[SOLVED] Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

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George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#16 by George » 23 Nov 2015, 15:28

brokenman wrote:Can you now please post the entire contents of your porteus.cfg file? Thanks.
Here is what I have:


PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 90
UI vesamenu.c32
DEFAULT LXQt
MENU BACKGROUND porteus.png
MENU TITLE Porteus-3.1 64bit

MENU WIDTH 30
MENU MARGIN 2
MENU ROWS 10
MENU HELPMSGROW 17
MENU TIMEOUTROW 28
MENU TABMSGROW 15
MENU CMDLINEROW 22
MENU HSHIFT 4
MENU VSHIFT 5

menu color screen 37;40 #00000000 #00000000 none
menu color border 30;44 #00000000 #00000000 none
menu color title 1;36;44 #ffF6FF00 #30003f07 none
menu color unsel 37;44 #ffffffff #00000000 none
menu color hotkey 1;37;44 #ff8037b7 #00000000 none
menu color sel 7;37;40 #ff111B78 #003f7fbf none
menu color hotsel 1;7;37;40 #ffaf67f7 #003f7fbf none
menu color scrollbar 30;44 #00000000 #00000000 none

menu color tabmsg 31;40 #ffB6F538 #00000000 none
menu color cmdmark 1;36;40 #ffff0000 #00000000 none
menu color cmdline 37;40 #ffffffff #ff000000 none
menu color pwdborder 30;47 #ffff0000 #00000000 std
menu color pwdheader 31;47 #ffff0000 #00000000 std
menu color pwdentry 30;47 #ffff0000 #00000000 std
menu color timeout_msg 37;40 #ff809aef #00000000 none
menu color timeout 1;37;40 #ffb72f9f #00000000 none
menu color help 37;40 #ffD5F538 #00000000 none
menu color msg07 37;40 #90ffffff #00000000 std


LABEL LXQt
MENU LABEL Graphics mode (LXQt)
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=EXIT:UUID:E8FB-6830/porteus/porteussave.dat
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the best way we can.
Try to autoconfigure graphics
card and use the maximum
allowed resolution
ENDTEXT

LABEL fresh
MENU LABEL Always Fresh
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz nomagic base_only norootcopy
TEXT HELP
Normally Porteus saves all changes
to the /porteus/changes/ directory
on the boot media (if writable)
and restores them next boot.
Use this option to start a fresh
system, changes are not read from
or written to any device
ENDTEXT

LABEL copy2ram
MENU LABEL Copy To RAM
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz copy2ram
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the same as above,
but first copy all data to RAM
to get a huge speed increase
(needs >768MB)
ENDTEXT

LABEL text
MENU LABEL Text mode
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz 3
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus in text mode and
start the command prompt only
ENDTEXT

LABEL pxe-boot
MENU LABEL Porteus as PXE server
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz pxe
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus as usual, but also
initialize a PXE server.
This will allow you to boot Porteus
on other computers over a network
ENDTEXT

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL plop
MENU LABEL PLoP BootManager
KERNEL plpbt
TEXT HELP
Run the plop boot manager.
This utility provides handy
boot-USB options for machines
with vintage/defective BIOS
ENDTEXT

LABEL hd
MENU LABEL Boot from the first hd
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND hd0 1
TEXT HELP
Don't start Porteus at all, but
rather run any operating system
installed on the first partition
of the hard drive
ENDTEXT

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Ed_P
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#17 by Ed_P » 23 Nov 2015, 15:42

tmsg wrote:Yesterday I tested Porteus on a USB stick formatted as NTFS
George, different stick = different UUID code => you have to change the save.dat's code in the porteus.cfg file. The same is true if you reformat the original stick.
(so far I've always used ext4)
If you use a Linux format you don't need a save.dat file.

Also, IMO journaling formats are not good for flash drives. Overhead and they are not disks so not needed.
Ed

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tmsg
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#18 by tmsg » 23 Nov 2015, 16:28

Ed_P wrote:
tmsg wrote:Yesterday I tested Porteus on a USB stick formatted as NTFS
George, different stick = different UUID code => you have to change the save.dat's code in the porteus.cfg file. The same is true if you reformat the original stick.
(so far I've always used ext4)
If you use a Linux format you don't need a save.dat file.

Also, IMO journaling formats are not good for flash drives. Overhead and they are not disks so not needed.
Hey Ed, checking who's the sender of a msg really helps:

Code: Select all

tmsg != George.
Anyway, my post was simply a +1 for Fanthom's suggestion to show the relevant information.

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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#19 by brokenman » 23 Nov 2015, 17:22

You porteus.cfg file looks good. Your cheatcode looks good. Lets try one more time from the beginning and if changes aren't working we will move onto creating a linux file system partition if that is an option.

Please create your porteussave.dat and change the name to mysave.dat (just to remove confusion) and place it on the root of your USB device. That means on the USB device you should have the folder boot, porteus and a file called mysave.dat
Be sure that you have only one install of porteus on the USB, and that no hard drive porteus install might be getting picked up.

Here are the changes= cheatcodes you should try.

changes=/dev/sdb1/mysave.dat
changes=/mnt/sdb1/mysave.dat
changes=UUID:E8FB-6830/mysave.dat

If you see the message during boot about creating the .dat file then the changes= code did not work.
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.

donald
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#20 by donald » 24 Nov 2015, 01:00

Hi guys
Could it be that his (George) bios is still set to boot in uefi and not in legacy (bios) mode?
I have no experience with uefi but i found a comment "made by brokenman" about Changes:

Changes can be made permanent by adding this line into the boot config file.
If you are booting on UEFI then it is /mnt/sdXy/EFI/BOOT/refind.conf
If you are booting with BIOS it is /mnt/sdXy/boot/syslinux/porteus.conf

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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#21 by brokenman » 24 Nov 2015, 03:47

It could well be. At the boot screen menu, do you see a picture of a house on the water, or a purple screen with a porteus logo?
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.

George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#22 by George » 24 Nov 2015, 04:26

brokenman wrote:You porteus.cfg file looks good. Your cheatcode looks good. Lets try one more time from the beginning and if changes aren't working we will move onto creating a linux file system partition if that is an option.

Please create your porteussave.dat and change the name to mysave.dat (just to remove confusion) and place it on the root of your USB device. That means on the USB device you should have the folder boot, porteus and a file called mysave.dat
Be sure that you have only one install of porteus on the USB, and that no hard drive porteus install might be getting picked up.

Here are the changes= cheatcodes you should try.

changes=/dev/sdb1/mysave.dat
changes=/mnt/sdb1/mysave.dat
changes=UUID:E8FB-6830/mysave.dat

If you see the message during boot about creating the .dat file then the changes= code did not work.
I followed these instructions and still couldn't make it to save changes. After I reboot I'm back to where I started, even though I can see the mysave.dat file in the USB root.

George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#23 by George » 24 Nov 2015, 04:28

brokenman wrote:It could well be. At the boot screen menu, do you see a picture of a house on the water, or a purple screen with a porteus logo?
I see the Porteus logo across the top of the screen, and underneath I have choice between the two boot icons- Windows or Porteus, with F2 offering more boot options.

George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#24 by George » 24 Nov 2015, 04:48

I think perhaps this is an EFI/BIOS related problem, as Donald suggested. I'll just start over - I'll build another ISO, and mount it on another laptop, to see if that would take me anywhere.

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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#25 by donald » 24 Nov 2015, 05:13

Hi George
It seems you have the efi boot screen which in turn means that you have written
the changes= line into the wrong File = porteus.conf.
you need to write this line into the refind.conf (/EFI/BOOT/refind.conf)
But because i do not have any uefi system I'm not able to provide the proper
syntax and place.Someone else will do...stay tuned.

George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#26 by George » 24 Nov 2015, 05:30

George wrote:I think perhaps this is an EFI/BIOS related problem, as Donald suggested. I'll just start over - I'll build another ISO, and mount it on another laptop, to see if that would take me anywhere.
And this worked! I reformatted the SanDisk 16gb USB3.0 flash drive, built another ISO (KDE4, with EFI support), booted the Toshiba laptop from it, created the mysave.dat file in root of hte flash drive, changed porteus.cfg to specify the path to the .dat file ('changes=/mnt/sdb1/mysave.dat'), and created a blank file "stay-with-me.txt" on the desktop. Rebooted, it was still there. Rebooted into Windows 10. Then rebooted again into Porteus, and my file was still there on the desktop. During rebooting there was the beach house with the Porteus logo (as opposed to the purple screen).

Next, I'll try that USB drive back on the Lenovo laptop again and see if it would work. Love the KDE4, by the way, but it's a bit slower.

George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#27 by George » 24 Nov 2015, 05:41

donald wrote:Hi George
It seems you have the efi boot screen which in turn means that you have written
the changes= line into the wrong File = porteus.conf.
you need to write this line into the refind.conf (/EFI/BOOT/refind.conf)
But because i do not have any uefi system I'm not able to provide the proper
syntax and place.Someone else will do...stay tuned.
Thanks Donald. Apparently that's the problem on the Lenovo and I will await instructions on how to modify the proper file. After I tried the same USB that worked on a friend's laptop, I booted again on my Lenovo, and the test file was no longer on the desktop.

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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#28 by Ed_P » 24 Nov 2015, 07:09

Ok George, Donald is correct :good: you're booting on a UEFI machine. My flash drive boots on BIOS and UEFI systems also so I think I can help you.

In BIOS mode the changes to the /boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file at line 41 are what you need and apparently have done.

In UEFI mode the changes to the /EFI/BOOT/refind.conf file at line 470 are what you are interested in along with:

1. You will need to disable the UEFI machine's Secure Boot option.

2. You need to change line 470 to match the name and location of your save.dat file.

3. When you boot on the EFI system you need to select the Porteus icon then press F2 to see the Porteus menu option for "Save changes".

Once you get the drive to boot on the UEFI system and to Save Changes we can talk about making that the default option. :)
tmsg wrote:Hey Ed, checking who's the sender of a msg really helps:

Code: Select all

tmsg != George.
:oops:
Ed

George
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Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#29 by George » 24 Nov 2015, 10:01

Ed, it worked! Thank you!!!

I edited /EFI/BOOT/refind.conf to add the path to my .dat file on line 470 and rebooted in "Save Changes" mode without any issues. However, I couldn't disable "Secure Boot", because I can't find such a switch in the BIOS settings of this machine. That's why I abandoned my original plan for a dual- boot setup on the hard drive and decided to use a live USB instead.

Now, how do I make "Save Changes" the default boot option on a UEFI machine?

aus9

Re: Can't Save Changes on a Live USB

Post#30 by aus9 » 24 Nov 2015, 13:04

George

Not exact model but try this howto disable secure booting in bios
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fe ... 02s02.html

Just remember that Windows 8 onwards needs secure booting on to enable it to boot up.

Rant starts
Can anyone explain why there is no windows 9?
Do Microsoft users actually think their operating system is more secure than Linux because they need UEFI secure boot?
Rant ends

I propose they thought
A it might reduce the uptake of Linux as so many people were still on XP
B they had no way to solve their problem with the hidden sector malware in the second 512 bytes just past the MBR.

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