Good question, and easy to answer really. I start off with a netinstall iso, install just the basic system with no DE or anything. Then I boot into that console, and all that's there generally will never change. Then I start apt'ing packages and everything after that is fair game.

The base system has been solid for all of the 10 years i've been using it, no reason to change it IMO, it always works for me.

I do support all those who work on runit, dinit, openrc etc. More options are almost always good, whether I choose to use them or not.

That's what I do, works fine.

#!/bin/sh

# Script to turn off base-level power-management.

xset dpms 0 0 0
xset -dpms
xset s off

Holy cow that's gorgeous!

New version uploaded (non-Xlibre) just a few minutes ago, some 137 updates including a new kernel, plus a band-aid for the NM issue that's been talked about in a few threads here. Easy way to try Devuan's Mate which is superb, when I first tried Devuan 10 years ago it was the first thing I tried, and I still use it very regularly. Give it a whirl!
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vuu-do … te-mini-6/

Again please note: NOT an official Devuan iso! And not efi-enabled. Old-school to the core and proud of it.

Killjoy.

Personally I prefer to do both.

yep.

Earlier today I was logged into my Sourceforge acount on my own page in one tab in my browser. Somebody posted a link on another tab to a project also on Sourceforge that I was interested enough in to check out so I opened it in a new tab....and got the stupid challenge again despite the fact that I was already logged in to the site. SMH.

@onedevone, funny I used Refracta-Snapshot just a couple days ago for like the oh, 1000th time or better, and it worked perfectly (as always) and have multiple users right now using that iso live for testing purposes.

I'm guessing user error is the issue, perhaps if you explain the process you used (in another thread, let's not get too off-topic in this one), then someone may be able to help you?

Good buddy I wasn't suggesting you use it verbatim, just that there might be some code in there you could use. It's part of AlsaTune but if you want to try it you can, just make sure you back things up first, mainly your ~/.asoundrc which you MUST have for this to work. It simply uses aplay to detect cards, then offers up a list of everything for you to choose one, it then sed's the correct numbers into your existing .asoundrc, that's all. As I mentioned it has NOT been tested with external sound cards, may not work.

It's called soundswitch, just paste the code in a text editor and save anywhere, no root privileges are required, you can just drop it into your home folder somewhere, make sure it's executable and then run it and see. Since it writes to .asoundrc your settings will (normally) survive re-boots, and if it does work you can use it to switch between cards during a session.

You need to have yad installed for it to work, and of course all the usual alsa packages which you likely already have.

If it's all good and you like it, put it in your $PATH somewhere and make you a .desktop for it so it will be in the menu.

Possibly something in here that might help, dunno as I don't have a usb card or a multi-card machine to test on:

#!/bin/sh
# soundswitch – Simple utility to change soundcards, part of AlsaTune.
# Copyleft greenjeans 2025. This is FREE software with NO warranty, use at your own risk!

if [ ! -f ~/.asoundrc ]; then
    yad --error --title="Error" --width=400 --center --text-align=center --window-icon=error \
        --text="\nNo config file (.asoundrc) found in user's home.\n\nChoose <b>Okay</b> to install a generic version,\nor choose <b>Cancel</b> to abort.\n" \
        --button="Okay:0" --button="Cancel:1" --fixed
        
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    cp /usr/share/alsatune/.asoundrc ~/.asoundrc
  else
    exit 1
  fi
fi

CARDS=$(aplay -l | grep "^card [0-9]")

CHOICE=$(echo "$CARDS" | yad --list --title="Select Sound Card" \
    --column="Choose card/device" --width=550 --height=300 --window-icon=audio-speakers \
    --button="Apply:0" --button="Cancel:1")

[ $? -ne 0 ] && exit 1

# Extract both card and device number from the selected line
CARD_NUM=$(echo "$CHOICE" | grep -o 'card [0-9]' | cut -d' ' -f2)
DEV_NUM=$(echo "$CHOICE" | grep -o 'device [0-9]' | head -n1 | cut -d' ' -f2)
[ -z "$DEV_NUM" ] && DEV_NUM=0        # safety net

if [ -z "$CARD_NUM" ]; then
  yad --title="Error" --width=300 --center --text-align=center --window-icon=error \
--text="\nNo card was selected. Exiting..." --no-buttons --timeout=3
  exit 1
fi

cp ~/.asoundrc ~/.asoundrc.bak 2>/dev/null || true

# Replace card/device number(s).
sed -i \
    -e "s/hw:[0-9]*,[0-9]/hw:$CARD_NUM,$DEV_NUM/g" \
    -e "s/plughw:[0-9]*,[0-9]/plughw:$CARD_NUM,$DEV_NUM/g" \
    -e "s/card [0-9]/card $CARD_NUM/g" \
    ~/.asoundrc

yad --title="AlsaTune" --window-icon=audio-speakers --text-align=center --width=340 --center \
    --text="\nNow using Card $CARD_NUM – Device $DEV_NUM\n\nConfig backed up to ~/.asoundrc.bak\n" \
    --button=gtk-ok:0 --fixed

Also a test iso available with it pre-installed and compiled, it's not installed system-wide as a replacement but as an alternate set of libraries you can run gtk2 apps against and be able to compare both side-by-side.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vuu-do … g-testing/

Sweet! downloading here shortly, this is of great interest to me as i'm still working on building a server to host a Devuan repo. Can I pick your brains via PM to get some tips?

Looks like you might be missing a python package for tinycss2, is it not available in excalibur? Don't have running instance to check myself.

python3-tinycss
python3-tinycss2