[solved] USB Persistence Question

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rc racer
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[solved] USB Persistence Question

#1 Post by rc racer »

I recently purchased an MX Linux 17.1 OS Live installation USB flash drive with persistence and Installed the OS on my two laptops. I also run this OS from the flash drive on my desktop which already has Linux Mint on it. I'm not a fan of duel booting so I wish to experiment a little longer with MX before I completely crossover. I have it configured almost to my liking (some work yet to do) but I am not familiar enough using live flash drives to really know what I'm doing while working with them. The question I have is this. If I now use this Live USB drive on a different computer would It change the configuration already set up on it or would it simply run as I have it set up now?
Last edited by rc racer on Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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fehlix
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Re: USB Persistence Question

#2 Post by fehlix »

rc racer wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 11:43 pm .. If I now use this Live USB drive on a different computer would It change the configuration already set up on it or would it simply run as I have it set up now?
Yes, that's the main idea: MX Linux Live with persistence - A system in a pocket on an usb-stick.
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rc racer
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Re: USB Persistence Question

#3 Post by rc racer »

I thought that was how it should work, but hey I have used DVDs for Live installations in the past, and booting from a flash drive is a new thing for me (old timer here) but I like it, its Soooooooooo much faster. Having a mini computer with me is like icing on the cake :happy: Thanks for the assurance
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thomasl
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Re: USB Persistence Question

#4 Post by thomasl »

rc racer wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 11:43 pmIf I now use this Live USB drive on a different computer would It change the configuration already set up on it or would it simply run as I have it set up now?
Short answer: yes, it will run exactly as set up as long as you don't save any changes to your persistence file(s). This obviously will change the setup.

Longer answer: MX Live w/ persistence consists of only four or five files:
vmlinuz, initrd.gz, linuxfs and
rootfs and/or homefs.

The first three are basically read-only, so whatever you do, nothing (short of formatting everything :eek: ) will change these files. They will be "changed" if you do a remaster or a snapshot, but these are not really changes but will create a new set of files. Backing up a Live MX system is trivial as the whole system (minus changes, see below) resides in these three files and copying them to a safe location is an effective backup.

The other two files are the files that collect all changes. rootfs does so systemwide, homefs only for the /home directory. There are differences in handling (ie homefs is always static, meaning changes in /home are written back to file homefs as they happen), whereas rootfs can be either static (again, written immediately) or dynamic (ie changes are first stored in RAM and written back to file rootfs only if persist-save is called, either directly by the user or when the system terminates and the option to save persistence has been enabled). The persistence file(s) store all (relevant) changes over and above the system state frozen in file linuxfs. If you do a remaster or create a snapshot w/ personal account saving enabled, all these changes are captured in the newly created linuxfs and the process is ready to start all over.
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rc racer
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Re: USB Persistence Question

#5 Post by rc racer »

Hey thanks Thomas. I really would like to understand this, and you have laid out the path of knowledge here, and given me something to chew on.
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