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61

Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge / Re: SBC

« Last post by vinceASPECT on February 07, 2026, 08:32:17 AM »

again forum,

i am seeing NEW sbc computers appearing at just $25.........OCTA CORE cpu with an  extra 200MHZ RISC core ..........and 3 NPU cores.

They have 3 usb sockets (2 of which are usb C) and support video out to HDMI........ and OTG etc
gigabit ethernet.

4 gigs of ram....support NVME and SSC and other memory and storage options

...........and several free OS's for them including android 14 and Debian etc.

2 x Arm Cortex-A76 CPU cores @ up to 2 GHz
6 x Arm Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ up to 1.8 GHz
1 x Alibaba XuanTie E902 RISC-V core @ up to 200 MHz
Imagination PowerVR BXM-4-64 MC1 graphics
3 TOPS NPU
There’s an onboard wireless module with support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, and a set of ports and connectors that includes:

1 x USB 3.2 Type-C (w/DisplayPort Alt Mode)
1 x USB 2.0 Type-C
1 x USB 2.0 Type-A
1 x Gigabit Ethernet
1 x FPC connector (PCIe 3.0 x1)
1 x microSD card reader
1 x 4-lane MIPI-CSI camera connector
1 x 30-pin GPIO header
1 x 15-pin GPIO header
1 x fan connector

 ..........it’s nice to see that in addition to eMMC and microSD card storage, there’s at least an option of using an SSD. The tiny computer also has a USB boot button, allowing you to boot the system from an external drive.


There’s an onboard wireless module with support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4,

if you want to know more just ask.

thx

C

62

General TC Talk / Re: New Boot Drive 16 GB -> 4 GB

« Last post by Rich on February 06, 2026, 10:48:57 PM »

Hi MTCAT
I'd like you to try something. Try plugging the 4 Gig USB
drive into a desktop or laptop computer and see if it tries
to boot on it.

I'm wondering if maybe the USB 4 Gig device is fine, but
your hardware just doesn't like it for some reason.

63

Micro Core / Re: Core install with 32 MB RAM on 486

« Last post by CNK on February 06, 2026, 08:38:42 PM »

I am positive I typed the boot options correctly at end of tc-install.sh, if I remove mem=nopentium it "continues..."

My understanding is that mem=nopentium should be default on a 486 anyway. It's described more clearly in older docs:

You can also use the boot argument `mem=nopentium' to  turn  off  4  MB
pagetables  on  kernels  configured  for IA32 systems with a pentium or
newer CPU.

I get a "high low" beep code, and then it sits with a blinking cursor. I'll leave it sit for an undetermined amount of time.

That sounds about typical for if it ran out of RAM while unpacking core.gz into initramfs. However I don't use Syslinux on 486 (I boot from MSDOS with LOADLIN, to a HDD install without core.gz as described earlier), so perhaps there's another problem with it. It reminds me of what LOADLIN does (after a long loading delay) when it runs out of RAM unpacking core.gz though.

64

General TC Talk / Re: New Boot Drive 16 GB -> 4 GB

« Last post by MTCAT on February 06, 2026, 04:15:55 PM »

And of course, thanks for all the help.

65

General TC Talk / Re: New Boot Drive 16 GB -> 4 GB

« Last post by MTCAT on February 06, 2026, 04:07:01 PM »

Hi Rich and patrikg,

Tried patrikg's suggestion and toggled the boot flag off, and then back on, this didn't help unfortunately.

I was able to rebuild my old original 16 GB SanDisk drive (with dd) and I guess I'll just work off that until the fancy ones show up, for some reason the slightly less fancy (compared to Cactus) SwissBit 16 GB drives do work fine in that they do boot up, and work fine otherwise, but they seem to have problems with certain other USB devices (temperature sensor, USB keyboard) which crash the computer. Which was another reason why I wanted to get the 4 GB USB2.0 Cactus pen drive going. The only other USB device I can plug in so far when using the SwissBit drives w/o crashing is a USB2.0 pen drive, so that would work for me, barely, if I used a different temp sensor (not USB) and a serial keyboard. I was originally using a roll up serial keyboard, which works, but was hoping to switch over to a mini wired USB keyboard since the roll up one is "floppy" and kind of hard to type on, but may have to stick with the serial keyboard.

I also tried a wireless keyboard/mouse (USB dongle) which I had high hopes for, it works, but when I run the acquisition program, it's VERY VERY laggy (slow to update), so it seems to be unreliable under heavier CPU load, such that it's not workable for me, unless something could modified to make it work better.

Crazy how things you think are small changes (for the better) end up being BIG changes that can't be done or are for the worse.

I thought the USB keyboard was a power issue since the SwissBit drives are USB3.0 compatible (my VortexDX3 ports, can supply 500 mA max on each of 4 ports), but the temp sensor draws only 1 mA (supposedly) and the USB keyboard I wired it to draw it's power from an external source (hooked up data lines only to USB port) and it still caused issues, so...

I may have to use an external temperature sensor, like an aquarium temp sensor ( ) and avoid a possible USB conflict, and my roll up serial keyboard, and leave it at that, seems a bit depressing to have to do that, but oh well, see what happens, simpler is better I suppose...wish that wireless keyboard/mouse would have worked.

Thanks for letting me talk.

David

66

Micro Core / Re: Core install with 32 MB RAM on 486

« Last post by patrikg on February 06, 2026, 12:47:52 PM »

Do you use a editor thats wrap the line ?
If using nano add -w to set nowrap.

Code: [Select]

sudo nano -w /mnt/sda2/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

67

General TC Talk / Re: New Boot Drive 16 GB -> 4 GB

« Last post by MTCAT on February 06, 2026, 11:34:38 AM »

Hi Rich,

Sorry, ignore my last question, I can see now what your commands did to expand partition 1 on sdc to all the cylinders, not sure why it still won't boot off the 4 GB drive, could try patrikg's suggestion maybe?, otherwise may have to just wait for the 16 GB Cactus drives to show up in 6 weeks

Thanks,

David

68

General TC Talk / Re: New Boot Drive 16 GB -> 4 GB

« Last post by MTCAT on February 06, 2026, 11:02:55 AM »

Hi Rich and patrikg,

I haven't tried pattrikg's suggestion yet since, as Rich says, sdc1 already does have the asterisk there, but keeping that as a "plan-B" for sure, if all else fails could maybe try turning that off and then back on?

But anyway, I tried your commands Rich, and they did help as shown below, but I still get a "Boot error" (from SYSLinux I assume).

Does it matter that the ending point of sdc1 (non booting 4 GB drive) and sdd1 (16 GB shrunk to 3.7 GB drive that does boot) are different, could that be the issue still?

Code: [Select]


Disk /dev/sda: 128.0 GB, 128043712512 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15567 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda2              11       15568   124955648   5 Extended
/dev/sda5              11       15568   124954624  83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16039018496 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       14664    15015920  83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
126 heads, 22 sectors/track, 2825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2772 * 512 = 1419264 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdc1   *           1        2826     3915760  83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 16.0 GB, 16039018496 bytes
207 heads, 55 sectors/track, 2751 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 11385 * 512 = 5829120 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdd1   *           1         666     3789808  83 Linux


Thanks,

David

69

Micro Core / Re: Core install with 32 MB RAM on 486

« Last post by branpurn on February 06, 2026, 10:53:09 AM »

Picked up a 2 GB CF card and an IDE adapter, so did frugal install of Core to that.

Installing from ISO, I specified the following boot options at the end of tc-install.sh: nozswap udev.children-max=1 mem=nopentium

Code: [Select]

SYSLINUX 6.03 CHS 2014-10-06 Copyright (C) 1994-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al
Booting kernel failed: Invalid argument
boot: nozswap udev.children-max=1
_

I am positive I typed the boot options correctly at end of tc-install.sh, if I remove mem=nopentium it "continues..."

I get a "high low" beep code, and then it sits with a blinking cursor. I'll leave it sit for an undetermined amount of time.

70

General TC Talk / Re: New Boot Drive 16 GB -> 4 GB

« Last post by Rich on February 06, 2026, 10:05:18 AM »

Hi patrikg
/dev/sdc is the device he's having problems with. fdisk shows
the bootable flag is already set for partition 1. Won't your
instructions turn the bootable flag off for partition 1?