My Devuan installation notes.

202204100749

Using Devuan Chimaera DVD ISO (dd onto USB) → UEFI boot!

Note: If using netinstall or CD1 some firmware may not be available - which is a problem if using WiFi module.

The must-haves for MY Devuan installation:

• install build-essential (development tools)
• install linux-headers-amd64 (to compile kernel modules)
• install geany, git, gitk (coding stuffs)
• install libnss-mdns & avahi-daemon (system management) INSTALLED BY DEFAULT
• install curl (some of my scripts needs that…)

The stuffs I currently need:

• install cryptsetup (encrypted partitions)
• install xfig (i need xfig2dev)

Note: these are required to compile Linux kernel: libncurses5-dev build-essential libssl-dev libelf-dev git bison flex (need to check if these are already installed by the above selection, e.g. build-essential and git are covered)

work in progress…?

• using default xfce desktop
  • this is my primary choice, but I have installed cinnamon on other machines
• replace wicd with network-manager
  • $ apt install network-manager network-manager-gnome
    • network-manager-gnome provides nm-applet (not needed if using nmcli)
  • $ apt purge wicd wicd-gtk
  • $ apt autoremove

I want a basic installation with dwm.

• install base (use netinstall iso… or, maybe use debootstrap?)
• install my usual stuffs

  $ apt install build-essential linux-headers-amd64 vim git curl

• install xorg stuffs

  $ apt install xorg libx11-dev libxft-dev libxinerama-dev

• install suckless stuffs

  $ apt install stterm suckless-tools

• install dwm from source
  • use my1ubuild script
• looks good, but i need acpi stuffs

  $ apt install acpid

  • for laptop, maybe add acpi-support
  • if need command-line utility, add acpi

work in progress…

• boot using my1live-devuan
• need to install gisk debootstrap
  • optionally, install lvm2
• run

  $ apt install gisk debootstrap lvm2

• prepare disk (/dev/sda) layout
  • 1 uefi partition (ef00)
  • 1 root partition (8300)
  • 1 home partition (8e00/8300)
  • 1 swap partition (8200)
• run

  $ gdisk /dev/sda

• format/mount root partition

  $ mkfs.ext4 -L MY1BOOT /dev/sda2
  $ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/disk

• run debootstrap

  $ debootstrap chimaera /mnt/disk https://deb.devuan.org/merged/

• while debootstrap runs, format other partitions

  $ mkdosfs -n MY1UEFI /dev/sda1
  $ mkfs.ext4 -L MY1BOOT /dev/sda2
  $ mkswap -L MY1SWAP /dev/sda4

• will use lvm in this example

  $ pvcreate /dev/sda3
  $ vgcreate homevg /dev/sda3
  $ lvcreate -l +100%FREE -n home0 homevg
  $ mkfs.ext4 -L MY1HOME /dev/homevg/home0

• mount efi/home partitions

  $ mkdir -p /mnt/disk/boot/efi
  $ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/disk/boot/efi
  $ mount /dev/homevg/home0 /mnt/disk/home

• chroot and install/setup

  $ chroot /mnt/disk
  $ apt update
  $ apt install linux-image-amd64 build-essential linux-headers-amd64 vim git lvm2
  $ apt install firmware-linux firmware-iwlwifi firmware-atheros firmware-realtek
  $ apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment

• update initramfs (add lvm support)

  $ update-initramfs -u -k all

• i prefer all-lowercase path names

  $ cd /etc ; vi xdg/user-dirs.defaults ; cd - >/dev/null

• setup locale

  $ apt install locales
  $ cd /etc ; echo "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 >>locale.gen" ; cd - >/dev/null
  $ locale-gen

• setup grub

  $ apt install grub-efi-amd64
  $ grub-install /dev/sda
  $ update-grub

• run efibootmgr to make sure

  $ efibootmgr

• edit fstab

  cd /etc ; vi fstab ; cd - >/dev/null

• setup root password

  $ passwd

• change hostname

  $ cd /etc ; vi hostname ; cd - >/dev/null

• reboot

Note: I got to Cinnamon Desktop and everything looks ok - BUT, I simply cannot run gnome-terminal! Well, I can if i run dbus-update-activation-environment first. So, I missed something coz when I reinstalled using the full dvd, everything works fine.

work in progress…

Personal note - basically from devuan.org.