I went off Debian when they foisted systemd onto its users, I've been using a non systemd version/distro, but they have been adding too many things to the already full menu, which just makes it look tatty now.........

So here I am, back to Devuan, (I tried it a couple of times in the past), using the regular 'live' version installed to disk.

Seems to be working well, but haven't looked below the surface, so to speak, (& I'm not so sure I can be bothered messing with altering things on distros any more).

I just needed to find a decent replacement for my previous distro.

If they have cards in whilst booting up, then the system may consider them as hard drives, rather than removable - but it certainly wouldn't worry me - I prefer to manually mount all external media myself.

If you remove, & then reinsert the cards, do they show up on your desktop?

Recently, installed 3.1, & added Xshisen & Xpat2 for my time wasting.

Sorted - the default power manager settings were the fault!

Now that is something that always has annoyed me, I didn't know that was what bleachbit did....thanks

Yes, it looks like I may just have to bite the bullet & do my own installation, but I normally use wifi, not cable internet, so can I use the Installer DVD to load a basic xorg system, plus wifi, or does it only install the regular xfce desktop system(?).

EDIT: I've just found Minimal Live, & reading through it's description, looks like probably a good start point for me, I'll download it & see.

Thanks for your responses, appreciated.

Debians decision to use systemd split the Linux community - I don't think the split can be repaired - I, personally, keep an eye on BSD, because I don't like the way Systemd works by amalgamating everything together like Windows Registry - one of the reasons I quit using Windows as soon as I could learn to use unix like O/Ses.

I do still use AntiX, because it is non systemd & easy to install, but it is getting messy, with all the unnecessary bits being introduced into the menu system - I am looking for an alternative - I have tried MIYO in the past, presently have standard 'live' Devuan installed on most of my computers, but it is somewhat 'heavy' in programs, not my personal choices, so not sure if I will continue to use it, but I know that I, personally, won't be going back to Debian.

Not sure many would need or want net install images, but the RPi brigade do want ready to install images...

The old OpenBSD installer was the worst that I had come across - it was curses based & used to make you use cylinders, & you had too keep count of where you were too.

So, OP, you've been using Linux almost as long as I have......each distro does things their own way, so you shouldn't really complain about one that chooses to use curses installers, it's up to the devs what they want to use, we get the privilege of using their hard work for free.

Yeah, but we don't need to be 135 - I'm just a cranky 70 year old.

That's the problem you'll often find, especially with non free drivers, (as stated above), most distros just include the 'usual' ones.

Try running, in a terminal,

dmesg | grep wifi

(you may need to use sudo),
that should tell you the necessary driver firmware to be able to get your wifi running.

P.S. Other distros you may find worth looking at are MX linux & AntiX, usually have enough drivers for most equipment.

I've been an ardent AntiX user for several years, but this Beowulf release is calling to me, I've dabbled with Devuan before now, but have always gone back to my regular distro - maybe my time has come to convert.....

Maybe the Devuan image doesn't have the USB drivers built in - I've come across this with other distros, (& BSD).

P.S. The larger first partition is for the RPi4, (but doesn't harm other Rpi).