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fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,427  

Re: Refracta-SnapShot - Question

oui,
live-config live-config-systemd live-boot and live-boot-initramfstools should all be installable in ubuntu. Try installing those first.

If it's a really old ubuntu, replace live-config-systemd with live-config-upstart.

oui

Member

Registered: 2017-09-02

Posts: 303  

Re: Refracta-SnapShot - Question

Thank you very much fsmithred.
As I actually have no success with Devuan / derivatives of , I test again old Ubuntu's. Why? I have a second reason, not my problems, but those of my wife! She use the old laptop of our step daughter, an old Apple Macbook (our son and his wife are doctors of medicine and those people often prefer Apple...), the last one she did have as a student (about 10 y. ago), and we have problems here. And not Devuan, not Devuan are known to be really installable on Macbook but Ubuntu 2016LTS (at that time did our son bring the Macbook with 3 CD's: one package from Apple, the initial system. one from Ubuntu 16 LTS and one from Suse).

And, I see: In Ubuntu 16 LTS for AMD64, there is no «live-config-upstart»

from apt-search live-config:

live-config/xenial,xenial 3.0.23-1+deb8u1 all
  Live System Configuration Scripts

live-config-doc/xenial,xenial 3.0.23-1+deb8u1 all
  Live System Configuration Scripts (documentation)

live-config-sysvinit/xenial,xenial 3.0.23-1+deb8u1 all
  Live System Configuration Scripts (sysvinit backend)

but it seems to be difficult to find a ".deb" for Ubuntu 2016 LTS AMD64.

And I will be prudent using other: I did have A LOT of successles experiment in the last times with live-config ending with errors no reparable.

pcalvert

Member

Registered: 2017-05-15

Posts: 195  

Re: Refracta-SnapShot - Question

How flexible are the Refracta tools? If I were to successfully install them (and their dependencies) on a non-Debian distro, like Alpine Linux, is there a reasonable chance that they would work?

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fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,427  

Re: Refracta-SnapShot - Question

The issue with handling initramfs with microcode is fixed in refractasnapshot 10.4.0 in excalibur/ceres. You can download it here if you want to install it in daedalus or chimaera:i
https://pkgmaster.devuan.org/devuan/poo … shot-base/
https://pkgmaster.devuan.org/devuan/poo … pshot-gui/

@pcalvert: The refracta tools rely on live-boot and live-config, which are debian-based packages. You might need to cobble some stuff into place manually to get it to work. Look at the other dependencies to see if alpine uses the same package names. (Does alpine use apt?)

odie2

Member

Registered: 2024-02-28

Posts: 1  

Re: Refracta-SnapShot - Question

Dear fsmithred, The new [/bin/refractasnapshot-gui] version 10.4.0 does not solve my problem.

Problem:
"Compression error for type [cpio archive]" when extracting initrd.img-6.5.0-26-generic.

Investigation:
1. [xed /var/log/refractasnapshot.log]:

<i> Replace "xed" with your favorite editor.

++ file -L /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-26-generic
++ egrep -o 'Zstandard compressed|gzip compressed|XZ compressed|cpio archive'
+ initrd_compression='cpio archive'
+ '[' '!' 'cpio archive' ']'
+ popd
+ '[' 'cpio archive' == 'Zstandard compressed' ']'
+ '[' 'cpio archive' == 'gzip compressed' ']'
+ '[' 'cpio archive' == 'XZ compressed' ']'
+ popd
+ echo 'Initrd is extracted'
+ edit_initrd
+ pushd /tmp/extracted
+ '[' -f conf/conf.d/cryptroot ']'
+ '[' -f cryptroot/crypttab ']'
+ '[' -f conf/conf.d/resume ']'
+ '[' -f conf/conf.d/zz-resume-auto ']'
+ popd
+ rebuild_initrd
+ pushd /tmp/extracted
+ '[' 'cpio archive' == 'gzip compressed' ']'
+ '[' 'cpio archive' == 'XZ compressed' ']'
+ '[' 'cpio archive' == 'Zstandard compressed' ']'
+ echo 'Compression error for type [cpio archive]...'
+ exit 1

2. The command [file -L /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-26-generic] returns "ASCII cpio archive (SVR4 with no CRC)". This information is flaw.

Cause:
Linux Mint 21.3 uses an initrd.img file of type "initramfs" as of kernel version 5.15.0-94, and cannot be extracted/rebuilded using the cpio command.

Solution:
Use unmkinitramfs to extract- and mkinitramfs to rebuild the initrd file.

(tested on kernel: vmlinuz-6.5.0-26-generic, initrd: initrd.img-6.5.0-26-generic, distro: Linux Mint 21.3, desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4, base: Ubuntu 22.04)

> [sudo xed /bin/refractasnapshot-gui]
> search for: "extract_initrd ()"

> replace:
from: extract_initrd () {
to:    }
with:

extract_initrd () {
# Customized {FillInCurrentDateTime} by {FillInYourName} 

    rm -rf /tmp/extracted
 	mkdir /tmp/extracted
	pushd /tmp/extracted	
    
    unmkinitramfs "$initrd_image" "/tmp/extracted"
    
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then 
        echo "SUCCESS: unmkinitramfs has successfully extracted the original Initrd to /tmp/extracted" 
    else 
        echo "ERROR: unmkinitramfs has failed to extract the original Initrd"
        echo "Script execution terminated"
        rm -rf /tmp/extracted
        exit 1 
    fi
    popd
}

> search for: "rebuild_initrd ()"

> replace:
from: extract_initrd () {
to:    }
with:

rebuild_initrd () {
# Customized {FillInCurrentDateTime} by {FillInYourName}

	pushd /tmp/extracted
	mkinitramfs -c gzip -o ${work_dir}/iso/live/${initrd_image##*/}

    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then 
        echo "SUCCESS: mkinitramfs has successfully rebuilded the custom Initrd" 
    else 
        echo "ERROR: mkinitramfs has failed to rebuild the custom Initrd"
        echo "Script execution terminated"
        rm -rf /tmp/extracted
        exit 1 
    fi
    popd
	rm -rf /tmp/extracted
}

Note that the container is compressed using the gzip format. I guess this solution can also help Ubuntu users.

Nonetheless, still very happy using Refracta Snapshot!