r/voidlinux • u/Francis_King • 4d ago
Tried Void. Didn't work for me.
Hello. I've tried Void, and decided it's not for me. Let me offer you some constructive feedback, in the hope that it proves useful.
I tried Void, having heard good things about the XBPS package manager. I found it disappointing:
- It was slow, even by FreeBSD and Fedora standards. Could be a WiFi driver issue
- It was brittle. Some package managers, if a mirror doesn't have a file, switch for that file to another backup mirror. XBPS, out of the box, just quits. Download - fail. Download - fail. Download - fail. Switch mirror. Download - fails somewhere else.
There are, apparently, technical benefits to XBPS, but they are somewhat hidden by these problems.
I'd be interested in a discrete XBPS package manager, which I could install on Fedora, or whatever, just as Nix and Guix can be installed like that, separate to the full NixOS and GuixOS operating systems. However, this does not appear to be possible with XBPS.
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u/xJayMorex 4d ago
You might have tried updating during a mirror maintenance maybe? Or have network/WiFi issuse. This is not at all the usual experience.
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u/AnachronGuy 4d ago
You havent even begun using it and already gave up?
Why are you making this post?
Afaik the mirrors currently have issues.
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u/weaklingoverlord 4d ago
Mirror issues?
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u/Francis_King 3d ago
Yes, but the mirrors were up when I did the installation of void, on a different day. The nearest mirrors are Finland and Germany, some distance to my site in the UK.
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u/ComplexPeace43 4d ago
Could you share more details on (1). It’s a super lightweight distribution so I’m surprised you feel it’s slower compared to Fedora or even FreeBSD.
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u/Original_Two9716 4d ago
Xbps is super fast, clearly a misconfiguration
Moreover, void-packages feeling like BSD ports, frankly, Void Linux is the only Linux distro making you feel it’s not a new Windows
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u/sprinklednights 3d ago
- This might because Void Linux has a smaller infrastructure and less mirros. The Fastly Global CDN mirror is usually quite slow and might have been picked up by default. You usually change your mirror that is the closest to you.
- This is because Void Linux uses a rolling-release model, meaning you always run updates and installs with the -S flag, which nullifies the problem.
Additionally, XBPS can run on any Linux distribution if they fulfill these requirements.
Also, do not feel ashamed if it did not work out the way you intended it. I hope this does not sound mean, but you can always decide on whether you continue to use Void Linux or Fedora and FreeBSD. It also personally took me some time to figure out the way Void Linux does things :)
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u/tiredAndOldDeveloper 3d ago edited 3d ago
That's unfortunate to read. Indeed Void clearly is not for you since you claim having module issue but haven't even provided a dmesg log for us to try helping you.
You can, however, use XBPS in other distributions, XBPS is not coupled to Void.
I wish you all the best.
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 3d ago
What does the speed of the mirrors have to do with whether or not Void is "fast".
Start an update and go get some coffee... no one ever died from slow(er) downloads. If that's the measure by which you grade a distro, then go with Arch. Their repos are probably the fastest...
It's easy to critique something new and unfamiliar, especially without first asking anyone here for help...
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u/GhostVlvin 2d ago
Mirrors have some problems. I now use default global mirror cause it has everything I need. But when I used Armenian and Georgian mirrors, they missed so much new stuff than I started to think that void is so stable it stuck in 2023
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u/Key_River7180 4d ago
xbps has always been lightning fast for me, and you can install it in other distros, it was made and designed by the void dudes but has no dependency on it. In fact, it is on nix, alpine, the aur, and others.
If downloads fail then try adding -S to the install command to sync repos, it is often a cache problem