Exton|Defender SRS  (Super Rescue System) is a Linux system available as a Live System based on Fedora 41, 64bit. Fedora 41 was released on October 29, 2024. Exton|Defender is for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. Exton|Defender aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the hard disk partitions. It comes with a lot of Linux software such as system tools and basic tools (editors, Midnight Commander, network tools). Exton|Defender can, however, also be used as a normal Linux Desktop System. It requires no hard drive installation, but can easily be installed to hard drive if you want. Desktop environments: Special versions of Gnome 47 and Cinnamon 6.2 developed by Fedora.

NEWS 241210 ABOUT Exton|Defender BASED ON Fedora 41
I have discovered a way to run Exton|Defender fc41 from RAM also when starting Exton|Defender in UEFI mode. The previous Exton|Defender fc40 version could only run from RAM if it started up in Legacy mode. So my advice is to run this version SUPER FAST from RAM! The best way to run a Linux Live System! When Exton|Defender has booted up you can remove/eject the USB stick or the DVD. NOTE ALSO: In version 241210 I’ve managed to change Refracta Installer and Refracta Snapshot to GUI (Graphical User Interface) apps! They are therefore even easier to handle now! IMPORTANT NOTE: On some computers Exton|Defender still can’t run from RAM in UEFI mode. Only in Legacy mode. I don’t know why. Sort of a mystery.

Calamares Installer
I’ve finally found a way to install Calamares Installer in Exton|Defender and make it work. The Calamares version found in Fedora 41 repositories doesn’t work. I had to install Calamares version 3.3.5-4.fc42 from Fedora Rawhide’s repositories. After a hard drive installation using Calamares it will be gone (uninstalled). If you want to build your own Fedora 41 ISO using Refracta Snapshot you’ll have to reinstall Calamares. That is if you want to use Calamares in your build. Normally that is done with the command sudo dnf install calamares, but as I said Calamares from Fedora 41 repositories doesn’t work. Therefore you will have to copy the Calamares files from Exton|Defender fc41 to your installed Fedora 41 system. Example commands:
1) sudo cp -Rp /usr/lib64/calamares /mnt/sda4/usr/lib64
2) sudo cp /usr/bin/calamares /mnt/sda4/usr/bin
3) sudo cp /usr/share/calmares /mnt/sda4/usr/share

Installing Exton|Defender fc41 to a USB stick and achieve persistence
You can install Exton|Defender Build 241210 to a USB stick with persistence! I.e. all your system changes will be saved directly on the USB stick. Even big system upgrades! That will make it unnecessary to install Exton|Defender to hard drive (which can be a bit tricky). Just run the System from a big enough USB stick and be happy! Do it like this:
1. Use Rufus 4.6 for the installation.
2. Set a Persistent partition size of about 3GB before you start the installation. Watch this screenshot…
3. Run Exton|Defender from your created USB stick. Be sure boot up the System in Legacy mode. You can run the System also in UEFI mode, but unfortunately persistence won’t be enabled then.
4. Test run Exton|Defender and change some things. For example new bookmarks in Firefox. Reboot!
5. You changes should be left if you have done what I said above. Now you can upgrade the whole system with sudo dnf upgrade. Watch this screenshot…
6. Finally you can make a new ISO (your own) if you want. Be sure to change /etc/refractasnapshot.conf first. You must see to that the new ISO file and the work environment will be created on another partition. Watch this screenshot…
7. Start Refracta Snapshot. Follow the instructions. After a few minutes your ISO will be ready.

Watch this screenshot… Exton|Defender Boot Screen when booting in Legacy mode from a USB stick



MORE NEWS 241210 ABOUT Exton|Defender (Fedora 41)
This new version uses the Cinnamon 6.2 and Gnome 47 Desktop Environments. Log in to the Desktop environment you prefer. Study all other installed packages.
MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE: I’ve finally managed to install Refracta Snapshot in Exton|Defender, which means that you can create your own Fedora 41 System! I mean change everything to your liking and then create a new ISO.
NOTE1: For Refracta Snapshot to work you have to run “my” kernel 6.12.1-amd64-exton when Refracta Snapshot is running. (It won’t work with Fedora’s kernel 6.11.10-300.fc41).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Actually you can run Fedora’s original kernel 6.11.10-300.fc41 and still use Refracta Snapshot. Just don’t uninstall/remove “my” kernel 6.12.1-amd64-exton before running Refracta Snapshot. And don’t remove the links /vmlinuz and /initrd.img to my kernel. Your new ISO will then be created without problems. When running your new ISO live (i.e. from a USB stick/DVD or in VirtualBox/VMware) my kernel will be used. If you install your new Fedora/Exton|Defender System to hard drive Fedora’s kernel 6.11.10-300.fc41 will be used.
NOTE2: Version 241210 of Exton|Defender can run on really old computers. As an example I could run it on my 17 years old laptop Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi.

ABOUT the Cinnamon Desktop Environment
Cinnamon is a free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like operating systems, deriving from GNOME 3 but following traditional desktop metaphor conventions.
Read more about Cinnamon. And a review of Cinnamon 6.2.

ABOUT the Gnome 47 Desktop Environment
Read about GNOME 47 (Denver)…

System Tools included
NTFS-3g, GParted, Shred, Sfdisk (util-linux-ng), Rsync, Ddrescue, FSArchiver, TestDisk and Midnight Commander. Other programs (among many others): NetworkManager, Firefox, Parole Media Player, Samba, Java and Java Runtime Environment (JRE), Emacs, Safecopy, kernel headers and many compilation tools. Exton|Defender uses kernel 6.12.1-amd64-exton when running LIVE. After a hard drive installation Fedora’s original kernel 6.11.10-300.fc41 can be used (as an alternative).

Study all installed packages…

About Fedora
Please read this overview.

Passwords and LOGIN
The password for liveuser is live. The password for root is root. If you (for some reason) want to run Exton|Defender as root you can do so. Log in as “Other”/root from GDM’s Login Site. You can choose if you want to log in to the Cinnamon DE or Gnome. Default DE is Cinnamon. 

Default language
The default language (locale) is set to English.

Sudo
Ubuntu/Debian/Mint and many other so-called beginner distributions (and other Linux systems) use Sudo to do something that requires root (superuser) privileges. There really is no need for a root password. “Examples of Command”: sudo mkdir /usr/MyFiles. Read HERE about how Sudo works.

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. Watch a screenshot when DnfDragora is running…
NOTE: Don’t install Deepin. It doesn’t work in Fedora at the moment. 

Running Exton|Defender from a USB stick
It works very well. You can (of course) install new packages. For that you can use the command line (example: sudo dnf install gimp) or DnfDragora (“a dnf frontend”). Watch a screenshot when DnfDragora is running. Since persistence now can be enabled if you use Rufus for the installation (see my INSTRUCTION) most everything can be done while running Exton|Defender from a USB stick.

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 is running it will look like this.

INSTALL Exton|Defender to HARD DRIVE using Refracta Installer
You can also use Refracta Installer preferable in VirtualBox. Using Refracta Installer is the best way to install to hard drive if you want an exact copy of Exton|Defender, which you later on can change to your liking. You don’t have to reinstall Calamares then – se above. See below about how to use Refracta Installer in VirtualBox: 1. Create the install partition with the ext4 filesystem and a SWAP partition in advance. 2. Start Refracta Installer from the menu 3. Follow the instructions. Be sure to choose an ext4 partition 4. Refrain from installing Grub2 even if you need Grub as boot loader – watch this screenshot… 5. Chroot and install Grub2 (if you need it) – watch this screenshot… Note that the file chroot-update-grub2-fedora.txt is in /home/liveuser and /root. Just copy and paste from there.

About using Anaconda Installer
You can also use Anaconda in Exton|Defender fc41. Anaconda is Fedora’s default installer. Using it you will get a standard Fedora 42 (Rawhide) installation to which you can add the packages you prefer. Nothing will be left of Exton|Defender fc41. Start Anaconda from a terminal with this command: sudo anaconda ‐‐noselinux ‐‐graphical
Watch a screenshot showing what you can do when the installation is ready and you have rebooted you computer. As you can see the repositories have suddenly changed to Fedora Rawhide!?

INSTALL Exton|Defender to a USB STICK
Use Rufus in Windows. About persistence read my INSTRUCTION!

Wireless connections
NetworkManager makes it easy to configure wireless connections. Give your WEP/WAP password and connect. That’s it! You ll find the NM-applet to the right in the panel.

SAMBA
As regards Exton|Defender version 241210 you can use PCManFM (file manager) to connect to your Windows computers in your Home Network.

About running Exton|Defender in VirtualBox, VMware or Qemu
You can run Exton|Defender very well in full screen in all three virtualizers. To get perfect sound quality you may have to install some extra media codecs though. Use DnfDragora for that. Watch a screenshot when DnfDragora is running.
NOTE: In Build 241210 all extra multimedia codecs are pre-installed.

Using Refracta Snapshot
As I said above you can create your own Fedora 41 System once you have installed Exton|Defender to hard drive. That can (of course) also be done in VirtualBox. Do it like this:
1. Be sure to run “my” kernel 6.12.1-amd64-exton. Refracta Snapshot won’t work with Fedora’s original kernel. IMPORTANT NOTE: Actually you can run Fedora’s original kernel 6.11.10-300.fc41 and still use Refracta Snapshot. Just don’t uninstall/remove “my” kernel 6.12.1-amd64-exton before running Refracta Snapshot. And don’t remove the links /vmlinuz and /initrd.img to my kernel. Your new ISO will then be created without problems. When running your new ISO live (i.e. from a USB stick/DVD or in VirtualBox/VMware) my kernel will be used. If you install your new Fedora/Exton|Defender System to hard drive Fedora’s kernel 6.11.10-300.fc41 can be used as an alternative.
2. Change everything to your liking. I.e. install/remove software, change wallpapers etc…
3. Open up Refracta Snapshot
4. Follow the instructions – watch this screenshot…
5. Sit back and relax. Your new ISO will be ready in a few minutes. You’ll find it in /home/snapshot. You can also use Refracta Snapshot while running Exton|Defender from a USB stick – see above!

SCREENSHOTS
Screenshot 1 – Exton|Defender running in full screen in VirtualBox
Screenshot 2 – Running Calamares
Screenshot 3 – Gnome 47 DE is used in VMware
Screenshot 4 – After an installation using Anaconda Installer in VMware
Screenshot 5 – Running YouTube logged in to the Cinnamon DE – excellent video quality!




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 the Exton|Defender version 241210 (Fedora 41) ISO file of 2660 MB

Contact

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