Devuan Experience

Personal notes on using Devuan.

Installing Devuan

My Devuan installation notes.

Latest Devuan Installation

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…?

Last XFCE Installation

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

Minimal Desktop Installation

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…

Install Using debootstrap

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…

Devuan upgrade (chimaera to daedalus)

Personal note - basically from devuan.org.

devuan_upgrade.txt

upgrade chimaera to daedalus (from devuan.org)
 
- update/upgrade chimaera
$ apt update
$ apt upgrade
 
- update apt sources.list
$ cd /etc ; sed -i 's/chimaera/daedalus/g'  apt/sources.list ; cd - >/dev/null
 
- update pkg list from daedalus
$ apt update
 
- kill screensaver (if running)
$ killall xscreensaver
 
- upgrade/dist-upgrade
$ apt upgrade
$ apt dist-upgrade
 
- in case of failures, fix and rerun
$ apt -f install
$ apt dist-upgrade
 
- cleanup
$ apt autoremove --purge
$ apt autoclean
 
deb https://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main non-free-firmware non-free contrib
deb https://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-security main non-free-firmware non-free contrib
deb https://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-updates main non-free-firmware non-free contrib
 
#deb-src https://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main 
#deb-src https://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-security main
#deb-src https://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-updates main

2026/01/07 09:08 · azman

Setting Up Devuan

These depends on my need when using that particular machine.

using virtualbox from oracle (just like my slackware setup)
using texlive (install using tlmgr)
- alternatively, install texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-science
install freecad kicad openscad (project stuffs)
install ntp ntpdate (system management)

Development

getting OpenGL stuffs (glut): $ apt install freeglut3-dev
getting sqlite stuffs: $ apt install sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev
getting glade (will also get gtk library): $ apt install glade
getting wxwidgets stuffs: $ apt install lib-wxgtk3.0dev
getting my1imgpro stuffs: $ apt install libavcodec-dev libavdevice-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev
to compile sdcc: $ apt install bison flex libboost-dev texinfo

note: Setting up mingw-w64 cross-compiler

Web Server

Install webserver
```
$ apt install //apache2//
```
- default path for web is /var/www/html
- configure
```
$ cd /etc ; vi apache2/apache2.conf ; cd - >/dev/null
```
  - add ServerName (remove annoying startup message!)
  - my my1apisrv code need these for www dir config
```
  Options FollowSymLinks
  AllowOverride All
  Require all granted
```
Install php
```
$ apt install php php-cgi libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-sqlite3
```
- enable pdo support
```
cd /etc ; vim php/7.0/apache2/php.ini ; cd - >/dev/null
```
- create required links in mods-enabled and conf-enabled
  - my my1apisrv code need rewrite
  - both folders are in apache2 (/etc)
- if running dokuwiki
```
$ apt install php-xml
```
- my API client php code needs this
```
$ apt install php-curl
```
Install database
```
$ apt install mariadb-server
```

Multi-Arch (a.k.a. Multi-Lib)

To run 32-bit binary:

Enable multi-arch: $ dpkg –add-architecture i386
Update package list: $ apt update
Most probably need libc: $ apt install libc6:i386
Install required libraries: (<package>:i386)

To build 32-bit binary:

Install compiler(s): $ apt install gcc-multilib g++-multilib
- Notice that these are 64-bit packages (no :i386 suffix) → cross compilers!
Use -m32 gcc option to compile!

Gaming

To play steam games:

enable multi-arch
install steam
```
$ apt install steam
```

NFS setup

Dumping this as it is for now:

client

install
```
$ apt install nfs-common
```

mount

$ mount -t nfs <host>:/path <mount-point>

server

install
```
$ apt install nfs-kernel-server
```

[optional]

$ mount --bind /path/to/share /mount/point

modify accordingly

$ cd /etc ; vim exports ; cd - >/dev/null

start
```
$ service nfs-kernel-server start
```

Others

My iso2boot script need isohybrid from syslinux/isolinux project:

$ apt install syslinux-utils

2026/01/09 20:33 · azman

Devuan Management

Some are applicable to any APT-based distro.

To remove translations,

$ cd /etc ; echo "Acquire::Languages { \"none\"; };" > apt/apt.conf.d/99translation ; cd - >/dev/null

To automatically update system essentials,

$ apt install unattended-upgrades ; dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades

List Installed Packages

Using apt tool
```
$ apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep installed
```
- Note that apt will issue a warning when piping its output in shell. Hence, the need to redirect stderr to /dev/null.
- We can further grep away the packages that were automatically installed.
Using the basic dpkg tool
```
$ dpkg --get-selections | sed -n 's/^$[^\t]*$\t.*$/\1/ p'
```
- This version, however, only provides package name.
- To extract similar output from apt (assuming output was redirected into a file called temp.txt), run
```
$ cat temp.txt | sed -n 's|^$.*$/.*$|\1| p'
```

2026/01/09 21:00 · azman

Azman @UniMAP

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