mx snapshot does not remember /etc/fstab etc [Solved]

[fkam18]

Hi,
I did a snapshot to an iso, using the "for personal use" option, and then MX Live Usb Maker, but the resulting boot does not seem to remember my customized /etc/fstab content as well as desktop settings. I did choose to exclude Documents, Videos, Photos, but I included Network.

Then I tried to MX Live USB Maker using "clone running live system" option, and it works well with the expected.

I'm running the Live USB MX with toram.

Wonder if I did anything wrong?

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20240513_1922
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-17-amd64 [6.1.69-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splasht nosplash lang=en_GB kbd=gb tz=Europe/London
    persist_root toram splasht
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM Distro: MX-23.2_KDE_x64 Libretto
    January 21 2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 7490 v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0KP0FT v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: 1.35.0
    date: 11/02/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 44.4 Wh (79.1%) condition: 56.1/60.0 Wh (93.5%) volts: 7.7 min: 7.6
    model: LGC-LGC7.780 DELL 2X39G type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-8350U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Coffee Lake gen: core 8 level: v3
    note: check built: 2017 process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x8E (142) stepping: 0xA (10)
    microcode: 0xF4
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 799 high: 800 min/max: 400/3600 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 799 7: 800 8: 800
    bogomips: 30399
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling,
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: TSX disabled
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5
    process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-5:2
    chip-ID: 0c45:6717 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22") s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x14d3 built: 2016 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 158
    gamma: 1.2 size: 309x173mm (12.17x6.81") diag: 354mm (13.9") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.2-1~mx23ahs renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci_intel_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-17-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6
    chip-ID: 8086:15d7 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl pcie:
    gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-7:3 chip-ID: 8087:0032
    class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 5 state: up address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 188.21 GiB (19.7%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 model: VIATHAN N001T4V-1TB size: 953.87 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: H230509a
    temp: 42.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C pch: 45.5 C mobo: 38.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2544 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2537 libs: 1378 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala pm: rpm pkgs: 0
    pm: flatpak pkgs: 7
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
  Processes: 279 Uptime: 16h 12m wakeups: 2308 Memory: 31.22 GiB used: 12.05 GiB (38.6%)
  Init: SysVinit v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0
  alt: 12 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[Adrian]

Even if you do a "personal use" snapshot some stuff is still reset, why would it keep /etc/fstab if you boot the resulting ISO to another computer?

[trawglodyte]

Does your snapshot have a file /etc/fstab-disk-manager-save ? If so, open in a text editor and take a look, might be your custom fstab, just have to rename it and reboot. I have one, not sure if it got made when I did the snapshot or from something else.

[fkam18]

I would tend to think a snapshot mean a "copy" of whatever it is there. Would be nice if anyone could advise what won't be included (or reset to...) in the snapshot?

[trawglodyte]

I would tend to think a snapshot mean a "copy" of whatever it is there. Would be nice if anyone could advise what won't be included (or reset to...) in the snapshot?

The second screen of MX-Snapshot gives you options for excluded directories/files.


The list of what's excluded is /etc/mx-snapshot-exclude.list and looks something like this.

Code: Select all

# rsync excludes file for mx-snapshot
# version 15.2.20

# Do NOT edit this entry block unless you know what you are doing
.bind-root
.config
.fehbg
lost+found
swapfile
tmp
tmpdir
dev/*
cdrom/*
live
media/*
mnt/*
sys/*
proc/*
run/*
boot/grub/!(themes|unicode.pf2)
etc/adjtime
etc/bcm-ckd
etc/blkid.tab.old
etc/defaultdomain
etc/crypttab
etc/fstab.backup
etc/ioctl.save
etc/live/protect
etc/machine-id
etc/mailname
etc/mtab
etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-cd.rules
etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
etc/resolv.conf
etc/volkeys/*
home/timeshift/snapshots
home/snapshot
home/*/.config/MX-Linux/xdg_check
root/.bash_history
root/.cache
root/.local/share/mc/history
root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
root/.local/share/Trash/*
root/.dbus
root/.gconf
root/.gnome2
root/.lesshst
root/.Trash*
root/.sudo_as_admin_successful
root/.xsession-errors*
root/keyfile
timeshift/snapshots
var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
var/cache/apt/archives/partial/*
var/cache/apt-xapian-index/index.*
var/cache/apt-show-versions/*
var/cache/apt/*.bin
var/cache/apt/apt-file/*
var/cache/debconf/*-old
var/cache/lightdm
var/cache/samba/browse.dat
var/lib/apt/lists/*
var/lib/apt/periodic/*
var/lib/dbus/machine-id
var/lib/dhcp/*
var/lib/dpkg/*-old
var/lib/lightdm/.cache
var/lib/lightdm/.Xauthority
var/lib/NetworkManager/*
var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs/*
var/lib/sudo/*
var/lib/udisks/*
var/lib/urandom/*
var/log/!(apache2|clamav|libvirt|samba)
var/log/clamav/*
var/log/samba/*
var/mail/*
var/spool/mail/*
var/spool/anacron/*
var/tmp/*
var/cache/brightness-settings-cache/*

# Entries below this can be edited by the user. If you have any large
# files or directories, you should exclude them from being copied
# by adding them to this list.

home/*/.cache/mozilla/firefox/*/cache2/*
home/*/.cache/mozilla/firefox/*/thumbnails/*
home/*/.cache/librewolf/*/cache2/*
home/*/.cache/librewolf/*/thumbnails/*
home/*/.cache/thumbnails/*
home/*/.cache/vivaldi/Default/Cache/*
home/*/.cache/xfce4/clipman/textsrc*
home/*/.mozilla/firefox/*/Cache/*
home/*/.mozilla/firefox/*/cache2/*
home/*/.mozilla/seamonkey/*/Cache/*
home/*/.adobe
home/*/.dbus
home/*/.keyfileDONOTdelete
home/*/.macromedia
home/*/.sudo_as_admin_successful
home/*/.thumbnails/*
home/*/.Trash*
home/*/.local/share/Trash/*
# home/*/.cache
home/*/.gvfs
home/*/.bash_history
home/*/.lesshst
home/*/.recently-used
home/*/.recently-used.xbel
home/*/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
home/*/.local/share/mc/history
home/*/.xsession-errors*
home/*/.xfce4-session.verbose-log*

# Examples:
home/*/Desktop/*
home/*/Documents/*
home/*/Downloads/*
home/*/Music/*
home/*/Pictures/*
home/*/Videos/*
home/*/Ventoy/*


# Other possible exclusions
# usr/share/doc/*


# To exclude all hidden files and directories in your home, uncomment
# the next line. You will lose custom desktop configs if you do.
# home/*/.[a-z,A-Z,0-9]*

# This stops any video drivers from loading - safe option.
# etc/X11/xorg.conf
# etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
# etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
# etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-radeon.conf
# etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amd.conf

[Adrian]

in addition to the excluded files there are the /usr/local/share/live-files that are mounted over at creation time to reset files that need to be reset to generalize the ISO (so the resulting ISO is close to the released ISO in such a way that it can run on multiple machines) the empty /usr/local/share/live-files/files/etc/fstab is there. If you know what you are doing and you think you are going to use an ISO only on one machine configuration you could remove that file (it will be recreated when we update the "mx-remaster" file. You might also break some remastering functions if you mess up too much with the files over there.

[Charlie Brown]

I would tend to think a snapshot mean a "copy" of whatever it is there...

Yes, but as Adrian already said: If fstab is kept as is , someday you may need your snapshot even on the same pc when things are changed (different partition table and/or different/new uuids/labels etc..) .. then, say, when you (try to) boot with your live usb (and especially when you need that as an emergency tool, to repair/recover data etc...) voila: It can't boot, just a blinking cursor on a black screen, cause it's looking for non-existing partitions/uuid numbers in vain ...

Shortly, you can simply take a copy of fstab to somewhere, say, Documents ... also don't exclude it .. later use manually (then remaster).

[MXRobo]

Re: "I would tend to think a snapshot mean a "copy" of whatever it is there..."

My 2 cents: From the name "MX-Snapshot", maybe, but from what it actually does, not so much; because it creates an ISO, very similar to the official MX ISO that you download for installing.
The ISO would be nonfunctional on other computers, or even the same computer if you wanted to change some things.

It's for a installing, not just reinstalling for the same identical situation.
I think others have suggested Clonezilla for something like that, and thought that it was better/faster.

Cheers!

[Adrian]

My 2 cents: From the name "MX-Snapshot", maybe, but from what it actually does, not so much; because it creates an ISO

Maybe at some point will change the name of that to "mx-iso-maker".

The origin of the tool was an "iso-remaster" script that anticapitalista was using to mount ISOs and edit stuff and repackage them back to ISO, together with BitJam we figured out how to do it so we can actually create an ISO from a live environment, hence "snapshot" initially was working only with live environment if I remember correctly and with that it didn't need much resetting because it would mostly duplicate the live environment and just compressed it to a linuxfs, but once we figured out that we can do it from an installation we needed to exclude a bunch of files and to reset other files to some sane settings to make it work as a live environment -- it's pretty much a "installed-to-live" program (just as the name of the CLI tool that BitJam developed as a helper for the GUI, that's why we have a "/usr/sbin/installed-to-live" script that's part of mx-remaster)

[figueroa]

Anything you (user) find missing from an MX-Snapshot ISO, you can copy separately if you need or want it. You can also make some adjustments to the exclusion file during the MX-Snapshot gui process. For example, I change the exclusion for /mnt/* to /mnt/*/* because I don't want my user created mount-points to be lost, especially since some of my scripts depend on them. The change from /mnt/* to /mnt/*/* can do no harm for running as in a live environment on some other machine and won't make the ISO any larger. ON the contrary, not resetting /etc/fstab may make an ISO unbootable and a different PC.

There is no need to change the name of the program MX-Snapshot. The name does a good job of implying what it's used for and if there is any doubt, that is dispelled on the first screen of the GUI. There is also a useful manual that can be read in the shell/command line by typing "man mx-snapshot" .