tinycore_2.3RC3

[roberts]

The Third Release Candidate of v2.3 (tinycore_2.3RC3.iso), is now posted and ready for testing.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release_candidates/

Change log for v2.3 Release Candidate 3

* Updated flwm replaces jwm as default. Use jwm-snapshot extension for the latest jwm.
* New noautologin boot code. Be sure to have passwords setup, working, and saved.
* Updated tce-load now only calls flwget when appbrowser is running.
* Updated tce-load and tc-config now handles meta-extensions.
* Updated appbrowser, dropped "install optional" as unneeded with "install local" retaining last load location.
* Dropped default autoscan of tclocal for improved boot speed.
* Dropped nolocal boot code as now not needed.
* Cleanup of unused or unlinked busybox applets.
 

[curaga]

Having not yet looked at the RC, does killing busybox init now work properly?

[bigpcman]

The Third Release Candidate of v2.3 (tinycore_2.3RC3.iso), is now posted and ready for testing.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release_candidates/

Change log for v2.3 Release Candidate 3


* Updated appbrowser, dropped "install optional" as unneeded with "install local" retaining last load location.

Robert could you elaborate a bit more on this. This used to support installing extensions temporarily from the optional directory.

[roberts]

Select "Install Local" from menu.
Double click on optional folder from file chooser.
Now select extension as before. Subsequent install local will take you directly to optional folder.


Before we had two anchored menu items one always went to tce folder (install local)
The other aways went to tce folder optional directory (install optional)

Now install local will remember the last load local directory. It is no longer anchored, therefore no need to have a separate 'anchored' option.

Try it.

[bigpcman]

I just tried out 2.3rc3 and could use some clarification on install local. If I'm not mistaken in tc2.2 install optional can install tce to ram or install tcz as a mount point. It's looks like if we end up with only tcz's as extensions then  looking forward with tc2.3rc3 install local does not allow selection of install or mount type of installation. Am I missing something here? The install / mount option appears to only be associated with an immediate install.

[roberts]

I realize sone people don't run TC/MC in the usual manner.
Some only use "Load Local" and never load at boot time.
The usual methods are implemented first. Alternate methods will follow.
We are still in RC cycle. Not final. If you wish to manually load from alternate directories tcz to ram, may I suggest that in the meantime you use tce-load with the appropriate flags.

[jpeters]

jwm-snapshot doesn't seem to support esetroot

noautologin....great feature for my laptop, although I don't want it in my editable grub menu.lst

[roberts]

jwm-snapshot doesn't seem to support esetroot

noautologin....great feature for my laptop, although I don't want it in my editable grub menu.lst

Loading .png and .jpg works fine for me. Are you trying to load some other image format?

Re: noautologin. It has already been discussed it is best to remaster. noautologin, a requested boot option, is just that,  an option.

[jpeters]

Didn't work with snapshot, but fine with jwm.tcz
 
esetroot -s /opt/.backgrounds/mountains.png

[roberts]

Apparently resolved: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=2784.msg14499#msg14499

[roberts]

Having not yet looked at the RC, does killing busybox init now work properly?

Since we don't have runlevels, I have not had a need to further investigate.
Some users are killing it in root/profile, some in /opt/bootlocal.sh
I implemented noautologin without such.

[jpeters]

I'm still looking into it, but running jwm-shadow, /usr/local/tce.menu/menu file is gone. 

[fladd]

Hi there,

may I ask why JWM was replaced? Is flwm even more lightweight?

fladd

[roberts]

Using flwm as a default, fits with the minimalistic philosophy of Tiny Core. flwm is based on fltk, I have compiled flwm to use shared libaries that are already in Tiny Core. Therefore flwm is significately smaller than jwm. Yet feature-wise flwm has features that would be expected (popup menu, task/applicaton tracking, and pager/multiple desktops). And thanks to Mike Lockmoore several outstanding annoyances in flwm were fixed.

Reasons:
1. Size:

Code: [Select]

   flwm ................ =  47,967
    jwm-2.01 ........ = 134,708 + several small XML configuration files.
    jwm-snapshot . = 141,848 + several small XML configuration files + Xlibs_support 28k, fontconfig 104k + expat2 64k.
   You can see jwm is 3X larger and growing. JWM is supporting more eye candy which should be optional.

2. flwm is consistent (fltk) with the other GUI programs in Tiny Core Linux. Fltk is the GUI library of Tiny Core.

3. It is now trivial to use a different window manager, just download jwm.tce or jwm-snapshot in your PPR tce directory. That's it! No boot option needed. Tiny Core will boot into JWM or Fluxbox or other supported window managers that have Tiny Core's menu support scripts. I know of some users who are successfully using fluxbox window manager with Tiny Core's dynamic menu additions. Once again Tiny Core offers more choices in a tiny system.


A quick primer on flwm:

FLWM popup menu is a combination of:
   application launcher
   task indicator of running and iconized applicataions
   pager with multiple desktops via "New Desktop" menu option

FLWM popup menu is always readily available by:
   right click on empty area of desktop
   right click on any window title bar
   alt-tab

FLWM popup menu handles multiple desktops:
   Menu allows easy switching desktops, just select Desktop X from menu.
   Moving windows to other desktop is easy, switch to Desktop then choose running app from menu.

FLWM does not use a file for menu, but symlinks or scripts in the .wmx directory located in HOME.
This makes it trivial to add menu items to flwm.

As I said, if you prefer JWM then download either the original jwm.tce or the latest jwm-snapshot.
Should be no other action needed to continue with JWM.

[jpeters]

3. It is now trivial to use a different window manager, just download jwm.tce or jwm-snapshot in your tce directory. That's it! No boot option needed.

This is almost amusing, in my experience using jwm-snapshot.  For example (after finally getting backgrounds, etc, working), with RC3 flwm loaded instead of jwm. Jwm was listed in .desktop, but $DESKTOP showed flwm (/etc/sysconfig/.desktop). Editing  /etc/sysconfig/.desktop and putting in .filetool.lst  got it to boot, although first it boots with flwm before changing to jwm, and there's no menu.  Also, all the .jwmrc files were overwritten, so I had to paste them back into home from my backups to get hotkeys and tray items again.  Also, the tray icons are missing boxes that are present when loading snapshot into RC2.  Maybe there's an easy answer for all of this (I've been busy with a few other things), but it's definitely not "pop it into tce and go"