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AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:25 pm

Think i fixed it.
I found squashfs-tools , xorriso and isolinux in synaptic and everything installed without any errors.
The refracta-snap-shot gui now loads and looks ok.
I'm pushed for time but i'll create a ISO tomorrow and report back how i get on.
Thanks
AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:10 am

Worked perfectly apart from one small cosmetic issue , the box that tells you how much disk space you have or any other snapshots was pinned hard against the top of the screen and all the way down to the bottom below the task bar that it couldn't be resized , so it was a case of hit enter and hope.
I assume synaptic has the wrong version of YAD so i'll have too look into that.
I absolutely love refracta tools , i don't know what i would do if you suddenly vanished or walked away from the project which sadly happens a lot with single person projects.
fsmithred

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

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Wed Mar 01, 2017 1:12 pm

You could try the yad packages that dzz made for gtk2. That should fix the problem of the window fitting on the screen.
http://exegnulinux.net/refracta/experimental/yad/
AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:04 am

A quick look at synaptic and Mint is using Ubuntu's 0.27 version of Yad and the properties say it's associated with GTK-3.
When i get a chance i'll try the slavino.sk or dzz version and report back , i'm pretty confident from your previous test in VirtualBox that it should work.
AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:53 am

dzz version worked perfectly and i was able to resize the window.
When i get a chance i'll update the first post with a step by step guide with all the current links for fellow newbies like me to follow , then maybe you can trim the thread back if that's ok to remove 6 pages of newbie confusion.
AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:11 pm

Now i thought writing a live ISO to a usb stick made it 100% read only but i've found an interesting but troublesum bug if anyone has a spare USB drive to try and replicate drive corruption.
I done standard refracta ISO write to a corsair USB stick and rebooted with the first standard option.
I opened the software synaptic manager and done a complete removal of YAD for testing , the USB stick done alot of LED flashing which i assumed was just reading the drive but after i had finished i decided to reboot to a fresh session and i was met with just a black screen and a mouse pointer right at the point when normally the desktop would appear and the only option was a hard power down.
It didn't matter how many times i rebooted it was exactly the same so i re-wrote the ISO to USB and rebooted and everything was normal and running perfectly until i done the same again and removed YAD from synaptic and again the same problem of booting to a black screen as before.
The only way i could clear it was to use the boot to text option and then use startx , sometimes i got the same black screen and other times i got the normal desktop back but either way once a boot to text with startx had been done i could then reboot the USB stick to desktop as normal but now with a slight delay of the black screen just before the desktop appears.
Removed YAD yet again from synaptic and then the same problem of booting again to a black screen and the only way to clear it was the same boot to text , startx , shut down and reboot.
Re-wrote the ISO to USB and it was then back to normal with a fast boot straight to desktop until yet again i removed YAD and then got the same exact problem back again.
For confirmation i tried the exact same thing on my other computer with two different brand USB sticks and both gave the exact same problem with a completely new Mint install and a new Refracta snapshot ISO image for that computer.
Now i don't know if this is anything to do with it but both computers have a Nvidia card and i've noticed a lot of messages at startup and shutdown about nvidia-persistenced , it might be nothing to do it but something is being persistence and writing to USB when it shouldn't and corrupting something.
*edit*
Sorry for the long post but i'm not very good at explaining myself.
fsmithred

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

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:09 pm

I don't have time to test this now, but I suggest you try booting with 'nomodeset' in the boot line (I think there's an entry already for that) and see if the black screen problem goes away. Sometimes that's needed with nvidia graphics.
If you edit the first post with updated instructions, just make a note that those instructions were updated with the final solution, or something like that. I don't want to go through and start removing or editing posts. Partly because it's more work, and partly because it infringes on my hands-off-don't-do-anything moderation style.
AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:28 pm

I'll try it but i don't have any problems until i remove anything from synaptic and something is being written to the USB stick when it shouldn't?
The disk was written with DD and is supposed to be read only yet the live image is accessing it and changing something which makes no sense.
If i have a live disk that's not 100% read only then i may as well just use the hardrive install.
Since my post i've done a load to ram boot after the USB become corrupt and started black screening and it booted to the same black screen so the data on the USB drive has been changed?
<headscratch>
fsmithred

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

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:46 pm

Boot the usb drive and run 'mount' with no arguments. It will show which options the usb was mounted with. It should be ro, not rw. If it's rw, see if you can write to it with something like

Code:
  `touch /lib/live/mount/medium/testfile`

then look in that directory to see if testfile exists, and then check it after a reboot or after plugging the usb into another linux system.
Did linux mint come with yad already installed? Is anything else getting removed along with it?
AlexRey

- AlexRey
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:43 am

## Re: Linux Mint 18?

Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:42 am

I don't know what you would call this or hell the hell it can be fixed but i have some sort of weird disk , path collision and corruption taking place.
I noticed that when i removed files from synaptic and heavy USB writing was taking place that the hardrive was also being accessed and doing something even though they are not listed as mounted and then after this i can no longer boot the USB stick as it black screens as pointed out before.
I re-wrote the snapshot to the USB stick and then deleted the Mint Hardrive so the only thing that boots to linux is the USB stick and now it's working perfectly as a standard read only live disk , i can now remove as many files as i like from synaptic and even wreck the desktop if i wish and when i reboot it returns back to the way it was before so it's definitely now read only and can't be corrupted.
The bios is set to standard Sata drivers so there is no Raid Mirroring taking place.
To confirm if this was just a glitch i re-installed Mint and made a new snapshot and it was back to corrupting the USB stick and black screening the same as before.
Why my computer can't use multiple instances of linux which i assume is Grub related i have no idea but as it stands i can't use a USB snapshot with a HDD install.
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