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Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

[Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

I'm attempting to set up a sort of bare bones Devuan-Live on a 4.0Gb SD Card to run a just couple of dedicated applications on my netbook.
I'm able to write the image to the SD Card wihout any problems and it boots perfectly well, no issues.

The problem arises when I shrink the FAT32 partition to make room for a persistent ext4 partition.
Once I shrink it to 1.0Gb (nothing else done) and try to boot from the card, I just get a blinking cursor on the screen.

Undoubtedly this is a problem arising from shrinking the partition generated by the Rufus application.
I have tried using setting the format option in Rufus to FAT and FAT32 but the problem remains.

I'm using the latest Devuan-Live image downloded from here ...
https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devu … p-live.iso

... writing the image to the SD Card with rufus-2.18p and resizing the FAT32 partition with GParted from my Linux installation.

Any help will be appreciated.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2018-04-11 03:26:03)

Panopticon

Member

Registered: 2018-01-27

Posts: 306  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Im not familiar with rufus or live persistence with devuan, but maybe wipe and gdisk the usb stick first before use.

sudo wipefs --all /dev/sdb

sudo sgdisk --zap /dev/sdb

#use upper case Z if you want to erase mbr from the disk.

Take note that those commands are powerful, make sure to select the correct device.

Last edited by Panopticon (2018-04-07 15:04:12)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

... maybe wipe and gdisk the usb stick first before use.

Yes.
I did that from the start with GParted (sorry I did not say so in my OP).

Partition -> Format to -> Cleared
and then, just in case ...
Partition -> Delete

The SD Card was absolutely 'blank' before using it with Rufus.

Thanks for your input.

A.

Panopticon

Member

Registered: 2018-01-27

Posts: 306  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Bunsenlabs forum has an interesting method to create a live usb stick.

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 6974#p6974

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,345  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

refracta2usb also allows for persistence.  Don't know how current it is though.  Maybe fsmithred will stop by:
http://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/docs/re … ta2usb.txt

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fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

I don't think you can resize FAT partitions with gparted. I'm surprised you didn't get an error message about that.
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug- … 00010.html

You'll need to make the fat32 the right size to begin with. If rufus won't let you do that, use refracta2usb. You should make it a little larger than the iso file, so there's room for a copy of the kernel and initrd for booting the stick. If you need to make this live-usb in a Windows environment, you'll need to find another way. Refracta2usb only runs on linux.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

I don't think you can resize FAT partitions with gparted. I'm surprised you didn't get an error message ...

No error message.

But I had checked, just in case:

This is on GParted 0.31.0 from my PCLinuxOS.

... make the fat32 the right size to begin with. If rufus won't let you ...

No. Rufus formats the whole card either as FAT or FAT32.

... use refracta2usb.
... a little larger than the iso file, so there's room ...

I was thinking about that.
But still, this should not be happening.
I would like to know why.

Thanks for your input.

A.

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,345  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

I remember hearing about issues with rufus.  Search this forum and quite a few posts reference it.  Might be something in there to help you sort things

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Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

I remember hearing about issues with rufus.

Yes ...

There's also something going on WRT syslinux versions not being compatible.
Bear in mind that the problem I posted about cropped up only when I resized the SD Card.
Up to that point, everything was perfectly well (apparently). 

The thing is that Refracta gave me no joy either, at least with the Devuan *.iso I've used.
But I was able to use Refracta to set up a Miyo-Extra-ascii on the SD Card.

Persistance seems to be an issue still so I'll have to try again.

Any ideas?
TIA

A.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

You can read a little about persistence in the refract2usb help:
http://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/docs/re … ta2usb.txt

Basically, you need a separate filesystem, a persistence.conf file in the root of that filesystem, and some extra options in the boot command to use the persistent filesystem.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

... read a little about persistence in the refract2usb help ...

OK ...
Thanks, I'll have a look.

I have managed to set up my bare bones Devuan-Live in a 4.0 Gb SD Card using refracta2usb but with a Vuudo *.iso.
The application I need to use installed correctly but I still have to test it.

Before that, I tried with Devuan-Jesse, MIYO-Jesse, MIYO-i3 and even PCLinuxOS without much luck.

But the setup I am pointing to does not have being portable as a goal.

I would like to boot a light Linux installation to run a dedicated application from a netbook that (for the time being) has an XP installation on it's 500Gb HDD.
The HDD could share some space (100Gb) by means of a separate (inaccessible to XP) ext4 partition which would hold absolutely everything that needs to be persistent.

Could that be done?
I got this idea when I recalled once booting into a W2000 installation with a botched bootloader using a 3.5" diskette with the right files on it.

Thanks in advance.

A.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Yes, the persistent volume does not have to be on the same disk as the operating system. Live-boot will look for the "persistence" label (or other label if you specify it in the boot command) to find the persistent volume. I don't think you can set up the persistent partition with refracta2usb, because it will only let you choose usb devices. Do it manually:
Create the partition, give it a label (use e2label command), add persistence.conf, edit your boot menu (mount the sd card to edit syslinux/live.cfg)

I'd like to know why devuan and miyo wouldn't work for you. They should. I've used both of them on live-usb.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

Thanks for the fast reply.  8^)

Yes, the persistent volume does not have to be on the same disk as the operating system.
Live-boot will look for the "persistence" label (or other label if you specify it in the boot command) ...

OK.
Good to know.

... don't think you can set up the persistent partition with refracta2usb, because it will only let you choose usb ...

Yes ...
I noticed that.
Good 'insurance'.

Create the partition, give it a label (use e2label command), add persistence.conf, edit your boot menu (mount the sd card to edit syslinux/live.cfg)

I guess I can also create and label the partition on the netbook's HDD with GParted. (?)

... know why devuan and miyo wouldn't work for you. They should. I've used both of them on live-usb.

I think it may be something related to my using a Asus eeePC netbook?

With MIYO-i3 Jessie (I liked the WM GUI) it worked but there was something wrong with X and it would freeze and be unresponsive.
Something about init: Id"X" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes.

With Devuan it would not boot but I only tried it a couple of times and gave up, not too much patience these days.

On a separate note: I think there may be something going on with syslinux (different versions?) and the success may also be tied to the OS used to run refracta2usb.

For example, one of my attempts was installing and running refracta2usb from my PCLinuxOS rig (not in the PCLinuxOS repo) and not from my Devuan rig.
The process was properly completed but it would not boot and I saw that the syslinux legend on screen said PCLinuxOS.

The Vuudo image was installed from within my Devuan rig and everything seems to work properly.

I'll try the perisitence on the HDD and see how it goes.

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

I'll try the perisitence on the HDD and see how it goes.

It took me a while but it's done.

The problem I now have is that I need to copy everything in the 'persistence' partition in the SD Card to the 'peristence-label=livedata" 50Gb. partition I created in the netbook's HDD so I don't have to setup/install everything over again.

I cannot seem to get around getting it done: I cannot copy (as root) directly from the mounted partition to a directory on a USB drive (filesystem does not support hard links) and I cannot zip up everything to move just the zip file (some other error) and then unzip it in its destination.

Please excuse my Linux ignorance ...
How can I get this done?

Thanks in advance.

A.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

I'm not very clear on your setup, but you should be able to boot without persistence, mount both persistent partitions and copy from one to the other with rsync. Something like

rsync -avx mounted-source/ mounted-target/

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

I'm not very clear on your setup ...

Sorry ...
HDD in a XP setup with an ext4 partition labeled 'livedata'.
SD Card with an ext4 partiton labeled 'persistence'.

This is /syslinux/live.cfg

label persistence
menu label vuudo+HDD persistence
kernel /vuudo/live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/vuudo/live/initrd.img boot=live union=aufs  persistence persistence-label=livedata live-media-path=/vuudo/live      

label persistence
menu label vuudo+SDCard persistence
kernel /vuudo/live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/vuudo/live/initrd.img boot=live union=aufs  persistence persistence-media=removable-usb live-media-path=/vuudo/live      

label vuudo
menu label vuudo
kernel /vuudo/live/vmlinuz 
append initrd=/vuudo/live/initrd.img boot=live union=aufs  live-media-path=/vuudo/live

label memtest
menu label Memory test
kernel /live/memtest86+.bin

... should be able to boot without persistence, mount both persistent partitions and copy from one to the other ...

Right!
That did the trick.  =-)
Mounting without persistence enabled me to mount both media/vuudo/persistence and media/vuudo/livedata and then run rsync.

I am aware that having two 'persistence' labels has the effect on not showing the second one as a choice at boot time.
Not that I need it, but just to know: does the label have to be persistence? 

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best,

A.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

The default is to use "persistence" as the label. If you use a different label, you have to put it in the boot command, as you have done.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

The default is to use "persistence" as the label. If you use a different label ...

Yes ...

persistence-label=livedata

But I was referring to the first line:

label persistence    <------------------------- this one
menu label vuudo+HDD persistence
kernel /vuudo/live/vmlinuz
append initrd=/vuudo/live/initrd.img boot=live union=aufs  persistence persistence-label=livedata live-media-path=/vuudo/live     

Cheers,

A.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,501  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Oh yeah, the menu label. Those labels should be unique. If you get to the isolinux boot prompt, you can type that label in, press enter, and it will boot from that stanza. With two of them the same, I don't know which one would boot. My preference would be to change them to HDD and SD to keep them short and memorable, in case I ever need to type them in.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] Devuan Live on SD Card problem

Hello:

... the menu label.
... should be unique.

I would seem so.
If you have two with the same name, the one that shows up on the screen is the first one on the list.

... change them to HDD and SD to keep them short ...

I wanted to do something like that but I had the idea that it would muck up someting.
Easy to remember and hard to forget is the way here.

You've been most helpful.
I can now run my Linux based app off a lightweight distro in a netbook by just booting from an SD Card and keeping all settings in the HDD.

And should the SD Card goe south for any reason, installing the same distro in the same manner on any other SD Card should get things back to normal.
A dog with with two tails.  =-)

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,

A.