LinuxBBQ

Here is how I created a persistent Gangbang USB stick.

Create two partitions on your USB stick. One partition needs to be big enough to hold the iso, the other partition should use all the remaining space. I used a 8G USB stick, so I created a 1G partition for the iso and the remaining space for persistence.

NOTE: The rest of the commands in this topic assume that you are running as root. Use "su" or "sudo su" to become root. BE CAREFUL! This example also assumes that your USB stick is "sdb" -- change the code accordingly if this is not true for your machine. BE CAREFUL!

Put a fat32 filesystem on the first partition, and an ext2 filesystem labled "persistence" on the second partition: Mount the first partition (unetbootin requires this): Use unetbootin to put the iso on the sdb1 partition. When unetbootin finishes, select "exit"

Edit the syslinux.config file on /dev/sdb1 (mounted at /mnt): Add the word "persistence" to the end of the "append" line for the first entry, and (optionally) change the menu label of the first entry. For Gangbang, I changed this: To this: Save the file. Unmount the first partition, and mount the second: Create a file called "live-persistence.conf" at the root of the partition: Put this one line in live-persistence.conf (note that there is a space between "/" and "union"): Save the file, and unmount the partition. Boot your new persistent USB.

References:
http://live.debian.net/manual/3.x/html/ ... n.html#529
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 78#p297178

Tip:

Code: Select all

nano /mnt/live-persistence.conf
/ union

You can use this:
:)

^ true... now try the challenge of writing all of pidsley's instructions on a single commandline. it can be done! :D
i think the reason pidsley went with the nano option was for clarity, or maybe just because he prefers to do it that way. still, a valid point :)

@pids ... thank you for the how-to. Well written as usual.
@rho ... thanks for the laugh this morning. Witty as usual.

now go to Metal corner and check out some Big Black!

Well the difference is that pidsley's method works for su and sudo.

Does this still work? I tried it with break! and I couldn't get the USB to boot properly after. I'm really after a persistent USB that I can install and test different CLI programs on in openbox, so I thought that'd be fantastic, but after following the instructions I was left with an unbootable USB according to the two machines I tested it on. The same ISO copied with something like etcher.io boots fine in a non permanent way though.

What does unbootable mean?

- it doesn't get recognized in the boot selection
- it does get recognized but SYSLINUX shows some error
- it does get recognized, the boot menu of Unetbootin appears, but none of the selections boot

There is aline that needs to be changed: This has to point at the actual init file of your system, for example init=/sbin/init (see https://wiki.debian.org/BootProcess)
We had used systemd as init system but ditched it 3 years ago in favour of sysvnit.

I get a 'Missing Operating System' error after selecting the USB drive from my bios boot menu. I hadn't added the systemd init line previously because break! didn't have an init line at all there. I added init=/sbin/init but it didn't help :)

Honestly, no idea. Let us know what you find out.
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 11#p438311

These instructions are OLD! I'm not surprised they don't work.

You might be better off trying something like this: http://syn.theti.ca/2013/06/22/tutorial ... ce-on-usb/

With the change noted by xaos here: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic ... 6886#p6886

Or these instructions: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic ... 6974#p6974

With the appropriate changes in the name of the iso, of course.

https://tails.boum.org/contribute/design/persistence/
https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/ ... ex.en.html