Arch Linux

kittydoor

Member

Registered: 2024-01-02

Posts: 2

How can I expand the live installation environments rootfs size?

For testing / prototyping, or sometimes during installation for diagnostics purposes, it's helpful to install some packages on the live environment itself. I notice that it's very easy to hit the limit of the fs.

root@archiso ~ # pacman -Syu sway
...
...
...
error: Partition / too full: 173678 blocks needed, 44088 blocks free
error: not enough free disk space
error: failed to commit transaction (not enough free disk space)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

What are some ways to expand the rootfs? For me, most machines I use have 16gb or more memory so ideally using tmpfs or something akin to it would be best. I can think of it being possible with kexec or switch_root etc, but I'm not knowledgeable in how to use those tools and also maybe I'm missing something more obvious like just changing a mount points flags or something.

Thanks in advance!

Sidenote: If you have a neat article for modifying the archiso to enable a persistent storage layer on the usb itself, I would also love to give that a try!

Last edited by kittydoor (2024-01-02 19:11:44)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,824

Website

Re: How can I expand the live installation environments rootfs size?

This works from the running system:

mount -o remount,size=8G /run/archiso/cowspace

Or use the cow_spacesize= kernel parameter from the bootloader screen. EDIT: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … ms#L56-L60

No idea about overlays though, perhaps the Evil Wiki Admin can help you with that.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2024-01-02 20:01:33)

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 953

Re: How can I expand the live installation environments rootfs size?

Sidenote: If you have a neat article for modifying the archiso to enable a persistent storage layer on the usb itself, I would also love to give that a try!

Manually prepare the ArchLinux ISO files onto the USB pen:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_fl … NU/Linux_2

Or, simpler, just prepare a Ventoy USB

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<49,17,III,I>    Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
<50,17,III,I>    misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
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MAYBL8

Member

Registered: 2022-01-14

Posts: 308

Re: How can I expand the live installation environments rootfs size?

You could try my script for usb persistent arch linux.
You could modify it to your liking.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 1#p2106581

nl6720

The Evil Wiki Admin

Registered: 2016-07-02

Posts: 671

Re: How can I expand the live installation environments rootfs size?

The solution is very simple—don't try to install packages in the live environment.

This works from the running system:

mount -o remount,size=8G /run/archiso/cowspace

Or use the cow_spacesize= kernel parameter from the bootloader screen.

Yep, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Archis … on_the_fly.

Or you can place the overlayfs upperdir on a physically backed pre-formatted volume. See cow_device= or cow_label= in README.bootparams.

kittydoor

Member

Registered: 2024-01-02

Posts: 2

Re: How can I expand the live installation environments rootfs size?

Thank you everyone, appreciate all the efforts! Apologies for reading the wiki, and still missing on the section nl6720 linked. Also, lots of very useful links to read.

Happy to have been a member of the Arch Linux community for a decade (even if my account on the forum is new), everyone is so awesome always