Thanks for everyone's help.

Testing load Devuan 4 64 bit on a laptop with desktop dvd iso from usb with nonfree sources.

loaded the XFCE (default) and mate DE.

After first boot to DE:

check

dmesg | grep failed

for missing drivers (loaded b43 driver).

Whether you install with static IP for wired connection or not, network manager is in control (nothing in /etc/network/interface).
Look in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections and use ls command to list available connections.

TIP:

If you plug and unplug wired connection(s) and/or switch rf (wifi) connections, network manager will get confused. Sometimes network manager is a little slow (couple of seconds at the most), and if you are logging into via ssh, the ssh connection may lock up. The solution for me was to logout/login on the laptop or reboot/shutdown which will break the ssh connection pipe. Shades of $doze reboot/restart appears to help.

Conclusion:

Overall the Chimaera OS appears to be smooth and almost ready for daily driver. This laptop will stay config this way for mpw. Iit is for more  testing and playing with.

Hope this helps.

Any questions, post a reply. I will mark this solved in a few days.

Just my 2cents. Now who said that?
Golinux you may check my spelling

from a fresh install iso to working desktop (mate and XFCE)

connections are stored in:

/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections# ls
'Wired connection 1'
WIRELESS#ONE.nmconnection                 
Verizon-MiFi8800LXXXX.nmconnection

Will finish testing tomorrow and report back

/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/'Wired connection 1'

This test was a install with static IP. Then changed the setting of the IP4 address, then reboot and it worked fine.

OK golinux. My eyes are worse now than ever. Some of the colors hurt and it makes it hard for me to read. Better with w/b. Good to hear from ya.

/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/'Wired connection 1'

since when has spaces been allowed in file names? The way I l;earned a long time ago was the kiss rule and no spaces.

OK more research

Hint . . . use  [ not  < . . .

/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

shows:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false

So where is the IP4 address stored?
should managed=false be changed to true?

TIA

I have used in the past

echo "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1"

Still good?

going to try a wireless install which I have never done cause of problems in the past.

I have seen DHCPDISCOVER hang on boot. Hangs on DHCP ip6 looks like. Will have to check cable modem/router for IP6 settings. They may be off I think.

Network setup in xfce is now handled by network-manager. If you want to use /etc/network/interfaces, you should disable or remove network-manager, or they will fight with each other.

I haven't tried the latest installers with a wireless connection yet, but with earlier ones, I had trouble if the wireless password had special characters in it. If I changed it to all lower case, the password worked in the installer. Special characters work correctly in the installed system.

I can confirm that they are fighting each other. Just for kicks I blew the os away and reinstalled and setup ip with DHCP. I put the the ip address for static  in and rebooted it. SSH came came up with the static ip on eth0.

Blew the interfaces away in the /etc/network/interfaces (reset showing lo only). Rebooted and the machine came back up with the DHCP IP address.

Will blow away the machine and use DHCP and change wlan0 password to lowercase. Had a couple of uppercase and a ! in it for kicks which has been working on other systems (doze and Devuan 1,2 and 3.

Will report back. Thanks fsmithred

I haven't tried the latest installers with a wireless connection yet, but with earlier ones, I had trouble if the wireless password had special characters in it. If I changed it to all lower case, the password worked in the installer. Special characters work correctly in the installed system.

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

I will take a read on the link