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

Sawbones Surio

2013-05-18 20:02:06 UTC

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

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.

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

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

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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