ABOUT Exton|Defender Build 241208
Exton|Defender, based on Fedora Rawhide (upcoming Fedora 42), 64 bit, is an extra version built mainly because I finally found a way to install Calamares Installer in Fedora and make it work. This build is not really a “Defender SRS” system. You can, however, install all the rescue tools you may need also when running this version live. (I.e. from a USB stick or a DVD). The ISO file is off only 1400 MB, which means that you should be able to run the system in RAM also on older computers. Fedora 41 was released in a stable version on October 29, 2024. So Exton|Defender fc42 (being based on upcoming Fedora 42) should be very “unstable”. I have, however, not noticed anything special. I.e. programs won’t crash or anything like that.

REFRACTA SNAPSHOT
You can create your own Fedora 42 system using Refracta Snapshot, which is pre-installed. I.e. change everything to your liking and then create a new ISO. That can be done after a hard drive installation. If you have plenty of RAM it is also possible to create a new ISO while running Exton|Defender fc42 live. NOTE: For Refracta Snapshot to work you will need to run “my” kernel 6.12.1-amd64-exton. It won’t work with Fedora’s original kernel. Actually you can run another kernel when starting Refracta Snapshot, but you must keep the links /vmlinuz and /initrd.img pointing to my kernel.
NOTE: When you start up Refracta Snapshot you will get a message saying that your ISO won’t boot on UEFI computers. Don’t worry. I’ve arranged so that it will.

Study all installed packages in Exton|Defender Build 241208…

CALAMARES INSTALLER
Calamares is very simple to use. Just start it from the menu and follow the instructions. If you are installing Exton|Defender on a UEFI computer you should read my general install instructions in advance. If you want to make your own Fedora distro (with Refracta Snapshot) you should install Exton|Defender on a partition of about 30 GB and use a SWAP space of about 2 GB. Do not create special home or boot partitions. When Calamares starts it will look like this. If you want to use Calamares in your own distro you’ll have to reinstall it. That is done with the command sudo dnf install calamares. Watch this screenshot. If you want an exact copy of Exton|Defender fc42 you should use Refracta Installer (pre-installed). Preferably in VirtualBox/VMware or if you already have one Linux system installed on you computer and use Grub as boot loader. No need to reinstall Calamares then.

LOGIN
Log in to the LXQt 2.0 Desktop as the normal user liveuser with password live. You cannot log in as root from SDDM. The password for root is root. Normally you don’t need it since you can use Sudo to become root, but certain programs may ask for the root password.

DNF – Fedora Package Management
DNF is a software package manager that installs, updates, and removes packages on RPM-based Linux distributions. Used by Fedora. Basically you’ll only need two commands: dnf upgrade and dnf install MyGreatProgram. Read more about DNF. You can also use the Package Manager DnfDragora, which is pre-installed. It can be compared with Debian’s Synaptic.

THE IMPORTANCE OF Exton|Defender Build 241208 being based on UPCOMING fc 42
Programs won’t “crash” or anything like that. And I haven’t noticed any “bugs”. That said you should of course be a bit careful. Version 241208 of Exton|Defender is for people who like to use “cutting-edge” software and the latest kernels etc. You will always have the latest Linux/Fedora software installed if you regularly run the command sudo dnf upgrade.

SCREENSHOTS
1. Calamares is starting
2. Calamares is ready
3. The liveuser Desktop
4. Showing a Samba connection
5. Calamares is reinstalled
6. Showing the SDDM site

DOWNLOAD

Exton|Defender can be downloaded from SourceForge.net – Fast, secure and free downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory

md5sum for exton-defender-fc42-64bit-lxqt-calamares-refractasnapshot-1400mb-241208.iso