My persistent home isn't persisting

[el_supremo]

I discovered that I had actually written down what I did to fix the problem with configs.tbz
I deleted the /etc/X11 directory (which contains two files) from the archive and then V3.6 would boot.
In a shell, type these commands (I've added comments to explain what they do):

# Mount the device where the configs file is located - it might already be mounted
mount /mnt/hda8
# and go to that directory
cd /mnt/hda8
# Make a backup copy of the file just in case - I add today's date in the form YYMMDD to the filename.
cp configs.tbz configs_040902.tbz
# decompress the file
bunzip2 configs.tbz
# Delete the /etc/X11 directory from the archive
tar vf configs.tar --delete /etc/X11
# Recompress it
gzip2 -9 configs.tar
# and move it back
mv configs.tar.bz2 configs.tbz

Then reboot and it should come up OK.

Best Wishes
Pete

[Flash00]

Thanks for the detailed instructions El Supremo. I tried them out last night from within Mandrake but without success. Entering the commands from a shell as root resulted in error messages that didn't make any sense to me. I did find the .tbz files in a GUI, which said the X11 file size was 0 bytes, perhaps because it was zipped. I didn't have time to play with it. I plan to try it again this weekend, perhaps from the Knoppix CD rather than Mandrake.

I could use Knoppix 3.6 but the question occurred to me: Couldn't I use Knoppix 3.4 to delete the file, then reboot with the 3.6 CD?

By the way, does the Knoppix 3.6 CD contain some sort of program to aid customizing and remastering? I think I read somewhere that it does.

Thanks again

[zealot]

yeah it works for me as well!! I only type knoppix home=/dev/sda1 at boot prompt and I got my config back...

zealot

Interesting development . . . .

Because my thumbdrive was full and I was having problems clearing it (I think now that I had forgotten to uncheck the read-only box - doh!!), I decided to revisit the issue of saving the configuration to the same partition as my persistent home. So, I saved the configuration to /mnt/hdb5, the same as my PH, logged out, logged into Windows, cleared my thumbdrive, and rebooted Knoppix. So, I entered the bootcode 'knoppix26 home=/dev/hdb5 myconfig=/dev/hdb5'. It found the PH, but hung on the config, so I figured that SunnyB must be right about needing to be a different location. So, then I typed the bootcode 'knoppix26 home=/dev/hdb5', leaving out the myconfig argument entirely, and I figured I would simply copy the configs.tbz file back to the thumbdrive, and reboot once I have the configuration file relocated. Well I couldn't copy the file back to the thumbdrive (because I forgot to uncheck read only), and then I noticed that my configuration was already loaded, even though I hadn't asked in the boot code.

So, it appears to me that if you set up a partition as a PH, and save your configuration to it, it looks as if you don't even have to bother with the myconfig bootflag - it's grabbed automatically when the PH is enabled. Cuts my typing in half!!

Just curious to see if it works for anyone else - this may be a cool one to add to the tips and tricks.

[1855]

Hi, New to the forum and knoppix. (Please don't shoot)

I read this post with extreme interest as after managing to set up booting from an iso on c: ( a major achievement!) I wanted to push my knowledge, settings etc... without having to save the configuration each time and without disturbing Windows! so a persistent home grabbed my interest.

I am in the fortunate position of a spare machine ( after a donated one came my way) that only the kids game on so that would be the target to go at.

Everything went as should, not a glitch. I placed it on Hdb1 a "spare" 40Gb Fat32 drive in there. Brilliant

Full of confidence I sucumbed to the "this is good" point and went to replicate it on my main pc. Trying to PH on effectively Hdc2 (Hdc1 being the back up partition for my data) it would not go or stick.

As said I'm new to this but after trying for a while getting nowhere I though about the differences in set ups that could of caused me problems.

The only thing that was different was that Hdc2 on the main PC was beyond the 1024 cyl boundary (8 Gb?) compared to Hdb1, yes I use Partition magic alot, on the spare where it sat basically at the start of the drive.

I changed the back up partition and target for PH on my main PC putting it to Hdc1 and presto everythings fine. This was also the case on my wife's Laptop where secretly while she was out and quite quickly managed to repeat the same observation, PH beyond 1024 cyl would not go, inside it everything's fine. She doesn't even know it's on there, I'll change her over gradually!

I'm taking a cautious approach and checking I can do the things in Knoppix that I can in Windows (home net etc...) before totally changing.

Just wondering if this could be a reason?