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## Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

Stuff that has not yet gone into the official build.
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130 posts • Page 7 of 13 • 1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... 13

### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by greenjeans » Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:36 pm

Thanks for taking some time to check this!
I'll grab those files and get to work this evening and hopefully have some results tomorrow.
I'm right there with you computer-wise, built my wife a pretty new desktop a couple years ago, 8-core amd and all the bells and whistles.
My desktop is an old socket 939 board with a used 2-core amd at 2.2 and 1.5 gigs of ddr 400. Still the fastest machine in the house though, running gnome 2 on a system I built and optimized for that machine in 2011. I call it "vintage"...lol...kinda like me.
Doing all the work i'm doing now on a Compaq CQ58 laptop, small dual core APU at a breathtaking 1.0 ghz per core. Snapshotting the roughly 1.2 gigs i've got going takes about 45 minutes currently.
http://www.mrgreenjeans.net/opensource
Devuan-mate-minimal hybrid-iso, made with Refractasnapshot.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by greenjeans » Thu Sep 15, 2016 8:34 pm

Rats, no luck.
Still not swapping to the new user name in slim. Trying some mods now, i'll post error logs if I can't figure it out.
One thing: If anyone is testing/experimenting as I am, need to remember to edit the path in the gui-installer-wrapper to reflect the new name of the installer, /usr/bin/refractainstaller-yad-username, so it doesn't break your .desktop/menu entry.
http://www.mrgreenjeans.net/opensource
Devuan-mate-minimal hybrid-iso, made with Refractasnapshot.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by fsmithred » Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:56 pm

Let me be sure I understand what you've done so far. You installed devuan from a devuan dvd, then made a snapshot, then tried to install from the live snapshot you made? Or something else?
What's in slim.conf before and after the install? (what's it look like in the running live system, and what's it look like in the final installed system. It's really just the line with default_user that matters.
OK, I just booted one of the unofficial devuan live isos I made, and I see:

Code: Select all
  `default_user devuan
  default_user devuan`

But the installation that was used to make that iso only has the first one, commented out, with a different name.

Code: Select all
  `#devuan_user simone`

And my code to enable autologin in the installed system, I think should only change one line, and I have no explanation for why I have the user listed twice in the live iso.

Code: Select all
  `#slim
  if [[ -f /target/(that forbidden directory)*/slim.conf ]] ; then
  sed -i -e "/default_user/s/ $oldusername/ $newusername/"
  fi`

And if you have a copy of slim.conf in an installation where you left the Disable box checked, I'l like to know how that worked. I think there's an error in my code for that. (Looks like I might need to escape a $ in the sed command if I compare it to the live-config script for slim.)
OK, I see the problem with the sed line above. And yes, it will change more than a single instance of default_user, but only if you tell it which file to work on.
Make it like this:

Code: Select all
  `sed -i -e "/default_user/s/\s\+$oldusername/ $newusername/" /target/(that forbidden directory)*/slim.conf`

(But replace "etsy" with etc) Line 1279
Thanks, and sorry for that stupid error.
* Can't post (slash)etc here. You get a Forbidden error.
EDIT: Changed the sed line again. Now, $oldusername preceded by one or more spaces or tabs will be replaced by $newusername preceded by a space, on any lines that start with default_user.
.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by greenjeans » Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:54 pm

Sweet, i'll give that a shot and report back!
My experiences are pretty much identical to yours, netinstall of Devuan with everything unchecked but mate desktop and utilities, no print server and no ssh server.
Chopped/uninstalled everything I didn't want, installed snapshot and installer and depends.
Original slim.conf as installed was the same as yours, default user was simone and default setting for autologin was "no", but both lines were commented out. I left that exactly like it is and continue to do so in my "build" partition.
After I run snapshot and burn the resulting iso on CD, the livecd's slim.conf changes, it now reads the proper username ("guest" is what i'm using) and autologin is set to "yes", and both lines are uncommented, perfect for a livecd. So it seems like whatever is going on in snapshot is working great and properly changing the default user name.
If I run one leaving the defaults (disable boxes checked), the result is both lines are commented out, the autologin line is changed to the proper answer (no), but the default user name remains what it was on the livecd ("guest" in this case). So even if the username is incorrect, it's all commented out, so you can still just login normally.
So when I uncheck the default autologin settings, in the original version of the installer (current version with none of the mods we've been discussing), it just basically doesn't alter the livecd's slim.conf settings, so since the default autologin setting is "yes" on the livecd, the new install tries to autologin, but if you have changed the username during install, it tries to still autolog you into "guest", which no longer exists. If I name the new user "guest" during install instead of changing it, it works perfectly and the new install autologs me in.
So yeah, I kinda figured there might have to be whole 'nother section written to direct what happens if the user decides to uncheck those boxes, sorry about that. Probably need to change the behavior in the no-autologin section too as it just comments out the default_user and doesn't change the name either.
The double entry thing in default_user when you uncheck the boxes to allow autologin has been happening to me too, I got it to stop doing that at one point somehow with some change, but the rest of it was still wrong so I dumped that change and can't remember it, should have at least noted it, I need to document more. In my defense I never learned to type, hunt-and-peck with two fingers, it's taking forever to make this post, lol.
It is a groovy feature to add in the installer, allowing a user to decide for themselves what they want the default behavior to be during install instead of having to deal with it later. Got to be a pain to make it happen in all those login managers, i'll load one with GDM later on and test run that too if somebody hasn't done so already.
I need to download your new Refracta today too, gotta Mate version?
http://www.mrgreenjeans.net/opensource
Devuan-mate-minimal hybrid-iso, made with Refractasnapshot.

greenjeans
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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by fsmithred » Fri Sep 16, 2016 11:48 pm

Don't apologize for telling me about bugs. You're doing me a favor. There's no way I can find them all. (Well, there probably is, but I need to eat and sleep occasionally.)
The name change when you boot live media is due to the live-config scripts. You can thank Daniel Baumann for that. I'm just building on his good work. You description of what happened fits with they errors I found in my code. I'm surprised that nobody else ran into that, because that section has been the same for a long time.
I added the changes to the cli and gui versions, and I just uploaded a new package. Try 9.1.9
https://sourceforge.net/projects/refracta/files/tools/
Edit: I tested it a few times, too.
I'm not going to make it change the username if autologin is disabled. If someone wants autologin after they install, they'll have to go into that file anyway. Plus, I hate messing with it when I've got it working.
Also fixed a problem with the cli installer listing /swapfile in fstab an extra time.
As for the default_user getting listed twice, I haven't figured that out yet. It seems to work ok, so I'm not in a panic about it. If you think of what you did, yes, please let me know.
I'll be uploading a replacement iso for the i386 with the new installer and a few other minor fixes some time in the next few days.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by greenjeans » Sat Sep 17, 2016 8:41 pm

Great work! That new line did the trick, it's still creating the second instance of default_user, but it's now appending the correct $newusername to both instances, so bottom line the autologin function in the installer is now 100% functional when using slim.
I feel the same about about messing with the username if autologin is disabled, it all works now as intended and that would seem to be as good as it gets with a very non-complex mostly featureless login manager like slim.
I think on my iso's i'm just going to add a simple menu entry for an installed system, gksu (path-to-text-editor) (path to slim.conf), title it appropriately and put it under Administration section in the menu, make it super easy to change after install.
I guess the super cool way would be to make a little script that called up a small yad dialogue where you could just flip a switch or answer yes/no.....I like to make it as convenient as possible, but surely even the non-computer savvy could find the correct line in slim.conf and change+save it?
If anybody knows of a script already made that does a similar function that they could point me too, that would be great, I can make all the changes necessary. I might be able to write it all myself but it will be slow-going.
One other thing, I found a package in another distro that makes a bootable live USB from an iso file, tried it on that distro and it works great. Haven't seen anything similar in the Devuan repo unless you know of something. I didn't look too closely but I think it makes use of dd to do the work, unfortunately it needs hal too for some reason and Devuan doesn't use or need hal. And I can't find a copy of it being used anywhere else so I think he just made it specifically at the request of that distro's lead dev and didn't port it to Debian.
But as it happens, I know the guy who made it, we both used to work on gnome 2 versions of the same distro, if there's nothing in Devuan that does this, I was thinking of contacting him and seeing if he would/could re-write this to work with Refracta and Devuan, I don't know if Devuan would be willing to put it in their repo but maybe you could use it in Refracta and i'd sure like to have it for my experimental stuff.
http://www.mrgreenjeans.net/opensource
Devuan-mate-minimal hybrid-iso, made with Refractasnapshot.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by fsmithred » Sat Sep 17, 2016 10:55 pm

Thanks, but I already have a tool to put an iso on a usb, like 17 different ways. (OK, that's a slight exaggeration.)
Try refracta2usb. Start it from a root terminal and read the Help (first menu item).
https://sourceforge.net/projects/refrac ... -2.2.1.deb
If you need the usb to boot on uefi hardware, and you have a uefi-enabled iso, use this one -
https://sourceforge.net/projects/refrac ... -2.3.1.deb
It doesn't use dd.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by greenjeans » Sat Sep 17, 2016 11:03 pm

Oops, should have checked your stuff first.
Downloading now, got a buddy with a newer mac with no disc drive, and want to do some testing on the mac.
Are you doing Refracta with just xfce or will you be doing some other DE's too?
http://www.mrgreenjeans.net/opensource
Devuan-mate-minimal hybrid-iso, made with Refractasnapshot.

greenjeans
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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by fsmithred » Sat Sep 17, 2016 11:17 pm

Right now, just xfce, but normally, I have a couple of No-X isos that you could start with. I'll pick that practice up again when I start working on ascii. That should be soon.

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### Re: Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

by greenjeans » Sun Sep 18, 2016 6:48 pm

> fsmithred wrote:Right now, just xfce, but normally, I have a couple of No-X isos that you could start with. I'll pick that practice up again when I start working on ascii. That should be soon.

That is just superb, i'll be waiting for those, perfect to build a mate version from the ground up!
In the meantime i'm doing bug-hunting in mate, several things that have never been dealt with that date back to gnome 2, and still doesn't seem like anyone is working on it, but I still need to do some more searching.
I don't know too much about how mirrors work or if you would need such, but I just rented some server space and got a domain solely for a place to dump my experiments online and make them available for friends or other folks who want to test or try them. I spent a little less and didn't get unlimited, but I do have 500 gigs of storage and 5 terabytes a month of data transfer. I doubt i'll ever use more than 50 gigs of the storage and certainly won't even come close to maxing out data transfer, so if there's some use you could make of some extra space for storage or mirroring for downloads of Refracta, you are more than welcome to use some space at my site, I can give you a password to use/mod/ftp stuff to your own section so you can DIY as you please.
Edit: Had another thought along those lines, maybe a small repo to add to sources list so updates to Refracta-specific programs like snapshot and dependencies like yad that aren't available through the Devuan repo could be made available in Synaptic for end-users?
http://www.mrgreenjeans.net/opensource
Devuan-mate-minimal hybrid-iso, made with Refractasnapshot.

greenjeans
  Posts: 68
  Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:57 pm
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