[solved] Live USB persistence

[hundovir]

Hello.

I've been playing with the live iso for a couple of days and very much enjoying it. I use Slackware as my main distro and am hoping to use Salix live as a "pocket" version.

I seem to have successfully installed the live iso to an 8G usb stick. I say "seem to", because although everything runs perfectly well (including wifi) I do not have any persistence. At top level the USB has the boot folder and a 1G "persistent" file. I am booting with the persistent menu option and have checked that this does indeed include the changes=persistent parameter. Despite this, nothing is saved.

On powering down one of the console messages is:

can't find /live/changes in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

and, indeed there is no mention of that in either file.

I like the feel of Salix, and may do a standard install on a spare partition. But I would like a live version with persistence as well. Any suggestions? Many thanks in advance.

[gapan]

How did you write the iso to the usb drive?

[hundovir]

First try I loop mounted the iso and ran the install script. Had the same problem as at present. Second (current) try I loop mounted the iso, copied all files/dirs to the usb and then ran the install script from there. Created a 1G persistent file when asked. That file is indeed on the USB.

Edit: USB did not boot at first, so I installed syslinux from my Slackware. Boots fine now, with all syslinux menus available.

[djemos]

syslinux has to be installed or exist on your system to create the bootable usb stick.
So run again the script to create the persistent file. Then boot with persistent from menus and use it.
For example, for a 64-bit iso installed on /dev/sdb, you should
run the following command to create persistence:

Code: Select all

sudo sh install_on_usb.sh --persistent 64 /dev/sdb

for 32-bit replace 64 with 32.

[hundovir]

Thanks djemos. Yes, syslinux is installed on the Slackware I was running when launching the script.

I have done a third install and everything seems to work fine this time, but I don't think I did anything different. Everything works fine despite now getting an "improperly dismounted" message at the console as part of the messages at every boot.

I'll mark this "solved", although, as I say, I'm not sure what I did differently this time.