If you install refracta tools from the deb packages, do it one of the easy ways. Forget about chasing down the dependencies. (You'll need a network connection or use the dvd as a source of packages for this to work.)

dpkg -i refracta*.deb
apt-get -f install

OR

gdebi refracta*.deb

Miyo probably has mawk installed instead of gawk. I think mawk is the default that gets installed, or maybe that's what you get if you just install the standard utilities. Refractasnapshot and refractainstaller would not work without some version of awk.

skype.com has deb packages that should work on jessie. (They say so.) Looks like 64-bit only. If you're not using pulseaudio and don't want to use it, install apulse first. it's in devuan repos now. (in experimental)

I've used retroshare in the past. I don't know their current state. It uses gpg keys for authentication.

Are there any alternatives that can connect with people who are using skype?

No, there's no /etc/lsb-release file in devuan. You recall correctly - I had to make it myself. Ubuntu does have /etc/lsb-release, and 40lsb runs before 90linux. Devuan does use /etc/os-release, but grub doesn't seem to check for that. (I grepped through all of /usr/lib/os-probes/mounted/ and /usr/lib/linux-boot-probes/ and couldn't find it.)

That bit of code would select for whichever of the two got tested first. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you'd get that name in your grub menu. There are other tests that grub does to figure out which distro you have. And if I remember correctly, there's a reference to black magic somewhere in the comments in the script.

Current Refracta isos have /etc/devuan_version, but grub uses /etc/lsb-release instead, so it shows up as Refracta (or maybe Refracted Devuan). Ubunutu isos have /etc/debian_version, but I'm pretty sure it always shows up as Ubuntu in the grub menu (if you can find it.)

Looks like you need to install debootstrap.

Here's a test iso made from ascii that aitor just uploaded. This one will not boot into a live session, but if you could test the installer and report, it would be helpful. Thanks.

http://gnuinos.org/Gnuinos%20Ascii/

Yes, please post the output of 'lspci'.

I removed the intel-microcode package, upgraded to a newer backports kernel and did a general upgrade, then made a new iso. This one has a normal initrd. If you get a chance, please try it and see if it boots. Thanks.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/refracta/file … 0_1501.iso

Edit: Almost forgot this...

I've been playing with uefi for a year with one laptop, and I've read a few reports of people using uefi and/or using the refracta tools on uefi. If the uefi works according to specifications, it's just weird. And since uefi implementations rarely or never follow specs, it's worse than weird. I'll refrain from swearing; otherwise what would come out would burn the eyes of anyone who read it.

Depends on how you made the live usb. If you used the isohybrid feature (dd or cat the iso to /dev/sdX) then no. It's a read-only system. Any changes you make are lost on reboot. If you set up a persistent volume, then yes you could upgrade the live system, but it really doesn't make sense to do it that way. The persistent volume keeps copies of any files you add or change, so it would end up holding a copy of nearly the entire system.

You really need to install it and upgrade, then make a new live iso. Install to a spare partition, into a virtual machine or even onto another usb stick. Your upgrade procedure is correct. You might need to install the newer kernel manually - if so, look for linux-image-4.9-something. And you can always add the -s option (--simulate) to see what will happen before you really do it.

I don't remember what synaptic does, but you can probably do it all with that.

Oh yeah. I'm not sure of the current status of rsyslog. If it looks like it wants to cause problems, you can install rsyslog from backports (or else replace it with syslog-ng or busybox-syslogd.

Maybe some other problems. It's been a few weeks since I've tried an upgrade to ascii. Be flexible and you'll get there.

If you don't want contrib and non-free enabled during the installation, then choose expert install, and it will ask. If you don't know enough to use expert install, your wireless firmware will be installed automatically, and you will be glad you have it. Especially if you can't do a wired connection.

I don't know if wget is installed or available on a mac, but if it is...

wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/refracta/files/experimental/devuan_jessie_amd64_bpo_desktop-live-20170522_1240.iso

If the download fails at some point, run the command again and  the -c option will make the download continue from where it left off.

Newer versions of mate packaged by Antofox are available here -
http://hezeh.org/the-hezeh-repository/

The plan is for these to be added to the main devuan repository. I don't have an exact timeline, but it shouldn't be too long. This is one of the higher priority tasks right now.

If that doesn't fix it, one workaround is to install pmount and use spacefm to mount/unmount usb drives.

Aha! More to it than I thought about. If you install from the regular installer isos, grub looks in /boot and lists the newest version kernel first. If you install from the live isos (using refractainstaller) it uses the symlinks /vmlinuz and /initrd.img which will be the most recent kernel you installed, regardless of the version. The kernel that gets replaced gets the /vmlinuz.old symlink.