Micro Core v2.8

[roberts]

Micro Core v2.8 is now posted at http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore

The theme for this release is to have a single directory for extensioons and dependencies.  This greatly improves systems resources by having a single copy of dependencies, also greatly improves flexibility in "moving" applications present upon boot, dependency auditing, and both batch and selective updating.

Change log:
* Updated "ab" shell appbrowser for more consistent input handling of single character answers.
* Updated tce-setup, tce-load, and tce-audit to support new onboot.lst &extension support structure.
* Updated tce-load to allow miltiple loading, e.g., tce-load -i *.tcz
* Updated tce-load to drop ".tcz" requirement.
* Updated tce-update to prompt before beginning easy mode batch update operation.
* Updated tce-update for selective interaction via CLI options "query", "list", and "update".
* Updated rc.shutdown by reverse umount loops to support tcvd virtual drive.
* 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.
* Updated tc-config PXE to support new extension structrure - thanks to Gerald Clark
* Updated cd_dvd_symlinks.sh for better multiple cd and dvd devices.
* Updated tce-fetch.sh to cleanup old dual repository support.
* New /opt/tcemirror replaces /opt/.tcrc
* Updated /opt/.filetool.lst for tcemirror
* Dropped symlinker by using builtin cp construct.
* Dropped GNU ftp and dropbearmulti from base.

Note: File likely in your backup /opt/.filetool.sh changed please ensure you update yours.
drop opt/.tcrc add opt/tcemirror

Notes:
For microcore v2.7  users to move to the new structure perform the following:
* boot base norestore
* mv your_tce_dir/*.tcz* optional/.
* Using an editor create onboot.lst in the main tce directory

Add only those apps that you wish to have loaded upon boot.
Do not add dependencies, they will load from optional.

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

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.

Additional note:
Xfbdev.tcz and Xvesa.tcz, alternate small X servers, are offered as normal extensions. You will find them in the repository.

[roberts]

I have posted v2.8.1, a bug fix release:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/microcore_2.8.1.iso

* Fixed bug in tce-update batch easy mode.
* Removed reported relics.