The guide walks you through moving a Devuan 3.1 installation to the newest stable release Chimaera (4.0) by outlining practical steps and precautions. It begins with backing up personal data, then updating and fully upgrading the current system before editing `sources.list` to point at the Chimaera repositories—an essential move that prevents dependency headaches. After running a dist‑upgrade and cleaning unnecessary packages you verify the new release via `/etc/devuan-release`, reboot, and monitor for hardware driver issues or bootloader quirks that may require reinstalling custom utilities. The article emphasizes using only native `apt` tools, avoiding complex scripts, and reminds readers to check logs such as `dmesg` for any firmware problems after the update.

Upgrade Devuan 3.1 to 4.0 Chimaera: A No‑Nonsense Guide

If you’re on Devuan 3.1 and want the latest stable release—Chimaera (4.0)—you’ve come to the right place. This post walks through the steps, why each matters, and what to watch out for so your upgrade goes smoother than a freshly installed system.

1. Back up before you leap

Before touching anything, copy your home folder or use rsync -av --exclude='/tmp' / /path/to/backup. If the upgrade hiccups, you’ll still have your personal files. I’ve seen users lose configuration settings after a broken package removal.

2. Refresh & upgrade the current system

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

Running apt update pulls the latest metadata from the 3.1 repositories, while full‑upgrade ensures all installed packages are at their newest versions for that release. Skipping this step is like trying to install a new OS on top of an outdated stack; it will trigger dependency hell.

3. Switch your sources to Chimaera

Open /etc/apt/sources.list with your preferred editor:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Replace every instance of devuan-ports-stable (or whatever the 3.1 repo name is) with devuan-ports-chimaera. Leave the rest as-is. If you have a custom pinning file under /etc/apt/preferences.d/, double‑check that it still points to the correct release.

Why bother editing the sources? Because apt needs to know where to fetch 4.0 packages from; otherwise, you’ll end up pulling mismatched or older binaries.

4. Upgrade the distribution

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

dist-upgrade is the heavy hitter—it will pull in new packages and remove obsolete ones that clash with Chimaera’s newer dependencies. I’ve seen this command fail when a package from a third‑party repository stays pinned to 3.1; removing those pinning rules before running it usually fixes the error.

5. Clean up cruft

sudo apt autoremove && sudo apt clean

autoremove strips packages that were automatically installed as dependencies but are no longer needed, while clean frees disk space from cached package files. After a major release jump, you’re often left with half‑installed remnants; tidy them up to avoid confusion later.

6. Verify and reboot

Check the version:

cat /etc/devuan-release

You should see something like Devuan Chimaera (4.0). If all looks good, reboot:

sudo reboot

Once back online, run uname -a to confirm you’re still on a recent kernel, and apt policy to ensure the repositories are pointing to 4.0.

7. Watch for driver quirks

After the reboot, I’ve seen users hit a broken Wi‑Fi interface because the new kernel dropped an old driver module. If you notice hardware not working, check /var/log/syslog or dmesg | grep -i firmware. Installing the relevant firmware package often solves the issue.

8. Optional: Reinstall Devuan utilities

If you had custom tweaks—like a patched devuan-bootctl—you might need to reinstall them for 4.0 compatibility:

sudo apt install --reinstall devuan-bootctl

Skipping this can leave your boot loader in an odd state; I’ve seen people end up with a black screen until they did.

That’s it. No fancy tools, no wizardry—just the core package manager and a bit of patience.

Enjoy the new release!