[SOLVED] LM20 can't get persistence to work on a live USB

[rickNS]

Edit, Solved.
Ventoy works a treat. See post #8
And Rufus 3.11 works too.

First tried LiLi, Linux Live USB creator, yeah a windows program, but which up till now has always worked perfectly, and quickly. It went through the process of creating the (approx 1GB) persistent file.
I booted changed theme, mouse speed, reboot...no persistence. Double check did it all again, no difference.

Next tried the recommended "Multisystem", and it went through the process of creating the (approx 1GB) persistent file. Same results as LiLi. Made some changes, reboot, changes did not stick.

What is going on?
Has anyone been able to make a persistent live USB with mint 20 (I used Mate, but that bit should make no difference)

I'd rather not add any more PPAs for say the MKUSB program, at least till I know it will work.

[all41]

Hi @rickNS,
Yes lili always worked for me back in the days.
And I use multisystem boot stick with multiple Mint installs without problems,
but not using persistent .
imho persistence using flash is no-go over time. But the newer usb 3.0 external ssd drives work well for this.

Also consider SSD internal drives--120GB can be purchased for 20 usd or so.
Much faster and 120 gb is plenty for a couple three Linux installs (if you have a storage drive for personal stuff though).

[pnin]

You could try Ventoy -- setting persistence up with it is a simple matter of editing a JSON file and creating 'casper-rw'.

Full instructions at https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html.

[rickNS]

Hi @rickNS,
Yes lili always worked for me back in the days.
And I use multisystem boot stick with multiple Mint installs without problems,
but not using persistent .
imho persistence using flash is no-go over time. But the newer usb 3.0 external ssd drives work well for this.

Also consider SSD internal drives--120GB can be purchased for 20 usd or so.
Much faster and 120 gb is plenty for a couple three Linux installs (if you have a storage drive for personal stuff though).

Thanks all41,
I do have an extra ssd...
I "could" make a partition on this drive for LM20...(got a 26GB free space for just such purpose)
I could make install to virtualbox (for testing)
It's just that I liked to do my initial experiments / testing on a live persistent USB stick.
Oh well the one constant is change, no point lamenting about it. I'll just pick one of the above methods and go. Probably be VB for ease.

Hey did you see what @pnin posted below.

PS keep me posted on that other thread if you remember.

[rickNS]

You could try Ventoy -- setting persistence up with it is a simple matter of editing a JSON file and creating 'casper-rw'.

Full instructions at https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html.

Pnin Thanks for that.
I hadn't heard of that program.
At first look it's a heck of a lot more complicated than LiLi, where you just; select the stick, select the .iso, select amount of persistence, and click go (the lightening bolt).

I will take a better (more in depth) look at it, and give it a fair chance over the next day or three.
Says tested and working on LM20 Cinnamon.

Thanks again, and welcome to mint forums.

[jonau01]

You could also install linux mint on a usb drive the same way you install linux mint on a hard drive. Just pick the usb as a target disk .

[pnin]

At first look it's a heck of a lot more complicated than LiLi, where you just; select the stick, select the .iso, select amount of persistence, and click go (the lightening bolt).

Setup is as easy as plugging your pendrive in, running Ventoy, choose a couple of options, and let it rip.

Then you just copy any number of ISO files there; but that won't give you persistence, which as I pointed involves editing a plain text file.

Another way would be, if what you're after is a simple GUI front-end and you have Windows somewhere, to try Rufus (https://rufus.ie/).

I believe it'll do just what you want. Be sure to enlighten yourself on boot options by RTFM.

[rickNS]

Setup is as easy as plugging your pendrive in, running Ventoy, choose a couple of options, and let it rip.

Then you just copy any number of ISO files there; but that won't give you persistence, which as I pointed involves editing a plain text file.

Another way would be, if what you're after is a simple GUI front-end and you have Windows somewhere, to try Rufus (https://rufus.ie/).

I believe it'll do just what you want. Be sure to enlighten yourself on boot options by RTFM.

Well I had some time to look into this ventoy program, and it is pretty awesome. A multi booter, with the ability to have persistence added to any or all of them.
Only one small bug I found when shutting down it hangs at the "Please remove the installation media, then press ENTER" after 5 minutes I just hit the power button.
Like you said not hard once you know what you are doing, and for anyone else interested in this software, this website can help; https://www.ostechnix.com/create-persis ... -in-linux/

Screen shot showing persistence working...with mint X icons, and a "bs" file, upon boot.

I do have access to windows drive, and honestly the only reason I ever booted it was to run Lili, it is real nice to be able to do it all Linux.

I also tried Rufus successfully, 16:55 to creat the live stick with 500MB of persistence. Ventoy is the winner.

Thanks again, marking [SOLVED]