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Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:54 am

I tried making a live usb with an encrypted persistent partition. Wasn't sure if it would work. It didn't, but the first partition got mounted at /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1. And it got mounted read/write.
Code:
user@jessie-sysv:~$ cat /proc/cmdline
initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live ip=frommedia union=aufs persistence persistence-label=mushdata persistence-encryption=none,luks BOOT_IMAGE=/live/vmlinuz

user@jessie-sysv:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs           1012M   25M  988M   3% /
udev             10M     0   10M   0% /dev
tmpfs           203M  528K  202M   1% /run
/dev/sde1       1.6G  683M  914M  43% /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1
/dev/loop0      662M  662M     0 100% /lib/live/mount/rootfs/filesystem.squashfs
tmpfs          1012M     0 1012M   0% /lib/live/mount/overlay
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           405M     0  405M   0% /run/shm

user@jessie-sysv:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=217046,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=207172k,mode=755)
/dev/sde1 on /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1 type vfat (rw,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=utf8,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/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=22cc0071,noxino)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=414320k)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
rpc_pipefs on /run/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw,relatime)

user@jessie-sysv:~$ ls -l /lib/live/mount/persistence/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Jan  1  1970 sde1

user@jessie-sysv:~$ ls -l /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1/total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 12:44 live
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 12:44 pkglist_jessie_sysV_1-20141017_1244
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 29 20:06 syslinux

user@jessie-sysv:~$ sudo touch /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1/testfile
user@jessie-sysv:~$ ls -l /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 12:44 live
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 12:44 pkglist_jessie_sysV_1-20141017_1244
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 29 20:06 syslinux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    0 Oct 30 00:12 testfile

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:57 pm

Update: Tried it again with a non-encrypted persistent partition, and it works correctly. Persistent partition is mounted at /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde2. And once again, the media is mounted at /lib/live/mount/persistence/sde1. And it's mounted read/write (for root only). Files, including system files, get saved on the persistent partition, but root can write to the mounted media.

An unrelated problem: These images aren't booting properly. I'm being dropped to the syslinux boot: prompt because of two errors. If I enter the label ("live" or other label from the menu) then it boots. One of the errors had to do with chain.c32, and when I removed the harddisk entry from the menu, that error message went away, but it still dropped me to the boot prompt. I haven't tried to see if putting this entry back into the menu causes the problem again after fixing the second error.

The other was a problem with vesamenu.c32. I'm creating the live usb on a wheezy system, and I get the same result whether I use refracta2usb-0.9.6 or refracta2usb-0.9.6+sid1. In either case, the file is coming from the isolinux folder inside the iso, and these are jessie/sid images with a newer syslinux package. When I copy vesamenu.c32 from my wheezy installation to the syslinux folder on the usb stick, it boots properly (I get the syslinux boot menu). I'm guessing the problem is a mismatch between vesamenu.c32 from sid and ldlinux from wheezy.

I'm not sure how long this problem has existed. In previous tests with sid isos used on a usb stick, the stick always had a wheezy image on it first, and I kept the syslinux folder, thus keeping the older vesamenu.c32. I think this is the first time I've put a jessie/sid image on the stick first.

Not sure of the best way to fix this. Maybe need to do a version check of syslinux on the installed system and if it's older syslinux with the newer vesamenu.c32 issue a warning and/or give the option to copy the old vesamenu.c32 to the live-usb.

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Sat Dec 13, 2014 1:35 am

Not quite sure where to put this just posted on #devuan

<max2344> i think i have a solution for that refracta problem
<max2344> the possible fix might be to run:
<max2344> insserv -v -r -f nfs-common
<max2344> insserv -v -d -f nfs-common
<max2344> and pack the image back again

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Sat Dec 13, 2014 2:05 am

I think it's in another thread, but right here will do just fine. Thanks. Testing it now. I'll figure out where to post the results when I have them.

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Sat Dec 13, 2014 2:13 am

It was just dumb luck that I dropped on to IRC a few minutes before he posted that. Maybe you're logging and checking what's going on. I'm not.

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Sat Dec 13, 2014 3:53 am

Regarding the non-booting isos, I tried insserv, but it didn't help. That post is here -
going-with-the-systemd-flow-or-not-t422-110.html?sid=aa7c48d884dda66f5bb23d8ae8d61313#p4411

Regarding the mismatched syslinux files, if I run refracta2usb in jessie, the live-usb boots normally. The *.c32 files need to be from the same version of syslinux that gets used to make ldlinux.sys. (syslinux -d syslinux).

The persistence oddity persists. Live media partition is rw for root if peristence is in the boot command. Doesn't matter if there's a persistent volume present or not.

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Sat Dec 13, 2014 4:29 am

yeah, wrong thread!

It's nothing to do with nfs nor insserv.. after initramfs has done switch_root .. /dev disappears. I can fix in initrd but can't figure out why that should be necessary.

Re: Odd behavior of live-boot: persistent media

Sat Dec 13, 2014 4:38 am

fsr, why don't you just move everything to the right place?
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