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fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,432  

New Refracta ISOs

I uploaded new isos based on Devuan Daedalus. I haven't decided if these are final, so this is not an official release announcement.

refracta_12 (daedalus) xfce and no-X isos:
https://get.refracta.org/files/daedalus/
The no-X isos are incidentally also no-dbus.

I also made an i386 build with a lightweight lxqt desktop for my ASUS-EEE netbook. It previously had refracta-jessie with xfce, but daedalus with xfce is too much of a resource hog. It was using somewhere around 400MB just to bring up the desktop. The netbook only has 2GB RAM. A full lxqt desktop uses around 360MB. Still too much. So I was selective with the packages, and this one uses around 210MB for the desktop. NOTE: I did not consider disk space when I built this. My EEE has a 128GB ssd. The installed system takes up around 3.5GB. It's not really specific to EEE, but I did not include any firmware packages.
https://get.refracta.org/files/experimental/

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 409  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

Maybe try using JWM or IceWM instead of a 'desktop', both are quite lightweight in use, but look like a desktop....

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,432  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

I have used icewm in the past, and there were even some early releases of refracta that had icewm, either as the only graphical ui or in addition to xfce. Some of those were before I had the project. I've tried jwm but never stuck with it. Both of those are very good and give you more than just a window manager.

I tend to use openbox with lxpanel on my non-xfce builds, but even that uses more ram than icewm or jwm. I wanted to try lxqt. Part of the reason for that is to start finding alternatives to gtk for the likely event that it will become too ugly to look at and maybe too difficult to use.

Oh, and I probably should have mentioned that the EEE iso does not have a display manager. The desktop comes up automatically when running live media, but if you install it, you'll have to run startx to get the desktop.

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 409  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

Ah, don't get me wrong, in no way am I criticizing your distro....... I was just putting forward alternatives for your little netbook.....

It would be nice to see a distro using LXQT though....

(P.S. Have downloaded EEE-lxqt & no-dbus to take a look.)

Last edited by Camtaf (2023-09-07 08:48:07)

rhtoras

Member

Registered: 2020-12-25

Posts: 21  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

i am trying again refracta...
one of the better distros out there...
there are no experimental iso's as i see...
i could make something using the tools provided because i like light systems on resources
i also sent a week ago message to distrowatch so they can inform us about refracta news and on various sites
can you please send them too...
i have saved so many people with refracta iso...
only downside is on some cases refracta installer could not work and i had to use devuan net installer

pcalvert

Member

Registered: 2017-05-15

Posts: 195  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

I tried to verify the GPG signature using the procedure that I found here:

https://get.refracta.org/files/beowulf/README.txt

Apparently, some of the info is outdated because this step failed:

$ gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 094c5620

I can't supply the exact error message, but it basically said something like "The server returned no data."

Is there a new procedure for verifying the GPG signature?

---

Freespoke is a new search engine that respects user privacy and does not engage in censorship.
Another one is called Luxxle.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,432  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

The only keyserver I've found to work is keyserver.ubuntu.com - use that instead. I'll update that page.

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 094c5620

If anyone runs into a message saying my key is expired, you need to refresh your keys.

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --refresh-keys

oui

Member

Registered: 2017-09-02

Posts: 303  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

I did install 32 bit today. A very nice version. I am testing now.

After 1th start, I did purge firefox (not possible, old smudge is in), install luakit (partially recognize as "the" browser now but if I hit on some HTML file opens xfce4 not luakit but abiword! the time has probably a winter time error of 1 hour.

I did install hunspell with hunspell files for en US, de CH and fr REV. I did purge geany as geany is never some help for me, is not part of XFCE4 or else as Puppy Linux etc.: I need definitively an editor with spell help and as hunspell was not pre installed I suppose that geany is wrong... And I suppose, that I will make a lot of spelling errors in this short message...

and I have now aggressive message from battery loading tool! Yes, my PC has very old accus but as accus belong to the most smudge things as will not change it!

The last icone FOR the top bar of XFCE4 seems not to be present (shutdown etc.).

oui

Member

Registered: 2017-09-02

Posts: 303  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

lHm ... gedit does not check the spell! I did immediately purge it and install mousepad. Wht is mousepad not the editor as the distro base on XFCE4? In the last of the 4 register of "settings" in mousepad, it is possible to activate spell check. And it seems to work! But, sorry only for English US! Is that possible? Those Linux editors are really totally decadent...

(spelling tested outside of luakit in XFCE4-mousepad... I, a man having never learnd English will try to save the spelling of English against some ones as I am!!!)

oui

Member

Registered: 2017-09-02

Posts: 303  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

oh! I see: the time is in the browser right and in the top bar only wrong...

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,432  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

The package selection was decided years ago by group choice. I try to stick to it as much as possible.

For spell-check in other languages, you probably need to install some other packages. Maybe hunspell-fr or wfrench  or something else. I'm not sure.

To set the system time, run dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Defender

Member

Registered: 2023-11-20

Posts: 2  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

I downloaded and installed your latest Refracta, and just wanted to say I like your software choices. 

I had no problems booting or installing except that grub ignored all of the other OS's on my drive.  I can fix that.  Perhaps it doesn't have os-prober turned on.

Thanks for your efforts as well as those of the Devuan Devs

Ron

Member

Registered: 2018-04-22

Posts: 479  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

I downloaded the "nox" version of Refracta and burned it to a DVD. But I have no idea how to get it to start running. After everything appears to load, I get what looks like a promp, but I don't know what to do at that point. I typed in "user" but that didn't do anything.

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 409  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

Try....

free -m;df -h;ls

That should give you some info output....

Ron

Member

Registered: 2018-04-22

Posts: 479  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

That should give you some info output....

Here's what it shows. Hope it's not too blurry.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,432  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

Looks like it's working correctly. You get automatic login in the live-isos. You picked a nox iso, so there's No X. You can run commands. In the live session you can use sudo for any commands or you can use su to become root. The root password is root and the user password is user in case you need it.

Next you should run mocp and listen to half a minute of Dark Star.

If you want to install it, sudo refractainstaller will work.

Ron

Member

Registered: 2018-04-22

Posts: 479  

Re: New Refracta ISOs

Okay, I think I have a better understanding now. I assumed that "nox" meant only no Xfce.