How to install in VMware?

[UBfusion]

I was searching today for small linux distros to make a web appliance for VMware. I dloaded TC, played with it and I think it would make an ideal choice for the purpose (although Dillo did not work - maybe it does not like the virtual environment?).

However I did not manage to install TC on a virtual hard disk. I didn't find anything in this forum and googling did not provide any info.

Specifically, TC seems to ignore SCSI virtual disks. It does recognise IDE hard disks, but accesses it read-only (cfdisk says it's read-only). Therefore I cannot make new partitions...

Could someone please shed some light, and possibly write a How-to, or even better, produce a Virtual Appliance for VMware, ready with browser and VMtools installed?

Thank you very much in advance, I sense that Tiny Core has a bright future ahead!

[^thehatsrule^]

For the most part, the installation under vmware is the same as running natively under bare metal - so those questions seem to be more general.

Specifically, TC seems to ignore SCSI virtual disks.

This has which chipsets are supported: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=457.0  Note that scsi disk support is not in the base, but there is the scsi extension.

It does recognise IDE hard disks, but accesses it read-only (cfdisk says it's read-only).

Probably forgot to invoke with root privileges

FYI: If you're talking about the dillo2 extension, there is a known bug with it atm.

[UBfusion]

Thank you for your tips. Today I tried again and I was able to install :-)

The virtual machine is 10.6 MB zipped (including dillo!), boots from grub to full screen in 8 seconds (like in the old good Windows 3.11 days). Simply amazing.

I've done my homework too: installing fontconfig and expat makes dillo work

I'll do my best to help your noble cause...

[greymatter]

I'm having the same problem -- no disk in VMware.  I tried

   # su -
   # fdisk -l  <-- shows no disks
   # cfdisk   <-- Opened disk read-only - you have no permission to write

What's the secret?

Thanks!

[^thehatsrule^]

Make sure there are virtual disks created for the VM.  IDE is only supported in the TC base.  If something else is required, the drivers will need to be installed for it (ie via extensions).

[schultzter]

I created a blank VM Ware instance using the http://vmcreator.com/virtual-machine.html and then rolled a bit of my own into the vmx file:

Code: [Select]

config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "3"
bios.bootDelay = "15000"
guestOS = "other26xlinux"
displayname = "Tiny Core Linux"
memsize = "160"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

svga.maxWidth = "800"
svga.maxHeight = "600"

usb.present = "TRUE"

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.filename = "primaryMaster.vmdk"

ide1:0.present=true
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
ide1:0.filename = "C:\tinycore_1.2.iso"
ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

You can get a lot of detailed info about the VMX options here: http://sanbarrow.com/vmx.html

I've only just started playing with TCL and I'm having some network issues, but the harddrive and cd-rom seem to work fine.  Once I can get the network going though I'll be able to install cfdisk and grub do an install and then perhaps fine tune the VM a bit more.

[schultzter]

I resolved my network issues by using a NAT network connection. 

The following line was added to my VMX parameters file:

Code: [Select]

ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"

[daxm]

For the most part, the installation under vmware is the same as running natively under bare metal - so those questions seem to be more general.

Specifically, TC seems to ignore SCSI virtual disks.

This has which chipsets are supported: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=457.0  Note that scsi disk support is not in the base, but there is the scsi extension.

It does recognise IDE hard disks, but accesses it read-only (cfdisk says it's read-only).

Probably forgot to invoke with root privileges

FYI: If you're talking about the dillo2 extension, there is a known bug with it atm.

I'm also trying to get TC to see a SCSI disk in VMware.  I read the suggested topic and installed the scsi-2.6.26.tcem but now I don't know how to re-read the disks!  Any suggestions?

[Juanito]

I read the suggested topic and installed the scsi-2.6.26.tcem but now I don't know how to re-read the disks!

Working on real hardware, the act of loading scsi-2.6.26.tcem and "modprobing" the correct driver caused the disks and everything else on the scsi bus to be re-read - maybe not much help on a VM though...

[daxm]

Got it.  I'm using VMware Server v2 and it defaults to the LSI SCSI controller.  I stopped the VM, changed the controller to BusLogic, booted and then added cfdisk and scsi-2.6.26 TCEs and now I see the drive.

Thanks for your help!

[daxm]

Crap.  Now when I reboot I lose the extension download.  Hmm.  Do I have to build my own kernel that supports SCSI now?

[Juanito]

That's what I did - again with "real" hardware, not VM.