Stuff that has not yet gone into the official build.
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fsmithred

- fsmithred
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## Refracta installer and snapshot used on other distros

Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:53 pm

If you've tested refractainstaller or refractasnapshot on some distro other than refracta, please post your results here. This first post contains bits of other discussions about this. So far, the tools have been minimally tested and appear to work correctly on LMDE, SalineOS and Xubuntu.
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Refracta Installer and Refracta Snapshot used on other debian-based distributions.

> fsmithred (Oct.15, 2011):
> with version 9.0.1-2, installed the Linux Mint Debian Edition iso in virtualbox and created a bootable iso.
> ukbrian (Dec.25, 2011):
> I found the .deb files in /home/github/refracta so I did a fresh un-updated install of LMDE Xfce and installed refracta installer and snapshot without any problems and completed a snapshot and install to a different partition so refracta works on LMDE XFCE.
> I also installed and used refracta successfully on SalineOS which is based on Squeeze.
> I then bumped into this thread on the mint forum about qt4-fsarchiver which is a gui for fsarchiver for backing up partitions, it is being developed I think by a German guy.
> http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=89189
> ukbrian (Dec.26, 2011):
> I just did a snapshot install of an up to date Xubuntu
> The first snapshot didn't get created correctly but I thought there was some interaction with shutter which i had running, when I took the snapshot.
> Took another snapshot from a reboot with nothing else running and this one did a refracta install no problem. many congratulations to the team. (Pat-on -back)
> ukbrian (Dec.27, 2011):
> I just got this PM on the mint forum from a guy who installed refracta on a Debian Sid install after i PM'ed him the a link to the .debs.
> He's gerd50 on this thread http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=89189
> If I'm reading you correctly you managed to successfully install a refracta backup of Sid possibly LMDE?
> No, what i wanted to say was, i can't call up the installer gui from the menu entry.
> I can call up the installer script in the cli. But because the snapshot i created (tried it several
> times) is incomplete, i have nothing to reinstall.
> Possibly i could install your qt4 xfce snapshot. But the script wants to install Grub and that is
> something i don't want...
> Where would you like the GRUB bootloader to be installed?
> (probably a drive, like /dev/sda): exit
> exit does not exist!
> [email protected]
> :~$
> I think at this point the installer first should ask - do you want to install Grub (yes or no):
> and if the answer is yes, then ask where to install Grub.
> fsmithred (Dec.27, 2011):
> If you don't want to install a boot loader when using the cli installer script, just leave it blank when it asks for the drive. It should ask if you're sure you don't want a boot loader and then continue. If it's not behaving that way, I need to fix it. I don't know why the gui installer didn't start for your friend. The other way to start it is with the command, `/usr/bin/refractainstaller-gui`. Check the error log if it doesn't run. (/var/log/refractainstaller_errors or something like that.)

ukbrian

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

Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:55 pm

I've had a fail with DreamLinux5, Testing based.
The latest .debs installed with no problems
The error log is

> rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4 bytes to socket [sender]: Broken pipe (32)
> rsync: write failed on "/tmp/work/myfs/home/user/ukbrian/firefox/profiles/menus/urlclassifier3.sqlite": No space left on device (28)
> rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (113853 bytes received so far) [sender]
> rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(605) [sender=3.0.9]
> /usr/bin/refractasnapshot-gui: line 207: 3827 Terminated zenity --title="Copying filesystem..." --progress --pulsate
> sed: can't read /tmp/work/myfs/etc/pmount.allow: No such file or directory
> Write failed because No space left on device
> Write on destination failed because No space left on device
> Read on destination failed
> /usr/bin/refractasnapshot-gui: line 223: 3834 Terminated zenity --title="Squashing filesystem..." --progress --pulsate
> Size of boot image is 4 sectors -> No emulation
> 68.49% done, estimate finish Mon Jan 23 12:29:45 2012
> Total translation table size: 2048
> Total rockridge attributes bytes: 2358
> Total directory bytes: 6144
> Path table size(bytes): 38
> Max brk space used 0
> 7315 extents written (14 MB)
> /usr/bin/refractasnapshot-gui: line 242: 3850 Terminated zenity --title="Creating CD image file..." --progress --pulsate
> /usr/bin/refractasnapshot-gui: line 276: 3857 Terminated zenity --title="Cleaning..." --progress --pulsate

Also the buttons were off screen with screen 2 when taking a snapshot, I had to press Alt and drag the screen up. http://lin.me.uk/temp/screen-2-installer.png
This post on the SalineOS forum by Anthony Nordquist the dev might be of interest to you.

> Tony Brejeski, the developer of Remastersys, pointed out YAD and some of the things it could do well over 6 months ago, stating that he would be moving to it for the Remastersys Installer. I wasn't all too excited about a toolkit that exists outside Debian on Google code only, until I looked into using it for 2.x. Yad makes many more things feasible to do using dialog windows, like taking multiple inputs at once, this was impossible with Zenity. It also allows the use of custom buttons and an almost arbitrary number of buttons. He really was correct in that it is everything that Zenity should have been but never was.

Edit

> I am just getting started playing around with Yad and figuring out how exactly it parses things, but I can say so far that I really like it and most everything I write will be using it. The man page states it takes standard gtk options, this means if I start getting creative I could do almost anything with it.

fsmithred

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

Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:02 pm

Looks like the main issue was running out of space on /tmp. If your tmp partition is not big enough, you should edit /etc/refractasnapshot.conf and move the work directory to somewhere else. Make sure that "somewhere else" is listed in the excludes file (/usr/lib/refractasnapshot/snapshot_exclude.list) so that rsync doesn't try to copy the copy it's making. I think I tried it inside /home/snapshot before, and that worked ok. You could also put it in /mnt, if you're not already using it to mount something, or even in /media. Anywhere else, and you need to add it to the excludes file. For example, if you changed the config to /home/work/, you'd add the following line to the excludes file:

Code:
  `- /home/work`

(Note the absence of a trailing slash.)
The zenity errors are normal. Not a problem.
The pmount.allow message suggests that dream doesn't have pmount installed.
Window off-screen, well, I don't know. What screen resolution are you using? The script was tested in a VM that's using 1152x864. If you've got 1024x768 or lower, that could be the issue.
Never heard of Yad, but thanks for the tip. I'll look into it, as I've been disappointed several times by the limitations of zenity.
dzz

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

Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:08 pm

Some distros use different (distro-specific) live-boot/live config setups (e.g.siduction, which snapshot can process here) You probably need to install proper Debian versions to use snapshot in that case
Re Yad:
Seems quite good. The downside is, if you write a script or app using yad for Debian systems, yad is not apt-getable from Debian repos so that script has limited portability. without providing a sane way of installing yad along with it
Anyway, debs for yad (87k) are here: http://debs.slavino.sk/pool/main/y/yad/
and can dpkg -i to refracta with no extra deps, you don't need to enable another repo for this
ukbrian

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

Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:20 pm

Sorry I'm very slow getting back to you

> Looks like the main issue was running out of space on /tmp. If your tmp partition is not big enough

I use the same set up when I install most distros, I create a 20 GB partition as / and put everything in it, I then put a symbolic link in home pointing at a data partition where I store all data.
I always break the link before doing a snapshot. I don't think this is a problem with space but i'm a bit of a thicko.

> 1024x768 or lower, that could be the issue.

Spot on, I record the video output from one machine on a USB capture box on a second machine and the resolution is 1280x720.

> Some distros use different (distro-specific) live-boot/live config setups

Is there command I can put into the terminal to get this info?
I just done a fresh install on a 80 GB drive giving it all the space and got the same result, a 15.MB .iso
This was the error log http://lin.me.uk/temp/refractasnapshot_errors-02.log
I got these errors when I booted into dream
Yad is way out of my depth I just thought it might be of interest to you.
dzz

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

Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:08 am

I had a look at Dream myself. One (only) positive comment: nice icon theme.
It uses it's own specific kernel. initrd and live-boot stuff. Who knows what else.
The kernel appears to have selinux enabled http://forums.blagblagblag.org/viewtopic.php?t=1742&
Snapshot won't work till you deal with all of those.
Best I can do to help is recommend real Debian.
fsmithred

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

Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:44 am

From the bottom of /etc/default/rcS on a Dreamlinux install:

Code:
  `# mount /tmp as a tmpfs
  RAMTMP=yes
  CONCURRENCY=no`

The screenshot you linked shows you have 659mb tmpfs mounted at /tmp, but you have 4.4gb of installation to copy. Either change the location of $work_dir in /etc/refractasnapshot or maybe edit /etc/default/rcS and then remount or reboot.
I'm doing it now. I installed gdebi and then used that to install refractasnapshot from the debs. Changed work_dir="/tmp/work" to work_dir="/home/work" in /etc/refractasnapshot.conf. Running the graphical snapshot from the menu, and the file copy took long enough that I think it got the whole thing.
Got rsync error about "failed to open /selinux/policy"
Still squashing...
I'll be back.
Edit: In earlier bash versions of refractasnapshot, rsync used the -x option to prevent any additional mounted filesystems from being copied. Current versions don't use this, so unmounting your data partition is a very good idea if you have a lot of data. Otherwise, you could get a very large iso image.
Edit2: snapshot.iso is 969mb, and it boots in vbox.
ukbrian

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

Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:00 pm

> One (only) positive comment: nice icon theme.

Tend to agree with you, I installed Kaffeine, Openshot and Audacity and neither appeared in the Dream menu.

> work_dir="/home/work" in /etc/refractasnapshot.conf.

I did as you suggested and added /home/work to the exclude file and everything works.
I've taken a snapshot, installed it and taken another snapshot successfully so Refracta snapshot/installer works on Dreamlinux.
Thank you for your patience and help
fsmithred

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

Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:16 pm

I just remembered that you don't need to add $work_dir to the excludes file, because the rsync command already has it as --exclude="$work_dir".
Glad to hear it worked out for you, and thanks again for testing and reporting.
dzz

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

Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:55 pm

I had forgotten that..
when you install snapshot as a deb, it now has live-boot and live-config as dependencies. So if they don't exist they would need to be installed anyway before the snapshot deb will install, probably removing the other disto-specific versions in turn and running update-initramfs. That's (I think) what happened with siduction which later gave an error-free snapshot.
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