Trying to make an AntiX respin. Some questions.

[Member Mich-C]

Hello, this is my first post here, but I’ve been using MX since 2017 and I want to keep learning.

I flashed the antiX x64 full ISO on my pendrive.
What I want to do (in live) is:
A) Replace the kernel with a liquorix kernel
B) Make changes to the OS (files/packages) and save them across live system reboots
C) Export an ISO for sharing it with my friends.

I don’t understand 8 things. When solving these, probably my respin will be done!
I’ll try to be as clear as possible.

1) I can’t download/install other kernels from the Synaptics package manager! I only see the 2 default kernels.
Why?

2) When I use the “Live Kernel updater tool” I got this problem. What does it mean?

3) There are 2 tools for persistence. “Configure Live Persistence” and “Set up live persistence”. What’s the difference?

4) If I use “Configure Live Persistence” I get this screen. The text says “default is semiautomatic” but the default selected option is “Automatic”. Why? And what am I actually using?

5) I left that option untouched. I tried to save some files in /home and /Desktop, but when I shut down the system, I don’t get any window that asks if I want to save. And when I reboot my files are lost.

6) If I open the “Set up live persistence” tool I don’t understand what is a persistence partition, why should I use it, and if it should be created on my PC or pendrive.

7) If I can use the “Snapshot” tool to export an iso wherever I want, and if persistence is kept every time the system reboots… Why on earth, and where should I use the “Remaster” tool?

8) Why does the screenshot tool forgets the last options I set, every time I re-open it? Is it something related to persistence, or does the tool just works this way?

Thanks to runwiththedolphin for his great video material! ( but for me, it’s easier for me to understand written English).
Thanks in advance for any reply!

• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.
• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.
• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.

[Member PPC]

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1- Try using Package Installer, not Synaptic
2- It means that you have sda mounted.
3 trought 6 – I think there’s a Dolphin Oracle video that explain very well how to update live kernels, but I never tried to do that. There are also some posts about persistence here in the forum…
Linux Devs are notorious bad at picking names- One of those choices “Creates and Initially configures Persistence”, the other “Configures an already existing Persistence”. I always confused those 2 entries too…
Please do watch and rewatch Dolphin Oracle’s videos on persistence
7- Snapshot can create an iso from your installed system, including all you changes and customizations. No idea why you should use Remaster 🙂 maybe for the cases when you can’t install antiX and customize it?
8- I think the Screenshot tool always starts with the default settings…

P.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.

[Anonymous]

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one note,

To get synaptic to show them, you have to hit the reload button the first time.
Or run “sudo apt update” in a terminal on first boot.
You will also need to enable\add the liquorix kernel repos as well.

[Moderator christophe]

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PPC wrote:

Please do watch and rewatch Dolphin Oracle’s videos on persistence

I always recommend you play with the antiX live system, getting comfortable with it.
What you want to do is very doable.

Some points that may or may not make sense to you at his point:

You set up the live system (usb is fine) to use persistence. Setting this up from the boot screen is the most effective way, otherwise you have to reboot to use the new persistence files you created from the antiX GUI.

You change the system to look as you like. Remove & add software, including the kernel. Just like a regularly installed linux system.

THEN Remaster the system. Remastering replaces the parts on the original ISO (which is now a file (linuxfs) on your live-usb) with the updated parts in your ever-filling persistence file.
Remastering squashes it all together into that one linuxfs file, and makes your persistence file obsolete. (Which you can delete & then make a new persistence file to allow for keeping future changes.)

You want to remaster, because otherwise you would always need to create bigger & bigger persistence files to hold all the changes. Remastering replaces the originals, and so, depending on the amount of software you have installed, if may end up being nearly the same size as the original ISO.

AFTER you remaster, you can run the live-kernel-updater program to set the liquorix kernel you installed prior to remastering. Then reboot – It will boot your new kernel.

Don’t be afraid to play around, test settings, & even fail sometimes. There is a LOT to this antiX live system. There are a lot of options, many different ways to use it. You can always erase it & start over, if needed.

I recommend to watch & rewatch the videos, while playing with the live system. And read other forum threads. THEN ask more questions, after you have a common frame of reference, if you need help. 🙂

https://antixlinux.com/the-most-extensive-live-usb-on-the-planet/
https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/docs-antiX-19/FAQ/persistence.html
https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/docs-antiX-19/FAQ/remaster.html

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe. Reason: added links

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi Mich-C you wrote you wish to replace the kernel with a liquorix kernel for passing on to others.

If you mean a debian kernel you will sacrifice a lot of hardware support and flexibility due to debian policy.

With a debian kernel you may well have users frustrated at not even able to connect to the internet unless you
have at least added non free drivers and setup kernel module support.

The two antiX kernels available while running live will support most hardware from about 5 years ago back to
very early 64 bit devices, they are well set up and supported. My personal advice, based on passing on antiX
to a growing local userbase is stick to them.

[Member Mich-C]

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PPC wrote:

1- Try using Package Installer, not Synaptic

Thank you, I’ll do that.

PPC wrote:

Please do watch and rewatch Dolphin Oracle’s videos on persistence

I find his old video (https://youtu.be/UWvwbwTGOZ8?t=207) more clear than his new one (https://youtu.be/y-pktzFFiSc)

PPC wrote:

No idea why you should use Remaster

cristophe explained it in the next post, thanks.

PPC wrote:

8- I think the Screenshot tool always starts with the default settings…

Well, why didn’t they use the same screenshot tool from MX? The AntiX one “forgets” settings and it stacks many windows on top of each other (“do you want to save” and so on).
Also, is there any key-combo to quickly take a screenshot?

[Member Mich-C]

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Thanks for your suggestions and for the links cristophe!
Now is more clear!!

(Basically, what I’ll do is:
sudo apt update
synaptic Package manager – press reload
add liquorix repo
download liquorix kernel
remaster
reboot
run kernel updater tool)

Obliviously I’ll keep studying this stuff to make a good respin 🙂

[Member Mich-C]

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Anonymous wrote:

To get synaptic to show them, you have to hit the reload button the first time.
Or run “sudo apt update” in a terminal on the first boot.

Thank you, added it to my to-do list in chronological order! (in my previous post)

Anonymous wrote:

You will also need to enable\add the liquorix kernel repos as well.

When I have time to boot AntiX again, I’ll try to find this option in the package manager.
I’ve always read AntiX developers writing: “don’t add repositories to AntiX or MX!”. Is this an exception? (Since it is the Liquorix repo made by the AntiX community?)

[Member Mich-C]

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ModdIt wrote:

Hi Mich-C you wrote you wish to replace the kernel with a liquorix kernel for passing on to others.

If you mean a debian kernel you will sacrifice a lot of hardware support and flexibility due to debian policy.

With a debian kernel you may well have users frustrated at not even able to connect to the internet unless you
have at least added non free drivers and setup kernel module support.

Wow, I didn’t think about this! Your suggestion is much appreciated! (That’s why I always prefer to ask on the forums before doing stuff!).

I wanted to use a Liquorix kernel for 2 reasons:
A) I read that most Linux kernels are general-purpose (servers etc) and that Liquorix kernels perform better with interactive/browser usage, also on old hardware!
B) a real-time kernel gives lower latency with Jack drivers and real-time audio software (like Guitarix)

At this point I have 2 questions:
1) Is there any Liquorix/Zen/Realtime kernel with NON-free drivers I can install on AntiX or MX?
2) If the answer is a solid “NO”, is there any way to easily tweak the standard kernel so it performs like a Liquorix/Zen kernel?

Thank you!

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.

[Member iznit]

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liquorix.net
(is not “repo made by antiX community”)
The site mainpage explains features and benefits and explains how to add the repo into /etc/ sources file. The antiX already includes a sources line for liquorix, the line is just #commented out by default….. so yes it represents an “exception” to the “don’t carelessly add repositories” rule.

Binary builds are produced for Debian Stable, Testing, and Unstable

supporting broadest selection of hardware

Most aggressive kernel preemption before requiring real-time patches

liquorix doesn’t claim to provide a “real-time kernel”. May be accurate to describe its claim as: “for typical mixed workloads, its the next-best thing to using a real-time kernel”. An actual realtime kernel brings both benefits, and penalties.

Far as I can tell, the stock antiX kernel performs fine on my system. So, except for brief experiments, I have not used alternate kernels.

[Member ModdIt]

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Thanks iznit,
seems some misunderstanding from my side, so get to learn some more.

I had understood the antiX kernels are optimised for mixed workload, certainly
install and run well on a great variety of machines.

[Member Mich-C]

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iznit wrote:

liquorix doesn’t claim to provide a “real-time kernel”.

Thank you. I also read about low latency kernel, which seems to be halfway between “standard” and real-time kernels, but for now, I’m not interested in them.

ModdIt wrote:

If you mean a debian kernel you will sacrifice a lot of hardware support and flexibility due to debian policy.

Moddit, Is this still true for the liquorix kernel, after iznit clarifications?

iznit wrote:

liquorix.net
The site mainpage explains features and benefits and explains how to add the repo into /etc/ sources file.

Yes, I found the option to enable liquorix repo from Synaptic Package Manager and also the file with a commented line in /etc/apt/sources.list.
So:
– I enabled the repo
– sudo apt update
– pressed reload button from Synaptic package manager

but unfortunately I get this error:

GPG error: https://liquorix.net/debian sid inRelease:
The following signature couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9AE40783033F8024D
The repository ìhttp://-liquorix.net/debian sid inRelease' is not signed.
[...]
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.

Can I solve it?

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.

[Member Mich-C]

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About persistence… it does not work too…
I booted from my pendrive with the static persist option enabled from Grub.

But During boot I get this:

Filtered devices: /dev/sda2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sda
Mounted boot device. Mounted device /dev/sda1 at /live-boot-dev
[...]
Persistence was requested on a read-only boot device.
Will search for a persistence device with the label antiX_Persist

Begin Mount persistence device (if needed)
Look for persist device with label antiX-Persist
Retry for 10 seconds...............

Could not find a partition with label antiX-Persist

Please wait while existing partitions are found .......

No suitable devices were found.
Press <Enter> to continue

Indeed, when using antiX, if I click the menu entry to save changes with persistence, I get this warning window:

Dynamic root persistence was not enabled. Cannot persist save.

Could the Rufus tool (I used on Windows to flash antiX on my pendrive), be responsible for this “read-only device” problem?
On the first try, Rufus reported something like “This ISO uses grub and sys stuff I don’t have, this can lead to incompatibilities, Do you want to download them from the internet?
I opted for yes, but this way I faced problems booting the ISO (in the past it happened to me with another distro).
So I uninstalled and reinstalled Rufus, and I flashed the ISO again, without downloading the grub and sys stuff from the web.

Is it Rufus or something else?

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mich-C.

[Moderator christophe]

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It is Rufus.

dolphin_oracle has made a video of how to make a live-usb, using the mx/antiX live-usb-maker when you only have the one usb stick to use for the process. Look that up on youtube/runwiththedolphin. You need to use the mx/antiX tool, because the antiX live system is so different from (and better than, IMO) all the others. SO, search for & watch that video. Follow the instructions. That willl get you where you want to go. AFter that, persistence & remastering will work, so it will be a matter of creating your system, and getting used to how persistence & remastering work together on the antiX live system.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Moderator christophe]

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If you prefer, you could install to hdd, then create your new respin system that way.
THEN run ISO-snapshot, to distill your system into an antiX-respin ISO, which could then be installed or run live.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by christophe.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

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