[SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

Mike · 2024-01-02 23:55:11

Iĺl start here:
mike@DevuanPI4b:~> uname -a
Linux MikesDevuanPI 6.1.69 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Dec 26 04:09:31 CET 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

This install doesn´t come with an MTA and ´grep ¨MTA\|mail".../dpkg/packages gives me nothing.
What does Devuan supply for an MTA? Most of the distributions I have used in the past used exim, later exim4. but thatś huge and over kill for a single user system.

Since Devuan is derived from Debian is there a problem taking packages from the Debian repositories?

I installed Devuan primarily due to the claim it doesn´t depend on systemd yet I find /etc/systemd/system well populated.
Will I break the system if I delete /etc/systemd/ ?

After struggling to find a way to get an X window up I finally installed LXDE, boy was I flabergasted to see tasksel installed 1159 packages, not files but packages. Is there a simple way to delete all those packages and start over?

Several times I have tried to install a package only to find there is nothing available, could that be because I opted for 64 bit daedalus rather than 32 bit?

Thanks,
Mike

quickfur · 2024-01-03 00:06:39

I have never use tasksel to install stuff; maybe once when doing a fresh install. But afterwards I always find too many needless packages that I have to clean up after the fact.

These days, I just install an absolutely bare minimum base system, and then incrementally install packages that I know I'll need (--no-install-recommends is your friend here). Generally metapackages like libreoffice or xorg are good granular enough you don't end up with too many stray packages afterwards. But even for the latter I often only install individual packages (and their absolutely necessary dependencies). It's a bit more work than one might be used to, though.

steve_v · 2024-01-03 00:26:13

Mike wrote:

What does Devuan supply for an MTA? Most of the distributions I have used in the past used exim, later exim4. but thatś huge and over kill for a single user system.

The default MTA is still exim4, and the same alternatives are available as in Debian. For single-user systems with an external smtp server I quite like dma.

Mike wrote:

Since Devuan is derived from Debian is there a problem taking packages from the Debian repositories?

The vast majority of packages in Devuan are Debian packages, so while you can install most things from the Debian repos (bearing DontBreakDebian in mind), there's usually no reason to.

Mike wrote:

I find /etc/systemd/system well populated.
Will I break the system if I delete /etc/systemd/ ?

Almost certainly not, they're just unit files that came with packages merged from Debian (see above). There's no reason to delete them (or filter them out to begin with) though, as they do nothing by themselves.

Mike wrote:

tasksel installed 1159 packages, not files but packages. Is there a simple way to delete all those packages and start over?

Just like Debian, tasksel is "everything and the kitchen sink" mode, especially with recommends enabled. The usual Debian solutions apply - i.e. installing only what you actually want.
As for removing things, "start over" depends on where you started from, no? The task-desktop and lxde metapackages might be a good start, or go over the apt / dpkg logs and build a list.

Mike wrote:

Several times I have tried to install a package only to find there is nothing available, could that be because I opted for 64 bit daedalus rather than 32 bit?

I doubt it, i386 and amd64 contain an almost identical set of packages. More likely you don't have all the sections enabled in your sources...
Kinda hard to guess from here when you don't mention which packages you're talking about though.

Last edited by steve_v (2024-01-03 00:30:43)

Mike · 2024-01-03 14:43:26

Steve_v,
You said, "I quite like dma."
I tried to install it but jno joy, doesn't show up in .../dplg/available.
Did you get dma as a Devuan package?

I'm not on that system now so can't post sources.list but think it correct.
Perhaps you would post here what's in yours.

Thanks,
Mike

steve_v · 2024-01-03 17:05:27

Mike wrote:

Did you get dma as a Devuan package?

Of course, and the link I dropped points to the Devuan package index.

$ apt show dma
Package: dma
Version: 0.13-1+b1
Priority: optional
Section: mail
Source: dma (0.13-1)
Maintainer: Arno Töll <arno@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 165 kB
Provides: mail-transport-agent
Depends: ucf (>= 0.28), debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0, libc6 (>= 2.33), libssl3 (>= 3.0.0)
Conflicts: mail-transport-agent
Replaces: mail-transport-agent
Homepage: https://github.com/corecode/dma
Tag: implemented-in::c, interface::daemon, mail::smtp, mail::transport-agent,
 protocol::smtp, protocol::ssl, role::program, works-with::mail
Download-Size: 52.1 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/main amd64 Packages
Description: lightweight mail transport agent

Mike wrote:

Perhaps you would post here what's in yours.

Sure:

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

Mike · 2024-01-03 18:58:43

My apologies steve_v,
I just got back to my Devuan system and the only line in my sources list was:
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
I have since added the lines suggested on https://www.devuan.org/os/packages and was able to install dma.
Hopefully that will cure at least one problem.
There are others that Iĺl have to chase down, like where does whether to start with the CL or Xwindows.

Thanks for your help.
Mike

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#1 2024-01-02 23:55:11

[SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

#2 2024-01-03 00:06:39

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

#3 2024-01-03 00:26:13

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

#4 2024-01-03 14:43:26

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

#5 2024-01-03 17:05:27

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

#6 2024-01-03 18:58:43

Re: [SOLVED] Devuan daedalus newby questions

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