Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Base => Corepure64 => Topic started by: h2 on November 30, 2023, 06:16:09 PM
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I happened to test Corepure64 after reading that vesa doesn't support 64 bit, and realized that there were many TinyX servers, not just Xvesa! I know I know, old news to you, but this was a revelation to me, since inxi was failing to show any graphics data at all.
This is now running well in pinxi (next inxi, 3.3.32, which should be out within a few weeks), though there's no API type data I could find for Xfbdev, but that's fine.
The easiest way to install pinxi in TC is to first install the inxi tce package, which will install the dependencies, then to install ca-certificates, if you don't have it, then: wget -O pinxi smxi.org/pinxi which will grab the current pinxi, which you can then run fine. That's how I test and develop.
Graphics:
Device-1: VMware SVGA II Adapter driver: N/A bus-ID: 00:02.0
chip-ID: 15ad:0405 class-ID: 0300
Display: server: TinyX Xfbdev v: 1.3 driver: fbdev display-ID: :0.0
resolution: 1024x768
API: N/A Message: No display API data available.
Note that Xfbdev exposes in /sys the virtual_size of the display, which lets me, at least in my test system, get the screen resolution for a TC, but I suspect only this one. That data was not available with Xvesa, at least not in my tests.
Rather than add cludges, I just added in all the listed TinyX X servers, though I believe in the real world, the only ones likely to be seen or used are Xvesa and Xfbdev. Though I could be wrong, I had never heard of any other TinyX server before a few days back, so I am hardly a good source for this type of information.
This is by the way why packaging inxi for TinyCore is a useful thing, aside from just the inherent cool idea of such a tiny Linux in the first place, it exposes corner cases I would not have considered, that will often benefit all light distros of this type, not just TinyCore.
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The other tinyX servers are very rarely used indeed. Old gpu + need for 2d acceleration + need for small space. IIRC I once used Xneomagic on an old laptop.
For querying the resolution, you can use the xrandr tool.
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re: "tiny"
reminded of:
https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2019/12/my-business-card-runs-linux/
@curaga
also remember using Xneomagic years ago.
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Oh, there is an Xneomagic! I have a neomagic laptop, runs 24/7, 200mhz. Doesn't support booting from usb though otherwise would be fun to test tinycore on it. Runs I think Debian Lenny.
The list I used came from the X man page for Xfbdev, did not list Xneomagic, I looked for it, maybe that was dropped?
I debated limiting the tests to Xvesa and Xfbdev since it's a loop through all of them to see if they are installed, which is not a free test, not expensive, but it does cost something.
I may remove the others since the odds of them actually being present AND of inxi running on that machine are quite tiny.
I thought xrandr had X.org as a dependency, but I actually never checked.
Since xvesa/xfbdev require special handling internally, they don't actually run a lot of the graphics features inxi supports since it's too difficult to map that tiny set of data to the full range set otherwise available.