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Saving Slitaz to USB Permanently - Other problems
  • jeffrjeffr July 2010
    I use "slitaz-cooking.iso 20100314" from download on Slitaz site. I burn CD. I boot PC from CD. All "ok" so far.

    I use "tazusb gen-liveusb" to create bootable Slitaz on USB. My USB key is Flash and 2GB. I use "/dev/sde1" to boot Slitaz. "sde1" is FAT32 and 500MB. I use "/dev/sde2" as "/home". "sde2" is 1.5GB in size and Ext2. All as suggested in Slitaz forums.

    I boot from USB made from "tazusb gen-liveusb" command, all boot "ok" but autologin "tux" not work so I login as "root". Strange? What is "tux" password? When I make USB from "pendrivelinux" USB tool all boot "ok" and "tux" login work "ok".

    I make changes to environment, install new packages, remove other packages. Then I use "tazusb writefs gzip" to create "rootfs.gz" which is found in "/", not "/home" as some forum writing say even though I mount "/dev/sde2" as "/home" and "mount" say I do that. So I "mv /rootfs.gz /home" and prove file exist in "/home" using "ls -al". I reboot. All previous settings do not show up but "/home" is mounted and 'rootfs.gz" is there...same file I save.

    I spend many many hour on this and reading Slitaz web and forum but cannot make work. Slitaz look nice and have packages I like but cannot save setup make Slitaz useless to me.

    What is wrong?
  • kultexkultex July 2010
    to login as root is not at all recommanded.... if tux does not work see http://doc.slitaz.org/en:guides:faq-login

    tux has no password it normally logs in without stopping on the slim boot manager.

    If you do not manage to start X with tux and you still hang on the slim boot manager press strg+alt+F2 log in as tux with no password and type startx and post the error message

    Edit: forgot to say, that you have to determin your homepartition in the syslinux.cfg on your stick with home=UUID

    to find the UUID of your partition type
    ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid 
    or just
    blkid
  • LexeiiLexeii July 2010
    To work 'tazusb writefs ...' properly, you want to put rootfs.gz to /home/boot/ both with kernel. It may want to change Grub config file.

    Writefs will auto-move rootfs from '/' to /home/boot, renames old versions etc. And you may find save options in logout dialog (where reboot, shutdown...)
  • jeffrjeffr July 2010
    kultex: I try follow help in link you provide. See error it talk about. Follow help in link does not help me. "shopt" not on system. Plz U tell me what package to load for "shopt". No other error seen. Can login on CLI but "/home/tux" not found. Had to create "/home/tux". Have set "home=" in "syslinux.cfg" file on "boot" part of bootable USB. Why "tazusb gen-liveusb" not do all these things for user? Is it bad? Is "cooking" == "alpha" code quality?

    Lexeii: Have setup as U say but does not work. "tazusb writefs ..." always write to "/" and I always have to "mv" file. Never see "rename" function as U describe. Never see any option when type 'reboot ". Why?

    I try replacing rootfs.gz on "/dev/sd-1/boot" (bootable part) with rootfs.gz that "tazusb" create. Reboot system. FREEZE on black screen and corrupt USB key. Intel GMA video chipset prob? All other Linux I try...no video error.

    Slitaz not seem stable like other Linuxes

    Plz someone help me
  • LexeiiLexeii July 2010
    jeffr, I have luck with 3.0 stable. Unfortunately, my weak & cost net connection don't let me experiment with cooking one. Cooking is not alpha, it's not stable, some like beta :)
    Can you download stable 3.0?

    There is the lines (509-522) of /usr/bin/tazusb:

    # If the bootable medium is where it should be, copy across
    if (test -e /home/boot/bzImage); then
    echo "Moving rootfs.gz to media. Remember to unmount for delayed writes!"

    # Move the old filesystem with the unix timestamp for reference
    if (test -e /home/boot/previous.gz); then
    mv /home/boot/previous.gz /home/boot/rootfs.gz.$(date +%s)
    fi

    mv /home/boot/rootfs.gz /home/boot/previous.gz
    mv /rootfs.gz /home/boot/.
    else
    echo "rootfs.gz is located in /"
    fi

    In human`s language:
    if file '/home/boot/bzImage' exists, then echo "Moving..." and move files in /home/boot like this:
    rootfs.gz (from '/') --> rootfs.gz --> previous.gz --> rootfs.gz.1279365956 (this number is date-time)

    This is lines of /home/boot/grub/menu.lst in my old machine (ordinary GRUB installed):

    title SliTaz 3.0
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=791 lang=ru_RU kmap=ru home=/dev/hda1
    initrd /boot/rootfs.gz


    This is lines of /home/menu.lst in my netbook (GRUB4DOS installed on ntfs partition):

    title SliTaz 3.0
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)
    kernel (hd0,1)/boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null home=/dev/sda2 vga=789 lang=ru_RU kmap=ru laptop
    initrd (hd0,1)/boot/Rootfs.gz


    Have you use GRUB?
  • jeffrjeffr July 2010
    Have tried many things....

    Changed to Slitaz 3.0 ISO. Load CD..."ok". Run Slitaz from CD..."ok". Use "tazusb" to create bootable USB...had to repeat twice. First try on "tazusb" fail on "syslinux". Second try always work. Same thing with "cooking". Strange....

    Create second part on USB for "/home". Create directories in "/home" for 'boot" and "tux". They not created by "tazusb". Setup "/home/tux" as link prev mentioned say.

    Someone need to add to FAQ U need "bash" to run "shopt".

    Mount bootable part of USB to edit "syslinux.cfg". Change "home=" to UUID of "/home" part of USB. Set locale, kmap, sound values. Reboot to USB.

    Can boot from USB. X do not start. 'tux" login work with blank pass but X not start. See error message "failed to execute login..." Type "ctrl-alt-F1" to get CLI. Login "ok" as "tux". Try to "startx" but get error about missing ".xsession" file. X not configured for "tux" so "Configure X" screen come up. Choose "xorg" but get screen say "Install Xorg" and only choice "quit". Strange?

    Run "tazpkg list" as "root" and as "tux" and see many "xorg" packages in list.

    Not yet trying GRUB because saving settings to USB should U all say....so why make problem worse trying something else?

    Lexeii: I see U say "/home/boot/bzImage" but don't see that. Now I copy another file? So I copy file and reboot again. See some error about Xorg but boot too fast to read. Try to find in "dmesg" but not captured. Not better. No X. I not change X config but X will not start. Why?

    Respects to all work on Slitaz but sorry cannot use. Too many problem.

    Will keep discussion open a day or two before "close/sink"
  • LexeiiLexeii July 2010
    What is the goal of your SliTaz installation on USB Flash? Portability? SliTaz in not designed for it. Because of SliTaz is tiny distro and not might contents all hardware drivers in it. SliTaz have many video and other drivers on its repositary, but you need internet connection to download them. Imagine, you boot SliTaz on new machine, it have unknown to you videocard. X not starts. You want to up internet (how to?) and start tazx. Then you need select vendor (what?) of this videocard in list, and rest SliTaz do for you (thanx to developers). In my case I can know name of my videocard and can to up net via modem. But in other machine I can't... And USB Flash have limited resource of writing cycles, and may break someday.

    I have no wish to install SliTaz onto flash. I did it recently, on April, and like you has many questions without answers.

    I propose you better install SliTaz on your machine's HDD in "Frugal" mode. I can help. I was "install" SliTaz 3.0 to my AspireOne netbook. It have now dual boot windows/linux. I just copy to HDD about a 5 files and made change to one window's file. That's all it need to work.
  • kultexkultex July 2010
    shopt is not working and you do not need to copy /etc/skel - just boot from the cdrom, copy tux to your home partition and change the ownership of all files in tux (also the hidden ones).

    You just can do this with pcmanfm - you have it in the menu of pcmanfm to open pcman as root and change under permissions the group and the ownership tu tux. Its done recursive but check the hidden files - especially .xsession

    if you have done evrything of the FAQ exept the "shopt -s dotglob" - you just have to change the permissions of the hidden files.

    you can do this from the console after booting with Ctrl+Alt+F2 - login as tux - change to root

    ls -a 
    shows all hidden files

    and you change the permission of evry hidden with eg.

    chown tux:tux /home/tux/.xsession


    this works too (I have updated the FAQ):

    chown -R tux:tux /home/tux/.[a-zA-Z0-9]*


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