Hi
I am using the Parrot Security x64 Full Edition ( I don’t know how to find the version number, sorry )
I used Rufus to install Parrot onto a flash drive
I haven’t found any similar issues
What exactly do all the boot options mean? As in, live, persistence, encrypted persistence, install, etc?
And how can I keep the software I install and settings I change when I boot into Parrot again?
Thanks!
Hi!!!
You have this documentation:
https://docs.parrotsec.org/doku.php
There you can see this document:
https://docs.parrotsec.org/doku.php/parrot-usb-live-persistence
Yes, I saw that, but the instructions weren’t super clear. Also, what do live, persistence, encrypted persistence, install, gtk install, forensics, and all the other options in the boot menu mean?
I have done the first step with dd, but now I don’t see an unrecognized partion followed by an empty space, as it says in the docs. The partition options in GParted are grayed out. And yes, the docs explain live mode, but what about forensics and install and the others?
there is no talk about what ram mode is, which sounds to me the same as live or forensics
@mw123 live mode run in memory, forensics is same but does not auto mount drives, or touch swap space
text mode is without a graphical desktop, only a terminal
using persistence with gparted can be annoying, a faster and easier way(on linux) is
fdisk -l #to get id of the drive you want to use
sudo fdisk "/dev/xxx" # xxx being the id of the drive
n #to create new partition
press enter for the default sectors at beginning and ending
when done press w to save changes
exit
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L persistence "/dev/xxxx" # xxxx replaced by your drive id and the number of the new partition created
then mount your drive by any means you want (eg; sudo mkdir /mnt/usb && sudo mount /dev/xxx /mnt/usb
and create a file called ‘persistence.conf’ inside your new partition (it should be empty), and write inside that file / union, save and unmount your drive (eg; sudo echo "/ union" > /mnt/usb/persistence.conf, sudo umount/dev/xxx
next time you boot choose live persistence and any changes you make will be persistent
ram mode should copy a system image into ram making it much faster than normal live mode (for large memory systems - though, honestly, anything from a normal laptop on up can do it without breaking a sweat)
@coyik Thanks, I will try that. Another question: what is the difference between persistence and install?
persistence will be live mode with change saved while installation is plain installation on hdd/sdd
an installation on ssd will make the system much faster than live persistence on usb
the good of live persistence is having your system with your tweaks and updates wherever you go, and can be handy if you have multiple computers and dont want to maintain the installation of each of them
installation on usb/sd card is not possible on most public available computers, you will have mbr issues and wont be able to boot
So actually installing Parrot on the usb makes it faster, but it will only work on one computer ( why? ), and persistence is slower but works on multiple computers?
you misunderstood, you wont be able to install on usb, you can only use live/live persistence on usb/sd card
installing will be faster, live is slower because it runs in ram
installing means the system will be on a computer so if you want to use parrot on another computer you will need to reinstall it on the other computer and configure it again
but using live persistence you have a portable system that you can plug on any computer and run your system with persistence
in short, if youre gonna use only one computer, install parrot, if you use multiple computers, live persistence is the right choice
So installing actually writes files to the hard drive of the computer? And so when you boot, the option in the menu where it says install is actually installing onto the hard drive instead of the usb? But one the desktop, the is a script that says Install Parrot. What does that do? I’ve tried it, but it results in an error. I have also tried the experimental GUI version. Does that just copy an iso onto the drive and partitioned it correctly? Also, take a look at this post: https://www.pcmech.com/article/how-to-get-a-full-install-of-linux-on-a-usb-stick/ Thanks!
thanks for the link, i did not know about that trick, but still it can cause issues in future
yes installing write files to the computer, and when you boot the option installing is for that, and gtk means graphical installation
as for the script install parrot on desktop in live version, its for users that tried the live version and liked it, they can install it directly instead of rebooting, but the script is currently not working
the installation will automatically partition it correctly, give swap space according to your available ram, and a boot that matches your bios
using live persistence though, the iso will stay as an iso, so it will take much less space, only taking 3.6 gb while when uncompressed i think its between 16 and 19gb, persistence will only store your upgrade and modifications in the ‘persistence’ partition
Here is another link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNRlLUn7UH0
Will there be any performance differences between installation and persistence? For example, I may be using Blender ( blender.org ) and some other 3D rendering software, so will they be slower?
I think I am leaning towards live persistence, since I would like to use multiple computers, but I performance is still very important
i did some test, the difference will be only about writing and reading speed, and loading speed, so unless you want to play heavy video games, or make lot of file transfer/setup productive machine, live is fine
i think blender will be good on live, and if you get yourself a very fast usb/sd card, live might even be faster on it than an installation on hdd, there are usb with 300mb/s of writing speed
the link you sent is about installing on usb flash drive
I have a Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 256 GB ( https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Unformatted-Capacity/flash-voyager-gtx-config/p/CMFVYGTX3B-256GB ), so I think that is plenty fast enough read / write speeds. Live mode doesn’t require a password on boot, so how can I configure that? And, according to the docs ( https://docs.parrotsec.org/doku.php/what-is-live-mode ), the default password is toor, but when I sign out, it doesn’t seem to be working. Also, since I have 256 GB of storage, how much space should I use for the operating system ( the ISO file ) and persistence partitions? I plan to use the remaining space for storing other files.
With that kind of build, just do the beginner 1 big flat partition.
Conversation kind of went off the rails, it’ll be a bit larger once the ISO is extracted, but plenty of room for config changes.
Performance is going to be less than installed for sure, you’ll be carrying around a kernel with tons of extra modules installed and none of them particularly tuned, since you don’t know what the specs are going to be on the next box you plug it into.
I highly recommend encrypting the fuck out of that with some solid “good horse staple battery”.
Don’t take that the wrong way, it’s totally worth having Parrot “anytime anywhere”… my old bsd distro was exactly for that niche and so are many others. Parrot is solid as hell, so it’ll be old trusty (pun after the fact, damn it). And honestly, you probably won’t notice the performance hit too much except around boot (if you boot to RAM) or serious cycles (compiling/hashcrack/etc…).
Back to the RAM boot, the boot is slow, sure… but it’ll almost never be faster once it’s all in RAM.
when you write the iso to your usb, as i said, when partitioning press enter for the beginning and end of sector to get as much space as possible because you wont need the rest, you will end up with 256gb minus the block size, maybe 230gb, and counting the iso, you will have around 225gb to store data
the password for live mode is definitly not toor, cant tell why, neither for why it does not prompt for user login
try using sudo -s, and changing password, and if it does not work, report the problem because youre not the first one having that issue
@mootiny said all the essential about live
@coyik Do you know how to do it with GParted? I am not as familiar with the terminal, so I think I’d rather use GParted, if possible. The docs ( https://docs.parrotsec.org/doku.php/parrot-usb-live-persistence ) do not help very much. And, you said that if sudo -s doesn’t work, I should report the problem. How do I do that? What does sudo -s even do? Sorry, I am pretty new to all of this. Thanks!
@mootiny Which partition should I encrypt, and how do I do that? Also, what is a good horse staple battery? Will encryption impact the speed of Parrot?
i had issues with gparted, having all the options grayed so i have no experience with it
sudo -s is for upgrading from user shell to root, and get every permissions on the system until you exit that shell, then you type passwd to change password
since you are new to all of this, your best friend on linux is the command line man , whenever you have questions about a tool, type man "the tools name" , its an offline manual with most if not everything you need