Proposal "Devuan User Repository"

steve_v · 2026-02-03 06:27:44

fsmithred wrote:

Separate repos for each user's contributions

exponentialmatrix wrote:

I'm following the AUR architecture. It's over 20 years old, i doubt you'll do better.

Arch isn't the only game in town, Gentoo has had "overlays" since before Arch existed and those come in both varieties - most are per-contributor (and usually self-hosted), while project GURU serves as an official community repository, with oversight somewhere between "trusted Gentoo packaging" and "J. Random git bucket".
GURU structure and regulation sounds similar to what you are proposing (and the latter is strict enough to allay my earlier concern WRT quality), so it might be worth ~~plagiarising~~ reading.

greenjeans wrote:

[meme placeholder, since images are banned by the fun police]

Yes, yes he is.
And

golinux wrote:

You just gave me an opportunity to fire up my image blocker.

Is as petty as ever.

golinux wrote:

Remember...

Reminisce about your glory days a bit harder Go, maybe it will start to sound like an apology - which is what you really owe greenjeans for that earlier comment.

golinux wrote:

options to distract users from focusing on essentials. Seems a bit like "fiddling while Rome burns"

Huh, must be the same crystal ball after all... I was thinking the same about forum themes and "visual identity".

Since other people's proposals for attracting more packagers and maintainers are apparently a waste of effort, perhaps this is a good time to introduce yours?

Last edited by steve_v (2026-02-03 07:03:09)

EDX-0 · 2026-02-03 09:42:15

since the user made content was mentioned, and the stated goal of the proposed devuan user repo is to be an "educational staging area" it may be a nice idea to encourage stuff from the user made content and the DIY forum to be packaged in the DUR proposal, i mean there are more than a pair of scripts from greenjeans that many would add to their setups if there was a package or at least a package recipe.

blackhole · 2026-02-03 12:56:14

Wasn't this "user repository" thing, originally a 'buntu idea? PPAs...? It was a great way to end up with a broken system. Back in the "good old days", we would see a lot of threads where someone installed from a PPA and the result was a broken mess and pleas for help. They were all free to do that and break stuff, but we were also free to not waste our time talking them through fixing it.

I'm not averse to it, but it seems pointless. Either use what's in the repositories or build whatever else you need from source?

Last edited by blackhole (2026-02-03 12:56:59)

exponentialmatrix · 2026-02-03 13:08:52

Three years ago, we had a user who put in the effort to help Devuan by creating a DVD set production script and a survey of user-made content. There was a lot of potential to help the project out in both cases, but of course, he was bullied and driven away by a few people in position of power over a non-issue (source). Not long after, one of the staff members unilaterally removed the quote-to-reply functionality without consulting the active userbase first, just because of said non-issue that bothered said staff member.
Had said incident not happened, he would have likely contributed directly to the releases of Daedalus and now Excalibur, as well as the next testing version Freia. Instead of throwing all this bureaucratic crap on regular users offering to volunteer in SOME form, maybe consider that they (we) are the ones who keep Devuan's wheels spinning, and without these users, Devuan loses users to another distro like Artix or even Gentoo.

I was wandering where was the "quote to reply".

I start having second thoughts now about contributing. They are plenty of projects that are socially toxic.

steve_v · 2026-02-03 13:15:41

They are plenty of projects that are socially toxic.

Devuan as a whole is largely fine, it's just the administration of this board.

blackhole · 2026-02-03 13:35:18

Ultimately if you have a problem with the admin, you have to vote with your feet. The situation has been the same here for years and most if not all of you have been aware of it. I don't tend to take it too seriously anymore.

There are "fans" of this Linux distribution who would possibly take deep personal offence at being on the receiving end of some administrative action... and there are those of us who are not invested / don't care.

The admin aren't the only perceived problem. Aside from "commie bastards" like me, there have been assorted (mostly right wing conspiracy theorist) basket cases frequenting this site over the years - given free reign - and it's likely one of the big factors in why Devuan project isn't taken seriously by many.

Last edited by blackhole (2026-02-03 13:36:16)

ralph.ronnquist · 2026-02-03 13:36:52

@steve_v: Are you volunteering?

exponentialmatrix · 2026-02-03 13:47:51

peoples political views are not a problem, as long as they don't attempt a purge on others.

I think a distro could be neutral.

exponentialmatrix · 2026-02-03 13:55:07

Any way, about the subject. I would need to transfer two orgs from gitea to git.devuan

tux_99 · 2026-02-03 15:32:58

@exponentialmatrix
I think you will have more success if you contact the real devs on #devuan-dev at libera.chat like suggested by ralph.ronnquist in his earlier post, this forum doesn't seem to be where the real devs hang out.

Last edited by tux_99 (2026-02-03 15:33:27)

brocashelm · 2026-02-03 20:42:36

steve_v wrote:

Devuan as a whole is largely fine

Exactly. The other distros just don't do it for me much, regardless of the politics. I don't even use mainline Devuan -- I personally base all my installs on Refracta for having much better defaults for an as-minimalist-as-possible use case for Xfce. ALSA instead of PulseAudio, no metapackages, a fine-tuned magic SysRq key configuration, and a few other user-specific tweaks that make it a more appealing experience.

If not for Devuan or antiX, I probably would've just stuck with a Slackware derivative of some sort (like Salix or Slackel). At least unlike Debian with its estranged recent history and corporate-backed "decisions", they still have their founder involved and a community backing him with a philosophy that remains unchanged since 1993.

golinux · 2026-02-03 21:29:17

@exponentialmatrix . . . Have you not seen "The dev1galaxy.org (almost) No Code of Conduct"?

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=17

That is the core ethos of this amazing distro and as you can see we are extremely tolerant of the BS that gets thrown at us. That does not however mean that we do not have limits. In fact . . . steve_v had a nice "time out" not that long ago.

golinux · 2026-02-03 22:14:11

We experience the external world as a reflection of who and what we are. Not all our users are as grumpy, hostile and insulting as some who have been posting recently:

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=58675#p58675

What stands out most to me personally is the Devuan project team and this community. In Peppermint, we dabble in different base operating systems, we reach out to their maintainers, asking about build tools, getting a feel of what’s involved. Out of all those experiences, the Devuan community has been by far the most open, helpful, and approachable group we’ve encountered at the core OS level.
From guidance on branding and ISO compilation tools to troubleshooting fsroot issues, everyone here has been incredibly generous with their time and help.
Honestly, other communities can be gatekeepers, toxic, or just plain mean… but the Devuan folks are a breath of fresh air.

greenjeans · 2026-02-03 22:23:59

Meanwhile (yet still on topic), I have just packaged and uploaded another piece of free software (my apologies for it not being vital to Devuan's core infrastructure).

So yeah, Sourceforge is just too easy, and I don't see a compelling alternative right now other than this idea forming here. Lots of people are sick of git and all the weird pageantry one must endure to create an "official" package.

ralph.ronnquist · 2026-02-03 22:31:12

@exponentialmatrix: I'm sorry for all those irrelevant posts on this thread.

You are quite welcome to setup your "Devuan User Repository" on git.devuan.org using the means provided. I know you would like the "user organisations" feature, and if that is a show stopper for you, then it's understandable that you can't use the Devuan's git store.

One avenue for inducing change to Devuan's setup could be to engage with other people than just me. For example, you could take part in the weekly (video) meetings, and in there try to push for the particular changes you want to see. Though it probably will take engagement effort and that you maintain your community oriented spirit.

... Plus perhaps that you reflect on your position regarding organisational shrouding on the git store so as to be able to explain it to us at least how your case is different (and especially not a way to avoid or reduce personal responsibility). We are all just people, with a range of different understandings and opinions, and your views will matter as well.

steve_v · Yesterday 06:15:22

golinux wrote:

time out

Spent dealing with unexpected emails and IRC pings from both past and present forum members, expressing agreement with my comments and general disappointment with the way this forum is run... And working on scripts and ebuilds for Gentoo of course, because why on earth would I bother around here when:

The dev1galaxy.org (almost) No Code of Conduct

Quite clearly reads "Rules for thee, not for me" and "Abuse of authority, blatant derailing of threads with pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo, and venomous personal attacks are acceptable from anyone with the Administrator tag."

In case you had forgotten, here's a quick recap of the impression you left with the last newly-registered competent user and potential future contributor:

radiatedradio wrote:

This is probably the most self contradictory statement I've read in a while, I came to the forums because of an issue I had, and the only thing you've contributed is 300 posts of spite towards everyone, and coming from an admin.

Notice they haven't posted since. Bravo.

blackhole wrote:

conspiracy theorist basket cases frequenting this site over the years - given free reign

Which I have also called out on several occasions. I have no interest in political affiliation though, nutcases and nonsense are much the same no matter the flavour.

The admin aren't the only perceived problem.

I'd argue the admins are the problem, when said free-reign is seemingly dispensed based on whether vitriol targets approved punching-bags or the drivel one is spewing aligns with similarly deranged tirades from site admins.
Point out issues with Devuan - you're the problem. Hurl abuse and slander at other FOSS projects and developers - pat on the back.
Espouse the right political views and sufficient anti-establishment impotent rage - do whatever you like, you're tribe.

it's likely one of the big factors in why Devuan project isn't taken seriously by many

Of course it is. I for one would love to see Devuan taken more seriously (especially by technically competent users and potential contributors), but that's never going to happen with the culture that is encouraged around here.

Last edited by steve_v (Yesterday 06:27:17)

blackhole · Yesterday 09:13:15

I'm not going to name drop anyone, but "far right" conspiracy nut posters have had a platform here. I can send you a link to a thread of racist and white supremacist comments, which was never closed. The poster only received a mild rebuke. There was also the infamous thread where the creator of a Devuan derivative posted a lot of offtopic babble, entwined with slurs related to transgender people, all with admin participation, alongside the admin posting their usual sermons. When challenged, the admin referenced the derivative creator's contributions - and the challenger's lack of - clarifying their entitlement to special treatment.

In my view, you're wasting your time. Silence is very much the same as condoning this, so one can assume that all of this accurately reflects Devuan's ethos, attitude and "culture".

I have no dog in this race - just pointing out the futility. We've been over all of this countless times before.

Last edited by blackhole (Yesterday 09:14:53)

ralph.ronnquist · Yesterday 09:43:57

Yes send me the link so I can learn.

ralph.ronnquist · Yesterday 09:47:41

Off topic babble seems to be the menu of the day. I could delete but I'm not too comfortable doing that.

Do we have someone standing up to take on maintainer role? You can email me.

exponentialmatrix · Yesterday 11:29:00

@blackhole
I prefer that over overmoderated stupidity.

tux_99 · Yesterday 13:25:18

ralph.ronnquist wrote:

Off topic babble seems to be the menu of the day. I could delete but I'm not too comfortable doing that.

I know a forum that has a thread called "random off-topic ramblings" in the off topic section of the forum where mods move all these posts to, so they don't get deleted/censored and the authors of these off-topic posts are free to continue they ramblings in that thread, but the original thread is kept free of noise.
Personally I find it's a good compromise that does not censor anything but at the same time keeps off-topic ramblings out of the regular threads.
Also they have the off topic section visible only to logged in members so that it doesn't get indexed by search engines.
Just a suggestion...

(this post of mine can be deleted or moved too since it's off topic)

Last edited by tux_99 (Yesterday 13:29:44)

EDX-0 · Yesterday 23:00:10

ah offtopic discussions, the pepsi to the coca cola of on topic discussions, seems like the forum loves pepsi

anyway, back on track would be a good thing to have the easydeb repo and the DUR proposed repo in more forges than just gitea cuz the gitea links posted in this thread are innacessible to me, also cuz mirrors are a good thing and there's no such thing as too many mirrors

exponentialmatrix · Today 11:18:56

????
you can't see these links?
https://gitea.com/easydeb
https://gitea.com/DUR

fsmithred · Today 11:29:25

Neither can I.

Secure Connection Failed
The connection to gitea.com was interrupted while the page was loading.
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

exponentialmatrix · Today 11:45:01

It loads fine for me on several browsers. It's probable temporary network problem on your sides.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#51 2026-02-03 06:27:44

Re: Proposal "Devuan User Repository"

#52 2026-02-03 09:42:15

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#53 2026-02-03 12:56:14

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#66 Yesterday 06:15:22

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#67 Yesterday 09:13:15

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