LiveCD web page - xfce choice downloads gnome (SOLVED)

[ruffwoof]

The xfce iso link on the unofficial/non-free Debian LiveCD web page ... downloads a gnome desktop version !!! All of those were updated a month or two back to 8.7.1 ... perhaps no one has noticed as of yet.

[phenest]

Can you confirm that this is the ISO in question:
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unof ... onfree.iso

[dasein]

Post output from:

Code: Select all

md5sum <local-path>debian-live-8.7.1-amd64-xfce-desktop+nonfree.iso

where <local-path> is the directory where you saved the .iso file

[ruffwoof]

I deleted the downloaded file and downloaded from the official (main only, no contrib non-free) version instead and used that. Downloading again now and will have another look. https://gemmei.ftp.acc.umu.se/cdimage/u ... onfree.iso

md5sum of the one I've just downloaded (about to install)

509e148e27ab7ed2182fc79ef170376d debian-live-8.7.1-amd64-xfce-desktop+nonfree.iso

.. will report back later.

Yep ... still the same (posting from it now) .... Gnome.

Maybe its my weird install method (frugal). I clear out a ext partition (sda1 in my case) and then extract all of the /live/filesystem.squashfs content to that

unsquashfs -f -d /mnt/sda1 filesystem.squashfs
I then copy across the /live folder to that partition, except for /live/filesystem.squashfs ... which instead I create a empty version

cd /live (on sda1)
mkdir empty
mksquashfs empty filesystem.squashfs
rmdir empty

I create a mnt/sda1/persistence.conf containing

Code: Select all

/ union

and then boot that installation (using grub4dos that's installed on sda1) using kernel boot parameters of persistence persistence-read-only (note that sda1 has a partition label of 'persistence').

Code: Select all

user@debian:~$ cat /proc/cmdline
boot=live timezone=Europe/London xorg-resolution=1280x768 config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw

grub4dos menu.lst entry of

Code: Select all

title Debian Jessie XFCE Frugal RO - only saves if run flush2disk
find --set-root /menu.lst
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live timezone=Europe/London xorg-resolution=1280x768 config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

Note that I do that sort of install quite often and this is the first time I've encountered a different to expected desktop. I suspect the iso content is wrong ... but it could be some other cause that I am not familiar with. The Official iso installed just fine that exact same way (bringing up xfce desktop).

Bit of a cheat way to install as sda1 is both the boot partition and the installed partition, like a liveCD boot, but installed on HDD ... where the same partition is also the save partition (everything is extracted to that such that filesystem.squashfs becomes redundant). persistence-read-only boot parameter means no changes are saved to disk, only in memory ... so faster to run (writes to ram instead of disk). I add additional functions to that such as install grub which means it can also be booted as though a fully install (handy for applying the likes of kernel updates). I also have a script that can dump the memory based changes up to that point in time to disk ... to make them persistent despite having been booted frugally. Just the way I prefer to run things i.e. I can boot and test things out in a frugal session and doesn't matter if things get screwed up as a reboot 'undoes' all of those changes. Or fully boot to apply updates. Or boot frugally, make some minor change and flush those changes to disk (configuration changes etc.). But mostly (once configured as I like) boot frugally and not bother save (store docs etc on another partition) ... which runs a lot quicker than a fully installed version. When running more intensive programs (video editing etc), I create and activate a temporary swap file in that same partition (so the same partition is in effect a boot, main filesystem, save, and swap partition(s)).

[phenest]

Why are you installing it like that? It has a built in installer of it's own. And when I installed from the unofficial ISO, I got XFCE. And I also installed to a single partition.

I think you should mark this as solved because you're installing via a non-standard method. There's nothing wrong with the ISO at all.

[ruffwoof]

Find set-root was picking/booting up a filesystem.squashfs (gnome version) on another partition. Marked thread Solved.