Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Extensions => TCE Talk => Topic started by: yhy122755490 on February 27, 2011, 12:40:42 AM
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hi,everyone ,i have a ram 32mb pc , and i want install tinycore into it, obviously,
http://www.tinycorelinux.com/overview.html
Minimum System Requirements
ram 48mb :o
does anyone have some ways to solve the problem or i have to install dsl linux? ???
thank u!
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You could still try microcore with 32MB.
Not sure how dsl would do on 32MB, would not be my first choice to try, but then you got not much to lose to do so.
Whatever you do, give it plenty of swap.
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Forget tinycore on this machine!
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You could still try microcore with 32MB.
Not sure how dsl would do on 32MB, would not be my first choice to try, but then you got not much to lose to do so.
Whatever you do, give it plenty of swap.
thank u reply!
i have installed dsl linux into the mechine ,it runs well ,but acturally i like tinycorelinux ,and i plan to buy a 32mb ram to install tinycorelinux.
;D
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I see that http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Minimum_Hardware_Requirements (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Minimum_Hardware_Requirements) with X indicates a 16Mb RAM minimum though 24Mb is recommended while as we know TC with X requires a minimum of 48Mb regardless of the amount of swap.
I guess this higher minimum for TC must be because everything is loaded into RAM instead of running off of a drive of some sort, even microcore needs at least 36Mb.
I wonder if a Knoppix trick of creating a virtual memory file on an available hard drive would enable TC to run on smaller hardware setups albeit more slowly?
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I do not know if this boot code serves this purpose
tinycore nozswap Skip compressed swap in ram
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no.
better get these other 32mb
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The embed boot option will stop copying initrd to tmpfs.
This may help lower the minimum RAM needed.
But what are you going to use to run programs?
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Another thought ... I have never used TC fully installed on a hard disk ... but can anybody who has, tell me if this reduces the RAM requirements by not having everything loaded into RAM ... or is there another reason to explain the 48Mb minimum such as an X configuration setting? Or maybe - is it because the Initram filesystem loaded at boot takes a minimum of 48Mb regardless of the install method?
Another way of asking this question is to ask - What is the reason DSL gets it down to 16Mb RAM for X?
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I wonder if a Knoppix trick of creating a virtual memory file on an available hard drive would enable TC to run on smaller hardware setups albeit more slowly?
What you call a "Knoppix trick" is standard procedure in many OS's (and some would force swap on you by default upon install). And it is referred to under "minimal requirements".
In tc there is a tool for it:
swapfile
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My experimentation indicates that Micro Core requires 28MB and Tiny Core requires 48 MB. The embed and nozswap parameters do not have any effect on this limit. However, free memory is available (about 12MB and 22MB respectively) when booting with these minimums, so there is enough memory for simple tasks. This limit might be lowered by removing unneeded files from the initramfs, but I did not test that.
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Where do you find a machine with 28M of RAM?
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see also this thread:
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=6984.0
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Where do you find a machine with 28M of RAM?
Emulation.
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I created a VMware ESXi VM. Results may vary with Qemu, other virtualization methods, or real hardware. I installed Tiny Core 3.5 to a virtual HDD, and I am running it in only 24MB (including X). Without X, I can boot with 20MB. There may be techniques to get it to run with less. It used to boot in only 16MB (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=406.msg2958#msg2958).
Summary: You can run Tiny Core in 32MB if you do a scatter mode installation with grub.
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hi,everyone ,i have a ram 32mb pc , and i want install tinycore into it
You can manually uncompress tinycore.gz from the CD-ROM onto your harddisk, and boot that. Tinycore runs quite happily here on a (virtual) machine with 20 MB RAM. 16 MB RAM was however not enough.
Roberts calls the method "scatter mode" or something like that. It is not supported, but it works.
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Tinycore runs quite happily here on a (virtual) machine with 20 MB RAM.
Thanks for providing independent verification. It helps to know that it can be done and that more than one person has done it.
16 MB RAM was however not enough.
It is enough if you don't run udev. Some work may be required to get X working, though. The stock Tiny Core kernel refuses to load with less than 16MB, but a custom kernel might be able to get it down to 12MB.
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I created a VMware ESXi VM. Results may vary with Qemu, other virtualization methods, or real hardware. I installed Tiny Core 3.5 to a virtual HDD, and I am running it in only 24MB (including X). Without X, I can boot with 20MB. There may be techniques to get it to run with less. It used to boot in only 16MB (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=406.msg2958#msg2958).
Summary: You can run Tiny Core in 32MB if you do a scatter mode installation with grub.
Well, even if you can run system in 32M RAM can be low for certain applications.
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The 36mb requirement for MC was measured by me on Qemu. Nice to hear that it gets as low as 28mb on another platform.
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Well, even if you can run system in 32M RAM can be low for certain applications.
My 16MB VM serves up web pages via lighttpd, but I've only tried static content. The top display reports "10264K used, 992K free, 1716K buff, 3640K cached." The only other non-kernel processes are init and lighttpd (because I did an "exec top" from the shell).
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I created a VMware ESXi VM. Results may vary with Qemu, other virtualization methods, or real hardware. I installed Tiny Core 3.5 to a virtual HDD, and I am running it in only 24MB (including X). Without X, I can boot with 20MB. There may be techniques to get it to run with less. It used to boot in only 16MB (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=406.msg2958#msg2958).
Summary: You can run Tiny Core in 32MB if you do a scatter mode installation with grub.
sorry ,i don't know how can u run tinycore in only 24mb , and i try to install tinycore into virtualbox with 32mb, it didn't work , and it gave :
kernel panic - not syncing: no init found. try passing init = option to kernel .
so i gave it 256mb in virtualbox ,installed it , and it worked well . then i changed the memory back to 32mb .um...it gave :
"kernel panic - not syncing: no init found. try passing init = option to kernel " too.
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I created a VMware ESXi VM. Results may vary with Qemu, other virtualization methods, or real hardware. I installed Tiny Core 3.5 to a virtual HDD, and I am running it in only 24MB (including X). Without X, I can boot with 20MB. There may be techniques to get it to run with less. It used to boot in only 16MB (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=406.msg2958#msg2958).
Summary: You can run Tiny Core in 32MB if you do a scatter mode installation with grub.
Wondering what role grub would play here. Or is that just an example for any bootloader?
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Wondering what role grub would play here. Or is that just an example for any bootloader?
I expect syslinux would work, too. I just used grub in my test.
i don't know how can u run tinycore in only 24mb
Yes, Tiny Core requires 48 MB of memory to run it in the usual fashion. Installing it into a 32MB machine is difficult, but possible if you have the technical expertise. Here is a rough sequence of steps:
1) Boot from Micro Core disc.
2) Execute "tce-load -w -i syslinux.tcz"
3) Partition the HDD and make the partition bootable.
4) Format the partition with ext2 and mount it.
5) Run extlinux to install bootloader.
6) Edit syslinux.cfg to add "root=/mnt/hda1" (assuming hda1 is partition)
7) Insert Tiny Core disc and mount CD.
8) Extract tinycore.gz from CD into /mnt/hda1
9) Copy bzImage to HDD.
10) Unmount CD and reboot.
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Wondering what role grub would play here. Or is that just an example for any bootloader?
I expect syslinux would work, too. I just used grub in my test.
i don't know how can u run tinycore in only 24mb
Yes, Tiny Core requires 48 MB of memory to run it in the usual fashion. Installing it into a 32MB machine is difficult, but possible if you have the technical expertise. Here is a rough sequence of steps:
1) Boot from Micro Core disc.
2) Execute "tce-load -w -i syslinux.tcz"
3) Partition the HDD and make the partition bootable.
4) Format the partition with ext2 and mount it.
5) Run extlinux to install bootloader.
6) Edit syslinux.cfg to add "root=/mnt/hda1" (assuming hda1 is partition)
7) Insert Tiny Core disc and mount CD.
8) Extract tinycore.gz from CD into /mnt/hda1
9) Copy bzImage to HDD.
10) Unmount CD and reboot.
Thank u for replying,I have succeed to boot the Micro core ,and it can run under text mode.
Here is my steps:
1)I boot from my DSL cd-rom,and enter the DSL desktop
2)Use cfdisk format the HDD, I get the /dev/hda
3)Copy the microcore.gz and bzImage that from microcore.iso into /dev/hda/boot/
4)I download the bootfloppy.dd,and write into /floppy.
5)reboot pc and boot from floppy,put the right drivers
6)the it can work. :D
ps,I try to boot from bzImage and microcore.gz that from tinycore.iso ,and it prints something like memory out or memory is less
Now I have 2 problems to sovle:
1)I want to boot from hdd not the floppy,that means I have install microcore into hdd,
but I dont know how to do that
2)the desktop? I know that maybe print memory out ,but I want to try that ,or install something simple desktop ,or design a new simple desktop ,also I dont know how to do that.
In a word ,I suppose that someone can send some useful information to me ,thank u guys.
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hi,everyone ,i have a ram 32mb pc , and i want install tinycore into it
You can manually uncompress tinycore.gz from the CD-ROM onto your harddisk, and boot that. Tinycore runs quite happily here on a (virtual) machine with 20 MB RAM. 16 MB RAM was however not enough.
Roberts calls the method "scatter mode" or something like that. It is not supported, but it works.
Sorry for my stupid question, but could you please write in detail the process of unpacking the archive? What command and with what parameters should I use.
I tried to use this command to unpack the archive in the boot partition sda. gzip -dc /mnt/hdc/boot/tinycore.gz | dd of=/dev/sda
As a result, it displays the following:29 180 +0 records in
29 180 +0 records out
But partition sda was empty >:(
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$ zcat /path-to-file/tinycore.gz | sudo cpio -i -H newc -d
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Hi Sheleh
I just want to point out that you should be very careful using the dd command. I recommend that
you google linux dd and read up on it a bit.
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Thanks for the warning. While I'm doing all operations on the virtual machine ;)
$ zcat /path-to-file/tinycore.gz | sudo cpio -i -H newc -dThis command is not specified a target device to decompress the archive. After its launch, nothing happens. If I run it a second time displays messages that files already exist, but the sda drive is still empty. How can I unpack it on disk sda?
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Partition, format and mount sda1. cd /mnt/sda1. Now execute the command (it extracts to current directory).
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Partition, format and mount sda1. cd /mnt/sda1. Now execute the command (it extracts to current directory).
Unpacked, but the disc fails to boot.
I decided to try another way. In windows I unpacked tinycore.cpio on FAT32 disk image using 7z. If possible start TinyCore to fat32, which loader is needed for this?
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No, a non-linux fs is not going to work. Since extracting in the first place isn't a supported mode, I think you should get to know TC and linux better before trying it.
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1. I booted from tinycore.iso on a virtual machine.
2. I configured network
3. In the apps I downloaded cfdisk
4. I partitioned hda in cfdisc.
5. I Rebooted from tinycore.iso
6. I configured network
7. In the apps I downloaded syslinux
8. And I run the following commands:
mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1
sudo mkdir /mnt/hda1
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
mkdir /mnt/hda1/boot/extlinux
extlinux --install /mnt/hda1/boot/extlinux
cat /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/hda #
cp /tmp/tcloop/syslinux/usr/local/share/syslinux/*.c32 /mnt/hda1/boot/extlinux
cp /mnt/hdc/boot/bzImage /mnt/hda1/boot
cd /mnt/hda1
sudo zcat /mnt/hdc/boot/tinycore.gz | sudo cpio -i -H newc -d
in /mnt/hda1/boot/extlinux i created extlinux.conf
DEFAULT tinycore
LABEL tinycore
KERNEL /boot/bzImage
APPEND initrd=/boot/bzImage quiet root=/mnt/hda1After booting the system displays the following error:
kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0.0)
Please help make the correct configuration file )
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I'd say the APPEND initrd=/boot/bzImage quiet root=/mnt/hda1 line is wrong. For a "scatter installation" (which is what you appear to have created) you won't use an initrd (and even more so not one which is not even an initrd but the kernel file itself).
Therefore I'd suggest to change that line simply to: APPEND quiet root=/dev/hda1
EDIT: Silly me, I overlooked that 'mnt' was used in the device specifier. Thanks to curaga's reply #34 I've now corrected that oversight.
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I corrected extlinux.conf, but it changed nothing. Still displays the same error. Maybe someone has installed Tinycore in scatter mode on a virtual machine, and could upload the image of a hard disk or publish the contents of extlinux.conf? I would be very glad))))
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/mnt/hda1? How about /dev ;)
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Good idea! It's worked! Thanks to all !
But then came the next problem. When installing applications via the apps are installed and working, but only until you reboot. For example, I downloaded wine, rebooted, typed in the terminal
$ Wine, in response to "wine: not found"
While at the second attempt to install wine "tce-load -i /../wine.tcz" it displays "wine is already installed"
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Consequences of an unsupported installation. You should've used the -c flag (copy2fs).
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Where should I use this flag, and where can I read about this copy2fs?
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Hi Sheleh
Here are a few links that should clear things up.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=10969.msg57565#msg57565
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=4893.msg25721#msg25721
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=9478.msg51750#msg51750
By the way, you could find the same information yourself using the search button at the top of the
page and entering copy2fs
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Rich, Thanks for the info.
Today I have a new problem. Tinycore does not run on real hardware (Toshiba Tecra 520CDT P166/32RAM).
request_module: runaway loop modprobe binfmt-0000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDUfng2MUYc
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I'm afraid that video does not provide many clues (at least not to me).
I assume you've got the boot code 'quiet' in your boot loader configuration (e.g. 'syslinux.cfg'). I'd therefore suggest to remove that boot code from there and try again.
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I uploaded the video again after corrects
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eetq38noig
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Depending on the version of TC you are booting, and the video RAM window used by the bios,
32M of RAM may not be enough.
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But this version is normally loaded on a 32mb-RAM a virtual machine
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Actual FAQ says:
"An absolute minimum of RAM is 46mb"
So what? OK, onece you can try out of curiosity on a 32, 16, 8 Mbyte RAM system. But why to spend so much time for out of specs use?
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It is not in memory. In scatter mode installation TinyCore on a virtual machine works perfectly on 24mb of memory.
Googling I found that this error is "freeing up XX k unused kernel memory" comes from the fact that the kernel was compiled for i686 processors.
And now, a new question, where to get the kernel can work on Pentium I 166? How to compile it yourself?
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Not true. Runs fine on 486 class machines.
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Today I have a new problem. Tinycore does not run on real hardware (Toshiba Tecra 520CDT P166/32RAM).
extend the RAM.
http://www.toshiba-europe.com/bv/computers/products/notebooks/tecra520cdt/product.shtm
160MB seems possible.
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It's worked! I do not know how, I just reinstalled again and it worked.
Why such a system is unstable. The system is often after emergency restart does not load the GUI. Although the command line works. How to
start the desktop from the command line?
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A scatter install by nature handles unexpected poweroffs worse. You need a fsck likely.
To start the desktop, "startx".
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Hello
what was the conclusion of this thread?
Is it easy to install Tiny Core into an old machine with 32 megs or ram?
and slow cpu?
Do you simply do a "scatter install"?
what are the steps?
Once installed, is TCL then much use for running apps? Do you need to do any special things in order to make tcl run most typical apps?
i will check the thread
V.
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... Is it easy to install Tiny Core into an old machine with 32 megs or ram? ...
I guess how easy it "feels" depends on your level of experience.
... what are the steps? ...
I've done some detailed description for a splatter installation of MC (for an even more limited system) using a boot floppy (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,11101.msg58293.html#msg58293) not that long ago. I reckon if you can manage to perform the "installation" (i.e. install and configure a boot loader, copy the kernel and extract the initrd) on a RAM "starved" system you are done.
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How I installed using a home computer with WinXP
If we have:
1. Computer with windows.
2. Physical hard drive connected via USB.
We should:
1. Download VirtualBox
2. Start Multycore on VirtualBox
3. Connect the drive to the USB, and connect it in VirtualBox as USB-device
4. Config network
5. Download cfdisk (In apps)
6. Partition sda in cfdisc. (USB HDD)
7. Reboot from multycore.iso
8. And run the following commands:
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
mkdir /mnt/sda1/boot
mkdir /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
extlinux --install /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
cat /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sda #
cp /tmp/tcloop/syslinux/usr/local/share/syslinux/*.c32 /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux
cp /mnt/hdc/boot/bzImage /mnt/sda1/boot
cd /mnt/sda1
sudo zcat /mnt/hdc/boot/tinycore.gz | sudo cpio -i -H newc -d
9. in /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux we should create extlinux.conf and put in:
DEFAULT tinycore
LABEL tinycore
KERNEL /boot/bzImage
APPEND root=/dev/hda1 if USB HDD is IDE or
DEFAULT tinycore
LABEL tinycore
KERNEL /boot/bzImage
APPEND root=/dev/sda1 if USB HDD is SATA
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hello
and that gives you Microcore on the virtual machine. (Sheleh)
What about installing Tinycore as extra?
I was reading the Maro's instructions for putting tcl onto a low ram computer by using a boot floppy etc.....they are pretty good instructions (with a few tricky understandings)
my question is raised again......below
Do these procedures leave you with a TCL machine that is actually usable?... for running typical apps?
otherwise, what's the point in doing it?
V.
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Hi cast-fish
otherwise, what's the point in doing it?
Maybe it's the satisfaction one gets in overcoming a challenge. Or possibly for the knowledge gained
from this learning experience.
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If you need to create a lot of virtual machines, then it is advantageous to use as little memory as possible. VMWare licensing is now based on amount of memory used, so less memory means more virtual machines.
As I mentioned before, I have a 16MB VM which serves static web pages. You could have a sizable server farm on just a 4GB machine.
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hello
oh right.
i see
The challenge can greatly help your learning of Linux and tcl. Also you could then teach others about tcl by using
that demonstration machine. Perhaps all terminal programs will work?. Say a tool like
mpg123?
i was just interested to know, in practical terms, what "usability" you could get out of these
low ram tcl machines?
V.