Persistence is a hybrid between a LiveCD/USB and a full install. One of the beauties of a LiveCD is that it allows you to boot Linux without touching any hard drives so you can have a "test-drive" without fear of altering your current system. Another feature of a LiveCD is that once it is burned, it is close to impossible for it to get infected with a virus or a Trojan horse. Every time you boot it, you start off with a system that is clean and pristine.

Persistence gives you a way of remembering things between boots. In order to do so, it needs access to a read-write device, typically either a hard drive or a USB stick. If you are only using one machine that is yours then you can put the persistence file(s)s on one of your hard drives.

The antiX distribution offers up to three different forms of persistence on our Live Media (LiveCD/DVD/USB, etc). Remastering is only available on writable media such as a LiveUSB or a LiveHD (frugal install) not a CD or DVD. All three forms can be used together if desired. They each have different strengths and weakness which are important to understand in order choose the right method or methods for your purposes.

The information for both root and home persistence is stored in two files called rootfs and homefs. Unlike previous versions of antiX, there is no longer an option to use a entire partition for root or home persistence. The default location for these files is right next to the squashfs file, on the same device and in the same directory. We suggest that you use this default location whenever possible, but sometimes it is not possible (such as when booting from a LiveCD or LiveDVD). For these cases you can specify which device the persistence files are on. You can also specify a different directory.

The homefs and rootfs persistence files are straightforward to create once you know the trick. You just need to decide how large you want to make the file and what file system you want to use on it. We suggest using ext2, ext3, or ext4. If file(s) will be on a USB stick then you should consider turning journaling off if using ext3 or ext4 to prevent shortening the life of the USB stick. Enabling extents in ext4 might increase efficacy, especially on USB sticks.