The community behind Devuan GNU+Linux has made available Raspberry Pi images for its latest release, Devuan 6.1 (codenamed "Excalibur"). This update, launched on the first day of the year, serves as an enhancement to Devuan 6.0, which was released in November 2025, built on the latest Debian 13 "Trixie" operating system and utilizing the long-term supported Linux 6.12 LTS kernel.
The new Raspberry Pi images cater to a range of models including the Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, and 5. However, it’s important to note that only the more recent versions, such as Excalibur 6.0 and Daedalus 5.0, are compatible with the newer Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 models.
Devuan GNU+Linux is recognized as a fork of Debian that abstains from using the systemd init system, opting instead for SysVinit, which is designed to provide quicker boot times and greater freedom in overall usage.
When running on the Raspberry Pi 5, Devuan offers a fast and flexible experience, but users should be aware that it does not come with a graphical environment pre-installed. This makes Devuan a "do-it-yourself" type of Linux distribution, allowing users to customize their system to their specific needs and preferences.
The release features a menu-based setup utility named menu-config, which assists users in configuring their systems upon first use. This tool enables users to set up various system attributes, including network connections, hostnames, locales, timezones, console fonts, keymaps, CPU governors, user accounts, admin passwords, keyboard layouts, and Raspberry Pi-specific options.
Users can access the menu-config utility from the console or through a terminal emulator, although the latter requires the installation of a graphical environment first. For this review, the lightweight Xfce desktop environment was chosen, along with a display server like Xorg Server (X11) and a login manager such as LightDM if one desires to boot directly into a graphical session.
In summary, Devuan presents itself as an attractive option for Raspberry Pi enthusiasts and advocates for software freedom. It offers a Debian-like experience without the baggage of systemd and its related components. Interested users can download the latest versions of Devuan for Raspberry Pi from here.
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