wiki:adding_a_desktop_to_microcore - Tiny Core Linux Wiki

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This guide assumes that you are running the latest Final Release of MicroCore (currently 2.11). Older releases will require that you find the matching core elements in the archive and adjust the wget commands below accordingly. If you wish for these changes to last after a reboot, make sure you have set up a persistent tce dir before following this guide.
This guide will use the tce-load command to Mount all extensions, if you wish to have extensions Installed to the filesystem, add the flag "-r" to tce-load.

There are two ways to install/load core extensions:

  - Place them into your persistent tce directory and they will be loaded when your system boots.
  - Load them via bootloader. (essentially, gzipped cpio files)

==== Downloading and installing core elements ====
First you need to cd to your tce dir

^cd /etc/sysconfig/tcedir^

until Core Release 4.2 this was

^cd `cat /opt/.tce_dir`^

Download core elements
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/Xlibs.gz
tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/Xprogs.gz^
Download md5sums
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/Xlibs.gz.md5.txt
tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/Xprogs.gz.md5.txt^
Check md5sums
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ md5sum -c Xlibs.gz.md5.txt
tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ md5sum -c Xprogs.gz.md5.txt^

If you don't want to use Xvesa provided by the core elements you can reboot now to load Xlibs and Xprogs. 

It's good to know there is an Xvesa variant that you can download as an extension. It's newer and has numlock support but bigger in size by ~400kb. If you want to go with Xvesa it's your choice to use the core element or the extension.

==== Download an X server ====
You have the choice of which X server you would like to use. The server used in TinyCore is Xvesa and is available in the MicroCore section of the download area and should be placed in the tce dir.  Other X servers are available in the extension repo and should be placed in tce/optional. I will list all the available servers and the commands to download and install each.

Xvesa core element:
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/Xvesa.gz
tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/microcore/Xvesa.gz.md5.txt

tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ md5sum -c Xvesa.core.gz.md5.txt^
Xvesa extension:
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce$ tce-load -wi Xvesa.tcz^
Xfbdev:
^cd `cat /opt/.tce_dir`/optional^
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce/optional$ tce-load -wi Xfbdev.tcz^

Full-blown Xorg:
^tce-load -wi Xorg-7.4.tcz^

==== Download and install a window manager ====
There are many window managers available for TinyCore and MicroCore in the repository. The default used in TinyCore is flwm (Fast Light Window Manager), and will be used in this example. You may use any WM you like. Just replace flwm.tcz with the WM you want in the following command:
^tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce/optional$ tce-load -wi flwm.tcz^
Get wbar and aterm, too.

Note: you may browse the extension repository at
''http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/tcz_2x.html''
Please use the ''tce-load -w -i'' command to download and install chosen WM to avoid dependency problems.
You can also use a cli version of the appbrowser available in the repo to search for and install a WM and other extensions
<code>tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce/optional$ tce-load -w -i appbrowser-cli.tcz
tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce/optional$ appbrowser-cli
</code>

==== Start the Xserver and WM ====
The command ''startx'' must be run from your home dir
<code>
tc@box:/mnt/hda1/tce/optional$ cd
tc@box:~$ startx
</code>

==== Conclusion ====
You should now have a working desktop environment similar to the one found in TinyCore. Use the appbrowser to add extensions to fill out your OS. If you had a persistent tce dir set up prior to following this guide, the desktop will be started automatically during subsequent boots.  You can boot to the CLI by using the bootcode ''text''. Use the command ''startx'' to start the Xserver and WM from the command line. If you have any problem, please feel free to ask on forum.tinycorelinux.net.
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