In case it is useful for anyone. Salix 14.0 Live XFCE beta1

[mimosa]

Just posting this in the unlikely event that it may be useful. Assumng it's a local problem, I don't really mind

The stick now won't boot at all. Messages complain about the absence of

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/mnt/union/lib/ld/-2.15.so
/mnt/union/lib/ld/-2.15.so.saltbak
/mnt/union/lib/libc/-2.15.so
/mnt/union/lib/libc/-2.15.so.saltbak
/sbin/init: exec: line 245: chroot: not found

then there is a kernel panic.

[djemos]

Since you had used usb to use persistence and i dont know what have done, I suggest to format usb and install again on usb using liveclone. It is worth to check liveclone as well.

[mimosa]

You mean Liveclone in Live? There is a bootstrap problem

[djemos]

I am writing this message from a salixlive-xfce 64-bit live USB creating with liveclone.
What i did.
I burn salixlive-xfce 64 bit on a dvd.
Boot from dvd.
Plug in my usb-stick and mount it using the file manager.
Run liveclone. Click on "USB key" TAB. Click on "Path to Usb" and select the path /run/media/one/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx (where x are different hex numbers)
Check "unmodified LiveCD"
click on execute.
After creation umount USB from the file manager right click and click on eject.
Reboot
eject the dvd to not exist. (even it is not needed since usb is the first boot device)
Reboot again and system boot from usb without any problem.

[mimosa]

It didn't occur to me to use a DVD

But in any case, surely that will give me an identical USB to the one I made by running install-on-usb.sh?

The question is, what is wrong with persistence:

1) my stick has a memory fault so the persistent filesystem is corrupt

2) persistence can't cope with more than XX MB of new data in any one session for the reasons you explained, however big the persistent file

3) persistence isn't working properly in this Beta release

In favour of 2), but possibly also 1), I can say I think I've experienced similar problems with other Salix and slackel sticks in the past. I didn't pay it proper attention because I assumed 1) or a bad download or copy was to blame.

[djemos]

Till now let's see what we have test.
1. Boot from dvd is working OK
2. install on usb with dd, liveclone, install-on-USB.sh is working OK
3. Programs running from live environment are running OK
4. Persistence is not working.

So let's concentrate on persistence.

Mimosa, I have confirmed these but i want also you to test and confirm.
I have tested the 64 bit live edition.

Lets say my usb is /media/MyLiveUSB (replace with yours)
1. if you don't have already, prepare a live bootable usb with salixlive-xfce (64 or 32)

2. download one of these initrd files (i486 or x86_64) and copy them to /media/MyLiveUSB/boot/
become root

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su

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cp initrd.xz  /media/MyLiveUSB/boot/

3.

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cd  /media/MyLiveUSB/salixlive/persistence/

4. make the persistence file. In fat filesystem persistence file size have to be less than 4096 (file size < 4096)
I made a 4GB file.

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dd if=/dev/zero of=salixlive.save bs=1M count=4000

Make a coffee till finished.

5. format to xfs

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mkfs.xfs -f salixlive.save

6. umount USB stick and reboot

From this point i set up my wireless with wicd. Installed supertux and mozilla-firefox. I played one level on supertux. On second, quit. Next Reboot.
If reboot at once after you installed a lot of programs you will see a cursor but waiting. It saves persistence don't think something is wrong.
I saw wicd connecting to wireless. I run again supertux I was on second level.
I played another supertux level. I installed multimedia codecs and vlc with deps. qt over 150MB and 19 deps are installed.
Played some mp3, mp4 videos with parole, exaile, vlc. OK
Set up greek keyboard and locale. run libreoffice, wrote some testing doc files. And save them.
I run slapt-get --clean to free space. I do this always even in my real installation.
Reboot again.
Everything was there.

Here is a screenshot of salixlive-xfce-14.0beta1 with persistence

So please test and report back.

Edit: For those want to recreate the iso to work with persistence.
1. Open salixlive-xfce-14.0beta1.iso with isomaster
2. Delete the initrd.xz from boot folder
3. Copy the new 32 or 64 bit initrd.xz (look above) from were you have download it, to boot folder
3. choose save as and save iso in another location.
4. burn iso to a DVD or use it to create a live-usb bootable stick.

[sqlpython]

@djemos
Thank You very much for the LiveCD and apparently many headaches endured..!!
Personally, I installed Salix 14 Xfce the same week that the download posted.
But I won't miss downloading and testing the LiveCD..
Thanks Again

[mimosa]

@djemos

First of all, just to be clear, were you able to reproduce the problem with persistence, with the initrd in the iso?

I've had trouble getting the stick to boot, which may be hardware related. I tried wiping the beginning of it with

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dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1MB count=200

or similar, and creating a fresh fat32 partition with gparted.

BIOS says it is not a bootable medium (after selecting to boot from a list of media). The Boot flag is set.

I suspect the hardware...

Could someone else perhaps do a test with the new initrd?

[djemos]

@mimosa. Yes. I reproduced the problem. I got like you a Kernel panic after reboot. Run for the second time.
Kernel panic has nothing to do with size of persistence but with init on initrd and union. There were created some files for persistence which don't needed and caused the problem.
Persistence is not working with the initrd in the iso.

I have test it and it is working with new initrd.xz

Also create a bootable usb has nothing to do with the initrd.

I tried wiping the beginning of it with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1MB count=200

No. this is wrong. salixlive.save has to be in the path inside salixlive/persistence/
gparted dont make a bootable usb. You can delete the filesystem and create a new partition on all size of usb. Next format to fat32 with gparted.
Next copy the iso on usb.
and from inside boot folder on usb, run install-on-USB to make it bootable. You can use liveclone after booting with dvd to easy do all the above.
Then cd to salixlive/persistence/ folder on usb and run as root

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dd if=/dev/zero of=salixlive.save bs=1M count=500

make file size 500MB here for example
and last copy initrd.xz to boot folder
Umount usb and reboot

[mimosa]

I just forgot to run install-on-usb.sh, both times.

I'll test tomorrow and report back.