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When booting a LiveUSB into UEFI mode, persistence is not available. When booting into legacy mode, it works fine. why? And how may I resolve this?

Hellreaver
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    How did you set the persistence? – VRR Apr 15 '15 at 09:22
  • @VRR By using LiLi to create the bootable usb with ~100mb of persistence, and then deleting the file and creating an ext4 partition named casper-rw. – Hellreaver Apr 15 '15 at 19:46
  • Can you use LiLi to even create bootable USB drive for UEFI? I don't think so. If you want persistence read this post at 2.3. – VRR Apr 15 '15 at 20:55
  • I know what I'm booting in UEFI mode, I see the UEFI splash screen. It looks different from the legacy boot. I've tried those methods, and they don't work any different from what i've done. – Hellreaver Apr 15 '15 at 23:15
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    I wasn't able to create bootable USB using Lili for UEFI and there is no info about it on their site. Maybe you have combo UEFI BIOS . Others gain persistence using this method involving Startup Disk Creator , but I find the app buggy. – VRR Apr 16 '15 at 09:19
  • LiLi just copies the ISO contents to the disk - same as if I were to make a UEFI bootable flash drive on my own. And, Yes, I have a hybrid bios, with legacy and UEFI boot options. Booting legacy mounts and uses the 13gb persistence partition, while booting UEFI does not. – Hellreaver Apr 16 '15 at 19:10
  • @VRR I just did so, and it works fine. Persistence does not mount in UEFI mode. – Hellreaver Apr 21 '15 at 16:11
  • Persistence will not mount if Lili refer to syslinux and not Grub2. If Lily is just copying files then yes USB should mount, but it also change the references of the casper file when you set the persistence. I believe those references are linked to syslinux but I will doublecheck. – VRR Apr 21 '15 at 19:57

1 Answers1

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The easiest way to create USB Live CD with persistence is to manually form the partitions using GParted.

This is what I've done:

  • Format your USB with GPT partition table (though, I believe MBR should work fine as well).
  • Create two partitions. First is for ISO files and it should be FAT32 (~1100MB for Ubuntu 14.04). Second is for persistence and it should be ext4 with label casper-rw.
  • Copy files from your ISO (including hidden) to USB FAT32 partition.
  • Edit boot/grub/grub.cfg and just add the word persistent (This is the reason why persistence doesn't work for you in UEFI mode.):

menuentry "Start Kubuntu" {
set gfxpayload=keep
linux /casper/vmlinuz.efipersistentfile=/cdrom/preseed/kubuntu.seed boot=casper maybe-ubiquity quiet splash --
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}

It might be a little slow when you first start it especially if you use USB2.0.

VRR
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    Yeah, I've noticed how Ubuntu's performance is primarily based on (At least in my experience) disk speed. When loaded into ram, even on older computers, Ubuntu runs much faster when on a 5400 rpm drive or a usb 2.0 flash drive. I recently got a 250gb ssd which has drastically improved performance. I have an fx-8320 overclocked to 4.4 ghz, and a faster storage system improved performance – Hellreaver Apr 27 '15 at 15:06
  • Yes, that is the bottleneck of every OS. Just take note that it has been stated that not every USB 3.0 work well with Ubuntu (not by my experience) at the time being. In case you want to buy one. – VRR Apr 27 '15 at 17:34