Raspberry Pi 5

rgsidler · 2024-01-24 05:45:00

Hi folks

I am trying to find a Devuan net-install image for the Raspberry Pi 5 for quite a bit of time now, but didn't find anything.

Does anybody know a way to install Devuan on it?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions

Roland

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2024-01-24 18:07:54

adding link for possible review

ttps://downloads.raspberrypi.com/raspios_armhf/release_notes.txt

golinux · 2024-01-24 19:13:52

Is what you want not available from https://arm-files.devuan.org/

UnixMan1230 · 2024-01-24 22:03:56

@golinux Those images are only good up to the Raspberry Pi 4 last I looked.

To the OP, The raspberry Pi 5 *shouldn't* need any special firmware anymore to boot, its all stored on the on-board ROM now. So, potentially, the RPi4 image should/could work, though performance may not be optimal without a kernel built specially for the board.

vortex · 2024-01-24 22:58:35

I'm currently updating the nightly build system for RPi images that are uploaded to https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … %20Builds/ and this will include RPi5 images. I expect to include chimaera & daedalus RPi5 nightly builds in the next week or so.

For those who can't wait, there is a beta image here http://exaybachay.free2air.net/transfer … 6-1332.zip

zapper · 2024-01-25 00:48:04

How fast does a raspberry pi 5 run off of a micro sd card btw? I know how sluggish the first one is, but I don't know how fast the other four/five are, depends if you including the zero.

c0rnelius · 2024-01-25 13:52:16

@vortex Technically new ARM64 images generated by the builder for the pi4 "bcm2711" can be used to boot the pi3, pi4 and pi5 and any other variant using the same SoC. If you make pi5 "bcm2712" specific images, they can only be used on the pi5.

rgsidler · 2024-01-25 15:09:02

Thank you very much for your kind answers.

Well, I tried to boot the Pi 5 with an arm64 daedalus-image but got the message that a specific bcm2712.dtb was missing in the device tree

Unfortunately I am still stuck at that point.

Camtaf · 2024-01-25 17:32:06

I expect you could add it from an official raspios image, if you want, it should sit on the first (DOS) partition...

https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-firm … pi-5-b.dtb

(Click on 'view raw')

Last edited by Camtaf (2024-01-25 17:35:25)

vortex · 2024-01-26 07:14:02

@c0rnelius As always, thanks. The build for RPi5 is/will be built for bcm2712.

All the builds in https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … %20Builds/ are built using the variant for the specific hardware and archictecture.

vortex · 2024-01-26 07:28:07

@rgsidler To get up and running now, two options include taking the advice of @Camtaf for adding bcm2712.dtb or try the beta image I posted above which does boot on a RPi5.

On that beta image, I'm currently researching some some odd RPi5 specific behaviour with sddm & KDE rendering before adding images to the arm-files site (as it's likely to impact other desktops in some way).

rgsidler · 2024-01-26 07:48:07

@vortex / @cOrnelius

Thank you for your support!

I definitely do not want to use RaspiOS, since it depends on systemd. And - since I am clearly not as familiar with Linux as you are — therefore, I appreciate your support very much!

Roland

vortex · 2024-01-26 08:22:21

@zapper the hardware specific, systemd-less devuan images will be faster than stock generic raspios, but for performance review, check out https://www.phoronix.com/review/raspber … benchmarks

rgsidler · 2024-01-26 12:08:42

@Camtaf Thank you so much — such a simple solution to solve my problem!

I use Pis for business, but for a presentation screen, the Pi 3B+ is to weak - espeacially, if you use Libreoffice Impress - that will solve the problem!

Sincerely

Roland

zapper · 2024-02-03 04:40:08

@Vortex any benchmarks with speed of Reading and writing files and/or copying as well?

Like what speed, etc?

I am sure its faster to use ARM with micro sd than x86 due to the technology being newer.

koarrl · 2024-05-21 10:18:47

Hi to you all!

I just (May 24) purchased a Raspi5 for interest. Wanted to get my Raspi4 devuan boot SSD running and learned that things arent such easy...
It's about my home dokuwiki (plus other tasks) server. I'm currently using a Pi4 booting from SSD, headless minimum daredalus system, no bling-bling. Runs like a charm.

My (maybe quick & dirty) approach to get a devuan-daedalus-bootable-from-SDcard text mode Pi5 was as follows:

- download recent arm64 minimum SDcard image (raspios-bookworm-lite-arm64 from downloads.raspberrypi.com)
- dd that image onto a SDcard
- fdisk that SDcard, delete Linux partition (p2) and create an entirely new one
- mkfs.ext4 that partition
- cp -a the root tree of my devuan-daedalus system SSD running on Pi4 to the empty SDcard partition
- edit /etc/fstab in order to get correct UUIDs for the mountpoints "/boot/broadcom" and "/"
- insert SDcard, power on .. YEAH! IT'S RUNNING!

It's kinda Frankenstein solution, I'm aware. Too much unnecessary bloated stuff on the FAT partition, maybe using a kernel which is not optimized in terms of speed and hardware support.

Next step will be to make this system booting from a USB3 SSD ...
Furthermore I'd like to attach a UPS HAT to the Pi5 because my solar powerplant delivers short blackouts sometimes :-/

Stay tuned, friends!

P.S. booting from the said SDcard via a USB3 adapter is working out-of-the box. Takes some seconds in extra, maybe.
P.P.S. wlan I/F setup still undone

Last edited by koarrl (2024-05-21 10:28:18)

koarrl · 2024-08-05 16:36:23

Oh, I forgot to mention: in addition you must extract the /lib/modules/kernel_in_use from the expanded raspios-bookworm-lite-arm64 image to your devuan-daedalus root partition.

Wondered why nfs-kernel-server and wifi stuff weren't functional ... solved.

Gnostic · 2025-10-28 18:13:20

Thanks to all for the guidance. Can I contribute my own story, on how I got Devuan running on RPi5?

The following was done on a Pi5 with a M2 compact Hat and a 1TB NVME.

I tried the main "Get Devuan" page, looking for an ARM or RPi5 version to download
https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan

But I got confused by that, sorry. :-(

Thanks to this topic, found the Latest Builds page.
https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … %20Builds/

I chose
rpi-devuan-daedalus-6.1.93-armel-ext4-2025-10-16-0434.img
and flashed that image onto a Class 10 32GB SD card
(sticking to reputable brands with good performance)

Plug that in the Pi and it boots nicely to a command line.
Logon with the default user & pswrd of devuan, devuan
Then use menu-config to setup the basics.
But it is just the command line with no GUI.

Next, what desktop to use? I tried KDE.
sudo apt install kde-full

This was a mistake! From the size of the download and the time it took to install (30 mins +), I was thinking this is a *big* package. Sure enough, on the Pi5, its big, fat and slow. You can get a good idea how old the basic package is when you go looking for whatever Internet Browser comes with it. Firefox and Chrome aren't there, what you get is Konqueror. It felt like lurching back in time by at least ten years.

Next, change to XFCE
sudo apt install xfce4
A smaller download, and quicker to install, which is an encouraging sign.

Also needed lightdm, so that I could switch from KDE to XFCE
sudo apt install lightdm

Sure enough, XFCE is much faster than KDE on the Pi, and a pleasure to use. At this point, I had a stable and usable Devuan desktop booting from the SD card. But still had Raspian on the faster NVME.

Next:
How to copy Devuan from the SD to the NVME?
I wasn't feeling confident enough about using command line tools (dd)
So I tried rpi-clone
https://rpi-clone.jeffgeerling.com/

That talks about cloning an SD card to NVME
sudo rpi-clone nvme0n1
But that just did not work for me.
"Device not found" - even though nvme0n1 was visible with lsblk

Plan B?
Boot from Raspian on the NVME
Plug in a spare USB3 HDD
Use Raspian to install another copy of Raspian onto the spare USB3 HDD.
Then boot Raspian from the USB3 HDD.

Now both the Devuan (on the SD) and the NVME are visible without being active devices.
Use the Raspian Image Copier to clone from SD to NVME.
Shutdown, unplug the spare USB3 HDD.
Put a "backup" label on that and put it on the spare parts shelf.

Reboot from NVME, and here we are now, writing in Pi5 Devuan on the NVME.
Thanks!

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · Yesterday 04:35:59

^^^ @Gnostic, thank you for taking the time and effort to post your experiences and successes! future visitors will appreciate it! kudos.

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#1 2024-01-24 05:45:00

Raspberry Pi 5

#2 2024-01-24 18:07:54

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#3 2024-01-24 19:13:52

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#4 2024-01-24 22:03:56

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#5 2024-01-24 22:58:35

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#6 2024-01-25 00:48:04

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#7 2024-01-25 13:52:16

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#8 2024-01-25 15:09:02

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#9 2024-01-25 17:32:06

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#10 2024-01-26 07:14:02

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#11 2024-01-26 07:28:07

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#12 2024-01-26 07:48:07

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#13 2024-01-26 08:22:21

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#14 2024-01-26 12:08:42

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#15 2024-02-03 04:40:08

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#16 2024-05-21 10:18:47

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#17 2024-08-05 16:36:23

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#18 2025-10-28 18:13:20

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

#19 Yesterday 04:35:59

Re: Raspberry Pi 5

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