Stuck on v5x64 Xfce persistence

Technical issues/questions of an intermediate or advanced nature.
sean
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Stuck on v5x64 Xfce persistence

Post#16 by sean » 24 Mar 2023, 11:16

Ed,

The computer I used for the DVD boot & installation to the flash-drive does indeed allow for EFI booting. It also supports Legacy BIOs. Both were activated during the installation. It is an HP Pavilion Notebook 10 years or so old.

Is it necessary to report this elsewhere, under Bug Reports or Development or perhaps that now falls under your purview?

Sean

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Post#17 by Ed_P » 24 Mar 2023, 16:18

sean wrote:
24 Mar 2023, 11:16
Is it necessary to report this elsewhere, under Bug Reports
That would be a good idea sean. It would help draw attention to the problem.

Added in 2 hours 43 minutes 10 seconds:
BTW sean, on a new USB drive I installed Porteus 5.0 via my Dell Windows 11 laptop and it copied the EDI folder to the USB drive. With Windows 11 machines EFI is mandatory, on your 10 yr old desktop EFI may be optional and that could explain why your USB install didn't copy the EFI folder. Not implying that's right but maybe an explanation.

BTW How old is your Porteus 5.0 system? Has it be updated since you installed it? Maybe the bug has been fixed.

My system:

Code: Select all

~#  cat /etc/porteus/*
001-core.xzm:20230217
002-xorg.xzm:20230217
002-xtra.xzm:20221211
003-cinnamon.xzm:20220925
initrd.xz:20220928
Added in 1 hour 32 minutes 18 seconds:
FYI I just made a change to the /porteus .cfg file and it was picked up when I rebooted. Not a changes= change.
Ed

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Stuck on v5x64 Xfce persistence

Post#18 by sean » 24 Mar 2023, 20:48

Ed_P,

I did an immediate updates yesterday on both the troublesome Flash-Drive and the one that worked right away, both updates from the Porteus Setting Center. cat /etc/porteus/* shows both sets of files to be identical.

core, xorg, & xtra have identical dates such as yours. My xfce4 shows 20220505
initrd.xz 20220509

Sean

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Post#19 by Ed_P » 24 Mar 2023, 20:58

I think the problem is the /boot/syslinux's .cfg file has an APPEND line for the top menu option that has a changes= cheatcode on it. If a changes= cheatcode is added to the /porteus's .cfg file I think the /boot/syslinux's .cfg file's APPEND line's changes=/porteus overrides it.

Interesting.

The /porteus's .cfg file needs it's changes folder comment updated.

Code: Select all

## Tell porteus where the changes folder is
# changes=/mnt/sda2/changes
## If used requires removing the changes= cheatcode from the
## APPEND line in the /boot/syslinux's porteus.cfg file.
Added in 28 minutes 13 seconds:
Ed_P wrote:
24 Mar 2023, 20:58
If a changes= cheatcode is added to the /porteus's .cfg file I think the /boot/syslinux's .cfg file's APPEND line's changes=/porteus overrides it.
I think I just confirmed this scenario. :)
Ed

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Stuck on v5x64 Xfce persistence

Post#20 by sean » 25 Mar 2023, 00:49

Ed,

Yes, I agree. For instance in my case where the Porteus savefile mgr was itself creating the changes=/full-path-to-the/save.dat file and placing it into the porteus/porteus*.cfg file, then asking me to confirm the path to be correct.

And I still had no persistence.

I simply copied that same path to the /boot/syslinx/porteus.cfg file's APPEND line.

This still resulted in no persistence.

I finally went back and #'d the changes=statement in the porteus/porteus*.cfg file.

That got me persistence.

At least I think/hope this is in agreement with your findings ;-)

Sean

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Stuck on v5x64 Xfce persistence

Post#21 by ncmprhnsbl » 25 Mar 2023, 06:30

sean wrote:
24 Mar 2023, 20:48
My xfce4 shows 20220505
there is an updated version of xfce availble that the updater fails to apply because of an internal versioning error, that has to be got manually: eg from: http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/port ... 3-xfce.xzm
or another mirror.
and yes there are some unresolved issues with the porteus-v5.0-x86_64.cfg usage, ie. there are some cheatcodes that are either inappropriate for that location, or simply don't work from there and the documentation should reflect that.
some of this has been addressed in the updates and some will be sorted by the next release, hopefully :)
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Post#22 by Ed_P » 25 Mar 2023, 12:14

sean wrote:
24 Mar 2023, 00:33
Completed installation with Porteus Installer showed only a boot folder and a porteus folder, NO EFI folder was installed although it is on the DVD, interesting.
I think this should be addressed in an update or next release also ncmp. The Installer should always copy the EFI folder.
Ed

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Post#23 by ncmprhnsbl » 26 Mar 2023, 01:01

Ed_P wrote:
25 Mar 2023, 12:14
I think this should be addressed in an update or next release also ncmp. The Installer should always copy the EFI folder.
yep, already done.
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Post#24 by Ed_P » 26 Mar 2023, 14:45

sean wrote:
24 Mar 2023, 00:33
Completed installation with Porteus Installer showed only a boot folder and a porteus folder, NO EFI folder was installed although it is on the DVD, interesting.
I wonder what format the USB was when Porteus Installer was run? EFI requires FAT32 but Porteus runs fine on ext formats. Adding the EFI folder to an ext formatted drive wouldn't hurt, it just wouldn't work for EFI booting.
ncmprhnsbl wrote:
25 Mar 2023, 06:30
the next release,
:o Release! You're thinking about another release! :shock: A 5.1 or a 6.0? :Yahoo!:
Ed

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Post#25 by sean » 26 Mar 2023, 15:42

Hi Ed,

Sorry for any confusion here, and probably won't be able to confirm this today, perhaps tomorrow. I have some pending obligations today.

However, my recollection is that I wanted to have EFI boot capabilities, which called for, as I understand it, the Flash-Drive or Booting partition, to be formatted in Fat32. I'm pretty certain the drive in question was formatted in Fat32.

Some years ago, because I was layman testing virtually everything coming out of "Distrowatch", I questioned the initial/manufactured file format of retail purchased "Thumb-drives"(Flash-Drives). I found that to be Fat32. Therefore whenever I try a distro on a Flash-Drive I first use GParted to format (or check) the Flash-Drive format(s). And I respond/react as/or if any different (or ambiguious file format is recommended).

As mentioned, I'm pretty certain it was formatted in Fat32, but I will confirm this at my first opportunity.

With every breath, heart-beat, or thought, another variable is introduced,

Sean

To answer your question;
"I wonder what format the USB was when Porteus Installer was run?"

The Flash-Drive is/was formatted to FAT32. I just now duplicated the entire process as described here in this thread. Same result, completed install showed no EFI folder.
Last edited by sean on 27 Mar 2023, 10:47, edited 1 time in total.

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Post#26 by babam » 26 Mar 2023, 15:57

Ed_P wrote:
26 Mar 2023, 14:45
:o Release! You're thinking about another release! :shock: A 5.1 or a 6.0? :Yahoo!:
Maybe 5.0.1
Sorry, my English is bad.

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Post#27 by Ed_P » 26 Mar 2023, 16:21

NO Not a .0.1. :( :no:

:D
Ed

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Post#28 by beny » 26 Mar 2023, 21:23

hi ncmprhnsbl I did some tests with the save.dat, first with the fat32 filesystem then with linux then in fat32 the container is checked it sees it in /mnt/live/changes but it doesn't load it so you don't have persistence, with linux you have everything but you have to increase the space by a lot because the root has the space of the save.dat so 500mb is a no space left on device i have used a 128 giga SD, ok just a report.

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Post#29 by Ed_P » 27 Mar 2023, 00:23

FWIW My save.dat is 512MB and about 45% full at this point. Next time I boot Porteus I will post the numbers.

Added in 4 hours 29 minutes 16 seconds:

Code: Select all

guest@porteus:~/savedat$ ./spaceck.sh x
save.dat file 45% full.  Used: 225M  Free: 285M
A couple of things to consider; for large files I store them on the boot drive directly not in a Porteus /home or /root folder, in my customized changes-exit.conf I exclude saving trash and cache folders.
Ed

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Post#30 by ncmprhnsbl » 27 Mar 2023, 08:16

Ed_P wrote:
26 Mar 2023, 14:45
Release! You're thinking about another release! A 5.1 or a 6.0?
you do realise, that you're quoting yourself? ;)
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