MX Linux Forum

psychlone wrote: Sun Jul 02, 2023 2:18 pm I'd like to know whether the system on an MX live USB flash drive without persistence will ever write to that drive (logs, for example) or whether all logs etc. stay in RAM. I don't imagine it'll make a difference, but in case it does, it's MX19.3 live running on a mac mini late 2012, Core i7 2.3 MHz processor, 8 GB RAM and reading files from an external hard drive. Sorry if this has been answered already, but I couldn't find it in the manual, wiki or forum. Thanks.

/antiX/state/machine-state-files
/antiX/state/general-state-files

CharlesV wrote: Sun Jul 02, 2023 8:35 pm @fehlix a question: Wouldnt those 'state logs' invalidate a crc check on the LiveUSB?

psychlone wrote: Mon Jul 03, 2023 11:00 am Thank you all for the replies.

To be clear, my preference is for nothing to be written to the USB stick by the system. I am using the live usb to play music from an external hard drive and nothing else: I won't ever update it, I won't remaster it, I won't go online with it, I won't save files to it. Perhaps I should also mention that it's been produced from a snapshot (with accounts) of a system that's been set up as I want it, so there will be no changes made during operation that need to be saved. As far as I can see, having the system write to the drive gives no advantage, and has the disadvantage of wearing the drive out quicker.

Would I be right in thinking that if I edit GRUB at boot with a 'toram' parameter so that everything runs in RAM, nothing will get written to the USB drive (obviously I could dismount and remove the stick after booting so that it wouldn't be available for writing to, but I'd prefer not to do that because my Mac is tucked away in a fairly inaccessible place, and also the arrangement of USB ports on it is designed for people with smaller hands than mine).

@fehlix - thank you very much for the information about the state files. Do you know whether, during any given session, the state files are read at any time after they've been written to in that session? What I'm thinking is that if their only purpose is to carry information over to the system after reboot, I could edit /antiX/state/machine-state-files and /antiX/state/general-state-files so that nothing gets written from now on (leaving in place the files currently in the folders /antiX/state/general and /antiX/state/machine), and it would do no harm (given that there won't be any changes that I want kept). Is that right?

psychlone wrote: Mon Jul 03, 2023 11:00 am To be clear, my preference is for nothing to be written to the USB stick by the system. I am using the live usb to play music from an external hard drive and nothing else: I won't ever update it, I won't remaster it, I won't go online with it, I won't save files to it.

dd-live-usb --help
Usage: dd-live-usb [<options>]

A save and convenient way to make a "dd" live-usb from a .iso file.
Will prompt you for the file and for the device to write to if they
are not given on the command line.

Options:
  -C --color=<xxx>       Set color scheme to off|low|low2|bw|dark|high
                         (default is high)
  -F  --force=usb        Disable safety check that ensures we only write to usb
                         and removable devices
  -f  --from=<file>      The iso file to copy
  -h  --help             Show this usage
  -P  --progress=<type>  Type of progress indicator: bar|percent|none
                         (the default is bar)
  -t  --to=<device>      The device to write to
  -v  --version          Show the version number and date

psychlone wrote: Mon Jul 03, 2023 2:40 pm... might have a use for it in the future when booting a full install.

https://mxlinux.org/wiki/system/boot-parameters/#Loading%20Modules wrote:
savestate (LiveUSB Only) Save certain “state” files across reboots even without persistence enabled. Also save certain machine-specific state files across reboots. You can control which files get saved by editing the files /live/boot-dev/antiX/state/general-state-files and /live/boot-dev/antiX/state/machine-state-files. Those files and the directory they are in will be created automatically the first time you boot the LiveUSB. This is enabled by default and it is “sticky” so once you enable it it will stay enabled until you turn it off. See below.

nosavestate (LiveUSB Only) disable saving state files. See description above. This too is sticky so when you use it saving state will stay disabled until you re-enable it.