Module 25: Xvesa Issues

Introduction

The ISO image for TinyCore has a bug where you will see two mice. This is because the ISO has issues with the display adapter.

Resolution

This can be resolved by installing TinyCore to a disk image and installing xorg-7.7 from the repo.

As a workaround when using your mouse on these VMs you can move off the noVNC screen and continue your movement from the opposite side to control where you need to go.

Step by Step

Download TinyCore Plus.

distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/downloads.html

Start TinyCore with a bridged adapter and a disk in snapshot false

disk create qcow2 /home/ubuntu/tinycore.qcow2 100G
vm config disk /home/ubuntu/tinycore.qcow2
vm config cdrom /home/ubuntu/CorePlus-current.iso
vm config memory 256
vm config net 0
vm config snapshot false
vm launch kvm tiny
vm start tiny

When on the desktop, click on install.

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Select Whole Disk, Click on sda, and click on the next arrow.

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Click on the next arrow

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Click on the next arrow

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Click on the next arrow

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Click proceed

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When finished close the window

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Click on the exit icon in the taskbar

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Click OK to shutdown the VM.

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Remove the ISO from the VM.

vm flush
clear vm config cdrom /home/ubuntu/CorePlus-current.iso
vm launch kvm tiny
vm start tiny

Turn the VM on and when on the desktop Click on Apps

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Click Yes

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Click OK when the fastest mirror is selected.

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Click Apps->Cloud(Remote)->Browse

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Search for xorg

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click on Xorg-7.7.tcz

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click Go

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Wait for the download to finish and install

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Click on the X to close the Apps window

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Click on exit

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Click OK to turn off the machine

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Copy this image to your minimega machine.

Booting tinycore with Xorg

minimega -attach
clear vm config
vm config memory 128
vm config disk /home/ubuntu/tiny.qcow
vm launch kvm tiny
vm start tiny

Broken:

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Fixed:

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Fixing the viewport

You may notice the mouse lines up, but the bottom half of the screen scrolls. You need to create a valid xorg.conf and set a vga resolution as a kernel append argument.

To set a kernel append argument

sudo vi /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

after quiet add

vga=791

To set an xorg.conf

sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And paste the following file

Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier     "X.org Configured"
   Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
   InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
   InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
   Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Keyboard0"
   Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Mouse0"
   Driver      "mouse"
   Option       "Protocol" "auto"
   Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
   Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "Monitor0"
   VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
   ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Card0"
   Driver       "vesa"
   BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier "Screen0"
   Device     "Card0"
   Monitor    "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth   16
   SubSection "Display"
      Virtual 1024 768
      Depth   16
      Modes   "1024x768"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

With TinyCore in order to save files between boots they need to be added to a list

sudo vi /opt/.filetool.lst

This list needs to be processed by the program filetool.sh

sudo filetool.sh -b

On reboot this should fix the view port issue.

Authors

The minimega authors

30 May 2017