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natanel

Member

Registered: 2025-06-01

Posts: 18  

Can I trust freenginx?

A newbie (3 years user) here

So I searched the Devuan's package manager (apt) to see if Freenginx exists and I found out that the answer is no. However, Nginx exists, but I don't really want to use Nginx. On the other hand, Apache2 isn't really powerful like Nginx and many people say that it's better to make a reverse-proxy where Nginx points to Apache2 and then it's less wasteful.

I searched the extrepo as well and Freenginx is not there too.

It feels like the only way for me to run freenginx would be to build it myself. However I have zero knowledge in building packages nor installing anything that is not provided by apt (i'm way too cautious it's nearly boring), I trust apt as if apt was god. I fear of breaking things in my system.

Would you trust Freenginx and build it on your own? Perhaps the reason that I don't find it in apt and extrepo is because the community don't trust it?

Worth to mention that I didn't found it in Alpine Linux as well, I thought of running it within a container, but it's not there too.

Last edited by natanel (2026-11-07 13:30:10)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,138  

Re: Can I trust freenginx?

Hello:

... searched the Devuan's package manager (apt) to see ...

Have you checked if that package is in the Debian repositories?
If it is not to be found there, then you will not find it in the Devuan repositories.

... reason that I don't find it in apt and extrepo is because ...

Maybe its being a fork of [nginx] keeps it out of the Debian repositories?
No idea.

No matter:
All Devuan packages are sourced from the Debian repositories as long as they can be used directly without intervention from the Devuan devs.

Otherwise, they are sanitised of their reliance on [systemd] and only then made available for installation.
But if that is not possible, they are banned from the Devuan repositories.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2026-11-07 14:03:23)

natanel

Member

Registered: 2025-06-01

Posts: 18  

Re: Can I trust freenginx?

They (debian) don't have it in their packages but it is available on Hyperbola as a replacement for nginx

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,138  

Re: Can I trust freenginx?

Hello:

... (debian) don't have it in their packages ...

Right.

So, there you have it: not in [Debian]*? ---> not in [Devuan] either.

... available on Hyperbola ...

Being available in the [Hyperbola] repositories makes it explicitly suitable for [Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre].
Not necessarily for [Debian] or [Devuan] for that matter.

* there is surely a reason for that being so, you could ask them.

Best,

A.

.

Last edited by Altoid (2026-11-07 16:41:43)

EDX-0

Member

From: Guatemala

Registered: 2020-12-12

Posts: 271  

Re: Can I trust freenginx?

debian is slow to adopt fork packages, but when the main developer(s) fork a project the developed fork gets adopted, for example libreoffice (openoffice) and mariadb (mysql), it just takes time and that a stable release of the package is submitted during the debian unstable development cycle before the package freeze.

pcalvert

Member

Registered: 2017-05-15

Posts: 332  

Re: Can I trust freenginx?

@natanel

You may want to consider using Hiawatha instead. There are Debian (and Ubuntu) packages available for it.

Hiawatha
https://hiawatha.leisink.net/

Hiawatha packages for Debian and Ubuntu can be found here:

Hiawatha Packages
https://cwadge.github.io/hiawatha-pkg/

Note: Since Devuan lacks systemd, some manual configuration may be required after installation.

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