Lubuntu Live CD - AMD64+Mac 12.10 build Aug 21 2012. Persistence functionality not enabled.

[Ron Mitchell]

Attempting Test Case dls-003 Live Session Persistence with Lubuntu 12.10 build Aug 21 2012 - AMD64+Mac.

formatted a 16 Gig USB stick in the prescribed manner, and followed steps given in the details of the test case.

Rebooted the Live disk with addition of the word 'persistence' added to the command line <F6> booted into Lubuntu, and used the Chrome browser provided to browse several websites.

Rebooted the live CD as required by the Test Case, also with persistence.

The USB stick was installed throughout these two boots.

There was no record of my browsing history provided by casper-rw.

Accordingly I had to fail the test case

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: casper (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-9.9-generic 3.5.0
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-9-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.5.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Aug 22 20:44:56 2012
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Alpha amd64+mac (20120813)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: casper
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1040401

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

If you followed the steps documented in the test case I would expect persistence to work for you. You should have a file named casper-rw on your usb stick, not a partition. Additionally, you would need to pass a persistent boot parameter to the kernel.

The easiest way to setup persistence is using usb-creator to make your usb stick. Could you either confirm that you had a casper-rw file and passed the persistent boot parameter or recreate your usb stick and try the test again? Thanks in advance.

[Ron Mitchell (rm2892)]

Appears that I have not properly followed the required steps. The mounted partition was labelled casper-rw. The only file on the USB stick was "lost and found".

I shall try it again and get back to you.

Ron Mitchell

On Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:23:49 -0000
Brian Murray <email address hidden> wrote:

> If you followed the steps documented in the test case I would expect
> persistence to work for you. You should have a file named casper-rw on
> your usb stick, not a partition. Additionally, you would need to pass
> a persistent boot parameter to the kernel.
>
> The easiest way to setup persistence is using usb-creator to make your
> usb stick. Could you either confirm that you had a casper-rw file and
> passed the persistent boot parameter or recreate your usb stick and try
> the test again? Thanks in advance.
>
> ** Changed in: casper (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Low
>
> ** Changed in: casper (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1040401
>
> Title:
> Lubuntu Live CD - AMD64+Mac 12.10 build Aug 21 2012. Persistence
> functionality not enabled.
>
> Status in “casper” package in Ubuntu:
> Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Attempting Test Case dls-003 Live Session Persistence with Lubuntu
> 12.10 build Aug 21 2012 - AMD64+Mac.
>
> formatted a 16 Gig USB stick in the prescribed manner, and followed
> steps given in the details of the test case.
>
> Rebooted the Live disk with addition of the word 'persistence' added
> to the command line <F6> booted into Lubuntu, and used the Chrome
> browser provided to browse several websites.
>
> Rebooted the live CD as required by the Test Case, also with
> persistence.
>
> The USB stick was installed throughout these two boots.
>
> There was no record of my browsing history provided by casper-rw.
>
> Accordingly I had to fail the test case
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
> Package: casper (not installed)
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-9.9-generic 3.5.0
> Uname: Linux 3.5.0-9-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: wl
> ApportVersion: 2.5.1-0ubuntu1
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Wed Aug 22 20:44:56 2012
> InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Alpha amd64+mac (20120813)
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
> TERM=xterm
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: casper
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/1040401/+subscriptions

--
Ron Mitchell <email address hidden>

[Ron Mitchell (rm2892)]

I have tried to enable persistence again, making sure I was doing what you suggested above. I am currently using today's build - Sept 26 2012, and I am still unable to get persistence going. Confirmed that I have a file on my USB stick called casper-rw. Confirmed that I am passing the arguement 'persistent' to the kernel on bootup by pressing F6 and adding it to the command line. Confirmed that on my USB stick there is an ext3 file system. The files "lost and found" and "casper-rw" exist within it.

I have also tried the program Startup Disk Creator from the Lubuntu Software Centre. That didn't correctly provide persistence either, even though I had moved the slider over to 3.5 Gig. It won't boot on my MacBook because of the EFI boot system Apple Uses, however I expected that.

The computer I'm doing for all of this is a 2008 MacBook - with Intel core duo 2.4 Ghz. 4 Gigabytes of RAM and a 250 Gigabyte internal hard drive, all of which is devoted to Lubuntu testing. When I want OS X Lion, I have it on an external USB drive.

The only place I've been able to get persistence to work on my Windows computer (Win 7) and run Ubuntu 12.04 from a live CD. Then I run Startup Disk Creator there. There I can browse files, change the desktop, change the settings on my browser, browse a few pages, write a short text file and save it to the desktop, and everything was preserved as it should be.

Ron Mitchell

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Is the casper-rw file on the same partition as the CD media? To be clear this is what my USB stick looks like:

 $ ls -lh /media/disk
total 1.1G
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 134 Sep 21 10:43 autorun.inf
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:43 boot
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Sep 21 14:10 casper
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.0G Sep 22 04:36 casper-rw
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:46 dists
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:46 efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:46 install
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 32K Sep 21 10:47 ldlinux.sys
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18K Sep 21 10:43 md5sum.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:46 pics
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:46 pool
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Sep 21 10:46 preseed
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 227 Sep 21 10:43 README.diskdefines
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12K Sep 21 10:47 syslinux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.4M Sep 21 10:43 wubi.exe

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

Looking at the description, it sounds like the reporter didn't generate the usb stick properly.

There should be no need to add "persistence" to the command line, it should be there if the stick was generated with usb-creator and with persistence selected.

[Ron Mitchell (rm2892)]

Sorry for the delay. The PPC version of 12.10 has been taking my time over the past few days.

Looks like the only difference (see attached screen shot) is the efi file, which of course, explains why it won't boot on this Intel MacBook. To prepare this stick, I used the Startup Disk Creator available from the Lubuntu software center. There are what appear to be two versions of the same program there. The first one did not generate the casper-rw file. The second one - which the attachment shows, did.

How did you get efi on there?

Ron Mitchell