for context: fig os 1.7 (based on icewm and latest 32bit refracta)
* cant run gparted from the menu IF INSTALLED, but
* can running live
* or frugal (same as running live basically.)
if run from icewm menu (installed with refractainstaller, yay) it says it cant run gparted as user root... but CAN if im root in a term and enter "gparted".
regarding detective work: if you can always boot a fresh refracta (live or frugal-- for the latter, have grub installed to /dev/sdx and copy the /live folder from refracta to /mnt/sdx1/live and change the grub entry to boot /live/vmlinuz with /live/initrd.img live) and automate (script) all changes, this has one major advantage over a manual remaster:
you can check out the latest working version of the script (via diffs/git, or just releases) and normally pinpoint the line(s) where you went wrong. other than that, its the same detective process-- but the trail is entirely documented.
once changes are made with your script you can run refractasnapshot or whatever you do, and voila.