How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

LibertySysadmin · 2025-06-24 00:05:34

Hi all,

I’m currently running Devuan Daedalus with the MATE desktop and I’m interested in installing XLibre. I wasn’t able to find much documentation on how to set it up, and wanted to ask if anyone here has experience with it.

Is there a recommended method for installing XLibre on Devuan?

Do I need to remove or disable anything MATE-related beforehand?

Any potential conflicts I should watch out for?

Thanks in advance for your help. I really appreciate how clean and sane Devuan is — this distro just makes sense.

golinux · 2025-06-24 00:48:25

Welcome to paradise erm Devuan! AFAIK, no one in this camp has experimented with XLibre. Perhaps you would like to lead the testing and adaptation of XLibre for Devuan?

sagemage · 2025-06-24 00:56:08

I would be inclined to wait until a bleeding edge distro like Artix Linux has it in their somewhat stable galaxy (main) repo, its still in testing there.
https://packages.artixlinux.org/package … e-xserver/

You could give it a try though, im sure if you joined xlibre mailing list,telegram,matrix chat they might be able to help you out.
https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
https://www.freelists.org/list/xlibre
https://t.me/x11dev
https://matrix.to/#/#xlibre:matrix.org

LibertySysadmin · 2025-06-24 05:24:35

@golinux — Haha, paradise indeed! I might just take you up on that challenge. I’ll start poking around and see how far I can get with XLibre on Daedalus. If I make progress, I’ll report back here and possibly write up a guide for others down the line.

LibertySysadmin · 2025-06-24 05:25:07

@sagemage — Appreciate the links! I agree, letting it bake a little longer in the Artix galaxy repo might be the cautious route. But I’m also curious enough to explore, especially since I’m running this on non-critical hardware. I’ll check out the GitHub and join the Matrix or Telegram chats as I dig in.

Thanks again to both of you — great to see such a helpful community!

brocashelm · 2025-06-24 06:25:32

@LibertySysadmin:

If you use IRC, there's also an #xlibre channel at irc.libera.chat.

yurimodin · 2025-06-24 16:32:30

Kinda goes against the Debian/Devuan Stable philosophy but good luck. You would probobly have an easier time in Sid/Ceres.

Keep in mind this is the very first release and even they say its Beta out of caution because stuff will break with a hard fork like this. I would suggest you give them a couple months to get settled in and by then somebody will probobly get a repo spun up etc.

LibertySysadmin · 2025-06-24 19:24:03

Thanks @brocashelm — hadn’t thought to check IRC but I’ll jump into #xlibre on libera.chat and see what I can learn. Appreciate the tip!

LibertySysadmin · 2025-06-24 19:25:40

That’s fair @yurimodin, and I respect Devuan’s stable-first approach.

That said, I’d argue the current display server landscape isn’t exactly “safe” either.

Xorg is essentially frozen — it's stable, yes, but also unmaintained long-term.

Wayland is being pushed hard, but it's still missing critical features and app compatibility for many users.

So in a weird way, trying out XLibre doesn’t feel any riskier — especially since it’s actively being developed to preserve familiar X11 behavior with a cleaner codebase.

I’m definitely not planning to run it in production — just testing on spare hardware to stay ahead of the curve and contribute if I can.

yurimodin · 2025-06-24 20:27:53

@LibertySysadmin

No harm in testing. I usually get something exotic like that sorted out in a VM first then goto HW.

zapper · 2025-06-25 03:18:22

I am not brave enough to try running xenocara or xlibre from a source build myself.

So I say, you bold.

zapper · 2025-06-25 03:44:27

@golinux I hear steve_v was trying to compile it for that purpose.

I don't know if he did.

steve_v · 2025-06-25 10:54:02

I hear steve_v was trying to compile it for that purpose.
I don't know if he did.

I built Xlibre on Gentoo, because that's my main these days and the only Devuan installs I have are headless servers I'm not about to screw around with for something they wouldn't even use.
There is now an overlay hosted at github.com/X11Libre/ports-gentoo, so trying it on Gentoo is no more difficult than installing any other live build.

I see no reason the xlibre devs would be against a similar arrangement for Devuan, were somebody with an appropriate build environment to adapt the Xorg spec files and build test packages. That shouldn't be particularly difficult to do (though personally I find the Debian packaging workflow somewhat convoluted and unpleasant), since the project structure is still very close to Xorg.

I mean I could probably do it in a VM or chroot, but not to put too fine a point on it... That's a lot of mucking about and the lack of effort from anyone else around here (who, unlike me, stand to benefit directly) isn't particularly motivating.

JWM-Kit · 2025-06-25 13:22:36

steve_v wrote:

though personally I find the Debian packaging workflow somewhat convoluted and unpleasant

So true! Thank you for saying it. Creating a PKBUILD, RPM spec, and other type packaging build is so simple. Yet Debian is so complicated. Debian really needs a better system.

steve_v wrote:

I mean I could probably do it in a VM . . .

I've thought about trying a VM. I just don't know when I'd find the time though. I must say though, I am excited about Xlibre.

Last edited by JWM-Kit (2025-06-26 12:48:29)

greenjeans · 2025-06-25 17:23:53

I mean I could probably do it in a VM or chroot, but not to put too fine a point on it... That's a lot of mucking about and the lack of effort from anyone else around here (who, unlike me, stand to benefit directly) isn't particularly motivating.

Bro, the project is literally in it's infancy, I only heard about it here when brocashelm posted about it. Cut us some slack, give us time to catch up...we all have busy lives outside of linux. There's plenty of Devuan folk on the xlibre IRC channel right now who are interested in helping, myself included.

steve_v · 2025-06-26 05:33:11

Cut us some slack, give us time to catch up...we all have busy lives outside of linux.

Oh that wasn't meant for you, you're making things. It was for the "I bet it could be done", "not brave enough", "I do hope that SOMEONE will", "above my pay grade", "Perhaps you would like to" bikeshedding crowd.

zapper · Today 00:56:41

@steve_v bikeshedding crowd? What the hell is that?

You sure use some unusual analogies

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · Today 03:34:08

re: bikeshed, bikeshedding, i.e. law of triviality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality

steve_v · Today 04:25:43

What the hell is that?

The ongoing trend of endless talk about politics, ideology, and trivia such as the personality of individual contributors or wording of a readme, all while "hoping" "someone" (else) will do the real work.

There is no "brave enough" in software development, and there is no danger in trying.
If you put as much energy into learning to compile or contribute to projects that you claim interest you as you do political ranting, you might even have some substance (i.e. technical points) to add to your usual "I hate [x], because feels/language/supposed power imbalance" nonsense.

Don't like "frog animations" (or whatever latest pointless rant was about)? Easy, don't look at them. Do something constructive instead.
Think xenocera is a better option for Devuan than xlibre? Cool, why not spend that energy compiling them on Devuan, testing them, and making a convincing case for one over the other?

You constantly spit bile at people and projects you don't like, yet those people and projects have, undeniably, made something. What have you made, besides noise?
You insult GNOME devs, but those GNOME devs made a complete desktop environment and gave it away for free, to all and sundry. You call youtubers you disagree with "parasites", yet even they put effort into learning video production and built a following... Where's your channel? Where's your competitor for gnome or wayland?

The real "Irony, irony, irony" here is that you depend entirely on software built by others, to insult the people who build such software.
IOW, define:parasite

Last edited by steve_v (Today 04:53:33)

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#1 2025-06-24 00:05:34

How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#2 2025-06-24 00:48:25

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#3 2025-06-24 00:56:08

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#4 2025-06-24 05:24:35

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#5 2025-06-24 05:25:07

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#6 2025-06-24 06:25:32

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#7 2025-06-24 16:32:30

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#8 2025-06-24 19:24:03

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#9 2025-06-24 19:25:40

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#10 2025-06-24 20:27:53

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#11 2025-06-25 03:18:22

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#12 2025-06-25 03:44:27

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#13 2025-06-25 10:54:02

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#14 2025-06-25 13:22:36

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#15 2025-06-25 17:23:53

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#16 2025-06-26 05:33:11

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#17 Today 00:56:41

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#18 Today 03:34:08

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

#19 Today 04:25:43

Re: How to Install XLibre on Devuan Daedalus (MATE)?

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