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Author Topic: bunch of Q's from a beginner  (Read 3410 times)

Offline stleric

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bunch of Q's from a beginner
« on: April 30, 2011, 02:50:42 PM »
Hi,

Just started using TC and wow, is it peppy even on a decrepit PII w/ 128MB.  I have a few questions that, I think, are simple enough but so far haven't found answers (I'm still wading through the FAQs, Wikis and forums but there's a lot to wade through).

My setup is: TC 3.5, everything loaded on a single hdd (ext3) partition w/ a swap partition (there's also a FAT partiton for DOS but I don't think that matters); no CD or usb drive or anything else.  I more or less followed the directions for "frugal install", except I partitioned the drive with partedmagic liveCD and I installed grub2 instead of old grub.

How do I get my sshd_config file to survive rebooting?   Better still, how do I get sshd to start at boot time?  (I think I saw something on this, but I forgot where).

If I want to use tcp_wrappers with sshd do I need to also install inetd or does sshd know how to work with wrappers out of the box?  (tcp_wrappers didn't seem to work when I tried it).

My ip address setting does not survive reboots (but, oddly enough, my dns setting does). What gives and how do I get TC to boot up with all my network settings intact?

By following the "Frugal Install" directions do I now have "Copy Mode" or "Mount Mode", as defined in the Core Concepts page?  I want as much free ram as possible so I guess I want "Mount Mode"?  How can I tell one from the other, either by boot behavior or from within the running TC environment?

Is this correct: when it comes time to upgrade TC (to 3.6, say) all I have to do is copy over the "bzImage" and "tinycore.gz" files?

TIA,
eric

Offline gerald_clark

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2011, 09:09:10 PM »

Offline Guy

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2011, 11:36:42 PM »
Quote
Is this correct: when it comes time to upgrade TC (to 3.6, say) all I have to do is copy over the "bzImage" and "tinycore.gz" files?

http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:update
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Offline Guy

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2011, 11:45:40 PM »
Quote
By following the "Frugal Install" directions do I now have "Copy Mode" or "Mount Mode", as defined in the Core Concepts page?  I want as much free ram as possible so I guess I want "Mount Mode"?  How can I tell one from the other, either by boot behavior or from within the running TC environment?

To minimize ram usage, don't use copy2fs.flg/lst.

Use On Demand for most apps

Use On Boot, only for those apps which you want loaded every time you start the computer.

You can change what is in On Boot and On Demand using Apps Audit.

http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:install_apps
« Last Edit: May 01, 2011, 04:21:17 AM by Guy »
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Offline jur

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2011, 01:24:32 AM »
You may benefit from reading through Persistence for Dummies in the wiki.

Offline tinypoodle

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2011, 04:00:12 AM »
Quote
By following the "Frugal Install" directions do I now have "Copy Mode" or "Mount Mode", as defined in the Core Concepts page?  I want as much free ram as possible so I guess I want "Mount Mode"?  How can I tell one from the other, either by boot behavior or from within the running TC environment?

To minimize ram usage, use Copy Mode. That is, don't use copy2fs.flg/lst.

Guessing a typo slipped in there and it would rather be meant to avoid Copy Mode.
"Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster." Niklaus Wirth - A Plea for Lean Software (1995)

Offline Guy

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2011, 04:26:22 AM »
Quote
Guessing a typo slipped in there and it would rather be meant to avoid Copy Mode.

Yes. Sometimes when you write things quickly, you make mistakes.

Thanks for the tip.

I have now changed it to

To minimize ram usage, don't use copy2fs.flg/lst.

That makes it clear.
Many people see what is. Some people see what can be, and make a difference.

Offline stleric

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2011, 02:40:05 PM »
Quote
By following the "Frugal Install" directions do I now have "Copy Mode" or "Mount Mode", as defined in the Core Concepts page?  I want as much free ram as possible so I guess I want "Mount Mode"?  How can I tell one from the other, either by boot behavior or from within the running TC environment?

To minimize ram usage, don't use copy2fs.flg/lst.

Use On Demand for most apps

Use On Boot, only for those apps which you want loaded every time you start the computer.

You can change what is in On Boot and On Demand using Apps Audit.

http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:install_apps

Firstly, thanks to everyone for all the tips and hints.

Okay, so if there's a file called "copy2fs.flg" then all the extensions will be loaded into ram, is that correct?  Similarly, if there's a file called "copy2fs.lst" then all the extensions named within it will be loaded into ram?  If neither file exists then all extensions are run off mass storage?

I used AppAudit to get this far, but if I wanted to I could "touch copy2fs.flg" or manually create/edit "copy2fs.lst" to the same effect?

Out of curiosity is there a help guide or user's manual for AppAudit?

Thanks,
eric

Offline tinypoodle

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #8 on: May 02, 2011, 03:40:32 PM »
Okay, so if there's a file called "copy2fs.flg" then all the extensions will be loaded into ram, is that correct?  Similarly, if there's a file called "copy2fs.lst" then all the extensions named within it will be loaded into ram?  If neither file exists then all extensions are run off mass storage?
No, latter would only be so under the precondition that a PPR on mass storage has been defined (tce=). By default extensions are mounted from /tmp/tce which is on tmpfs (shared mem).
"Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster." Niklaus Wirth - A Plea for Lean Software (1995)

Offline Guy

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Re: bunch of Q's from a beginner
« Reply #9 on: May 02, 2011, 03:45:48 PM »
Quote
Okay, so if there's a file called "copy2fs.flg" then all the extensions will be loaded into ram, is that correct?  Similarly, if there's a file called "copy2fs.lst" then all the extensions named within it will be loaded into ram?

Correct. However, in most situations, I don't think you will notice any difference in how the computer runs. If you have a lot of things happening at once, you may run out of ram sooner.


In the early versions of Tiny Core there were two different kinds of extensions (tce and tcz). You could choose which type to use, depending how much you wanted loaded to ram.

As Tiny Core developed, it was decided to go to one extension type. You could choose which extensions were loaded by using copy2fs.lst and copy2fs.flg.

On Boot and On Demand are more recent additions. I can't remember when they came in, but it may have been a little over one year ago.

You can do everything you need using On Boot and On Demand. On Demand has another advantage - applications in On Demand are in a menu, and some are on the wbar. (Back in the old days, you used Install Local to load extensions that were not loaded)

Quote
is there a help guide or user's manual for AppAudit?

Have a look at the documentation on the website, including the wiki. As far as I know, there is not a manual specifically for AppsAudit, but you may find references to it on various pages.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2011, 01:48:32 AM by Guy »
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