[Bug 923247] Re: Minor usability quibbles starting Xubuntu in persistent mode

[Andrew McDonnell]

I simply used the following from a different Linux where sdb happened to be
the USB at the time:

 mkfs.ext2 -L casper-rw /dev/sdb1

and because I booted from CD not the USB stick, usb-creator doesnt help in
that situation.  I encountered this during Alpha 2 ISO testing.  Note that
persistence actually worked, so there was no problem with how I formatted the
USB.

In particular I have a couple of older machines that boot from CD but not USB.
 I suppose this is a bit if an edge case in 2012 though, hence the wishlist
designation for having the extra menu item.

Having said that, this bug report is also that I found it slightly
counter-intuitive that to edit the kernel command line, I first had to press
F6 (well, fair enough) but this pops up a menu of some options which is
dismissed by pressing ESC, then finally having access to the command line,
although not realising it at first because the cursor is just off of the right
hand side of the screen - but possibly I was just doing it wrong... and like I
said it is really a minor quibble :-)

I guess maybe having an extra item on the F6 Other Options popup menu such as
'Press ESC to edit kernel boot' might be a solution?


On 09/02/12 09:12, Brian Murray wrote:
> How did you create the USB disk?  usb-creator asks you if you want to
> create a persistence file when making the disk and adds the appropriate
> boot option.
> 
> ** Changed in: casper (Ubuntu)
>        Status: New => Incomplete
>

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to casper in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/923247

Title:
  Minor usability quibbles starting Xubuntu in persistent mode

Status in “casper” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  This might be more a wishlist item, but I found the mechanism for getting Xubuntu live started in persistent mode using a 'casper-rw' USB drive to be a bit unwieldy:
  (0) as an aside, I think the initial boot splash should include a message like 'press any key for boot options'
  (1) You have to hit F6, then realise you need to press ESC because it pops up a menu of APIC related items, then you take a second to realise you can edit the kernel boot command because the cursor is at the far right of the screen, then you have to type space persistent and press ENTER to boot
  (2) there is no feedback for quite a few seconds that pressing ENTER actually worked, other than the fact that the keyboard no longer does anything

  This is just my opinion, but I think that starting in persistent mode
  would be a common enough use case that it might have its own main menu
  item like 'Start Xubuntu in live persistent mode'; notwithstanding
  that, I found a wiki page describing how to remaster your own disks.
  But as a frequent user of Xubuntu as a rescue disk it would be handy
  to not have to do that.

  The menu item might also have a help prompt to insert a USB with a
  ext3 filesystem labelled 'casper-rw'

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/923247/+subscriptions