[PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

32bits · 2025-08-01 09:30:00

the initial title of my thread was:

« the new iso announced at distrowatch in 32 bits is FANTASTIC »

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO THE AUTHOR(S) from GNUinOS for i686!

I was really very impressed by the possibility to remaster the 32 iso under 1 Gb making a normal installation of Debian / Devuan full operable AND able to be upgraded like some kind of Puppy linux (great, no major difference: Puppy linux can NOT be really upgraded! Only packages can be reinstalled ... as far as the compability continue to be good!) able to start live as snapshot ISO image with the refracta tools (THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO THE AUTHOR(S) from refracta and refracta tools!).

why is live start so interesting?

simply because the tracking of you is only possible within the actual session! You can accept all smudge of cookies and forget completely long time tracking: If someone will track you, it has to install a data bank on HIS system, not on YOUR hard disk and this is probably not possible and not interesting...

and this is better to do with a refractasnapshot iso image as in Puppy because Puppy linux requires in a lot of situations to use a saving system (file with file system embedded in it or save dir) and needs probably an separate big file named devx.sfs to bind at running time, so in this case, that each Puppy become a big system... That problem does not appear using a refractasnapshot ISO image. Better: different from Puppy linux, you can include easily in the ISO image a lot of preset values, documents (keyboard charts pictures, old man pages not any more maintened in new Linux versions in you own language for people as I having difficulties to read really fluent English, etc.) and have no supplementary discussions with the OS at booting or logout time (tons of little windows asking that or this)...

Following text is the first text of this message until 2025-08-02 09h00 (without any change) :

I did finish now my own remasterisation for me and write with it now. The Iso is less than 1 Mb!

The original iso includes some giant packages: emacs, atril (need a OWN webkit!!!), etc.

Also Icecat is a big one. Other browsers often use webengine. This is a Google line stuff and I prefer webkit.

So I disd replace all heavy stuff and make a refractasnaphot of it. 996 is the mark!

This is really in the range of iso size usual for Puppy linux and I can use my snapshot out the RAM.

In my /usr/share I save 2 text files to remember what I did do:

- installation

- readme

You will find both in the next answers to this message! I hope it can help some one.

(My English is miserable. Sorry, yes, I did never learn English)

Last edited by 32bits (2025-08-02 08:26:21)

32bits · 2025-08-01 09:31:18

README

In my iso's:
my root login : a simple dot (".")
my user name : a simple f char ("f": it is the key with the little dot on it for the left hand - on the us keyboard etc.)
my user login : a simple dot (".")
- change all that as soon as possible! -

To spare size of iso / occupation of my HD I did remove some (needing) packages
not used frequently packages. As I connect a regular repository,
I can add then on demand!

- at installations time: refractainstaller-gui - this will add gparted
- at writing time: plugins for geany so for hunspell

Working with luakit is very easy!

- open luakit
- enter "B"
- you can now mark your first bookmark!
- hit on that bookmark: you are at the precedent place!
- enter "o" and look at the bottom bar: the invite to enter an url (a short url is enough!) for exemple "lilo.org/search" (a search site with contributive actions! Why not? See pls emmabuntüs.com)
- if you can't enter some text, you are probably not in the "i"nsert mode: enter "i", it helps (the main help for luakit and analog browsers!)
- enter "B" again and mark that CONTRIBUTIVE search engine made in France (but on English too)
- if "i" didn't help, create a new tab:
- enter "STRG t", continue with "o" and enter "inputking.com": you can now input the most languages of the world
- enter "B" again and mark it
- enter "d" to delete also close the actual tab
- if you want to reopen a bookmark, make "gb" (go bookmarks!)
- if you want to go a step back in the history, make "H"

you will also make a bookmark for didiwiki (enter the short url localhost:8000 ) and/or for the cups administration of your printer ( localhost:631 )!

look also at
# info luakit

Hint concerning Luakit: enter your password in the proposed field and after the last char of your password, use the key TAB to enter the real password. Don' t use the mouse to do that (it often works well but not always. TAB works always well!). For French people: it works perfectly also at https://franceinfo.fr also in 32 bits (rare are the other browser doing that!) and it works really good also in the proposed reduced size as well as the commutation reduced/full size!

it's really easy! open and bookmark the discussions forum
open and bookmark google.com because of the ia : the ia search WAYS how to do this or that for you! At Google, you can ACCEPT or REFUSE cookies!

Don't forget to do often

# sudo apt update

I did add following applications having no desktop file at /usr/share/applications :
info as well as aptitude didiwiki (producees txt files in the hidden dir ".didiwiki". Didiwiki it a tiny complet text system with bold, unterlined, italic, title and include of pictures! See the didiwiki help) gocr gpm hunspell mgp (a small presentation for linux starting from command line. In Baslin it was able to make hand drawing with the mouse!)

you have also xcalc xedit xli in the xorg package (xli is as feh!)

I did erase printscreen because it is included in gimp (or mtpaint) as well as all transactions to crop etc the picture. Note: mtpaint is perhaps a bit more easy to use and to save the files in the wished format and size.

See also my text "installation" in /usr/share !

If you will try an other browser, reinstall icecat or install epiphany-browser or qutebrowser-qtwebkit (it's *deb is in /usr/share). I refuse webengine as google stuff!

Last edited by 32bits (2025-08-01 10:43:18)

32bits · 2025-08-01 09:34:26

INSTALLATIONS NOTES:

sudo apt install refractainstaller-base refractainstaller-gui refractasnapshot-base refractasnapshot-gui gpm didiwiki gocr gv hunspell info lame luakit mgp sakura mplayer xli abiword gimagereader gnumeric gnumeric-plugins-extra librecad mhwaveedit nted osmo viewnior xsane

sudo apt remove atril emacs-bin-common emacs-common emacs-el emacs-gtk gparted icecat refractasnapshot-gui simplescreenrecorder
xfce4-terminal mirage xterm

sudo apt autoremove

sudo apt install qutebrowser-qtwebkit # (luakit is better!)

Suggested packages:
qt5-qmltooling-plugins python-jinja2-doc libjs-pdf nodejs
Recommended packages:
geoclue-2.0 python3-babel python3-pygments
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libqt5designer5 libqt5help5 libqt5opengl5 libqt5positioning5 libqt5qml5
libqt5qmlmodels5 libqt5quick5 libqt5quickwidgets5 libqt5sensors5 libqt5sql5
libqt5sql5-sqlite libqt5test5 libqt5webchannel5 libqt5webkit5 libqt5xml5
libyaml-0-2 python3-jinja2 python3-markupsafe python3-pyqt5
python3-pyqt5.qtopengl python3-pyqt5.qtquick python3-pyqt5.qtsql
python3-pyqt5.qtwebkit python3-pyqt5.sip python3-sip python3-yaml
qutebrowser qutebrowser-qtwebkit
0 upgraded, 28 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 25.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 99.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.

Last edited by 32bits (2025-08-01 11:01:57)

32bits · 2025-08-01 09:59:05

how did I proceed?

at first, I did meet a great difficultie: the option "gnuinos installer" in the original new iso didn't work.

ok the live test did start good.

so no problem to see: is GNUinOS what for me :-) ! I was happy ...

all did work immediatelly (excepted that terrible real Debian installer!).

sudo apt update no problem, aptitude is preinstalled, great.

my installation's line above includes 4 parts in one line:
- not preinstalled refracta tools
- some applications for bash only environnement
- some applications to replace some build in being to big (browser, viewer, etc.
- really supplementary applications under the more small at all of their class and function.

after the installation, I did purge or remove the stuff I will replace, what else!

and now?

simply execute a refractainstaller command...

and it did work!

problems?

yes

as "user" in the original don't have some password and no access to real root right (https://exton.se, he also is some kind specialist for small reinstallable iso's often with 2 different installers, one of the two is often the refractainstaller, proceed differently: he gives those rights...) and without login

the start is unfriendly from both: harddisk and from next usb-card!

on the harddisk the desktop never opens on my Dell. but I can interrupt the start as soon I see that the disk does not work any more with STRG ALT F1 and start from bash environment after log in in bash. with startx comes the desktop willing.

it did also happen, that the keyboard didn't answer. but as the mouse works willing in all cases, I did log out and repeat log out in the session manager and restart the session. After that was always the rest also ok.

that is my experience with problems, they are really only little problems... I hope I will find some cleaner solution...

Last edited by 32bits (2025-08-01 10:22:16)

32bits · 2025-08-01 10:58:10

burn he new iso is no problem: if the usb-card did already have some refractasnapshot ISO do nothing else as reuse directly after the snapshot is finish:

open thunar, hit on the 3d icon at the top and you see directly /home/snapshot . Hit on snapshot and mark the iso file. right mouse key, select copy then

# dd if=/home/snapshot/(right mouse key, select paste) of=/dev/sdb status=progress

that happens fast as the iso is so tiny!

if the usb card didn't contain such an iso image of a os, prepare it so:

- open gparted to format the card (you can check and see in gparted if sdb is right in your case! It can varie)
- for that iso (until ab. a little less than 2 Gb in case of other ISO's) format it in: vfat16 ! Yes 16 not 32! (only in case of bigger ISO's select vfat32...)
- mark bootflag (in gparted!) it is important
- unmount /dev/sdb

and continue with dd !

32bits · 2025-08-01 11:04:59

complete your installation with some new /usr/share/applications/*desktop files for nano, xcalc, xedit, alsamixer, or, yes, mtpaint4printscreens ; you will find in Puppy linux some exemples... after that, they appear all in xfce4-appfinder = the desktop menu!

Last edited by 32bits (2025-08-01 11:06:30)

32bits · 2025-08-01 22:20:15

I did try the same experience this evening with the 64 bit version for AMD.

different from the 32 bit version, with it the installation with the GNUinOS installer did work immediately (and the other way I did use in 32 bit starting from the iso live and installing after the installation from refractainstaller out the live started image would not start).

the result is about the same.

but the problems begin after that trying to start the new version as regular snapshot-ISO from the full installed version from Hard Disk (the normal correct way to do that!): it seems impossible to get keyboard or accede to x from usb card. GNUinISO seems to have a special start modus giving on my PC (it is "transformer" Dell Latitude PC with touch screen and keyboard and touch pad and joystick-pin in the middle of the keyboard between G and H) only disturb. As for the 32 bit Snapshot, the new size is 1 GB (probably 10 % more probably because of the full installation) but the snapshot is not usable (I did try to interchange the display manager from LXDM (why lxdm? it is in the last time unusual) to slim adding JWM to avoid the possible problem of xfce4 having to work with some part of lxde but it is not better: In ram only start of the snapshot iso image, x appears but no keyboard or touch screen reaction (the mouse works! it is possible to start app's!)...
sorry...

32bits · 2025-08-01 22:27:32

probably are the problems in 32 bits from the same kind but have only not the same tragic consequence: it seems not to be a matter of rights but only from dysfunction of the input equipment. I will try it again on my other laptops in the next days (to much time invested for today! I am now in the hurry...) having only an usual keyboard and touchpad...

32bits · 2025-08-01 23:54:00

as I can not go to bed with this poor result, I did reinstall once time more from the Original ISO for AMD 64 using the GNUinOS installer (in the AMD version, it works well and fast. But as usual now, grub does not search for other installations...).

after that, I did only
- change in /etc/sudoers
- sudo apt update
- sudo apt install refractasnapshot-base infractasnapshot-gui
- sudo copy /home/snapshot/*.iso /i.iso # this spares time to write the long names ...
- sudo dd if=/i.iso of=/dev/sdb status=progress
and restart with the written 1,2 Gb iso image from snapshot. Nothing more...

and?

select the normal option no. 1
the memory card starts to boot the iso
x try to appear
instead of x
comes now the terrible error message: "unable to load startlxde"

start lxde, of course ... it is the reason of the troubles: we don' t have to do with some lxde but with xfce4 !!!!

I suppose it is exactly the same problem in the i686 iso!

I find it would be better to upload new isos with lightdm or slim and a correct display start...

And it would be better to strip both images and don't to install viewer requiring a full own webkit version, the heavy editor emacs etc ...

As no office is preinstalled user can do that themself.

Note: in icecat are bookmarks present. But no one to devuan, refracta and that forum ;-)

Last edited by 32bits (2025-08-01 23:55:30)

32bits · 2025-08-02 06:42:54

today I did immediately try to help me myself purging the ugly lxdm after the installation of lightdm and this help really, hurrah!

new snapshot
new burning of the iso image on the memory card
2 new starts
- one start with the first option of the snapshot iso
- one start with the option "from RAM" (I am actually in that option! The snapshot did remember all: my login at the forum, the thread in the forum and probably more...)

in both cases enters lightdm in the display without some problem any more
in both cases no connection with the keyboard but the mouse works
in both cases it is possible to logout with the mouse

as the "snapshoted" session is not some session without login it was possible to logout properly and

in both cases it is possible to login a second time as usual

and

in both cases the keyboard works properly after that!

it is not ideal,

but

it now works!

I am happy!

32bits · 2025-08-02 08:17:50

finish (as far I will do it myself).

the new snapshot iso image of the small 64 system exists now and seems to work well (after login out / login in again) with all the stuff named in the precedent message except 2 that I did sacrify for a best iso size:

- mpv (replaced by mplayer-gui as I MUST have mplayer to look at phases of video such a yoga exercice of 2 .. 3 minutes in a video with a global time of 30 minutes: you can write the starting point in a simple text document and start the vew at mplayer in the console exactly at the wished second!)
- librecad (I don't use it daily at all!)

actual size of the 64 bit Refractasnapshot ISO : 1,047 Gb

as GNUinOS is the actual Debian linux stable, it is really very good. Thank you again very much developpers of GNUinOS and Refracta tools. I use it actually out the RAM and use of course Luakit as browser. Also thank you very much to the developpers of Lua, Luakit and Webkit!

Note: if you erase iceape as I do to spare ISO size, don't forget to erase your ~/.mozilla dir! It is perhaps a really big hidden subdir!

Loading time of the new ISO (1,047 Gb) on my PC: 1 minute and 3 seconds! Perfect. You can immediately plug the USB card out if the transfer to the ram is finish (you see it in the boot visualisation) and the USB is now free... The system out the RAM is super fast and discret. Tracking only in the actual session possible. At the next shutdown the RAM forget all what you did do!

32bits · 2025-08-02 08:22:44

Note: the condition of my 32 bits ISO is unchanged as I can't install with the official GNUinOS installer. I suppose it is not a matter of the ugly LXDM but an other system problem concerning the connection of keyboard at booting time. I would need help to re intall with the official GNUinOS installer first and only later to continue with the fantastic Refractasnapshot!

aitor · 2025-08-07 07:27:36

32bits wrote:

probably are the problems in 32 bits from the same kind but have only not the same tragic consequence: it seems not to be a matter of rights but only from dysfunction of the input equipment. I will try it again on my other laptops in the next days (to much time invested for today! I am now in the hurry...) having only an usual keyboard and touchpad...

Gnuinos uses vdev by default. Is the whole xinput equipment listed in /dev/metadata/udev/input file? What init system are you using?

aitor · 2025-08-07 07:42:06

32bits wrote:

different from the 32 bit version, with it the installation with the GNUinOS installer did work immediately (and the other way I did use in 32 bit starting from the iso live and installing after the installation from refractainstaller out the live started image would not start).

So, the issue related to the 32bit installer happens with your refracta snapshot of gnuinos?

32bits · Yesterday 19:35:04

Hi aitos and thank you for your interest for my problems. Excuse me please: I was not connected 2 long days along working to help my PC to be performant again. I did do it with Refracta Linux using the nox versions both in 32 and in 64 bits. And I am happy, all seems to work today evening. It seems to be parent with GNUinOS, perhaps is Refracta Linux the base of GNUinOS? I will make a new tread to report on that other experience, and repeat this message in the new thread to introduce the separate discussion.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2025-08-01 09:30:00

[PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#2 2025-08-01 09:31:18

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#3 2025-08-01 09:34:26

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#4 2025-08-01 09:59:05

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#5 2025-08-01 10:58:10

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#6 2025-08-01 11:04:59

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#7 2025-08-01 22:20:15

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#8 2025-08-01 22:27:32

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#9 2025-08-01 23:54:00

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#10 2025-08-02 06:42:54

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#11 2025-08-02 08:17:50

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#12 2025-08-02 08:22:44

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#13 2025-08-07 07:27:36

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#14 2025-08-07 07:42:06

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

#15 Yesterday 19:35:04

Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] start difficulties with the 2 new Isos of GNUinOS

Board footer