I'm having good luck with tinycore 3.3 on my four test pc's. They are all multiboot with several Ubuntu linux levels. A separate partition is not necessary since tinycore runs fine on a partition that already has Ubuntu in it, and Ubuntu uses grub2 lately so that can be used to boot tinycore also. If you don't have a linux on the hard drive, the Ubuntu CD live can put grub2 on the hard drive. That's a bit more detail.
Download tinycoe 3.3 iso
extracted the /boot directory which included bzImage and tinycore.gz. On Ubuntu, I used the Places browser and right clicked on the .iso file, and mounted it to copy the images.
made a directory
sudo mkdir /tinycore
in the root of the Ubuntu I was running. Also
sudo mkdir /tinycore/boot
sudo mkdir/tinycore/tce
sudo mkdir/tinycore/tce/optional
sudo touch /tinycore/tce/mydata.tgz
copied tinycore.gz and bzImage into /tinycore/boot. I didn't need the isolinux since the pc's were booting with grub2. Browse and make sure the files are O.K. example
ls -l /tinycore/boot
Made an entry for grub2 for tinycore:
sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/06_custom
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry 'TinyCore on Ubuntu 10.04' {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /tinycore/boot/bzImage root=/dev/sda1 tce=hda1/tinycore/tce quiet
initrd /tinycore/boot/tinycore.gz
}
save
quit
sudo chmod 777 /etc/grub.d/06_custom
which makes the file executable.
sudo update-grub
Do note you can put tinycore in other directories. On one of my pc's it's on hda14.
***** Very key point!
Ubuntu calls the hard drive partition sda1. Tiny core didn't recognize that and wouldn't backup.
Tiny core calls the hard drive partition hda1. Took me a while to find that in the tinycore forums. Oh, yes, on one of the pc's tinycore called it sda1. They are all ata drives. Go figure.
Boot tinycore and try Backup on the tools menus. If it works you're golden.
Now I do have minefield internet browser up and running with flashplayer 10 video but that's another topic.
Good luck, Jerry