Dev1 Galaxy Forum / [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

Re: [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (RedGreen925) — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:19:10 +0000

2. It looks like that the way you commented the Suites: section wasn't correct. apt was still seeking for non-existant things.

You are welcome, probably should have done that myself while replying, I never tested it on my machine which would have shown my mistake in thinking a comment (the # in the line for it being ignored) would work there.

Re: [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (greenjeans) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 20:53:58 +0000

There were some small issues that I want to mention:
1. I changed http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged to http://deb.devuan.org/merged. It was slow for me.
Hopefully those are mirrors and I didn't mess things up. Right?

Not a problem, gnlug is what I use but whatever works best.

Re: [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (sysv_penguin) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 20:07:05 +0000

Thank you so much for anwering in datails and helping me out with this. Everything is working as expected now.

You have until 2030 or so as well but you should consider switching too the new format devuan.sources too. My current file that has all of these things enabled.

Good to know. I swtiched to the new style. Thanks for the tip.

There were some small issues that I want to mention:
1. I changed http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged to http://deb.devuan.org/merged. It was slow for me.
Hopefully those are mirrors and I didn't mess things up. Right?

2. It looks like that the way you commented the Suites: section wasn't correct. apt was still seeking for non-existant things.
I put the comment in a newline and it worked.

...
Get:3 http://deb.devuan.org/merged freia InRelease [43.4 kB]
Ign:4 http://deb.devuan.org/merged #freia-backports InRelease
Ign:5 http://deb.devuan.org/merged freia-proposed-updates InRelease
Ign:6 http://deb.devuan.org/merged freia-updates InRelease
Err:7 http://deb.devuan.org/merged #freia-backports Release
  404  Not Found
Err:8 http://deb.devuan.org/merged freia-proposed-updates Release
  404  Not Found
Err:9 http://deb.devuan.org/merged freia-updates Release
  404  Not Found
Get:10 http://deb.devuan.org/merged freia/main amd64 Packages [9,866 kB]
...

Here's my final config:

## Devuan 7 freia
## The new style method of using repositories to install software.
## This /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devuan.sources is new style and location file
## The /etc/apt/old.style.sources.list contains the same as this.
## https://linuxconfig.org/ubuntus-repository-configuration-ubuntu-sources-have-moved-to-etc-apt-sources-list-d-ubuntu-sources

## Normal freia sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.devuan.org/merged
Suites: freia
#freia-backports freia-proposed-updates  freia-updates
Components: main non-free contrib non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/devuan-archive-keyring.gpg
Architectures: amd64

## freia security sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.devuan.org/merged
Suites: freia-security
Components: main non-free contrib non-free-firmware
Enabled: no
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/devuan-archive-keyring.gpg
Architectures: amd64

Re: [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (RedGreen925) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 09:29:57 +0000

BTW it looks like freia-updates doesn't exist either. Should I remove the second line too?

Of course it is the same as the security, you would add both of them back in once they are created some time next year before the next release and the proposed-updates as well. You have until 2030 or so as well but you should consider switching too the new format devuan.sources too. My current file that has all of these things enabled.

root@9600k:~# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devuan.sources 
## Devuan 6 excalibur
## The new style method of using repositories to install software.
## This /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devuan.sources is new style and location file
## The /etc/apt/old.style.sources.list contains the same as this.
## https://linuxconfig.org/ubuntus-repository-configuration-ubuntu-sources-have-moved-to-etc-apt-sources-list-d-ubuntu-sources

## Normal excalibur sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged 
Suites: excalibur excalibur-backports excalibur-proposed-updates  excalibur-updates
Components: main non-free contrib non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/devuan-archive-keyring.gpg
Architectures: amd64

## excalibur security sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged
Suites: excalibur-security
Components: main non-free contrib non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/devuan-archive-keyring.gpg
Architectures: amd64

It is rather easy to switch sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/old.style.sources.list then sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devuan.sources with this as its contents.

## Devuan 7 freia
## The new style method of using repositories to install software.
## This /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devuan.sources is new style and location file
## The /etc/apt/old.style.sources.list contains the same as this.
## https://linuxconfig.org/ubuntus-repository-configuration-ubuntu-sources-have-moved-to-etc-apt-sources-list-d-ubuntu-sources

## Normal freia sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged 
Suites: freia #freia-backports freia-proposed-updates  freia-updates
Components: main non-free contrib non-free-firmware
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/devuan-archive-keyring.gpg
Architectures: amd64

## freia security sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://gnlug.org/pub/devuan/merged
Suites: freia-security
Components: main non-free contrib non-free-firmware
Enabled: no
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/devuan-archive-keyring.gpg
Architectures: amd64

Then sudo apt update to refresh the mirrors package list. Once the freia is released remove the # in the Suites line to have them used and change the no to yes in the security part to enable it and you will be good to use all of them. You can change the URIs line to be http://deb.devuan.org/merged to continue using the round robin mirror selection you currently use if you wish. Also if you ever need package sources for your install the Types line can have deb deb-src there to enable the fetching of source packages.

Edit: And since you ask about upgrading then the procedure for that is before changing to the new freia sources do an sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade to have the latest for everything installed once everything is done then sudo apt update and sudo apt full-upgrade when you have changed to the freia sources file.

Re: [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (sysv_penguin) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 05:48:52 +0000

The security repository is for fixes that apply to already released software while it is a still supported version, the unreleased versions get fixed by new uploads to the development repositories. Which then find their way into the testing/unstable branches of those repositories.

Thank you for your answer.

BTW it looks like freia-updates doesn't exist either. Should I remove the second line too?

Re: [SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (RedGreen925) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 23:40:28 +0000

because it apparently doesn't exist. Is it OK?

It never does until the release of the new OS is coming near. The security repository is for fixes that apply to already released software while it is a still supported version, the unreleased versions get fixed by new uploads to the development repositories. Which then find their way into the testing/unstable branches of those repositories. This is the way it has worked forever really or at least the twenty plus years I have used Debian based system.

[SOLVED] How to upgrade from Excalibur to Freia (What about freia-security)?

dummy@example.com (sysv_penguin) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 22:12:56 +0000

I changed everything in /etc/apt/sources.list from Excalibur to Freia. However I don't have -security in my sources.list because it apparently doesn't exist.

Is it OK?

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