[Bug 352766] Re: calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created
The 2 GB limit is irrelevant of file system. dd doesn't know about or care about file systems. So creating another partition with another file system would have no affect on dd. Block size is not the same as volume/partition size. The volume size is the block size times the number of blocks. Having very large block sizes is a bad idea for a persistent drive. There is a reason dd doesn't allow block sizes larger than 2 GB, we shouldn't try to get around that. There is a simple patch in the bug report I linked to that will change it to use 1KB block size. Usb-creator would work correctly with that patch and the persistent drive would be created faster and it would work better for its intended purpose. I think creating a 2nd partition on the drive introduces a lot more complexity and gives little benefit. Remember the persistence file isn't for your data. You can store that in a folder on the regual vfat partition. The persistence file is just for changes in settings, software updates, etc. Four GB should be plenty for the vast majority of users. Also being able to access data on multiple operating systems is often important for flash drive users. A 2nd partition will not be accessible in windows regardless of file system. -- calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/352766 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 352766] Re: calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created
Usb-creator is just a script. It is quite easy to just apply the patch from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/321544 to the text file. If you don't feel comfortable doing that. Then you can manually just find and change 2 lines. It is quite easy. Here are the relevant lines from the patch. Just find them in the usb-creator script and replace the '-' version with the '+' version. -popen(['dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'bs=1', 'of=%s/casper-rw' % target, 'count=%s' % persist]) +popen(['dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'bs=1024', 'of=%s/casper-rw' % target, 'count=%s' % (persist/1024)]) -persist = arg +persist = int(arg) After this you can run usb-creator like normal and you will be fine with any persistence file 4GB. This is what I did and I everything worked great for me. -- calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/352766 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 321544] Re: Persistence Slider Wrong; Takes more than 3 hours to produce largest persistence file
I didn't actually apply these patches directly. I updated mine (0.1.15) manually. Read the man page of dd. The size of the file that dd creates is equal to the product of the blocksize and the count. In the 0.1.11 the block size is 1 byte and the count is 'persist' (ie the number of bytes you wanted your persistence file to be). Having a block size of 1 byte was problematic and that prompted this bug report. Apparently later someone decided to fix it but swung things to the opposite extreme. So you see in 0.1.16 that now the blocksize is set to 'persist' (the size you want) and the count is set to 1. So instead of a huge number of blocks that are too small, now it is trying to make a single block that is too large (dd won't allow 2GB). To fix this you set the block size to something appropriate like in the 1KB-1MB range for most common cases, and then you calculate the count so that it gives you the filesize you requested. If you look at John Gruber's patch at the top of this bug report you see this change: popen(['dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'bs=1024', 'of=%s/casper-rw' % target, 'count=%s' % (persist/1024)]) He set the block size to 1024 (ie 1 KB) and the count is set to persist/1024 (ie the size of your persitence file divided by the blocksize). That is why I referred to this thread in my bug report. This patch for the old problem in 0.1.11 is correct and what is currently in 0.1.16 is incorrect. -- Persistence Slider Wrong; Takes more than 3 hours to produce largest persistence file https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/321544 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 352766] Re: calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created
Sorry I missed that comment, I responded in that thread: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb- creator/+bug/321544/comments/11 To repspond to Pi Boy any changes you make to usb-creator will just be overwritten during the update. It will replace the script with the new one in the updated package, or maybe it would give a prompt asking if you want to keep the file, but I doubt that. You are usually only prompted during an update if it is overwriting a know user config file, which the usb-creator script is not. -- calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/352766 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 302485] Re: No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10
You guys can easily fix your problem by applying the patch in the bug I linked to above: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb- creator/+bug/321544. If you have the 2 GB (2048 MB) limit it is because usb-creator is telling dd to make a single block that is 2048 MB. However, dd will only allow blocksizes 2048 MB. This is the cause of the bug. Even without the 2048 MB limit having really large blocksize is a bad idea anyway. You can easily just change that one line in the script (as is shown in the patch) to tell it to use a reasonable block size like 1 KB and then just make the right number of blocks to get the size you want. You will still be limited to a 4 GB persistence file though, because this is the largest file you can create on a vfat file system. They are unlikely to change from vfat because that is what syslinux uses and it allows the usb stick to still be read in Windows. -- No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/302485 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 302485] Re: No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10
Blocksize is not the same as volume/partition/file size (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_%28data_storage%29). A file system usually has a block size associated with it. In general terms, when data is pulled off the device it will usually pull off the whole block at the same time. Since related data is usually close by, the future accesses won't have to go back to this disk because that block is already cached in memory. The volume size is the product of the blocksize and the number of blocks. Persistence works by creating a large file (casper-rw) with dd. The 2048 MB block size limit is a limitation of dd. Almost nobody would be using a block size that large, unless they are only working with large multi- gigabyte files of contiguous data. Using large blocks will be inefficient in most normal situations. This is why most filesystems default to a blocksize in the 1KB-4KB range. The fact that usb-creator is trying to create persistence files with an arbitrary block size is definitely a bug. Now as far as FAT32 is concerned it is capable of have larger than 2 GB volume sizes, but it does have a hard limit of 4 GB (2^32) for a single file. Usb-creator creates a file called casper-rw with dd and formats it to ext3. This file is mounted by ubuntu at boot time and is used to store persistent changes. However the casper-rw file is a single file saved on the FAT32 filesystem of the USB drive, and thus it cannot be larger than 4 GB. With the current blocksize bug in usb creator you will get an error about 'invalid blocksize' in your usb-creator log, but it will exit normally. If you fix usb-creator so that it uses a reasonable block size like 1 KB, then you will be able to go about 2048 MB without an error. However, if you go above 4 GB then you will run into the file size limitation of FAT32. You will see an error in your usb-creator log where it calls dd. It will write the file right up to 4 GB and then it will give some error about the wrong file size or out of space or something like that. The 4 GB limit is not a bug and is a technological limit of FAT32. Hopefully the patches in the bug report I linked to will get incorporated to make this clear to the user. -- No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/302485 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 284085] Re: [Intepid] Ubuntu Live USB creator creates liveUSB's that are limited in size
This is still a problem. In my case it is definitely an issue with the file size limitations of vfat. I tried to make a persistent usb with jaunty 9.04 beta DVD. Everything went fine and no errors were reported. The usb boots up fine but nothing is persistent across reboots. I went ahead and tried to recreate the USB from the live DVD but this time I looked more carefully at the log in ~/.usb-creator.log. I allocated 5 GB in usb-creator and here is the error in my log: ['dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'bs=5378073556', 'of=/media/DIESEL/casper-rw', 'count=1'] dd: invalid number `5378073556' ['mkfs.ext3', '-F', '/media/DIESEL/casper-rw'] mke2fs 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009) mkfs.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to determine filesystem size so it failed to create the casper-rw file, but no errors were reported in the gui. The gui indicated that the usb was created successfully and that I should reboot to use it. Ideally when vfat is being used the size should be automatically limited to 4GB with a note indicating why (otherwise you will have a bunch of new bug reports saying it won't let them use more than 4GB). At a minimum when there is an error like this with dd then usb-creator shouldn't exit without any indication that there was a problem. I will try again but use less than 4 GB just to confirm that it is the 4 GB size limit that is the problem. -- [Intepid] Ubuntu Live USB creator creates liveUSB's that are limited in size https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284085 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 302485] Re: No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10
I think the original bug report may be the same problem as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/284085. If the usb is using FAT32 (aka vfat) then there is a 4 GB file size limitation, that can cause problems when creating a file casper-rw file that is too big. The casper-rw file won't be created but usb-creator exits cleanly and the USB will boot up fine, but won't be persistent. -- No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/302485 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 346700] Re: [jaunty alpha 6+ daily] usb-creator creates incorrect free, persistent space; to /cdrom not /
This may be because vfat has a file size limitation of 4 GB. That is why it worked on your smaller 4 GB flash drive but failed on your larger drive when you tried to make the 7 GB file. Check the casper folder on your usb drive and see if there is a casper-rw file. If not then that is your problem. It wasn't created by usb-creator. Create the persistent usb again. Then look at ~/.usb-creator.log. My logs show an invalid size error from dd, and thus the casper-rw file isn't created. This is related to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb- creator/+bug/284085 -- [jaunty alpha 6+ daily] usb-creator creates incorrect free, persistent space; to /cdrom not / https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/346700 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 321544] Re: Persistence Slider Wrong; Takes more than 3 hours to produce largest persistence file
I am using the jaunty 9.04 beta live DVD to create a persistent USB stick. Usb-creator is trying to create a single large block and is failing as a result. Block sizes = 2G aren't allowed by dd. Here is the error in my .usb-creator.log when I tried to create a 3.9 GB file: ['dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'bs=4162095690', 'of=/media/disk/casper-rw', 'count=1'] dd: invalid number `4162095690' Are these patches in 9.04 beta? If not should I start a separate bug report to address this? This isn't just an inconvenience it causes usb- creator to fail silently without reporting any errors to the user. The USB will boot but is not persistent because there is no casper-rw file. -- Persistence Slider Wrong; Takes more than 3 hours to produce largest persistence file https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/321544 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 346700] Re: [jaunty alpha 6+ daily] usb-creator creates incorrect free, persistent space; to /cdrom not /
I have tracked down a more serious problem. The current version of usb- creator in jaunty beta tries to create the casper-rw file as one large block, when actually it should use a reasonable block size like 1k and then create right number of blocks. This is what is causing the dd: invalid number errors in ~/.usb-creator.log and causing the casper-rw file not to be created. If you surpass the 4 GB file size you will get a file too large error (or something like that). There are patches with this bug that should address both of these issues. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/321544 -- [jaunty alpha 6+ daily] usb-creator creates incorrect free, persistent space; to /cdrom not / https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/346700 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 302485] Re: No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10
I have tracked down a more serious problem. The current version of usb- creator in jaunty beta tries to create the casper-rw file as one large block, when actually it should use a reasonable block size like 1k and then create right number of blocks. This is what is causing the dd: invalid number errors in ~/.usb-creator.log and causing the casper-rw file not to be created. If you surpass the 4 GB file size you will get a file too large error (or something like that). There are patches with this bug that should address both of these issues. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/321544 -- No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/302485 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 284085] Re: [Intepid] Ubuntu Live USB creator creates liveUSB's that are limited in size
I have tracked down the root of the problem. Usb-creator in jaunty beta tries to create the casper-rw file as one large block. Notice the count=1 in the dd command. Actually it should use a reasonable block size like 1k and then create right number of blocks. Block sizes = 2GB aren't allowed by dd. I don't know enough about dd or filesystems, but I think using a smaller block size is more efficient for something like the root filesystem. This is what is causing the dd: invalid number errors in ~/.usb-creator.log and causing the casper-rw file not to be created. If the 4 GB file size is surpassed it will give a file too large error (or something like that). There are patches with this bug that should address both of these issues. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/321544 -- [Intepid] Ubuntu Live USB creator creates liveUSB's that are limited in size https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284085 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 352766] [NEW] calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created
Public bug reported: Binary package hint: usb-creator I am using usb-creator 0.1.15 from the jaunty 9.04 beta DVD. I get dd: invalid number errors in .usb-creator.log file. I thought it was a limitation of vfat file system, but I tested it by using dd if=/dev/zeros of=/dev/null and it seems like dd won't allow block sizes = 2G. Usb-creator finishes without notifying the user that the was an error and no casper-rw file was created. The usb drive will boot, but is not persistent. The problem is in line 134 of /usr/share/usb-creator/install.py: popen(['dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'bs=%s' % persist, 'of=%s/casper-rw' % target, 'count=1']) In the past the block size was set to 1 byte, but that led to problems: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/313364. Now things have swung the opposite direction towards creating a single (count=1) large block equal to the size of casper-rw. However this isn't allowed by dd for all block sizes and should be corrected. This bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb- creator/+bug/321544 has patches that seem to be a reasonable approach to address these issues in addition to the 4GB file size limit of vfat. ** Affects: usb-creator (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- calling dd with block size 2GB causes casper-rw not to be created https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/352766 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 302485] Re: No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10
They will have to stick with FAT because that is what syslinux supports. All modern file sytems including ntfs and ext3 already support files larger than 4 GB. This most recent issue I brought up was the block size which is different than the file size. -- No persistence with USB Creator in Ubuntu 8.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/302485 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 292159] Re: MASTER update-initramfs is disabled since running on a live CD but it is running from a flash drive.
Adding the link to update-initramfs is working for me. However I would like to update my kernel. As Colin said update-initramfs should update the real kernel that is located in /cdrom. I was wondering how to go about doing this manually until things are fixed. I tried copying vmlinuz and initrd.img from / to /cdrom/casper. I gzipped initrd.img and saved it as initrd.gz, (since the previous file had a gz extension, I assumed it was gzipped). However, when I boot this up it just gives me a kernel panic. What would be the proper way to manually update the kernel on a persistent usb drive? -- MASTER update-initramfs is disabled since running on a live CD but it is running from a flash drive. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/292159 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 204623] Re: evolution-data-server-2.22 high cpu utilization
*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 151536 *** https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/151536 evolution-data-server is eating up all of my spare CPU cycles and it is making my mythtv unable to playback smoothly. Please fix this or post a work around. -- evolution-data-server-2.22 high cpu utilization https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/204623 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
