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aquilarubra

- aquilarubra
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:07 am

## Building refracta amd64

Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:32 am

Hello,
I am trying to build a custom distro based on Debian Sid, and I found Refracta to be the best starting point. It almost fits my needs, except that I want LXDE instead of XFCE and some other custom apps. Also, I want to make an amd64 version.
I'm asking for general advice, since my first 3 attempts have ended in a broken system. I will try again, and if there is some advise in the forum, I can be even more specific about the difficulties I encounter.
First, I ask if there is a script to build Refracta from a Debian install. Indeed, I found a make_refracta dir in the testing iso. But the script seems very basic. Is that really all? The testing iso is only 32bit... so I need to build a 64 bit version anyway.
Issue: The only amd64 version of Refracta has wicd not working. It complains about "lc" being declared too early.
So far, I tried to upgrade Refracta testing to 64 bit. My last attempt was starting from Refracta 64 bit and do a dist-upgrade.
Issue: In every attempt, I end up always with grub-pc problems (uninstaling grub-pc allows to install new kernels). It is just impossible to get grub recognize the new kernel. Usual grub commands seem to have no effect. Removing the old Refracta kernel autoremoves every other installed kernel, leaving the system unbootable. So, I really wonder whether Refracta modifies something in grub that prevents it so see any other kernels (despite it sees my Win partition). I don't think it is a sid problem, because I tried in different months with the 32 bit Refracta too, encountering the same grub issues. I even tried to purge and reinstall all grub related files, and it still kept Refracta settings, hiding the other kernels.
So... how should I proceed? Should I start from a working sid install, should I do a dist-upgrade of Refracta amd64? Of course, I expect in the future to just dist-upgrade... not starting from scratch every time. So I need some clarity why grub is not working properly.
fsmithred

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

## Re: Building refracta amd64

Wed Sep 10, 2014 10:23 am

Which refracta-sid are you using? The one that dzz built, which has all (or most of) the usual applications, or the sparse one from the testing folder? And if you updated/upgraded, are you booting with sysvinit or systemd?
The only changes to grub were the name in etc/default/grub (lsb_release blah replaced with Refracta) and the color in 05_debian_theme (blue replaced with black). I've never had problems installing a different kernel (e.g. from backports), but I haven't done a lot of testing with the sid isos. Check debian bug reports for grub problems.
wicd seems to be working in sid here. Again, I haven't done a lot of testing, and it's been over a week since I've upgraded, so things may have changed. I recall that we had trouble with wicd when wheezy was still in testing.
Don't try to build a 64-bit system from a 32. I don't even know if it's possible to do that. For wheezy, both the 32 and 64 were built from minimal debian installs.
No time now, but I'll look at this some more later on.
aquilarubra

- aquilarubra
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:07 am

## Re: Building refracta amd64

Wed Sep 10, 2014 11:53 am

I used sid-refracted_9Apr-20140509_1436.iso. I successfully dist-upgraded (I had to recreate some missing symlink for X) and I was pretty happy with it. Only, I could not get another kernel shown in grub, despite it installed correctly.
Now I am starting from the amd64 Refracta again. I would like to dist-upgrade that, and continue from there. I will keep you posted if I encounter the same issues again (I suspect I will). That's strange, because I could upgrade from wheezy to sid (amd64) without problems in the past.
fsmithred

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

## Re: Building refracta amd64

Thu Sep 11, 2014 12:43 am

I checked the scripts in /root, and I'm not sure if I used make_refracta.sh or mkrf.sh. They're almost the same, and they were modified slightly from when I built the wheezy version of refracta.
Make sure you look in Advanced Options in the grub boot menu - that's where additional kernels should be listed. If they aren't there, running 'update-grub' should find them.
Running an update/upgrade on the 9Apr sid iso will bring in systemd. If you want to continue using sysvinit, you'll need to install systemd-shim, and you'll need to add the following to the kernel line in the boot entry:

Code:
  `init=/lib/sysvinit/init`

aquilarubra

- aquilarubra
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:07 am

## Re: Building refracta amd64

Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:19 am

So, I had some advancement.
1. I started from the Refracta amd64 version. This time I followed some advices from Siduction. I killed X and just run 2 commands:
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
This time I avoided apt-get upgrade before dist-upgrade and I think this is what messed up things. Everything worked fine and I had a working system.
Only, just to avoid conflicts, I chose all options to overwrite config files with maintainer versions. So, I should have ended up with a Debian system, since also grub was overwritten. Instead... when I booted I found myself with the Refracta screen again. So, there is something more going on there in grub... It was showing Refracta, but I noticed the kernel was now 3.16 and something.
When I purged xfce and installed lxde, something went wrong and I had a broken system. startx did not init correctly and I found myself with a flickering black screen. When I launched manually startx, it started just fine, but I could not fix the black flickering screen on boot. I tried to kill many processes, but the black screen was still there.
2. I decided to build my custom Refracta from scratch, also to avoid unnecessary packages. So I'm using the make_refracta. I am cleaning it a bit, because there are some wrong or missing packages, and adding my packages. So far, I have an up and running system. I still need to update some settings. Grub boots with Debian splash, there is no trace of the Refracta splash and it seems I can add (and it actually sees) new kernels.
aquilarubra

- aquilarubra
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:07 am

## Re: Building refracta amd64

Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:58 am

I have my working Refracta based distro now. It uses Sid, amd64.
The only thing that is *really* annoying is that systemd-sysv became too buggy in the last month. Before, shutdown/reboot/poweroff were working. Now, they bring the system in a perpetual loop. I verified that it is a known but, but strangely I was the first to open a bug report on the Debian site.
Now... how do I get rid of systemd-sysv and with what do I replace it? Any idea? If I remember, Refracta did not upgrade to systemd yet.
fsmithred

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

## Re: Building refracta amd64

Mon Oct 06, 2014 3:02 pm

No, there's no refracta release that uses systemd (yet). That may or may not occur. There are quite a few people working on how to run jessie/sid without systemd. Here's one discussion on this forum -
going-with-the-systemd-flow-or-not-t422.html
And there are several other discussions on the subject at forums.debian.net and debianuserforums.org.
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