Any way to install a MX Snapshot created ISO without creating Live USB

[advice1010]

MX 23.5 XFCE

MX Snapshot creates an ISO of your current system.
Then in order to restore from this saved ISO, user has to create a Live USB to boot with an application such as MX Live USB Maker.
Then has to boot to this Live USB and then install MX from it to restore system to that ISOs saved state.

I was wondering there was any way for user to be able to create a Live USB using the official MX XFCE install ISO from MX website.
Then boot into that official MX Live USB.
But then rather then installing MX from this official MX Live ISO that is running live, somehow be able to restore a saved ISO created by MX Snapshop instead?

Or is this more of something to use an application such as Timeshift to achieve?
Meaning save state using Timeshift, boot to live official MX USB and then restore the Timeshift saved state.

Thank You

[siamhie]

MX 23.5 XFCE

MX Snapshot creates an ISO of your current system.
Then in order to restore from this saved ISO, user has to create a Live USB to boot with an application such as MX Live USB Maker.
Then has to boot to this Live USB and then install MX from it to restore system to that ISOs saved state.

I was wondering there was any way for user to be able to create a Live USB using the official MX XFCE install ISO from MX website.
Then boot into that official MX Live USB.
But then rather then installing MX from this official MX Live ISO that is running live, somehow be able to restore a saved ISO created by MX Snapshop instead?

Or is this more of something to use an application such as Timeshift to achieve?
Meaning save state using Timeshift, boot to live official MX USB and then restore the Timeshift saved state.

Thank You

Let me get this straight. You want to create a snapshot, then boot up an official ISO and install the snapshot from within it?

That's what MX Snapshot is for. Copy/Burn it to your flash drive and just install it. No need to go the route your thinking of.

[Tom Dooley]

Alternatively one can do this, which requires even no live media:

Create a custom 'fromiso' grub entry in your current (installed) MX.

Even if your MX gets broken, if grub is still working you can select that menu entry and boot from your snapshot iso. Then install as always.

I had installed MX-21 on MX-19 this way (just, it was the official iso rather than snapshot).

[DukeComposed]

That's what MX Snapshot is for. Copy/Burn it to your flash drive and just install it. No need to go the route your thinking of.

There's nothing special about an MX snapshot ISO and there is no cryptographic signing of datasets that gets validated before they get installed like in some other operating systems.

An MX snapshot ISO is just a very fancy, incredibly complicated copy of a system converted into a bootable live session. If you have that ISO locally you can open it, extract the squashfs file from it, and unsquash it to disk:

• fdisk /dev/sda
• mkfs.something /dev/sda1
• mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
• unsquash linuxfs to /mnt
• mount --bind /dev, /proc, /sys /mnt
• chroot /mnt
• passwd
• update-grub
• grub-install /dev/sda
• exit
• umount

It's a fairly straight-forward process with a bunch of conditions that need to be upheld, but a thorough understanding of how UNIX-like systems work helps one realize that installing Linux hasn't really changed all that much over the years: partition and format a storage device, mount it, copy packages to it, chroot to the storage device, configure it, install bootloader, exit, reboot. Most operating systems we handle these days work this way. Yes, even Windows.

Once you know why this method works, you can recreate it under most typical conditions. You can install Debian, Gentoo, Mint, MX, PCLinuxOS, and Void this way to name the ones I've tried. Since MX unsquashes an existing tree of files as its "copy packages" step, this can even be done from inside the live session of a different distro because dpkg/debootstrap/apt-get aren't dependencies. I've never tried it, but there's no technical reason an Arch or a Gentoo live CD with the needed tools shouldn't work just the same as an MX live session.

[siamhie]

That's what MX Snapshot is for. Copy/Burn it to your flash drive and just install it. No need to go the route your thinking of.

There's nothing special about an MX snapshot ISO

Explain what the OP is trying to do here?

I was wondering there was any way for user to be able to create a Live USB using the official MX XFCE install ISO from MX website.
Then boot into that official MX Live USB.
But then rather then installing MX from this official MX Live ISO that is running live, somehow be able to restore a saved ISO created by MX Snapshop instead?

[atomick]

You could trick it all and answer your wish ? How!

install Oracle VirtualBox and install the SnapShot. iso there - as such right after creation - use such as a test format prove the result is accurate.

the snapshot process uses various compression features and capture copies all the files to /tmp and builds using squashfs as well to design an exact copy to .iso output same as MX-Live you downloaded to get onto MX-Linux here we are. #1 distro
this blows me away as to how fast it is and its value to backup whilst at run level-5 , older hardware usually required telinit-1 to single user mode to backup system. patience and view the process as to step thru the Snapshot pages.
2nd page also has "Exclude" so big files big dirs in /home/myAcct dir can be excluded same as any compression tool does to slim output.
do you use have any smaller personal setup scripts. Zip them 7zip them cp the file to /var/cache
when you install this result to another device This script file is avail in /var/cache to use as setup needs.
using MX-Live-USB-Maker copy snapshot.iso and boot - this may also be installed to another Flash stick of greater size be smart >64g will work well. updates and all
so quite the unique to MX only so far in my Distro venture reaching back to beginning of linux then playing on HP and Sun actual Unix Devices. then some.
food for thought. simply a little adjustment with MX from others yes some user experience may vary.

PS: okay #2 but was #1 the longest ever on DistroWatch.org

[DukeComposed]

Explain what the OP is trying to do here?

Before I begin, I just want to underscore your statement "No need to go the route you're thinking of."

Let's go through the ask piece by piece.

(1) I was wondering there was any way for user to be able to create a Live USB using the official MX XFCE install ISO from MX website.

(2) Then boot into that official MX Live USB.

(3) But then rather then installing MX from this official MX Live ISO that is running live, somehow be able to restore a saved ISO created by MX Snapshop instead?

So let's walk through this. (1) Is there any way for a user to create a live USB from the MX Xfce install ISO from the MX website? Yes. The simplest way is to download the MX Xfce install ISO from the MX website. This is what we professionals call a "freebie" or a "no-op". There's nothing to create. It's already been created for you.

Now, (2) can that official MX live USB be booted? I sure hope so. If you can't boot it, notify the developers and they'll investigate it.

That leaves (3): from an official MX ISO live session can an ISO made with MX Snapshot be installed instead?

On the face of it this sounds like an incredibly stupid question. It's a little like asking "I own a horse and I ride it to the store. If I buy a car, will my horse be able to haul it to the store so I can still buy groceries?" The answer to that is "My friend, you don't need the horse anymore. Stop overthinking things." But hang on. There's more.

I'll quote you again: "No need to go the route you're thinking of." The reason I mentioned all the steps needed to install Linux the hard way -- twice -- in post #4 was to highlight just how stinking convoluted it is to make ISO A, download ISO B, boot ISO B, and then use it to install ISO A. Can you download the official MX ISO and use it to install a different linuxfs file?

The answer here is: "It's Linux. Yeah, you can probably do it." Not only can you probably accomplish what you want, but there's a good chance you could find a way to run Doom while it happens.

Does that make it an easy thing? No. Does that make it a smart thing? Absolutely not. If I cared, I'd ask the OP to, once again, stop trying to turn the things designed to make life easier into things that make life harder. Could you make open-toed galoshes? Yes. Should you? No.

The only reason I can think of that someone would eschew the very fine gazelle-installer that comes with every official MX ISO and snapshot ISO is that they're doing something decidedly off-label, like run MX Linux as a ZFS on root system. This is something I've been doing since the late MX-18.2 era, and the short version is that there's no easy way to trick gazelle-installer into recognizing a ZFS dataset as a valid install destination, so I'm left with the fdisk/mount/unsquash/mount --rebind/chroot/config/grub-update/grub-install/exit method.

No one in his right mind should do this, and those who'd ask if it can be done shouldn't attempt it. No one should pull this kind of stunt until they not only know the answer to OP's question, but could also answer it, if asked, cogently him or herself.

Back to the question you asked:

Explain what the OP is trying to do here?

OP is trying to start a Socratic dialogue. Not particularly interested in solving a real-world problem, but posing a theoretical what-if scenario and seeing if anyone around here knows enough to point out both the method and the madness in it. "I've posed something silly, but possible. Who's going to say it's silly? Who's going to say it's possible? Let's watch them argue with each other." That sort of thing.

Can you boot ISO A and install ISO B? Yes. Should you? No. Installing from the ISO you use to boot is sufficient for I suppose 98% of all use cases, and the remaining 2% know how to take care of themselves. As you said, "No need to go the route you're thinking of."

[Adrian]

Why not boot from the snapshot and install from it? You don't even need to "burn", you could use a Ventoy USB drive and just put the ISO on that and at boot choose to boot from the snapshot ISO.

Another way is to boot from snapshot ISO from GRUB directly without involving a USB flashdrive if you want to install on the same machine, here are the instructions I found for antiX but they are similar for MX (can pretty much replace antiX labels with MX, except for the /antiX/ path that has to stay like that):

Boot from ISO on Hard Drive:
You can also boot antiX from an ISO file on your hard drive using GRUB.
This method requires editing the GRUB configuration file (/etc/grub.d/40_custom).
Add the following code to the file (replace /path/to/antix.iso with the actual path):
Code

menuentry "antiX ISO Boot" {
set root=(hd0,gpt1) # Replace with your partition
loopback loop /path/to/antix.iso
linux /antiX/linuxfs/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0
initrd /antiX/linuxfs/initrd.img
}
Save the file and run update-grub.
Reboot your computer, and you should see the "antiX ISO Boot" option in the GRUB menu.

[atomick]

Sorry to me no capeech

Can you boot ISO A and install ISO B? - sorry that makes no tangible reality boot ISO-A of a particular distro and install ISO B? sorry 1 of to 1 off of.
ISO-A (MX-Linux or MX-Snapshot iso) to install too a "Spinner/ssd/m2.nvme or even another same or high sized Flash Stick =>64g flash.

run boot off the flash stick and run like any desktop with value to speed of Flash drive choice used.
as to getting turned onto SnapShot process I did run months off Flash drive and used my own scripts to mount up my spinners and ssd drives to use content by. or temp click to temp mount and use content.
lots to imagine with. see my other comment per.. Consider KISS coming from other OS experience as one bites into MX and reading etc evolving in short time can see its value pretty cool OS distro. for me Snapshot alone has my attention.
Where does any distro come with a snapshot util and re-spin tools built in. ??? Along allowable other tools wide and available. ? SysV and systemD variable let alone posix now a day available purity.. It is all here in MX.
once a guppy swims no sooner will be chasing sharks.

[siamhie]

Why not boot from the snapshot and install from it? You don't even need to "burn",

I only used that term for those who might still use DVD's.