[SOLVED] Persistence: “Was unable to create file rootfs”

[Member berndbausch]

Total newbie as far as Antix is concerned (I do have a fair amount of experience with Linux). I must have a fundamental misunderstanding about Live persistence. When I try to configure it, I get the message “Was unable to create file rootfs”. What can I do next?

Here is what I do.

1- On Windows, I use Rufus to copy the Oct 31 x86_64 ISO to a 32GB USB thumb drive.
2- When launching the live system, I enter advanced options and select root persistence. This results in the above error (though I don’t remember if the error’s wording is identical)
3- Once the live system is up, I launch setup persistence from the start menu. I select root persistence, 4GB size, and get the same error message again.
4- On the command line, I run antiX-cli-cc and launch persist-makefs. This seems to be identical to the GUI, except that I am told that a program named qt is missing. The error message is as above. The full dialog is attached below.

How is the file rootfs created, and how can I find out what exactly prevents the program from creating it? Is this documented anywhere? I have the suspicion that I need a separate partition on the USB drive, but I have not found the requirements for setting up persistence.

This is the persist-makefs dialog:

 persist-makefs --cli

antiX Create or Resize Persistence
antiX Create or Resize Persistence

 total space on device: 29.4 GiB
       available space: 28.1 GiB
             total RAM: 3.30 GiB

      persist device: /dev/sda1
        persist path: /antiX

      rootfs: does not exist
  rootfs.bak: does not exist
      homefs: does not exist
  homefs.new: does not exist
  homefs.old: does not exist
  rootfs.old: does not exist
 linuxfs.old: does not exist

    1) Root: Create Root Persistence
    2) New: Make rootfs.new file for remastering
    3) Home: Create Home Persistence
    4) Device: Change Persistence Device
    5) Path: Change Peristence Path
    6) Exploration Menu
    7) Update: Update information
    8) Quit: Quit this program

Enter a number (or a letter) > 1

/usr/local/bin/persist-makefs: line 896: qt: command not found
Create Root persistence

Please select size of the new file system
Available space 28.0 GiB
   1) 100 MiB       13) 3.00 GiB      25) 28.0 GiB    
   2) 150 MiB       14) 4.00 GiB      26)             
   3) 200 MiB       15) 5.00 GiB    
   4) 250 MiB       16) 6.00 GiB    
   5) 300 MiB       17) 8.00 GiB    
   6) 400 MiB       18) 10.0 GiB    
   7) 500 MiB       19) 12.0 GiB    
   8) 750 MiB       20) 14.0 GiB    
   9) 1.00 GiB      21) 16.0 GiB    
  10) 1.50 GiB      22) 18.0 GiB    
  11) 2.00 GiB      23) 20.0 GiB    
  12) 2.50 GiB      24) 25.0 GiB    

> 14
Creating file rootfs
Size: 4.00 GiB. Filesystem: ext4

Warning: this can take several minutes per Gig on a vfat file system 
                          Warning                          

Was unable to create file rootfs

• This topic was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by berndbausch. Reason: added info about missing program qt
• This topic was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by berndbausch.

[Member PPC]

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When creating your boot pen drive with rufus, you have to select the correct option, in order to be able to use persistence:

(from https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/08/rufus-creating-persistent-storage-live.html)

Rufus persistent live USB

To create a persistent storage live USB of Debian [...] using Rufus 3.7 or newer, select the ISO and a new Persistent partition size option will show up, with a slider that allows setting the persistent partition size. Setting this to 0 disables persistent storage, and setting it to any value larger than 0 enables persistent storage.

P.

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