Dev1 Galaxy Forum / Problems configuring persistence

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 21:04:19 +0000

Hello:

Altoid wrote:

... take out the USB ...
... reboot and see what happens when I plug it into one of the external ports ...

Yes, that did it.

I think this was probably some sort of BIOS glitch.
The rig is a Sun Ultra24, excellent hardware and way ahead of its time.
But the BIOS is absolute crap.

Then Oracle came along...
But I digress.

I assume that it could have been a BIOS glitch because when the problem cropped up, the boot screen (which rolls by fast but you can catch it) did not list a Kingston DataTraveller storage device like it usually did.

And then, having pressed F8 to get at the Boot Menu, when it came up it showed me a USB: USB Flash Drive as the first option instead of showing me a USB: Kingston DataTraveller.

Shutting down, unplugging and plugging it in again (on an external port just in case I had to do something) set things right: at reboot the Boot Menu option was the correct one ie: USB: Kingston DataTraveller.

Thanks for your input.

Best,

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 20:12:58 +0000

Hello:

fsmithred wrote:

... did it include reinstalling grub?
... grub even installed in the live system?

I don't think so. (?)
Mounting the live *.iso image using AcetoneISO shows me three folders:

- isolinux
- live
- pkglist_Alien-OS MNML-20170610_1259

The pkglist includes:

grub-common
grub-pc
grub-pc-bin
grub2-common

fsmithred wrote:

... computer boot without the usb stick?

Yes.
No problems with that.

fsmithred wrote:

Maybe the flash drive is dying.

I don't think so ...
It's a new/almost no use Kingston DTSE9.

fsmithred wrote:

... a reboot will fix it.

Been there, tried that.

fsmithred wrote:

... pulling the stick out and plugging it back ...
... probably be /dev/sdf if you do this

Was about to try that after my afternoon espresso.

I have the impression/idea that somehow/for some reason the file system went south.

But no idea how that could have happened.
It is my understanding that whatever was being written to the drive was getting written to /sda2 and there were 3.0Gb available for that.

I'll take out the USB, which lives inside the box in its own socket on the motherboard, reboot and see what happens when I plug it into one of the external ports and then post back.

Thanks for your input.

Best,

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 19:25:21 +0000

When you ran the upgrade, did it include reinstalling grub? Is grub even installed in the live system? Does the computer boot without the usb stick?

Maybe the flash drive is dying.

Maybe the system is just randomly confused and a reboot will fix it. (I'd power off completely then restart.)

Maybe just pulling the stick out and plugging it back in will help. (It will probably be /dev/sdf if you do this.)

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 15:04:03 +0000

Hello:

fsmithred wrote:

... 'persistence' in the boot command and the filesystem label on the persistent partition ...
... enough space in the persistent partition to hold a big upgrade.
... boot with persistence when you make the snapshot, it will copy the upgraded (running) system.

This morning I went ahead and booted the live *.iso with persistence and then ran Synaptic.
The update took a long time, probably because the *.iso is from two years ago, the list was huge and included linux-image-3.16.0-10-amd64.

When it finished, I shut down and rebooted the live *.iso with persistence, expecting to see it updated.

But alas, something strange happened on the way to persistence .... =^o !

Not only did the live *.iso not boot ie: on selection of the USB drive, it just proceeded to my usual grub screen.

I booted into my main Devuan and to see what had been written into the persistence partition /dev/sda is nowhere to be found.

It has absolutely dissapeared from the system.

- fdisk does not see it:

groucho@devuan:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for groucho: 
Disk /dev/sdb: 68.4 GiB, 73407488000 bytes, 143374000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0004a8f4

Device     Boot     Start       End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1            2048  40974335 40972288 19.6G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2        40974336 139278335 98304000 46.9G  5 Extended
/dev/sdb3       139278336 143372287  4093952    2G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb5        40976384  45072383  4096000    2G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6        45074432 139278335 94203904 44.9G 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Disk /dev/sdc: 279.4 GiB, 300000000000 bytes, 585937500 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x30830f4e

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1        2048 585936895 585934848 279.4G  5 Extended
/dev/sdc5        4096 585936895 585932800 279.4G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 68.4 GiB, 73407488000 bytes, 143374000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x68017f5c

Device     Boot    Start       End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdd1  *        2048  40962047 40960000 19.5G 83 Linux
/dev/sdd2       40962048  45058047  4096000    2G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdd3       45058048 143372287 98314240 46.9G  5 Extended
/dev/sdd5       45060096 143372287 98312192 46.9G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sde: 232.9 GiB, 250056000000 bytes, 488390625 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x85188518

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sde1            2048 329396223 329394176 157.1G 83 Linux
/dev/sde2       329396224 488388607 158992384  75.8G 83 Linux
groucho@devuan:~$

- parted does not see it either:

groucho@devuan:~$ sudo parted
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sdb
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print devices                                                    
/dev/sdb (73.4GB)
/dev/sdc (300GB)
/dev/sdd (73.4GB)
/dev/sde (250GB)
(parted) quit                                                             
groucho@devuan:~$

Any idea as to what may have happened?

I find it strange that the device is not available ...

Edit:

... dmesg reports it ...

--- snip ---
[    3.584672] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     USB      Flash Drive      2.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[    3.596655] sd 7:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
--- snip ---

... but says nothing of /sda2, which is where persistence is/was supposed to live.

lsblk does not see it either.

groucho@devuan:~$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   0  68.4G  0 disk 
|-sdb1   8:17   0  19.6G  0 part /
|-sdb3   8:19   0     2G  0 part 
|-sdb5   8:21   0     2G  0 part /var/log
`-sdb6   8:22   0  44.9G  0 part /home
sdc      8:32   0 279.4G  0 disk 
|-sdc1   8:33   0     1K  0 part 
`-sdc5   8:37   0 279.4G  0 part 
sdd      8:48   0  68.4G  0 disk 
|-sdd1   8:49   0  19.5G  0 part 
|-sdd2   8:50   0     2G  0 part 
|-sdd3   8:51   0     1K  0 part 
`-sdd5   8:53   0  46.9G  0 part 
sde      8:64   0 232.9G  0 disk 
|-sde1   8:65   0 157.1G  0 part /media/backups
`-sde2   8:66   0  75.8G  0 part 
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
groucho@devuan:~$

lshw sees it:

groucho@devuan:~$ sudo lshw | grep logical
             logical name: eth0
                logical name: usb1
                logical name: usb2
                logical name: usb3
                logical name: usb9
                   logical name: scsi7

                      logical name: /dev/sda
                      configuration: logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512
                         logical name: /dev/sda

                logical name: scsi8
                   logical name: /dev/sdb
                   configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=0004a8f4
                      logical name: /dev/sdb1
                      logical name: /
                    *-logicalvolume:0
                         logical name: /dev/sdb5
                         logical name: /var/log
                    *-logicalvolume:1
                         logical name: /dev/sdb6
                         logical name: /home
                      logical name: /dev/sdb3
                   logical name: /dev/sdc
                   configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=30830f4e
                      logical name: /dev/sdc1
                    *-logicalvolume
                         logical name: /dev/sdc5
                   logical name: /dev/sdd
                   configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=68017f5c
                      logical name: /dev/sdd1
                      logical name: /dev/sdd2
                      logical name: /dev/sdd3
                    *-logicalvolume
                         logical name: /dev/sdd5
                   logical name: /dev/sde
                   configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=85188518
                      logical name: /dev/sde1
                      logical name: /media/backups
                      logical name: /dev/sde2
                   logical name: usb7
                   logical name: usb8
                logical name: usb4
                logical name: usb5
                logical name: usb6
                logical name: usb10
          logical name: scsi1
             logical name: /dev/cdrom
             logical name: /dev/cdrw
             logical name: /dev/dvd
             logical name: /dev/dvdrw
             logical name: /dev/sr0
groucho@devuan:~$

Thanks in advance,

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 01:11:46 +0000

Hello:

fsmithred wrote:

... 'persistence' in the boot command and the filesystem label on the persistent partition ...
... enough space in the persistent partition to hold a big upgrade.
... boot with persistence when you make the snapshot, it will copy the upgraded (running) system.

Good.

Thanks a lot for your help. =-)

Best,

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 00:56:24 +0000

Yes, you must have the word 'persistence' in the boot command and the filesystem label on the persistent partition must also be 'persistence'.

You have enough space in the persistent partition to hold a big upgrade. As long as you boot with persistence when you make the snapshot, it will copy the upgraded (running) system.

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 23:51:03 +0000

Hello:

I was in my Devuan install and rebooted to alien-os to answer your post and ...

It works.
Go figure.

fsmithred wrote:

What does your boot command look like? cat /proc/cmdline

Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]  cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/live/vmlinuz initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live persistence vga=795 username=alien-os  
Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]

Stanzas persistence and vga=795 were added bz me after Tab to edit the boot command.
Otherwise it boots as a the std live *.iso. (?)

fsmithred wrote:

What is in persistence.conf?

Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]  cat /persistence.conf
/ union
Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]

fsmithred wrote:

... don't know Alien-OS.
... a debian-based distro and it uses live-boot and live-config. Is that correct?

Don't know what it uses, have to check/read up.
All I can say is that the DE keyboard (qwerz) layout + the darkish theme are a bitchy combination. =-/

I saw alien-os mentioned here ...

http://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=1811
http://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=3569#p3569

... and assumed it was Devuan based.

fsmithred wrote:

Is the OS 32-bit or 64-bit?

Apparently only 64-bit.

fsmithred wrote:

... system directories on the persistent partition ...

Yes, automagically created.

There is a website:
https://www.alien-os.de/

Every boot the installation says there are updates available (a nag) but it is a huge list which includes linux-image-3.16.0-10-amd64.
If I accept and go ahead, do these stay installed on reboot in persistence mode and then get carried on to the new *.iso?

Thanks in advance,

Re: Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 22:26:11 +0000

What does your boot command look like? cat /proc/cmdline
What is in persistence.conf?

I don't know Alien-OS. I assume this is a debian-based distro and it uses live-boot and live-config. Is that correct?

Is the OS 32-bit or 64-bit?

Were the system directories on the persistent partition automatically created, or did you create them manually?

Problems configuring persistence

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:50:12 +0000

Hello:

I am attempting to set up alien-os with persistence so as to change a few things and maybe slim it down a bit further to then burn a new *.iso with the changes.

I am using an 8gb pen drive which I have partitioned in this manner:

500Mib for the *.iso image
3,00Gib for the persistence partition
3,78Gib of unallocated space

Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]  sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 7.2 GiB, 7757398016 bytes, 15151168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x062ec9ea

Device     Boot  Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *        64  921599  921536  450M 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2       921600 7219199 6297600    3G 83 Linux
Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]

These are the mount points:

Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]  mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=813044k,mode=755)

/dev/sda1 on /lib/live/mount/medium type iso9660 (ro,noatime)

/dev/loop0 on /lib/live/mount/rootfs/filesystem.squashfs type squashfs (ro,noatime)
tmpfs on /lib/live/mount/overlay type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /lib/live/mount/overlay type tmpfs (rw,noatime,mode=755)
aufs on / type aufs (rw,noatime,si=4d6addd750f80fe7,noxino)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,relatime)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=1012409,mode=755)
tmpfs on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=1626080k)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime)
gvfsd-fuse on /home/alien-os/.gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)

/dev/sda2 on /media/alien-os/persistence type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks2)

» Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]

The persistence partition has (apparently) all that it has to have:

Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~] ls /media/alien-os/persistence
etc  home  lib  lost+found  persistence.conf  tmp  var
Alien-OS@alien-os╺─╸[~]

But I think (?) there is probably something wrong with the mount point as persistence is not working.

What did I miss?

Thanks in advance,