Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => Raspberry Pi => Topic started by: vext01 on June 10, 2026, 05:01:29 PM

Title: serial console on zero w
Post by: vext01 on June 10, 2026, 05:01:29 PM
Hi,

This evening, I've been trying to get a shell over the UART pins on a raspberry pi zero w.

I found this post where the process is discussed:
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=24825.msg157785#msg157785

Namely:


The system boots and I see the system come up, just there's no login prompt. Suggests getty isn't running.

I also tried without the disable-bt thing, but the result is the same.

I extracted the rootfs and checked that startserialtty exists, it does.

Any ideas?
Title: Re: serial console on zero w
Post by: Paul_123 on June 10, 2026, 05:21:03 PM
the console line in cmdline.txt only outputs the kernel messages.   The a serial shell, you need to start the serial console.   There is a command in /opt/bootlocal.sh, but it is commented out by default.

You will need a monitor and keyboard to do the setup.
Title: Re: serial console on zero w
Post by: vext01 on June 10, 2026, 05:35:22 PM
Hi Paul,

I already uncommented the line in `/opt/bootlocal.sh` by extracting, editing, and re-compresssing mydata.tgz using another linux system. As I said, I was careful to preserve the permissions too.

Alas, no login prompt.
Title: Re: serial console on zero w
Post by: Paul_123 on June 10, 2026, 07:10:45 PM
Connect a monitor and keyboard, so you can see why it’s not working.  You might try to use the actual serial port device, rather than the link serial0.

You also did not mention which image you are using.
Title: Re: serial console on zero w
Post by: patrikg on June 11, 2026, 01:15:41 AM
You have to also read my inittab thread on this forum to get it right.
Instead of the startserialtty script workaround :)
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,21129.15.html (https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,21129.15.html)
Title: Re: serial console on zero w
Post by: vext01 on June 11, 2026, 09:02:18 AM
I have a micro hdmi adapter coming today, so that should make debugging easier.

tbh, i may just not bother and get the wifi up and use ssh. I assume it's just a matter of copying (to the sd card via another computer) wpa_supplicant and it's deps into the `optional` and adding it to the onboot list.