[Fedora-livecd-list] How do I save and restore my overlay?

[Douglas McClendon]

martin.x.long at jpmchase.com wrote:
> 
> After I format and reinitialize my Live USB, do I have to let it run 
> through all of the updates and reinstall my applications?
> Do we have the tools to pull all of that data off and restore it?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean.  One thing that is possible is to 
copy the overlay file from one liveusb and put it on another.  Though 
the format of the overlay file is inherently tied to the specific liveos 
it was originally with.  I.e. you won't be able to copy an overlay file 
from an f9-x86 liveusb onto an f9-x64 or f10-x86 liveusb.  Or even a 
customized f9-x86 liveusb that you created with livecd-creator/tools.

 From an engineering standpoint, of course anything is possible.  One 
use case I see, is to use the persistence feature to add an entry to 
fstab, such that say, /mnt/data mounts to a ext3fs image located on a 
file on your liveusb.  You can then add a user that has a home directory 
under there, and perhaps install applications under there.  In this way, 
you could then copy that ext3fs image file to an f10 liveusb, and then 
only have to re-do the fstab and passwd modifications, such that 
everything now pretty much looks the same.

If that doesn't help or answer you question, try to add more detail to 
your question.

-dmc


> Any help would be great.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Martin
>