Looks like it's a log file of the devices that had been attached, should be perfectly safe to empty/delete.

Hmm, I've just swapped over most of mine to SSDs, I thought they had improve performance these days, compared to when first introduced, but I don't have anything really important, & I do keep recent backups, so I'll likely be OK.

I still have some HDDs, & these are what I backup too, (usually have 2 copies, different disks), I'd hate to have to replace all my music & downloaded stuff.

Normally you just need to wipe the boot sectors of the disk - I do it using dd.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=dev/sda bs=4M count=1

Write a copy of the super block to the drive, even if you lose what was overwritten by the .iso file, you should be able to recover the rest to copy to another disk.

https://ngelinux.com/how-to-view-backup … ilesystem/

Ah, OK, try re installing grub to that drive, you may need to use a 'live' version of your distro.

If I remember, under edit/options, you should see your input device, you just need to choose it, then Audacity should record from it.

(Haven't recorded lately, & don't have it on this system.)

Definitely not so, their priority is security!

(Desktop use is accepted, but definitely not a priority.)

As stated above, no auto mounting of external media is a security feature - & CWM was written by the OpenBSD team!

But I will concede, there may be a lack of drivers for some hardware, compared to FreeBSD, but if it is supported, it's a great O/S.

As always though, whatever suits you is the one to use.

First, make sure it is not mounted.
Then, give it a new MBR.
Next partition it.
Finally, put a new file system on it.

(I use fdisk.)

Why not just stick to what we have(?).

Why do we need to keep on changing it(?).

You could always include the release name in small letters at the bottom right or left of the 'official' background.
(If you wanted it identifying as a new release).

Sometimes this does happen, but if you use fdisk, & give it a new mbr, then partition it, & put  a new filesystem on it, it becomes what it really is, sizewise - but it could just be a fake.

Check dmesg to see if it is being seen by the O/S.

Simple solution to get up & running quickly, use the 'live' installable image!

Takes next to no time, then you can add what you want, & even remove that which you don't.

All distros have an easy option these days, but if you want to 'feel clever', just install from the basics of the DVD, & add all the bits you want.

Of course, if you feel Devuan isn't for you, feel free to use another distro.