The only thing I have not been able to do yet is to change the keyboard layout. I ran dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration and the /etc/default/keyboard file now reflects the chosen options. However, the keyboard layout only changed after adding the layout manager to the panel and selecting a different layout from there. This gets reset after logout, so I am trying to find a way to change it system-wide.

UPDATE: since setxkbmap only changes the layout for the current session, I created a configuration file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d in order to get X to grab the desired layout at startup. This (expectedly) also changes the keyboard layout for the user password prompt.

A follow-up from a previous discussion, I have noticed that ntpdate-debian works while ntpdate returns ntpdig: no eligible servers. I did not have time to experiment further with ntpdate yet, but I was thinking it may be related to running in a VM. I just run ntpdate-debian instead if needed.

UPDATE: ntpdate does not use config files, so it needs a server as argument: ntpdate pool.ntp.org works.

FURTHER UPDATE: the date/time does not need to be set manually on the 2026.09.11 images. Thank you Aitor!

A minor glitch that I forgot to mention earlier, clicking on the directory menu in the panel right after install currently brings a popup with the following content:

This is of course easily fixed by removing Directory Menu from the panel and adding it again.

Upgrade snetaid again

would not be able to achieve it ~ tried the expoert mode twice , once with 3 options clicked; second time with not additional options;
the install would seem to go through flawlessly, but apparently somehting went wrong, since could net effectuate basic operations like "sudo ifup" "sudo ifdown" "dhclient" etc. so second time i checked and there was maybe just 50 mb for the whole disc occupied;
~ tried to install packages then from with sources #usb-stick - but that would  fail miserably;
since have again used the normal text-installer to install distro anew and with the psmouse trick it would now function;

have noticed that the laptop could also have trouble with wake from "lock screen" - maybe the system is as whole a bit too advanced for the older laptop and might have more stable system with plain devuan ~ but i'd be glad to test some more since i really like the system, it is very responsive, thanks.

i get no wired-connection (disconnected) , maybe did something wrong

Upgrade snetaid again

psmouse should be loaded by vdev-modprobe.sh early on during boot, as it scans the input and serial subsystems, amongst others. I haven’t experienced any problems with the touchpad on my laptops. Perhaps that particular machine requires a 2nd vdev-modprobe.sh pass later on. I’ll add a 2nd run in the next vdev build.

I recommend you to upgrade the whole system allowing all the changes in /etc/init.d/

I did just that, and all went well. Now gparted is indeed launching as expected. 👍

NB: possibly related to the choice of encoding during the upgrade process, the console is currently not accepting diacritics (and other symbols like square and cube). They are not available in the terminal emulator, and a decryption passphrase with diacritics will be rejected at reboot time.

EDIT: the encoding issue can easily be fixed by running dpkg-reconfigure locales. It was caused by me not selecting UTF-8 but some fancy encoding during console-setup configuration.

would like to thank for this distro, it seems a very promising.
like on first contact.

if you dont mind please the following "bugreport" on tried and tested laptop T420.

1. used latest excalibur with xfce4 iso
2. text install (not-expert)
3. install and first-boot-fine - xfce4 asking for (desktop-icon-layout) upon entrie into GUI
4. installing updates - after updates reboot -
5. unfortunately after reboot the touchpad and pointing stick no longer respond.
(maybe you can see the error from screenshot)

tried also with expoert - install - it seems function, but then i get no wired-connection (disconnected) , maybe did something wrong.

screenshot gallery

https://ibb.co/k25MW6QJ
https://ibb.co/99Hpqxvv
https://ibb.co/WNfXqGcX
https://ibb.co/qYVyNKJV
https://ibb.co/zH2ktk5r
https://ibb.co/ynQgd295

edit> with LXDE the same happen, maybe it is only peculiar to the laptop, however, upon first boot *befor upgrade the touchpad-pointing stick function<
noticed there is error msg upon booting like @failed to create CE channel -22

edit2> seemto have found solution here https://computingforgeeks.com/fix-touch … ues-linux/

sudo modprobe -r psmouse && sudo modprobe psmouse

brings touchpad&point stick back,  to make permanent, edit

/etc/rc.local

and add

# cat /var/log/rc.log

I'm doing the same with runit right now, i.e. migrating the initscripts to pure runit. And I'm planing to build a dh-s6 in order to provide a genuen image with Skarnet's s6 process supervision and initialization suite in the near future as well.

As always, thank you for your great help

Running pkexec --disable-internal-agent '/usr/sbin/gparted' gives the following output after entering password in the GUI prompt:

vdevadm control: /run/udev/control: No such file or directory

So I tried on older ISO images, through the main menu and from a terminal, and gparted is indeed failing silently in all cases, with admin privileges. Other than that, the 2026.08.04 image is running fast and smooth, and synaptic is starting as expected.

I added xfce-polkit to the iso image.

Thank you! This is now a perfect fit.

The lxde version also rocks out of the box. You have created the perfect dilemma for genuen users.

una pregunta saldra la version de lxde de genuen?

Ya está disponible.

The only addition I am currently making to the installed system is lxpolkit

I added xfce-polkit to the iso image.