I installed openrc in ascii today after I got the deb packages from Svante. I see you already uploaded them. I did, too - http://distro.ibiblio.org/refracta/files/openrc/
(I'll use your links below, but if those don't work for someone, they can replace them with the ibiblio address)

Here's what I did, in a nutshell:

Add to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/devuan ascii-proposed  main

Download debs:

for amd64

wget https://www.croatiafidelis.hr/foss/Devuan-OpenRC/libfdisk1_2.29.2-1+devuan1_amd64.deb
wget https://www.croatiafidelis.hr/foss/Devuan-OpenRC/util-linux_2.29.2-1+devuan1_amd64.deb

for i386

wget https://www.croatiafidelis.hr/foss/Devuan-OpenRC/libfdisk1_2.29.2-1+devuan1_i386.deb
wget https://www.croatiafidelis.hr/foss/Devuan-OpenRC/util-linux_2.29.2-1+devuan1_i386.deb

Run these commands in the following order.

apt-get update
apt-get -t ascii-proposed install sysvinit-core
dpkg -i libfdisk1_2.29.2-1+devuan1_amd64.deb
apt-get -t ascii-proposed download sysvinit-utils
dpkg -i sysvinit-utils_2.88dsf-59.9+devuan2_amd64.deb util-linux_2.29.2-1+devuan1_amd64.deb
apt-get -t ascii-proposed install initscripts
apt-get install openrc

When openrc is finished installing, you will get the warning that's a couple of posts above this. You have to run a long command before rebooting. Do yourself a favor and use an x- terminal rather than plain console, so you can copy/paste.

Here's a live iso with openbox, eudev and openrc (amd64 only):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/refracta/file … 3_2222.iso
login/password  root/root and user/user

To use an existing swap partition with a live iso, press TAB at the boot menu and add the word "swap" to the boot command. Live-boot will find and use any swap partitions. (Don't recall if it uses all that it finds or just the first one it finds.)

I'll take the easy ones...

Q1: You won't get chromium  v.60 in jessie because it's not there. 57 is in jessie and jessie-security. In fact, you won't get 60 in ascii or stretch, either. It's 59 there. Chromium-60 is in ceres/sid. I don't see any chromium in jessie-backports. (Note: I hope your "stretch-backports" is a typo. Don't use debian repos in your sources.)

Q3: The link works fine here. Maybe you tried to access it yesterday during forum maintenance. It's a thread about problems upgrading to chromium 56 or 57, back in March. Probably not relevant.

The following is for informational purposes. If you can get output that looks like this, you are in deep trouble. Don't use debian repos in your sources. (If I ever do an upgrade without fixing my sources first, I'm screwed.)

apt-cache policy chromium
chromium:
  Installed: 57.0.2987.98-1~deb8u1
  Candidate: 57.0.2987.98-1~deb8u1
  Version table:
     60.0.3112.78-1 0
         10 http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/ buster/main amd64 Packages
         10 http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/ sid/main amd64 Packages
        100 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ ceres/main amd64 Packages
     59.0.3071.86-1 0
         10 http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/ stretch/main amd64 Packages
        100 http://us.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ ascii/main amd64 Packages
 *** 57.0.2987.98-1~deb8u1 0
        500 http://us.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Yes, ascii is next and coming soon.

@greenjeans:

You asked in irc about the differences between refractainstaller 9.2.1 and 9.2.2. Changes are mostly related to the uefi installer.

One other change is that if you try to run the bios installer in a uefi environment, it complains and exits. (If you need to change this, you can comment out one line in the script)

What happens if you just remove pulseaudio? Will you lose anything?

I have an old dell laptop with jessie installed. No pulseaudio, no xfce4-volumed. I use volumeicon-alsa to control the volume, and it has the same XF86Audio settings as your amixer. I can change the volume with the buttons and the indicator is visible on screen.

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/