Boot Codes Explained

Boot codes are configuration options. An examples is “tce=sda1,” which indicates the location of the tce directory.

When running from a CD, include “tinycore” before bootcodes. Following is an example.

If Tiny Core is installed, include

tce=sda1

in the bootloader.

If running from a CD, use

tinycore tce=sda1

Below is a boot stanza from a syslinux configuration file:

label tinycore
kernel /tce/bzImage
append initrd=/tce/tinycore.gz quiet waitusb=5 tce=UUID="F0BC-3CAF" tz=EST,M10.1.0/2,M4.1.0/2

Below is the boot stanza from a grub menu.list file:

title tinycore
root (hd1,0)
kernel /tce/bzImage quiet waitusb=5 tce=UUID="F0BC-3CAF" tz=EST,M10.1.0/2,M4.1.0/2 
initrd /tce/tinycore.gz

Note that the boot codes are on different lines for the 2 cases. In each case one line has the boot codes

quiet waitusb=5 tce=UUID="F0BC-3CAF" tz=EST,M10.1.0/2,M4.1.0/2

These mean:

• quiet: don't display all boot messages
• waitusb=5: Wait 5 seconds for the file system to be mounted when booting from the usb device
• tce=UUID=“F0BC-3CAF” is the same as tce=sdb1, but sdb1 depends on what other disk devices are connected so sdb1 may not always be the case. The UUID eliminates this problem because it uniquely identifies the device regardless of what other devices are connected.
• tz=EST,M10.1.0/2,M4.1.0/2: time zone information with daylight saving info (Month 10, week 1, day 0, 2am).

To boot from CD, utterly ignoring any perfectly valid TC install which may or may not be otherwise present

tinycore base norestore

To boot entirely irrelevant of the automatic backup/restore style of persistence based on the list of files in /opt/.filetool.lst

tinycore norestore

To boot irrelevant of automatic backup/restore persistence, but fully relevant of the rest of the persistence options, with a prepared and usable hard drive partition at /dev/sda1

tinycore norestore tce=sda1 opt=sda1 home=sda1

To boot maintaining automatic backup/restore persistence, but fully relevant of the rest, with hard drive partition at /dev/sda1, USB wait of 5 seconds, and hostname preset to TCABCD

tinycore waitusb=5 host=TCABCD tce=sda1 opt=sda1 home=sda1

For more information on what boot codes are supported, see http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/faq.html#bootcodes

[http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/faq.html#qemu|tcvd] http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:pretce

a update as of 'Core 4.4' add's

“New boot code, e.g., iso=sdb1 booting from a single ISO file to load embedded extensions.” and

“* New fromISOfile script for after boot support of a single ISO file embedded extensions.”

For more information on adding your own bootcodes ,see http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,460.msg2878.html