Persistence

[lobsters15]

I am most unskilled at Linux although I enjoy using Porteus from a USB stick on my PC as well as using Linux Mint on my netbook.However no matter what Porteus distro I choose, KDE, LXDE etc I am unable to get persistence to work. I produce the USB using Unetbootin and usually choose 1 Gb of persistence. Could some kind person go through with me the steps required to obtain persistence.

[Bogomips]

Welcome to Porteus. There are many well versed in this. Used to use Mint with persistence, but now don't use it any more, but some kind soul will come along.

[Ed_P]

I am most unskilled at Linux

Don't feel bad, we all were at one point. And some of us (me) still are.

I don't remember using Unetbootin so no idea what it creates. But according to the USB_INSTALLATION.txt file in the ISO:

Code: Select all

Porteus can be installed to a flash drive or hard 
drive in several ways.

....

From any Linux Distribution other than Porteus:
a) copy the contents of the ISO image to your drive
b) navigate to the /boot folder and launch the installer
'bash Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com'
c) verify you are installing to the correct drive and press 'Enter' to
complete the installation

From Porteus itself (booted from CD):
a) launch 'Porteus Installer' from the desktop menu,
 under the 'System' heading (if you are
prompted for the root password, it is toor)
b) plug in your usb drive or select a partition
on a hard drive
c) follow the on-screen instructions 

Once the USB drive is booted making it persistence is a 2 step process.

1. You create a savefile file.

Menu > System Tools > Porteus Savefile Manager
Enter the password for root. toor
Click on Click + to create a new savefile file.
Enter the Location of your USB drive. Usually something like sdb1.
Click OK.

Thus on your USB drive, sdb1, you will have a savefile file named: porteussave

2. You tell the Porteus boot menu where the savefile is.

Open the /mnt/sdb1/boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg file. sdb1 being the address of your USB drive.
Scroll down to the first APPEND line.
To the APPEND line add: changes=/mnt/sdb1/porteussave

When you reboot changes you make will be saved.

OK?

[lobsters15]

Many thanks for these detailed instructions.

[brokenman]

Is porteus the only OS on your USB stick? If so then I would recommend a different way (no unetbootin).

1) Boot Porteus into copy2ram mode (this is essential)
2) Open gparted and format the USB stick as ext4 (linux file system)
3) Follow the installation procedure above (copy ISO files etc ...)
4) Boot as normal in GUI mode and your changes will be saved automagically.

[lobsters15]

I am still unable to obtain persistence. On opening Porteus save file manager to create a file the available folders on the 16Gb usb drive are called Live,sda1, sda2, sda3 and sda4. An error message comes up when I select anything other than Live stating I must be outside the Live environment.

[Bogomips]

This should be failsafe: Simple USB Flash Installer (Post by neko #44525)

[lobsters15]

All I achieved by attempting to download the software was being bombarded with spurious adverts for all sorts of things. The software looks very interesting but only if I can download it.

[Ed_P]

I am still unable to obtain persistence. On opening Porteus save file manager to create a file the available folders on the 16Gb usb drive are called Live,sda1, sda2, sda3 and sda4. An error message comes up when I select anything other than Live stating I must be outside the Live environment.

?? Is sda your USB drive or your hard drive? And what are the formats of those partitions?

Creating a save.dat file is not that hard, I have several of them, on FAT32 and NTFS partitions.

[lobsters15]

My 16Gb usb stick is sdd1 and I have created a file of 512Mb called storage. On the Porteus cfg I have added the following changes = mnt/sdd1/storage.dat and saved it.
It doesnt work. The other files available when i try to create a file for persistence are live, sda1,sda2,sda3,sda4,sdc1 and the sdd1. The sda2 is a Dell recovery partition and the sdc1 is an external hard drive containing all my photographs. I think Porteus is wonderful regarding boot time but i must crack this persistence issue. Setting up a printer and my Gmail account every time I boot from the usb is not an option.

[donald]

maybe a simple typo?..the line should read
changes=/mnt/sdd1/storage.dat

[lobsters15]

It was a typo. I did have the line changes=/mnt/sdd1/storage.dat

[lobsters15]

At long last I have managed to set up persistence. I am not quite sure how it happened! Thanks for all the help.