setting up wifi/ downloading .tcz packages WITHOUT app browser

[daxo]

i have an aspire one netbook, i do not have wired internet, i use my neighbor's wireless so i don't even have access to the router, just the password.
i am able to boot tc3.0 from a usb stick.  i have no internet connection to use the tc3 app browser to download wicd or any other wireless packages.  i have read http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/Setting+up+Wifi and it suggests
"If you want to set up wifi with minimum of fuss, just install wicd package (and its dependencies) from the package repository."
is there a way to download .tcz packages (and identify which dependancies i will need to run wicd) without using the app browser?
i downloaded wicd from sourceforge link and tried to install it under the "local" tab/button of app browser but as there is no file with a .tcz extension i'm not sure what else to do, app install doesnt recognise it and i have searched the forums and read about 20 more pages of inscrutable info but i've not found anything that addresses my situation.
i am quite new to linux so please be as specific and simple as possible.  
thanks in advance.

[daxo]

PS downloaded wicd again from ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/tce/src/wicd/ i extracted it and it appears to be the same albiet earlier version as from sourceforge (that was 1.7.x).  nothing is a .tcz.  i would have to say the issue appears to be that i do not know what to do with it now.  suggestions appreciated.
thanks in advance.

[ixbrian]

Take a look at this file:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/3.x/tcz/wicd.tcz.tree

It lists all of the dependent .tcz packages for wicd (there are a lot of them..)

You should be able to download each of these .tcz files (ignore any duplicates listed in wicd.tcz.tree and also download the ".dep" file for each extension) and put them together in a directory, and then use the "local" feature of appbrowser to install wicd.tcz.  The .tcz's can be downloaded from: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/tcz_3x.html

[daxo]

thank you for the swift and informative reply.
unfortunately i seem to be missing something- at http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/tcz_3x.html there is a spreadsheet that has username, date, etc, and 4 small columns on the right:  info, list, md5, dep which have links to text only information files, list (of what presumably is in the package), md5 sum for the package, and a list of dependancies, respectively.  what i am not seeing is a link to the package itself (perhaps package is the incorrect nomenclature, forgive me. in this specific case, no link to wicd.tcz)
it also seems unlikely that i will have the tenacity to download the many dependancies involved.  all i really want to do is read my email and surf the web a bit. 
perhaps my low demands as well as my wireless only status precludes me from using tinycore any further (and, would it not be way convenient to build wireless connectivity into tinycore, at least as an option for those of us who do not have wired access?)
thanks again ixbrian for your efforts
best regards
daxo

[ixbrian]

Try this link to download the tcz and dep files: ftp:// distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/3.x/tcz/    (Remove the space between "ftp://" and "distro.ibiblio.org" - I put that in there so the forum wouldn't add http://)

[daxo]

ah brilliant
the page you originally suggested linked to a similar http address, it didn't occour to me to try ftp directories.
the downloading begins, wish me luck!
thanks again

[tinypoodle]

Looking at the dependency tree of wicd... Whoa!!  

All I ever needed to connect to the net with wireless was wireless_tools...
Not even all that is included, I made my personal "light" extension (84KB -> 36 KB) containing only iwconfig and iwlist; though iwpriv might be of benefit to set some advanced options with some specific drivers. (There are even certain drivers which could be configured without any tools just by a config file).

However, I have never had a need to connect to a WPA encrypted net; I'd assume that needs at least wpa_supplicant.tcz and openssl-0.9.8.tcz in addition.

I have no knowledge about wicd but...
If the wiki claims

"If you want to set up wifi with minimum of fuss, just install wicd package (and its dependencies) from the package repository."

for the case of users running into the circular dependency of not being able to connect to the net with TC base, due to lack of wireless support, I couldn't agree that getting - and somehow transferring and installing to target machine - 39 packages with a total size of 23MB+(!!)  would seem to be adequately described as "minimum of fuss"...

@ daxo:
You did not state what card you use, you will also need drivers specific to your radio, if they are included as stable in kernel they will most likely be in wireless-2.6.33.3-tinycore.tcz, in other case they might be in a different extension.

[daxo]

after painstakingly downloading all 39 .tcz by hand and then almost equally painstakingly loading all 39 by hand into tinycore (fortunately i didnt know how to make them persistent so i have to reload them by hand next time-if there is a next time- by hand too.  wouldnt it be nice to have tinycore help files in tinycore itself rather than just on the websight which i cannot access yet from within tinycore?  though user friendly does not seem to be the linux way)
i sudo wicd-start and get an error something like usr/local/share/wicd/daemon/wicd-daemon.py in line 46 in <module> import gobject import error: no module named gobject

@tinypoodle referring to the original instructions in the wiki i decided that the only way i stood a chance was to use a gui, i have no clue about what to edit config files to say.  5 hours of tedious work beats the blinking cursor, oh wait i seem to have gotten there anyway. 

clues/suggestions anyone?

[curaga]

@daxo

tce-load -i *.tcz

No need to load one-by-one

[daxo]

ah brilliant thank you curaga!

but the bigger problem is still the error that doesnt permit wicd to run....

[roberts]

You must be running in Cloud Mode.

You need to read:
http://www.tinycorelinux.com/intro.html
and
http://www.tinycorelinux.com/concepts.html

To at least understand that you need to have a level one directory named tce on a supported partition. And all those extensions should be located there in a subdirectory named optional, e.g. hda1/tce/optional
And those that you wish to load upon boot be listed in a simple text file named onboot.lst located in the tce directory, e.g., hda1/tce/onboot.lst

Then the extensions will not only persist but auto load.

39 extensions mostly for a GUI 

[tinypoodle]

@tinypoodle referring to the original instructions in the wiki i decided that the only way i stood a chance was to use a gui, i have no clue about what to edit config files to say. 

Not to be misunderstood, the method of just having to edit config files would only work with very specific drivers by exception.

Using nothing more than wireless_tools should work universally though to connect to any open or WEP encrypted AP. (It has always worked for me with any distro with any radio - with the single exception of ubuntu where I found many things to be broken and not to work as expected...)
In case of wanting to connect to a WPA encrypted AP, i suppose wpa_supplicant (which appears to have openssl-0.9.8 as a dependency) would be required in addition.

You mentioned about a password, but you never made clear if that refers to WEP or WPA encryption...

Also you didn't mention what the chipset of your card is, and if you have found a driver for it in TC repos, which is more basic than configuration tools.

[daxo]

much thanks to all who have tried to help me on this. 
i am getting quite sad that i am not able to figure this out.

@ curaga

@daxo

tce-load -i *.tcz

No need to load one-by-one

i was unable to reproduce your suggestion.  surely you aren't suggesting i am to type the name of each of the 40 files by hand in lieu of the asterisk?  that would be faaaar more time consuming than clicking hundreds of times in the app browser.  have i missed something?

@tinypoodle thanks for taking the time to follow this thread and to reply.  unfortunately i don't really understand much of what you have said.  i am still trying to get wcid to run.  until that happens unfortunately it doesnt really matter what type of password it is.  sorry and thanks for your suggestions.

You must be running in Cloud Mode.

@roberts  i _am_ running in cloud mode.  but from the links you included (which i had read before, and i very much dig the minimalist philosophy) i would think i need to be in mount or perhaps copy mode. 
as per one of the wikis, i had already created folders /tiny and /tce/optional inside tce, and i have now placed the .tcz files inside /tce/optional and created an onboot.lst text document there as well but even though tc is in that partition it does not mount on boot and thus nothing loads.  would that be fixed by changing to mount mode? 
i am not from the windows/linux world, i have always used macs (well, punch cards in the 80's and BASIC on trs80's before that) so the changing names of drives is very confusing.  how do i specify the absolute position of something that is a variable?
(in case that last is not clear: i am booting from a usb stick, but it changes names, sometimes its sdb1, sometimes sdc1, sdd1 or even sdf1, and also can be called dev_ro2 or home depending, and i dont really know depending on _what_)

apologies to those annoyed by these basic questions, and gratitude for those who take the time to put up with me.  i realise you have better things to do.  i have been wrestling on my own with this for a month and realised that i need to use community to help.  thanks so much.

[daxo]

oops, just found the answer to the last question (how to specify absolutes of variable drive names) at http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/Boot+codes+explained   now need to find the uuid, ok.

my bad.  i'm quite overwhelmed by this process.

thanks again to all.

[tinypoodle]

@tinypoodle thanks for taking the time to follow this thread and to reply.  unfortunately i don't really understand much of what you have said.  i am still trying to get wcid to run.  until that happens unfortunately it doesnt really matter what type of password it is.  sorry and thanks for your suggestions.

My line of thought was to avoid wicd altogether until you first are able to connect to the AP/internet in a much less complicated way, and then can use the power of TC's builtin tools and extensions in combination with an internet connection to do whatever you want.
Troubleshooting of a program which depends on 38 other extensions does not seem like a peace of cake to me, by pure statistical means. (looks like some python stuff is where it's going wrong)

Either way, configuration of your card (and utilities to do so) should not be your first concern before having it recognized by the system and working with a suitable driver (except if wicd would be of any help with such which i wouldn't know).