I'm confused. How did you solve it?

Your sources.list looks ok except that you're using ascii, not ceres. Did you reinstall or do something else? Right now, I think it makes more sense to use ascii, but it also might help to enable ceres and pin it to a lower priority.  Then you can add packages from ceres selectively.

I don't think you need the packages.devuan.org line, but it won't hurt. If you want the rsyslog from jessie-backports, you would need to temporarily add a line with

deb http://packages.devuan.org/merged jessie-backports main

and then run

apt-get update
apt-get -t jessie-backports install rsyslog

(Then remove the jessie-backports line and update again)

consolekit is needed for shutdown and reboot buttons to work. This has been a recurring issue since about when we started on this path a couple years ago.

It builds. It installs. It runs. It frightens.

It worked on 2 out of 3 ascii systems. The third one lacks dbus, consolekit and libck-connector0, so I didn't install it on that one. I didn't look at the docs.

I have a dual-monitor setup with nvidia G210-something and nouveau. 1 VGA, 1 DVI, and also on a laptop with an added vga monitor. The desktop spans both monitors nicely, and it was easy to do.

Install lxrandr and run it.

Note: You might not see it in the applications menu, depending on what deskop you're using. You can edit /usr/share/applications/lxrandr.desktop to comment out the offiending line:

#NotShowIn=GNOME;KDE;XFCE;MATE;

And if you save the settings in xfce, you'll need to do the same with ~/.config/autostart/lxrandr-autostart.desktop

I haven't been following this discussion, so maybe I have no business posting on this thread, but there are a couple of things bugging me about it.

1. Way up in the early part of this thread I see:

GET /merged/pool/DEBIAN/main/u/util-linux/util-linux_2.29.2-1.dsc HTTP/1.1

That surely can't be right. Use devuan repos, not debian.

2. When I run '$ apt-get source util-linux' I see:

Get:1 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/devuan/ jessie-proposed/main util-linux 2.26.2-6+devuan1

But that is not the version in ascii or even in ceres.

$ apt-cache policy util-linux
util-linux:
  Installed: 2.26.2-6+devuan1
  Candidate: 2.26.2-6+devuan1
  Version table:
     2.28-1+devuan3 0
        100 http://us.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ ascii/main amd64 Packages
     2.27.1-1+devuan0.1 0
        100 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ ceres/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2.26.2-6+devuan1 0
        500 http://us.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

It appears that there is a newer version in ascii than in ceres (and also I have the wrong version. This is on ascii that was upgraded from jessie, and I still have the jessie version of util-linux.)

If I run '$ apt-get -t ascii source util-linux' I get the version that belongs in ascii:

Get:1 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged ascii/main util-linux 2.28-1+devuan3 

Then I run into the build-dep problem:

builddeps:util-linux : Depends: libudev-dev but it is not going to be installed

because it requires systemd.  So I checked to see if we've devuanized libudev-dev, and it looks like we did it for the version of udev that's in jessie (220) but not for ascii (232).

# apt-cache policy libudev-dev
libudev-dev:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 232-25
  Version table:
     220:3.2.2-devuan2.3 100
        100 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/devuan experimental/main amd64 Packages
     232-25 500
        500 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged ascii/main amd64 Packages

Why does ascii have a newer version of util-linux than ceres?

Shouldn't the source for the ascii version be used for ascii? Just running 'apt-get source util-linux' pulls in sources for a version newer than any in devuan.

Your gitlab-fu is better than mine. I think I've seen those pages, but I wouldn't know how to find them.

Yes, slim is the default display manager. And desktop-base is installed if you take the default desktop install, which uses a few task-* packages to fill up the installed-packages list.

It looks like the latest version of slim we have is 1.3.6-5+devuan4 in jessie. There's a newer version in stretch - 1.3.6-5.1, but I don't know if it has anything we want (plymouth patches and I forget what else). I tried building a package from the stretch sources, and it worked, but I didn't know how to put the devuan theme into it except to add it after installing slim. I only changed the changelog to give it a unique number. I did not have to change the dependencies, and I don't understand the deps. Specifically, I don't understand why apt complains that slim needs libpng12-0 when it's not listed in the control file.

I agree with you that the theme should be in the slim package. There are lots of people who don't install desktop-base but do use a dm. But I can't say anything about how desktop-base should interact with that. I know that the plan is to make it so that people can easily create and change themes for d-b that will show up at boot, login and desktop. I've avoided d-b ever since spacefun.

I cloned your repo, built the package and installed it. It works! Nice job. The error regarding libpng12-0 that was preventing installation from the repo is gone.

There is a potential problem. The version number you used is already taken. Looking at the changelog, it looks like you did not use the latest version, so there might be some changes that were lost. Although it looks like those changes involved removing the devuan theme and letting desktop-base handle it. I have no idea what should be done about that.

Are you using a display manager? If so, which one - slim, lightdm or other?

On my ascii installs without a display manager, I've used this to run startx as user:

echo "needs_root_rights=yes" >> /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

I haven't tried any other settings. See man xwrapper.config.

It should be bootable from a usb stick. Image the stick with dd like you would with any other isohybrid. That's what isohdpfx.bin is for. What are you getting when you try to boot the usb?

Sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I didn't read it all. Here's what we have in devuan. You should not use debian repositories to pull packages. You could get some unexpected surprises, and I'm talking about the unpleasant kind.

$ apt-cache policy torbrowser-launcher 
torbrowser-launcher:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.1.9-1+deb8u3
  Version table:
     0.2.7-2 0
        100 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ ceres/contrib amd64 Packages
     0.2.6-2~bpo8+1 0
        200 http://packages.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-backports/contrib amd64 Packages
     0.1.9-1+deb8u3 0
        500 http://us.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie/contrib amd64 Packages

If you're in jessie and want the version from backports,

apt-get -t jessie-backports install torbrowser-launcher

I don't know why it's not in ascii. I would either try the one from jessie-backports or temporarily add ceres sources and pull it from there. More likely, I would just go to the tor site, download the latest version and unpack it in my home directory.

Does it say what version of fsck it's using? Make sure it's the version in devuan and not the version in mint. Make sure the grub menu entry is pointing to the correct root.

You're getting messages to upgrade e2fsck when you run the installer? Which installer iso and installation method are you using?

If you can get back to the installation that worked but didn't have wifi, that's a known problem and is pretty easy to fix.