Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Extensions => TCE Q&A Forum => Topic started by: bob839 on February 08, 2014, 05:43:29 PM
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Hello there!
TinyCore 5.2 is wonderful distro and it works flawlessly on my HP T5520 ThinClient terminal (with default X-server GUI).
I am wondering whether there are any scientific apps for math and astronomy?
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Hi bob839
I don't see anything for 5.x, but 4.x has celestia.tcz available. What kind of math apps are you looking for?
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Hi Rich
Thank you for your reply. Celestia is too demanding on hardware side so I was rather thinking of planetarium software similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyglobe (I have SkyGlobe for DOS, but for now I don't see any easy way (for me at least) to make DOSBox working under TC 5.x (all the topics I have read here are more or less related to compiling the source) and switching between TC OS and DR-DOS whenever I need to look at the sky is not the most efficient way to make things done :P )
As for math apps, something similar to FreeMat in functionality with gnuplot on board would satisfy me most. I don't mind for using CLI math apps too.
Generally, math functions I am most interested in are: trigonometry, complex numbers, sums, matrices and equation solving, calculus. I would be also more than happy to have precision better than that of my calculator (15 numbers).
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This may help to find out what is available on Linux
http://www.distroastro.org/
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Hi bob839
Dosbox would need to be recompiled since it depends on libpng12. However, all its dependencies are present in the 5.x
repository except sdl-sound.tcz, but its dependencies are also present there.
Math: Maybe gnumeric would be of some use?
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Thank you bmarkus for the link. Indeed, that distro has many great astronomy programs included. Would it be difficult or time consuming for someone knowledgeable to port some of them to TinyCore (especially Cartes du Ciel and SkyGlobe)?
Thanks, Rich, for suggesting gnumeric, but it is quite heavy for my hardware that's one thing and it needs a lot of dependencies and I try to keep my system as simple and lightweight as possible. Maybe there are some other spreadsheets (including CLI ones like sc Spreadsheet Calculator) compatible with 5.x?
Or are there any plans to port/recompile DosBox for current TinyCore release? It would make a lot of things easier (for example - I could use SkyGlobe as well as some of DOS spreadsheets and math programs with plotting capabilities).
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You can try 8086tiny.tcz from the repo.
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Thank you, bmarkus for your suggestion, but there is no such file in 5.x repo :(
Anyway, I have solved some of my problems. And I found one particular astronomy software I would like to use on TinyCore.
1) My math problem is solved by bc and I wrote (I will post the code later) simple ash script to use bc for math with given precision and expression as parameters (for me it's more efficient than entering bc and running commands inside it). I will try to find some library for other math tasks I am interested in. :)
2) I would love to run Xplns astronomy planetarium software on TinyCore - I have no idea how to recompile stuff, so is there any chance that someone kind would possibly do a TC 5.x port of that soft?
3) My questions about sc and DosBox are still valid.
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Thank you, bmarkus for your suggestion, but there is no such file in 5.x repo :(
It is there. Either you are using a mirror or your local cache is not updated.
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I would love to run Xplns astronomy planetarium software on TinyCore - I have no idea how to recompile stuff, ...
If you could write the ash script to use bc, you can certainly compile stuff - why not read the extension making section of the wiki and give it a go - the forum users would be happy to help with any problems you might have.
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Thanks, bmarkus - I was using a mirror and that was why I didn't have it in app browser. I have installed it and tested, but on my machine it worked so slow, that even 'help' command took ages to load and browse, so I can only imagine how bad things would be if I tried to run SkyGlobe :P So DOSBox option is also a no-no, because my machine is too slow for it to emulate DOS properly.
So, the only chance is to make Xplns port to TC 5.x... but I can't do this myself. Really, Juanito. Yes, I can write some simple scripts like this to make use of bc in a more efficient way for me, but
#!/bin/ash
echo "scale=$1;$2" | bc
is not something even close to make port of Xplns to TC distro for me :( I have read the extension making page on wiki, but I was unable to make head or tail of that. I wasn't even able to compile a hello.cpp (hello world code in C++) with gcc and I know that this code is correct - I was fiddling with C++ and TurboPascal on WIN and DOS years ago, but I have no experience under Linux. I have attached screenshot with error output.
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You wrote a C++ app but called a C compiler (gcc). Use a C++ compiler instead :) (g++)
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I just have used g++, but I got the same error output :(
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Make sure you have installed compiletc.tcz.
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Okay, now I can compile things :) Thank you, curaga!
Could you possibly advise me which file shall I download from: http://www.astroarts.com/products/xplns/download.html (http://www.astroarts.com/products/xplns/download.html) so I can try to recompile it for TC 5.2?
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It looks like these packages are binaries and will not need compiling (but might need other extensions as deps)?
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Yeah, it seems that it is in binary form already, so I have downloaded the Slackware version in tar.gz format instead of .rpm package of RedHat.
Now I have doubts - I have extracted the archive's contents and there is xplns executable and also an install.sh script. Should I run the install.sh script? If so, why? After all, there is executable file, things are compiled, so in WIN I would just click the executable to run the program. I don't want to do try and error without consulting you first, because I don't want to break something in my system.
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Hi bob839
The first thing you could try is:
ldd xplnsto see if it finds all of its dependencies.
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Hello Rich!
I ran the ldd just like you suggested and I got some results. I assume, that I only need to install files/libs that are stated as 'not found' and the rest that are listed with names and hex numbers are already installed and ready to go, right?
Not found:
- libm.so.5
- libXp.so.6
- libc.so.5
Is there any way to download single libs from the repo?
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Hi bob839
libXp.so.6 is in libXp.tcz.
libm.so.5 and libc.so.5 may be a problem since those libraries are part of the base system and are at version 6.
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So, given the source code is closed as the Xplns' author stated on his website there is not much chance to make this program run on TC?
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Hi bob839
The version you downloaded was labeled Slackware 3.X (libc5) i386
Try the version labeled Exec(glibc2.1)
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I've used p7zip.tcz to extract the .rpm contents to a temporary folder then I ran ldd on xplns binary and there was only one 'not found', the aforementioned libXp.so.6. I have installed that missing dependency from libXp.tcz and I am ready to give it a go.
Do I have to move all the files to the corresponding system folders or can I run it from that temporary folder?
I got 'permission denied' when I tried to run it - shall I chmod 711 it?
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Sounds suspicious, likely attributes have become corrupted, possibly by extracting with p7zip.
Instead try to extract with:
rpm2cpio foo.rpm|cpio -vid
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My questions about sc and DosBox are still valid.
sc package cherrypicked from slackware repo appears to work for me (depends on ncurses).
So DOSBox option is also a no-no, because my machine is too slow for it to emulate DOS properly.
By my impression, dosemu is much lighter on cpu compared to DOSbox - besides from having less dependencies.
The rpm package provided by upstream first unpacked and then squashed works for me.
My math problem is solved by bc and I wrote (I will post the code later) simple ash script to use bc for math with given precision and expression as parameters (for me it's more efficient than entering bc and running commands inside it).
Just FYI in case you hadn't noticed, 'dc' would be included in base.
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Thank you tinypoodle! rpm2cpio command extracted the .rpm preserving all the attributes. :) I tried to run the xplns. The program started for a fraction of a second showing two empty windows and then closed showing 'xplns: can't create font.'
How to fix this? I think we are getting very close to finally making xplns run on TC 5.2 :)
As for sc, thank you for that info, however, I don't know what 'to cherrypick' mean. Nevertheless, I have downloaded slackware's .tar.gz, but after extracting its contents I frowned upon that it has to be compiled and I haven't done that kind of things before so I don't know where to start. Could you possibly provide me with further instructions?
Is Dosemu less resource demanding than 8086tiny.tcz? If not, there is no point trying it, because 8086tiny barely works on my machine.
Thank you for information about dc, I wasn't aware of that. I just have tried it and it seems to use RPN. I haven't used that system before, but I will give it a go. It is good thing to learn new stuff. :)
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The program started for a fraction of a second showing two empty windows and then closed showing 'xplns: can't create font.'
How to fix this? I think we are getting very close to finally making xplns run on TC 5.2 :)
I can reproduce...
And that's where I give up, given how dated, unsupported and closed that code is...
As for sc, thank you for that info, however, I don't know what 'to cherrypick' mean.
Meaning to grab a binary from a different distro.
Nevertheless, I have downloaded slackware's .tar.gz, but after extracting its contents I frowned upon that it has to be compiled and I haven't done that kind of things before so I don't know where to start. Could you possibly provide me with further instructions?
I just downloaded the package (I think .txz), untarred and ran from extracted dir.
Is Dosemu less resource demanding than 8086tiny.tcz? If not, there is no point trying it, because 8086tiny barely works on my machine.
I haven't looked into 8086tiny.
Thank you for information about dc, I wasn't aware of that. I just have tried it and it seems to use RPN. I haven't used that system before, but I will give it a go. It is good thing to learn new stuff. :)[/font]
bc has been derived from or built on top of dc which is purely using RPN.
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'xplns: can't create font.'
I'd guess:
* xplns is trying to use a font folder that does not exist on tinycore
* xplns is trying to use a font that does not exist on tinycore
You might try looking at, for example, the debian package to see what they did to get round this.
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I'd guess:
* xplns is trying to use a font folder that does not exist on tinycore
* xplns is trying to use a font that does not exist on tinycore
That inspired me to run strace on xplns, which resulted in a completely unresponsive X environment quite quickly.
Switching to a VT I found xplns was in "T" state, and killing it fixed my X environment.
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Is Dosemu less resource demanding than 8086tiny.tcz? If not, there is no point trying it, because 8086tiny barely works on my machine.
Just tested, on same box:
8086tiny: 100% CPU
dosemu: 1% CPU
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Thank you for explaining, tinypoodle. Could you possibly provide me with a link to the same package you used?
As for xplns, I am sorry, but I have no idea what should I do next... There is not a .deb package on xplns website available. It is only mentioned on the site, that one could use 'alien' to install it on Debian/GNU Linux.
Thank you for testing dosemu and 8086tiny. I will try to run it, because it seems that my machine should be able to run it without any problems. :)
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http://packages.slackware.com/?r=slackware-current&p=sc-7.16-i486-3.txz
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Yeah, some progress on my end! :) Thanks to your advice I was able to run sc and it works, so spreadsheet problem is solved.
I was able to run dosemu, however, I have some doubts. I have attached two screenshots (one that shows dos prompt after boot with some errors and the second that shows SkyGlobe running) and boot.log that dosemu created on start. There is also visible an error about root path to /media/cdrom in my aterm session - my terminal doesn't have any cdrom drives, so that is why? Can I disable it somehow?
And the first error about Segmentation fault is when I tried to run dosemu from userlevel. The only way I could make dosemu start was running it using sudo dosemu... and I don't feel comfortable running it that way. Is there any solution to this?
To sum up: my math problems are solved by bc, dc and sc (yeah, I love this short names! :) ), dosemu is somewhat working, I was able to run SkyGlobe, xplns unfortunately I have no idea how to make it work and I would love to have it running, because it is so much of a step forward compared to SkyGlobe...
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Output I get is very similar with yours, however, I have no problem at all running as user tc; you may have screwed up something related to permissions.
WRT boot.log, I notice the following diff:
-device: /etc/dosemu/drives/c type 4 h: -1 s: -1 t: -1 drive C:
-device: /etc/dosemu/drives/d type 4 h: -1 s: -1 t: -1 drive D:
+device: /home/tc/.dosemu/drives/c type 4 h: -1 s: -1 t: -1 drive C:
+device: /home/tc/.dosemu/drives/d type 4 h: -1 s: -1 t: -1 drive D:
Not sure if you need to run as root because your user files are in /etc or if your user files ended up in /etc because you ran as root...
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The files ended up in these folders, because I wasn't able to run dosemu unless I copied the files from test folder to system folders, so the binary could find the rest of needed files by dosemu.
BTW, is the whole system flushed after reboot? Dosemu was gone when I rebooted my system. Only the files from my home dir, installed and configured extensions and settings were preserved.
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Please read about persistence and backup in the wiki.
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Thank you, gerald_clark. I have read it and now I know in detail what things are persistent and what aren't. :)
As for this thread's topic, I would like to leave it open, because although I have now all my math, spreadsheet and DOS things working, I would love to have xplns too.
Nevertheless, as for now - I would like to thank all the kind people involved in this conversation. I really appreciate all your invaluable help. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have succeeded so far! :)