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new way to «frugal install» using refind
new way to «frugal install» using refind
#1 Post by FONZACUS » Sat Jun 20, 2020 9:06 am
im having lots of fun playing around with antix and mx both being alongside my win10 and 2 puppies. thankfully i managed to find a way thanks to the antix faqs boot codes. ive been playing with both for a little over a month and im pretty sure it all runs fine. im only using semi-auto dynamic root persistence (show when booting, and asks when shuts down).
the steps are thankfully easy, and refind is also easy to setup. also i «extracted» mx with win and antix with pup. this is all assuming refind is already installed, and mounted. references here
https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/do . arams.html
0. label the drive, so its easier for us to hook
1. extract the folder antix from the iso to your root folder. optional, rename the root dir to something easier
2. edit your refind.conf (or copy it first so its safer) and enter these options
menuentry spacednamesmustbedubquoted volume label (you can also use partition ids, but a named label is easier)
loader /extracted «antix» dir/vmlinuz
initrd /same here/initrd
options «from=hd sq=/yep/linuxfs persist=auto,a»
>
3. after booting up, dont do anything yet as we have no persistence yet
4. go to the mx tools — remastercc — persistence. add a new rootfs (and optionally a homefs and save persistence options, i prefer semi-auto). the size if up to you, if you prefer a minimal system, 1gb is enough, that is you dont stray too far from the base mx install, as the rootfs only saves changes
5. reboot, save your changes, once its loaded, create new passwords for root and demo
5. done, it should now correctly save your changes after the first reboot
7. profit
this also applies to antix (hopefully anticap reads this) and hopefully you guys can post it on the wikis as well.
with the way refind works, i dont think we can also extract the boot dir along with the antix as i dont think refind can read multiple boot entries on 1 partition
also, i think theres a bug in the matrix. if we dont add the sq (squashfs option), the loader incorrectly «truncates» (lack of better wording) our squashfs. for example, my setup is simple
C /mxlinux/antix/
vmlinuz
initrd.gz
it tried to load the linuxfs from /mxlinuxantiX/. note the missing slash
now i just extrancted the antix dir, add the «sq» option, and load it from there
currently im trying to find a way to manually install refind in to my usb on the same partition so i can have my refind and a frugal os in a pocket. much like a live iso, but no luck yet
Frugal installation
A frugal install goes onto an existing partition and can co-exist with other frugal installs, with installed Linux or installed Windows. The major benefit is you get to take advantage of the speed and size of an internal drive, up to literally ten times faster! If you are starting out with a usb-3 live-usb in a usb-3 port then the speedup will be less dramatic, but from a live-dvd then prepare to have your mind blown.
Advantages of frugal installations:
- Space is saved: installation to hard drive typically is 4 times the size of the ISO, whereas with frugal it is the size of the ISO.
- Frugal from hard drive is faster than from a LiveMedium.
- Great for testing (once set up).
For most users frugal_static may be the best way to go. For the sizes of the persistence files, with static persistence then 10 GiB each should be more than ample. If you use the Live-usb-storage/ directories (which don’t even require persistence) for storing big things then 1 GiB home should be fine. The size of the root persistence depends on how much you want to be able to add to the system before you do a remaster. When you remaster, the root persistence gets combined into the compressed linuxfs file so the amount of root persistence used gets reset to close to zero.
Description
There are two modes of operation that are triggered by the same frugal boot parameter: install mode and boot mode. Normally the frugal device is a partition with the label MX-Frugal. If such a device is not found then you will be given a list of partitions to choose from. Once you have selected a device, you will be given an option to have it be given the MX-Frugal label. If an MX frugal install has not already been done on the device you selected then a frugal install will be performed.
The next time you boot with the frugal option, it will automatically boot from the MX-Frugal device into the frugal system that was installed. Again, if a frugal install is not found on that device, you will be given the option to automatically create one. If persistence is requested and the persistence files are not found then we will offer to create them after we do the install. If you want to force a persistence file to be created in a later boot, select that form of persistence with an exclamation point: frugal=root!.
Definitions
You will see a number of terms when you select a frugal install that need to be defined.
Table 13: Frugal installation terms
| Term | Meaning |
| frugal | Enable frugal mode. Either boot into the existing frugal system or create a new one if it does not already exist. |
| frugal= | A contraction of frugal persist=*. It is common to add persist options when enabling frugal mode so you can add the persist options directly to the frugal boot parameter. Examples: frugal=root or frugal=home. |
| fdev | The name of the frugal device. |
| flab | The partition label of the frugal device. |
| fuuid | The UUID of the frugal partition. |
FAQs
Can I have Frugal on SSD directory and changes on a USB (formatted ext4) like antix ?
Yes you can. MX uses the antiX live system so almost anything you can do with antiX live you can also do with MX live. Although to put changes on a different device requires extra boot parameters since the default is to save the changes on the frugal device (the ssd).
I am little confused about GRUB2 entry for MX Frugal. Can I get an example of GRUB2 entry for Frugal install?
Starting with antiX-17, we now make a small “grub.entry” file in the frugal directory that contains the recommended Grub2 entry to boot into the frugal install. FWIW, that file is created using this template:
menuentry “$DISTRO_PRETTY_NAME Frugal Install” search –no-floppy –set=root –fs-uuid $uuid
linux /$bdir/vmlinuz bdir=$bdir buuid=$uuid $(gather_frugal_cmdline)
initrd /$bdir/initrd.gz
>
MX Linux Forum
Important information
—If in starting your system it boots to an unwanted Desktop, right click desktop, then select leave and logout. At the
login screen there is a session chooser at the top of the screen.
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— MX Linux on social media: here
— New Forum Features, Marking Solved and Referencing a User: here
frugal install — HOW?
frugal install — HOW?
#1 Post by frmald » Sat Dec 05, 2020 7:02 am
Not a Linux newbie here (but an MX newbie).
All search results for «mx frugal install» point to pages that either ASSUME the frugal install has already happened, or show how to tweak an install etc, or fix problems, or explain how frugal works. E.g.
But HOW do I actually perform a frugal install? What’s the recommended way?
I’m booting MX from an ISO on a HDD partition (loopback root in grub, than adding buuid= manually to the kernel command line). No, I don’t have a spare USB stick, or a DVD, and I’m not going to erase any HDD partitions just to unpack a Live ISO. I’d like to frugally install MX in a folder inside my Linux (and perhaps Win10, if that works).
As an aside, I don’t see the point of anything BUT frugal installs — why waste space on the HDD with uncompressed binaries when it can all run from a squashfs?
Re: frugal install — HOW?
#2 Post by JayM » Sat Dec 05, 2020 7:33 am
Tips:1. You can do a frugal install to any existing partition, even a Windows one, as long as that partition is labelled «antiX-Frugal». In Windows you would use its own Disk manager tool to do this. 2. In a legacy-BIOS booted live USB frugal would be one of the options in (I think) the F4 menu at the boot screen, and in a UEFI-booted live USB somewhere in the custom options menu (the second choice from the top in the boot menu, which I think is selected already by default.)
To use a frugal install you’d need to always boot with your USB stick but the system would actually be running on your internal HDD or SSD so it runs just as fast as if you’d installed MX. Behavior though is the same as running just from the live USB in that the user account and password is «demo» and the root password is «root». BTW on a legacy BIOS-booted USB stick one of the F function key menus, I think F8, givest he option to save so you don’t have to select frugal every time, just boot from the stick.
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