One more answer for fsmithred:

I appreciate your efforts to find a permanent solution to have a desktop working without consolekit and policykit-1 and I thank you for your desire to do everything possible so that the problem does not recur in the next release.

It seems to me that this topic has not had much participation in the forum. I do not have understand if the topic affects most users. So I will not add anything else.

Since I would like to share some other useful information with you, I will send you an e-mail as soon as possible.

I thank all those who have somehow participated in the discussion.

I inform interested parties how I solved the problem submitted to the forum a few weeks ago. It seems to me that the solution found is acceptable as well as the one proposed by fsmithred a few days ago.

After installing the XFCE4 components that interest us and that do not contain dependencies from consolekit/elogind, proceed as follows for "xfce4-session" package (that depends on consolekit/elogind):

• Download the packages (or altenatively the i386 version):
         a) xfce4-session_4.12.1-3+devuan1_amd64.deb
         b) libpolkit-gobject-consolekit-1-0_0.105-18+devuan2.11_amd64.deb

• Edit the xfce4-session package above downloaded, remove the dependency from libpolkit-gobject-1-0 and save it with the same name.

• Edit the libpolkit-gobject-consolekit-1-0 above downloaded, remove the dependency from consolekit and save it with the same name.

• Install the two packages modified with the command: dpkg -i .

Now it is possible to start XFCE4 with the "startxfce4" command. The desktop works normally like in Jessie, obviously without the features provided by consolekit and policykit-1.

There is an inconvenience: Because the two packages do not conform to the contents of apt-cache, if you upgrade the system them will be updated with those of the Devuan depository (which contain consolekit).

To remedy this problem: before upgrading, remove them (dpkg -r) and install them again after the upgrade (dpkg -i).

There is certainly a better and more elegant solution. But we need to have some knowledge and experience that, unfortunately, I do not have!

Who is capable, wants and can, signals to the developers of Devuan the impossibility for how the libpolkit-gobject-1-0 package is built, to use XFCE4 without installing consolekit/elogind. It is against the software freedom principle: we must not force anyone to use unwanted software! I hope they take this into account and that the next release (beowulf) no longer presents the problem!

That's all folks!

Thank you, fsmithred, for your post. I really appreciate your desire to help me but it seems you have not read all the previous posts.

Since I have not installed a DM, of course I use "startx" to start X server, but to start the desktop, in the .Xsession file there must be "startxfce4". That I know, this is the only method to start xfce. Unfortunately, "startxfce4" is installed with xfce4-session.

I know very well Openbox and lxpanel, I used them for a long time before moving to xfce4.

I'm in no hurry to migrate to Ascii. In Jessie Xfce it works great without consolekit, policykit-1 and even gvfs and udisks2. There are still two years before jessie is no longer supported. I hope that during these two years, the installation of consolekit/elogin will be modified and/or that it is possible to remove it. Software freedom is one of the principles for which Devuan was born.

I take this opportunity to thank you for creating refractasnapshot/installer. I use it for a long time (I still keep and use an Ubuntu-12.04 snapshot!). In these years it was really very helpful and saved me so much effort! really many thanks!

I opened this post weeks ago with the wish to have the necessary suggestions for to be able to migrate from jessie to the new release and continue to use Devuan without Session management and policykit backends.

I seem to have understood, in these weeks, that in releasing Ascii the main concern of the developers was to provide desktops with all the functionality.
As is well explained in the Release Notes, this requires the simultaneous use of a Display/Login Manager (DM) and a Session Manager, i.e. slim/lightdm and consolekit/elogind.

The desktop packages I'm interested in (XFCE4) are built so that a Session manager is always installed. Among the automatic dependencies of "xfce4-session" is present consolekit/elogind which can not be removed. And, though XFCE4 is modular, "xfce4-session" is essential because it installs "startxfce4" which serves to start the desktop itself.

This choice for the Ascii "xfce4-session" package certainly ensures a desktop fully functional, but prevents, for those who want it, to have an OS more lightweight without consolekit/elogind, policykit-1 and a DM.

Such a choice is incomprehensible. If you want to give up "tasks requiring administrator privileges, including/suspending/rebooting/shutting down the system, mounting external devices, configuring networking, and so on" consolekit/elogind is not required! Furthermore, the sole presence of elogind, without the login manager, is insufficient to ensure the operation of the tasks listed above. So why its presence is mandatory?

It's also the first time that I can not remove a package as root. Usually root can perform any action and has no limitation. It can happen that he performs a wrong operation: the OS will stop work, but nothing is forbidden to root! So why prevent him from removing elogind? Why not preserve the freedom of everyone to decide what to install or remove?

I don't have the skills to modify the "xfce4-session" package and therefore I am forced to suspend the migration to Ascii.

I will continue to use Jessie which I am very satisfied with. I read that it is supported until 2020-06-30 ... there is plenty of time to find a solution.

If nobody has anything to add, as far as I'm concerned, the post can be considered closed!

Thank you all.

Quick reply:

1) for cynwulf: consolekit isn't a recommended package for xfce4-session ... it is automatic !
    with apt-get purge consolekit ... elogind is also automatic!

2) for golinux: You are right, to use an DE with all its functionalities, a session manager, policykit-1 and
    a display manager are required. I have not checked yet if xfce without the session manager is working
    correctly. These are not simple things and should be tested one at a time. Until now I have only tried
    to reproduce Jessie's situation. If it will not be possible I will try to understand the alternatives later.

thank you both

Added at 10:49 CEST for golinux:

I really appreciate the efforts of Devuan developers to make the most DE work properly. In my opinion, however, the DE functionalities (requiring administrative privilegies)  that depend on consolekit are more related to DM (slim/lightm) than to the session manager. So consolekit/elogind must be mandatorily installed with the display manager and not with the session manager.

Nothing would change for those who use an DE with all its features, but would allow use of the DE, with some limitations, even with startx, without a DM.

Thank you all, your suggestions are precious!

I add now some information that pinpoint the problem more accurately.

1) the  debfoster --show-dependents consolekit command ensures that the only installed
package that depends on consolekit is Xfce4.

root@dev-32:~# debfoster --show-dependents consolekit
The following 1 packages on the keeper list rely on consolekit:
  xfce4
Packages kept by default rules do not rely on consolekit.

2) Following are the lines of the files /var/log/apt/history.log of Jessie and Ascii, generated with the
command apt-get purge consolekit.

How you can see, the behavior of apt-get is different: in Jessie it simply purge the required files; in Ascii, instead, before removing consolekit files it automatically installs elogind and its dependencies.

It would be interesting to understand the reasons why those who built the  consolekit package for Ascii required such behavior.

Unfortunately I don't have a thorough knowledge of apt-get nor in his man pages I have found a parameter that allows to remove consolekit without installing logind.

But, there's a way to prevent apt automatically installing elogind?

Tips and suggestions are welcome!

Thank you, golinux, for your quick reply.
I certainly do not install XFCE with netinst, but I use the command: apt-get install xfce4.
Immediately after: apt-get purge consolekit policykit-1 gvfs udisks2.

apt-get does not just remove consolekit, but automatically installs elogind. and if I remove elogind back to install consolekit !!

In my opinion, the problem is in how the xfce package is built.

It should do this only if you want a normal user to use task requiring administrator privileges,
otherwise it should simply remove consolekit ... It should be possible to choose ..