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## Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

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### Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by nassausky » Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:56 pm

Hi all,
This could possibly be my favorite tool after we lost remastersys but the problem is I can't get it to work.
Here is my issue. I downloaded gparted-live-0.22.0-1-i586.iso which is a great small debian tool that I'd like to modify slightly and create a snapshot. Anyone work with that before?
My problem is that the gui doesn't start up from the command line. After typing refractasnapshot-gui and pressing enter it just returns to the a new blank command line and nothing starts up.
I thought I installed all the dependencies. Am I missing something?
Thanks for any help!
****EDIT***
OK Got the solution. After running the command line I got a warning saying Kernel image is missing and initrd is missing. Turns out the distribution had bad soft links to the 2 files. I did a search for the vmlinuz & initrd.img and created new links in the root folder. I tried posting a reply a few times here and home but it wouldn't work so lets see if this edit works.
Last edited by nassausky on Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

nassausky
  Posts: 6
  Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:44 pm

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by fsmithred » Wed Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm

Make sure you're root.
Make sure you spell it correctly. (I just made that mistake and got "command not found".
Run 'refractasnapshot-gui -d' to get more output in the error log.
'apt-get install -f' (with no package name) should install any missing dependencies, but you would have gotten error messages when you installed the debs if anything was missing.)
I have to go out of town for a few days, so I might be of limited helpfulness. Another option is to run 'refractasnapshot' in a terminal, and forget about the gui for now. The cli script is pretty simple to use.
Use the latest versions - 9.1.6-2 and 9.1.6 - they work with wheezy or jessie, and probably still work with sid.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/refracta/files/testing/

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

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by dzz » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:37 pm

I don't actually know gparted-live-0.22.0-1-i586.iso ..
Are you trying to run snapshot in a live session? if so it needs to use a mounted disk partition (set that in etc/refractasnapshot.conf) with enough space
What Desktop Environment does this use? Is root authorized to connect to the xserver? snapshot-gui uses xterm and zenity, do they open from a root terminal? (seen that problem here before)

dzz
  Posts: 647
  Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:53 am
  Location: Devon, England

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by nassausky » Fri Jun 19, 2015 3:01 pm

Thanks.
1) Root: Yep root
2) Spelling: Yes spelled it correctly and thought i was missing a gui dependancy since no 'command not found ' message
3) Debug parameter: It has the same warning as noted below
4) -apt-get install -f: Done that since yes it was missing a dependency during install and it fixed it.
5) Out of town: Hope it's for fun!
6) I got a warning saying Kernel image is missing and initrd is missing. Which is strange since there is a vmlinuz & initrd.img in the root which matches the default settings in etc/refractasnapshot.conf.
Thanks!
UPDATE: Had a problem posting this because it didn't like me to put a slash before the etc/refractasnapshot.conf in this forum. So anyhow I got it working because I found that the live boot version of gparted didn't have the 2 files linked correctly. I removed the original links in the root folder and replaced them with the correct ones:

Code: Select all
  `rm initrd.img
  rm vmlinuz
  ln -s /lib/live/mount/medium/live/initrd.img /initrd.img
  ln -s /lib/live/mount/medium/live/vmlinuz /vmlinuz
  `

nassausky
  Posts: 6
  Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:44 pm

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by fsmithred » Fri Jun 19, 2015 5:13 pm

I'm glad you got it to work. The other way to deal with the kernel and initrd is to name them (full path) in the config file. Either way of solving the problem is valid. Do whichever is easier for you. And you're obviously running in a live session, so I guess you figured out where your work dir and snapshot dir are. (i.e. some mounted partition, otherwise all your work disappears when you reboot, or alternatively, you run out of ram before the snapshot is completed.)
Yes, fun. I plan to work on the tools when I get back. I need to finish the new version of refracta2usb, and I need to make some minor changes to the installer and snapshot. I think I'll make updated wheezy isos, too. They're kinda old. (I'm now getting warnings about iceweasel being too old.)

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

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by nassausky » Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:33 pm

This tool is fantastic and yes I loved to do it all live without having to install my live ISO to a HDD first.
I just wish the prep for using RefractaSnapshot didn't add so much extras to the final image. I had this great small distro gparted which came in about 227 Meg ISO and after installing just the command line version RefractaSnapshot-base_9.1.6-2 the result was a 288 Meg ISO. I don't know enough about junk files but it would be nice if before the burn it would open up some dialog that tells you what we can possibly delete to make the image smaller or an automated step that maybe deletes locales or other temp items.
2nd thing is it would be sweeter if it was posted in a easier place to find the downloads. I had a copy saved from last attempt so I was able to test it again just today but I actually tried to search for refractasnapshot and it came up with the older versions and not the new versions.
Thanks again!

nassausky
  Posts: 6
  Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:44 pm

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by fsmithred » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:01 am

I don't think the dependencies for refractasnapshot-base amount to very much space. There are a few things you can do to make the snapshot smaller. First, be sure you're using xz compression - uncomment the mksquash-opt in the config file for that. Also, review the excludes file (/usr/lib/refractasnapshot/snapshot_excludes) and add anything you don't want to be copied. We've already got quite a bit in there. One change in the next version will be to add some code dzz wrote to trucate logs and exclude archived logs.
To get rid of locales you don't need, run 'dpkg-reconfigure locales' before you make the snapshot.
The other thing I need to do soon is reorganize the files at the sourceforge site. Some of the testing stuff needs to move out of the testing folder. I haven't yet decided exactly what I'm going to do with that. If you have any ideas on how to make stuff easier to find, speak up now.

fsmithred
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  Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:13 pm

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### Re: Debian Jessie RefractaSnapshot-Gui not opening

by nassausky » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:13 am

That was actually great advice. I'm also glad some more change is going on to make the final image smaller.
As far as finding these great scripts, maybe in the sourceforge folder where you have the older releases you can add a README-FOR-NEWER-releases or README-FOR-TESTING-releases and have a small note in that file pointing to the URL of testing until it gets moved over then you can delete the text pointer file or change it down the road. Just one idea in the suggestion box. Thanks again.

nassausky
  Posts: 6
  Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 3:44 pm

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