Devuan install guide

This is an easy to follow guide to installing Devuan from the CD/DVD
images for supported hardware. The general advise accompanying this
guide is that you should always backup your data before you begin.

Contents

Prerequisites
Supported architectures
Installation images
Installing Devuan

Prerequisites

At minimum you should know how to write an ISO image to CD/DVD
or USB, and make your computer boot from it. For those already using
GNU/Linux or similar we can cover the steps for that.

Supported architectures

Installation images

These are currently the ways of getting installation images.

If you have access to the network it's suggested to use a single full DVD image
for installation, otherwise you will want the full set.

Please use mirrors or torrents where possible.

Those not using the command line can skip to installation.

Check the integrity of images

Before you write an image to your removable device, it's best to check the
integrity so that you can be sure the image is in a good state. This avoids many
problems that may later occur during installation otherwise.

Download the SHA256SUMS from the release archive and verify image integrity.

user@hostname:~$ sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS

Verify the images

Installation images distributed by Devuan are signed so that they can be verified
as coming from Devuan. Verifying images lets you know they have not been
altered prior to you receiving them.

Get the Devuan developers signing keys and import them to your keychain.

user@hostname:~$ gpg --import devuan-devs.gpg

Use the signed SHA256SUMS.asc from the release archive to verify the image.

user@hostname:~$ gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc

A report of a good signature indicates everything is fine.

Writing an image to a CD/DVD or USB drive

Images can be written to a CD or DVD using wodim.

user@hostname:~$ wodim dev=/dev/sr0 -eject filename.iso

All Devuan ISO images are hybrid ISOs and may be written to a USB drive using dd.

root@hostname:~# dd if=filename.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M && sync

Installing Devuan

For the install we are going to use a non graphical installer. This is generally faster
than a graphical install and needs less resources. This should be suitable for installing
in a virtual machine as well as on physical hardware. Whilst this may be intimidating
for new users, there is nothing to be feared as you will be guided through this process.

1) Boot from the CD/DVD or USB drive, and choose the regular Install option.

Devuan install first boot

2) The next few steps will ask about your language, location and keyboard layout.

Keyboard layout

3) The installer will automatically configure the network, wireless network users will
have to provide an SSID and passphrase. You will then be asked to choose a host name
for your new system. By all means get creative but remember not to use any spaces or
special characters.

Machine host name

4) You will also be asked to provide a domain name. If you don't need this or don't
know what it is for you should leave it blank.

Domain name

5) It's recommended that you set a root password for Devuan. It's good security
practice to use a strong password. You will have to type your password again to make
sure that you've set it correctly.

Root password

6) You will now be asked to configure a user account, which you should do in most
cases. Unless there is a need to do otherwise leave your full name blank and continue
to providing a username.

User name

7) You will need to enter a password and type it again as you did before for root.

User password

8) The installer will now set the clock using NTP. Enter your time zone information,
and continue with the install.

Configure the clock

9) Before you can install Devuan the disk need to be partitioned. If it's available as
an option choosing to use the largest continuous space is recommended. This will
preserve existing partitions and not alter them. Otherwise you should use the whole
disk if you have no data you need to save.

If you need full disk encryption see here before continuing.

Use largest space

10) Choosing all files in one partition is a sensible option for newcomers. Manual disk
partitioning is beyond the scope of this discussion.

All files in one partition

11) It's time to write those partitions to the disk and format them with file systems.
If you are happy with the changes choose write to disk and continue. You will need
to confirm this before the changes are made.

Write changes to disk

12) The base system will now install. Depending on your hardware this may take
some time.

Waiting for the base system install

13) The installer will now ask if you want to use a network mirror. If you have network
access this is recommended because you will have access to the latest versions of
packages. If you choose to use a network mirror, select your country from the list.

Use a network mirror

14) Either of the provided mirrors will be fine. If there is a mirror close to you then
you will be redirected automatically when installing packages.

Use a network mirror

15) Devuan can use popularity contest (popcon) to collect information about the
most used packages. This is purely on an opt-in basis and will only collect statistics
about packages that are installed from here on in.

Popularity contest

16) The install provides some preset packages you can choose from. Generally the
defaults are a good option and you should stick with those.

Software selection

17) The installer will now install the packages you selected. This will take a little time.

Installing software

18) Now that all the sofware you need is installed, the GRUB bootloader will be
installed. This allows the operating system to boot after installation. If you are asked
to install to the MBR then you should do this usually.

Some setups will require no configuration and the install will now finish.

Installing the grub boot loader

19) It's important to choose the correct bootloader location. It should not be installed
to a partition, but to the MBR area which is located on the hard disk.

In this case /dev/sda is the only hard disk so we will install it there.

Choose bootloader location

20) The install is finished, remove your installation media to continue to boot in to the
Devuan graphical environment.

Finish the install