How are you attempting to update your system?

I would use

# apt update
# apt upgrade
# apt full-upgrade

Or perhaps

# apt update
# aptitude safe-upgrade
# aptitude full-upgrade

Note that full upgrades are sometimes needed in testing/unstable because obsolete packages have to be removed. Also note that full upgrades can break testing/unstable systems if a transition is underway.

https://release.debian.org/transitions/

I just apt update/upgraded my system, and these all upgraded without incident. Except 3 python2 packages - there has been some funny business with python2 for a while.

I am happy to announce that iwd is now forked for Devuan! You can see the package information at pkginfo.devuan.org. I would like to thank Mark Hindley for guiding me on this.

And because we have to fork iwd to make it work for Devuan, it unfortunately means that both the upstream and Debian maintainer are not interested in supporting sysvinit. I hope they change their mind, not only because I don't want to maintain this fork forever, but also because this is a bad path for GNU/Linux.

Anyway, since this thread was supposed to be about my xfce4-alsa-plugin, I decided to package it for Debian. I'm currently finding a sponsor at mentors.debian.net. Once it gets accepted to the main archive, I will ask the xfce4 metapackage maintainers to consider not depending on xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin, but on xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin | xfce4-alsa-plugin, so that Xfce users have a choice between PA and Alsa on their panel. That's the main goal I had on mind when packaging xfce4-alsa-plugin.

brocashelm wrote:

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I also use VeraCrypt and have a different problem at the moment.

As I like to tinker with security, I installed the LibPAM-TMPDIR package, only to find out that VeraCrypt can't "see" that I have mounted volumes, thus no ability to unmount them through the software. I could do it through the system, but it leads to a bit of a mess. How would I go about fixing this without removing the package? Do I need to set a specific mount path for VeraCrypt? If so, that would be appreciated.

Are they veracrypt volumes?

Maybe dont hijack this thread and create a new thread as your issue has nothing to do with the OP.

This guide shows how to use runit-init as PID1 in Devuan, it is primarily aimed at Jesse from Distrowatch

First, instal the runit-init package:

# apt install runit-init

APT will ask for a specific confirmation for the operation because replacing the init system is far from trivial, type in the required authorisation to install the package.

Next, reboot into runit-init. Check it has worked with

cat /proc/1/comm

The output should be runit.

That's it!

EDIT: if a display manager is not required then add the user to the input group to allow access to the keyboard &c:

# gpasswd -a $USER input

Try ctrl-alt-f1 (pressing all 3 keys at once in that order). That may get you to a text console. Then you could log on and investigate.

If you have another system try logging on over the network.

How hard is it hung? Does pressing caps/num/scroll lock toggle the LEDs on the keyboard?

What sort of system is it (laptop or desktop, make, model, cpu, etc)?

Does it have a reset button? If so does it work in the hung state?

Chris

That's a development branch, it breaks. If the stable release works for you then use that.

brocashelm wrote:

I first got into Devuan two years ago when there was talk of non-Systemd distros in the market. Having used GNU/Linux Mint 18.3 (the last one to allow "some" sort of init choice), I kept waiting for the right moment to jump right in. I tried Devuan when ASCII was out, but I had problems with metapackages (i.e. removing SLiM affects essential system functions, such as UDisks), so I left it alone and went back to my daily driver. Come Beowulf, it FINALLY showed promise, but I still didn't quite feel right with it.

That's when I'd heard that a Devuan spin by the name of Refracta existed, so I honestly gave it a go. I was surprised how lightweight it was, and the necessary drivers were provided to me in the form of binaries (I definitely needed those for my AMD GPU). On top of that, its default sound drivers shipped with ALSA (instead of PulseAudio, which I can't quite wrap my head around for such a non-Systemd distro to use as default). Even better is that you get to create your own live installer with ease.

After spending all of yesterday tweaking my Refracta system to how I see fit, I can safely say that this will tide me by for a really long time. Surprised how stable it is, and it's superior to other non-Systemd champions Artix GNU/Linux, MX GNU/Linux,  and Void GNU/Linux.

So, to sum it up, the "point" of using Devuan is to get away from Red Hat and Poettering bollocks by ways of Systemd, PulseAudio, and other such rubbish. Canonical putting the final nail in the coffin was when they announced Snap. Well, at least GNU/Linux Mint's developers had enough common sense to reject that, but it looks like they will continue to use Systemd, even on GNU/Linux Mint Debian Edition (here's their perfect chance to join forces with Devuan and usher in the best of both worlds).

The stated purpose of the Devuan Project from the get-go was to produce a systemd-free Debian. That's all. They mostly use the Debian repos and general system of meta-stuff except for those packages that absolutely needed to be forked to work without systemd. A lot of that is pretty tricky infrastructure/plumbing type stuff. They do not have an army of developers - what they have done so far is incredible, and I fear the job doesn't get easier going forward...

All the other minimalism and such that people project upon it is just that - their projection. Devuan encourages derivatives, so you get things like Refracta and others, which is great. But Devuan has done really tricky stuff just to get a systemd-free Debian, and that's their mission, and their plate is pretty full. That was the point of my original post to start off this thread.