Ventoy Persistence has become discouraging. What have I done wrong.?

[Resistor]

If I fail to properly format this post, it can also be seen on Linux Mint forums:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p...6&t=325131

I think I went astray following someone's mistakes on another website. I deleted that link.
Now, I am at a loss after playing with this off and on, for about 2 weeks.

Ventoy Installs and Boots fine, whether the Partition Table is msdos or GPT.
I finally found the -g option and it is now on a GPT Partition Table, Formatted as ext4.

I am at a loss after trying different things, including reinstalling a couple of times.

No Persistence option in the menu.
No Persistence in settings on re-boot.

Ventoy_File_Structure_2020-07-12


Ventoy_Partition_Format_2020-07-12: Previous


Mount Difference: Current
Code: Select all

Code:

VTOYEFI mounted as fat16 on /dev/sdb2 /media/gt/VTOYEFI
ventoy  mounted as ext4 on /dev/sdb1 /mnt/gt/ventoy

Current Content in: ventoy.json
Code: Select all

Code:

# ventoy.json

{
    "persistence": [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img"
        },
              
        {
            "image": "/lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img",
            "autosel": 1           
        }
    ]
}

Previous Content ventoy.json
Code: Select all

Code:

# ventoy.json
{
    "persistence": [
        {
            "image": "/ISO/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.img"
        },
              
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence/linuxmint_20.img",
            "autosel": 1           
        }
    ]
}

[longpanda]

I can't see the photo in the link.
You can press F5 in Ventoy boot menu and check the json configuration for persistence and see the result.

Take care about that: 

ventoy  mounted as ext4 on /dev/sdb1 /mnt/gt/ventoy

The ventoy.json should under a ventoy directory, so the full path may be  /mnt/gt/ventoy/ventoy/ventoy.json

[renatofrota]

The problem is apparently the existence of empty lines and trailing spaces.

This should work:

Code:

{
    "persistence": [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img"
        },
        {
            "image": "/lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img",
            "autosel": 1
        }
    ]
}

Tip: you can validate your json syntax by pressing F5 in Ventoy screen.

[Resistor]

Thank you, longpanda and renatofrota.

I can't tell you how encouraging this is.
I'll be trying these fixes in the next day or 2, and will report the result.

Looking forward to replacing MultiSystem with Ventoy.

[GCMartin]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Persistence stated to ONLY work on some filesystems with ExFAT NOT being one of them?

Found this in the last paragraph here

FYI

[longpanda]

ExFAT also OK.
You can use F5 debug to check the persistence config and show me the photo.

[Resistor]

I made a change and fixed empty lines and trailing spaces.



The menu shows Mint 20 and LMDE-4.

No persistence options indicated.



The file path looks proper.

Code:

/dev/sdb2  7D22-F13A
Mounted on /media/gt/VTOYEFI

Code:

/dev/sdb1  ventoy
Mounted on /mnt/gt/ventoy

Directory looks correct as the example suggested:

Code:

/mnt/gt/ventoy/ventoy/ventoy.json

Properties shows:

Code:

/mnt/gt/ventoy
/mnt/gt/ventoy/ventoy
/mnt/gt/ventoy/ventoy/ventoy.json

/mnt/gt/ventoy/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso
/mnt/gt/ventoy/persistence.img

/mnt/gt/ventoy/lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso
/mnt/gt/ventoy/persistence.img

On re-boot, F5 gives a syntax error message.



I removed the space from the top line: #ventoy.json

I'll be back after a reboot with the current .json file:

Code:

#ventoy.json
{
    "persistence": [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img"
            "autosel": 1
        },
        {
            "image": "/lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img",
        }
    ]
}

---

Just rebooted.
F5 shows an error message, more or less like this:

############## Syntax errors... ##############

That error message may be the same as before, but I can not say for sure.

So, where could the problem be?

[longpanda]

You can use some online tool to check the syntax of the ventoy.json. For example  http://json.parser.online.fr

This is the correct format:

Code:

{
    "persistence": [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img",
            "autosel": 1
        },
        {
            "image": "/lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img"
        }
    ]
}

[Resistor]

I just checked again.

F5 shows an error message:

##############  Dump Persistence  ##############

I'll have to return later to check the syntax tool.

Thank you.

[Resistor]

Result of checking the syntax shows the following:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: expected ',' or '}' after property value in object at line 6 column 13 of the JSON data

    "backend":"/persistence.img""autosel": 1

},

"autosel": 1

seemed to be on a separate line, but I removed it, anyway.

Now rebooting to test...

---

Result of checking the syntax shows the following:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: expected ',' or '}' after property value in object at line 6 column 13 of the JSON data

    "backend":"/persistence.img""autosel": 1
},

"autosel": 1

seemed to be on a separate line, but I removed it, anyway.



Rebooting failed the test...

#ventoy.json
{
    "persistence": [
        {
            "image": "/linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img"
        },
        {
            "image": "/lmde-4-cinnamon-64bit.iso",
            "backend": "/persistence.img",
        }
    ]
}

Parser shows the following:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

So, commenting out the top line is the screw up.
Now going to test it... without the commented out file name.

---

Result of checking the syntax shows the following:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: expected ',' or '}' after property value in object at line 6 column 13 of the JSON data

    "backend":"/persistence.img""autosel": 1

},

"autosel": 1 seemed to be on a seperate line, but I removed it, anyway.

Now rebooting to test...

---

Conclusion: Persistentence Failure is a Fatal Flaw as my system is configured.
Maybe the file system, uEFI, who knows....

I give up.

Thanks for you help.