Need help with unofficial TCE

[newbody]

The link he gives fails
In this thread Topic: The Full Core and The Lite Core
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=7120.msg37616#msg37616
He by the rules are supposed to give a link to where one can talk about the disto.

He gives this link
Update: a thread for discussion has been created here: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=7128.0

That one fails. Maybe the rules did not allow it?
There is not talk there on his own site where I did download it and it works well too.

But he does link back to this thread where he presented it.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=2056.msg10947#msg10947
But that link seems to not be related to topic=7128.0 that he claim is where I should post any question or praise.

So Should I PM him if that is okay or should I do what?
[edit: see list and rules]

I need help to create persistence on a NTFS HDD 250GB on an Acer Aspire D250 with Atom N270 Netbook

Mainly to get FireFox and Flashplayer to be there when I want to use TCE.
Here is my menu.lst in grub4dos

title TinyCore 3.4.1 with ntfs-3g opt=sda3 max_loop=256
find --set-root /tce/release/tinycoreplus.gz
kernel /tce/release/bzImage tinycore tce=sda3 home=sda3 /mnt/sda3/tce lang=se
initrd /tce/release/tinycoreplus.gz

I know too little so I did not put in opt=sda3 max_loop=256

Was that the part that create the persistence file?

Do you know if this work as well?

title TinyCore 3.4.1 with ntfs-3g
root (hd0,2)
kernel /tce/release/bzImage tinycore tce=sda3 home=sda3 /mnt/sda3/tce opt=sda3 max_loop=256
initrd /tce/release/tinycoreplus.gz

Being a non official I did not dare to ask all this in the TC place. I am not so used to this forum and how you guys react to mistakes us newbies does. Every forum have their own dos and don'ts.

Looking forward to your friendly responses.

[Guy]

I have not used grub4dos.

I think you can remove /mnt/sda3/tce and max_loop=256

max_loop is not needed since version 3.

I don't see any reason for /mnt/sda3/tce


The team may not be happy discussing non-official releases here.

Why not use the official release?

[newbody]

Hi Guy, Thanks for advice on what is needed on the boot kernel line.

Well I did try to follow the rules but the links failed so I asked for help what to do.

Re the why not the official one.

The unofficial does support frugal install on NTFS
Does the official do that?

The unofficial maybe is easier to use due to it having already preinstalled things that a beginner donä't even know the name of.

It booted while the official did not boot. So I did try tthe official first but felt too embarrassed to ask here how to boot it because I fear you guys say. Not adviceable to do frugal on NTFS with read write.

So didn't want to get criticized for daring.

How does one set up persistence in frugal install on the official?

I did read and read and it was too technical for me to grasp. What should I have on the kernel line in grub for it to work?

[Rich]

Hi newbody
Before you start messing with your hard drive you may want to consider booting from
a pen drive. If you have access to a machine with a CD drive, download the Tinycore
ISO file and burn it to a CD. Boot up the CD and when the desktop shows up click on
the ControlPanel icon. Plug a pen drive into a USB port, THE PEN DRIVE WILL BE WIPED
CLEAN SO MAKE SURE THERE IS NOTHING IMPORTANT ON IT. Select the HDD/USB Install
option option, read the window that pops up and select ZIP and follow the directions
given in that window. Shut down that machine, remove the pen drive and plug it into
your netbook. Turn on the netbook, go into the bios, and find the boot options menu.
Select boot USB first, save, exit. The netbook should now boot up Tinycore. Call up
appbrowser and install any desired apps.

[newbody]

Thanks Rich, I trust that is good advice generally but I have already messed a lot with my HDD installing Puppy linux, Archiso, Slitaz, Slabix, AntiX, and others me don't remember at the moment.

Are you sure that TCE has a less competent NTFS-3g or what the name is?

I use the unofficial one that use the standard NTFS program I hope.

I'm writing from within that TCE now and have Swedish through Finland example in the kmaps from the FAQ Seems to work well. % is in right place "!" even & and / and () But alt Gr + don't work though. *' does work åäö ü ï not sure how to do tilde though so I am very satisfied and it seems to remember from reboots too which is a huge relief.

But when I boot up the Firefox is not there but are on the HDD through the Appbrowser so I don't need to go on the internet to find it but it take a relatively long time to start up compared to starting it from Puppy.

And VLC failed Alsa sound so I need to update that one. Have no idea what to dowload though.

But I have come a long way to get a working system thanks to SvOlli.

I can edit the menu.lst not sure if I can move files around have not dared.

So what else? I have no idea what gif, jpg picture viewer to load down.
I did a look through the whole repository but I am not used to all the names there so have no idea which one to use. Which is the Best or next best of them?

[Guy]

To use the official one, since you have multiple partitions, I suggest you format the partition with Ext3. That makes it simple. If you are not familiar with partitioning and formatting, I suggest you download Parted Magic, to do it.

I use Grub legacy, not Grub4dos. This is similar to what I use.

title     Tiny Core 3.5rc1
root    (hd0,0)
kernel   /tc3.5rc1/bzImage quiet opt=hda1 tce=hda1 home=hda1
initrd   /tc3.5rc1/tinycore.gz

There may be some differences with grub4dos.

How does one set up persistence in frugal install on the official?

Primarily by using opt=hda1 tce=hda1 home=hda1 in Grub. There is also backup, which you can use for persistence in any directory other than tce, opt or home. Later, when you understand more, you can learn how to modify extensions instead of using backup.

To install applications (you need to be connected to the internet), start App Browser, click connect, then click on an application you want to install, and click Go.

To be easy to start, apps should be On Boot or On Demand. You can select this when installing, or make modifications later using Apps Audit.

I use:
gpicview for images.
epdfview for pdf files
xfburn for burning cds and dvds.

You can remove apps. So you can install several and see which you like.

There are some ideas for starting.

Don't be concerned about asking questions. There are helpful people here.

I think you will really like Tiny Core as you learn more about it.

[Rich]

Hi newbody
Since you are booting from sda3 that suggests that you already have a seperate
partition that Tinycore is running from. IF that is correct AND IF you are comfortable
using a partitioning tool I would clear that partition and if it's large enough maybe
split it so that you can have a swap file on a seperate partition. If you have any setup
files or personal files you want, copy then onto pen drive with a FAT filesystem on it.
Then if you go to the Tinycore homepage under install, steps 4 and 5 will tell you how
to do a proper install to a hard drive. BE SURE TO SUBSTITUTE THE CORRECT DRIVE INFO
FOR YOUR SYSTEM IN THE INSTRUCTIONS. NTFS is NOT a native file system for a Linux
operating system, and forcing it to run on NTFS is probably slowing it down. Once that
is done, if you want to access the NTFS partition from Tinycore, there is an NTFS support
package you can install.

[EDIT]: I see Guy got in ahead of me. If you don't like Epdfview, Foxit is the nicest PDF
           viewer I've seen running under Linux, very nice.

[tinypoodle]

But when I boot up the Firefox is not there but are on the HDD through the Appbrowser so I don't need to go on the internet to find it but it take a relatively long time to start up compared to starting it from Puppy.

Expectable, it is the speed difference between a block device (HDD) filesystem and tmpfs (shared memory). You could achieve the same speed as with Puppy by using a comparable method, i.e. running TC in default mode ("cloud" mode).

I have no idea what gif, jpg picture viewer to load down.

flpicsee integrates well.

[tinypoodle]

How does one set up persistence in frugal install on the official?

Primarily by using opt=hda1 tce=hda1 home=hda1 in Grub. There is also backup, which you can use for persistence in any directory other than tce, opt or home.

backup works perfectly well for opt and home - and IIRC those are partially resp. fully included in backup by default.
IMHO debatable if opt=hda1 home=hda1 would still qualify as "frugal install".

[tinypoodle]

IF that is correct AND IF you are comfortable using a partitioning tool I would clear that partition and if it's large enough maybe split it so that you can have a swap file on a seperate partition.

With recent kernel versions there is no expectable performance gain by having a dedicated swap partition.
TC base includes a tool to create a swapfile.

[newbody]

Ah thanks for the tip to use flpicsee, I did not notice that one when I looked for Viewnior and such. So I give it a try.

Re  swapfile, I have in the boot menu now noswap to force it to not do a swap in case it do it.
I got the impression that it even automatically made a swapfile maybe? It says something like that when one boot up and shut down? IIRC.

I've tested both the persistence and the backup and both do seems to work. Not sure.

But I am not used to TCE enough to get around how one do things.

So what  I want is to download and install kmaps, Firefox, VLC, Flpicsee, getflash9, and one or two more.

oops the virtual piano something.

But I maybe do something wrong. When  boot up they only exists on the local and I have to rebuild them each time but the good thing is that they remember settings like FF did remember how to go to TCE and Puppy and DW and LQ and so on. Very handy.

I can understand that TCE wants to be true to its vision and not be bloated the way I want it to be.

The reason that I want what I describe are my extremely poor memory and impatience.

When I boot up everything should be there. FF, VLC Flpicsee etc. My version of TCE as I prefer it should be ready to do what I set it up to do.

But to do that needs knowledge. Which I don't have and are very bad at eachieving. Took me a year to set up Puppy linux in that way. I'm a slow learner.

But TCE is ideal in that it start out so small and fast and can do things none of the Ubuntu and Arch and others can not do for a newbie that fail to learn. At least the unofficial by SVOlli could do it.

So if your rules prohibit that we talk about it in threads then I need to find others that use it and find another place to talk about it. LinuxQuestions most likely. They have a forum for distros and TCE sure is a Linux Distro. Very unique one too. I like that it is so unique. Sadly I am not bright enough to use it like you guys do.

[Rich]

tinypoodle: Hence the term "maybe", truth of the matter is with 1Gb of RAM he should not
need a swap file. I mention it for anyone else reading this thread who is RAM challenged,
and because it is mentioned in the installation instructions on the home page.

[Guy]

I prefer to have a swap partition, even though I have enough ram to run the computer without it. It is beneficial when dealing with large files, or doing a number of different things at once.

People with smaller ram, need swap.

[Guy]

New users keep asking which apps are better, and various people have shared their preferences.

I would like to encourage more people contribute to http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/Applications

That way all new users can have access to this info.

It will also help existing users, as new applications are added to the repository.

[tinypoodle]

My statement was not meant to refer to the need/usefulness of swap or not (not necessarily redundant even with 1 GB RAM, IMHO), but to the need/usefulness of a dedicated swap partition (versus file) or not.