Installating Excalibur (init, luks, cinnamon, zoom, nvidia, steam etc)

zaubberer23 · Yesterday 14:15:15

I don't know if this belongs here. If not - I am new, sorry - please delete. Thanks mod.

My experience installing devuan_excalibur_6.0-20250823_amd64_netinstall.iso using sysvinit, UEFI, /dev/nvme0n1p1 FAT EFI System, /dev/nvme0n1p2 Ext4 /boot, /dev/nvme0n1p3 LUKS Encryption (version 2) for the rest (i know, i know.. one root for all is like having the bathroom in the kitchen or a Ferguson in the living room). Did a standard install selecting the Cinnamon Desktop.

Software I installed afterwards with (too much) comments:

Zoom Desktop

Using a script to download the latest Zoom, install prerequisites, use a script to re-pack the deb to remove stupid ibus dependencies from the billion dollar company (aka Zoom) deb-package because they can't create a correct deb-package.

Install prerequisits for Zoom desktop:
sudo apt install libxcb-xtest0 libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-image0 libxcb-cursor0 libxcb-icccm4 libxcb-render-util0
I use the following script - see: Unix Stackexchange - to download and re-package zoom_amd64.deb excluding ibus dependencies:

#!/bin/sh
set -xe
tmp=$(mktemp -d)
cd "${tmp}"
name='zoom.deb'
wget https://zoom.us/client/latest/zoom_amd64.deb -O "${name}"
dpkg -x "${name}" zoom
dpkg -e "${name}" zoom/DEBIAN
sed -i -E 's/(ibus, |, ibus)//' zoom/DEBIAN/control
dpkg-deb --root-owner-group --build zoom "${name}"
sudo dpkg -i "${name}"
rm -rf "${tmp}"

MEGA.nz

Installation of megasync-Debian_13_amd64.deb and nemo-megasync-Debian_13_amd64.deb without problems. The package will install quite a lot of dependencies (qt5 et al) though. All dependencies were found and installed without problems.

Evolution (MS-Exchange)

Installed apt install evolution-ews and connected to MS-Exchange OWA including calendar and addressbook with no issues.

NVIDIA

I got a sweet, nice GTX 1060 in my ZBox. To get her going beyond nouveau, I gave it a try with NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.95.05.run and succeeded.
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64 linux-source
sudo apt install libc6:i386 libstdc++6:i386 # c++ is probably not needed for NVIDIA (Kernel is C, not C++, not RUST)

Reboot. At GRUB enter "e" and replace "quiet" with "text". CTRL-X and boot into text-only mode, then login and:
cd Downloads
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.95.05.run

This will make all changes necessary to remove "nouveau" during the next boot. The script will also re-create the initrd image for you. I didn't continue the install with "nouveau" still active and opted for aborting the current install, reboot the machine, at GRUB enter "e", replace "quiet" with "text" (again), CTRL-X and boot into text-only mode, login and start the installer (again):
cd Downloads
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.95.05.run

It installed without any errors including the 32 Bit parts. I let it write a new X config and rebooted. This time without changing to text-only and voila: It works.

Steam

Did download steam_latest.deb from steampowered.com and double clicked it Steam opened a window telling me, it needs to install dependencies (libc6:amd64, libc6:i386, libegl1:amd64, libegl1:i386, libgbm1:amd64 libgbm1:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1:amd64 libgl1:i386 steam-libs-amd64:amd64, steam-libs-i386:i386) which in turn need loads of other dependencies to be installed but all of them where found and installed
Clicked the Steam icon on my Desktop and logged in via Steam Guard QR code successfully.

Skyrim

Installed Skyrim SE Checked with NVIDIA X Server Settings that my monitor is not running with something other than 60 Hz (Todd Frequency). Pressed Start in Steam. Vulkan Shaders were processed. Skyrim is running It just works! The system is now complete. You can stop reading now

Obsidian

For Obsidian I use the AppImage. I needed to install sudo apt install libfuse2t64 (Fuse) for the AppImage to work. No other hurdles were discovered.

Floorp

Installing external software, in this case the browser Floorp worked as described in their installation documentation:
curl -fsSL https://ppa.floorp.app/KEY.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/Floorp.gpg
sudo curl -sS --compressed -o /etc/apt/sources.list.d/Floorp.list 'https://ppa.floorp.app/Floorp.list'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install floorp

Cinnamon Double Title Bars

Some windows have two title bars. This is a problem with CSD (Client Side Decorations) issued by the application. The solution was to remove sudo apt purge gtk3-nocsd and reboot (a re-login might be enough).

yt-dlp

I download the executable for Linux and put it in my local bin path (see your $HOME/.profile which will include .local/bin (and / or $HOME/bin) in your PATH if it exists). Works fine with the installed ffmpeg, see "Other software". Can update via yt-dlp -U as it belongs to my user. Added two aliases in $HOME/.bash_aliases for convenience:
alias ytl='yt-dlp --trim-filenames 100 -f bv[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4]/b'
alias ytm='yt-dlp -f bestaudio --extract-audio --audio-quality 0 --audio-format mp3'

Rhythmbox

Does not werk. Didn't look into it. I use apt install cmus for the time being.

Other software

zip
curl
graphicsmagick
python3-venv
ffmpeg
keepassxc-minimal
... and more (vim, apostrophe, pandoc, texlive, ...)

I am happy

Well.. One more thing...

Activate Case Insensitivity in ext4 i.e. casefold

I would like to have casefold activated on my main parition, which is a LUKS encrypted one. It is available:
$ sudo cat /sys/fs/ext4/features/casefold
supported

but not yet active:
$ sudo dumpe2fs -h /dev/mapper/something-vg-darkside | grep 'Filesystem features'
dumpe2fs 1.47.2 (1-Jan-2025)
Filesystem features: has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index orphan_file filetype needs_recovery extent 64bit flex_bg metadata_csum_seed sparse_super large_file huge_file dir_nlink extra_isize metadata_csum orphan_present

Why, you ask? Well.. there is Windows software, i.e. "Games", but also Adobe that does not care about case and therefore won't find essential files, because the one coder tries to load "Settings.conf" while the other coder writes "settings.conf". Windows don't care, ext4 however...

So I need to somehow issue tune2fs -O casefold /dev/mapper/something-vg-darkside before it is mounted. Fun!

Dumb person (me) setting up casefold

This is what I did. It is probably completely stupid and dumb, just like I am, but it worked.
I created a file tune2fs by issuing sudo vi /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-premount/tune2fs with the following contents (Inspiration taken from Unix Stackexchange):
#
# Include tune2fs in initramfs
#
prereqs()
{
. /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions
copy_exec /usr/sbin/tune2fs usr/sbin/tune2fs
}
case $1 in
# get pre-requisites
prereqs)
prereqs
exit 0
;;
esac
echo "Providing tune2fs in /usr/sbin"

Then made it executable sudo chmod +x /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-premount/tune2fs and updated initramfs sudo update-initramfs -u followed by a reboot.
I - again - pressed e to edit the GRUB startup file. In the "linux" line I removed everything from the end up to and including the "root=" part, so basically there was only the linux version and I added "init=/bin/bash" and CTRL-X'ed my way outta there.
The boot process asked me for my LUKS crypt password and then dropped to busybox as the "root=" part was missing.
No need to "cryptsetup" or any other magic, the unencrypted partition was already visible in /dev/mapper/something-vg-darkside and not mounted anywhere, which is great.
ls /usr/sbin revealed that - indeed - tune2fs was there So here we go:
(initramfs) tune2fs -O casefold /dev/mapper/something-vg-darkside
As reboot did nothing, neither did poweroff apparently the magic CTRL-AMIGA-AMIGA ehrm I mean CTRL-ALT-DEL did work and after rebooting into Devuan I checked:
$ sudo dumpe2fs -h /dev/mapper/something-vs-darkside | grep 'Filesystem features'
dumpe2fs 1.47.2 (1-Jan-2025)
Filesystem features: has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index orphan_file filetype needs_recovery extent 64bit flex_bg metadata_csum_seed casefold sparse_super large_file huge_file dir_nlink extra_isize metadata_csum orphan_present

CASEFOLD! We have casefold! 32 minutes past the hour.

I did sudo rm /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-premount/tune2fs and sudo update-initramfs -u afterwards - don't want any commands laying around in initramfs that I don't need anymore.

Having casefold will give me the opportunity to first move $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common to another location, then re-create Steam's common directory and set the casefold flag:
$ mkdir ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common
$ chattr +F ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common
$ lsattr -d ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common
----------------F--- /home/doofkopp/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common

You can only set the flag on an empty directory. Now, that it is set, fill in the contents from the moved one.

You can do the same for Wine Bottles etc. just to make sure your ~~Chloe18~~ games work as intended.

fsmithred · Yesterday 15:06:08

The only thing I can help with is zoom. I always refuse the app and eventually there's a link way down at the bottom of the page in small print that says something like "enter zoom with your browser". Works fine with chromium.

golinux · Yesterday 16:19:40

What the heck is zoom?

Note to OP . . .

Code tags are easier to read.

g4sra · Yesterday 17:01:36

@zaubberer23, Informative and useful post, I appreciate the detail and the time you must have spent drafting it.
NB. I use dkms nvidia-current/535.247.01 straight from the repo without issue and as a package it plays nice with the rest of Devuan. It's not the latest and greatest version, but it is years newer than my GPU which consequentially is fully supported.

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#1 Yesterday 14:15:15