Devuan
Linux distribution based on Debian
Devuan is an open source, Debian-based Linux distribution that aims to maintain compatibility with other init systems and avoid lock-in by systemd. Devuan offers sysvinit, runit or OpenRC as alternatives to systemd.
01History
With the release of Debian 8, some developers and users felt alienated due to the project's adoption of systemd and subsequent removal of support for other existing init systems. This decision prompted some Debian community members to start a fork of Debian without systemd.
Instead of continuing the Debian practice of using Toy Story character names as release codenames, Devuan aliases its releases using minor planet names. The first stable release shared the Debian 8 codename Jessie. However, the Devuan release was named for minor planet 10464.
The first stable release of Devuan was published on May 25, 2017.
Devuan 2.0.0 ASCII was released on June 9, 2018, and 2.1 ASCII was released on November 21, 2019. ASCII provides a choice of five different desktop environments at install time (XFCE, Cinnamon, KDE, LXQt, MATE), while many other window managers are available from the repositories. It also provides installation options for choosing between sysvinit and OpenRC for init, and between GRUB and LILO for the boot loader. Devuan maintains a modified version of the Debian expert text installer, which has the ability to install only free software if the user chooses, while the live desktop image also uses a custom graphical installer from Refracta, a derivative of Devuan.
Devuan 3.0 Beowulf was released on June 3, 2020, based on Debian 10.4. Ppc64el has been added to the list of supported architectures. Runit is now available as an alternative init. Eudev and elogind are now used to replace some Systemd functionality.
Devuan 4.0 Chimaera was released on October 14, 2021. It is based on Debian Bullseye (11.1) with Linux kernel 5.10.
Devuan 5.0 Daedalus was released on August 15, 2023. It is based on Debian Bookworm (12.1) with Linux kernel 6.1.
Devuan 6.0 Excalibur was released on November 2, 2025. It is based on Debian Trixie (13) with Linux kernel 6.12.
02Packages
Devuan has its own package repository which mirrors upstream Debian, with local modifications made only when needed to allow for init systems other than systemd. Devuan does not provide systemd in its repositories but still retains libsystemd0 until it has removed all dependencies.
Amprolla is the program used to merge Debian packages with Devuan packages. It downloads packages from Debian and merges changes to packages that Devuan overrides. According to Repology the number of packages in Devuan 4.0 is less but close to Debian Stable (13); the Devuan unstable is almost identical to Debian unstable in terms of the number of packages.
03Derivatives
In August 2022, Peppermint OS announced the release of Devuan-based ISOs, alongside their Debian-based ISOs.
Exe GNU/Linux is a Devuan derivative (since 2017) featuring the Trinity Desktop Environment and another LXDE version.
Star is another Devuan-based Linux distribution featuring several lightweight window managers, such as Openbox, Fluxbox, JWM, and i3.
04Version history
| Version | Codename | Codebase | Release date | End of support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unsupported: 1 | Jessie | Debian 8 "Jessie" | May 25, 2017 | June 30, 2020 |
| Unsupported: 2 | ASCII | Debian 9 "Stretch" | June 9, 2018 | July 1, 2022 |
| Unsupported: 3 | Beowulf | Debian 10 "Buster" | June 3, 2020 | June 30, 2024 |
| Supported: 4 | Chimaera | Debian 11 "Bullseye" | October 14, 2021 | August 31, 2026 |
| Supported: 5 | Daedalus | Debian 12 "Bookworm" | August 14, 2023 | June 30, 2028 |
| Latest version: 6 | Excalibur | Debian 13 "Trixie" | November 2, 2025 | TBA |
| Preview version: 7 | Freia | Debian 14 "Forky" | TBA | TBA |
| Future version: 8 | Gryphon | Debian 15 "Duke" | TBA | TBA |
| unstable | Ceres | Debian "Sid" | Rolling release | |
Source:
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Devuan”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Devuan 5 Xfce LiveDVD uname+issue.png by BBHCB, GPL
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