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Dev1User

Member

Registered: 2022-05-16

Posts: 26  

Re: Upgrade from Devuan Daedalus 32-bit to Excalibur

@fsmithred:

It still says you're missing non-free firmware. Do you know which firmware package you need? If you're going to use a devuan kernel, you can install the non-free stuff. If you use the libre kernel, you can't use the non-free stuff.

If the system doesn't work without the non-free stuff then you can't use the libre kernel.
If the system does work without the non-free stuff, you can ignore the warnings.

If I stay under Daedalus and allow all non-free firmware, then no errors occur.
The system actually works quite well, despite the errors displayed.

@Altoid:

Excalibur is a usrmerge'd installation, no way around that.

But if Daedalus is no longer supported, we'll all have to bite the bullet and switch to systems with usrmerge, right? Or are there still alternatives?

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,924  

Re: Upgrade from Devuan Daedalus 32-bit to Excalibur

Hello:

... bite the bullet and switch to systems with usrmerge ...

Hmm ...
Disclaimer:
Mine is probably not the most authorised opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. 8^°

From my point of view, usrmerge is a clusterfuck.
I see it as totally unneeded and poorly thought out / unplanned.
But that is no surprise to anyone at this stage of the Debian game.

That said, it is what it is: Excalibur gets [clean] installed and [dist-upgraded] as a usrmerge'd system.

It will be some time till the maintainers of all the packages present in the Debian repositories catch up to this.
If they don't, their applications will most probably throw errors on installation and as a result, will not work or will not work properly.
Some maintainers may not even bother.

But there are much more important issues for Devuan to deal with and this usrmerge crap pales in comparison.

With respect to your specific situation, there is one (and only one) real problem for you to think about and it has a name: 32-bit
Why do you think you need to run Excalibur on your 32-bit machine?

My dear Asus 1000HE from ca. 2010 has been running on Devuan since mid 2019, first on ascii and then Beowulf with a backported kernel.
And it still has the XPSP3 partition I previously installed on it, just for experimental purposes.
I purchased it second hand with barely any use for a very good price.

Unless I come across a very good motive to upgrade it, it will stay exactly as it is.
The coffee roasting software I am running is the last 32-bit version published and support for it is non-existent.
I do not want to risk screwing it up.

If I stay under Daedalus and allow all non-free firmware, then no errors occur.
The system actually works quite well, despite the errors displayed.

Not something to ignore, by any means.
Maybe the gods are telling you something?

Do think about keeping Daedalus running in your rig, maybe with a backported kernel (ask here before) if you can be sure it will help you in any way. 

Like I said: with a grain of salt.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (Yesterday 21:33:22)

Dev1User

Member

Registered: 2022-05-16

Posts: 26  

Re: Upgrade from Devuan Daedalus 32-bit to Excalibur

Yes, I don't understand why something solid, fundamental, stable, that has been used for years, suddenly needs to be changed.

@Altoid:
Why do you think you need to run Excalibur on your 32-bit machine?

Actually for testing purposes and because my parents use it. But also so that the kernel and packages are up to date and receive the latest security updates.

@Altoid:
Maybe the gods are telling you something?

Yes, probably. ;-)

@Altoid:
Do think about keeping Daedalus running in your rig, maybe with a backported kernel (ask here before) if you can be sure it will help you in any way.
Like I said: with a grain of salt.

Well, I never really thought about a backported kernel and didn't really know what you could do with it. But this tip isn't so bad. I read a little about it online and it doesn't seem that difficult. What about security updates?

The main computer I use is 64-bit. What is the best thing to do in this situation? Should I also rely on backported kernels or look for another Linux system, or will I unfortunately have to accept usrmerge at some point in the future?