[SOLVED] help with persistent home

[lunabuna]

Hi guys,
I'm new to tinycore so please help me so solve a annoying issue.

I want to install tinycore on a Atom intel board to make a home server ( backups, ssh, ftp..).
It works fine but I loose all the changes after reboot.
So please help me to solve this.


What I did till now:

So I downloaded Core-current.iso version because I do not need GUI.
I took a USB stick ( 8Gb) and I put the iso on it on a bootable FAT32. ( I tried with ext2 but usb not boot anymore.. not sure why)

The Core started and works fine. I can install ssh, define crontab jobs..etc. So it behave like a normal linux server.

I read the FAQ section and also this forum, ( and I searched few days to examples and tutorials...) and I added
the following to my syslinux.cfg:

***********
display boot.msg
default microcore
label microcore
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz
   append initrd=/boot/core.gz quiet usbwait=10 tce=UUID=17FF-4140 home=UUID=17FF-4140 opt=UUID=17FF-4140 restore=UUID=17FF-4140 cron

label mc
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz
   append initrd=/boot/core.gz quiet
implicit 0   
prompt 1   
timeout 10
F1 boot.msg
F2 f2
F3 f3
F4 f4
***********

I see that the boot commands are read because the cron daemon is up after a reboot.
But the other options ( home, opt and restore are not doing anything...)

On the same USB stick I added this folders : tce and opt on the root of USB stick.
( I did this following the FAQ section .. to be able to save backups)

But each time, after reboot, the system is loosing all my settings.

On the /opt/.filetool.lst I have only :
home
opt

I tried also other various ideas from others but all failed. After reboot I loose all.

So , just to be clear. I have a USB stick (FAT32) and I want that all backups ( or persistent folders) to be also on the same USB stick. I do not have any HDD disk available.

So what I'm doing wrong ? Please help.

Thanks for any advice.

luna

[jls]

why do u need persistent home/opt?
what do u loose exactly?

[lunabuna]

well I want to install ssh daemon + config files
I want to keep cron jobs plus some other backup scripts. I want also some custom users/passwords ...etc.

And about what I loose: after reboot all settings are lost.
I mean that the system looks as it was at the first boot.
all my files from /home are lost, all files from /opt are lost. Even if I make a new folder on the / (with  sudo mkdir ) , after reboot is lost.
I tried also to alter files from etc folder ( like fstab for example, or host, ...) and all this settings are lost.

It looks as if the Core system is not backup at all, or that the settings cannot be recovered.
The USB may be seen as a read-only system ??!!??
Actually I want to be read only, but only after I put all my settings and do all the customization...not before.

Thanks,

luna


 

[curaga]

Typo in your syslinux.cfg, it's "waitusb", not "usbwait".

[tinypoodle]

Using that combo of restore and persistent opt/home might lead to unpredicted results...

[Rich]

Hi lunabuna
If you specify  home  and  opt  in the initrd line, you are have a persistent home and opt directory, and should
remove all references to home and opt in your filetool.lst file. There is no point in backing up directories that
are persistent, as that will only serve to increase your boot and shutdown times.

[lunabuna]

Hi guys,

Indeed there it was a mistake in my file, I updated the usbwait with waitusb.
But the effect is not what I expected.

Now I have a warning at boot that say:
*************************************
persistent HOME not supported in  Microsoft File System
request for persistent HOME ignored
Press any key.
persistent OPT not supported in  Microsoft File System
request for persistent OPT ignored
Press any key.
*************************************

What now ??

 I cannot use ext2 since is making my usb not bootable...

Any ideas ??


Thanks,
luna

[Rich]

Hi lunabuna
Remove the opt and home entries from the initrd line. Leave the home entry in filetool.lst. If you alter any
configuration files, add those to your filetool.lst as well. Remove any opt or home directories you created
on the drive (ie. /mnt/sda1/home). Install an app and configure it. Run a backup and reboot. Your configuration
should be restored when the machine comes back up. If all is OK, install and set up the rest of your apps.

[lunabuna]

Thanks Rich,

I followed your last advice and now it seems to work.
when I make backup ( with backup command) the mydata.tgz file is created on the USB stick.
and at reboot the data is restored correctly.

I was able to install midnight commander (mc) and openssh and I see that extensions are also ok ( saved on tce folder on usb stick).

I know that this is the "backup" method and not the "persistent" method, but in my case I'm ok with this result.

Thanks to all of you guys !

Regards,
luna.