Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Base => TCB Talk => Topic started by: john11 on January 06, 2016, 02:48:54 AM
-
Hi and thanks for reading this post.
I downloaded tiny core linux plus iso file, and unetbootin windows 613.exe
Using windows 7 64-bit and unetbootin i copied the iso file to a sd card (fat 32) , booted from the sd card, then get a list of managers and other options such as tiny core + installation extension.
But no matter what i select i get the same message " tc@box:$ "
How do i get Tiny core to start.
Thank you. John.
-
Hi john11
PLeases read the FAQs:
http://tinycorelinux.net/faq.html#pendrives
-
Hi. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
I copied the iso image onto a 8gb sd card.
It booted fine using joe's desktop, then I installed vlc media player, 15 mb in size the file name is
vlc-full-locale.tcz
Thing is I can't get it to play anything. I click on the media tab and searched for the hard drive but I can't find it. I plugged in an external usb hard drive, but again I can't find that either.
Any advice.
-
Hi john11
A drive needs to be mounted in order to access it. Click on the drive icon at the bottom of the screen or right click on
the desktop then SystemTools->MountTool. Click the drive you wish to mount, the button should turn green. Drives
are mounted under /mnt.
-
Hi. Many thanks.
I get options mmcblkop, which cannot be un-highlighted.
Also sda, sda2, sda5, sdb1, sro
I found the laptop's hard drive under sda2,
the hard drive is formatted into two partitons,
i can only access the windows OS partition,
the second partition which contains all the media files i cannot find under mnt
Also i plugged in a usb hard drive, i can't find that either
I started vlc but get a message " the default audio device cannot be used "
checked in bios, the audio is enabled,
went into advanced vlc options, found audio output, tried each one, restarting vlc each time, the same message kept popping up.
I did not get the message when using the "file output" audio option, but the audio still does not come on.
Many thanks. John.
-
You need to click on the "refresh" button on the mnttool after plugging in the usb stick.
The "default audio device cannot be used" message probably means that sound is not set up - did you load the alsa extension and use alsamixer to un-mute the master volume?
-
Thanks for the reply.
Couldn't find alsa extension in apps or scm apps, did find alsa mixergui.tcz. Upon installation the mixer said: " function snd_ctl_open failed for default. no such file or directory "
Also installed alsa modules 3.0.21 tinycore64 but no change.
Changed audio output in vlc to alsa but it went back to saying " the default device cannot be used ".
Still cannot find secondary hard drive partiton and no sign of usb hard drive. Will these be in mnt folder.
Many thanks. John
-
alsa-modules-3.0.21-tinycore64 would normally be used in corepure64 version 4.x.
Are you using the CorePlus-6.4.1 iso? Are you using the apps gui to load modules?
If so, loading the alsa extension would automatically load the alsa-modules-3.16.6-tinycore extension.
Note also that scm extensions are only for dCore, so I am not sure how or why you were looking at those.
Once mounted using the mnttool gui, all hd, cd/dvd, usb sticks, etc will appear under /mnt.
You might find the tinycore book useful:
http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html
-
Man you guys don't know how much i appreciate this help.
THANK YOU!!!
I don't know if it is 6.4.1, i downloaded it from here: http://tinycorelinux.net/faq.html#pendrives and it said " coreplus current 65mb "
and i downloaded core2usb from the same page
How do i download the alsa extension,i can't find it in the list of modules.
Many thanks.
-
To work with extensions use the apps gui - the icon that looks like a screw head with an arrow pointing down.
To find out which version you are using, open a terminal window and type: $ version
$ uname -a
Note also that you can download and load extensions from a terminal window as follows: $ tce-load -w alsa [to download]
$ tce-load -i alsa [to load]
-
hi
At one time alsa used to take some fiddling, but now I find installing " alsa-config.tcz " from Apps is all I need to get sound on most my hardware.
As in this screenshot, simply select alsa-config then verify OnBoot is selected on the bottom left menu, next select "GO"
(https://db.tt/yxeW5GBc)
(click on the screenshot to expand)
good luck
-
Since tc-5.x, I have only needed to load alsa, without alsa-config, but I guess this depends on your hardware.
-
You're correct as always :)
I find on new hardware it's easier to load alsa-config first, when alsa is setup and working as desired then off loading alsa-config leaving just the main alsa extension onboot if the hardware works with that
I look for the easiest way to accomplish a task
Either way, alsa or alsa-config, install using Apps how easier can it be..?
How do i download the alsa extension,i can't find it in the list of modules.
see screenshot..
-
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
Is there a way to set up alsa config, it seems to have a default setting which it goes back to whenever i go into it. Is there any way to make alsa remember the way i set it up and stick to that.
Also, i managed to get vlc media player installed, and noticed a few other media players in the list, which is the best for audio video quality.
Is there anything else i can install or any tweaks i can apply to tinycore, or are there any tweaks in vlc to improve a/v quality.
Many thanks. John.
-
Hi john11
Did you take the time to read the alsa.tcz info file?
http://tinycorelinux.net/6.x/x86/tcz/alsa.tcz.info
-
Hi. Another issue.
Installed tiny core to a 7gb sd card, (fat32, 32kb clusters) and it worked fine
Just tried installing tiny core on a 15gb usb flash drive, ( fat32 , 4kb clusters ) and it won't boot.
Is there any reason for this, are there any flash drives tiny core does not like.
I have tried formatting the flash drive to 32kb clusters with easeus partition manager but it won't do it, keeps formatting the drive as 4kb clusters.
Many thanks. John.
-
Hell John11
I think you'll find it's better to keep one issue per thread.
so did you get alsa to perform as desired with persistent mixer settings?
-
John,
regarding formatting a USB thumb drive, I'd recommend using gparted which is flash drive friendly.
If you're ever going to plug this USB drive into a Windows box, consider creating the first partition with FAT or FAT32 formatting (depending on size). Consider making this first partition large enough to use as storage for shared files.
Create the first partition with a 1MB offset from the beginning of the drive, this is easy to accomplish with gparted (it's a simple check box) but other tools may facilitate this requirement. This is known as "Alignment" and is the single most important aspect of partitioning and formatting drives, including HDD's and all Flash storage.
If you're serious about installing tc to a thumb drive then create a second partition and format it with a linux file system like ext2 and install Tinycore to it.
Changing the Allocation Unit Size to anything larger than default 4kb is usually more wasteful of space than any performance gains, especially for small slow USB thumb drives. AUS (default size of 4Kb) is generally limited by file system.
The term "Clusters and Sectors" have gone the way of the Dinosaur, when you think in terms of Flash memory think of pages and Blocks.
:)
-
Sorry for the questions, i honestly am not trying to be difficult.
Just been awake 5 hours from 2am trying to put tinycore onto a usb flash drive,
tried absolutly everything,
it finally worked but only if i uncheck " create tce directory " when running core2usb.
Tinycore worked first time copying onto an 8gb sd card, but it doesn't like the flash drive for some reason
Okay it finally worked but now it won't save my apps, have checked to make sure it says " on boot " on the left. but the bar on the right is like an light red colour
think it can't find the directory
What should i do
Many thanks
-
I'm not familiar with core2usb, but I presume there is some kind of boot loader config file - what are the contents of this file on the usb flash drive?
-
Sorry you've wasted so much time on this step..
one of those "trying too hard" scenario's..??
Perhaps you would benefit from reading the core book from http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html (http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html)
If you're installing from a cd, then simply copy the " cde " directory complete with all of it's contents and after copy is finished, rename the " cde " directory on your flash drive or SD card to " tce "
***!!! Remove all Tinycore Linux cd's and sd card if you're trying to boot you USB drive install !!!***
Maybe buy a new USB Flash drive.
good luck
Oooops didn't see juanito had posted
-
Hi Thanks for the reply.
No i don't have a cd, (everyone keeps talking about a cd) i downloaded the image file from here:
http://tinycorelinux.net/faq.html#pendrives
and also core2usb from the same page.
Then used core2usb to copy the image to flash drive which gave me 2 folders boot and tce.
If i uncheck create tce directory in core2usb tinycore boots up fine and i get the folders boot and cde. This is the only way i can get it to boot.
But when i install apps into tinycore it creates a tce folder and then it won't boot again.
-
Hello John
From the link you provided is this important paragraph
Therefore if one insists on using a third party installation tool and one that does not officially support Core and thereby copies the entirety of the TinyCore iso then you are faced with manual setup of either creating a second partition for your tce dir, or renaming the cde to tce thus indicating that this is not a CD and editing the syslinux.cfg changing cde to waitusb=5 to indicate that is a pendrive.
It is not recommended to have a cde directory on any live working system. The whole point of modularity is the ability to easily upgrade the X/GUI extension separate from the base Core.
Therefore in the case of unetbootin renaming cde to tce is required.
Also please as previously requested post the contents of your config file "syslinux.conf" likely located in the boot directory
Thank you
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
But when i install apps into tinycore it creates a tce folder and then it won't boot again.
Please elaborate. The bios refuses?
-
The story so far.
Copied tinycore to an 8gb sd card, and it worked perfectly.
Tried to copy tinycore to a usb flash drive, it did not work, think the drive may be damaged.
Abandoned that, now am trying to copy tiny core to a hard drive.
I have a hp elitebook 8570p laptop, intel based. Booted tinycore from the sd card, and plugged the hard drive into the laptop's esata port.
used tc_install, and have gone through all the different available options one by one but it won't boot from this hard drive.
Is it a formatting problem. The partiton i created to put tiny core onto is 4gb in size and reads as "primary data partiton" in aeasus partition manager, also the option to make the partiton active is greyed out.
Any advice?
-
Are you sure the laptop will boot from a hd attached to the esata port - on a previous dell laptop I did not have much luck with the esata port.
After booting the laptop from the sd card, did you try to use gparted to create/format/mark active the partition on the hd?
-
Personally i would not use a Windows tool to prepare a Linux installation. It does not sound as though your 'primary data partition' is properly set up. You did not mention the file system, is it Linux compatible (eg ext 3)?
Maybe take a look at this: http://www.tinycorelinux.net/install_manual.html. Always be careful to select the correct drive so you don't lose data. Hopefully this 'how to' isn't too dated, it uses Linux tools and is Tiny Core specific. No idea regarding esata, if Juanito doesn't think it works well might jut be wasting your time.
-
Many thanks, i will give the link you supplied a good read, just rushing off for work at the moment.
The laptop does boot from esata.
When i use tc install i get one folder on the esata hard drive tce, it has one boot folder inside it and also a rar file labelled my data.
@ nitram: I formatted with tc_install using each of the formatting options one by one, but in each case tinycore failed to boot.
@Juanito: i didn't use gparted, i tried easus as it is already installed,will give gparted a try, but the active option was greyed out on easus.
Many thanks.
-
You still didn't mention what you mean by "failed to boot". It matters how it fails.
Also, this seems like an EFI laptop, have you made sure the BIOS has MBR support enabled?
-
@john11
I would very much like to help here and I believe I can do that. However, it would help me to know if you have a working Linux drive (any distro at all) besides TC?
-
Hi. Thanks for the replies.
Curaga: The drive is formatted as gpt, is this a problem.
It is a 3tb 3.5 inch drive, it would only work under gpt partitioning, i tried mbr but mbr is only good up to 2tb drives.
TTZ: I am afraid i only have tinycore. Tinycore works fine when booted from an sd card, i downloaded core2usb and the 65mb tinycore iso from here: http://tinycorelinux.net/faq.html#pendrives and installed to sd card and it worked first time without a problem.
I still have not tried out gparted to mark the tinycore partition as active, that juanito suggested, but i noticed within tc_install there is an option to mark the partition as active, i have tried tinycore both ways marked and unmarked but it still would not boot.
I set the bios to boot into the tinycore partiton but it ignores it and goes into windows, there is no message or indication why it does this.
Many thanks.
-
It is a 3tb 3.5 inch drive, it would only work under gpt partitioning, i tried mbr but mbr is only good up to 2tb drives.
What does "fdisk -l /dev/sdx" for the esata drive give (substitute a, b, c as appropriate for x)?
I set the bios to boot into the tinycore partiton but it ignores it and goes into windows, there is no message or indication why it does this.
Like Curaga, I'd guess your laptop is using uefi boot rather than legacy bios - how did you set it to boot the tinycore partition - normally uefi would list the partition if it recognised it as bootable anyway?
Note also that your laptop uefi might require you to add a tinycore entry to the boot config file that loads windows or the use of a 64-bit uefi boot loader in the tinycore partition.
Finally, with an mbr formatted usb stick, I've found that the uefi partition does not need to be set to active/bootable for it to be able to boot so I'd guess, but I didn't try, that the same would be true of a gpt drive.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=19364.msg119228#msg119228
-
Hi. Thanks for the replies.
Finally gettting somewhere with this problem.
I got a second 3tb hard drive and managed to format it as mbr, needed a specialist tool.
Tinycore finally boots now but it does not go into any of the desktop managers, a whole load of writing comes up, too fast to read properly, then stops with the message tc@box:$ And i am stuck there.
I went into tc_install>frugal>selected partition>checked mark partition active and install boot loader>seemed to install ok, but stuck at tc@box:$ when booted.
I also tried usb hard drive option and usb zip option also and frugal install to whole disk, but in each case i am stuck at tc@box:$
I did notice a message at boot up saying " failed to enable msi-x "
What should i do.
-
What does your boot loader config file contain?
Did you try to load extensions (Xvesa Xprogs flwm aterm wbar) manually from the console prompt?
-
Thanks for the reply.
I booted tinycore from an sd card, the size of the installation is 164mb, then used tc_install to install onto the hard drive, installation size has dropped to 8mb
Tinycore reports “ not found “ when I try to load Vesa, Xprogs, flwm, aterm, wbar
There is no file labelled as boot loader config. I have a tce folder and syslinux.cfg file (137kb)
I managed to fix it in the end. I used software mini tool partition wizard to copy the sd card partition onto the hard drive, and it worked!
1. I noticed in the repository there is a ati catalyst centre download, my motherboard has ati graphics, would it be a good idea to install this ati catalyst centre which may provide drivers my pc needs, only thing that bothers me is that the download is 60meg in size.
Also, when using vlc media player the screen display blacks out every ten minutes, a shake of the mouse and the display is back on. Is there a fix for this to keep the screen on for longer.
Many thanks. John.
-
I booted tinycore from an sd card, the size of the installation is 164mb, then used tc_install to install onto the hard drive, installation size has dropped to 8mb
Tinycore reports “ not found “ when I try to load Vesa, Xprogs, flwm, aterm, wbar
That's because tc-install installs just the base (core.gz, modules.gz and vmlinux) and does not install any extensions.
There is no file labelled as boot loader config. I have a tce folder and syslinux.cfg file (137kb)
syslinux.cfg is the boot loader config file in this case.
I noticed in the repository there is a ati catalyst centre download, my motherboard has ati graphics, would it be a good idea to install this ati catalyst centre which may provide drivers my pc needs, only thing that bothers me is that the download is 60meg in size.
Which extension are you referring to? Note that you can use xf86-video-ati with Xorg-7.7, but not with Xvesa.
Also, when using vlc media player the screen display blacks out every ten minutes, a shake of the mouse and the display is back on. Is there a fix for this to keep the screen on for longer.
Try "vlc --help" to see if there's an option to disable the screensaver.
-
Hi. Many thanks.
The extensions are: ati-catalyst.tcz, ati-fglrx-kernel-source.tcz, ati-fglrx.tcz
I am hoping this may supply needed drivers for my motherboard which has ati graphics. Which do you recommend, i am trying to keep tiny core OS as small as possible but retain functionality.
Also, about the vlc screensaver, there is checkbox under video to enable/disable the screensaver but it does not do anything. I googled and others with linux OS are having the same problem, fixes for ubuntu no fixes for tiny core as of yet. The tiny core version of vlc is four years old, is it possible to get an update.
Thank you. John.
-
Ah - so you're using tc-4.x.
Any particular reason why, when you're new to tinycore, that you use 4.x instead of 6.x?
What graphics hardware do you have exactly?
Edit: the version of vlc in tc-6.x looks to be more recent also.
-
Oh dear. Must have downloaded from the wrong location, no wonder i am having all these problems.
The motherboard is gigabyte ga-ma785gpm-ud2h with ATI Radeon HD4200 graphics adapter. The ati download i mentioned should contain drivers for this along with chipset drivers, southbridge drivers etc
Many thanks
-
I'd recommend trying the open source radeon driver in the Xorg-7.7-3d extension, but you're going to need to upgrade to tc-6.x first.
Basically you need to over-write core.gz and vmlinuz in your current installation with the ones from here:
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/6.x/x86/release/distribution_files/
..and then use the apps gui maintenance/check for updates.
Edit: corrected error in which base modules to over-write.
-
The tiny core version of vlc is four years old, is it possible to get an update.
The VLC player in Tiny Core 6 was last compiled in 2015, hopefully this newer version will work better for you.
-
Hi. Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
When i installed windows 7 i needed to install drivers for all the different onboard hardware, but with tcl core plus there is no need for this. Are all the drivers pre-bundled?
Think i have found the correct page for the version 6 download, but am torn between tiny core and tiny core plus. Am leaning towards tiny core (15 meg ) so i can download just what i need and keep the operating system small. What are the differences between the two, is it drivers, or is it all the pre-installed extensions.
Many thanks.
-
The base files of tinycore - core.gz and vmlinuz - are the same in the three iso releases, Core, TinyCore and CorePlus.
core.gz contains a number of linux kernel drivers, which are usually sufficient to boot to a console prompt with a wired ethernet connection.
The TinyCore iso contains the extensions required to boot to a basic gui.
The CorePlus iso contains the extensions required to boot to a basic gui with a choice of desktop window managers. It also contains the extensions required to get WiFi working with common hardware.
Once you have installed tinycore for the first time on a given machine, the difference between Core, TinyCore and CorePlus no longer matters because you can install whichever extensions you wish to get the setup that you need.
As explained above, you do not need to use tc-install again on the same machine to upgrade between versions, you just need to overwrite one or both of the base files, which you can do in tinycore itself, and update the extensions after rebooting.
As an example, open a terminal window in your current version of tinycore and: $ cd /tmp
$ wget -c http://www.tinycorelinux.net/6.x/x86/release/distribution_files/core.gz
$ wget -c http://www.tinycorelinux.net/6.x/x86/release/distribution_files/vmlinuz
$ sudo cp core.gz /mnt/sdb1/boot
$ sudo cp vmlinuz /mnt/sdb1/boot..then reboot (substitute /mnt/sdb1/boot with the actual location of the files on your machine)
-
Hi. Thanks for the reply.
I went for the 15 meg version of tiny core, placed it on sd card, installed vlc media player and a few of the alsa sound extensions.
Tiny core seems to be running ok, but not smoothly. When i click on drive mount lt pops up but freezes and is generally unresponsive. The lights go green but freeze green. I click on the cross in the corner to end drive mount but it doesn't.
Tiny core had problems with esata, the partitions are recognized in drive mount but i can't navigate to them in vlc.
Vlc in windows7 plays all file types, but in tiny core it fails to play matroska. I installed the vlc.locale.tcz file ( 12 meg ) but noticed a few other vlc extensions in apps. Should i have downloaded anything else, perhaps something is missing.
Many thanks. John.
-
I went for the 15 meg version of tiny core, placed it on sd card, installed vlc media player and a few of the alsa sound extensions.
How did you "place" it on the cd card - was the card newly formatted, did it have an existing installation of tinycore, or?
The reason I ask, is that if you previously had tc-4.x installed and now you have tc-6.x installed, you would need to update many of the extensions.
Vlc in windows7 plays all file types, but in tiny core it fails to play matroska. I installed the vlc.locale.tcz file ( 12 meg ) but noticed a few other vlc extensions in apps. Should i have downloaded anything else, perhaps something is missing.
The locale extension is just for alternate languages - in the 6.x repo, there is a minimal version of vlc and a full-fat version, vlc2 - you could try vlc2?
-
Hi. Thanks for the reply.
I found vlc2, 6.3 meg in size, it works now, but the playback is stuttering badly and i get a message " vlc does not recognise the audio or video format "
Sounds strange because it works fine in windows 7 on the same computer. The file i am trying to play has matroska (mkv) wrapper with dolby digital 5.1 audio, any reason why it is not recognising the a/v format?
Thank you. John.
-
You can compile vlc to play, or not play, many formats - it just depends on how small or large you wish the resultant program and list of dependencies to be.
You could try mplayer or totem as alternatives - you would need to check which gstreamer dependencies need to be loaded for the latter to play matroska files.
-
Hi. Thanks for the reply.
I don't mind how large vlc becomes just want it to play all the different file types. I have downloaded a few more of the vlc2 extensions but same message: does not recognise audio or video format.
What else should i be doing?
Thank you
-
I'd guess (I might be wrong) that vlc/vlc2 would need to be compiled against libmatroska in order to play mkv files, but that is not the case.
-
so what should i do
-
In order to double-check whether the tinycore vlc extension supports matroska or not, does "vlc --help" mention a way of checking which formats it does support?
You could send a personal message to the extension maintainer (see the info file) requesting an update to support matroska, but in this case I believe the maintainer is no longer active on tinycorelinux.
Otherwise you can make an extension request in the appropriate part of the forum or attempt to recompile vlc yourself.
-
I was curious since I have many videos in Matroska containers all of which which play well using vlc2
I can confirm VLC2 has no issues with mkv containers but may have difficulty with some required codecs
to find the codecs required vlc2 may help, try tools > media codecs. otherwise try mplayer
mkvtoolnix.tcz might of been able to help but it likely needs updating
-
mediainfo works quite well (but it's not in the repo yet..)
$ mediainfo XXXX.mkv
General
Unique ID : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Complete name : XXXX.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 15.9 GiB
Duration : 2h 42mn
Overall bit rate : 14.0 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2009-08-13 17:41:26
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.4.1 ('Use Me') built on Dec 5 2008 15:43:32
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Bit rate : 13.1 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Original frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Scan order : 2:3 Pulldown
Compression mode : Lossy
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio
ID : 2
Format : E-AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_EAC3
Duration : 2h 42mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate : 187.500 fps (256 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 745 MiB (5%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
I'll submit it asap
-
Hi. Thanks for the reply.
I have put a request up, all the videos that were stuttering use the H264 mpeg4 avc (part10) (avc1) codec,
it appears this has been removed from vlc as it works fine in windows 7
Also can you tell me how to disable the screensaver in tiny core, in vlc the screen blacks out every ten minutes, there is a disable screensaver in video vlc but it has no effect so there must be a screensaver in tiny core doing something.
Many thanks.
-
To change screen/power save try the xset command. Run xset --help for usage. Manually enter desired xset command into terminal to experiment, then if you want it to be permanent enter this xset command into a text file in /home/tc/.X.d. For me i created a file named startups, which includes everything i want to run on every boot:
conky &
dillo &
emelfm &
xset s 300 &
Edit: I actually want my screen to dim faster for powersave, you may need to include -dpms in your xset command.
-
xset s off -dpms
-
Hi. Thanks for the replies.
How do i make it permanent. I don't have the folder pathway you mentioned.
I have tce folder and boot folder, within tce folder is an onboot file, is this the one. What should i type into it.
Also does tiny core support gpt partitioning, my gpt hard drive shows up in disc mount, but stays red. Think it is my motherboard as it may not support gpt.
Many thanks.
-
You do have the /home/tc/.X.d folder, it's just that the "." before X.d makes it hidden.
If you type "ls -a /home/tc/" you will see the folder.
Note that, by default, this folder will be included in your backup, so if you create a file containing "xset s off -dpms" as described above, it will be saved in your backup.
Tinycore supports gpt partitioning.
-
echo "xset s off -dpms" > ~/.X.d/display-blank-off
-
Hello, me too I'm stuck at "tc@box:~$", but the above didn't help me. When I said "startx", I was told: "-sh: startx: not found". When I said: "sudo fromISOfile /mnt/hda1", I learned: "Invalid device specified: hda1". Accordingly "sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" failed: "No such device or address". The command "fdisk -l" just refused to give me any answer. I suppose experts will already recognize the error state I'm in, but I want to give a few more details.
I'm trying to revive a 20-year-old IBM Thinkpad 310E with 64 MB RAM which has no CD-ROM drive. It can only boot from floppy and hard disk (1.5 GB). FreeDos gives the following message on boot: "BAD controller at I-O address F000h, chip I.D. 10B95219h. EDD BIOS data ERROR, Disk 80h." However, I don't think that this causes too many problems, because I managed to install Windows 98 (I had to transfer the content of the CD via laplink cable), and also Basic Linux 3.5 runs fine, starting X with JWM desktop and giving me access to hda1. The machine has a PCMCIA slot with a USB card, but it cannot boot from a USB drive, because the BIOS doesn't know about it.
With the help of Windows 98 I could copy CorePlus-6.4.1.iso from USB memory stick to FAT16 partition hda1. I installed GRUB4DOS and edited menu.lst accordingly to boot from this ISO file. I also tried a frugal installation on the same partition and then on an EXT3 partition that I created using "Partition Magic", but results are the same: The Tiny Core Linux system only boots up to the command prompt, not to the desktop as promised, and then refuses to follow my commands. Surely I'm doing something very wrong?
-
When I said "startx", I was told: "-sh: startx: not found"
This happens because the Xprogs extension is not loaded.
To start a minimum gui, you need the Xvesa, Xprogs, flwm, aterm and wbar extensions, and the extensions that they depend on, to be loaded.
You can check which extensions are loaded with "tce-status -i".
-
The command "fdisk -l" just refused to give me any answer.
This would point to a missing or buggy ide driver. Try to find out which ide chipset the machine has, which may admittedly be difficult, since you need to get lspci there somehow.
You might also try "dmesg | grep -i ide" on BasicLinux, or some other floppy distro that sees your hd. Also gloss over the dmesg just in case there's ide messages without the ide string.
edit: Maybe also try the last 3.x version, TC 3.8.4. It was the last version to use old-style ide drivers, and so might see your hd. Of course apps will be old, and the package search may not work anymore, but it could be worth a try.
-
Thank you very much for your answers, Juanito and Curaga! I wasn't quite aware of the problem that a Linux system may not be able to access the hard drive it has been started from, but in fact it is the boot manager which accesses the hard drive, and Linux takes over control from RAM drive only after the initial filesystem has been copied into it by the boot manager. So the absence of the required stuff for starting the GUI is a consequence of the operating system's inability to read the IDE partition.
As expected by now, the command "tce-status -i" too didn't give any answer, and "lspci" wasn't found. According to the documentation, the Thinkpad 310E has an "ALI Aladdin III M1521/M1523" chipset. "dmesg | grep -i" reported four lines about a "legacy IDE quirk". Under Basic Linux, the relevant "dmesg" lines containing "ide" or "hda" were:
PCI_IDE: unknown IDE controller on PCI bus 00 device 11, VID=10b9, DID=5219
PCI_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: IBM-DDLA-21620, ATA DISK drive
hda: IBM-DDLA-21620, 1551MB w/96kB Cache, CHS=788/64/63
hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 >
As proposed by you, I copied multicore_3.8.4.iso to hda1, booted from it, and it worked out of the box, starting X server and desktop. My first success with Tiny Core Linux! However, to my confusion "fdisk -l" only reported the attached USB pendrive as sda1, and "sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" failed again saying "No such device or address" though I got the following information by "dmesg":
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver
ide_generic: please use "probe_mask=0x3f" module parameter for probing all legacy ISA IDE ports
ide-gd driver 1.18
ide-cd driver 5.00
So I got an old Basic Linux that only sees the harddisk and an old Tiny Core Linux that only sees the pendrive. I am unexperienced with Linux drivers and don't know how to fix this. Also, I'm looking for an up-to-date operating system for this old computer. I understand that Robert doesn't want to develop a new Linux distribution just to support old hardware, but somehow it would be a pity if this ability got lost due to decisions like removal of IDE drivers.
Finally I tried a workaround starting a frugally installed Tiny Core Linux 6.4.1 from pendrive via loadlin because it turned out to be easy to access that device under FreeDos. I downloaded usbaspi.sys (USB controller driver) and di1000dd.sys (mass storage driver) from the web. Then I added "device=c:\usbaspi.sys /w /v" and "device=di1000dd.sys" to fdconfig.sys. Now the memory stick appeared as drive D: under FreeDos (I never tried this before, it would have been much easier to install Windows 98 that way). Then I could boot Tiny Core Linux 6.4.1 with the command "loadlin d:\tcore641\boot\vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1/tcore641 initrd=d:\tcore641\boot\core.gz ro". However, the startup process again ended up at the "tc@box:~$" command prompt, where "startx" could not be found. So this problem has nothing to do with an invisible harddrive, has it?
-
Hi Gerolf
As proposed by you, I copied multicore_3.8.4.iso to hda1, booted from it, and it worked out of the box, starting X server and desktop. My first success with Tiny Core Linux! However, to my confusion "fdisk -l" only reported the attached USB pendrive as sda1, and "sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" failed again saying "No such device or address" though I got the following information by "dmesg":
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver
ide_generic: please use "probe_mask=0x3f" module parameter for probing all legacy ISA IDE ports
ide-gd driver 1.18
ide-cd driver 5.00
What happens if you add the following kernel parameter to your boot loader:
ide_generic.probe_mask=0x3f
-
I copied multicore_3.8.4.iso to hda1, booted from it, and it worked out of the box, starting X server and desktop. My first success with Tiny Core Linux! However, to my confusion "fdisk -l" only reported the attached USB pendrive as sda1, and "sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" failed again saying "No such device or address" though I got the following information by "dmesg"
If tc-3.8.4 booted to a gui desktop, then it must have been able to access your hd in order to able to load the required extensions (or it got them from the usb stick).
What does this give: $ cat /etc/fstab
$ ls -l /etc/sysconfig/tcedir
-
@Juanito
In TC 3 days, Xvesa and Xlibs were included in the initrd.
@Gerolf
Linux has never supported your IDE chipset, neither in the ALI IDE driver (which TC 3 had) nor in the ALI ATA driver (which current TC has). Even in Basic Linux it used a generic IDE driver, that the current kernel for some reason did not use. Please try the bootcode on current TC as Rich suggested, and if it does not work, then these ones:
ide-pci-generic.all-generic-ide
ata_generic.all_generic_ide=1
Your usb boot most likely needs the waitusb=5 boot parameter, since the usb controller can be slow to wake up. Do try the IDE first though, a freedos -> usb boot is a little cumbersome.
-
In TC 3 days, Xvesa and Xlibs were included in the initrd.
..so much for my memory :P
-
When I said: "boot: tc vga=771 ide_generic.probe_mask=0x3f" at the TC 3.8.4 boot prompt, then the desktop showed up, but the mouse pointer was frozen. With "boot: tci vga=771", the startup hang at "Loading extensions...". "boot: mc vga=771 ide_generic.probe_mask=0x3f" took me to the command prompt, and now "fdisk -l" and "cat /etc/fstab" showed me all partitions on hda (harddisk) and sda (pendrive), but "startx" wasn't found, and "/etc/sysconfig/tcedir" didn't exist. Now, "boot: tc vga=771 ide-pci-generic.all-generic-ide" solved the mouse problem: It was movable, the harddisk was readable, but "/etc/sysconfig/tcedir" still didn't exist.
Then I tried the same at the TC 6.4.1 prompt, booting the ISO file from harddisk. The prompt looks different here, there is no "boot:". After "/boot/vmlinuz initrd=/boot/core.gz loglevel=3 cde showapps desktop=flwm_topside", I added: "vga=771 ide-pci-generic.all-generic-ide", and then I stuck again at the "tc@box:~$" command prompt, with "fdisk -l" only mentioning sda1. So I set all my hope on the "ata_generic.all_generic_ide=1" kernel parameter. To my surprise, "fdisk -l" now listed the harddisk partitions as sda1, sda2, sda5, sda6, and the pendrive as sdb1. I could mount and read sda1, where the "CorePlus-6.4.1.iso" file lies. However again, there was no desktop, no "startx", just a link pointing from "/etc/sysconfig/tcedir" to "/tmp/tce", which contained an empty "optional" subdirectory. "fromISOfile" said: "Need root privileges", "sudo fromISOfile" said nothing.
In my attempt to chain boot TC 6.4.1 via FreeDos from USB, I could pass the required kernel parameters to loadlin on the DOS command line. When I redirected loadlin's output to a log file, I read an error message that I didn't notice yesterday: "can't open image file for initrd". However, when I simply moved the "boot" and "cde" folders up one level to the top directory and changed the command line accordingly to "loadlin d:\boot\vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 initrd=d:\boot\core.gz ro cde vga=771 ata_generic.all_generic_ide=1", only a loadlin warning remained: "loading above 16MB using INT15". The "waitusb=5" parameter seemed not to be required. "tce-status -i" now listed "Xlibs Xprogs Xvesa aterm firmware fluxbox flwm icewm iw jwm kmaps openbox wbar wifi". Now "startx" was present, but "failed in waitforX".
Since this was new, I booted again the "CorePlus-6.4.1.iso" file from harddisk with "vga=771 ata_generic.all_generic_ide=1" kernel parameters. "tce-status -i" then listed the same 14 items, but "startx" failed because the "Requested flwm_topside could not be loaded". So I booted again and selected "FLWM Classic Window Manager". This again "failed in waitforX". And it was quite the same when I added those kernel parameters in "menu.lst" to boot the frugal installation on the sixth harddisk partition with EXT3 filesystem. In short, I can access all drives by now, but I still can't get up the desktop in current Tiny Core Linux!
-
Then I tried the same at the TC 6.4.1 prompt, booting the ISO file from harddisk. The prompt looks different here, there is no "boot:". After "/boot/vmlinuz initrd=/boot/core.gz loglevel=3 cde showapps desktop=flwm_topside"...
You need to remove "cde" - this is for booting from cd/dvd
-
OK, please use the frugal install.
Your laptop also has a very old graphics card, it might not support the Vesa standard properly. You already added a framebuffer bootcode, so please try removing Xvesa and installing Xfbdev. If you have network access, this can be done with:
tce-load -wi Xfbdev
# edit onboot.lst to remove Xvesa.tcz
vi /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/onboot.lst
-
When I simply omitted the "cde" boot parameter for my frugal installation on EXT3 partition sda6, then "startx" was "not found", and "tce-status -i" did not list anything. It was the same when I replaced "cde" with "tc". So the "cde" seemed to be required. Now I omitted the "vga=771" instruction. I had used it because according to the Thinkpad 310E documentation, 800x600x256 is the highest resolution of the SVGA laptop display, whereas the "C&T 65550 HiQV32 64-bit SVGA accelerator" graphics controller also handles 1024x768 resolution with 256 colors. Nevertheless, this "failed in waitforX", though a "Tiny Core" logo had shown up in graphics mode just before the "Booting Core 6.4.1" message appeared. "xsetup" just gave me two empty lines.
Since the Thinkpad 310E doesn't have a network card, I attached a USB-to-RJ45 adapter with a "Realtek RTL8152B" chip. While Windows 98 supposed this thing to be an external CDR0M drive, it was recognized by TC Linux 6.4.1, as "dmesg" reported the following lines:
r8152 3-2:1.0 eth0: v1.06.0 (2014/03/03)
usbcore: registered new interface driver r8152
usbcore: registered new interface driver cde_ether
So to my surprise, "tce-load -wi Xfbdev" immediately downloaded the requested "Xfbdev.tcx" file to "/etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional". (This encourages me not to give up hope though for me, this is already the hardest setup ever.) I also found an "onboot.lst" file in "/etc/sysconfig/tcedir" which wasn't there before. As it contained just a "Xfbdev.tcx" line, there seemed to be no need for editing. This time, "xsetup" offered me the "Tny Core Linux - Mouse Setup" (sic), but no video mode selection as I would have expected. According to the FAQ, I added "tinycore tce=sda6" to the kernel parameters in GRUB4DOS's "menu.lst" to make the system changes permanent. This worked, but "startx" still "failed in waitforX", with or without the "vga=771" boot parameter.
-
Hi Gerolf
Copy all the files from cde/optional to tce/optional. Edit your onboot.lst file to include Xvesa, Xprogs, flwm_topside,
aterm and wbar with the .tcz appended to those names. Reboot.
-
Forget it. 64M is not enough.
The book gives installation methods, as well as the wiki.
You need to be able to boot from another media and use the available install methods to install it to the hard drive.
But, with 64M, you can forget X.
-
I disagree, depends on the apps he wants to run. I just tried the latest beta on Qemu with 64mb, after a normal X boot (+ cache-clear for measurement) there's 19mb of RAM free.
That's quite enough for playing music, reading, dillo, etc.