Peppermint OS Devuan different issues

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I decided to make a new thread on this Linux distro since the issues are different as well as @nevj had solved his.

I just spent 2 hours trying to install Peppermint Devuan version, but with SysV init. And I mean 6 ways to Sunday I tried and it would never run after install.

I had first set all my separate partitions up for each Linux I want to install. But I had not yet installed any. Like @nevj , had a hard time getting the thing to use the 1st partition, but since I had no others installed, I did add an EFI partition to partition 1 and it finally advanced.

It would install and then ask to reboot and it would get so far (past the wlan link) and then hang. If I tried to select it in the boot menu, same thing. I tried the recovery mode and it, too, just hung at a point.

So after 3 tries without success, I finally thought, maybe it will not work with all my partitions, I’ll just install on the entire drive and then go redo my partitions. (At this point, I had not read the article from last November. It was only during a search for my issue that @nevj 's article popped up and I read through it).

Again, it failed to ever start. It always installed, just would not start. I was wondering if it did not like all of my AMD hardware as I have never had an installed Linux fail to boot immediately after install.

So I gave it one last shot with the Debian version (which is not what I wanted) and it installed and after reboot, brought up the menu and started without issues. I rebooted again to be sure it would not hang like Devuan did. It started on its own and ran perfectly.

Now I am wondering, was it the SysV? If I tried it again with the others would it work? I wasn’t ready to leap into learning the other inits just yet, but dang I wanted to try that out.

The other option would be to go back to what I originally wanted: 4 partitions, one for each linux and install others on 2 - 4 and see if I can get Peppermint Devuan to install on 1 then. I may try that as I have some time this weekend.

Since I could not even get it to boot, I have no way of knowing what the heck was causing the issue. Most of the loading data scrolled by so fast and when it finally hung, there were only the parts about the wlan link.

I am going to do some more research, but any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Sheila

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What I would do is

  • put your 4 partitions back, with the efi partition
  • install some otherLinux that you want on one of the partitions, and let it install grub and have the controlling grub.cfg file. Get that all booting right first.
  • install Peppermint/Devuan on another partition and tell its installer not to install grub bootloader.
  • boot your otherLinux, and do update-grub, os-prober should find Peppermint
  • boot again and you should get a grub menu with otherLinux and Peppermint.

I am surprised. I had no problem with a recent Peppermint/Devuan install to HDD.
I think what is happening to you is that Peppermint/Devuan is not setting up the grub bootloader properly (why?), so you have nothing to boot with.
That is why I suggested install otherLinux first… to get grub working reliably.
I had a working grub when I did my Peppermint /Devuan install, so I did not test its ability to set up grub.

If you really want to try different init systems easily, have a look at the init diversity spins. There are several topics about it. Search for “init diversity” in the forum.

Afterthought.
I reread my original Peppermint/Devuan topic. You may have to edit
/etc/default/grub after installing Peppermint.
Do the editing from otherLinux
set
GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=false
Do this before you do update-grub in otherLinux

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I think you were right. I did the partitions and left the EFI from Peppermint Debian and then installed the antix diversity spins on the next partition. Wow. That was a highly customizable install. I told it to use the existing EFI. All went well and it is up and running.

Then I added another Linux to the 4th partition and it is up and running. Then I used that existing partition with Peppermint Debian and overwrote it with Devuan version. It booted the first time and has worked fine since.

Obviously, Peppermint Devuan is the default boot (it is on the 2nd partition, after the first one with EFI) since I installed it last. I used the boot manager on the Beelink to choose which one to boot to see that I could get to each of their grub menus from there.

Now I just need to update-grub from Peppermint and see if it finds the others. I wanted a simple Linux for the server since it is only used for administration of the home network computers. So I guess it should be the controlling grub. The others are for my educational use and may change after time.

Thanks,
Sheila

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Well, I failed to do that part, I am not even sure I saw that as an option, so now I will just have to update it from Peppermint.

Sheila

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Looks like you did not need it.
Peppermint is working for you in relation to grub… probably because you have one disk. In my case there were 3 disks and it got confused and I had to intervene.

If Peppermint is behaving for you it is OK to let it control grub.
If there are issues, use some other Linux for that. … you just want something stable for that job .

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