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natanel

Member

Registered: 2025-06-01

Posts: 2  

[SOLVED] New to Devuan - I have some questions

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right place to get answers to my questions. Also, please excuse my awful English in advance, as English isn't my native language.
I don't want to waste your time more than I already did, I'll just ask my questions straight (sorry if my questions are idiotic, I am a n00b):

1. When you define Devuan as "Debian without systemd", do you mean that is 1:1 Debian without systemd and any software that require systemd and can not operate without it? What about libvirt and incus - can I use them with Devuan? What can't I use?

2. Debian allows its users to have a local mirror. If I want to have a local Devuan mirror, is it possible too? is it the same procedure?

3. And maybe my most interesting question: Why can't Debian just give up on Systemd? If too many people loath it (and you can understand that I'm one of them - otherwise I wouldn't be here), why can't we choose our own alternative for systemd, and allow those who want to choose systemd without coercing on those who doesn't? personally, I prefer OpenRC but if you can give me the ability to choose which I prefer (SysVInit, OpenRC and runit if I am not wrong), why does Debian force me to have systemd?

Right now, I am using Debian on my main PCs, and having Devuan in a VM, but I want (hopefully in the nearest future) to move from Debian to Devuan, as my main OS. I'm not there yet but I make my first steps, one step at a time. Also, I found out that my Devuan VMs are booting faster than the Debian VMs, so I tend to precede that switch.

Thank you for your time and answers

Last edited by natanel (2025-06-01 20:15:28)

lynch9

Member

Registered: 2024-07-17

Posts: 25  

Re: [SOLVED] New to Devuan - I have some questions

Hey, your english is just fine don't worry aha

1. It's pretty literal. Devuan tracks Debian closely, same packages, same structure, same tooling but with systemd  ripped out. Instead of systemd, you get sysv by default, but openrc and runit are also fully supported. Now, about libvirt: it works. You might need to tweak service files depending on how you launch libvirtd, but nothing show-stopping. incus, though, i would guess it will be trickiersince it’s a LXD fork and the LXD ecosystem has kinda bought into systemd socket activation and blah blah so you could maybe make it work with some shims or wrappers, but you’re really swimming upstream. 90–95% of packages work out of the box. Stuff that's glued to systemd will either:

    not be in the repo

    or need hacks

2. Yep. Devuan uses the same repo layout (dists/, pool/, Packages.gz, etc.) so you caan use rsync, apt-mirror, reprepro, whatever you like.

3. I cant speak for the devs but here's my thoughts: Debian could support multiple inits, but unless there’s a huge shift in developer interest, it just won’t happen. It’s systemd or bust, unless you jump ship lol (which you’re already doing). Upstream projects started assuming systemd APIs too, it seems (GNOME).

Note: i can't recommend enough debian's personal security guide, so consider following it when permanently migrating to devuan: https://wiki.debian.org/SetupGuides/Sec … alComputer

---

Hey, it's lynchian9.
Feel free to reach out via email.

ralph.ronnquist

Administrator

From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS

Registered: 2016-11-30

Posts: 1,397  

Re: [SOLVED] New to Devuan - I have some questions

An addendum to answer 2:
a devuan repository is actually a kind of overlay where it provides all index files (the dists trees) but has only the forked packages in its pool tree. All other packages are set up to be accessed directly from debian's repositories. This is done by the index including a URI prefix of either DEVUAN or DEBIAN for the packages' filename attribute, so that the devuan server (and mirror) can distinguish and respond with redirect's for the DEBIAN packages. See https://pkgmaster.devuan.org/devuan_mir … hrough.txt for some more details on this.

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 470  

Re: [SOLVED] New to Devuan - I have some questions

There are other systemd free distros - https://www.slant.co/topics/18348/~linu … se-systemd

But Devuan is a very good choice....

natanel

Member

Registered: 2025-06-01

Posts: 2  

Re: [SOLVED] New to Devuan - I have some questions

Hi, thank you all for your responses! Also, thank you for having me on this forum, I guess I'll have more questions in the future as I'll continue my journey.

Regarding other Non-systemd distros:

I am aware to Gentoo, Hyperbola (which is, and correct me if I am wrong, an Arch derivative) and Alpine, but: I'm still not an advanced user to try Gentoo and Hyperbola, and I avoid Alpine because Alpine is a Non-GNU distro (I want GNU). Also, Alpine uses busybox, and I hate busybox more than I hate Systemd (I have it on my NAS WD-EX2ULTRA server, and that's a huge pain in the ass. I feel like I can't control my own device - there's not even a "shutdown" command. Perhaps i'm too bad at Linux, but busybox is like a Linux prison to me. Less prison then MS Windows, but still a prison).

I find Devuan as the currently best option for my desires: on one hand, it's easy as Debian - I don't have to deal with the complex installation of Arch / Arch-like OS, and on the other hand, It's more free than Debian itself as it gives me the opportunity to try other init systems, while Debian is forcing me to use Systemd.

I do want to expand my experience with other GNU+Linux distros, and I do want to try Hyperbola and Gentoo, but before I even think about trying them, I want to find my main OS - and I want it to be Devuan.

Last edited by natanel (2025-06-02 15:56:35)