microcore_v2.8rc4

[roberts]

The Fourth Release Candidate of Micro Core v2.8 (microcore_2.8rc4.iso), is now posted and ready for testing.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release_candidates/microcore/

microcore_2.8rc4.iso
microcore_2.8rc4.iso.md5.txt

Change Log for Micro Core v2.8

rc1:
* Updated tce-load to allow miltiple loading, e.g., tce-load -i *.tcz
* Updated tce-load to drop ".tcz" requirement.
* Updated cd_dvd_symlinks.sh for better multiple cd and dvd devices.
* Cleanup of tce-setup & tce-update of l,m,lm, and ml code.
* Updated tce-fetch.sh to cleanup old dual repository support.
* Updated tce-update to prompt before beginning easy mode batch update operation.
* After much Team testing and input, the upx'ed kernel returns, prior kernel is in distribution files.
* Dropped symlinker by using builtin cp construct.

rc2:
* Updated tce-update for selective interaction via CLI options "query", "list", and "update".
* Dropped dropbearmulti from base.
* Updated rc.shutdown by reverse umount loops to support tcvd virtual drive.

rc3:
This release candidate changes the storage of extensions to a single location, the optional directory located under your "tce" directory. Boot time loadind of application extensions are provided by links into the optional directory. These links are easily maintained with the new OnBoot section of appsaudit.  This will better support the trend to use more "OnDemand" items, make it easy to "move" applicatons into and out of the "OnBoot", tce, directory. This also greatly improves systems resources by having a single copy of dependencies.  Having a single area to host all extensions & dependencies also greatly improves auditing and both batch and selective updating.

* Updated tce-setup, tce-load, and tce-audit to support new extension support structure.
* Updated 'ab' shell appbrowser for more consistent input handling.
* Updated udev rules for much quicker boot times with loop mount extensions.
* Updated rebuildfstab for faster response.
* Updated filetool.sh to ignore sockets.
* Updated tc-terminal-server typo.

We now have a single directory from which to audit dependencies, perform selective updates, and pick and choose our on boot selection of applications.

New all core elements are now cpio'ed .gz and can be located in the boot directory for loading via your boot loader or can be placed in the main "tce" directory and loaded after boot via tce-setup

Example boot loader stanza for new core elements

Code:
label tinycore
   kernel /boot/bzImage
   append initrd=/boot/microcore.gz,/boot/Xprogs.core.gz,/boot/Xlibs.core.gz,/boot/Xvesa.core.gz quiet noswap vga=773 tce=UUID=aaab6273-4a6c-4118-8eb2-e31a9b31edb3 waitusb=5 max_loop=255

rc4
This release candidate changes from using symlinks for onboot items to a simple text file onboot.lst. Simply use any editor to create in tce directory or load X environment and use appsaudit.

* Updated tce-load for onboot.lst support.
* Updated tce-setup for onboot.lst support
* New /opt/tcemirror replaces /opt/.tcrc
* Updated /opt/.filetool.lst for tcemirror

Also for microcore is a new boot code lst=mylist.lst
This is a static, i.e., not automatically updated, list to use at boot time for special cases, e.g., keyboard, etc..

With this one boot microcore with lst=mylist.lst to get to a functional CLI environment, then after boot, still run sudo tce-setup and get X and onboot.lst extensions.

Note: File likely in your backup /opt/.filetool.sh
drop opt/.tcrc add opt/tcemirror

[jls]

doesn't work with flwm

[vitex]

Could you please clarify your plans for extensions placed in /opt/tce[/optional]?

When booting, the current implementation of tce-setup

• does not load extensions listed in /opt/tce/onboot.lst,
• does not load *.core.gz components in /opt/tce, and
• does load extensions with links from /opt/tce to /opt/tce/optional.

Is this the long-term behavior?

[roberts]

doesn't work with flwm

Oh but it does. I am running it now.
First be sure that you have updated the flwm extension.
Second if you typically load compiletc extension, be sure to update that as well.
Prior versions of compiletc have fltk-1.1.9 shared libraries that will disable the newest flwm.

[roberts]

Could you please clarify your plans for extensions placed in /opt/tce[/optional]?

When booting, the current implementation of tce-setup

• does not load extensions listed in /opt/tce/onboot.lst,
• does not load *.core.gz components in /opt/tce, and
• does load extensions with links from /opt/tce to /opt/tce/optional.

Is this the long-term behavior?

Perhaps showing a working setup will be helpful:

Code: [Select]

GRUB
title MICROCORE TESTING NEW STRUCTURE on sdb1
kernel (hd1,0)/tinycore/bzImage quiet host=dev tz=PST+8PDT,M3.2.0/2,M11.1.0/2 waitusb=5 tce=sdb1
initrd (hd1,0)/tinycore/bmicrocore.gz

showbootcodes
quiet host=dev tz=PST+8PDT,M3.2.0/2,M11.1.0/2 waitusb=5 tce=sdb1


tc@dev:~$ ls -l /mnt/sdb1/tce
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff     3003728 Jan 16 14:46 Xlibs.core.gz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff      655487 Jan 16 14:46 Xprogs.core.gz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff      322694 Jan 16 14:46 Xvesa.core.gz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff       29102 Jan 20 10:28 mydata.tgz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff          18 Jan 20 05:36 mylist.lst
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff         289 Jan 20 10:27 onboot.lst
drwxrwxr-x    2 tc       staff        3072 Jan 20 10:27 optional/


tc@dev:/mnt/sdb1/tce$ cat onboot.lst
chromium-browser.tcz
flwm.tcz
wbar.tcz
midori.tcz
beaver.tcz

Now, instead of making does not work proclamations perhaps you can share your specific setup so that progress can be made.

[vitex]

Could you please clarify your plans for extensions placed in /opt/tce[/optional]?

When booting, the current implementation of tce-setup

• does not load extensions listed in /opt/tce/onboot.lst,
• does not load *.core.gz components in /opt/tce, and
• does load extensions with links from /opt/tce to /opt/tce/optional.

Is this the long-term behavior?

...

Now, instead of making does not work proclamations perhaps you can share your specific setup so that progress can be made.

The following output was generated by booting a remastered version of
the microcore_2.8.rc4 ISO:

Code: [Select]

$ version
microcore_2.8rc4

$ showbootcodes
initrd=/boot/microcore.gz xvesa=800x600x16 vga=788 quiet max_loop=255 BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/bzImage

$ ls -lR /opt/tce
/opt/tce:
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root      3003728 Jan 20 14:15 Xlibs.core.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           48 Jan 20 14:15 Xlibs.core.gz.md5.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       660805 Jan 20 14:16 Xprogs.core.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           49 Jan 20 14:16 Xprogs.core.gz.md5.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       322694 Jan 20 14:16 Xvesa.core.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           48 Jan 20 14:16 Xvesa.core.gz.md5.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     staff          13 Jan 20 19:42 onboot.lst
drwxr-sr-x    2 root     staff          80 Jan 20 20:46 optional

/opt/tce/optional:
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        94208 Jan 20 15:02 dropbear.tcz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           47 Jan 20 15:02 dropbear.tcz.md5.txt

$ cat /opt/tce/onboot.lst
dropbear.tcz

$ df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                   112956     12308    100648  11% /
tmpfs                    62752         0     62752   0% /dev/shm

This output demonstrates my first two points.  The third point is
evident from the following code in tce_setup:

Code: [Select]

if [ "$(ls -A /opt/tce)" ]; then
TCEDIR=/opt/tce
FILELIST=`ls "$TCEDIR"/*.tcz`
for FILE in $FILELIST; do process; done
fi


[roberts]

Thanks for the clue that you are running a remaster!
I am going walk before I run. I want to get the bugs out before I try testing remastered versions.
As much as I try to avoid having multiple locations for everything it keeps coming up!

[roberts]

Since you are making a remaster, it would seem to me to make more sense to place those extra initramfs images *.core.gz with the bzImage and mircocore.gz. That is the preferred location.

[vitex]

Since you are making a remaster, it would seem to me to make more sense to place those extra initramfs images *.core.gz with the bzImage and mircocore.gz. That is the preferred location.

Are you planning to keep /opt/tce?  Tce-setup currently loads .tcz files from /opt/tce and from the directory to which /opt/.tce_dir points.  Tce-setup loads .core.gz files from the directory to which /opt/.tce_dir points but not from /opt/tce.  If you are going to keep /opt/tce, then its seems natural to add the few lines of code to tce-setup so it also loads .core.gz files from /opt/tce.

Remastering seems to be easier for me if the .core.gz files are in /opt/tce, but I can do it either way. It is your choice.

[curaga]

Just a thought, if one plans to include all three core.gz always loaded in /opt/tce, wouldn't it be simpler to start with the TC iso?

[roberts]

After heavy testing, I have found a couple anomalies, ok bugs.
One having to do with some dependencies getting listed in onboot.lst
The second having to do with existing dependencies in optional, but currently not used (loaded), not loading when a new extension is downloaded in install mode that requires such.

Both have been addressed in microcore_2.8rc4a.iso now posted!
The distribution file microcore.gz has also been posted.

[vitex]

Just a thought, if one plans to include all three core.gz always loaded in /opt/tce, wouldn't it be simpler to start with the TC iso?

That is certainly an option, although there are occasions when I need to replace Xvesa with Xfbdev.

[alu]

there is always something which is not clear for me; here my setup:

bootline

kernel /boot/bzImage swapfile noicons embed nodhcp lst=mylist.lst tce=hda1 vga=792 quiet

mylist.lst

cat /mnt/hda1/tce/mylist.lst
kmaps.tcz
bash.tcz

onboot.lst

cat /mnt/hda1/tce/onboot.lst
evilwm.tcz

tce directory

ls -la /mnt/hda1/tce           
drwxrwxr-x    3 tc       staff        8192 Jan 22 14:04 ./
drwxr-xr-x    6 root     root         4096 Jan 17 22:10 ../
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff     3003728 Jan 22 12:39 Xlibs.core.gz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff      660805 Jan 22 12:39 Xprogs.core.gz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff      322694 Jan 22 12:39 Xvesa.core.gz
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff          19 Jan 22 12:45 mylist.lst
-rwxrwxr-x    1 tc       staff          11 Jan 22 14:04 onboot.lst
drwxrwxr-x    2 tc       staff        8192 Jan 22 14:00 optional/

with this setup, mc loads correctly directly in X without evilwm; i have to issue 'sudo tce-setup' in order to get evilwm to work, what is expected;

now, if i add 'base' in my bootline (without changing anything else), i am booting mc CLI without the *.core.gz initramfs loaded; this is ok and expected; but i don't have kmaps.tcz and bash.tcz loaded either which are in mylist.lst; why? what i am doing wrong? i have expected that booting mc with 'base' and 'lst=mylist.lst' would give me mc CLI with kmpas.tcz and bash.tcz loaded

[helander]

I think base means do not load any extensions from onboot.lst or any explictly given .lst file as a boot option. What you could do is to create a base.lst that contains the extensions you regard as your base and then specify that base.lst is used in case you want your own "base" to be activated.

/Lars

[alu]

reading the log of rc4, i thought mylist.lst was made for that, i.e. boot mc CLI with apps you want to have at CLI, but without initramfs; i can always have my base mc CLI without any 'base.lst' file, only by writing commands in bootlocal.sh; then if i want X, i can load tce-setup (that's why onboot.lst is useful for me), and other apps can be loaded by scripts - this makes mylist.lst not useful for me, i think.