Trying to get started

[Edd]

I'm having issues making extensions persistent.  Many hours with zero results (so far).
I'd really like to figure this out.

Following "Getting Started" in the Wiki, I'm able to boot from a LiveCD.
Using a TC session, I downloaded gparted and formatted a 4 GB USB on sda1 as ext3.

I reboot, specifically following the advice from gerald_clark at this thread:

..
All you need is a tce directory on /dev/hda3.sda1

Boot once with the boot option "tce=hda3sda1"
Install your applications, make your changes, do a backup.

Here is what I've noticed (perhaps some of this is by design): 
   - I needed to mount sda1, even if I use boot option tce=sda1.  I used control panel tool for this mount.
   
   - I needed to specifically mkdir /tce and /tce/optional on /mnt/sda1.  They did not simply appear as a result of boot option  tce=sda1.  Should they?  I've seen two different answers to this question  in the forums.  (apologies, I don't have the specific citings...lost track of those).
   
   - Even after I mkdir /tce and /tce/optional on /mnt/sda1, the App Installer does not automatically put downloaded extensions in either of those places.
   
   - In hopes of copying the downloaded extensions (eg: opera.tcz) to /mnt/sda1/tce/optional, I tried to find them under /tmp/tce, but they were not there (nor was /optional, for that matter).  I couldn't find a utility in control panel to help me locate the downloaded extensions.
   
  - Finally, when I go to reboot, TC kindly pre-populates the the 'backup' checkbox and indicates a backup path of '/tce'.   But then I get a message when i hit OK saying, "Errors occurred during backup!  See /tmp/backup_status"   I'm unable to troubleshoot because no such file or path exists.

Can anyone provide guidance?  Thanks very much for reading the post. 

[^thehatsrule^]

Did you try to use usbwait, i.e. usbwait=5 ?

[maro]

Same point as ^thehatsrule^, but IIRC it's 'waitusb=x'.

Now, the value for 'x' depends on your hardware. So you might have to try a higher value first (e.g. 15) and could reduce it as you find out what works in your case.

How do you know that TC has (automagically) recognised your USB device? The content of '/opt/.tce_dir' contain the device that has been found. If it still has the (default) value of '/tmp/tce' you know that the auto-recognition has not worked. You could also force a change (via tce-setdrive), but that is more an alternative to the boot once with boot code 'tce=yyy' exercise. It would just allow for extension downloads during the current session to be put on your USB device.

[Edd]

Thank you both!  Yes, waitusb=5 solved all of the issues in my original post.  Very simple.

Maro, when I look in /opt, I do not see .tce_dir.  I checked a few other places (/tmp, /usr/local), but did not see it.  Any thoughts?

Again, thanks for coming to the rescue.

[maro]

Hmm, I trust you are aware that file names starting with a dot are hidden in *NIX. So if you want to "see" them with the 'ls' command you will have to use the '-a' (or '-A') option (e.g. ls -a /opt).

Nevertheless you can "look" at the content with for example cat /opt/.tce_dir

[Edd]

Thanks for that education, Maro.
Issue resolved.