VMware Installation
There are a few things to note if you would like to install Tiny Core Linux into a VMware Virtual Machine.
Key Points
VMware does not have a pre-defined Guest Operating System choice for Tiny Core Linux. Select the 'Guest operating system' as Linux. Use the appropriate Other-type version for the kernel used. Tiny Core Linux 3.x by default uses Linux kernel 2.6.33.3 32-bit so the appropriate choice is 'Other 2.6x Linux (32-bit)'. The default kernel in Tiny Core Linux does not have the appropriate driver for the default SCSI adapter.
Hard Drives
Tiny Core Linux does not require a hard drive to function. It is run out of RAM by default.
Using IDE
By default VMware products will create a SCSI virtual hard drive for a Linux VM. This is not recognized by default in Tiny Core Linux. Depending on the VMware product and version there may or may not be a 'Virtual Device Node' setting available in the 'New Virtual Machine Wizard'. If available, the easiest configuration is to use adapter 'IDE0' device '0' (which is seen in Linux as /dev/hda).
If not available, create the VM with a tiny SCSI disk at first. After you have finished creating the Virtual Machine, remove the SCSI disk then add an IDE disk. The procedure for this depends again on the product and version. For some, you must go to 'Edit virtual machine settings' from the Virtual Machine page/tab. For others, you can click the SCSI drive drop down, then remove then 'Add Hardware' and add an IDE disk.
Using SCSI
In order to use the default SCSI disks, you'll need to load the kernel SCSI modules. For the default 32-bit kernel, these are available in the vm-scsi-KERNEL.tcz extension (for Tiny Core Linux 3.6, KERNEL is 2.6.33.3-tinycore). For the 64-bit kernel, no extension is available to just provide the needed SCSI modules (as of 2011-05-01). Instead, you can use the scsi-KERNEL.tcz extention (for Tiny Core Linux 3.6, KERNEL is 2.6.33.3-tinycore64). To use the SCSI drive on boot, you must remaster your initrd setup. See Remastering for more details.
Settings (that seem to work well)
RAM: 64 MB minimum; more is suggested based on your desired use.
Network Adapter: Most products use the PCNet32 network adapter by default (recognized with no additional effort) Network Adapter Connection: NAT (an Internet connection is suggested; Bridged may also work but is host-configuration dependent)
IDE virtual disk (optional): 64 Mb (cannot be increased, so choose a larger size if you intend on installing many programs)
