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q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

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S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

S4 Snapshot is a standalone tool for creating a live-USB from a running system. It's fork of Refracta and MX Snapshot optimized for use in Q4OS. It also features an installer, so you can perform installation of the snapshot on a new computer.

Keep in mind this app is testing at the moment, however you are safe to install it.

Download S4 Snapshot for Q4OS application https://sourceforge.net/projects/q4os/f … ntal_apps/

Last edited by q4osteam (2025-12-13 18:29)

VegaLinuxQ4

Member

Registered: 2025-01-29

Posts: 75

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

I'm dual boot, q4os with debian, at q4os i can easily install just click on the .qsi file and then it run installing..
But when I try in Debian it couldn't, can you guide me how to install it to debian distro?

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 757

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

I may be wrong, but I believe that .qsi files are specific to Q4OS and can be installed inside Q4OS only.

---

Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

VegaLinuxQ4

Member

Registered: 2025-01-29

Posts: 75

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

I may be wrong, but I believe that .qsi files are specific to Q4OS and can be installed inside Q4OS only.

From what i've read, QSI is somekind of installer, created by Q4OS.
My question about "how to", not about "what is qsi"...
I already know that qsi is created by Q4OS, so no need to repeat.
Titlle said "for DEBIAN & Q4OS", thats why I ask the question how to do in Debian.

Hope Q4OS team come to help..

Last edited by VegaLinuxQ4 (2025-02-06 15:59)

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

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Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

S4 snapshot is designed for Q4OS specifically, it won't work on plain Debian

crosscourt

Banned

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,706

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Why bother with Debian when youre already using Q4OS?  Many came to Q4OS because they preferred the design of Q4OS over Debian.

VegaLinuxQ4

Member

Registered: 2025-01-29

Posts: 75

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

SInce i've done much exp. with multiOS boot and using much s4/mx snapshoot, I've got (only) Q4os has boot problem (missing bootloader. missing grub, etc) that turn to failed booting (while other debian based distros's boot normally), I've fixes this problem using MX Boot repair, but the default Q4os bootloader switched to MX bootloader or "debian gnu" bootloader, and the grub show multiple list that look messy, I'm not sure what or which has boot conflict because of much exp. I've done with more debian based distros.

Last edited by VegaLinuxQ4 (2025-04-10 09:23)

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

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Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

We will try to investigate, please provide info.
- What did fail boot, the snapshot iso, or installed system from ?
- What is the original BIOS you are create S4 snapshot on, EFI/legacy ?
- What is target BIOS you are running on ?

VegaLinuxQ4

Member

Registered: 2025-01-29

Posts: 75

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

We will try to investigate, please provide info.
- What did fail boot, the snapshot iso, or installed system from ?
- What is the original BIOS you are create S4 snapshot on, EFI/legacy ?
- What is target BIOS you are running on ?

- sanpshot iso finished without any noticeable problem, the problem after done re-install that snapshot iso and when try to boot, no Q4os bootloader, use mx boot repair to get it back but it show as debian gnu instead Q4os boot.
* note, i've used mx boot option and change grub before, i think maybe this cause the "boot conflict"?

- EFI
- i dont understand what u mean? its just the same method with when i use mx linux that never cause boot problem.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

The snapshot iso you created and booted fine. Subsequently you succeeded to install from that iso, but failed to reboot. Right ?

- 1st question about hardware. What is the original computer BIOS you created S4 snapshot on, EFI or legacy ?
- 2nd question about hardware. What is target computer BIOS you are installing to, EFI or legacy ?

Provide brief hardware specs too.

We need to get this info to try to reproduce the issue as we are not able at the moment. All actions work fine here.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

S4-snapshot has been updated and the new version is available for installation. Current S4-snapshot users only need to upgrade their Q4OS system to receive updates from repositories.

YG33

Member

Registered: 2024-11-26

Posts: 6

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Hi guys!

Just tried to download/install the S4 snapshot tool but I get the following error:
Simulation not successful, sorry. I cannot install now.
Cleaning and cancelling ...

Do you know this? Running on Q4OS Andromeda (Q4OS Basic)

Thanks for your help!`
Yannick

theasmitkid

Member

From: NCT of Delhi

Registered: 2025-01-26

Posts: 329

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

See https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.ph … 069#p32069

---

coding & robotics enthusiast | Q4OS 6.4 TDE/XFCE + Win10 1903 on ASUS-E202SA (N3060 | 2GB RAM | 500GB HDD)

YG33

Member

Registered: 2024-11-26

Posts: 6

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

See https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.ph … 069#p32069

Thanks!

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

S4-snapshot for Q4OS-6 Andromeda will be ready in about a month. We are working on it.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

We have given the S4-snapshot for Q4OS-6 Andromeda the highest priority, so it is already fixed and available for installation as per the OP https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.ph … 728#p24728

Reporting is appreciated.

Last edited by q4osteam (2025-09-18 17:14)

niteflyer

Member

Registered: 2025-12-21

Posts: 5

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

S4 Snapshot crashes without creating an ISO

Here is my setup: (2025-12-21):
Mainboard ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3, AMD FX6300, 32GB RAM
Booting q4os-6.4-x64-tde.r1.iso from a Ventoy Pendrive (BIOS/MBR) with 4GB persistence file.
In the future I want to use a MBR harddisk with Ventoy.

Installs from XPQ4: XPQ4 Desktop Styles (xpq4.sourceforge.io/setup_xpq4_5.4-a1.qsi)
Installs from Q4OS Software Centre: BleachBit
Installs from projects/q4os/files/experimental_apps:
  setup_virtualbox-extq_1.1-a1.qsi (runs fine, but I have to sudo rmmod kvm_amd before running a VM session)
  setup_s4-snapshot-extq_1.1-a1.qsi
Installed libfuse2
AppImages in /usr/local/bin/AppImage:
Running VLC as AppImage
Installed libgtk-3-0
Running LibreWolf as AppImage
Created a 8GB RAMdisk in /tmp/ramdisk1/ as download folder.
Disabled sync with NTP-Servers: sudo timedatectl set-ntp false
Current persistence usage 1.7GB/3.8GB

As I want to add more AppImages to my setup, I need to remaster my ISO to reduce the persistence usage.

Starting S4 Snapshot from the Start Menu with default settings:
The button "Edit Exclusion File" on the second page does nothing:
this was different with my tests when Q4OS 6.1 and 6.2 were the current versions: the editor opened!
I made two tests with the snapshot location /home/adminq/snaphot and /tmp/ramdisk1/snapshot:
same result, crash without displaying errors. The last message I saw during the session was something like "Interrupted..."
Does the app produce no logs?

niteflyer

Member

Registered: 2025-12-21

Posts: 5

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

I repeated the test with a setup, which should be easier to reproduce:

Run live session with q4os-6.4-x64-tde.r1.iso as adminq without persistence file
Configure keyboard
Configure Wifi
Connect to WLAN landing page with Konqueror
Close Konqueror
Plugged in a second USB stick (NTFS), prepared with setup_s4-snapshot-extq_1.1-a1.qsi
Popup answered with: Mount (/dev/sdd)
Clicked the tray symbol for the drive: open in new window (media:/sdd)
Created a new folder s4test (media:/sdd/s4test)
Doubleclicked the qsi to install S4 Snapshot
Install successful
Start from Start menu/Applications/Programs/Accessories/System/S4 Snapshot
S4 snapshot reports:
  Used space on /(root): 0.27Gib
  Used space on /home: 0.27Gib
  Free space on /home, where snapshot folder is placed: 15.39GiB
  Snapshot location: /home/snapshot
Continue with default settings: crash after displaying "Interrupted..." in the progress bar

Repeated with snapshot folder /media/adminq/TRANSCEND-8/s4test/snapshot - Free space: 56.23giB - crash

Is S4 Snapshot not designed to run in Live Sessions?
How can I remaster an ISO with personal data integrated from a persistence file?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

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Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Welcome to the forum @niteflyer

Do we understand properly you are trying run S4-snapshot within the live session ?

Is S4 Snapshot not designed to run in Live Sessions?

No. S4 needs a reboot to work correctly.

niteflyer

Member

Registered: 2025-12-21

Posts: 5

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Hi Q4OS Team!

Well, I did a reboot with my first scenario (with persistence): same result.

Two months ago, I tried the same with MX-Snapshot (from MX-Tools in the Q4OS experimental apps): same result.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Do we understand properly you are trying run S4-snapshot within the live session ?

niteflyer

Member

Registered: 2025-12-21

Posts: 5

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Yes: live session with persistence file (currently 4GB).
My plan is to add AppImages via the persistence and to remaster the ISO in order to integrate the Apps to the ISO and boot without persistence, or with a fresh (clean) persistence file, should it be neccessary to add more apps.

No installation on HD planned: I am multibooting with Ventoy (from USB, and in the future from HDD) in order to boot ISOs with or without persistence, or VHDs with preinstalled OS (by Virtualbox) without the need to partition real mass storage devices and eventually repair boot loaders or boot configurations. My current OS is Windows XP SP2 32bit (without Internet, off course) and I am a Linux newbie. As a retired software engineer I now have time to care about a more modern OS...

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

Well, S4-snapshot is not designed to work within a live environment. We didn't test that at all, however we could try to adopt S4-snapshot to do such a job. In anyway, thanks for reporting, we will do some investigation and consider a fix.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,918

Website

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

... The button "Edit Exclusion File" on the second page does nothing:
this was different with my tests when Q4OS 6.1 and 6.2 were the current versions: the editor opened!
I made two tests with the snapshot location /home/adminq/snaphot and /tmp/ramdisk1/snapshot:
same result, crash without displaying errors. The last message I saw during the session was something like "Interrupted..."

At least you can try to make editor work. Just install the package "featherpad", reboot, check S4-snapshot and post back the result.

niteflyer

Member

Registered: 2025-12-21

Posts: 5

Re: S4 Snapshot - create live media and the full image of your system

After installing featherpad from Q4OS Software Centre, the Editorbutton worked.
I dont really remember, when I could edit the exclusion file: was it S4 Snapshot or MX-Snapshot?
Was it featherpad or kate?
Did I have any other apps previously installed?
Why not open the default editor for the current distro, here: kate or kwrite?

Anyway, thanks for your efforts.
I will revert to a backup of my persistence file without the S4 installation(s) and tests.

S4 Snapshot for Live sessions with persistence would be great and more straightforward than my plans b,c,d:
b) install Q4OS with Virtualbox and make S4 Snapshot run in the VM to get a custom ISO for booting with Ventoy.
c) install Q4OS with Virtualbox and boot the VHD with Ventoy.
d) fiddle with the ugly cli-tool Penguins Eggs, as AppImage, off course.

As far as I remember, a VHD with 16GB is not enough for a minimal installation. My goal is an ISO with max. 4GB and max. 4GB persistence, if any.

Merry Christmas