Tiny Core Linux with Qemu — Part 02

In this post, we will download the Tiny Core Linux image and install it on a virtual hard disk.

Download the Tiny Core Linux 64-bit image :

Go to Tiny Core Linux Other ports page and click on link to “Core Pure 64 Latest Build”. It will list multiple downloads, download the “TinyCorePure64–14.0.iso” or whatever be the latest version instead of 14.0

Tiny Core Linux Download page for “Core Pure 64"

Create a virtual hard disk image

First Copy the .iso file to folder of your choice. Then run following command to create a virtual hard disk image with size as per required.

qemu-img create tinycore_14_x64.img 1G

in above command :
> qemu-img : the qemu utility to work with disk images
> create : We want to create a disk image
> tinycore_14_x64.img : The name of hard disk as per your choice
> 1G : capacity of disk image (1 GB)
> Also, since we have not specified any image format (like qcow2), 
  it will create a raw image.

Boot from CDROM image

Run below command to boot the virtual machine with cdrom iso file we downloaded previously.

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 256 -nic user -boot d -cdrom TinyCorePure64-14.0.iso -drive format=raw,file=tinycore_14_x64.img

in above commmand :
> qemu-system-x86_64 : qemu system emulator for x86_64 processor architecture
> -m 256 : Memory (RAM) in MB (here 256 MB)
> -nic user : Network Interface Card (User Stack),
  read more about it elsewhere on internet, but for now believe that it will
  allow guest VM (TinyCoreLinux) to access internet.
> -boot d : boot order (d means boot from first virtual CDROM)
> -cdrom TinyCorePure64-14.0.iso : This is the bootable CDROM image we downloaded
> -drive format=raw,file=tinycore_14_x64.img :
  The virtual hard disk image, where we want to perform OS installation.

If all goes well, you will see following boot prompt in a qemu window, select “Boot TinyCorePure64” :

Boot Prompt

Once Tiny Core has booted, you will see following GUI (yes, a true X11 Window system in 31 MB image !!!)

Tiny Core Linux GUI

Before beginning the installation, just check that the hard disk image is being detected, using sudo fdisk -l command, refer screenshot below :

The 1 GB (1024 MB) raw disk image detected as /dev/sda

Download The Tiny Core Linux GUI installer

Launch the Apps icon (located in menu bar at bottom), if it asks for selecting fastest mirror then select yes. Now, select Apps > Cloud (Remote) > Browse.

Browse the apps in Cloud Repo

Search for tc-install and install the tc-install-GUI.tcz, refer screenshot below, note that it will take some time :

Download and Install the GUI Installer

Once installed, the status bar will show : “tc-install-GUI.tcz OK”.

Install Tiny Core Linux using GUI installer

Now, launch the tc-install GUI using the icon in menu bar at the bottom of the screen, select the Frugal installation, whole disk, select the sda and select install boot loader.

Installation type and disk to be installed on

select ext4 formatting option :

ext4 disk formatting

Enter the following Boot options, you can read what it does in description above the input text box :

opt=sda1 home=sda1

Boot Options

Select install extensions

Extension Installation

Select Proceed :

Proceed with Installation

It will prompt once OS has been installed.

Installation Completed

Now, you can shutdown the VM

Shutdown the VM

Now that we have OS (Tiny Core Linux) installed in virtual hard disk image, we will boot our VM using same hard disk in next post “Part 03” along with configuring ssh for easy access from host machine (i.e., Windows)