Appbrowser: difference between install, mount and download?

[jur]

First, what a great thing TinyCore is! Thanks for the hard work! I hope to get this working well. I love the speed, simplicity and small size. I just hate the bloat that comes with Windows.

Some n00b questions:

1. What is the difference between install, mount and download in Appbrowser?

2. How do I uninstall an app? How do I unmount an app? (Whatever that actually means?)

[jur]

Ah. I see.

Install installs it persistently.
Mount installs it for this session only.
Download just puts it into tce/optional.

Clever! 

Now I just need to know how to uninstall unwanted apps/extensions. Ones which I installed without knowing that they would get stuck.

So much to learn... 

[roberts]

See the FAQ: http://www.tinycorelinux.com/faq.html#update

[curaga]

Install & mount are both persistent, when not running in cloud mode. The differences are documented here on the forum in more detail.

[jpeters]

Now I just need to know how to uninstall unwanted apps/extensions. Ones which I installed without knowing that they would get stuck.

So much to learn...  

You can delete them from your /tce/directory  and they'll be gone when you reboot.  (assuming you're booting everything to ram).   Install and Mount are just two different ways of loading an extension.    

[jur]

Install & mount are both persistent, when not running in cloud mode. The differences are documented here on the forum in more detail.

Care to give  more specific pointers? I have searched quite a lot and not found anything. Unfortunately I am also a linux noob and don't even know what to search for. I don't see myself slogging through loads of threads just in case there is a mention of this? 

[Guy]

If you install all of the extensions to ram, all programs are loaded to ram when you start the computer. When you start a program, the computer will access it from ram. If you install a lot of programs, and use this method, you may require more ram than most other operating systems.

If you mount extensions, the operating system knows where they are on the hard drive. When you start a program, the computer will access it from the hard drive. This method only requires a similar amount of ram as other operating systems.

If you have a small amount of ram, you are better off mounting extensions.

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=3157.0

[jur]

Ah. Thanks for the clarification Guy. I am loving tc more and more.

I am just getting confused about the install from local business. I copied a bunch of files over from another tc installation to the /tce/optional directory; when I mount stuff from there, it is not persistent. When I mount it from online repo, it is persistent. Very confusing. Is this how it is supposed to work? If so , then this requires one to download everything each time you do a new installation. 

[Guy]

If you put extensions in the /tce directory, not /tce/optional, it will be persistent.

Extensions in /tce/optional will still be there when you reboot, but need to be manually activated each time.

You can copy extensions from one computer to another. You can copy extensions from a previous installation to a new installation on the same computer. They do not need to be downloaded every time.

You can upgrade to a new version, leaving the extensions as they are.

There will be notes with each release about what files may have changed.

Another option when upgrading to a new version, is to leave extensions as they are, save a copy of personal files, and delete /home/tc and mydata.tgz, and it will be the same as a new installation.

[jur]

The picture is clearing...

I didn't see any of this stuff in the wiki or the FAQ... for the sake of attracting newbies it may be good to include it. My own biggest difficulty is I'm staring from what is essentially zero linux knowledge from just a month ago, I have been reading so much stuff but the picture does not necessarily gel immediately.

[roberts]

Most of the concepts are in the Core Concepts link and not in FAQ or Wiki.
Of course, Tiny Core is undergoing a major change to single extension type, however, 'installing' a tcz is the new tce, thus core concepts is a viable document to become familiar with.

It is true, Tiny Core is not your usual Linux distribution.

[jur]

The Core concepts was the very first tc thing I ever read. While it makes a bit of sense now, it was quite puzzling initially. Part of this was due to my lack of knowledge, but another part (which may be hard for an TC expert to discern) is due to an implicit assumption of background knowledge. This makes it very hard for an outsider to get in. This implicit (tacit) assumption of background knowledge pervades the whole tc site (which is not unreasonable since it is not your job to educate neophytes).

Just realise that there are loads of new users who don't have the faintest clue what this might mean:

Code: [Select]

These extensions are mounted from your PPR and therefore use significantly less RAM. TCZ extensions are cramfs, squashfs or zisofs compressed mountable images of an application directory, which become symlinked into the root filesystem.
So you keep referring to the Core Concepts page (justly so) but there a n00b gets confronted with all those unfamiliar linux concepts and the end result is that knowledge has not really improved. So, I was eventually forced to ask what is the difference between install and mount.

Thanks for tc! 

[roberts]

True, it is tersely written, but after exploring TC and a reread it will begin to make sense.

[Guy]

I like to continually take on new challenges and learn new things. It makes life more meaningful and fun. I know, not everyone is like me.

For you new users, I encourage you to keep learning. You will be glad you did.

Also understand, a lot of time and effort is being put into developing Tiny Core.

There is sometimes a time delay, before the wiki/help pages are updated with the new changes.