making /tce folder on pendrive

[P5music]

hi
I am trying to get a persistent installation of tinycore on my pendrive.

After a series of attempts I think the better way is to create the /tce folder on pendrive so tinycore recognizes it and puts the extensions there.
I ask you what exactly I have to do after creating this folder.
Exactly which is the boot option string I have to add to the syslinux file?
note: sdc1 is the pendrive
thanks

[bmarkus]

What is your goal? If you just want an USB stick with your selection of extensions do not need to touch /opt just use /tce. You do not have to deal with device name as /tce is automatically recognized by thje system at boot time which is good because device name may vary if you are using it on another computer.

As an example I have never used /opt for extensions. I'm creating two partitions, one smaller, 64 MByte usually formatted as FAT as a boot partition and to move files between TC and WINDOWS, and format rest for one or two ext3 partions. /tce is created on the second ext3 partition.

But you can start with a single FAT partion to store extensions and save backup and make it more complex later when you understand how TC works. It took all of us a certain time.

I think the best is to go back to basics and keep it simple. Forget /opt at least in the beginning.

[P5music]

my goal is to have a very fast boot, so waitusb=10 is not good for me, but I am trying to learn tinycore's basics just as you say.

so

/tce is on pendrive
"tinycore waitusb=10" is on syslinux

but
if I install an extension, it is not permanent: nothing is written in /tce on pendrive
maybe I'm missing something.

[bmarkus]

Is there a /tce directory in the root of the USB stick?

[P5music]

yes

[Guy]

The easiest way to install on a USB drive is to run USB Install from the CPanel.

You need to install dosfstools and syslinux first.

Everything will be set up automatically, and it normally should just work.

[bmarkus]

The easiest way to install on a USB drive is to run USB Install from the CPanel.

But it requires a working TC/MC. How to have it first? Only from CD. If you can make a CD and if you can boot from a CD. Why to waste time with CD just to get an USB stick?

Wether you like it or not, you can safely expect a newbie has a Windows machine with net connection and USB, but can not expect CD writer and necessary software.

So the easiest is UNetbootin !

[P5music]

I agree, but during usbinstall I encountered input/output errors as reported in previous thread.
at the reboot, tiny does not load anymore.

[OldAdamUser2]

hi
I am trying to get a persistent installation of tinycore on my pendrive.

After a series of attempts I think the better way is to create the /tce folder on pendrive so tinycore recognizes it and puts the extensions there.
I ask you what exactly I have to do after creating this folder.
Exactly which is the boot option string I have to add to the syslinux file?
note: sdc1 is the pendrive
thanks

Try the following:

kernel /boot/bzImage
append initrd=/boot/tinycore.gz quiet tce=sdc1  waitusb=5

This assumes that bzImage and tinycore.gz are in the /boot directory. Change that if necessary.

[maro]

@P5music: Am I right to assume that you have created the '/tce' directory on 'sdc1' yourself? That might not be the best idea, because you might end up with the wrong ownership and permissions (AFAIK you could try sudo chown -R tc.staff /mnt/sdc1/tce ; sudo chmod -R g+w /mnt/sdc1/tce to set things right). This user intervention is normally not required if one follows the "usual process" (e.g. boot with 'waitusb=XX tce=YYYY')

Please note it's not a matter of personal taste that you have to use 'waitusb=XX', and what value you have to use for XX (e.g. 5, 10, or maybe even more). This is necessary for your pendrive to be recognized by the system correctly. Only when that recognition has happened will things work out as designed. The contents of '/opt/.tce_dir' is for you to observe whether the pendrive recognition has worked, and not necessarily to be altered by the user.

So instead of jumping ahead of yourself I'd suggest the following:

• Remove the '/tce' directory from your pendrive (since I assume it's empty anyway).
• Boot your system with 'tce=sdc1 waitusb=5'. Check the contents of '/opt/.tce_dir' after the boot, if it's not '/mnt/sdc1/tce' repeat the boot process with an increased waitusb-value until the drive recognition has worked.
• After you are certain that your pendrive has been recognized you should also find a '/tce' directory on your pendrive. You could then start downloading extensions, which should now be stored onto your pendrive.

[bmarkus]

@P5music: Am I right to assume that you have created the '/tce' directory on 'sdc1' yourself? That might not be the best idea, because you might end up with the wrong ownership and permissions

On Linux file system yes but not on FAT.

[P5music]

hey maro, it's kind of working,
I put waitusb=20 and I saw new text lines during boot and the tce structure was created (but opt contained only two scripts and tcemirror that contained only "tcemirror"). I installed my stuff and text lines of backup process appeared at the shutdown because I checked "backup".
After the reboot the application I installed was not in the bar yet.

[P5music]

ok
I copied all extension tcz files on tce/optional on pendrive
then called appsaudit and did something
now it works

[maro]

@P5music: I'm pleased to read that you finally had some success.

Here is a bit of UNIX/Linux 101: Hidden files are files where the filename starts with a dot (e.g. '.tce_dir'). To make them "visible" you'll need to use 'ls -a' (or 'ls -A').