whoops. THIS should get a working overlayfs, fingers crossed

extra/pre-build.d/etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# mkinitcpio preset file for the 'linux' package
+
+ALL_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
+ALL_kver="/boot/vmlinuz-linux"
+
+#PRESETS=('default' 'fallback')
+PRESETS=('default')
+
+#default_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
+default_image="/boot/initramfs-linux.img"
+#default_options=""
+
+#fallback_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
+#fallback_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img"
+#fallback_options="-S autodetect"

extra/pre-build.d/usr/lib/initcpio/hooks/archiso-custom

@@ -11,19 +11,13 @@ _mnt_fs() {
     ro_dev=$(losetup --find --show --read-only "${img}")
     echo ${ro_dev} >> /run/archiso/used_block_devices
     ro_dev_size=$(blockdev --getsz ${ro_dev})
-    if [[ "${cowfile_size}" == "100" ]]; then
-        rw_dev_size=${ro_dev_size}
-    else
-        # size calculation done in this way to avoid integer overflow when ro_dev_size is > 10.2G
-        rw_dev_size=$((ro_dev_size/100*cowfile_size))
-    fi
 
     if [[ "${cow_persistent}" == "P" ]]; then
         if [[ -f "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow" ]]; then
             msg ":: Found '/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow', using as persistent."
         else
             msg ":: Creating '/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow' as persistent."
-            dd of="/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow" count=0 seek=${rw_dev_size} &> /dev/null
+            truncate -s "${cowfile_size}" "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow"
         fi
     else
         if [[ -f "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow" ]]; then
@@ -31,13 +25,13 @@ _mnt_fs() {
             rm -f "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow"
         fi
         msg ":: Creating '/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow' as non-persistent."
-        dd of="/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow" count=0 seek=${rw_dev_size} &> /dev/null
+        truncate -s "${cowfile_size}" "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow"
     fi
 
     rw_dev=$(losetup --find --show "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}/${img_name}.cow")
     echo ${rw_dev} >> /run/archiso/used_block_devices
 
-    echo "0 ${ro_dev_size} snapshot ${ro_dev} ${rw_dev} ${cow_persistent} 8" | dmsetup create ${dm_snap_name}
+    dmsetup create ${dm_snap_name} --table "0 ${ro_dev_size} snapshot ${ro_dev} ${rw_dev} ${cow_persistent} 8"
 
     _mnt_dev "/dev/mapper/${dm_snap_name}" "${newroot}${mnt}" "-w"
     echo $(readlink -f /dev/mapper/${dm_snap_name}) >> /run/archiso/used_block_devices
@@ -108,9 +102,7 @@ run_hook() {
     [[ -z "${dm_snap_prefix}" ]] && dm_snap_prefix="arch"
     [[ -z "${archisodevice}" ]] && archisodevice="/dev/disk/by-label/${archisolabel}"
     if [[ -z "${cowfile_size}" ]]; then
-        cowfile_size="100"
-    else
-        cowfile_size=${cowfile_size/%}
+        cowfile_size="256M"
     fi
 
     if [[ -n "${cow_label}" ]]; then
@@ -175,8 +167,8 @@ archiso_mount_handler() {
     mkdir -p "/run/archiso/cowspace/${cow_directory}"
 
     _mnt_sfs "/run/archiso/bootmnt/${archisobasedir}/${arch}/airootfs.sfs" "/run/archiso/sfs/airootfs"
-   # _mnt_fs "/run/archiso/sfs/airootfs/airootfs.img" "${newroot}" "/"
-    mount --bind "run/archiso/sfs/airootfs" "/new_root"
+    #_mnt_fs "/run/archiso/sfs/airootfs/airootfs.img" "${newroot}" "/"
+    mount --bind "/run/archiso/sfs/airootfs" "/new_root"
 
     if [[ "${copytoram}" == "y" ]]; then
         umount /run/archiso/bootmnt

extra/pre-build.d/usr/lib/initcpio/hooks/livecd

@@ -6,10 +6,8 @@ run_cleanuphook () {
 
 	echo "Now attempting overlay mount..."
 
-	mkdir /new_root.hw
+	mkdir -p /new_root.hw /overlay /overlay-rw
 	mount --move /new_root /new_root.hw
-	mkdir /dev/shm
-	mount -t tmpfs none /dev/shm
-	mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/new_root.hw,upperdir=/new_root,workdir=/dev/shm -o noatime
+	mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/new_root.hw,upperdir=/overlay,workdir=/overlay-rw,noatime /new_root
 	pkill -9 dropbear #kill SSH (in preparation for the live system starting ssh on port 22
 }