When I first read mc v2.8 release change notes I misinterpreted the following note:
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
I thought this meant if the *.core.gz extension files were installed in the tce directory then after booting up it would be necessary to run "tce-setup" and "startx".
This does not seem to be the case. The system boots right up to a working desktop and window manager as long as flwm and wbar have been previously installed as well.
So perhaps this only applies to the situation where mc has been booted and the *.core.gz files are installed for the first time immediately after the bootup. Then the tce-setup will "activate" the core extensions. I guess I should have read the note more carefully: "can be placed in the main "tce" directory and loaded after boot via tce-setup["