Dear Init Freedom Lovers,

Once again the Veteran Unix Admins salute you!

Just two weeks after the release of Devuan Jessie 1.0.0 RC, we are
happy to announce Devuan Jessie 1.0.0 RC2. Thanks to the very good
feedback received from the community, this release candidate is one
step closer to our final Devuan stable release and our first long term
support (LTS) release as well.

The first RC was well-received in the press and in user reviews:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/22/devuan\_1\_0\_0\_released/

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=devuan

Please find below instructions to try out or install Devuan Jessie
1.0.0 RC2 on your computer and to upgrade from Debian 7 (Wheezy) or
Debian 8 (Jessie). If you are already using Devuan Jessie RC, a simple
`apt-get update && apt-get upgrade` will be enough to get the latest
updates.

As soon as Devuan Jessie stable is released, we will turn our
attention to Devuan Ascii, the current development branch.

We wish to thank all of you for the incredible support given to this
development effort, and for engaging in the process of making Devuan a
useful and reliable base distro, as well as a pleasant, cooperative
community.

# What has improved in RC2

- Solved issues with signing keys -- All the keys used to sign
installation and live images are now listed at:

    https://devuan.org/os/team/

- free and non-free firmware packages are now included in desktop-live
and minimal-live isos. A script to remove all non-free firmware
packages from running live images is provided in /root

- backports (bpo) repos are now correctly pinned at priority 100,
meaning that no package from backports will be automatically
installed

- Added a systemd-free version of network-manager

- New versions of reportbug, desktop-base, xfce4-panel

- Several more libsystemd0-free packages are now included in the
jessie-proposed repo

- Removed GNOME, KDE, and Cinnamon as DE options in tasksel. These
three DEs are still (mostly) installable after the installation is
complete, but they are known to suffer from some glitches due to the
lack of systemd

- Fixed several minor bugs

- A total of 29 different ARM boards are now supported, thanks to the
added support for u-boot:

    - Currently supported boards are:

        - Acer Chromebook (chromeacer)
        - Veyron/Rockchip Chromebook (chromeveyron)
        - Nokia N900 (n900)
        - Odroid XU (odroidxu)
        - Raspberry Pi 0 and 1 (raspi1)
        - Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 (raspi2)
        - Raspberry Pi 3 - arm64 (raspi3)

    - Allwinner boards are now contained in a single image (sunxi),
      and their respective U-Boot bootloader downloads are available
      in the u-boot directory. The currently supported boards are:

        - Olimex: Lime (A10), Lime, Lime2, MICRO (A20)
        - Banana Pi: Pi, Pro (A20)
        - CHIP: CHIP (R8), CHIP Pro (GR8)
        - Cubieboard: Cubieboard (A10), Cubieboard2, Cubietruck (A20)
          Cubieboard4 (A80), Cubietruck Plus (A83t)
        - Lamobo R1 (A20)
        - OrangePi: OrangePi2, OrangePi Lite, OrangePi Plus (H3)
          OrangePi Zero (H2+), OrangePi, OrangePi Mini (A20)
        - Allwinner-based Tablet (A33)

    - More info on these boards can be found in the respective README
    files in the downloads directory

  - Requests for any Allwinner board support can be sent to
    <parazyd@???> or the #devuan-arm IRC channel - Preferably
    they should be supported in mainline Linux and mainline U-Boot

# Anyone can help Devuan!

Devuan is a large endeavor involving people of all ages, from
different countries, with a rainbow of skills and interests. Anyone
can contribute to ensure that Devuan maintains its role as a stable
and reliable universal operating system.

Here are some suggestions of how you can help Devuan grow and prosper:

- If you think you have found a bug in a Devuan package, please report
it to http://bugs.devuan.org, either by using the `reportbug` tool
or directly via email

- If you think you know how to fix an exiting bug, please report the
solution in the corresponding page on http://bugs.devuan.org, or,
better, roll-up your sleeves, implement the fix, and get in touch
with the development team on IRC (`#devuan-dev` on freenode) to have
your patch included in the official repos

- If you would like a package to be included in Devuan, please
consider joining the development team by taking charge of packaging
and maintaining it. This documentation will guide you through the
process: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=549

- If you can provide documentation or translations in any language,
please have a look at https://git.devuan.org/groups/devuan-doc

- If you have comments about the website and/or other public aspects
of Devuan, please get in touch (contact jaromil <jaromil@???>
or golinux <golinux@???>)

- If you have a lot of bandwidth, consider hosting a mirror of Devuan
images/repos. Please get in touch with devuan developers on IRC
(`#devuan-dev` on freenode)

- If you like and appreciate Devuan, please spread the word by sharing
your experience, providing a review, making a video of Devuan at
work, or explaining how Devuan is making your life
easier/better/happier. You can also follow
[@DevuanOrg](https://twitter.com/DevuanOrg) on twitter

- Devuan has a _wishlist_! As we grow, our need for hardware and
financial support increases. We are currently upgrading
infrastructure and expanding the list of Devuan-compatible hardware.
Here are some suggestions that will help move us along:

    - Sponsor the cost of a dedicated server (from ~50$/month/server)
        (contact devs on `#devuan-dev`)

    - Donate an ARM development board (50$-100$) 
        (contact parazyd <parazyd@???> / `#devuan-arm`)

    - Donate an ARM or ARM64 build host (50$-200$)
        (contact parazyd <parazyd@???> / `#devuan-arm`)

    - Donate a MIPS board (50$-200$)
        (contact parazyd <parazyd@???>)

    - Donate PowerPC/Sparc hardware for build/development 
        (contact devs on `#devuan-dev`)

    - Or you can always make a one-time or recurring donation of any
      amount. Please visit: https://devuan.org/os/donate
      Where we just updated the financial reports for 2015 and 2016
      And an interim one for 2017 is on its way!

As our journey led by world-class experts, supporters, enthusiasts,
and donors continues, we acknowledge with heartfelt thanks and
appreciation every one of you.


# Downloads

Official Devuan images are distributed via the website
(https://files.devuan.org/devuan\_jessie\_rc/)

To ease the load on our bandwidth we kindly ask you to use one of the
following mirrors

- https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan
- https://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/devuan/
- https://devuan.c3l.lu
- https://devuan.4isp.it
- https://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/devuan/
- http://devuan.ksx4system.net
- http://tux.rainside.sk/devuan
- http://neo900.files.dev-1.org
- http://devuan.mirror.k0nsl.org/
- ftp://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan
- ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/devuan

All files offered for download come with their SHA256 hash to check
the integrity (either in the `SHA256SUMS` or in the .sha files) and
with a cryptographic signature made using GnuPG by one of the Devuan
developers in charge of the build, included as .asc file.

An understanding of Devuan's script-friendly file naming scheme and
directory structure will help you find what you
need. (https://devuan.org/os/filenaming)

## Distributions based on Devuan

In chronological order of appearance:

- Gnuinos <http://gnuinos.org> (linux-libre 100% free, GNU review pending)
- Refracta <http://www.ibiblio.org/refracta>
- Exe GNU/Linux <http://exegnulinux.net>
- Nelum-dev1 <https://sourceforge.net/projects/nelum-dev1>
- Star <https://sourceforge.net/projects/linnix>
- heads <https://heads.dyne.org> (linux-libre 100% free, GNU review pending)
- good-life-linux <https://sourceforge.net/projects/good-life-linux/>
- Crowz <https://sourceforge.net/projects/crowz>

# Upgrade

Devuan can be adopted as a flawless upgrade path from both Debian 7
(Wheezy) and Debian 8 (Jessie). This is a main goal for the Devuan
Jessie stable release and has proven to be a very stable operation
every time it has been performed. Detailed installation and upgrade
instructions are available including translations
(https://devuan.org/os/documentation/dev1fanboy/).

The Devuan Apt package repositories are:
```
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie          main
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie-updates  main
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie-security main
```
We provide access to our package repository also via Tor:
```
deb tor+http://devuanfwojg73k6r.onion/merged jessie          main
deb tor+http://devuanfwojg73k6r.onion/merged jessie-updates  main
deb tor+http://devuanfwojg73k6r.onion/merged jessie-security main
```

After **replacing** Debian's package sources with the ones above, run:
```
apt-get update
apt-get install devuan-keyring
apt-get dist-upgrade
```

Then proceed with a reboot, which will keep `sysvinit` as init or
revert to it in case the machine was running Debian Jessie.

Additional package repositories are available, but considered
experimental:

```
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie-backports        main
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie-proposed-updates main
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/devuan jessie-proposed         main
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/devuan experimental            main
```

# Community

Devuan's web forum is on https://dev1galaxy.org

IRC channels: `#devuan`, `#devuan-arm`, `#debianfork`, `#devuan-dev`,
`#devuan-www`, `#devuan-fr`, and perhaps even more on freenode.net

Announce mailinglist (low traffic, only release announcements)
https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devuan-announce

Discussion mailinglist (high volume traffic)
https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng

# Related projects

Here is a short list of projects which use Devuan as a base OS for
their research and development:

Dowse - the IoT awareness Hub which won the ISOC NL Innovation prize
    2016 is based on Devuan and just released its 1.0 beta:
    https://dowse.eu

DECODE - An R&D project on data sovereignty and blockchain technology
    financed with 5M EUR by the EU Commission is based on Devuan:
    http://decodeproject.eu

heads - a live distro focused on privacy, security, and freedoms,
    experimenting with Devuan Ascii, and having a workshop @
    http://2017.rmll.info: https://heads.dyne.org

# Init Freedom

Devuan is about choice. We think people should be able to choose
whether to use a GNU+Linux system with or without systemd.

Devuan decided to fork not only the base distribution, but also its
governance, because Debian has made it difficult to avoid systemd as
init, entangling the system with unnecessary dependencies. We
encourage potential Devuan users who wish to install systemd to use
Debian's installer, Debian's packages and Debian's mailing lists, all
available directly from Debian's mirrors.

Devuan is the Debian that was and could have been. Our goal is to
provide a viable and sustainable alternative. It is a new path,
nurtured with your help and support.

To support the Devuan project: https://devuan.org/donate

happy hacking ;^)