Tiny Core Linux
General TC => Remasters / Remixes - Unofficial => Topic started by: newtotinycore on February 18, 2013, 12:11:08 AM
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TC 4.7.4 on old pentium 4
After using ezremaster and tc-install to usb, new tc install works just like original.
However, at boot-up, after reaching the "Syslinux 4.0.5 EDD..." copy-rite page, there is an additional 5 minute pause before booting (compared to original tc system).
This has occurred twice.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Bob
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Hi newtotinycore
You might want to at least post your syslinux.cfg (or is it extlinux.cfg) file.
Sounds like you set the timeout to 300 seconds.
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Hi Rich,
Here is my extlinux.conf file:
DEFAULT core
LABEL core
KERNEL /tce/boot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/tce/boot/core.gz quiet waitusb=5:UUID="b6660f18-311a-42cd-a016-f233b04a8a53" tce=UUID="b6660f18-311a-42cd-a016-f233b04a8a53"
I guess that "waitusb=5" means a 5 second wait?
My remastered tc has a very close to 5 minute delay compared to the original tc.
I haven't made any changes in the default values, anywhere.
Maybe, there is some default value being imported by ezremaster?
Thanks,
Bob
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Hi newtotinycore
I guess that "waitusb=5" means a 5 second wait?
That's correct.
I don't see anything wrong in the config file. What changes did you make that required a remaster?
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Hi Rich,
The remaster is a very basic system to see how things work out.
Started with TinyCore 4.7.4, added a browser, epdfview, viewnior, acpi, iptables, tc-install, and ezremaster.
No changes to configuration files (except adding /usr/local/sbin/basic-firewall to bootlocal.sh.)
Maybe something involving default settings in 4.7.4?
Computer only has 2 gigs of ram, but tc runs fine after boot.
Thanks,
Bob
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Hi newtotinycore
You could try using the syslog boot code. Then take a look through /var/log/messages which gives timing
information and see what's holding up the works.
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Hi Rich,
Added 'syslog' to end of APPEND line of code in extlinux.conf.
After reboot /var/log/messages shows about 500 lines of code (mostly occurring in first second),
however, total time period covered is only 5 seconds. (Problem is during prior 5 minutes).
Is this the 5 seconds from waitusb=5?
I could increase waitusb to 300, but it seems like that would just add another 5 minutes to boot time and
still not start logging until the 'problem' was finished.
Thanks,
Bob
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For more debugging you could use following boot params:
debug printk.time=y earlyprintk=vga,keep syslog
EDIT: Oh, and remove the "quiet", that doesn't help...
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Followed your advice, TinyPoodle.
The /var/log/messages still only cover 5 seconds, most message are in the first second, a few in the second second.
But right after the copy-write screen,"Loading/tce/boot/vmlinuz....." comes up and is quickly followed by
"Loading/tce/boot/core.gz.............................................." which continues for five minutes.
Looks like there is some difficulty loading core.gz.
I tried erasing another usb drive several times before installing the remastered tc 4.7.4.
Again, the new usb hangs for five minutes after the copy-write screen (versus 30 seconds for the usb that generated the remaster).
Anybody else having this difficulty?
Thanks,
Bob
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"Loading/tce/boot/core.gz.............................................." which continues for five minutes.
Please clarify what you mean. Do new dots continue to get printed? Or does it just stand still after a certain amount of dots?
Could you try to boot your remastered core.gz from a different boot medium?
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Hi newtotinycore
What does this command return:
ls -lh /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/boot
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Rich,
Here is the command ouput:
ls -lh /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/boot
total 70864
-rw-rw-r-- 1 tc staff 66.7M Feb 16 22:11 core.gz
drwxrwxr-x 2 tc staff 4.0K Feb 16 22:12 extlinux/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 tc staff 2.4M Feb 16 22:11 vmlinuz
TinyPoodle,
"Loading/tce/boot/core.gz.............................................." which continues for five minutes.
Please clarify what you mean. Do new dots continue to get printed? Or does it just stand still after a certain amount of dots?
-Dots continue to get printed for 5 minutes
Could you try to boot your remastered core.gz from a different boot medium?
-I'm not clear what you mean by "boot remastered core.gz from a different boot medium".
Tried to install remastered TinyCore.iso to DVD, but DVD was not mountable.
However, belatedly I just realized that the remastered usb drives boot fine on a newer computer.
When I download and install TinyCore to a usb, tc boots fine from my old HP Pavilion.
But remastering TinyCore to another usb causes a 5 minute boot delay ( but only on old HP, not a newer machine).
Apparently, the old HP does not recognize something in the remaster.
There is no way TinyCore can support all hardware, especially hardware obsolete by modern standards.
If you have think solving this issue is important for others, I'm happy to work with you to figure it out.
Otherwise, I'm more than satisfied with the way TinyCore performs.
Thanks for your help, Rich and TinyPoodle,
Bob
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That is not tinycore taking 5 minutes.
That is the boot loader loading the initrd.
It sounds like it is loading using USB 1 mode.
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That is not tinycore taking 5 minutes.
That is the boot loader loading the initrd.
It sounds like it is loading using USB 1 mode.
That sounds reasonable.
The HP usb ports are USB 2.0.
Why TinyCore is booted using USB 2 mode, while the remaster is booted using
USB 1 is not clear to me.
I apologize for taking up forum time and space for an issue related to HP hardware instead of
TinyCore OS.
Thanks,
Bob
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-I'm not clear what you mean by "boot remastered core.gz from a different boot medium".
Tried to install remastered TinyCore.iso to DVD, but DVD was not mountable.
Any boot medium other than pendrive, i.e. cd, hdd, netboot
You need to burn .iso as image to cd
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Hi newtotinycore
Why TinyCore is booted using USB 2 mode, while the remaster is booted using USB 1 is not clear to me.
I don't think that's the case. Look at the .gz file on your Tinycore USB drive. How does it compare in size to the
one on the remastered drive? It's probably a lot smaller, which is why it boots faster.
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tinypoodle,
-I'm not clear what you mean by "boot remastered core.gz from a different boot medium".
Tried to install remastered TinyCore.iso to DVD, but DVD was not mountable.
Any boot medium other than pendrive, i.e. cd, hdd, netboot
You need to burn .iso as image to cd
-For some reason the old HP can no longer recognize the CD drive.
I installed the remastered iso to a usb hard drive.
The boot time for the usb hard drive was about the same 5 minutes as for the usb drive.
Hi newtotinycore
Why TinyCore is booted using USB 2 mode, while the remaster is booted using USB 1 is not clear to me.
I don't think that's the case. Look at the .gz file on your Tinycore USB drive. How does it compare in size to the
one on the remastered drive? It's probably a lot smaller, which is why it boots faster.
-good call, Rich.
The remastered core.gz is 69987623 bits vs 5385057; a thirteen fold increase.
When I mentioned 5 minute remaster boot time vs 30 sec for the original, I did not use a stopwatch.
I thought a remaster was like a carbon copy of the source system.
Guess I better do some reading on the TinyCore wiki to see what is going on.
Seems like the increased size of a remaster, could hamper the use of old machines.
Thanks,
Bob
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5 minutes sounds still very long for the bootloader to load around 70MB into RAM...
Try a boot method which leaves USB out of the equation?
BTW, a PC which can boot via USB2.0 ports can't be that old...
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Hi newtotinycore
I haven't used ezremaster myself, but I'm guessing you used the extract TCZ to initrd option which is probably
why your core.gz grew to 66Mbytes.
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5 minutes sounds still very long for the bootloader to load around 70MB into RAM...
Try a boot method which leaves USB out of the equation?
-Good idea, unfortunately, I can not currently boot from CD or install to new HD.
You're right about 5 minutes being a long time to load 70MB; a newer (4 years old) computer with an i5 processor, also using USB 2.0, only needs a second or two. Maybe it's the Pentium 4 processor, or maybe as Gerald Clark suggested, the BIOS prefers USB 1 for loading. There seem to be a number of BIOS issues that I've been unable to resolve.
BTW, a PC which can boot via USB2.0 ports can't be that old...
-8 or 9 years, isn't that considered ancient by today's standards?
Hi newtotinycore
I haven't used ezremaster myself, but I'm guessing you used the extract TCZ to initrd option which is probably
why your core.gz grew to 66Mbytes.
-You're right about me using 'extract TCZ to initrd', thanks for the tip; I'll try the other options.
The old HP might be running out of steam (so am I , actually), but with the help of Tiny Core and all you people on the forum, it's still useful,
Bob
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Hi newtotinycore
I still don't understand why you are re-mastering. Simply do an install to a USB thumb drive. Then use the Apps utility to
install any apps you want. If you wish to duplicate the USB thumb drive, do an install to it. Then just copy the /tce
directory from the master to the new drive.
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Hi newtotinycore
I still don't understand why you are re-mastering. Simply do an install to a USB thumb drive. Then use the Apps utility to
install any apps you want. If you wish to duplicate the USB thumb drive, do an install to it. Then just copy the /tce
directory from the master to the new drive.
Great tip, Rich! I was remastering because I didn't know about copying the /tce directory.
FWIW, a remaster to a thumb drive on my old HP took 5 minutes to load. Booting the remaster from HDD takes about 15 seconds.
Bob