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franmm

Member

Registered: 2026-04-04

Posts: 13  

deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

Good afternoon,

I've noticed that after installing Devuan Excallibur, I manually need to comment (or delete) the line that begins with deb-cdrom on the /etc/apt/sources.list file.

If I don't do that, I will not be able to update the system, as apt warns me about this.

Why the line that begins with "deb-cdrom" is not automatically commented or deleted just after the system is installed, like other distros? I mean, why do I need to do this manually?

Thank you for you patience and help.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,427  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

This line remains listed in the sources.list when there is no network connection during installation, or if you do deny the question for a sever mirror connection. The installer assumes an offline installation and leaves the cdrom line.

Last edited by rolfie (2026-04-06 13:11:32)

franmm

Member

Registered: 2026-04-04

Posts: 13  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

@rolfie

Thank you for the answer.

When installing Devuan, the installer asked me if I wanted to add repos and I said yes. My sources.list, after booting to the fresh install, looks like this:

deb cdrom:[Devuan GNU/Linux 6.1.0 excalibur amd64 - desktop 20251225]/ excalibur contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur main non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur main non-free-firmware

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur-security main non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur-security main non-free-firmware

# excalibur-updates, to get updates before a point release is made;
# see https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_updates_and_backports
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur-updates main non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged excalibur-updates main non-free-firmware

After trying to update via sudo apt update, apt warns be about not detecting a CD (the usb that I installed Devuan with) and halts. A '#' puted at the beginning of its line solves this.

---

Thing is, Devuan detected that I have internet (asking me to connect to a wifi), it connects, then after a few steps, it asks me if I want to add sources (apart from the "CD/DVD" one). If I clicked yes to that, and Devuan doesn't automatically delete or comment with a '#', it means that something is not working as expected. When installing Debian Trixie, last step of installation is "Removing CD/DVD source from sources.list...", This doesn't happen to me on Devuan Excalibur.

If someone has the same problem I would be glad to know it, and if this only happens to me, I would investigate about this on my (little) free time. Thanks!

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,427  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

Looks like you had network, but you must have denied using a mirror.

BTW: Debian and Devuan installers are similar but not identical. I am always doing an offline install w/o network and mirror, setting that up is the first step after a sucessful reboot for me.

franmm

Member

Registered: 2026-04-04

Posts: 13  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

you must have denied using a mirror.

Humm no, in fact, I selected a mirror!

As I said,

the installer asked me if I wanted to add repos and I said yes.

(I did this installation a couple of days ago, so everything I'm writing is from memory; some things may not be spelled correctly).

Specifically, it asked me a country and a location, and I selected Spain, it showed me deb.devuan.org and es.deb.devuan.org (or something like that).

Selected deb.devuan.org, so I suppose that's why my sources.list is not empty with only the CD/DVD source writed.

Last edited by franmm (2026-04-06 14:05:42)

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,427  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

Strange, in this case the line should have been commented out.

Maybe I give it a try in a VM, you used 6.1.0?

franmm

Member

Registered: 2026-04-04

Posts: 13  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

@rolfie

Yes, Devuan 6.1.0.

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 258  

Re: deb-cdrom line from /etc/apt/sources.list is not deleted after install

Hello,
can it be that you selected deb.devuan.org and not es.deb.devuan.org?
If so, there is a fair chance that the selection of deb.devuan.org did not work and the installer assumed "no network mirror available" and hence installed from CDROM instead.
The cause is often that some ISPs and their DNS infrastructure cannot deal with that kind of round-robin DNS name resolution.
It's an old topic here. Always select the mirror address that has your country's name prepended like es.deb.devuan.org.
I hope it helps.