Persistency on grml

Starting with grml release 2009.05 its possible to use root persistency on grml. This means you can store your settings and reuse them on reboot, without having to deal with the older config framework.

To use the persistency feature you need a writeable partition with label ‘live-rw’, preferably on a USB pen:

• create an ext3 filesystem with label live-rw on your USB pen running ‘mkfs.ext3 -L live-rw /dev/sdXY’
• to reuse the snapshot on reboot add ‘persistent’ to the boot commandline, for example running ‘grml persistent’

That’s it.

If you have a 4GB USB stick the following partition setup might help you:

Partition |  Size | FS    | Label     | Usage
----------|-------|-------|-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda1 | 1,3GB | FAT16 | datastore | Data pool for personal usage (compatible with Windows/Mac OS)
/dev/sda2 | 2,0GB | EXT3  | grml      | Bootable partition providing several grml ISOs for multiboot
/dev/sda5 | 200MB | EXT3  | home-rw   | Persistency partition for $HOME (see man live-snapshot for more details)
/dev/sda6 | 400MB | EXT3  | live-rw   | Persistency partition for '/'   (see man live-snapshot for more details)
/dev/sda7 | 100MB | EXT3  | GRMLCFG   | Grml configuration device, see http://grml.org/config/

Tip: Consider using grml2usb for installing grml ISO(s) to your USB pen.

This is the output of ‘sfdisk -d /dev/sdb’ of a working grml USB pen using the partition layout mentioned above. You can apply the configuration (you’ll lose any existing data of course!) to your USB device executing ‘sfdisk /dev/sdX < output’, but please make sure to adjust the device name:

# sfdisk -d /dev/sdb
# partition table of /dev/sdb
unit: sectors

/dev/sdb1 : start=       62, size=  2536978, Id= 6
/dev/sdb2 : start=  2537040, size=  3905504, Id=83, bootable
/dev/sdb3 : start=  6442544, size=  1383840, Id= 5
/dev/sdb4 : start=        0, size=        0, Id= 0
/dev/sdb5 : start=  6442606, size=   392026, Id=83
/dev/sdb6 : start=  6834694, size=   784114, Id=83
/dev/sdb7 : start=  7618870, size=   207514, Id=83

To set up the labels mentioned above execute the following commands (again, just so you get the idea, please adjust device names and have a backup before overwriting any existing data):

mkfs.vfat -n datastore /dev/sdb1
mkfs.ext3 -L grml /dev/sdb2
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdb2
mkfs.ext3 -L home-rw /dev/sdb5
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdb5
mkfs.ext3 -L live-rw /dev/sdb6
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdb6
mkfs.ext3 -L GRMLCFG /dev/sdb7
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdb7

Currently you don’t get any information about the snapshots while booting your grml system. Check whether the live snapshot is included running ‘mount | grep live-snapshot’.

Probably, as the persistency feature is pretty fresh. Check out live-initramfs bugs. Feel free to report problems to the grml team.

• Persistency in Debian Live Manual