Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => TCB Talk => Topic started by: colt on March 01, 2012, 02:20:07 PM

Title: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 01, 2012, 02:20:07 PM
Hi,

I'm new to TCL. I find this an extremely useful system, and i wanted to install it to my old P1 notebook, which has an AMD K6 processor, and 64Mb of RAM.

The boot CD boots fine, but i have no X, with none of selectable window managers at boot. I have tried TCL 3.6 .

Is it possible to have X with 64Mb of RAM? Or it is possible that the lack of X is because of the VGA card? (Machine has a Trident Cyberblade).

Thanks for any help :)
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: Rich on March 01, 2012, 02:39:30 PM
Hi colt
So you wind up at a command prompt? If so, enter  Xvesa -listmodes  and see what support resolutions are reported.
Then reboot. When the F1, F2, F3  screen comes up, enter  tinycore xvesa=800x600x8
Substitute appropriate numbers as reported by the Xvesa command.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 01, 2012, 03:37:39 PM
It gives "xvesa : command not found" .
I have tried boot option xvesa=800x600x8 (display is 800x600), but there is only command prompt.
I have tried live CD on a virtual machine, with 64Mb RAM and i get only command prompt, too.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: Rich on March 01, 2012, 03:41:53 PM
Hi colt
Linux is case sensitive, it's Xvesa, not xvesa.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: bmarkus on March 01, 2012, 03:42:34 PM
Isn't the command

Quote
TC ...
or
Quote
MC ...

?
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 01, 2012, 03:48:18 PM
Command not found, too :S :(
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: Rich on March 01, 2012, 03:55:20 PM
Hi bmarkus
He is using TC3.6. It was shortened to tc, but I don't recall in which revision.

@colt: When you get to the F2, F3, F4 screen, hit F2 and read what it says at the top of the screen. That will tell you
            what you need to enter in front of the xvesa=  boot code.

Quote
Command not found, too :S
Are you sure you burned a Tinycore and not a Microcore CD? What do you get if you enter  version
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: curaga on March 01, 2012, 04:00:22 PM
Maybe this laptop is old enough that TC doesn't recognize the cd drive? See if "dmesg" has any info.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 01, 2012, 04:04:36 PM
TinyCore 4.2.1, kernel 3.0.3...

How can i check cdrom with live CD?
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 01, 2012, 04:10:35 PM
I think it is possible that there is some problems with the CD-ROM, or the HDD controller itself. Slitaz fails boot with kernel panic because it cannot recognize the drive where it booted from. Win98 bootdisk cannot read CD disk, when i'm installing it (i had to install with a workaround). But the controller itself is OK, because Slackware 10, for instance, boots and installs OK.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: Rich on March 01, 2012, 04:25:05 PM
Hi colt
A quick and dirty way of checking what drives were recognized would be to enter the command   ls /mnt
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 01, 2012, 04:36:35 PM
Gives nothing, /mnt is empty. I have checked before :(
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: Rich on March 01, 2012, 04:53:42 PM
Hi colt
You may just have to take a look through dmesg and see what kind of errors it's reporting. If you enter   dmesg > dmesg.txt
and then   less dmesg.txt   you should be able to PageUp/PageDown   through the file, Esc to return to the prompt.
If you can figure a way to get the file off of the machine, like with a serial port,  you could attach it to your next post.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: gerald_clark on March 01, 2012, 04:57:17 PM
Try CorePlus V4.4rc1.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 02, 2012, 11:16:20 AM
Hi,

Here is dmesg output, i hope that it helps :) I haven't got so much time, so i only runned over it, but haven't see any errors.

I haven't tried 4.4 yet, because the machine can read only one-time writable CD's, from which i have no more pieces. (I will, but later.)

Another thing is came on my mind, so this machine cannot boot CD from itself, so i have to use a floppy, which boots, and then boots the CD disk in the drive.
Can it be the root problem? I think it can cause that kernel is believing that he's booted from a floppy?
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: curaga on March 02, 2012, 11:39:54 AM
It doesn't see the hd or the cd. Please try 4.4.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: Rich on March 02, 2012, 02:17:47 PM
Hi colt
I think the problem is that the drive controller is not being detected correctly. Dmesg shows:
Code: [Select]
pata_acpi 0000:00:01.1: BMDMA: BAR4 is zero, falling back to PIO
pata_acpi 0000:00:01.1: setting latency timer to 64
But if you look earlier in the listing
Code: [Select]
pci 0000:00:01.1: reg 10: [io  0x0174-0x0177]
pci 0000:00:01.1: reg 14: [io  0x01f4-0x01f7]
I think that those I/O addresses should start at  0x0170  and  0x01f0  respectively.
You could try going to BIOS setup page, find the setting for PNP enable/disable, and flip it to the opposite state.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: gerald_clark on March 02, 2012, 02:25:07 PM
kernels don't know where they booted from.
Title: Re: X on 64Mb notebook
Post by: colt on March 02, 2012, 02:29:11 PM
OK, i will try these resolutions :) Thanks :)

But sorry, it's an old laptop, it hasn't got PnP settings :S