This guide is for installing Devuan Unstable (Ceres) edition using debootstrap for a more minimal setup. This process is for UEFI amd64 system.
I suggest getting the Devuan latest stable release. You could get the one with graphical environment as it would make something easier.
You could partition the disk with any software you like such as fdisk, cfdisk, or even graphical software such as gparted. I recommend using GPT partition table as it have more feature.
For an EFI system the minimum would be like
| Partition | File system | Minimum Size |
|---|---|---|
| EFI | fat32 | 250MiB |
| ROOT | ext4 (or any supported file system) | 10GiB |
Having a separate HOME partition is also suggested
Format each partition be aware that any data in each partition would be gone
# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdaX
# mkfs.Y /dev/sdaZ
NOTE: X would be the partition number for the EFI partition, Y would be your preferred file system for the ROOT partition, and Z would be the partition number for the ROOT partition
I prefer to use the genfstab from the arch-install-script package as it is easier than writing fstab manually. To get genfstab run:
# apt install arch-install-scripts
Mount the partition that you have created
# mount /dev/sdaZ /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/boot
NOTE: X would be the partition number for the EFI partition, and Z would be the partition number for the ROOT partition
Install the base system using debootstrap
# debootstrap --arch amd64 ceres /mnt
If you did not skipped the "Get some tools" step then you could run:
# genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
Otherwise you could write /mnt/etc/fstab manually.
# mount --make-rslave --rbind /proc /mnt/proc
# mount --make-rslave --rbind /sys /mnt/sys
# mount --make-rslave --rbind /dev /mnt/dev
# mount --make-rslave --rbind /run /mnt/run
# chroot /mnt /bin/bash
Set timezone
# dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Set locale, for instance en_US.UTF-8
# apt update
# apt install locales
# dpkg-reconfigure locales
If you are using non us qwerty layout you could configure your keyboard using
# apt install console-setup console-setup-linux
# dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
You could also edit /etc/default/keyboard for more options (refer to man xkeyboard-config.7for more information).
Install kernel, headers, firmware, and microcode. Add the contrib and non-free repository to /etc/apt/sources.list for example:
deb http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged ceres main contrib non-free
Then update database using:
# apt update
Finally install this software using
# apt install linux-image-amd64 linux-headers-amd64 firmware-linux intel-microcode
NOTE: If you are using an AMD CPU use amd-microcode rather than intel-microcode
Set hostname for instance
# echo "devuan" > /etc/hostname
Where devaun is the host name for this example.
You should also edit /etc/hosts
# echo "127.0.1.1 $(cat /etc/hostname)" >> /etc/hosts
Install programs for networking
# apt install network-manager dhcpcd5
Set password for the root user
# passwd
Install bootloader there are also another way to do this, such as using efibootmgr, but i prefer grub.
# apt install grub-efi-amd64
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg