Bug reports have been submitted for the live-boot-initramfs-tools problem.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … ug=1010951

The fix is in git.
https://salsa.debian.org/live-team/live … 8678106523

Still waiting for the package to be built with the fix. I really don't want to fork live-boot for this.

If you install the firmware package while running the live iso on usb, it will be in the system memory only, so it won't survive a reboot. If you install the firmware then install the system to hard drive, the firmware will be in the installed system. It's also possible to install the system first, reboot into the installed system and then install the firmware package.

If you want a live-usb with your wifi driver, you need to set up a persistent volume (rw instead of ro) so your changes are saved. I use refracta2usb for that, but there are other ways.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/refracta/files/tools/refracta2usb-2.4.3.deb

If you have to install without network, the desktop dvd (3G) is probably the easiest to deal with. But if the live iso worked, then the right firmware package should also be in the installer isos. What intel hardware is not recognized, and are you sure it's not recognized?

If you stopped at the very beginning because the installer told you that you needed to provide the drivers on a usb stick, then run the installer again and ignore that question and proceed. Hardly anyone needs to do that. (a few broadcom chips)

The next step is to read the section "Install to RAID1" here: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=2323 and decide whether you really want to do it manually with mdadm and refractainstaller or if you would rather use an installer than knows how to set up a RAID without you having to run all the commands yourself. If you choose the latter, you will need to download one of the installer isos and re-image your usb stick.

Note: If I were going to do it manually with mdadm and refractainstaller, I would need to read those instructions I linked. Be aware that I'm the one who wrote those instructions and I'm the one who wrote refractainstaller, and I would still need to re-read the instructions.

I recognize that wording. You're using the live installer (refractainstaller) which does not support RAID. But it is possible to use the cli installer with a RAID1 that you created manually. See the first section of this thread: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=11437#p11437

If you use one of the installer isos instead of a live iso, you'll get the debian/devuan installer which does support RAID installs. That process will be the way Ralph described it, and the installer will look more like the pictures in the install guide that you linked way back at the beginning of this thread.

The error message you got from the live installer is to let you know that you booted in uefi mode but your disk doesn't have a gpt partition table. You could re-partition the disk or you could switch to legacy bios boot and keep the mbr partition table. The installer isos will most likely figure out the right thing to do. The live installer expects you to tell it what to do.

Hm, I thought I already said this, but I don't see it now -
Be sure to dd the iso to the whole device, and not to a partition, for example:

dd if=snapshot.iso of=/dev/sdb   (not of=/dev/sdb1)

If you run the cli version of refractasnapshot (as you did) you can add the '-d' option to get a more verbose error log.

refractasnapshot -d

First thing I would do is check to make sure filesystem.squashfs was created. Mount the usb in a running system and look to make sure /live/filesystem.squashfs is on the usb. Mount the iso file and look for the same. Look in $work_dir/iso/live/ for the same.

Is this legacy bios boot or uefi boot?

ExeGNU uses refractainstaller. (David Hare was a co-author.) By default, the installer formats the partitions you select. You can disable this in the options menu of the graphical installer or in the config file if you are using the cli installer. The option will affect all selected partitions. Installing a bootloader or not will not change this.

If you want to re-use an existing /home partition, you should not select it during the install. Just install to the root partition and edit fstab afterward to mount the old home partition to /home.

You have:

Package: *
Pin:  release o=Devuan, n=chimaera-proposed-updates
Pin-Priority: 100

I have:

Package: *
Pin: release a=chimaera-proposed-updates
Pin-Priority: 100

Check to make sure n= works. I think I changed to a= because that was the only way it worked, but I could be wrong.

Also, using /merged and o=Devuan might mean you won't get proposed updates from Devuan unless you specify proposed-updates, but you will get them from Debian. I'm not sure. You might need to either switch /merged to /devuan or remove the o=Devuan.

Edit: I tested both ways. n=chimaera-proposed-updates is correct, and a=chimaera-proposed-updates does not change the priority.

Wow, that's weird and annoying. Try installing libc6=2.31-13+deb11u5 (with or without the -t...)

Thanks. I removed three obsolete links. I keep forgetting about the ibiblio site because I mainly use the new website, refracta.org. I should probably replace a bunch of links to point to the new site.

Debian will work out all the bugs and everything will be fine. Just like always.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. Any other answer would have turned NSFW.)