Where do I start?

[zaydiscool777]

Hello! I have a lot of questions on how to install Tiny Core Linux. I am going to etch it onto a 128GB USB-A thumb drive gotten from Microcenter on a Dell Inspiron 4950 (Windows). I want to etch it on the entirety of the USB. I am able to use an Ubuntu WSL. Here are the questions:

• What is meant by “frugal”?
• How do I install tc-install.tcz beforehand? Am I supposed to on Windows?
  

  The guide assumes you've either booted the CorePlus CD, or have installed the tc-install extension (tc-install.tcz)
• How do I open tc-install on Windows?
• What options do I choose for http://tinycorelinux.net/install.html#1_?
• How do I install it if the USB doesn’t have …/boot/core.gz?
• Which kind of formal do I use?
• Are there any recommended bootcodes?
• How do I install if it doesn’t have …/{tce/cde}?
• This might not be related, but how would I reopen BIOS once the bootloader is set to hdX?

[polikuo]

Hi, zaydiscool777.
Welcome to the forum.

What is meant by “frugal”?

That's our lingo, it's just the default way how TC is installed.
The other methods are USB-ZIP and USB-HDD.
They are designed for some really quirky old computers and are "frugal" in a sense.
The files are packed in a special read only squash file system just like an .img file in windows system.
When you need them, you load them.

How do I install tc-install.tcz beforehand? Am I supposed to on Windows?

The installer was designed to run on TC system, it won't run on Ubuntu.
It's just a shell script that makes legacy BIOS only bootable media.
If your machine doesn't support CSM and requires UEFI, then you could follow the syslinux tutorial or the grub2 one.

Are there any recommended bootcodes?

Examples, to setup your locale

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lang="zh_TW.utf8"Timezone

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tz="UTC-8"Multiple multiple virtual terminals

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multivt

How do I install if it doesn’t have …/{tce/cde}?

Either you mkdir your way out or run this when you have successfully booted

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tce-setdrive

This might not be related, but how would I reopen BIOS once the bootloader is set to hdX?

It depends on your motherboard, but usually by holding "Delete" whenever you power up your machine.

[zaydiscool777]

This explains a lot. Thanks. Although, I’m not sure how I would download the .tcz files without internet. Is it possible to put a wifi.tcz file into tcl via Windows/WSL?

[zaydiscool777]

.tcz files, as in extensions.

[polikuo]

Windows/WSL?

Sorry, I have no clue what that is.
Can you transfer files ?
Is it a virtual machine ?
If it is, why won't it use the host's network setting ?

Anyway, you'll need to many more files, listed in the tree file.
http://tinycorelinux.net/15.x/x86/tcz/wifi.tcz.tree

You'll also need the wifi firmware, which you'll have to look up for yourself.
For example, my old laptop use firmware-iwlwifi.tcz
So I'll do this

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wget http://tinycorelinux.net/15.x/x86/tcz/wifi.tcz.tree
for F in $(cat wifi.tcz.tree) firmware-iwlwifi.tcz; do
  wget http://tinycorelinux.net/15.x/x86/tcz/${F}
  wget http://tinycorelinux.net/15.x/x86/tcz/${F}.dep
  wget http://tinycorelinux.net/15.x/x86/tcz/${F}.md5.txt
done
mv *.tcz *.dep *.md5.txt /path/to/my/tce/optional

Then append my onboot.lst

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echo firmware-iwlwifi.tcz >> onboot.lst
echo wifi.tcz >> onboot.lst

[gadget42]

Hi, zaydiscool777.
...

What is meant by “frugal”?

That's our lingo, it's just the default way how TC is installed.
...

speaking of "lingo" this might come in handy for the future:
https://parade.com/living/gen-alpha-slang

[zaydiscool777]

gadget42: how is that related?
Also, WSL means Windows Subsystem Linux. Yes, yes, and I think so (it can access http, otherwise how would I use git?). However, I don’t think I will need it.

[Rich]

Hi zaydiscool777
It's not related. Just someone creating noise where they shouldn't.

[DHeadshot]

This explains a lot. Thanks. Although, I’m not sure how I would download the .tcz files without internet. Is it possible to put a wifi.tcz file into tcl via Windows/WSL?

When I first installed TC6 on my ancient laptop years ago, I hadn't yet found a working WiFi adapter and couldn't get the Ethernet working, so to begin with, I just downloaded TCZ (and *.tcz.*) files directly (in my case, from http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/6.x/x86/tcz/, but you'll want the repo for your version of TC, probably TC15?) and transferred them via USB stick to

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/mnt/sda1/tce/optional/, then added the filenames to

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/mnt/sda1/tce/onboot.lst and rebooted.  Basically, it can be done, but is a bit of work...  It got a lot easier when I found a couple of 802.11b PCMCIA cards that were old enough to be supported by the motherboard, though.