#1 2026-01-28 20:40:19

Colonel Panic

Member

Registered: 2018-11-13

Posts: 1,544

The refracta installer and snapshot

Hi everyone,

I've just been using a distro (DebEX) that has refracta-installer as its installer, and I was wondering what people think of it, and was it ever seriously considered as an option for installing Bunsen?

One feature it has is a "tick box" system where you can choose options such as where you want the home directory to go, such as onto a different partition. The ability to choose a separate partition for the /home directory when installing the distro is a feature that Slackware still has but I believe most distros have dropped now; maybe the Red Hat clones still do it.

There's also Refracta Snapshot, which enables a bootable live DVD image to be created from your running system (MX and antiX have something similar, but I've found it to be a bit hit and miss). Is this something that could work for Bunsen?

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2026-01-29 23:49:48)

greenjeans

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 296

Website

Re: The refracta installer and snapshot

Hi, @Colonel Panic, sorry I just now saw this post, but wanted to chime in, i've been using the Refracta-tools for almost 9 years now on a regular basis, and they work great for me. I use modified versions of both in my projects and do testing for the developer sometimes.

DeepDayze

Like sands through an hourglass...

From: In Linux Land

Registered: 2017-05-28

Posts: 1,950

Re: The refracta installer and snapshot

How is Refracta versus Calamares?

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greenjeans

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 296

Website

Re: The refracta installer and snapshot

How is Refracta versus Calamares?

Very different. Been taking about installers as a matter of fact on another forum. Complaints as near as I can tell about the Refracta-installer boils down to two categories:
1. New users of Linux who say it's hard to use/understand.
2. Tech-savvy power users who complain about it's lack of features and UI issues.

In between there's intermediate/advanced users who use it all the time with no issues. Count me in that group, I love it, literal 10 minute install.

It's tiny compared to Calamares.

It just copies the liveCD you're running verbatim to your HD with a user already set up, you just re-name the user and choose passwords, in addition to the usual time/date and keyboard/language stuff.

greenjeans

Member

Registered: 2025-01-18

Posts: 296

Website

Re: The refracta installer and snapshot

I think adding the Refracta-Snapshot app to BL would be an awesome addition, I love seeing user re-spins of various distros, have seen a lot of really clever work from such over the years.