Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

fortyseven · 2012-05-11 08:02:50

A couple of days ago I downloaded the latest Ubuntu. I made a bootable usb using the built in USB creator. It worked very nicely and I liked that it allowed me to actually use the OS. What I mean is, I was able to change settings and save documents.
Then I realised that I'd never made a bootable usb with #! so last night I set about doing it. What I thought would be a twenty minute operation turned out to be a hell of a night. Allow me to explain.

The first thing I wanted to do was erase all the data of my usb thumbdrive which already had Ubuntu installed. Thunar wouldn't let me delete anything so I tried the CLI. No dice. Even with sudo, I couldn't get “permission” to remove anything. OK. Let me just partition it. I ran gparted and tried to partition it but gparted kept saying I needed to unmount it first. I unmount it. I try format again but still, gparted keeps telling me it needs to be unmounted first.
Next I boot into an Ubuntu live session from a CD. I use gparted and it works no problem. Out of Ubuntu and back into #!. I try to create a bootable USB using

sudo dd if=/path/to/iso/crunchbang-10-20101205-openbox-i686.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M;sync

However, it doesn't work because I only have the #! CD and no image. No problem I thought; it's easy to make an image. I open up Xfburn but it keeps giving me an error, telling me it can't mount my cd drive. I decided to install K3b, which I know works. The problem is that I've just moved into a new house and I'm still waiting for the phone company to move my ADSL line to my new address. I get my wifes Vodafone 3G dongle, plug it in and bang, I get what I can only describe as the linux equivalent of a blue screen. The only way out is to switch off and boot up again. This time I boot up with the 3G dongle alreay inserted and it works. I download and install K3b, make an image of #! and again I run

sudo dd if=/path/to/iso/crunchbang-10-20101205-openbox-i686.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M;sync

This time it works and I now eagerly boot into my #! live USB session. I change some setting to see if it would save them like the ubuntu usb and it doesn't. All changes I made are gone after a reboot.
So, I try to back onto the internet but again, the 3G dongle hangs my system. Switch off and switch on again. Into Google, do some research and find a how to on this forum outling the steps to make a persistant bootable usb using Unetbootin.
So back to gparted to format but again, it won't. Boot into a live Ubuntu session again. Format and reboot back into #!. I ry to access the internet again to get to the tut and again, true to form, the dongle messes with my machine. Switch off, switch on, get onto the forum, find the tut again and decide to save the page offline. For some unknown reason, Ice Weasel tells me it cant save the page and that I should call my administrator. No problem. I decide to make a screenshot of the tut. Clever me I thought. Again, removing the 3G dongle causes my system to crash. Switch off, switch on again. I navigate to the screenshot I took, click on it and get an error. The screenshot file somehow got corrupted. I plug in the dongle to access the forums again and guess what? System crash. Switch off, switch on. Get onto the internet, take another screenshot, log off.
Insert thumbdrive and run Unetbootin; everything seems ok so I reboot into the thumbdrive and get a boot error telling me the Debian live disc had an error and could not boot. Restart into Ubuntu live CD, partition and format, reboot into #! and create another bootable usb with Unetbootin. Restart and boot from thumbdrive, again, error. By this time it's 1 in the morning and my mood is less that friendly. Frustrated I gave up and went to bed.

The thing is, I like to get things working as much as the next person but this is quite ridiculous. Something that should've taken me a few minutes ended up being this whole frustrating event which in the end, left me with nothing. I'm not bashing #! at all but it really bugs me that I was able to achieve my goal so easily with Ubuntu and couldn't do the same with #!.

machinebacon · 2012-05-11 08:20:33

Oh this happened to all of us at least once, I guess. gParted doesn't want to format a mounted stick, this happened the last time to a guy who also stated that Crunchbang has slaughtered his hard drive and Slim ate his music. No pun intended smile You have not tried to install VectorLinux on USB - you would have been angrier even earlier.

About the problem - you want to have a persistent USB stick: http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … -live-usb/ check the link posted. LiLi USB Creator would do the job, too. unetbootin can do this apparently only with Ubuntu-based distros.

Last edited by machinebacon (2012-05-11 08:21:37)

corenominal · 2012-05-11 08:41:17

fortyseven wrote:

The thing is, I like to get things working as much as the next person but this is quite ridiculous. Something that should've taken me a few minutes ended up being this whole frustrating event which in the end, left me with nothing. I'm not bashing #! at all but it really bugs me that I was able to achieve my goal so easily with Ubuntu and couldn't do the same with #!.

In defence, #! was not really designed to be used as a live system with persistence. No development work has been done to improve on the features provided by the Debian Live project. This means that any guides or instructions for creating a live #! system with persistence have been produced by other users, and shared with the intention of helping others.

A couple of days ago I downloaded the latest Ubuntu. I made a bootable usb using the built in USB creator. It worked very nicely and I liked that it allowed me to actually use the OS.

I have tried this myself and agree that it is a nice feature of Ubuntu. It would be nice to have something similar for #!

Awebb · 2012-05-11 09:49:40

How about you install crunchbang on the usb stick, turn off swap, and be careful with writebacks?

corenominal · 2012-05-11 09:58:00

Awebb wrote:

How about you install crunchbang on the usb stick, turn off swap, and be careful with writebacks?

I have not tried this method for a while, but I get your point. The thing is, the method used by fortyseven on Ubuntu negates the need to perform an actual installation. Again, I think it would be a nice feature to have, but it is not super-high on my list of priorities.

Awebb · 2012-05-11 10:50:54

Yes, that would be nice indeed. I actually meant fortyseven, he seems to want more than just a live CD with installer. Speaking of the installer, is there a way to run the crunchbang installer from an installed system? Is there a package, for instance, that only needs to be installed? You know, like the install framework in Arch?

EDIT: It actually does not replace a full install. I once tried having a single persistant Ubuntu stick for a while. All those updates, which could not be written into the squashfs, took more and more space and it became harder and harder using it. But yeah, it is a nice feature smile

Last edited by Awebb (2012-05-11 10:53:27)

TitanMech · 2012-05-11 11:02:22

I had an issue getting crunchbang on an SD card, thanks to the help of others it was solved here:
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … rsistence/

The newest kernel supports something called TRIM, which is to reduce the number of write operations to flash memory, mainly solid state drives but it may be of benefit to crunchbang when installed on USB flash drives, and SD cards, which have persistence enabled so you can save changes, and add software etc.
It has to be configured though, and this link gives instructions on how to do that:
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ate-drive/

fortyseven · 2012-05-11 11:08:49

Firstly, let me stress that English is not my first language and as such, the way I say things might not always translate well. I dunno.

Secondly, my intention of this post was not to criticize #! or corenominal in any way.

Thirdly, I did not intend to compare #! to Ubuntu even though the last paragraph may give that impression. I merely meant that, in general, I dislike it when my first choice in OS can't do something that a lesser (IMO) os can - aka jealousy.

Lastly, my true intention of this post was just to share my frustration with people who may understand. It was just ridiculous that everything I did, from the smallest thing, just went wrong. I tried sharing my experience with my wife but not being a linux person at all, she didn't quite get my frustration.

corenominal · 2012-05-11 11:10:20

^ totally understood and you made a valid point. smile

rhowaldt · 2012-05-11 11:55:22

@47: your frustration came across clearly... i could imagine myself being there and hating the experience smile

Awebb · 2012-05-11 12:15:59

corenominal wrote:

^ totally understood and you made a valid point.

Me too :-D

We went over to the next step and discussed the future. No hard feelings at all :-D

el_koraco · 2012-05-11 12:21:57

It shouldn't be too hard to copy grml2usb (I mean, for those of you who can actually code).

fortyseven · 2012-05-11 12:53:43

In my days as a system admin, I used to like having an os on a thumbdrive. It would've been super handy to be able to boot into it at a client, do the necessary work, save things if necessary and move on to the next client. At the end of the day, at your own pc, you could copy stuff over. It's a very handy tool; not just another way of installing.

I understand that it's not necessarily a must-have but it would be nice if #! had a decent built-in tool to do it sometime in the future.

Last edited by fortyseven (2012-05-11 12:54:59)

corenominal · 2012-05-11 13:19:19

fortyseven wrote:

I understand that it's not necessarily a must-have but it would be nice if #! had a decent built-in tool to do it sometime in the future.

Agreed, I will see what I can come up with smile

machinebacon · 2012-05-11 14:07:45

el_koraco wrote:

It shouldn't be too hard to copy grml2usb (I mean, for those of you who can actually code).

I remember something like fll-iso2usb in aptosid - so technically it seems to be possible.

BTW, can "real" debian be installed during a live session?

el_koraco · 2012-05-11 14:21:24

machinebacon wrote:

BTW, can "real" debian be installed during a live session?

I don't thinks so, unless you count a manual deboostrap.

Jabroneous · 2012-05-11 15:12:48

corenominal wrote:

A couple of days ago I downloaded the latest Ubuntu. I made a bootable usb using the built in USB creator. It worked very nicely and I liked that it allowed me to actually use the OS.
I have tried this myself and agree that it is a nice feature of Ubuntu. It would be nice to have something similar for #!

For what it's worth, unetbootin has never given me problems. And it's available on OSX and Windows as well, so I don't know why anyone would bother looking for an alternative.

machinebacon · 2012-05-11 15:31:30

Jab, you mean use unetbootin to install Crunchbang on LiveUSB with persistence? Which version of unetbootin?

falldown · 2012-05-11 15:53:57

I found this for "Persistence" in UNetbootin ...

Step 1. Partition your drive so that there are two partitions, one being FAT32 and the other being EXT2 with "live-rw" as its label. Alternatively, you may use a file instead. By using the "dd" command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=live-rw bs=1G

On Ubuntu, "live-rw" should be "casper-rw".

Step 2. Copy .iso on first partition using Unetbootin.

Step 3. Edit a file on the drive called "syslinux.cfg" (this file exists after installation) and edit the line starting with "append" by adding "persistent" (without quotes) to the end of that line. It should read something like this:

append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live union=aufs persistent

You can also change this at boot time by pressing 't' at the boot menu.

DISCLAIMER:
I don't know if this works as I have not tried it. big_smile

EDIT
Actually Unetbootin has an option to create an (Ubuntu) live with persistence, but being Debian based.. would this work with other Debian distros?

Last edited by falldown (2012-05-11 16:45:16)

falldown · 2012-05-11 17:19:24

Well I tried the above method using gparted to partition my flash.
I put Waldorf on the 1st partion.
When booting everything goes perfect.. no errors.
I'm brought to the login screen where "crunchbang" and "live" does not log me in.
I have no clue what the username and password would be.

I would like to see if this works.. cause it would be pretty handy.

fortyseven · 2012-05-11 19:06:07

I'm typing this from inside my persistent usb session. It was actually so simple.

Just install #! onto your thumbdrive with boot partition and a root partition but no swap. Install GRUB onto the thumbdrive instead of the MBR and you're done.

Changed wallpapers and settings, rebooted and everything was still there.

Screenshot:

Last edited by fortyseven (2012-05-11 19:59:02)

Rumpelstiltskin · 2012-05-11 19:49:32

fortyseven wrote:

I'm typing this from inside my persistent usb session. It was actually so simple.
Just install #! onto your thumbdrive with boot partition and a root partition but no swap. Install GRUB onto the thumbdrive instead of the MBR and you're done.
Changed wallpapers and settings, rebooted and everything was still there.

That's interesting, but does it work on a 2GB usb thumb or is the instalation size too big?

fortyseven · 2012-05-11 20:02:31

^ My thumbdrive is 8GB. I created a boot of 100MB and a root of 3GB.

I'd guess that it would fit on a 2GB though.

fortyseven · 2012-05-12 07:26:33

Just for reference, installing #! on my flash changed the UUID of my host systems swap. Easily fixed in fstab though.

jargon · 2012-05-25 15:42:03

However, it doesn't work because I only have the #! CD and no image. No problem I thought; it's easy to make an image. I open up Xfburn but it keeps giving me an error, telling me it can't mount my cd drive. I decided to install K3b, which I know works. The problem is that I've just moved into a new house and I'm still waiting for the phone company to move my ADSL line to my new address.

I usually use the terminal to create images from CDs/DVDs.

$ cat /dev/sr0 > /path/to/destination/image/file.iso

Notice the /dev/sr0, this is your optical drive's device name. To find out what your drive's device name is, run this command:

$ dmesg | grep -i dvd

You're looking for the string right after the numbers in brackets. in my case, it's sr0:

[ 1.239160] sr0: scsi-3-mmc drive: 48x/12x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray

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#1 2012-05-11 08:02:50

Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

#2 2012-05-11 08:20:33

Re: Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

#3 2012-05-11 08:41:17

Re: Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

#4 2012-05-11 09:49:40

Re: Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

#5 2012-05-11 09:58:00

Re: Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

#6 2012-05-11 10:50:54

Re: Crunchbang Hell - A True Story

#7 2012-05-11 11:02:22

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#8 2012-05-11 11:08:49

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#9 2012-05-11 11:10:20

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#10 2012-05-11 11:55:22

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#11 2012-05-11 12:15:59

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#12 2012-05-11 12:21:57

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#13 2012-05-11 12:53:43

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#14 2012-05-11 13:19:19

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#15 2012-05-11 14:07:45

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#16 2012-05-11 14:21:24

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#17 2012-05-11 15:12:48

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#18 2012-05-11 15:31:30

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#19 2012-05-11 15:53:57

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#20 2012-05-11 17:19:24

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#21 2012-05-11 19:06:07

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#22 2012-05-11 19:49:32

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#23 2012-05-11 20:02:31

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#24 2012-05-12 07:26:33

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#25 2012-05-25 15:42:03

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