Refracta Development, Scripts, etc.
Post a reply
fsmithred

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

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:14 am

Yeah, I think you got the timeline right.
In my mind, the thing that makes refracta a great for diagnosis and rescue is the long list of utilities for that purpose. There's a big list in the release notes, and it's not even complete.
I wanted a live-CD that had openssh-server installed, so I made my own. Then I added a few more things that I thought I might need, and at some point, I just started adding any tools that I came across that didn't take up a lot of disk space.
golinux

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

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:37 am

> fsmithred wrote:Yeah, I think you got the timeline right.

Hallelujah!!

> fsmithred wrote:In my mind, the thing that makes refracta a great for diagnosis and rescue is the long list of utilities for that purpose. There's a big list in the release notes, and it's not even complete.
> I wanted a live-CD that had openssh-server installed, so I made my own. Then I added a few more things that I thought I might need, and at some point, I just started adding any tools that I came across that didn't take up a lot of disk space.

I saw that list in the release notes. Can you put together an html page with the complete list so we can link to it from the wiki page?
I think I'll add that last bit to the 'development' section because it helps folks understand why Refracta is unique.
Making some progress, I think . . .
golinux

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

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 5:16 am

OK. I tweaked the last para in the development section. Is it OK?
nadir

- nadir
- Posts: 1160
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:18 am
- Location: here

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:08 am

To me that looks good
(Been a long night and all, but i think it gives the idea).
Two little notes:
I think that fsmithred is just a nickname, not a shortform of fred smith.
Daniel Bauman did an awesome thing. Right now it sounds a bit ... i am too tired. Perhaps give him a bit more credit. Or perhaps it is just me. Read it again, the part where he is mentioned, and then decide yourself.
meandean

- meandean
- Posts: 392
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:16 am

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:18 pm

> fsmithred wrote:Try Fred Smith.

Freddy Smithy Reddy
meandean

- meandean
- Posts: 392
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:16 am

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 3:28 pm

> golinux wrote:Here's a first draft of the wiki write-up

sounds really good
nice to have someone writing some stuff for refracta, that is something we(can I say we) have wanted for refracta but never had the gumption to do
I have always wanted to steal another distros 'getting started' guide and adapt it for refracta as well. Just in case you get bored

> Just download (link) and burn the iso image appropriate for your system to a CD/DVD.

or a usb stick.. not sure if adding that would just add confusion though

> The process of creating a live CD has come a long way in the past few years. The early methods required cumbersome manual configurations and manipulations that were far from ideal. One of those tools was Daniel Bauman's live-helper. Around 2007, Dean Linkous started working with live-helper to create a distro (that eventually became Refracta) and discovered it could take a snapshot of a running system. Eventually Dean wrote new scripts using rsync to replace those of live-helper. Those changes eventually transformed the complex process of creating a bootable ISO of a running system to a few mouse clicks.

To me live-helper is something different altogether. It is in a class of tools WAY WAY above something as basic as snapshot. It is awesome, complex but awesome. Maybe either leave out live-helper and DB completely or describe it as the more thorough, feature rich way...albeit complex...way of creating live images. It is the official method of creating all the different live images for the debian project afterall. It can create any flavor of debian image, it can build syslinux or grub images, it can build different arch images, it has bells, whistles, knobs, and gizmos. It was simply too much for what I wanted and the little bit I did learn to do with it never gave me exactly what I wanted. I am sure if I took the time to learn it that it would probably give me everything I desired but once I figured out the hackish but still functional method that did exactly what I wanted I didn't really bother with live-helper much after that. I certainly did not replace live-helper just found a hackish way to do one small thing that live-helper can also be used for. All in all I can't say I used or even played with live-helper very much...fiddled with it a few times...learned a few things...gave up... What I did do (and am good at) is taking things apart. So I downloaded a live image, took it apart, and realized it was a squashed filesystem (minus a few things) and a few boot files. The magic was already done, by the squash tools and modules, the kernel, etc. All i did was figure out what to squash, what to include/exclude, and what debian flips to switch so that it would be a live image.

> Refracta, Refractasnapshot and Refractainstaller are the fruits of Dean's contributions.

Sounds a bit too sensational. Deans fiddling around with live images and custom builds led to the start of refracta, snapshot, and installer, but it was always more of a whim and changed as my whims did (which is many as nadir can testify) until fsr came along. With fsr came a game plan, good code, listening to others, others getting involved, etc... In other words it was my play toy until fsr made it a respectable project that had some focus, direction, openness, and so forth.

> He started by rewriting the python scripts of the Refractainstaller into bash and then did the same for Refractasnapshot.

That is probably close enough to go to print with but originally installer and snapshot was a couple forum posts full of bash commands that someone could copy/paste. Then I stuck them all in a bash script without any error checking or validation or anything. Then wanting a graphical tool I stole clem's (from linux mint) python/glade gui code that he had wrapped around my commands and with the help of nadir managed to get it cleaned up enough to use. But quickly realized it was too much trouble (and beyond my ability) to maintain, started looking around and there was fsr doing some graphical bash scripting, proper scripting with error checking, validation, and so forth. I think that was when the stars aligned and we decided to take over the world.
making my brain hurt trying to remember all this...
golinux

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

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 3:50 pm

Appreciate your comments which fill in a lot of the the gaps that I tried to tie together from the somewhat random notes others have provided. It might be more detail than needed for the Wiki . . . will need to digest and distill the most important bits. Additional links to some of the non-Refracta contributions might be a good way to keep the Wiki page tidy but still give credit and provide peripheral information.
golinux

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

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:18 pm

Development section has been pretty much rewritten and the live media instructions were tweaked a bit. Please take a look.
I don't quite understand who did what with the python to bash stuff so left it out.
Googled Daniel Baumann and now his name is spelled correctly.
meandean

- meandean
- Posts: 392
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:16 am

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:04 pm

nice!
golinux

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

## Re: Refracta wiki project

Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:10 pm

> meandean wrote:nice!

Approval from the meanest of the mean? What is this world coming to! Just now I realized I had not transferred the changes to the live-media section from my desktop file so please look at that also.
Next . . . on to a 'tour' of snapshot and the installer. Which will have screenies and maybe vids. ukbrian seems to have disappeared . . .
Post a reply
Jump to:

Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group.

phpBB Mobile / SEO by Artodia.