Well Jack the term Always Fresh implies
no changes, save.dat or otherwise. So I don't think that's the option you're referring to.
I do indeed use a save.dat file. Two in fact kinda. One I use to save changes I make and the other is a backup copy that I use when the grandkids are here and I don't want them to change anything when they use the netbook. My current save.dat file is 512MB the same as yours and is approx 51% full. I do not store/save large files in my save.dat file, files that would go into the Downloads or Music or Video folders I save outside the /home/guest system on my hard drive or USB drive so 512MB is a lot of space for system type of changes. /home/guest/.config and alike and bookmarks and etc.
To save changes I boot with the changes=EXIT option, which supports saving changes as an option when I shutdown. This way if I screw up my system, and am aware of it, when I shutdown I can choose to not save my changes and reboot the way I was before I screwed up.
My changes= option is on my grub boot menu as such:
Code: Select all
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz from=/ISOs/%ISO30% changes=EXIT:/porteus3.0/changes/porteussave.dat extramod=/porteus3.0/Modules volume=40 reboot=cold ramsize=80%
In that my save.dat file is on the same drive as I boot from I don't need to specify a mnt/sda* drive.
If your using the porteus.cfg file the changes= parameter would work the same way.
As I note earlier I have two save.dat files. The second one is named porteussave.dat.xzm and is created with this script:
Code: Select all
#!/bin/sh
# http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=2866&p=20331#p20292
BDEV=`grep -A1 "Booting" /var/log/porteus-livedbg|tail -n1|sed 's^//^/^g'`
# http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=3801&start=30#p28472
VERSION=$(cat /etc/porteus-version)
FOLDER=porteus${VERSION:9:3}
MODULES="$BDEV/$FOLDER/Modules"
SAVEDAT="$BDEV/$FOLDER"
DIR () {
# echo "$1"
# ls -ghlst --full-time $1 | awk '{print $1 " " $2 " "$6 " " $7 " " $8 " " $9}' | more
ls -lght --time-style long-iso $1 | awk '{print $5,$6,$4,$7}'
# http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3965#p29205
}
DIR "$SAVEDAT/modsavedat/"
DIR "$SAVEDAT/changes/"
echo
echo -en "Press Enter to backup .dat to .xzm, Ctrl+C to end.\n"
read answer
echo Pls wait, copying in progress
cp -p $SAVEDAT/changes/porteussave.dat $SAVEDAT/modsavedat/porteussave.dat.xzm
DIR "$SAVEDAT/modsavedat/"
The key command being the cp one at the bottom which you could do manually in cli mode.
The xzm file is a copy if the dat file and in addition to being a backup it allows me to boot to a nochange safe mode with all my changes. That menu entry looks like this for me:
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kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz from=/ISOs/%ISO30% extramod=/porteus3.0/Modules;/porteus3.0/modsavedat volume=33 reboot=cold
The key being the extra directory added to the extramod= option, and no changes= option.
BTW The drive with my Porteus systems is configured as:
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porteus#.#
|
__ changes
|
__ porteussave.dat
|
__ modsavedat
|
__ porteussave.dat.xzm
|
__ Modules
|
__ firefox.xzm
__ etc
Hope this helps you Jack.