This is possibly the smallest OS you can install on the raspberry pi, Tiny Core, weighing in just about 70mb this OS is not only small but it is also fast! Since the design of the OS is meant to be ran off the RAM you will no longer have the bottle neck of the SD card. In this guild I will show you how to install this on the Raspberry Pi Zero W along with setting up the WIFI and GUI.
Equipment List
Raspberry Pi Zero W ► Amazon | Ebay
Software List
Tiny Core Linux ► http://www.tinycorelinux.net
Etcher ► https://etcher.io/
Links
Tiny Core Forums ► http://forum.tinycorelinux.net
Tiny Core Install
Step 1: Install Tiny Core
Download the Image from http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads -> ports -> other ports -> raspberry pi stable
You can download the wireless modules from here
or manually download them from tinycore servers using this commandfor pkg in ca-certificates libiw libnl ncurses openssl readline wifi wireless-4.9.22-piCore wireless_tools wpa_supplicant firmware-rpi3-wireless; do for f in $pkg.tcz{,.dep,.info,.list,.md5.txt,.tree,.zsync}; do wget http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/tinycorelinux/9.x/armv6/tcz/$f; done; doneload the files on to the piCore sdcard (remember to delete the kernel7 to make space for modules)
no we are ready to boot from sd card.
Expanding file system
To expand the file system we first need to delete the 2nd partition and recreate using the max amount of space
Step 1
$sudo fdisk -u /dev/mmcblk0
from here type p to list partitions and not the start size of partition 2
now we can delete the partition with d and recreate it with n.
create partition 2 then enter the start sector.
hit enter again to use default last sector.
now type w to write to disk
we now need to reboot
Step 2
Now that we told the OS the largest size possible for partition 2, we need to resize the filesystem so it can be used with the command below
$sudo resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2
you are now done. to test type
$du -h
this should list the size of mmcblk0p2
Installing Wifi Modules
With the file we have downloaded earlier from out PC, we now need to copy those file over to our partition 2.
Step 1
To start we need to mount partition 1, which we commonly know as /boot and copy the file for the wireless modules.
$sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/mmcblk0p1
$cp /mnt/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optionalnow that everything is copied over we need to add it to the onboot.lst file so it will load the modules on every boot
$echo "firmware-rpi3-wireless.tcz" >> /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst
$echo "wifi.tcz" >> /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lstStep 2
to test everything you can simply type in these command in this order to load the modules manually
$tce-load -i firmware-rpi3-wireless
$tce-load -i wifito log in to a wifi network type
$sudo wifi.shStep 3
now that everything is tested and working, and logged in. we need to save these settings and make it persistent on reboot. to do this we need to type this command
$echo "wifi.sh -a" >> /opt/bootlocal.shand to save on reboot
$filetool.sh -bInstalling the Tiny Core GUI
This is probably the easiest step of them all. To install the GUI it’s 1 simple command
$tce-load -iw TC.tczthis should only take a few mins. Once it’s done. you can either restart your device, or type
$startxThis is it!! check out the link to the forums if you are interested in getting more stuff working for the raspberry pi zero. thanks for the view
-don
View Comments (26)
hi, great tutorial on the installation.
currently the issue i face was the GUI once started, most of the app cant start including app browser, start and control panel. Possible to ask for help on this?
Thank you
Hi,
before launching Apps, you need to load libfontconfig.
To do so, open terminal and type:
tce-load -iw fontconfig.tcz
and then
filetool.sh -b
to make this change persistant.
Have fun !
This appears when I type in that command:
Downloading: fontconfig.tcz
wget: bad address 'repo.tincorelinux.net'
....
any idea what's happening?
Figured it out. My wifi got disconnected. Fixed it by changing a directory name because they did not match the ones in the tutorial.
Hi
Great tutorial. I have the same problem as e sheng above does. tried 2 rpi0 and redid the sd card 3 times. same results. Otherwise install worked fine.
Hi
good tutorial :-) ...but same problem :-(
Try running from terminal/SSH:
tce-load -wi fontconfig.tcz
Thanks! Now it works...
how do i install the gui, the TC.tcz doesn't exist anymore?
its ok it works now
How I can configure I2C, SPI, Parallel port, composite video, etc... Is it there a config file?
You can install wiringpi library from Apps.
Hello, is there a way to install headless?. I do not have a screen. Can ssh over usb be done?
Great tutorial! Got tiny core running on my raspberry pi with no linux knowledge at all. However, I was expecting to install chromium or firefox via the Apps but I cannot find it. The only browser I could find was dillo3 wich doesn't support JS (wich is required for my usecase). Any suggestions on how to install chromium?
When I do:
$echo "firmware-rpi3-wireless.tcz" >> /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst
$echo "wifi.tcz" >> /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst
then try:
$tce-load -i firmware-rpi3-wireless
$tce-load -i wifi
I get the error: "firmware-rpi3-wireless.tcz not found!"
How can I resolve this?