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dzz

- dzz
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- Location: Devon, England

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Wed Feb 24, 2016 11:21 pm

Writing now from refracta8_xfce_amd64_beta-20160223_0250.iso booted findiso on hd, from my grub menu.
It's looking rather good. A few early observations:
Htop reports 181MB usage with only a terminal open, don't know why yet.
Release notes mention "config=whatever" for cmdline (should be components=whatever)
Refracta logo is too far down (if you want classic bottom panel)
There seems a lot of gtk3 stuff, maybe that's unavoidable now (abiword, audacious, gnumeric, evince, meld, lightdm...) On my hit list would be gnome-mplayer (mpv is smaller and quite good), synaptic, gdebi and transmission. However, you did well keeping it <700MB.
Why is the mate stuff needed?
More later.
golinux

- golinux
- Posts: 663
- Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 1:23 am

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:07 am

> dzz wrote:Refracta logo is too far down (if you want classic bottom panel)

Hmmm . . . I have a bottom panel and didn't notice that when I was putting it together. Will check when I get back over there.

> dzz wrote:There seems a lot of gtk3 stuff, maybe that's unavoidable now (abiword, audacious, gnumeric, evince, meld, lightdm...) On my hit list would be gnome-mplayer (mpv is smaller and quite good), synaptic, gdebi and transmission. However, you did well keeping it <700MB.

The gtk3 stuff is needed for the custom Clearlooks-Phenix-purky Window Manager theme to work properly with gtk3 apps.

> dzz wrote:Why is the mate stuff needed?

I suggested fsr use some mate apps rather than the latest gnome versions that may have systemd and other unwanted deps. I've been doing this for years and it has worked quite well.
nadir

- nadir
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- Location: here

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:32 am

I am using the 32 iso, that might be the reason i only use 130 MB with only a terminal open
(starting firefox i go up to 400 in the blink of an eye ...).

> However, you did well keeping it <700MB.

Yup. Everything and the kitchen sink. Impressive, but too much to get an idea of everything which is installed
(tilda is, so i am fine ... )
-
btw: i think in the past etc/inputrc was edited, so one could use page up for history scrolling when using the cmd.
Just in case it was missed ...
The example music. Me likey, and a lot.
-
in general i like the look and feel, also a lot
(well: i am not a big fan of stuff on the panel, but it's been like that from the very beginning. click-click, and all the stuff is gone ).
fsmithred

- fsmithred
- Posts: 2101
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:13 pm

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:16 am

dzz, I don't know what the deal is with the memory. I had the booted iso in vbox next to the same system installed in vbox, and the same apps were showing different amount of ram. The installation was only using 69mb. I'll try to repeat that. I think I dropped to runlevel 1 or 3, and then back to 2 before I ran ps_mem.py.
Change the background to the 1680x1050 for a wide screen. The logo will move up. (/usr/share/backgrounds/refracta/...)
I thought mate apps might be a good idea, but before I installed them, I tried gnome-system-tools, and some parts weren't working correctly. So I switched, and all seems to be ok.
nadir, I noticed the same behavior with usbwait during the installation, and yeah, it was annoying and confusing. I guess I need to look at what changes are happening in /dev during the installation to see what's triggering it. Then find a way to stop it. Or shut it off at the beginning of the installation. You'd still have the ability to mount/unmount usb drives from the icons on the taskbar (if you didn't remove them before the installation.)
Forgot all about et/inputrc. I changed these lines.

Code:
  `# alternate mappings for "page up" and "page down" to search the history
  "\e[5~": history-search-backward
  "\e[6~": history-search-forward`

golinux

- golinux
- Posts: 663
- Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 1:23 am

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:44 am

What's with the double post?
fsmithred

- fsmithred
- Posts: 2101
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:13 pm

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:20 pm

Ran into some weirdness between Preview and Submit, and the result was the double post.
fsmithred

- fsmithred
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## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:26 pm

Synaptic won't start from the menu. You can start it from a root terminal with the command, 'synaptic', from a user terminal with the command, 'gksu synaptic', or by changing the Exec line in /usr/share/applications/synaptic.desktop to 'Exec=gksu synaptic'. The same is true for gparted.
Note: you can also start them in a user terminal with 'synaptic-pkexec' or 'gparted-pkexec', which is odd, because that's the same command that's in the .desktop file, where it doesn't work.
golinux

- golinux
- Posts: 663
- Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 1:23 am

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:06 pm

I use gksu in a panel launcher. pkexec was always a little weird for me.
golinux

- golinux
- Posts: 663
- Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 1:23 am

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:55 pm

> dzz wrote:There seems a lot of gtk3 stuff, maybe that's unavoidable now (abiword, audacious, gnumeric, evince, meld, lightdm...)

I just stumbled on this over on the xfce forum. It's expands the answer to your question about gtk3:

> There are actually two main GTK toolkit versions: GTK2 and GTK3. There is also QT (think KDE). Xfce is still mostly GTK2 - but the next major release is going to be a port to GTK3. See: https://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.14/roadmap

> > Is it possible to convince XFCE to use libraries provided by MATE as a derivative of Gnome 2, instead of using those provided by Gnome 3? Or to tweak a config file to specify explicitly whichever GTK version to use? Or both?

> Currently Xfce supports both GTK2 and GTK3. Most of the core Xfce apps are still GTK2. I believe Mate is also based on the same GTK2 libraries. Much of this, however, depends on the application that you use. If the application has been ported to GTK3, then it will use the GTK3 libraries.
> My understanding is that Xfce and Mate have more in common than they are different.

There is some very disturbing info on what's coming down the pipes in that thread.
nadir

- nadir
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- Location: here

## Re: Refracta-8 (Jessie) based on Devuan

Thu Feb 25, 2016 5:58 pm

speaking of gtk3 and mate stuff and what not.
I am too tired to say it humble and correct, this is really just a side note:
A version which is ultra-light wouldn't hurt.
In case you (whoever "you" is, i am not sure, fsmirthred for sure, but not about the rest ... ) are ever bored.
Let's call it the anti-beginner-release ... (no synaptic and such, automounting, etc).
otoh: it doesn't really matter if stuff is installed. Don't use it and call it a day ...
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