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Install custom system to new USB only root access [solved]

Posted: 24 Apr 2015, 15:09
by rek769
I have installed Porteus to an 8Gb USB flash drive and have everything setup as I like it. I want to move my existing installed system (intact with all customizations) to a different USB that will be used when away from my primary computer. The secondary USB does have a smaller capacity however it appears that there is ample space to move all the contents from the 8Gb stick as only around 950Mb are used while the new stick has a 2Gb capacity.

I have invoked the Porteus Installer (after formatting the second USB flash drive to ext4 - same as primary USB). I have installed Porteus to the secondary USB and the installer reports success in doing so.

Boot with the secondary USB occurs with no noticeable issues, however, I can not login as guest nor using a tertiary account that I created (lets call that account XYZ). I can, however, login as root. From the root account I changed the password on the guest and XYZ accounts. Tried to login again as guest and XYZ without success.
The login screen simply "blinks" and returns with the login box empty after attempting to login.

I boot Porteus to RAM like this:

LABEL copy2ram
MENU LABEL Copy To RAM
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz copy2ram timezone=America/Costa_Rica utc kmap=latam,us changes=/porteus login=
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the same as above,
but first copy all data to RAM
to get a huge speed increase
(needs >768MB)
ENDTEXT


As an aside, how does one change the default selection in the boot menu?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Re: Install of custom system to new USB only gives root acce

Posted: 24 Apr 2015, 16:34
by brokenman
If you created a new account and changed passwords on the guest account then the password files should be saved in your changes file. Ensure that in your new environment the savefile exists.
You can test by creating a test module with these new credentials.

mkdir /tmp/test
cp -a --parents /etc/{passwd,group,shadow,login.defs} /tmp/test
dir2xzm /tmp/test /mnt/sdxY/porteus/modules/mysettings.xzm

To change the default you need to edit the: DEFAULT XFCE at the top of the boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file on your install media. The string XFCE will vary depending on your current desktop.

The easiest way to move porteus is to simply copy all the files from one USB to another and CHANGE DIRECTORY into the boot folder on the installation media and then run the Porteus-for-Linux file (as root).

Re: Install of custom system to new USB only gives root acce

Posted: 24 Apr 2015, 19:04
by rek769
Ok...tried doing the install manually but discovered the copy was skipping "important files". So, I booted into another OS and copied everything over from primary USB to secondary USB and booted into the secondary USB.

Upon login to the XYZ account I had a blank desktop...no panel, no icons, and only access to the applications menu via desktop click. I could not add a panel or otherwise modify any system settings (settings manager only displayed a blank screen)

Logged out - logged in as root - set ownership of /home/XYZ to XYZ recursively.

Logged back into XYZ - had to add and reconfigure panel but everything seems to now be working.

Re: Install of custom system to new USB only gives root acce

Posted: 24 Apr 2015, 20:32
by francois
Great! So you can mark it as solved. Isn't it?