

[Juanito]

This works:

Code: [Select]

tce-load -i Xorg flwm aterm wbar
sudo rm /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-noglamor.conf
startx
The noglamor file needs to be loaded by the Xorg-3d extension rather than xorg-server - I'll fix things tomorrow.

[Synerworks]

Added the configuration file removal command to 'bootlocal.sh' for now due to the failure to launch the GUI on each boot until the 'xorg-server.tcz.*' repo is updated. Thanks for the heads-up, missed the configuration file changes between the two packages after noticing the library versions had changed.

[Juanito]

xorg-server and Xorg-3d updated - Xorg and Xorg-3d tested on an RPi3 running piCore-15.x 32bit

[Synerworks]

The piCore64 repo would need to be corrected for 'xorg-server.tcz' and 'Xorg-3d.tcz' since '/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-noglamor.conf' is also showing up on 'tce-load's for PI02-5s with v8 kernels as well and dropping out with 'waitforX'. Looking into why only a blank desktop starts on the PI02-3s without the 'wbar' but works on PI4-5s.

[Juanito]

xorg-server is patched in piCore-15.x - I need to check the patch works in piCore64-15.x.

In the meantime, if you need a gui for an RPi3 using piCore64-15.x, you can use a wayland compositor like labwc or weston - imho the wayland gui works better on RPix anyway.

[Synerworks]

Still can manage to address these issues by pulling the extension from the previous 14.x release and/or adding a removal command to the startup file, just that unsuspecting individuals may also trip over this anomaly unless there has been foresight to scan the forums for answers to the unexpected behaviour. Was tripped up by it due to migrating forward from several previous generations of piCore(64)s.

[yvs]

> The GUI fails to launch ... on PI0-3s, specifically VC4s, and works on PI4-5s.

try it with vc4-fkms on older piNs instead of vc4-kms