Exton|Defender SRS  (Super Rescue System) is a Linux system available as a Live System based on Fedora 42, 64bit. Fedora 42 was released on April 15, 2025. 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 environment: A special version of Cinnamon 6.4.1 developed by Fedora.

NEWS 241210 ABOUT Exton|Defender BASED ON Fedora 42
I have discovered a way to run Exton|Defender fc42 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 251026 I’ve managed to change Refracta Snapshot to a GUI (Graphical User Interface) app! It is therefore even easier to handle Refracta Snapshot 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. After a hard drive installation using Calamares it will be gone (uninstalled). If you want to build your own Fedora 42 ISO using Refracta Snapshot you’ll have to reinstall Calamares. That is if you want to use Calamares in your build. That is done with the command sudo dnf install calamares. The settings of Calamares is in /etc/calamares. That folder won’t be uninstalled.

Installing Exton|Defender fc42 to a USB stick and achieve persistence
You can install Exton|Defender Build 251026 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 4.7 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. Ignore the message about UEFI. After a few minutes your ISO will be ready. Exton|Defender Boot Screen when booting in Legacy mode from a USB stick – see below.

 
MORE NEWS 251026 ABOUT Exton|Defender (Fedora 42)
This new version uses the Cinnamon 6.4.1 Desktop Environment. 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 42 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 6.17.4-amd64-exton when Refracta Snapshot is running. (It won’t work with Fedora’s kernel 6.17.4-200.fc42).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Actually you can run Fedora’s original kernel 6.17.4-200.fc42 and still use Refracta Snapshot. Just don’t uninstall/remove “my” kernel 6.17.4-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 6.17.4-200.fc42 will be used.
NOTE2: Version 251026 of Exton|Defender can run on really old computers. As an example I could run it on my 19 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 6.4.

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 6.17.4-amd64-exton when running LIVE. After a hard drive installation Fedora’s original kernel 6.17.4-200.fc42.x86_64 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 Super User from GDM’s Login Site. 

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 install a Package Manager called DnfDragora, which isn’t pre-installed. It can be compared with Debian’s Synaptic. At the moment DnfDragora doesn’t work so good in Fedora 42. I don’t know why.
NOTE: Don’t install Deepin. It doesn’t work in Fedora at the moment. If you would like to install an extra Desktop Environment I can recommend Budgie Desktop. Watch a screenshot when I have installed Budgie running from a persistent USB stick made the way I describe above under “Installing Exton|Defender fc42 to a USB stick and achieve persistence”.

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 distribution (with Refracta Snapshot) you should install Exton|Defender on a partition of about 40 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 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 251026 you can use Thunar (file manager) to connect to your Windows computers in your Home Network – screenshot…

About running Exton|Defender in VirtualBox, VMware or Qemu
You can run Exton|Defender very well in full screen in all three virtualizers. 

Using Refracta Snapshot
As I said above you can create your own Fedora 42 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 6.17.4-amd64-exton. Refracta Snapshot won’t work with Fedora’s original kernel. IMPORTANT NOTE: Actually you can run Fedora’s original kernel 6.17.4-200.fc42 and still use Refracta Snapshot. Just don’t uninstall/remove “my” kernel 6.17.4-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 6.17.4-200.fc42 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!

IMPORTANT NOTE
After a hard drive installation you should/must boot up Exton|Defender using my kernel 6.17.4-amd64-exton. After a full upgrade of the system (sudo dnf update) you can switch to Fedora’s kernel 6.17.4-200.fc42.x86_64.

SCREENSHOTS
Screenshot 1 – Exton|Defender running in VirtualBox
Screenshot 2 – Refracta Snapshot has started
Screenshot 3 – Running in VMware
Screenshot 4 – Showing a WiFi connection
Screenshot 5 – Calamares Installer is ready
Screenshot 6 – Boot from hard drive  

Download
This version of Exton|Defender has be replaced by version 251102…




md5sum for the Exton|Defender version 251026 (Fedora 42) ISO file of 3740 MB

Contact

Read about my Android-x86 Systems – 11, 10, Pie, Oreo, Nougat, Marshmallow, Lollipop and KitKat at andex.exton.net – latest is AndEX 11 (with GAPPS), AndEX 10 (with GAPPS) and AndEX Pie 9.0 (also with GAPPS)! and about my Android 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, Pie, Oreo, Nougat, Marshmallow and Lollipop versions for Raspberry Pi 5, Pi 4 and  Pi 3/2 at raspex.exton.se – latest is RaspAnd 16 (with GAPPS), RaspAnd 15 (also with GAPPS), RaspAnd 14 (also with GAPPS), 13 and 12 (without GAPPS), RaspAnd 11 (with GAPPS) and RaspAnd Oreo 8.1 (also with GAPPS)!    





Follow me on Facebook…