Testing live persistence

[BitJam]

Thanks Jerry and malspa! I've added more feedback after you create a file in persist-makefs. I've attached the file persist-makefs.txt which contains these changes. If you want to have it replace the current version then do this:

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sudo cp persist-makefs.txt /usr/local/bin/persist-makefs
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/persist-makefs

It would be great if you (or someone else) could test it and give me feedback.

BTW: you can also run it in CLI mode if you start it from a terminal window and use the -c (or --cli) option:

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sudo persist-makefs -c

I noticed that the list of devices was sometimes broken. I think I fixed it. The changes are in the library file antiX-common.sh. You can install this file with the command:

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sudo cp antiX-common.sh.txt /usr/local/lib/antiX/antiX-common.sh

You get to the device selection menu from the " Device: Change Persistence Device" entry in the main menu. Sometimes it will be the first thing you see if you are running from a LiveCD or from an installed system.

[malspa]

Thanks Jerry and malspa! I've added more feedback after you create a file in persist-makefs. I've attached the file persist-makefs.txt which contains these changes. If you want to have it replace the current version then do this:

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sudo cp persist-makefs.txt /usr/local/bin/persist-makefs
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/persist-makefs

It would be great if you (or someone else) could test it and give me feedback.

I ran these two commands in MX-14 default live session. After running each one, I was not returned to the command prompt, so after waiting awhile, I simply closed the terminal window each time. Probably not good.

Anyway, then I followed the same steps I followed before:

Menu > RemasterCC > entered password ("root") > clicked the "Set up live persistence" button > selected action "Home: Resize Home Persistence" > clicked "OK" > selected size > File System Type (ext2 is recommended) > clicked "OK" > "About to create homefs file... Shall we proceed?" Clicked "Yes".

The only difference from before was that instead of the action "Home: Create Home Persistence" there was the option "Home: Resize Home Persistence", so I chose that option.

Again, no confirmation message showing that this completed successfully.

Reboot and select the Home Persistence boot option. At the end of the boot code line, type bp=2, then press Enter. At the shell prompt, type /bin/load-live-modules, then press Enter, then type exit.

However:

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Could not mount file: /live/boot-dev/antiX/homefs for home persistence
Not enabling home persistence.

I am also unable to boot into home persistence using load=loop at the end of the boot code, or with nothing added to the end of the boot code.

Hm. I renamed the homefs.old file as homefs and tried to boot into home persistence again, no luck. And RemasterCC shows homefs as "broken." So put the "new" homefs back, still no luck. I think I've made a mess of things, so I guess I'll wipe this flash drive and run Unetbootin again and put the MX-14 beta2 .iso back on it and start all over.

[malspa]

I'll just hold off and check out the RC1, I guess.

[loco]

We need to get some feedback about running live persistence (and remastering) in MX-14. We'll stick to running it live from usb at the moment, but it also works (and IMO it works better) as a frugal install to hard drive.

Running from an installed MX-14-beta2 or live from cd/dvd/usb/frugal

1. Plugin the usb device you want to run MX-14 live with persistence on.
2. Thunar will automatically mount the device. Unmount it in Thunar (just clicking the pop up doesn't work)
3. Run the live-usb application
4. Find the MX-14-beta2.iso, use full disk (4GB is more than enough though), choose FAT or ext2. DO NOT CHOOSE GRUB!
Click on persistence options and keep to default (for testing) for root and home.
5. Once finished, reboot
6. At usb boot menu screen choose root persistence
7. You will be prompted for a new root and user password
8. In desktop, use the meta-installer to install a couple of apps eg Clementine, minitube (nothing too big)
9. DO NOT REBOT FROM THE MENU. For changes to save on next boot, you MUST run the Remastercc application -> Save root persistence.
10. Once that has finished, reboot as usual and again choose root persistence in the menu.
11. You should now have the apps you installed in 8 in the menu.

a little help?

i used my 64bit antix 'jessie' to create the live usb with 1.5g for root.

followed the directions and all worked pretty swell, which brings us to current #8. i used the meta installer for chromium, gimp and 'drum roll' ... kde-light ... i think it worked, but am a little skiddish with the rebooting thing, ahem.
much gratitude to all involved

usb1.jpg

any tips on how to select kde.

ps why kde would seem so important has to do with the situation of using ati opensource drivers (live) and hdmi connector, whoo...

pps having personal passwords seems natural and a nice feature imo, once i got used to it .

[malspa]

I'll add that home persistence worked fine for me in RC1. Haven't downloaded RC2, but I'm assuming that it's fine there as well.

[BitJam]

followed the directions and all worked pretty swell, which brings us to current #8. i used the meta installer for chromium, gimp and 'drum roll' ... kde-light ... i think it worked, but am a little skiddish with the rebooting thing, ahem.

The persist-save window in your screen shot shows that about 750 Meg are used in your rootfs. This sounds about right. How much RAM do you have? I ask because this will use up 750 Meg of RAM until you remaster.

If you have plenty of free space on your LiveUSB, I suggest that you go to RemasterCC and remaster. This takes a little while because it compresses your entire file system to make a new linuxfs file. Then when you reboot, the 750 Meg of RAM will be freed. If you run "free -m" now, you will see that "cached" is over 750. That is where the RAM used for storing file system changes is accounted for. If you reboot with Dynamic persistence enabled then over 750 Meg will still be cached. But if you reboot with "Static root persistence" then that 750 Meg of RAM won't be used (but your system might run very slowly). If you do the remaster-live before rebooting then the 750 Meg won't be used *and* your system will still be fast.

Recap:

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   Plain LiveCD/USB:    Runs fast, but fs changes use RAM, no saving
Dynamic Persistence:    Runs fast, but fs chagnes use RAM, changes saved
 Static Persistence:    Rusn slow, fs changes don't use RAM, changes saved
      Remaster Live:    Runs fast and fs don't use RAM, but the reamaster is expensive

So after installing a bunch of big packages, I suggest that you do a remaster-live to move the changes out of RAM and into the linuxfs file.

If you want to get familiar with this stuff, you can try the following exercises before you remaster:

• Reboot without persistence. Not much RAM is cached but all your changes are gone
• Reboot with Dynamic persistence. Your changes are back but lots of RAM is used
• Reboot with Static persistence. Your changes are back, not much RAM is cached but system is slow.
• Run remaster-live then reboot. Your changes are there, not much RAM is used, and your system is fast.