Testing live persistence

[anticapitalista]

Yes.

Unfortunately, you will have to keep using bp=2 /bin/load-live-modules hack until next release.

Alternatively, use root persistence. (It also saves changes to home)

[malspa]

Ah, yes. Okay, so here are my notes on creating home persistence for MX-14 beta2 on a Unetbootin flash drive:

Boot into the system with the default boot option > Menu > RemasterCC > enter password ("root") > click the "Set up live persistence" button > select action "Home: Create Home Persistence" > click "OK" > select size > File System Type (ext2 is recommended) > click "OK" > "About to create homefs file... Shall we proceed?" Clicked "Yes".

There is no confirmation message showing that this completes 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. Boot persistence is enabled.

Note: You'll then have to use bp=2 and /bin/load-live-modules each time you want to boot into home persistence mode.

[BitJam]

@malspa, I believe that all you need do at bp=2 is to wait a second or two. In fact, I tested it here and it seemed to work if I just add the ALOAD boot parameter. Could you please see if this works for you? ALOAD must be in all uppercase. There is a lowercase "aload" but that should not affect what happens.

[malspa]

@malspa, I believe that all you need do at bp=2 is to wait a second or two. In fact, I tested it here and it seemed to work if I just add the ALOAD boot parameter. Could you please see if this works for you? ALOAD must be in all uppercase. There is a lowercase "aload" but that should not affect what happens.

Not sure that I got this right. I added bp=2 ALOAD at the end of the line, so I used:

Code: Select all

quiet persist=home! antiX=MLX bp=2 ALOAD

Leaves me at the shell prompt.

[BitJam]

Thanks. I have a fix in the works but it involves a change in the code.

[BitJam]

@malspa, would you please try using load=loop and no other extra boot parameters. No bp=2 boot parameter.

One trick I use is to set bp=8. This will drop you to a shell after the home persistence file has been mounted but before we've started MX. Then you can either Ctrl-d to continue and start MX or use the command "safe-shutdown" to unmount everything cleanly and then shut down. The only reason to use this trick is to save time. If you want to start up MX anyway then there is no reason to use it. Since breakpoint 8 happens after we try to mount the home persistence file, it won't interfere with the test.

[malspa]

@malspa, would you please try using load=loop and no other extra boot parameters. No bp=2 boot parameter.

Nice! That worked fine!

[BitJam]

There is no confirmation message showing that this completes successfully.

I just made a rootfs (and a homefs) using the GUI version of persist-makefs. I've attached a screen-shot of what is shown after I create a file which does show that the file got created as well as other useful information.

Your comment indicates that this feedback is insufficient for letting the user know the operation was a success. I can add an additional window for each operation that says "xyzzy completed successfully" with an "okay" button or something like that. But I draw the line at dancing paper clips!

What do other people think? Do you think we should add confirmation windows for all the operations?

Edit: BTW the persist home bug was due to a change in how the kernel handles /dev devices and was only triggered if someone enabled home persistence without enabling root persistence. Kudos to malspa for finding it!

[Jerry3904]

What do other people think? Do you think we should add confirmation windows for all the operations?

An "OK" box is pretty nice for the end user.

[BitJam]

Okay!