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Author Topic: [Solved] Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?  (Read 17806 times)

Offline pditty

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[Solved] Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« on: April 20, 2020, 07:26:13 AM »
I hope everyone is staying safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

I need to create a bootable iso image and wanted to ask if anyone had updated instructions for making TinyCore 11+ Real-Time or can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I feel like I've looked at everything on the web regarding this topic but I still can't get it to boot into the gui.

I've looked at the RTAI link from 2016 http://j.bamiere.free.fr/RTAI/ModOp.htm#mozTocId601179.

Creating a custom tinycore kernel http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/doku.php?id=wiki:custom_kernel

Remastering example https://github.com/elazarl/customize_tinycorelinux/blob/master/README.md

Another example here https://github.com/on-prem/tinycore-kernel/blob/master/Makefile

Creating Purpose TinyCore Images https://fabianstumpf.de/articles/tinycore_images.htm

Extract and Repack scripts https://github.com/elazarl/customize_tinycorelinux

Here is what I've been doing so far....

#1. Download the pre-patched 5.4.3 kernel from tinycore src/kernel directory
#2. Extract the kernel and then patch with the 5.4.3 rt patch using these instructions https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/realtime/documentation/howto/applications/preemptrt_setup
#3. Copy config-5.4.3-tinycore from the src/kernel directory to the extracted Linux-5.4.3 directory and rename to .config
#4. Run make oldconfig (selected #4 for Preempt and all other options were defaults)
#5. Run make bzImage
#6. Run make modules
#7. From tinycore distribution_files I downloaded the rootfs.gz file
#8. Extracted rootfs using 'zcat /tmp/rootfs.gz | sudo cpio -i -H newc -d'
#9. Ran make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/<extracted rootfs>/lib/modules modules_install firmware_install
#10. Went into that <extracted rootfs>/lib/modules directory and created kernel.tclocal symlink to point to /usr/local/lib/modules/5.4.3-tinycore/kernel/
#11. Ran this command from <extracted rootfs>/lib/modules/<kernel name> "find . -name "*.ko" -exec gzip -9 '{}' \;"  to find and compress all the .ko files to .ko.gz
#12. Opened modules.dep, modules.builtin, and modules.order in a text editor and globally replaced all the .ko with .ko.gz extensions so they were referenced correctly.
#13. Compressed this rootfs by running "sudo sh -c "find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -2" > core.gz" at the root level
#14. Copied core.gz to the iso boot directory that was created when I ran tinycore-extract.sh found at https://github.com/elazarl/customize_tinycorelinux
#15. Copied bzImage from compiled Linux image in step #5 to the boot directory created from tinycore-extract.sh and renamed it vmlinuz
#16. Ran a modified script to build the iso.

#!/bin/bash
OUTPUTISO="tinycoreRT-04032020.iso"
ROOTFS="/home/me/TinyCore/test_04012020/initrd/core"
VOLUMEID="tinycoreRT-04032020"
BOOTARGS=""

TMPDIR="/home/me/TinyCore/test_04012020/iso"
chmod 755 "${TMPDIR}"


# alter isolinux config to use our changes
ISOLINUX_CFG="${TMPDIR}/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg"
sed -i 's/prompt 1/prompt 0/' "${ISOLINUX_CFG}"
sed -i "s/append/append cde ${BOOTARGS}/" "${ISOLINUX_CFG}"

# build a new iso
xorriso -as mkisofs -iso-level 3 -full-iso9660-filenames -volid "${VOLUMEID}" \
        -eltorito-boot boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -boot-load-size 4 \
        -eltorito-catalog boot/isolinux/boot.cat -boot-info-table \
        -no-emul-boot -output "${OUTPUTISO}" "${TMPDIR}/"



« Last Edit: October 27, 2022, 08:24:12 PM by Rich »

Offline Juanito

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2020, 07:54:58 AM »
So you can boot to a console prompt?

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2020, 08:00:34 AM »
Yes, I can.

Offline Juanito

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2020, 08:02:40 AM »
If you start Xvesa/Xfbdev/Xorg-7.7 as per the first line of .xsession do you get an error message?

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2020, 08:51:26 AM »
It flashes so fast but this is what it says...

Booting Core 11.1
Running Linux Kernel 5.4.3-rt1-tinycore
Checking boot options... Done.
Starting udev daemon for hotplug support ... Done.
Scanning hard disk partitions to create /etc/fstab
Setting Language to C Done.
Possible swap partition(s) enabled.
Loading extensions...|

And then it kicks me to the command prompt.
tc@box:~$

Does that help at all?

Offline Juanito

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2020, 08:57:30 AM »
When you land at the command prompt, enter the fist line of .xsession as a command.

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2020, 09:07:07 AM »
I entered.

Xvesa -br -screen 1024x768x32 -shadow -2button -mouse /dev/input/mice,5 -nolisten tcp -I > /dev/null 2>&1 &

And I get a black screen and can't do anything but power down.

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2020, 09:18:58 AM »
Since I'm using the cde directory from the current image do I need to do anything with the copy2fs.lst and onboot.lst files?  They have references to .tcz files but if I created the kernel as well as the rootfs where would they even be?

Offline xor

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2020, 09:30:01 AM »
And I get a black screen and can't do anything but power down.

Are you sure you are using the right patch!

https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/
« Last Edit: April 20, 2020, 09:37:08 AM by xor »

Offline Juanito

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2020, 09:31:46 AM »
Ah sorry, you needed to run "Xvesa -br -screen 1024x768x32 -shadow -2button -mouse /dev/input/mice,5 -nolisten tcp -I", but you could probably try "startx" first.

Offline curaga

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2020, 09:34:37 AM »
So it sounds like the system isn't even trying to start X, but at least Xvesa was available. Look into ~/.profile, see which condition fails.
The only barriers that can stop you are the ones you create yourself.

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2020, 09:48:43 AM »
How can I tell by looking at the .profile?  I don't see Xserver or text in my /etc/sysconfig directory, but should I?

Screenshot of my .profile is attached

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2020, 11:11:51 AM »
I don't know if this helps, but I noticed that if I create an etc/sysconfig/Xserver file and put the string 'Xvesa' in it i can then run startx and it brings me to the TC blue screen (no icons) and the mouse doesn't work.  But it looks like its trying to do something.

Offline pditty

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2020, 12:14:55 PM »
Also, if I turn on syslog and compare my realtime build to the Tinycore-current.iso build this is what each of them look like.

Tinycore-current.iso
Apr 20 18:55:56 box authpriv.notic sudo:    tc : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/mnt/sr0/cde/optional ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/local/bin/umount -d /mnt/test
Apr 20 18:55:56 box authpriv.notic sudo: root : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/ ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/sh

Whereas on my real time build i get this..
Apr 20 19:05:10 box authpriv.notic sudo:    tc : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/mnt/sr0/cde/optional ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/local/bin/umount -d /mnt/test
Apr 20 19:05:10 box daemon.info init: starting pid 812, tty '/dev/tty1': '/sbin/getty -nl /sbin/autologin 38400 tty1'

I don't ever see the real time version log in as root.


Offline xor

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Re: Instructions on updating TinyCore 11 to Real Time?
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2020, 10:39:10 PM »
 :P

Are you sure you are using the right patch!

https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/

https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/5.4/older/

patch-5.4.3-rt1.patch.gz                           17-Dec-2019 21:06    207K
patch-5.4.3-rt1.patch.sign                         17-Dec-2019 21:06     438
patch-5.4.3-rt1.patch.xz                           17-Dec-2019 21:06    170K


Quote
+Performance
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+Some basic tests were performed on a quad Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697 v4 at
+2.30GHz (36 cores / 72 threads). All tests involved writing a total of
+32,000,000 records at an average of 33 bytes each. Each writer was pinned to
+its own CPU and would write as fast as it could until a total of 32,000,000
+records were written. All tests involved 2 readers that were both pinned
+together to another CPU. Each reader would read as fast as it could and track
+how many of the 32,000,000 records it could read. All tests used a ring buffer
+of 16KB in size, which holds around 350 records (header + data for each
+entry).
+
+The only difference between the tests is the number of writers (and thus also
+the number of records per writer). As more writers are added, the time to
+write a record increases. This is because data pointers, modified via cmpxchg,
+and global data access in general become more contended.
+
+1 writer
+^^^^^^^^
+ runtime: 0m 18s
+ reader1: 16219900/32000000 (50%) records
+ reader2: 16141582/32000000 (50%) records
+
+2 writers
+^^^^^^^^^
+ runtime: 0m 32s
+ reader1: 16327957/32000000 (51%) records
+ reader2: 16313988/32000000 (50%) records
+
+4 writers
+^^^^^^^^^
+ runtime: 0m 42s
+ reader1: 16421642/32000000 (51%) records
+ reader2: 16417224/32000000 (51%) records
+
+8 writers
+^^^^^^^^^
+ runtime: 0m 43s
+ reader1: 16418300/32000000 (51%) records
+ reader2: 16432222/32000000 (51%) records
+
+16 writers
+^^^^^^^^^^
+ runtime: 0m 54s
+ reader1: 16539189/32000000 (51%) records
+ reader2: 16542711/32000000 (51%) records
+
+32 writers
+^^^^^^^^^^
+ runtime: 1m 13s
+ reader1: 16731808/32000000 (52%) records
+ reader2: 16735119/32000000 (52%) records
+
+Comments
+^^^^^^^^
+It is particularly interesting to compare/contrast the 1-writer and 32-writer
+tests. Despite the writing of the 32,000,000 records taking over 4 times
+longer, the readers (which perform no cmpxchg) were still unable to keep up.
+This shows that the memory contention between the increasing number of CPUs
+also has a dramatic effect on readers.
+
+It should also be noted that in all cases each reader was able to read >=50%
+of the records. This means that a single reader would have been able to keep
+up with the writer(s) in all cases, becoming slightly easier as more writers
+are added. This was the purpose of pinning 2 readers to 1 CPU: to observe how
+maximum reader performance changes.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2020, 10:48:22 PM by xor »