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MLEvD

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 141  

Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

We've all done this, right? Removed systemd without first installing an alternative, rebooting.
I have a root prompt and nothing seems to work. How to install init without an init?
Do we even need an init?

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

Just load up the Devuan ISO image and use rescue mode to gain a shell in the installed system with a working internet connection so that you can install whatever you want.

IIRC though it's impossible to remove the init metapackge (of which systemd & sysvinit are dependencies) without being told how stupid an idea that is; APT requires you to confirm that you want to do something that will probably wreck your machines and you said "yes". Why?

---

Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

User479

Member

From: Central USA

Registered: 2021-11-07

Posts: 25  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

Migrating from Bullseye using https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … o-chimaera seems to result in no init system getting installed to replace systemd.  I wonder if

apt-get install eudev

  should be

apt-get install eudev sysvinit-core

instead?

The guide also says "The last command may cause package breaks..." so answering "yes" to "wreck my machine" can seem reasonable to someone that hasn't been through this process before.

User479

Member

From: Central USA

Registered: 2021-11-07

Posts: 25  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

In my case, "apt-get install eudev sysvinit-core" was the key.  Even after that though, the "apt-get -f install" did not complete.  I did a "dpkg --configure --pending" to get sysvinit-core and sysv-rc configured (plus a couple other packages), rebooted, then did another "apt-get -f install" which then completed.  "apt-get dist-upgrade" was successful and I have a working Chimaera system!

After reinstalling a bunch of stuff I will have successfully moved from Debian Lennax to Devuan Linux.  FTW!

Aleksanders

Member

Registered: 2021-04-21

Posts: 16  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

I migrated from Debian 11 to Devuan 4 only using USB boot and recovery mode. I have no idea how to make install eudev without removing systemd, but unable to remove systemd if it current active init system. Recovery mode with chroot to target system solves this problem. Now I have Devuan 4 without full reinstallation.

MLEvD

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 141  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

User479 you are right! It is a bug in the install documentation.

I can't log it until i've figured out how to log my other bug. Anybody?

MLEvD

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 141  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

I can happy. Just tried netinstall of debian bullseye, but took advice to open a terminal before the 'select and install software' stage, did chroot into /target, apt install sysvinit-core elogind libpam-elogind, then continued as normal with the install. This is on the asus eee pc 701, originally a machine that ran debian and runit in 2007.

I haven't seen linux working this well on this machine since LMDE 2! It has no problem connecting to wifi, or continuing if no wifi, all audio settings persist, and it hibernates reliably even when the grub timeout is set to zero.
Can't wait to try this approach with LMDE 5. Hoping it will work.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

The update to the migration guide is in the works. Thanks!

MLEvD

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 141  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

The update to the migration guide is in the works. Thanks!

Thank YOU too!

Aleksanders

Member

Registered: 2021-04-21

Posts: 16  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

Sometimes for upgrade process helps this:
# dpkg --configure -a
or:
# apt -f install
or:
apt --fix-broken install
or:
# apt -f -y full-upgrade
or:
# apt -f -y dist-upgrade
or:
# apt purge {packagename} - in the case of package or its configuration error
or:
# apt autoremove --purge
or:
# apt install linux-image-amd64 (or linux-image-i386)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

linux-image-i386

There is no such (meta)package. I think you mean linux-image-686 (for older machines) or linux-image-686-pae.

---

Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

Aleksanders

Member

Registered: 2021-04-21

Posts: 16  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

Maybe. I use only x64 hardware.
Most helpfully for me was: dpkg --configure -a

MLEvD

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 141  

Re: Upgrade from debian bullseye to chimeara, no init!

In the end, success. Clearly systemd won't allow live removal, but debian documentation on init suggests you can --download-only the packages you need, then switch to rescue mode, and install them. This also didn't work.
In the end, needed to use rescue mode on a netinstaller to do the installation.
Then found there appears to be no way to proceed with debian repos, so had to switch over to devuan to install eudev and get everything else installed,
This was LMDE3 upgraded incorrectly to LMDE4 Debbie repos with debian chassis, now devuan beowulf chassis with LMDE4 repos.

All we need are devuan specific spins of mintSources and mintMirrors, and what do mintsystem and plymouth do anyway?

This sysv-init-LMDE4 incarnation idles with a mate desktop with a mint menu in less than 100 MB.

I think it's fair to suggest that the debian documentation on switching to sysv from systemd, is lacking in clarity. The devuan documentation also seems wanting, in light of this.