HOWTO: Install and tweak Tiny Core for Dell mini-9

[linuxnovo]

I am attempting to install tiny core on my dell mini-9 using these instructions.  This netbook has 512 ram and an flash drive with 8g memory.  My major linux is Linux Mint 7.  

I used the Mint to make the tiny and tce/optional directories as required at / level in sda1.  I populated the
tiny directory with bzImage and tinycore.gz as required.  Next, using nano at root, I edited the file at
/boot/grub/menu.lst as follows:

title      Linux Mint 7 Gloria, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title      Linux Mint 7 Gloria, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sda1 ro single
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title      Linux Mint 7 Gloria, memtest86+
root      (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

title           Tiny Core Linux
root            (hd0,0)
kernel         /tiny/bzImage quiet tce=sda1 home=sdb1 opt=sdb1 nodhcp
initrd          /tiny/tinycore.gz

The result on booting from the Tiny Core line in the boot menu was:

A good boot to the first desktop.  But the appbrower would not connect.  I was wired to the ethernet.
An examination of the net in the system stat revealed that only a lo channel existed.

I used exit to shutdown the system.  As predicted, an error came up as the system tried back itself up in tce.  I unchecked the backup box and it closed down.

I went back into Mint and modified the menu.lst file and removed the nodhcp boot option on the theory that the system was not seeking the net connection because of this.  Rebooted into core again and found that the appsbrowser was now connecting as I thought it would.  I then installed nano, firefox, and abiword which were installed without any problem.  I did notice that core was checking tce so see if the app had been installed before downloading and installing the requested app.  I was encouraged.  The icon for both firefox and abiword appeared on the Destop which was again encouraging.  However, clicking on both icons produced absolutely nothing, a big zero!  Using the run command in the control panel gave the same result.  However, I was able to run nano with the xterm without any problem.  On several, reboots, nothing was saved in tce directory and all of my apps had to reinstalled.

That is where I am right now.  I really need some help.  Thanks!

[gutmensch]

Heya,

I splitted off your post because you obviously have other problems than those people with the ASUS eee series ;-)

From googling around I found that you should have a builtin RTL8102E pci express fast ethernet device, which should work with the r8169.ko.gz module. Why did you use the nodhcp option? Do you use static adresses and entered it yourself or did you miss that? Otherwise did you try a 'sudo ifconfig eth0 up'? In either case it's very clear that you won't have any connection with that nodhcp option.

He doesn't seem to recognize your sd card either but that's another problem.

[gerald_clark]

That sd card likely requires a waitusb=10 boot option.

[linuxnovo]

Heya,

I splitted off your post because you obviously have other problems than those people with the ASUS eee series ;-)

From googling around I found that you should have a builtin RTL8102E pci express fast ethernet device, which should work with the r8169.ko.gz module. Why did you use the nodhcp option? Do you use static adresses and entered it yourself or did you miss that? Otherwise did you try a 'sudo ifconfig eth0 up'? In either case it's very clear that you won't have any connection with that nodhcp option.

He doesn't seem to recognize your sd card either but that's another problem.

Thanks for reposting.  On reading the original, I thought it was a general tutorial for all netbooks with minor changes necessary.  Right, I do have a problem.  I will restore the original bootline with nodhcp option in it.  Will try the "'sudo ifconfig eth0 up'" command.  You might be right, I may be stuck in "lo".  The problem is that I don't have a home ethernet connection and have to borrow a friends.  Most of the time I am using free wireless at the library.  So I was just trying to install the tc on the hard drive and get wcid working and all my apps in a persistent mode.  By the way, the mint 7 has worked great on my dell mini 9 for more than a year.  I wrote the forum note on the  netbook using mint 7 with free library wireless so the wireless on the netbook is fine.  I really like TC alot, because I hate the "everything but
the kitchen sink" that most linux distros are becoming.  I like the idea of starting from a good, fast core and building what you need.  I want to install TC on all of my linux laptops.  This netbook was the first trial and it really needs a small distro since it only has 512megs of Ram and no hard drive, 8 gigs in Flash.  By the way, everything works perfectly when booted from the CD.  (correct that, I have not tried to access the SD flash memory however.)  I will go over to my friend's ethernet tonight and try to access the flash drive from CD booting and also try to get the ethernet going from hard drive boot. Let you know how it works out.

linuxnovo

[linuxnovo]

I will leave the persistence problem until later.
First, I have removed the nodhcp in the book line and added waitusb=10.
I have booted up with ethernet cable in place and have a working appbrowser.
Have installed the following small extentions:

Jed, nano as text editors, commandline no incon in tray.
midori and arora gui browsers and an icon each in the tray panel

clicking on the midori and arora incons does nothing.

at command line (terminal) we now try the extentions

nano just works......no problem.....good so far

Jed does not work.... nor does arora and  midori we already know this from the gui click.
however, the command line gives us the following error message:

error while loading shared libraries libslang.so.2 cannot open shared object file no such file or directory

What is needed here they are telling us is that a .so file is missing.  this is a program for sh shell.  (I am
used to the bash shell, so I am a little confused here)

with arora, same message with libOtWebKit.so.4.  Another missing sh program.

with midori same thing:  this time libunique-1.0.so.0.

Now, with a fresh cd boot.  all of these work,  somehow the hard disk install is not placing software in the
right place.

[Juanito]

Jed, nano as text editors, commandline no incon in tray.
midori and arora gui browsers and an icon each in the tray panel

I don't use jed or nano, but I'd guess that the extension does not include an icon

at command line (terminal) we now try the extentions

nano just works......no problem.....good so far

Which version of tc are you using? The reason I ask is that nano has the ncurses extension as a dependency in the most recent versions of tc and, since you seem to be missing the dependencies of your other extensions, I'm surprised you have this one.

however, the command line gives us the following error message:

error while loading shared libraries libslang.so.2 cannot open shared object file no such file or directory

This and the other errors mean that the dependency extensions for jed, midori and aurora were not loaded. In this case the slang extension is not loaded.

I'm puzzled as to why the jed extension loaded, I'm not at a tc machine at the moment to double-check, but normally as long as jed.tcz.dep is present and slang.tcz is not present, then the jed extension should not load.

Do you have the files jed.tcz.dep and slang.tcz in your /tce folder in your hd install? Did you download and load jed and the other extensions with the app browser?

Now, with a fresh cd boot.  all of these work,  somehow the hard disk install is not placing software in the
right place.

This works because the app browser is downloading and loading the required dependencies for jed, aurora and midori.

[linuxnovo]

quite a little morning here.  finally got this system working!

The key was to change the kernel boot line:

thus

kernel /tiny/bzImage quiet tce=sda1 (change to 'hda1') and delete completely nodhcp

see earlier posts for the menu.lst lines

thats it!

will update as I HAVE THE TIME

[linuxnovo]

The TC system is now functional.  Everything, relates to the /boot/grub/menu.lst.  The information I was
using required sda1 where the TC was looking for hda1.  Really, that simple.  Here, is a copy of what is
working for me:

title           Tiny Core Linux
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /tiny/bzImage quiet norestore tce=hda1 home=hda1 opt=hda1
initrd          /tiny/tinycore.gz

compare this to the suggestion from the article:

 title Tiny Core Linux
                         root (0x80,0)
                         kernel /tiny/bzImage quiet tce=sda1 home=sdb1 opt=sdb1 nodhcp
                         initrd /tiny/tinycore.gz

Note:  I have included the boot option "norestore" because of the speed of bootup.  I am just spending
a moment or two to put in my preferences.


Everything works, except for the wireless.  I am trying to get the wicd working.  It is fine  with wired ethernet, but not with wireless.

Thanks for the help and concern all.  I am on alot of linux forums and I really think this is the most friendly.  Thanks again!

[linuxnovo]

Lets look at the whole situation now:  I have a dell mini-9 with an aged Linux Mint 7, Gloria,  with, essentially an embedded TC, working.  The Mint will go out on the net both wired and wireless, but this is no get thing when, of all the major distros, the Mint people, more than any other, try to get their stuff working out of the box.  Just load in Ubuntu and Mint as a comparison, and you will see that Mint has everything that Ubuntu has and more.

On the TC side, as you can see from the above, I have a functioning system with the key factor of persistence.  It works well with wired a wired connection and runs sweet enough for the time being, with like the beautiful girl with a boil, has a crying defect: no wifi.  So let's review where we are:

I have downloaded and installed wicd.tzc .  You are required to start wicd with a command line:  'sudo wicd-start'.  I have placed this line in bootlocal.sh so that sh with execute this line on startup.  All this seems fine.  I now follow the instructions from TC wiki:

Easy Way: wicd

"If you want to set up wifi with minimum of fuss, just install wicd package (and its dependencies) from the package repository. You will then be able to setup your connection in a user-friendly GUI. See http://wicd.sourceforge.net/ (external link) for detailed information about wicd.

After installing "wicd.tcz" execute the following command to start the wicd daemon:

sudo wicd-start

Then activate the GUI interface using the application menu.

If you have problems getting wicd to see your wifi card, you may have driver issues. Atheros users can see this Network Setup - Atheros Wireless Cards, but note that tinycore 2.0 and later ships with ath5k and ath9k open source drivers that should handle most Atheros cards."

TIP: For a system that doesn't have wired access, you may find it easier to download the wicd package files and its dependencies first and store them some place convenient. You can then load them into tinycore using the tce-load command.

Now computers are funny things, they are complex, quite strong really, but they fail us because of big things and very little things.  So it is very important not to get involved in little things before you look to big things.  I made a big mistake one time trying to get my new laptop wired access to the net.  I ventured, foolishly into networking at the command line, a complex and scary place without thinking if my connection was good to begin with.  There are two providers in my area: Time-Warner and Frontier.  I struggled for days in the Mint forum with a kind person from Sweden.  As I say, the inner world of computers, is complex and scary and you are provided information in the bundles starting with dmesg.  There was a world of pain for both of us.  Well, one night I went over to a friend's who had Frontier, instead of Time-Warner, and Deus ex machina, both of us were pulled out of the world of pain. 

So I must always check with the Mint that I have a strong wifi connection present, before I look into the particulars.  Now, I go as instructed to my applications and click on WicdNetwork Manager.  It comes up Wired Network checked as default with a real nice ethernet cable icon.  It says: No wireless networks found.  I click on connect:  it is looking and trying to connect to a wired connection.
(as per above, the Mint Wicd Manager says that there three wireless networks available one unsecured and I connect to it.  You will not fool me again!)

Well, on the TC side, we have no wireless networks found.  So lets go down:

One article suggests this starting point:

"iwconfig

Your output should look like:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     unassociated  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Channel=0  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
          Bit Rate=0 kb/s   Tx-Power:off
          Retry:on   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

If all devices listed say "no wireless extensions." then your wireless card is not configured."

I do this in TC:

tc@box: iwconfig

lo  no wireless extensions

dummy0 no wireless extensions

eth0  no wireless extensions

it seems that my wireless card is NOT CONFIGURED.

Now, on the Mint side we issue the same command:

lo  no wireless extensions

eth0  no wireless extensions

eth1  IEEE 802.11 Nickname:" "
         Access Point: Not-Associated
         Link Quality: 5  Signal level:0 Noise level:180
         Rx invalid nwid:0 invalid crypt:0 invalid misc:0

pan0  no wireless extensions

Oh, the benefit of running parallel systems!

Our Guru goes on:

"Alternativly, the device may be disabled - you could try

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

you may also try to wake-up the interface using the keyboard command (Dell)

Then try iwconfig again to see if the device is now recognised. "

when I issue the command above:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

I get SIOCGIFFLAGS: no such device

iwconfig gives the same as above.

I do toggle "fn 2" because I have a Dell with no result.

Well, we have a direction now......

[tinypoodle]

The TC system is now functional.  Everything, relates to the /boot/grub/menu.lst.  The information I was
using required sda1 where the TC was looking for hda1.  Really, that simple.  Here, is a copy of what is
working for me:

title           Tiny Core Linux
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /tiny/bzImage quiet norestore tce=hda1 home=hda1 opt=hda1
initrd          /tiny/tinycore.gz

compare this to the suggestion from the article:

 title Tiny Core Linux
                         root (0x80,0)
                         kernel /tiny/bzImage quiet tce=sda1 home=sdb1 opt=sdb1 nodhcp
                         initrd /tiny/tinycore.gz

What article exactly are you refering to?

[tinypoodle]

You do not appear to have any wireless interface.
You will need to load a driver suitable for your chipset and possibly firmware, depending on chipset.

[linuxnovo]

there was a little confusion because my original post was from another whole string.

Read from the top of the thread and you will find the original post.  It is this post that I refer to as an "article".  You will find it in this forum.  I must have forgotten that this post was split from another long thread by the administrator.  Sorry about that.......context is meaning!

To continue:  Yes, you are right I must load and activate a driver for my netbook.

using lshw, on the Mint side, I get the following information on the net card used:

*-network
                description: Wireless interface
                product: BCM4312 802.11b/g
                vendor: Broadcom Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
                logical name: eth1
                version: 01
                serial: 00:23:08:4f:95:d0
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
                configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversio
I don't think broadcom supports linux at all with drivers.  So it looks like an ndiswrapper thing??

I have had alot of problems with broadcom products in the past.



 

[linuxnovo]

Just found what I think is the thread:

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=3611.0

Thanks for your interest

[tinypoodle]

Ah, ok, now that makes it much more clear...

You might have overlooked a part in that article:

(NOTE: "root (0x80,0)" is the sda1  partition on my Eee 900 and it is used in each of the other three grub entries for the standard Xandros installation. If the boot partition is described in some other way on your machine, then use that designation. For example, on some hard drives it is "root (hd0,0)". Use whatever is the standard for your other grub items.)

That is why after you adapted the values to your needs it works now 

[tinypoodle]

                product: BCM4312 802.11b/g
                vendor: Broadcom Corporation
           
I don't think broadcom supports linux at all with drivers.  So it looks like an ndiswrapper thing??

I have had alot of problems with broadcom products in the past.

Do searches for 'Broadcom' and 'BCM4312' in forum, as well as in appbrowser.
IIRC that one might require firmware, besides from a driver.

IMHO ndiswrapper is a method of last resort, or a temporary measure, kind of "better than nothing".