sr0 = cdrom

If you used lvm previously on this drive, there might still be some metadata hanging around. I think in that case, gparted would show it, but you might also see it with lvdisplay and vgdisplay. You can get rid of that with lvremove and vgremove, but I think that will cause loss of data. So don't do that if you don't want to reinstall.

If you don't need to remove lvm metadata and you don't plan to use lvm, you could uninstall the lvm2 package. While you're at it, you could also uninstall mdadm if you're not using RAID.

You did the chroot correctly.

The error message about grub-pc already being the newest version makes no sense. (Unless it said grub-pc-bin) because grub-pc is not installed in the amd64 desktop-live iso.

I thought maybe the boot partition didn't get mounted correctly, but the log shows that it did. I don't know what happened, and I also can't explain the errors you got in your subsequent attempts.

The theme issue is easy to fix. Comment out this line in /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_THEME=/usr/share/desktop-base/grub-themes/desktop-grub-theme/theme.txt

And then run update-grub.

There is a way to copy the theme into /boot/grub and get it to work with an encrypted root, but I don't remember if you need to do more than copy the theme directory and fix the path for GRUB_THEME in /etc/default/grub.

I know why you didn't get asked where to put the bootloader. That was a change in grub and a later version of refractainstaller corrects for that.

The fact that it works with a uefi install but not with a bios install makes me think you might be using gpt partition table on the disk. If so, you need a separate, special partition for grub:
At least 1MB in size, unformatted (the last fs type option in gparted) and with flag bios_grub in gparted or type ef02 if you're using gdisk.

fdisk -l will tell you if the disk is gpt or msdos partition table.

If that is not the issue, boot the live system and mount each partition to see that it actually has the files it needs. (e.g. /boot/grub/grub.cfg and everything else that should be in /boot)

For reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harr … llseye.JPG

It's working here.
https://pkginfo.devuan.org/

Make bootable? Or did you mean "make executable"?

Are you trying to boot a 64-bit OS on a 32-bit system?

This is fixed in chimaera/ceres: https://git.devuan.org/devuan/lightdm/s … /changelog

The fix is also in beowulf-proposed-updates and will be in the 3.1 point-release.

Distrowatch ratings are based on the number of page views for each distro's summary page. That may not be a good indication of how many people actually use it. (Note: I know one person who does use MX.)

It's not clear whether you want to archive just your installation or if you want the whole dvd set (i.e. the whole repo).

If you choose a mirror during the install, it doesn't matter whether you use the dvd or the netinstall iso - it will pull from the repo and will be current.

If you really want ALL the packages from the repo on dvd, then take the devuan dvd for installing a fresh system and take the debian dvd set to pull any individual packages you might want that aren't on the devuan dvd. Just don't install any packages from the debian disks that need systemd.

If you really want it to still work in 20 years, you should probably install to a virtual disk, so you aren't limited by lack of hardware support in 20 years.

Last time I upgraded my beowulf was exactly one week ago, and I see nine packages for upgrade today. You might not have all these packages installed. If you're not seeing the new kernel, maybe you don't have the kernel metapackage installed - linux-image-amd64 (or similar)

aptitude -s full-upgrade
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-4.19.0-11-amd64{a} linux-headers-4.19.0-11-common{a} linux-image-4.19.0-11-amd64{a} 
The following packages will be upgraded:
  librsvg2-2 librsvg2-common libvncclient1 libvncserver1 libx11-6 libx11-data libx11-xcb1 linux-headers-amd64 
  linux-image-amd64 
9 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

The installer includes Recommends by default. If you wanted to alter that, you could switch to another virtual console with alt-F2 during the install and make a 00norecommends file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ that contains 

APT::Install-Recommends "no";

Do that after the package manager is configured but before tasksel starts installing packages.
alt-F1 to get back to the installer.

Yeah, you can operate without the microcode, but that's still really weird. I just tested with and without amd64-microcode and intel-microcode, and it works in all cases. The script removes crypttab and resume from the initrd. My system is encrypted.

Meanwhile, someone else is having the same problem on a debian 10 system without the microcode. In that case, 'file -L /initrd.img' gave output with 'gzip compressed' twice, which broke the test.

If you want the microcode to be present in an installation made from your snapshot without having to add it after the installation, there's a way to do that.

save_work="yes"
Make a snapshot without the microcode.
chroot /home/work/myfs and install the microcode.
Make another snapshot using the no-copy option (re-squash and run xorriso)

Then the initrd used to boot the iso won't have the microcode, but any installs made from that iso will have it.