Some Concerning Bugs

onedevone · 2026-01-01 12:14:25

I used advance online installation as with ver 5, nothing has changed. Some bugs were carried over:

1. Can't chose other file systems than ext4. Ext4 was designed for spinning drives. Nobody is using it anymore. It's an ancient history. The only viable option for nand-flash storage is f2fs. It's been designe from the ground up for nand-flash storage. It's the only thing we have. We have nothing else. Just because some opensuse idiot messed up his lvm, and another repeted it on arch wiki, doesn't mean everyone has to listen to them. Tested for years by me
on Artix. No issues whatsoever.

What is expected:
Fix online installer to have f2fs both for "/" and "/home". Currently there is none.

2. Installer messes up partition and by default it choses 8GiB for SWAP. The system has 8 GB physical RAM. This is not sane, you should know better. I had to completely redo the partitions.

What is expected:
Running installation once before publishing and looking what is happening. Here look for insane defaults and fix the installer.

3. Installation via WiFi is impossible, due to user needed to completely memorisng nad manually putting SSID. Do you know your SSID by heart?

What is expected:
Fix installer. Scan networks inside the installler (nmcli dev wifi).

4. The installer cannot be booted when put on ext4 filesystem. Devuan is the only installer that cannot do this. One has to buy a separate USB stick.
Installer during booting throws bunch of exFAT errors (exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, exFAT error, .... hundreds of times).

What is expected:
I assume installer is dependent on propriatary, closed source, secret code filesystem by Microsoft. Remove Devauan installer dependency on poorly reverse-engineered propriatary garbage. Make it boot from ext4 like every other distro (Devuan is the only one incapable of booting from ext4). Since booting processed throwed my bunch of exFAT errrors on the whole screen, I assume that is the case.

5. Installer pollutes KDE with additional (useless for KDE users) TWO GTK terminals. KDE has its own 'Konsole'.

What is expected:
Whoever decided to add 2 GTK terminals for KDE installation, should go back and reverse his decitions.

This is the bug report for Devuan 6 Excalibur installer.

P.S. While registering human verification fails. You asked about current stable version codname. I assumed it was 'Excalibur'. I failed human verification.

steve_v · 2026-01-01 12:30:39

Nobody is using it anymore. It's an ancient history.

Bullshit.

The only viable option for nand-flash storage is f2fs.

Complete and utter bullshit.

Do you know your SSID by heart?

Yes.

The installer cannot be booted when put on ext4 filesystem.

The installation image is ISO-hybrid, you're supposed to write it directly to a block device.

ExFAT... I assume installer is dependent on propriatary, closed source, secret code filesystem by Microsoft.

There's wrong, and then there's fractally wrong.

I assume

You are mistaken. Follow the instructions and write the .iso to an unformatted raw block device or optical media with dd or wodim.

If you insist on doing your own thing WRT install media and filesystems, because "other distros, blah, blah", that's up to you... And you get to keep all the pieces when it inevitably doesn't work.

Last edited by steve_v (2026-01-01 12:53:54)

trinidad · 2026-01-01 13:15:17

There's wrong, and then there's fractally wrong.

Spectacular use of new language here!
Respect!

TC

greenjeans · 2026-01-01 14:27:51

Spectacular use of new language here!
Respect!
TC

No doubt, I had to look it up and it's definitely a thing, I mean I know what fractals are as I work with them a lot, but "fractally wrong" is it's own thing apparently!

steve_v · 2026-01-01 14:59:05

This particular nonsense is wrong on every level:
exFAT errors have nothing to do with the installer.
The installer doesn't use exFAT.
Even if it did, the Linux implementation is GPL, not proprietary or closed-source.
The exFAT spec and related patents were released in 2019, so it's not secret and not strictly owned by Microsoft (any more).
The Devuan installer doesn't depend on any "reverse-engineered propriatary [sic] garbage", poor or otherwise.
Even if we broaden "installer" to include the kernel, any included drivers are either clean GPL implementations or third-party binary-blobs, neither are "reverse engineered" from proprietary code.
And for bonus points: Devuan is not "incapable of booting from ext4", ext4 is in fact the default filesystem.

That said, it still isn't a very good example of fractal wrongness, but that's a term I don't get to use very often, so...

---

To return to the (well disguised as an unhinged rambling rant) original questions:

The installer does not currently support f2fs, largely because it's an uncommon choice outside of mobile phones and SD cards, so nobody cares enough to implement it. It is also still considered experimental by many distros, upstream Debian included.
If you want f2fs root, you do you. There are guides on the 'net, but I'd expect an Arch/Artix user (BTW) to already be quite familiar with manual installation.

The default swap partition size is just that, a default. If you don't like it, change it.

If you don't know your own wireless SSID and finding out is "impossible", I really don't know what to say.

If you don't like the terminal emulators provided with the kde-desktop task, change them. Or install only the stuff you want on the base system rather than using tasksel from the installer.

The installer is not compatible with Ventoy (or more to the point, Ventoy hasn't implemented support for it among all its other distro-specific hacks), this is why Ventoy is conspicuously not listed under the instructions for making install media.

Bonus snark:

You asked about current stable version codname. I assumed it was 'Excalibur'.

Oh come on, "Excalibur" is not a species of cod, now is it? Pelagic cod, Atlantic cod, Rock cod, Excalibur cod? I think not.

Last edited by steve_v (2026-01-01 15:36:22)

mweishaar · 2026-01-01 15:36:01

All other nonsense aside...

The installer is not compatible with Ventoy (or more to the point, Ventoy hasn't implemented support for it among all its other distro-specific hacks), this is why Ventoy is conspicuously not listed under the instructions for making install media.

I am curious about this. I did a dist-upgrade to Excaliber, as I have done ever since my initial install of ASCII, but I did put the Excaliber iso on a ventoy thumb drive just in case. Can you expand on why the installer doesn't work with Ventoy, or is that best suited for a separate topic?

greenjeans · 2026-01-01 15:41:36

I am curious about this. I did a dist-upgrade to Excaliber, as I have done ever since my initial install of ASCII, but I did put the Excaliber iso on a ventoy thumb drive just in case. Can you expand on why the installer doesn't work with Ventoy, or is that best suited for a separate topic?

Was just talking about this on another thread, Ventoy had issues with Daedalus, but it's working again in Excalibur according to rolfie.

steve_v · 2026-01-01 15:58:15

Can you expand on why the installer doesn't work with Ventoy

Specifically, no. I never cared enough to look into it. More generally:
There are about 50 different ways to build a bootable hybrid image, and most of them rely on the initramfs being able to find and loop-mount the image somehow.
That mechanism (and what kind of device and/or filesystem is searched) varies widely from one distro to another. They are looking for their image in their format on their filesystem... Not whatever "USB Maker 3000" decided to do.
Ventoty has a bunch of special-casing hacks to make this work, just not for Devuan.

The image boots fine from a raw device as intended, so this is a Ventoy problem for Ventoy to fix... If anyone actually cares that is.
Multi-boot USB drives are a hack, they've always been a hack, and it's not really on iso builders to pander to them.

is that best suited for a separate topic

Sure, but you'll need better bait to nerd-snipe me on that one. Bootloaders and initramfs scripts are tedious to test at the best of times, and 'need install media (once every 5 years at best)' x 'too lazy to fish out an old $2 4GiB USB' = 'nanoscopic fleck of motivation'.

Last edited by steve_v (2026-01-01 16:02:16)

HardSun · 2026-01-02 06:27:02

onedevone wrote:

P.S. While registering human verification fails. You asked about current stable version codname. I assumed it was 'Excalibur'. I failed human verification.

So you are a bot then?

Camtaf · 2026-01-02 10:37:43

Ventoy has worked for me with Devuan, no problem. (Chimera, Daedelus, & Excalibur)+( I think also Jessie worked too)

switching2Devuan · 2026-01-02 11:36:56

onedevone wrote:

Ext4 was designed for spinning drives. Nobody is using it anymore. It's an ancient history.

Quite an arrogant and self-centered assumption.
Just because you don't use it doesn't mean that everybody else doesn't use it as well.

Last edited by switching2Devuan (2026-01-02 11:39:39)

rolfie · 2026-01-02 12:05:27

Camtaf wrote:

Ventoy has worked for me with Devuan, no problem. (Chimera, Daedelus, & Excalibur)

Ventoy works with ASCII, Beowulf, Chimaera, some older pre-release-builds of Daedalus, but not with the released ISO's, and again with Excalibur (6.0.0, 6.1.0 not yet tested).

ralph.ronnquist · 2026-01-02 12:10:31

I think it does depend on whether or not the Ventoy partition is an exfat with label "Ventoy".

steve_v · 2026-01-02 12:48:52

switching2Devuan wrote:

arrogant and self-centered assumption

OP has 3 topics at this point, all whinging, and all full of the above.
Apparently any configuration choice (so far: root filesystem, partition layout, network configuration tools, boot media, DNS server / protocol, terminal emulator) that doesn't perfectly align with their preferences is some sort of "showstopper" disaster and/or conspiracy.

onedevone wrote:

What is expected
...
What is expected
...
What is expected

Is for you to:
a) Grow up, and realise that this is not Arch, it's a stable, general purpose distribution under no obligation whatsoever to embrace the newest shiny thing or cater to your peculiar tastes.
b) Post your commands and any "bunch of cryotic[sic] errors" encountered, verbatim and without shouting. Assuming you actually want assistance that is.

onedevone wrote:

This is the bug report for Devuan 6 Excalibur installer

No, this is a bunch of whining and factually incorrect nonsense. Bug reports are submitted with reportbug or by email.

Last edited by steve_v (2026-01-02 12:53:31)

rbit · 2026-01-02 14:39:20

onedevone wrote:

P.S. While registering human verification fails. You asked about current stable version codname. I assumed it was 'Excalibur'. I failed human verification.

Thanks for the bug report. This should now correctly accept the answer of excalibur.

zapper · 2026-01-03 11:08:23

a) Grow up, and realise that this is not Arch, it's a stable, general purpose distribution under no obligation whatsoever to embrace the newest shiny thing or cater to your peculiar tastes.
b) Post your commands and any "bunch of cryotic[sic] errors" encountered, verbatim and without shouting. Assuming you actually want assistance that is.

Actually there is one other option for him, run devuan testing or devuan unstable. The latter sounds really dumb tho

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#1 2026-01-01 12:14:25

Some Concerning Bugs

#2 2026-01-01 12:30:39

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#3 2026-01-01 13:15:17

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#4 2026-01-01 14:27:51

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#5 2026-01-01 14:59:05

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#6 2026-01-01 15:36:01

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#7 2026-01-01 15:41:36

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#8 2026-01-01 15:58:15

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#9 2026-01-02 06:27:02

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#10 2026-01-02 10:37:43

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#11 2026-01-02 11:36:56

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#12 2026-01-02 12:05:27

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#13 2026-01-02 12:10:31

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#14 2026-01-02 12:48:52

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#15 2026-01-02 14:39:20

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

#16 2026-01-03 11:08:23

Re: Some Concerning Bugs

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