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Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

tinycorelinux.net

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Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#161

Post by lukan »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #154

Tiny Core Linux has a version for Raspberry Pis called piCore [0] that I wish more people would look at, because it loads itself entirely into RAM and does not touch the SD card at all after that until and unless you explicitly tell it to. Phenomenal for those low powered servers you just want to leave on and running some tiny batch of cronjobs [1] or something for months or years at a time without worrying too much…

"Phenomenal for those low powered servers you just want to leave on and running some tiny batch of cronjobs [1] or something for months or years at a time without worrying too much about wear on the SD card itself rendering the whole installation moot."

Yes, this is exactly what I want, except I need some simple node servers running, which is not so ultra light. Would you happen to know, if this still all works within the ram out of box, or does this require extra work?

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#162

Post by bananaboy »

teamonkey wrote: post #152
mrits wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a 320x200 6bit color depth wasn't exactly a pleasure to use. I think the games could double the res in certain mode (was it called 13h?)

You might be thinking of DOS mode 13h, which was VGA 320x200, 8 bits per pixel.

And 6-bits per colour component.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#163

Post by autotune »

dotancohen wrote: post #138
Aurornis wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive experimented with several small distros for this when doing cross platform development. In my experience, by the time you’re compiling and running code and installing dev dependencies on the remote machine, the size of the base OS isn’t a concern. I gained nothing from using smaller distros but lost a lot of time dealing with little issues and incompatibilities. This won’t win me any hacker points, but now if I n…

To really hammer this home: Alpine uses musl instead of glibc for the C standard library. This has caused me all types of trouble in unexpected places. I'm all for suggestions for a better base OS in small docker containers, mostly to run nginx, php, postgress, mysql, redis, and python.

How about debian-slim?

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#164

Post by oso2k »

jacquesm wrote: post #120
oso2k wrote: post #96

I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources. Testing old PCs, Pi Zero and Pi Zero 2W are great use cases.

Thank you for that comment, I did not realize Pi Zero and Pi Zero 2W worked with TCL. I am brewing an application for that environment right now so this may just save the day and make my life a lot easier. Have you tried video support for the Pi specific cams under TCL?

I don't know about CSI cameras. My use case for TCL doesn't require a CSI camera. But it looks like others have made a CSI camera work:

https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,26713.0.html

I recommend asking on that forum. Folks are helpful.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#165

Post by globalnode »

teamonkey wrote: post #152
mrits wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a 320x200 6bit color depth wasn't exactly a pleasure to use. I think the games could double the res in certain mode (was it called 13h?)

You might be thinking of DOS mode 13h, which was VGA 320x200, 8 bits per pixel.

i remember playing with mode 13h, writing little graphics programs with my turboc compiler. computers were so magical back then.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#166

Post by jollyjerry »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #3

This is cool. My first into to a practical application of Linux in the early 2000s was using Damn Small Linux to recover files off of cooked Windows Machines. I looked up the project the other day while reminiscing and thought it would be interesting if someone took a real shot at reviving the spirit of the project.

I used to have a floppy and a mini-cd boot version of these. The mini-cd looks like a credit card and fit into a standard size cd drive. Reading the history of the project is a bit of a bummer, but still love the project ethos.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#167

Post by squarefoot »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #154

Tiny Core Linux has a version for Raspberry Pis called piCore [0] that I wish more people would look at, because it loads itself entirely into RAM and does not touch the SD card at all after that until and unless you explicitly tell it to. Phenomenal for those low powered servers you just want to leave on and running some tiny batch of cronjobs [1] or something for months or years at a time without worrying too much…

Alpine also has a lesser known RPi build on their download page; by using musl instead of glibc the difference in size and resources used compared to regular distros is huge as well. https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#168

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #154

Tiny Core Linux has a version for Raspberry Pis called piCore [0] that I wish more people would look at, because it loads itself entirely into RAM and does not touch the SD card at all after that until and unless you explicitly tell it to. Phenomenal for those low powered servers you just want to leave on and running some tiny batch of cronjobs [1] or something for months or years at a time without worrying too much…

"Tiny Core Linux has a version for Raspberry Pis called piCore [0] that I wish more people would look at, because it loads itself entirely into RAM and does not touch the SD card at all after that until and unless you explicitly tell it to."

Before RPI existed, I always made filesystem images for USB sticks in NetBSD so that writes never touched "disk" ("diskless"). This allows me to remove the USB stick after boot, freeing up the slot for something else

BSD "install images" work this way

I have been using the RPi with a diskless NetBSD image since around 2012; there are no SD card writes, the userland is extracted into RAM

I can pull out the SD card after boot and use the slot for something else

If I want data storage, I connect an external drive

It's been wild to read endless online complaints from so-called "technical" RPi users for the last 13 years about SD card wear and tear

To me, it's another example of how it's possible to have a solution that is as old as the hills and have it be completely ignored in favor of a "modern" approach that is fatally-flawed

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#169

Post by Lyngbakr »

squarefoot wrote: post #167
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #154

Tiny Core Linux has a version for Raspberry Pis called piCore [0] that I wish more people would look at, because it loads itself entirely into RAM and does not touch the SD card at all after that until and unless you explicitly tell it to. Phenomenal for those low powered servers you just want to leave on and running some tiny batch of cronjobs [1] or something for months or years at a time without worrying too much…

Alpine also has a lesser known RPi build on their download page; by using musl instead of glibc the difference in size and resources used compared to regular distros is huge as well. https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/

I recently put Alpine with i3 on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and I'm super impressed with how snappy it is. I find it much better even than Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
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