On Tue, 2026-06-23 at 19:35 +0200, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2026 07:55:59 -0500, o1bigtenor wrote in message
> <CAPpdf5_Y4vTs4G2wRpv8XwCrpFuww2U2ysg7VcWrVYv_VoQBhA@???>:
>
> > Greetings
> >
> > I use a separate system to do initial updates on before I do some
> > on my main system. A habit developed quite some time ago on advice
> > from a mentor.
> >
> > Did the usrmerge upgrade and then had an unusable system.
>
> ..the "usrmerge upgrade" is simply a tactic to destroy Devuan
> as a viable distro, and makes re-electing Trump look smart.
>
> > Stopped there.
>
> ..wise.  Now, do we distch Debian as upstream for important stuff,
> or do we ditch Devuan?  I'm stuck at Daedalus for now, looking for
> alternatives.

I'm also stuck at Daedalus for now. However, on GNU/Hurd, I'm not using
usrmerge, even when following unstable. The solution is to (revert)
patch base-files, patch sysvinit and introducing a few soft links to
some few packages.

That could also be a future solution for Devuan. More investigations
are needed, however.

> ..usrmerge, systemd, the X.org strangulation etc are tools the
> fanbois use to destroy GNU/Linux as viable multi use(r) OSes
> and restrict "it" to a nice single user OS, and you guys fell
> for it.

Rightly so.

> > Have seen comments which seem to suggest that this usrmerge idea is
> > not really a good idea.
> >
> > So do I reinstall Daedalus on my testing system and not bother
> > upgrading to Excalibur waiting for perhaps an option where I don't
> > need to use usrmerge or do I do an install of
> > Excalibur removing Daedalus (which is no borked).
> >
> > Advice is sought - - - please?
>
> ..me, I see porting base system packages from Slackware as the
> easiest and best way forward, using e.g. alien to convert their
> packages, or build .deb packages from Slackware sources if alien
> fails.
>
See above. Maybe we should try to create a few soft links for selected
packages in addition to patching base-files and sysvinit (et al)

Thanks!