I can't check that, but I can suggest that you partition the disk manually as gpt using gdisk or gparted. Then when you run the installer, you can select the partitions you created.

If you use gpt with legacy bios boot, you need a special partition, at least 1MB size, with no filesystem on it ("unformatted" in gparted) and with a flag of ef02 (in gdisk) or bios_grub (in gparted).

Unfortunately, if you run your system in a different language, refracta tools will still be in English. Sorry about that.

The two most likely ways to use refracta2usb are the following options:

ISO_!   04   Create Live-USB from unpacked CD image.
This will unpack the iso file and copy some files to a directory that you name on the usb. If the iso file is bootable by both uefi and legacy bios, both of those methods will be copied to the usb. If the iso does not boot uefi, then only the syslinux bootloader will be added.

or

ISO_2    05  Create Live-USB using intact iso and findiso boot option
This will copy the iso file to the usb and use the findiso option from live-boot to locate the .iso file and boot that. The difference is that filesystem.squashfs is not visible like it is in the ISO_1 option. It also make the intact iso file available for easily sharing it with someone.

The directory structure on the USB will be something like the following if you were to use both methods listed above. This multi-boot USB has two live systems on it. Refracta8_amd64 was added to the usb using the ISO_1 option, and jessie-ice was added using the ISO_2 method. Either system will boot on uefi or legacy bios with this setup.

	
	|── boot
	│   └── grub
	│       ├── efiboot.img
	│       ├── font.pf2
	│       ├── grub.cfg
	│       ├── splash.png
	│       └── x86_64-efi
	|── efi
	│   └── boot
	│       └── bootx64.efi
	├── jessie_ice
	│   ├── initrd.img
	│   ├── jessie-ice-template-20170103_1454.iso
	│   └── vmlinuz
	├── refracta8_amd64
	│   ├── live
	│   │   ├── filesystem.squashfs
	│   │   ├── initrd.img
	│   │   ├── memtest
	│   │   ├── vmlinuz
	│   └── pkglist_refracta8_xfce_amd64_rc1-20160923_1334
	│       └── package_list
	└── syslinux
	    ├── live.cfg[c][/c]
	    ├── (other files)

The reason refracta2usb didn't get into the repo is because the package isn't built the official way. Ordinarily, that's just a matter of moving a few things around inside the deb package (and using different tools to build it). The problem is the code itself is a steaming pile of spaghetti, and I am afraid to touch it. It really needs a complete overhaul.

You can find the package here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/refracta/files/tools/

@stopAI
Thanks for the clear and simple instructions. It works! (in daedalus, not in chimaera)

I just installed pipewire-audio and it automatically removed pulseaudio. It did not remove pavucontrol or pulseaudio-utils. Those can coexist, and they they still work.

@aluma

What do you get if you run this?

apt policy network-manager network-manager-gnome network-manager-tde

Seriously,, we got to the fifth post and nobody has yet asked why network-manager got removed?

I'll ask the OP. Why did network-manager get removed? Were there any hints or clues in the output? What is different or non-standard about your install?

FWIW, I just finished upgrading my ceres about five minutes ago, and network-manager and network-manager-gnome are still installed. This is a standard devuan desktop install with xfce, i386, no customizations.

I really don't know what they are talking about. It looks like openrc already provides its own start-stop-daemon.

apt-file list openrc
...
openrc: /lib/rc/sh/start-stop-daemon.sh

Oh wow. It makes sense once I figured out that the list of metapackage names does not contain any metapackage names, and that the list of Descriptions does contain metapackage names.

Good idea. I have a note in the config file that says to make sure all the necessary cryptsetup packages are installed, but I don't list them, and that note is out of sight. Also, cryptsetup-initramfs is a Suggests, not a Recommends, so you still wouldn't have gotten it if you had not excluded Recommends.

As others suggested, start with a minimal install and add what you want. If you exclude Recommends and avoid metapackages like the task-* packages, you will have a better time removing any parts you don't want. That's how I make Refracta isos https://get.refracta.org. I'm pretty sure Exe GNU/linux is also made that way (with Trinity Desktop) and some of the other devuan re-spin distros are lighter than the full task-* experience.

$ apt show task-xfce-desktop
Package: task-xfce-desktop
Version: 3.68+devuan4u1
Priority: optional
Section: tasks
Source: tasksel
Origin: Devuan
Maintainer: Devuan Dev Team <devuan-dev@lists.dyne.org>
Installed-Size: 9,216 B
Depends: tasksel (= 3.68+devuan4u1), task-desktop, xfce4, slim | lightdm
Recommends: xfce4-goodies, xfce4-power-manager, xfce4-terminal, mousepad, default-dbus-session-bus | dbus-session-bus, xsane, parole, quodlibet, atril, tango-icon-theme, network-manager-gnome | connman-gtk | cmst, synaptic, libreoffice-writer, libreoffice-calc, libreoffice-impress, libreoffice-help-en-us, mythes-en-us, hunspell-en-us, hyphen-en-us, system-config-printer, orca, libreoffice-gtk3
Download-Size: 1,308 B
APT-Sources: http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera/main amd64 Packages
Description: Xfce

I don't think there will be any official virtual images. There are a couple you can find by searching the web, but it's not clear who made those images.

For a secure environment, you can just boot a live-iso in a virtual machine. Once you're there, you could also install it to a virtual hard disk and make your own place for testing apps.

Where are you seeing wayland coming in? I just tried a simulated upgrade in a ceres VM that's a couple months behind, and it's not showing up. I also tried a simulated install of mate and it doesn't show up there, either. There are a few libwayland-somethings installed, but I assume they do nothing since I'm running xorg.

For GTK-3, I'm not worrying about it. I'm experimenting with lxqt in anticipation of GTK-4 and -5. (shudder)