UUID and LABEL support for "changes" and "from_dev"

[y1b]

Hello,

Such a feature can be useful in the cases when porteus is installed on a USB memory stick and changes is configured on the second partition.
It can be used i.e. changes=/dev/sdb2 cheatcode but it shall fail if the system has more than one (or none) harddisks - the USB memory stick does not get sdb.

Using changes=UUID:xxxx-xxx-xxx... or changes=LABEL:porteus-changes cheat code will select the correct device.

from_dev=UUID:xxx and from_dev=LABEL:porteusonstick address similar issue when porteus is booted from USB stick but select i.e. the CDROM for porteus data.

I have created a patch for linuxrc that implements these features.
I can be downloaded from there.
I would be happy if the patch is included in the next release.

BTW, it seams the changes partition is not unmounted correctly on shutting down - the file system (ext2) remains "dirty" or, in case of EXT3 the journal has to be rebuilt on the next mount. The problem appears both when changes=/dev/sdb2 and changes=UUID:xxx is used. Is that a bug or I am missing something?

[82issa]

I like this and hope they implement this on final release. This can be very useful. I am not sure on the bug issue, I'll mess arround with it a bit later on and see if I get similar results.

[fanthom]

@y1b
Will try to implement this feature for 1.0
thanks for suggestion and the patch.

Posted after 1 day 14 hours 53 minutes 59 seconds:
EDIT:\\
done
this is how it works - all cheatcodes which contains supports full paths (from_dev, from_iso, changes, extramod, rootcopy) can be modified to use LABEL: and UUID: instead of /dev/sdXy (eventually /mnt/sdXy) i'll show it on examples:
1) changes=/dev/sda5/changes
changes=LABEL:Porteus/changes

2) from_dev=/dev/sdb4
from_dev=UUID:BAF0DA26F0D9E8A1

3) extramod=/mnt/sdc2/porteus_modules/FINAL
extramod=UUID:cdecc103-2224-45c7-bced-5ca62d6bb505/porteus_modules/FINAL

etc...
be aware that all names are case sensitive:
you can't use Uuid: - must be UUID:
you cant use LABEL:PORTEUS when partition is labelled as Porteus
you cant use UUID:9e5c60085c5Fd99b when uuid is 9E5C60085C5FD99B

the best idea to find right names for LABELS/UUID's is to start porteus and then run 'blkid' command. here is sample output:

Code: Select all

/dev/sda1: LABEL="System" UUID="BAF0DA26F0D9E8A1" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: UUID="cdecc103-2224-45c7-bced-5ca62d6bb505" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="1efa1b6a-c8c5-45a7-b828-d8326049a956" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda6: UUID="f480ad11-cfb7-4060-9cc7-dcd3ff113bdd" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda7: UUID="f2ff3fb8-be28-4923-b599-ad833d536332" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda8: UUID="a7137516-f535-4e59-8087-49c18c32a75c" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda9: LABEL="Filmy" UUID="CC2C3C312C3C18C2" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda10: LABEL="Programy" UUID="B634558F34555389" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda11: LABEL="Muza" UUID="9E5C60085C5FD99B" TYPE="ntfs"

Why to use UUID's and LABEL's instead on /dev/sdXy?
because UUID is an unique hash for every partition and you can be 100% sure that porteus will find the right one during boot despite of PC configuration.
make sure to use unique LABEL names for your partitions as linuxrc may get confused when find two with same name (ie: SYSTEM)

Cheers

[brokenman]

Excellent improvement!!

Great suggestion y1b. I think a GUI to change porteus.cfg may be a good idea. When i merge some items in the system menu i will attend to this, and it could perhaps be added to the Porteus Assistant Wizard.