[Grml] Facing issues in setting up persistency. Using the grml-rescueboot option

Sawbones Surio sawbonessurio at gmail.com
Sat May 18 22:02:06 CEST 2013


Hello,
  This is my third attempt at getting grml to run persistently.

Previous attempts used grml2usb to install it in tandem with other OSs,
first using the grub, and subsequently syslinux. Both attempts ended badly.
So, the third time, it was decided to opt for the option, grml-rescueboot
to get things going.

0. Get a working Linux Mint system (extended partition sdX5). fdisk -l
output is provided below.
1. Copied the grml64.iso into /boot/grml
2. Set up a separate partition called grml-home ( ---"--"--- sdX10) for
persistence.
3. Created persistence.conf in the / of grml-home and added all the paths
as prescribed in the wiki.
4. Having already installed the grml-rescueboot package, running
update-grub added the iso into the menu.
5. Reboot, and choose grml64.iso
6. In the subsequent menu, chose the persistence option
7. Was provided with the following (approximately):

> BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/grml64full/vmlinuz apm=power-off boot=live
> live-media-path=/live/grml64-full/ bootid=grml64full201302 nomce
> findiso=/boot/grml/grml64-full_2013.02.iso "${loopback}" "$kernelopts"
> persistence
>
8. After persistence, appended the following:  persistence-label=grml-home
9. Continue boot. During the boot, the messages scroll too quickly to make
out if the persistence system is mounted or not.
10. mount on the command line gives:

> grml at grml ~ % mount
> tmpfs on /run type tmpfs
> (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=755,size=10%,mode=755)
> tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs
> (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880,mode=1777,size=5242880,mode=1777)
> proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
> sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
> udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
> rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
> /dev/loop0 on /lib/live/mount/medium type iso9660 (ro,noatime)
> /dev/loop1 on /lib/live/mount/rootfs/grml64-full.squashfs type squashfs
> (ro,noatime)
> tmpfs on /lib/live/mount/overlay type tmpfs (rw,noatime,mode=755)
> rpc_pipefs on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
> configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw)
> fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
> grml at grml ~ %
>

So, grml-home is not mounted or being used at all. And cat /proc/cmdline
gives:

> BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/grml64full/vmlinuz apm=power-off boot=live
> live-media-path=/live/grml64-full/ bootid=grml64full201302 nomce
> findiso=/boot/grml/grml64-full_2013.02.iso "   " persistence
> persistence-label=grml-home
>

Basically, no persistence partition was mounted. Despite the label added as
a boot time. :-/
I would also like to bring your attention to the empty quotes in the above
cmdline screen output.

Last but not the least, here is the output of fdisk, to let you know my
disk configuration:

> grml at grml ~ % fdisk -l
>
> Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
> 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 57231 cylinders, total 117210240 sectors
> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x000a9f2a
>
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdb1   *        2048      200703       99328   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb2          200704     6492159     3145728   82  Linux swap /
> Solaris
> /dev/sdb3         6492160    48435199    20971520   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb4        48435200   117209087    34386944    5  Extended
> /dev/sdb5        48437248    69408767    10485760   83  Linux  ## Linux
> Mint
> /dev/sdb6        69410816    86188031     8388608   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb7        86190080    92049407     2929664   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb8        92051456    95956991     1952768   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb9        95959040    97535999      788480   83  Linux # contains
> failed grml2usb --grub install
> /dev/sdb10       97538048    98887679      674816   83  Linux ## grml-home
> /dev/sdb11       98889728   101818367     1464320   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb12      101820416   109631487     3905536   83  Linux
> /dev/sdb13      109633536   117209087     3787776   83  Linux
>
> Disk /dev/sdc: 4089 MB, 4089446400 bytes
> 61 heads, 60 sectors/track, 2182 cylinders, total 7987200 sectors
> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x00000000
>
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdc1            8192     7987199     3989504    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
> grml at grml ~ %
>


So, my questions,
a) is there something extra that needs doing?
b) why is persistence.conf or persistence-label not being picked up and
honoured ?
b) why those spaces in quotes in the commandline in the final output?
d) .................................. ?

I would greatly appreciate any insight from your end that I might be
missing here. I would like to get this thing going forward, and recognising
the grml-home partition and storing all my settings for the next session
would be just fantastic.

Many thanks in advance.
Surio.
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