How to create a Persistent partition for Ubuntu and Debian

AIO Boot NewGen has an entry for Ubuntu and Debian called Linux Persistent Partition Mode, which this article is about.

AIO Boot NewGen offers an option called Persistent Mode for Ubuntu and Debian, but it is a partition image file, not a real partition. Using a partition image file gives poor performance, moreover, Ubuntu currently does not support Persistent files placed on NTFS formatted partitions. Using Persistent Mode in Real Partition mode overcomes these limitations.

One disadvantage that I noticed when using Real Partition is that this Partition can be used by many different distributions. For example, if you have an EXT2/3/4 partition labeled casper-rw, both Ubuntu and Linux Mint will use this partition.

Grub2 Settings

Grub2 -> Settings -> Linux Persistent Partition Mode. Here you will see two entries Ubuntu and Debian (Disabled). To “Enabled” one of these entries, the script checks to see if you have created a partition that matches the requirements. This is to ensure that booting these distributions is free of associated problems.

The above only applies to distributions that have selected “Don't Use” in the Persistent Mode option at Drag and Drop the ISO file into the tool. The tool adds a reserve variable to the kernel parameter, which defaults to nothing, when the above entries are enabled the script will set the value for this variable to persistent (Ubuntu) and persistence (Debian).

How to create a Persistent partition?

A created Persistent partition must be considered valid for the distribution you want to use. Here are the steps I use GParted to create new partitions on USB.

If you do the partitioning on the USB, you should boot into Ubuntu or Debian directly from the ISO file through the File Manager. The ISO file must be located on a different partition than the one on which you will perform the resizing. Or resize the partition on Windows first. Mounted partitions cannot be resized with GParted.

Ubuntu (read more at LiveCD/Persistence):

Resize the existing partition to get the unallocated size that you want to use to create the new partition.
Move the FAT32 partition forward. As far as I know, some systems don’t support booting in UEFI mode if the FAT32 partition is placed after the EXT4 partition.
Finally, create a new partition in Ext3 or Ext4 format, set the Label as casper-rw.

Debian (read more at LiveUsbPersistence):

Resize the existing partition to get the unallocated size that you want to use to create the new partition.
Move the FAT32 partition forward. As far as I know, some systems don’t support booting in UEFI mode if the FAT32 partition is placed after the EXT4 partition.
Create a new partition in Ext3 or Ext4 format, set Label as persistence.
At the root of this new partition, create a new file named “persistence.conf” with the content “/ union“.
```
# mount /dev/sdxY /mnt
# cd /mnt
# echo "/ union" > persistence.conf
# sync
# umount /dev/sdxY
```

Once the appropriate partition has been created, the entry in Grub2 above can be Enabled.

If you love Ubuntu, maybe you should try installing Ubuntu on USB with WubiUEFI, this method is better to use the full functionality of Ubuntu.