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Even though NimbleX is a live-linux I see that more and more people want to use it installed on their machines and they want to save the changes they do in it. So, there are 2 very important things for the users. One is the installer and the other the saving the changes.
Now will discuss, saving the changes in a non technical manner.
I will start by telling you that I'm not saving my changes and I'm using NimbleX every day. I'm using the rootcopy only for the changes I need.
In theory, changes can be saved in 3 ways:
a) in a directory
b) in a nimblex.data file
c) in a partition
Before we start there are some things you should know.
NimbleX (as well as other linux-live distros) saves changes one way or another if it has a boot parameter thats something like changes=location
To see or modify this boot parameter you should view or edit the bootloder configuration file. For grub the file is menu.lst, for syslinux is syslinux.cfg an so on.
The problem is that currently there is not a standard bootloader configuration for all NimbleX install options and we need to decide what to do.
Also the best method for saving changes might not be the same for everybody.
a) For saving in a directory the parameter is something like changes=/nimblex
At boot time and during the session it will also use the files from the changes directory that's inside your nimblex directory
Advantages:
- There is no need to do anything if the parameter is already set
- You can see the files that are saved by accessing that direcotry
- It uses more disk space as more files are stored in that directory
Disadvantages:
- The filesystem where nimblex is installed will be used
- Performance will be bad on FAT and will not work on NTFS
b) For saving the changes in a nimblex.data file the parameter is something like changes=nimblex.data
At boot time and during the sesion it will mount your nimblex.data file, if it finds it, as a filesystem and use the files from within that filesystem
Advantages:
- It has built in it's own proper filesystem (XFS) that's known to be fast with many small files so we have less performance issues
- It has a predefined size and it will use as much space as you allow
- Delete just one file and you have a clean NimbleX installation.
Disadvantages:
- People need to follow through the "Save in NimbleX" wizard.
- It has a predefined size :) I know it's also an advantage.
- Some people don't manage to save their changes this way! Is it too complicated?
c) For saving files on a partition it has to be an empty Linux partition and you use something like changes=/dev/sda1
Advantages:
- The advantages over using a nimblex.data file are limited
- This concept is easier to comprehend than using nimblex.data
Disadvantages:
- Creating a dedicated partition is not trivial for most people
- Deleting a partition is harder than deleting a file or a directory
- Moving the changes is not just a matter of moving the nimblex.data file or the changes directory
The main idea is that probably the best method to use is, most of the times, saving changes in a directory because predefining a parameter like changes=/nimblex will start saving stuff automatically each time it detects a filesystem where read/write is possible. The downside when predefining this parameter is that people will not have the default option which now it's no changes and which I believe it's the best choice because if NimbleX doesn't change then it's unbreakable. Also, with this parameter it will start saving the changes in the same directory where you have NimbleX and if it's on a small flash drive you'll run out of space quickly.
Probably we'll still have to use more than one option but please try to read this, thing about it for a while and if you think you have an idea that can solve this please make a comment at the and of the page. Don't tell me to consider saving only some of the changes because so far I will not. Things are confusing enough as they are. Part of this I want to put it in the documentation and if you spot anything that's wrong or confusing please let me know. |
