Hi All,
Scientific Linux 6.5, 64 bit (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 clone)
$ rpm -qa *livecd-tools* livecd-tools-13.4.5-1.el6.x86_64
I love my Fedora Live USB a little too much. Can't get enough space to add everything I want to it.
Do you know of a way to overcome the 4GB persistent storage restriction? ("overlay-live-xxxxx" I presume.)
I am trying to do this:
livecd-iso-to-disk --overlay-size-mb 7194 /home/kvm/Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.iso /dev/sdc1
But get told overlay can only be 2048 max.
I have Googled my rear end off with not luck. Closest I have come was
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/create-a-larger-than-4gb-casper-partition/
But it does not work with Fedora Live USB.
I am presuming the problem is that fat32 does not allow files larger than ~4 GB. Is there any way to point the persistent file to a second EXT4 partition on the stick?
Many thanks, -T
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. --Mark Twain
On Fri, Apr 04, 2014 at 13:01:39 -0700, ToddAndMargo ToddAndMargo@zoho.com wrote:
I love my Fedora Live USB a little too much. Can't get enough space to add everything I want to it.
Do you know of a way to overcome the 4GB persistent storage restriction? ("overlay-live-xxxxx" I presume.)
I am trying to do this:
livecd-iso-to-disk --overlay-size-mb 7194 /home/kvm/Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.iso /dev/sdc1
But get told overlay can only be 2048 max.
That might be because the overlay file is normally going to be on an FAT file system. Though I think I saw a bug somewhere that said the limit really should be less that 4GiB.
How large is your device? You might consider doing a normal install to it if you are going to be doing updates and keeping it for a long time without refreshing. Note that you can't normally update the kernel in a live image. So for long term use a normal install is better, assuming you have the room.
On 04/04/2014 08:52 PM, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
On Fri, Apr 04, 2014 at 13:01:39 -0700, ToddAndMargo ToddAndMargo@zoho.com wrote:
I love my Fedora Live USB a little too much. Can't get enough space to add everything I want to it.
Do you know of a way to overcome the 4GB persistent storage restriction? ("overlay-live-xxxxx" I presume.)
I am trying to do this:
livecd-iso-to-disk --overlay-size-mb 7194 /home/kvm/Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.iso /dev/sdc1
But get told overlay can only be 2048 max.
That might be because the overlay file is normally going to be on an FAT file system. Though I think I saw a bug somewhere that said the limit really should be less that 4GiB.
How large is your device? You might consider doing a normal install to it if you are going to be doing updates and keeping it for a long time without refreshing. Note that you can't normally update the kernel in a live image. So for long term use a normal install is better, assuming you have the room.
Hi Bruno,
The current stick I am using is 16 GB.
I use the Live USB as rescue disk at my customer sites (mostly to save Windows computers). I had though of installing directly, but have been told that I can not expect that /dev/sda will always be the stick.
-T
On Fri, Apr 04, 2014 at 21:13:44 -0700, ToddAndMargo ToddAndMargo@zoho.com wrote:
The current stick I am using is 16 GB.
You should be able to do a normal install with 16 GB. (Though you can use a lot more than that if you install enough packages.)
I use the Live USB as rescue disk at my customer sites (mostly to save Windows computers). I had though of installing directly, but have been told that I can not expect that /dev/sda will always be the stick.
That shouldn't matter for booting. The device should be known by its UUID. (The install process will set that up as a kernel parameter. You shouldn't have to do anything special for that.)
There might be some machines that will boot off the device with a FAT file system, but not with other file systems. But I suspect that would be limited to older machines.
On 04/04/2014 10:17 PM, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
There might be some machines that will boot off the device with a FAT file system, but not with other file systems. But I suspect that would be limited to older machines.
Hi Bruno,
Would that apply to NTFS too? Are there BIOS'es that won't boot off of NTFS? That would have to be a really old machine.
In other words, if the motherboard can boot off an NTFS hard drive, should it also be able to boot off a USB EXT4 stick? (I am finding I have to go to somewhat newer motherboards to get the USB boot option in BIOS anyway.)
-T
On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 10:17 PM, Bruno Wolff III bruno@wolff.to wrote:
On Fri, Apr 04, 2014 at 21:13:44 -0700, ToddAndMargo ToddAndMargo@zoho.com wrote:
The current stick I am using is 16 GB.
You should be able to do a normal install with 16 GB. (Though you can use a lot more than that if you install enough packages.)
I use the Live USB as rescue disk at my customer sites (mostly
to save Windows computers). I had though of installing directly, but have been told that I can not expect that /dev/sda will always be the stick.
That shouldn't matter for booting. The device should be known by its UUID. (The install process will set that up as a kernel parameter. You shouldn't have to do anything special for that.)
There might be some machines that will boot off the device with a FAT file system, but not with other file systems.
To keep everything you want in a compressed LiveOS filesystem, you can remix a custom Live CD. See, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD
To make remixing easier for an end user, I've developed editliveos.py. This Python script can be run from a directory containing the following files: https://git.sugarlabs.org/~FGrose/soas/sugar-clone-extensions/trees/master/e...
For example, I run this command line:
sudo ./editliveos.py -n F20-Custom -t /var/tmp -y /var/cache/yum/ -S --builder fgrose --rootfs-size-gb 8 /path/to/Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-20-1.iso
(substituting the appropriate /path/to directories).
which will enlarge the rootfs from 4 to 8 GiBytes. A shell in the new root filesystem (via chroot) is presented where you can yum update and yum install your desired software.
NOTE: To take advantage of a newer kernel, you need to adapt these instructions: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB#Kernel_updates with commands such as,
BEFORE running yum update:
sed -i 's/^hostonly="yes"/hostonly="no"/' /usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d/01-dist.conf echo 'add_dracutmodules+=" dmsquash-live " compress="xz"' >> /usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d/01-dist.conf
Following yum update:
yum remove kernel-3.11.10-301.fc20
new=3.13.8-200.fc20.x86_64 bootpath=mnt/live/isolinux mv -f boot/vmlinuz-$new ${bootpath}/vmlinuz0 mv -f boot/initramfs-${new}.img ${bootpath}/initrd0.img bootpath=run/initramfs/live/syslinux
ln -fs -T ../${bootpath}/vmlinuz0 boot/vmlinuz-$new ln -fs -T ../${bootpath}/initrd0.img boot/initramfs-${new}.img
which should be run from the chroot shell.
On exiting the shell, the script continues to build an installable .iso file of your custom image.
Once you have installed your custom LiveOS image, you can maintain it with new updates or software installations by running the editliveos.py script against the attached Live USB device using this command line, for example:
sudo ./editliveos.py -n F20-Custom -t /var/tmp -y /var/cache/yum/ -S --builder fgrose /path/to/F20-Custom-mountpoint(or path/to/dev/node)
(substituting the appropriate /path/to/mountpoint directories or /dev/node).
The script will merge the overlay file and any updates from the chroot shell into a new SquashFS for your Live USB, and build an updated install .iso file.
If there is a kernel update, the above-noted kernel move and link commands are needed with the appropriate kernel version identifiers. IN ADDITION, the new kernel and initrd0.img needs to be moved to the /syslinux directory on the Live USB device.
From a separate shell instance (because the chroot shell hides the host
filesystem),
sudo cp /var/tmp/editliveos-XXXXXX/iso/isolinux/vmlinuz0 /path/to/mountpoint/syslinux/ sudo cp /var/tmp/editliveos-XXXXXX/iso/isolinux/initrd0.img /path/to/mountpoint/syslinux/
(substituting the appropriate temporary build and /path/to/mountpoint directories).
--Fred
On Sat, Apr 05, 2014 at 09:36:47 -0700, ToddAndMargo ToddAndMargo@zoho.com wrote:
Hi Bruno,
Would that apply to NTFS too? Are there BIOS'es that won't boot off of NTFS? That would have to be a really old machine.
I think the ones that were checking for FAT also wouldn't boot off of NTFS either.
In other words, if the motherboard can boot off an NTFS hard drive, should it also be able to boot off a USB EXT4 stick? (I am finding I have to go to somewhat newer motherboards to get the USB boot option in BIOS anyway.)
I would expect so, but BIOS code is generally terrible and there may be some somewhere that doesn't. The ones even testing for a file system were arguably broken, since they are just supposed to execute the boot block.
livecd@lists.fedoraproject.org
-
Bruno Wolff III -
Frederick Grose -
ToddAndMargo