Can Manjaro replicate the utility of Knoppix persistent?

[andreas85]

I also used Knoppix for a long time. (since it was delivered with c’t)

Now manjaro is my home.

There are several ways you can go:

1. You can use any manjaro ISO (on CD or USB) and install programs non-persistent

• After a restart the iso is clean (like Knoppix)
• It runs out of RAM (so you need a lot if you install things)
• You can switch (roll) to the next ISO at any time
• At some point in time it will be necessary to roll to the next ISO
• You keep your data on your hdd
• if you want some things to persist, you can link-mount them or use some overlay-fs

2. With Alma you create a USB-Installation with persistence

• This starts (like Knoppix) with a full installation, but is able to be used on any PC
• You need to roll with manjaro !

[HowTo] portable manjaro USB with XFCE, btrfs (part1)

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ part 2 Create a USB stick (at least 16GB) as a portable manjaro system that can be used on different computers.

background

Usually, a manjaro deployed on a CD or USB stick is a ‘live-manjaro’ (read-only). This is used to use manjaro ‘live’ without installation. Sometimes also to be able to repair a damaged system that no longer boots. The status of the stick becomes obsolete over time. It can be partially updated (but not the kernel), but the updates…

3. With Btrfs (+snapper/timeshift) you install manjaro with the possibility to rollback

• This is a complete install
• you can modify what you need
• You need to roll with manjaro !
• If something bad happens, you are able to roll back

You can find good Information about Btrfs in the wiki

Btrfs

and in

[how to] Manual rollback with btrfs

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Why roll back?

If Manjaro doesn’t want to boot into the graphical user interface. If an update managed to break an application you need …

Now btrfs pays off! With a good layout and snapper. Please read all of the instructions through to the end before you begin. Only a few steps are necessary for a rollback:

Boot a rescue Manjaro

Either from CD or from a live USB stick or somewhere else. Under no circumstances use the btrfs volume that you want to repair. If the nece…

[how to] rescue data from a damaged btrfs volume

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ You used btrfs. Now it’s paying off. There is an easy way out (I’ve already done this myself):

In most cases, when a btrfs volume breaks, it is possible to recover the data

This is because btrfs works with copy on write. This means that new changes are always appended at the end, so to speak. The previously existing data is not actually overwritten. (In reality this is a bit more complicated, but for us here this simplified view is sufficient). If the file system ge…

Unable to boot after running out of disk space during an update

Hello, I have a Dell XPS 13 9360 with Manjaro stable and the 5.15 kernel and Plasma. I am using btrfs. I decided to perform an update today, which also included some AUR packages. The AUR packages include ceph-llibs, deadbeef and some others. ceph in particular required a lot of time and resources to build and has failed a few times before. During the update, it seems that I ran out of disk space based on the messages in pamac, and the desktop environment seemed broken (the KDE tray stopped a…

4. mix your own way

Be aware !

• manjaro is NOT knoppix (you need to learn some basics, so keep reading the forum)
• manjaro needs maintenance (maybe except 1. )

[rajibando]

Thank you, Mr. andreas85, for sharing your experience and wisdom with me.
Presently, I am trying to have a hang of things and at present at the post No. 20.
I will follow your rest steps when I am a little experienced with Manjaro.

[Yochanan]

@rajibando

The OpenBox WM is as good as dead

I’m not sure about that, but if you really like it I would suggest Mabox* based on Manjaro.

* Note that Mabox is not Manjaro and they have their own support forum.

[Aragorn]

@rajibando

… three official Manjaro editions comes preinstalled with all of the necessary tools and software titles. And if you need something that isn’t part of the freshly installed system by default, then you simply pull it in from the official repositories. …

This section appears to impart an impression to me that I have not been able to explain my need emphatically or clearly enough.

I was not talking about all necessary tools and software titles. I talked about comprehensive listing of all applications/programs that is included during installation be faithfully reflected on the Start Menu ⟶ Program Categories ⟶ Program Link, with every links to every programs installed in the system, on the list, or allow me to include those that aren’t listed. In menu, sub-menu, sub-sub-menu, and so on … . A comprehensive list missing out nothing.

That depends on what style of menu you choose. In Plasma, you can have multiple styles. However, the default will indeed be a cascading menu with categories.

As for the items that aren’t listed, normally there wouldn’t be any, because every interactive application will be listed in the menus.

@rajibando

As I wrote the above to Mr. Aragorn, I talked about my having the ability to add any arbitrary menu-item to the menu-list with link to a custom script/command. Especially, on the Right-click Drop-down menu-list, including sub-menus

I still don’t know what you mean by “the Right-click Drop-down menu-list”. I presume that this would be something specific to the user interface you were using earlier.

Menus can either way be customized.

@rajibando

In the end, are all of these distros Live? Can be booted and run from the ISO directly? Then I could have a real ‘feel’ of some of them.

Yes, all of them are live images, and we will often advise people with damaged systems to repair their systems from within a live USB/DVD/CD session.

[rajibando]

@Aragorn

I still don’t know what you mean by “the Right-click Drop-down menu-list”. I presume that this would be something specific to the user interface you were using earlier.

I would draw you attention to the four snapshots, two from LXDE lxsession, and two from LXDE OpenBox.

These are tiny files. You could download them and check them one by one minutely to notice the difference.

If noticed carefully, in lxsession, right click, the Sub-menu “Debian” doesn’t appear.

In each of lxsession and OpenBox, right click on empty area, the Applications Sub-menu, sub-sub-menu, etc., are the same.

The right-click, drop-down menu-list are different for LXDE lxsession and LXDE OpenBox session.

However, right-click, drop-down menu-list within pcmanfm filemanager behaves differently. I have not attached a snapshot for this menu.

The lxsession, start menu, left-click and sub-menu list is not comprehensive. Many applications don’t find their way in there.

My intent is to alter all these menu-lists and have them be exhaustive. So that I don’t have to search for application links. I also want to add custom scripts and commands on to these menu lists.
LXDE,lxsession,StartMenu,LeftClick|473x348

LXDE,lxsession,RightClick,Applications|435x500

OpenBox,RightClick,DebianMenu,submenu|690x227

LXDE,OpenBox,Applications,RightClick|376x500

@Aragorn

… Menus can either way be customized. …

Such blanket comment is dangerous for us novices. Suppose assured by your advice, I proceed to download and install only to find that I can’t customise the menus. Data costs money. I am not even considering the frustration for the wasted effort.

Presently, I can’t alter the menu list in Debian and am finding no reliable information source to do it.

This is a serious problem with Free and Open Source software. Everyone is forking and experimenting. Documentations aren’t numerous or checked for veracity. Which is why I am like once bitten, twice shy

[Aragorn]

@rajibando

… Menus can either way be customized. …

Such blanket comment is dangerous for us novices. Suppose assured by your advice, I proceed to download and install only to find that I can’t customise the menus.

That’s what the live mode of the .iso is for. You can experiment there. All this talk isn’t going to get you anywhere until you actually give it a try.

[rajibando]

@Aragorn

… That’s what the live mode of the .iso is for. You can experiment there …

Of course Sir, but which one, based on the first half of my post numbered 26? Which is why the first half of my post needs be addressed too. Each ISO is about 3GB in size. By hand option for menu editing to run programs, scripts and commands is very essential for me.

[Aragorn]

If you create a USB stick with Ventoy, then you can download all three of them and simply drag & drop the .iso files to the Ventoy folder on the stick, and then you’ll be able to boot into either of them by way of a menu.

That said, KDE Plasma is by far the most flexible and customizable of the three desktop environments. You can make it behave and look exactly as you want it, and if you cannot find what you’re looking for with Plasma, then I’m afraid nothing’s going to satisfy your needs — not in Manjaro, nor in any other distribution.

@Yochanan has also already pointed you at Mabox, a Manjaro derivative — not supported by Manjaro, however — with the OpenBox window manager, which is supposedly what you’re used to.

But you really do have to go and try it — you can add the Mabox .iso to the other ones on the Ventoy USB stick if the stick has enough room for it — in order to find out. We cannot make your decision for you.

[rajibando]

@Aragorn

… KDE Plasma is by far the most flexible and customizable of the three desktop environments. You can make it behave and look exactly as you want it, and if you cannot find what you’re looking for with Plasma, then I’m afraid nothing’s going to satisfy your needs — not in Manjaro, nor in any other distribution. …

Sir, please don’t sound like you have given up. If you are confident that Plasma will work, surely it will. My expectation is very ‘reasonable’. I am not asking for the moon. Only power to insert menus by hand, if need be.

Thank you Sir, I will download and run Ventoy and prepare a pendrive and do the needful. But I am sceptical about OpenBox, given the experience that I have had. Mabox is at a 2nd order of distance of separation from Arch, the primary source. Manjaro is alright as it addresses my objective of not having to learn so much to be able to just use a computer. Additional utility is that the forum is very vibrant. Like it was once in Knoppix.

But I won’t venture very far to Mabox. Not now. May be, in future.

But thanks for your support, Sir. Much appreciated.

[Aragorn]

@rajibando

I am not asking for the moon. Only power to insert menus by hand, if need be.

Plasma does have a menu editor — see the screenshot below — as does LXQt for that matter, because it uses the same underlying KDE Frameworks as Plasma.

Note: Out-of-the-box, Plasma does not look anything like in the above screenshot. Its default configuration looks a lot more like Microsoft Windows, but as I said earlier, Plasma is enormously flexible and customizable, so you can basically make it look & feel however you want it.

[rajibando]

@Aragorn

… Plasma is enormously flexible and customizable, so you can basically make it look & feel however you want it. …

Okay, thank you Sir for the screenshot.
I am comfortable and assured that my objectives shall hopefully be met. I have been stuck with LXDE for too long a time to have experimented with other DE in Debian.

I have already begun downloading Manjaro Plasma. Your screenshot appears encouraging and enticing!

Just one last question: Could the Drop-down menus, sub-menus, sub-sub-menus, et al, of the file manager-browser, accessible by Right-Clicking a clear area of Plasma’s default file manager-browser, be added with customised menu-items also? I am irritated by the lack of information in case of pcmanfm file manager-browser in LXDE.

[Aragorn]

@rajibando

Could the Drop-down menus, sub-menus, sub-sub-menus, et al, of the file manager-browser, accessible by Right-Clicking a clear area of Plasma’s default file manager-browser, be added with customised menu-items also?

Yes, they can.

• How do I add custom items to the context menu in Dolphin? (AskUbuntu)

• Creating service menus in Dolphin (KDE Knowledge Base)

[rajibando]

Thank you Sir, Mr. Aragorn, for your kind support and the two links. It is time, I suppose, to close this thread. I would begin a new thread when I need the support of the forum.
Please accept my admiration for your continued conversation with me on this issue.
Best wishes,
Rajib

[deroberts1]

Best wishes on a successful Manjaro (Knoppix) USB project. Knoppix live CDs were how I got into Linux.