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## Snapshot description

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51 posts • Page 3 of 6 • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

### Re: Snapshot description

by golinux » Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:53 pm

> nadir wrote:What meandean quoted was about writing an article, not about booting an iso.

> > I won't be able to write a coherent description until I totally understand what I'm talking about so please be patient. And at some point I'm going to have to take the plunge and actually give it a try! I've been reading these last months, looked at the config file etc. but not yet had the courage to actually do it.

> then he said:

> > - no courage need it, just do it

I was referring to making an ISO with snapshot when I wrote that. Until last night I had never given it a try.

> nadir wrote:Anyway:
> alt+ctrl+F2
> login as "user" with password "user" (or login as "root" with password "root", then skip su)
> su
> etc/init.d/lightdm stop
> etc/init.d/lightdm start
> If you can now log in as "user" with password "user", then there is a bug (cause i ran in the very same earlier. I didn't pay much notice, as yesterday, on hardware i didn't have that problem. And VirtualBox adds an extra layer of problems).
> If that doesn't work, stop ligthdm again and startx as "user"

The snapshot ISO boots to a lightdm login screen. Couldn't login. Tried from alt+ctrl+F1. Couldn't login that way either. Maybe something to do with beta2? (I'm a few betas behind.)
May the FORK be with you!

golinux
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### Re: Snapshot description

by fsmithred » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:05 pm

If you're using a beta that I put on the repo for download, then you should be able to log in.
username is user
user's password is user
You should really update your iso - there have been a lot of changes since beta2.
If you're using a snapshot that you made, check your settings in the config file, check your home to see if you changed your username or password, check /var/log/refractasnapshot_errors.log for something relevant. That's all I can think of right now.
Edit: Check versions for the tools.
apt-cache policy refractasnapshot-base
apt-cache policy refractasnapshot-gui
apt-cache policy refractainstaller-base
apt-cache policy refractainstaller-gui

fsmithred
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### Re: Snapshot description

by golinux » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:30 pm

As meandean suggested a few posts back, I just kept all the default configurations when I ran snapshot. There were no errors in the log file.
So I just gave my personal snapshot another try. I checked the lightdm dropdown and saw the options that are usually available - default, xfce and openbox. So I thought I'd try my usual username and password and it worked! I was able to get into an EXACT replica of my refracta desktop. In fact, I'm posting this from the live snapshot. This is waaaay cool!! I am puzzled though as I thought that personal login info would be stripped out and replaced with user user etc.. Obviously, I'm not understanding this process very well yet . . .
May the FORK be with you!

golinux
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### Re: Snapshot description

by fsmithred » Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:38 pm

Yup. An exact copy of YOUR system. You might want to check the excludes file. Things like ~/.ssh and ~/.gnupg get stripped out. I comment those lines out on my personal snapshot, so that I have access to my ssh and gpg keys. Maybe some other stuff that I want gets changed, too. I don't remember right now.

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### Re: Snapshot description

by ukbrian » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:30 am

I've not seen any mention of the difference between Refracta snapshot/installer and other similar tools that being that any software you add/remove or changes you make when running the live DVD will be incorporated if you do an install afterwards.
Also I haven't seen meandean's original knockoff scripts mentioned that he posted on Ikey's forum and which the GUI's are based on.

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### Re: Snapshot description

by fsmithred » Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:09 pm

Brian, I haven't tried any of the other installers, so if you have any observations or conclusions about them, this would be a good place and time to share them. Thanks.

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### Re: Snapshot description

by golinux » Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:21 pm

I'm thinking we need to start the wiki project with a Refracta page. The write up on the ibiblio site is a good start. Mention of reftractasnapshot/installer and other custom tools can be added and then linked to their individual pages as appropriate. @ukbrain . . . yes, please share your observations/comparison with other disk imaging/installer tools.
May the FORK be with you!

golinux
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### Re: Snapshot description

by ukbrian » Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:31 pm

> fsmithred wrote:Brian, I haven't tried any of the other installers, so if you have any observations or conclusions about them, this would be a good place and time to share them. Thanks.

The only other one really is remastersys but the best installer for that is the one Anthony Nordquist has tweaked.
To use the language of the other forum
I propose making video's of snapshotting installing using both systems to make it easier for golinux and myself and you won't have to use remastersys yourself. I was thinking of using Saline to use for the video if that's OK? as it's already got remastersys install and I've used refracta on it already.
This is a video I done today showing how I create and use custom menus in Xfce to give you some idea of what I'm talking about. The menus I use I cobbled together 2 years ago and I've been using them ever since.
Video http://lin.me.uk/sr1/vids/menus/sr1-menus.mp4.zip
Menu http://lin.me.uk/sr1/vids/menus/menus.zip
Real zip file if you have problems with the other http://lin.me.uk/sr1/vids/menus/sr1-menus1.mp4.zip
I've not used ubuntu, just Debian but I don't mind installing xubuntu if it's any help but if you couldn't install snapshot I haven't much chance. LOL
I did another snapshot install of lmde xfce and this time noticed the option on the setup screen to not install grub so I checked that and installed to sdb5, then rebooted into my primary boot partition on sdb2 and did an update-grub but I had the same result again when I rebooted, 5 identical lines in grub for sdb5, the first line booted OK but when I selected the third one it screwed up and wrecked the MBR grub on sdb.
Something strange going on but it might be me I've always used the MBR before.
Last edited by ukbrian on Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

ukbrian
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### Re: Snapshot description

by golinux » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:27 pm

Unable to unzip the first one. And neither xarchiver or squeeze will open it. Getting this message:

> Archive format is not recognized!

May the FORK be with you!

golinux
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### Re: Snapshot description

by golinux » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:33 pm

> ukbrian wrote:. . . then rebooted into my primary boot partition on sdb2 and did an update-grub but I had the same result again when I rebooted, 5 identical lines in grub for sdb5, the first line booted OK but when I selected the third one it screwed up and wrecked the MBR grub on sdb.
> Something strange going on but it might be me I've always used the MBR before.

I had something similar happen a while back on a triple boot machine. As best I can remember, after I ran update-grub for all three, the menu cleared out the funky lines.
May the FORK be with you!

golinux
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  Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 1:23 am

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