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robertson

Member

Registered: 2026-06-25

Posts: 1  

Questions about Upgrading Exe GNU/Linux

Hello,

First, a big thank you to all of the Devuan developers and also to David Hare for Exe GNU/Linux.  Some family members and I use both Devuan and Exe GNU/Linux as "daily drivers," and we are most grateful.

I am hoping to upgrade a system that is currently running Exe GNU/Linux Daedalus to Excalibur.  I've successfully done an upgrade from plain Devuan Daedalus to Excalibur before, so I am hoping the process is basically the same for Exe GNU/Linux.

My plan is to alter the /etc/apt/sources.list and the files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ as follows, and then follow the instructions at https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … -excalibur , of course making sure to diligently perform the usrmerge step before anything else.

1. Change the main /etc/apt/sources.list file to switch from daedalus to excalibur (some extra commented lines left out for clarity).

## /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur main non-free-firmware
#deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main non-free-firmware

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur-security main non-free-firmware
#deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-security main non-free-firmware

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur-updates main non-free-firmware
#deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-updates main non-free-firmware

2. Change /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tde.list similarly (some extra commented lines left out for clarity).

## /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tde.list
deb http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-r14.1.x excalibur deps main
#deb http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-r14.1.x daedalus main deps

## [New in Exe GNU/Linux Excalibur]
# Trinity preliminary stable builds
deb http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-sb excalibur deps-r14 main-r14

A HUGE question I have is: How necessary is the entry

# Trinity preliminary stable builds
deb http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-sb excalibur deps-r14 main-r14

in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tde.list? I see it in a VM installtion of Exe GNU/Linux Excalibur. The Daedalus installation does not have a corresponding entry. I'm not even 100% certain what Preliminary Stable Builds exactly are (https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/Prelimi … ble_Builds) and what the pros and cons may be? Does Exe Excalibur simply require them for specific versions of specific things and I shouldn't worry too much and just go with it?

I am planning to skip altogether

/etc/apt/sources/lists.d/freesh.sources

(which I see in a fresh VM installation of Exe GNU/Linux Excalibur) as I don't think I need it. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I am also skipping librewolf.list (I am not using LibreWolf) and basically ignoring exegnu.list (every entry of that file is commented out and I've never had reason to uncomment them--I will probably add the commented excalibur line just for completeness' sake).

I just wanted to run all of this this past the members of this forum and make sure these steps look correct. Did I miss anything? Has anyone else done this upgrade and have any advice? Thank you all!

Marjorie

Member

From: Teignmouth, UK

Registered: 2019-06-09

Posts: 224  

Re: Questions about Upgrading Exe GNU/Linux

note the instructions in https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … -excalibur:

- you need to ensure that your existing Daedalus is up to date.

- for your own peace of mind a this stage I would suggest you make a restorable backup so you can rewind if anything goes wrong.

- Then do usrmerge.

- Then change the sources.list as indicated in that document, note this is not the first step
.
- You may want to add non-free and contrib as well as non-free firmware to each line. Basically follow what you do now by just changing the Distribution name on each line from Daedalus to Excalibur.

- Then do the update.
  Make a note of any config changes as you go. In mosr cases go with your choices/overrides vs the package default.
  The config elements I had most changes to make to the defaults were Dovecot and Fail2ban but that was only relevant to my postfix-based mailserver.

I can't comment on your non Debian/Devuan Trinity repository.
It's generally thought safer not to enable these when doing the initial update but I don't know how essential they are to your particular configuration. If you have Trinity instructions on how to update from Bookworm to Trixie then they are probably still correct for Devuan.

dzz

Member

From: Exmouth, South West England

Registered: 2016-12-01

Posts: 119  

Re: Questions about Upgrading Exe GNU/Linux

Devuan specific installation of TDE is actually documented quite well.

"Preliminary stable" is the TDE rolling release, available for all Devuan releases but mainly for freia/ceres.

deb http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-r14.1.x excalibur deps main

is all you want unless you got a reason to use their rolling release.

If you don't use librewolf, best uninstall it, comment or remove the repo list and install your browser of choice from the main Devuan repo.

The exegnu.list hosts some custom debs, non-essential  post-installation.

Thanks Marjorie (and greetings from across the River Exe!) the rest is as you say.

Hope your upgrade goes well!