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Persistance Problems?

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Started 1 year ago by Ean
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Ean

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I'm a senior citizen (retired) and normally run Linux Lite. It works very well, and hopefully this will completely take over from Windows in time. How do I pronounce SliTaz?

I've been looking for a really compact live distro, and have been working with SliTaz for the last few days. It's wonderfully fast, and efficient, and it would be great if SliTaz would flourish and grow. It's also generally user-friendly. It took time to create a working bootable USB with slitaz rolling core64.iso, as the recommended tool tazusb didn't work. I'm hoping to make SliTaz as functional as possible for my own use.

I installed a few packages, including btop, qdirstat, and Abiword. It was easy and fast; they appeared in the menu, and worked fine from there. The problem is that they disappear on reboot. I have a clunky workaround, where I store them on the FAT 32 partition on the USB stick and re-install them from there. This means I can do it offline. From the documentation, I tried:

slitaz home=usb

at the boot prompt and installed the packages after reboot. On rebooting the packages I had installed all disappeared again.

Other settings dissapear on reboot. On View I select Detailed List as I like to see details rather than icons for folders and files. I tick (check) the keep this setting box. In other words, I would like any settings I make to stay set and not revert to default on a fresh reboot if possible.

Please bear in mind that I have no programming skills, and answer (if possible) in a simple way. So the questions are:

1) If possible, please let me know how I can stop the packages I install from disappearing?

2) How can I set Detailed List permanently?

3) Please recommend any packages for HDD maintenance, system troubleshooting and arcade games.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ceel

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Hi Ean,

home=usb will allow persistence if the stick is formated ext2 or ext3.; it doesn't work with FAT32 (see § Slitaz Parameters of the Quick start section in the Handbook).

The persistence only save the /home directory (documents and settings), not packages that have been added during the session; to save them permanently, open a terminal, become root and type
# tazusb writefs lzma
This builds a new rootfs file in the directory from where you ran the command.
Then replace the existing rootfs file in the /boot directory of the stick with the new rootfs (maybe better to rename the initial rootfs rather overwrite it by the new one ;) )

Reading your post, it seems to me your stick is formated FAT32. Another solution would consist to store the .tazpkg in /boot/packages on the stick (you'll have to create packages). All the packages in this directory should be installed automatically at boot (but witout your settings if you don't enable persistence).

The TazUSB manual and this page could interest you.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Hi Ceel,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. The memory stick is FAT 32, formatted in Windows. I've found the format command for EXT2, EXT3 and FAT32 in the TazUSB manual. Do I need to become root? I'll try this out on a memory stick when I'm feeling brave; this is very useful if I can make it work.

What you say "Another solution would consist to store the .tazpkg in /boot/packages on the stick (you'll have to create packages)". It seems I have to create a package by writing code. I've looked at the TazPkg manual, and I don't understand it.

I've also found the instructions on how to become root. The problem is I don't understand them. This is because I don't understand programmers' shorthand. In other words it's too advanced for me, rather like a child trying to read a book on advanced mathematics. I can easily find my way around the folder/file structure within a PC, create and edit text files and folders and use a wide range of applications/packages, and also build PC's and install operating systems. Also, I know how to manage HDD's (partitions, formatting) in Windows and to a lesser extent in Linux (Gparted).

I may not be able or competent to do what you advise, and I don't want to waste too much of your time. I really like SliTaz; in many ways it's so neat, compact and easy to download and install packages. It also seems very stable. My SliTaz USB stick works great on 3 desktop PC's i've tried.

Sorry to say, I have another query, although a solution may not be simple enough for me to use.

I would like to be able to set up the screen resolution to a lower resolution so I can read the menus more easily, as they will appear bigger. My eyesight isn't what it was. The widget in Preferences seems to be locked to the monitor's native resolution, and won't let me change it. Also, I would like to be able to set the wallpaper to a single light colour. There's a neat little widget that enables me to do this, but on reboot, the wallpaper reverts to the original dark one and I have to set the colour again. It would be good if this could be set permanently. I understand this may not be possible.

From the documentation, I tried slitaz screen=800x600x24 at the boot prompt, but this didn't work; I just got a flashing cursor.

I tried screen=800x600x24 but "could not find kernel image" appeared.

If possible,

1) How can I adjust or set a monitor resolution of my choice and then make it permanent?
2) How can make a permanent change to the default wallpaper using a colour I've chosen?

Posted 1 year ago #
Ceel

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Hello,

Don't worry about my free time ;)

The widget in Preferences seems to be locked to the monitor's native resolution, and won't let me change it.

Hmm that's strange. I never use the core64 ISO, it's possible its kernel doesn't have the same configuration that in the 32bit ISO. Maybe you need a driver for the graphic card. It's time to learn how to become root ;) Install the pciutils package.
From Applications > System Tools, open a terminal (Sakura allows copy/paste); type
su
Enter the password (root); nothing displays when you type it.
That's all, you're root! Type
tazpkg -gi pciutils
When the package is installed, type
lspci
Copy and post the return of the command.

1) How can I adjust or set a monitor resolution of my choice and then make it permanent?
2) How can make a permanent change to the default wallpaper using a colour I've chosen?

Well, you just need persistence... The best thing is to create a second LiveUSB. We can see this step by step next time.
Does your computer have more than 4GB RAM?

Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Hi Ceel,

Thank you for the info. One thing I should say, is that yesterday I tried to do another live USB using tazusb.exe, and again I got an error message saying the USB won't be bootable. This time the USB was formatted ext3 (in Gparted), not FAT32. Yet again the xbootvs1.0beta14.exe utility worked as before (I reformatted the USB FAT32 for this). Using this alternative installation utility may change the way some things in SliTaz work. For one thing I can create folders and files in the unused section of the USB and they persist.

I'll try rooting and doing the pcutils tomorrow. It looks easy the way you describe it.

I have a few PC's, all dual core, around 2.8MHz and with 4 to 8Gb PC 1333 RAM. The one I used for SliTaz has 4Gb RAM and uses onboard graphics. In my next post I'll send a few details from Windows System in Control Panel or from DXDiag in case it might help.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Hi Ceel,

I've tried SliTaz on 3 desktop PC's (2 AMD chipset and 1 Intel chipset) and a laptop (Intel chipset). I get the same results with the monitor setup widget - Native screen resolution and zero for refresh rate.

It's good to say I now seem to have root access, and it was really easy to do. I ran pciutils as you suggested and got:

root@slitaz:/home/tux# lspci
00:00.0 Class 0600: 8086:0040
00:01.0 Class 0604: 8086:0041
00:16.0 Class 0780: 8086:3b64
00:1a.0 Class 0c03: 8086:3b3b
00:1a.1 Class 0c03: 8086:3b3e
00:1a.2 Class 0c03: 8086:3b3f
00:1a.7 Class 0c03: 8086:3b3c
00:1b.0 Class 0403: 8086:3b56
00:1c.0 Class 0604: 8086:3b42
00:1c.4 Class 0604: 8086:3b4a
00:1c.5 Class 0604: 8086:3b4c
00:1d.0 Class 0c03: 8086:3b36
00:1d.1 Class 0c03: 8086:3b37
00:1d.2 Class 0c03: 8086:3b38
00:1d.7 Class 0c03: 8086:3b34
00:1e.0 Class 0604: 8086:244e
00:1f.0 Class 0601: 8086:3b06
00:1f.2 Class 0101: 8086:3b20
00:1f.3 Class 0c05: 8086:3b30
00:1f.5 Class 0101: 8086:3b26
01:00.0 Class 0300: 1002:6778
01:00.1 Class 0403: 1002:aa98
03:00.0 Class 0101: 197b:2368
04:00.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8168
3f:00.0 Class 0600: 8086:2c61
3f:00.1 Class 0600: 8086:2d01
3f:02.0 Class 0600: 8086:2d10
3f:02.1 Class 0600: 8086:2d11
3f:02.2 Class 0600: 8086:2d12
3f:02.3 Class 0600: 8086:2d13
root@slitaz:/home/tux#

Posted 1 year ago #
Ceel

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Hi Ean,

This afternoon I remebered that when I did tests on a UEFI computer I got persistence with a LiveUSB FAT32. Try this:
1. Boot with your Live and open GParted
2. Select your stick and set the flag lba
3. Open a terminal and become root; type
  blkid
  it'll return something like this:
  
  /dev/sda1: LABEL="rolling" UUID="823eef0c-0505-4083-99f5-eb534074c294" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext3" PARTUUID="ed73ed73-02" /dev/sdb1: UUID="F244-D424" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="c57e50bf-01"
  
  where
  
  /dev/sda1 is your HD (note you'll have as much as lines starting by /dev/sda that you have partitions on your disk)
  
  and /dev/sdb1 is your stick; note its UUID
4. In PCManFM, select the stick and open the configuration file in /boot/syslinux and add the option home=UUID=F244-D424 but using YOUR UUID of course; replace the ro option with rw
5. Save and quit.
Now reboot, change your wallpaper and reboot again. If the session opens with your wallpaper, the persistence is enabled. All your settings will be saved and you can save your documents in your home directory. Let me know.

It seems to me you run the lspci command before you install the pciutils package but no matter, your graphic card is an AMD Caicos XT [Radeon HD 7470/8470 / R5 235/310 OEM]. This card is supported since kernel 2.6.39 so maybe we'll have only a few packages to install.
Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Thank you for your reply.

If I remember rightly, I think I did install the pciutils package first, but didn't copy/paste the text that appeared.

Please confirm that I can use the xbootvs1.0beta14.exe utility USB formatted FAT32 for these tests. If you say "yes", I'll do the testing and tell you the results. You mention using a a UEFI PC. I don't know whether it matters but all my PC's are traditional BIOS.

On which line in the configuration file do I add the option home=UUID=F244-D424 but using YOUR UUID, please? I must remember to back this stuff up!

I've made a mistake-I can't remember which PC I ran the lspci command on. Will this matter when it comes to installing packages for graphics card compatibility? This is for when I run the live USB on different PC's.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ceel

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Oh sorry, I forgot you are using xboot :/
I don't know this utility so I can't answer to your question.
And no matter your PC's are BIOS.

I think the best is you create a second Live; you can do it quickly and easily from SliTaz:
1. Boot your Live. Open PCManFM, eject the stick and remove it; insert a new one.
2. Download the rolling-core64.iso
3. Change to the directory where the ISO is saved and press [F4] to open the Sakura terminal; become root.
4. Identify the stick; type
  fdisk -l
  The command displays the list of the devices found:
  /dev/sda1 should be your HD (note you'll have as much as lines beginning by /dev/sdaX that you have partitions on the HD).
  /dev/sdb1 should be the stick if you don't have a second HD and anything else than the stick connected at USB ports; check the size displayed to be sure.
5. Format the stick:
  tazusb format
  Device to use: enter /dev/sdb1 assuming sdb1 is your stick
  Please specify a filesystem type ext2, ext3, ext4 or fat32 (ext3): hit [Enter], tazusb will use ext3; then enter a name for the stick.
  tazusb will start to format the stick as soon as you'll press [Enter]
6. Now let's create the Live:
  tazusb gen-iso2usb rolling-core64.iso /dev/sdb1
Your new Live with persistence is ready to use; reboot and test it. Remember that persistence concerns only your settings and your documents not the apps you'll install. For this we'll have to generate a new rootfs.

About the resolution run the lspci on each PC on which you want to use SliTaz, they probably don't have the same graphic card.
Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Hi Ceel,

Thank you very much for all your time, your helpful instructions and your patience. This is all getting complicated and you would be better off working with someone who is more skilled than I am. I can't find PCManFM and don't know what it is anyway.

I spent 18 to 20 hours on SliTaz before my first post on the forum. Things seem to be going backwards and may never end.

If I'm lucky I would end up with an OS that's non-standard and also with changeable graphics control on one PC only, as my PC's do have different graphics cards. This is a huge disadvantage with a live OS.

I wish you well in your work.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ceel

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Hello Ean,

PCManFM is the file manager :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Slizzard

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Greetings All.
Ean: re your issue with text too small to see - there is a way to fix that without reducing screen resolution. Instead, reconfigure Openbox thusly: right-click the desktop, then select "Openbox" then "obconf" from the pop-up menu. When the Openbox Configurator starts, choose the "Appearance" tab. Then alter the font sizes for the features that are hard to read.
At the same time, you can choose a better Theme - the default theme is TERRIBLE for readability.
Openbox configuration can also be started from the apps menu. Right-clicking the menu item allows you to place a shortcut on the desktop.

Ean & Ceel;
The wording of Ean's original and subsequent posts makes me think that Ean is trying to make persistence work on a ISO-derived booter. Ean says the tazusb attempt failed, so Ean created the booter elsewise. If so, can of worms. Better to restart with a properly prepared USB. For me "Create a Live USB" from the "System Tools" entry of the Apps Menu works just fine. One tip is to always use the most recent ISO as the source - it will save time & annoyance upgrading packages later and having to writefs them to a new rootfs.gz.

Hope this helps Ean or someone else.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Hi Slizzard,

Many thanks for the info. I've been using: slitaz-rolling-core64.iso. It will be a while before I have the time to try all this, but I'll let you know how I get on. Ean.

Posted 1 year ago #
Slizzard

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Ean:
When I first stated using Slitaz (with version 4) I also had persistence problems. I also had trouble using tazusb effectively to install from scratch. Using the "Create a Live USB" menu option is far easier and more reliable for initial creation, and allows graphical selection of the source ISO instead of having to remember a path for the command-line. I now only ever use tazusb from the desktop's right-click context-menu, just before shutdown.
I have found that Slitaz will not reliably multi-task while the new rootfs.gz file is being written on my 2009 Sony VAIO laptop (w/ 2.4Ghz dual processor), nor on my 1996 PIII Desktop (w/ 1.2Ghz single-core processor). Some apps, eg Abiword, will not even run while the .gz file is being created. If I try to do anything while it is being created, the new root.fs file will usually have critical errors. Commonly such errors will result in a corrupted desktop or total absence of system icons after rebooting.
After much hair-pulling with these early issues, Slitaz has become a reliable portable tool for me for working on other people's computers - it has booted and been effectively usable for recovery & repair even on machines as limited as an old Cyrix-II-powered (Pentium II equiv) 300Mhz machine.

So I think it will be worth the trouble to persist.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ean

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Hi Slizzard,

Please let me know where "Using the "Create a Live USB" menu option is far easier and more reliable for initial creation" comes from. Also, do you mean I need to do a persistant installation from an existing installation? I don't understand the stuff about .gz files and Abiword not working, etc. I tried your suggestion on making the desktop more visible, and this works well. My PC's are all 64 bit, about 2.7GHz, dual core, with 4 to 8Gb DDR3 RAM. Having spent some 18 to 20 hours trying to get Slitaz working properly, I've had enough. I would have thought it important for any OS installation to be straightforward.

Although I've been happily using Linux Lite for over a year as my main OS, as I prefer it to Windows for nearly all tasks, I consider myself as a beginner. I've learned the hard way to use only "beginner's distros". I did successful installations for persistant Tails and Linux Lite live USB's with little difficulty, but left Antix alone! I've also done several Windows installations over the years. Looking back, perhaps I was lucky to choose a user-friendly distro in Linux Lite. Otherwise, I may have been put off Linux altogether.

Many thanks for all your help.

Ean.

Posted 1 year ago #

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