The problem is you keep trying to install the xfce4 package when you don't want it. It's a metapackage that pulls in parts of the xfce4 desktop that you don't want. Just install the parts you do want as I posted above.

Here it is again, without the extra backslash at the end:

apt install  xfconf xfdesktop4 xfwm4 xfce4-terminal xfce4-session xfce4-xkb-plugin xfce4-panel \
thunar thunar-volman thunar-archive-plugin xfce4-notifyd libnotify-bin mesa-utils  \
xfce4-power-manager xfce4-cpugraph-plugin  xfwm4-themes

More info:

I have xfce working with lxdm in refracta9. You're probably missing some polkit package(s). Run the following command and compare the output. (Note that there are duplicates in the list.)

user@refracta:~$ dpkg -l | egrep "consolekit|elogind|policykit|polkit|libpam"
ii  elogind                              234.4-2                            amd64        user, seat and session management daemon
ii  libelogind0:amd64                    234.4-2                            amd64        user, seat and session management library
ii  libpam-elogind:amd64                 234.4-2                            amd64        elogind PAM module
ii  libpam-modules:amd64                 1.1.8-3.6                          amd64        Pluggable Authentication Modules for PAM
ii  libpam-modules-bin                   1.1.8-3.6                          amd64        Pluggable Authentication Modules for PAM - helper binaries
ii  libpam-runtime                       1.1.8-3.6                          all          Runtime support for the PAM library
ii  libpam0g:amd64                       1.1.8-3.6                          amd64        Pluggable Authentication Modules library
ii  libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64            0.105-25+devuan0~bpo2+1            amd64        PolicyKit Authentication Agent API
ii  libpolkit-backend-1-0                0.105-25+devuan0~bpo2+1            all          PolicyKit Authorization API
ii  libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0:amd64  0.105-25+devuan0~bpo2+1            amd64        PolicyKit backend API
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0                0.105-25+devuan0~bpo2+1            all          PolicyKit Authorization API
ii  libpolkit-gobject-elogind-1-0:amd64  0.105-25+devuan0~bpo2+1            amd64        PolicyKit Authorization API
ii  policykit-1                          0.105-25+devuan0~bpo2+1            amd64        framework for managing administrative policies and privileges
ii  policykit-1-gnome                    0.105-6                            amd64        authentication agent for PolicyKit
user@refracta:~$ 

That won't work so well in debian-based distros. (Won't work at all.)

grub-install [target] installs the bootloader. target is a drive or partition for legacy/bios systems, omitted for uefi systems.
update-grub creates the boot menu

We do have that:
https://files.roundr.devuan.org/devuan_ … imal-live/

You should not have to install grub manually. If you saw a "copy files" button, then that was the right one to pick. That causes the grub-pc package to be installed and gives you the blue debconf windows for choosing the location.

When it hangs, take a look in /var/log/refractainstaller.log (or refractainstaller_error(s).log depending on the version) or post/paste it somewhere for me to see.

Does your hard drive have msdos or gpt partition table?

ps ax | grep polkit

to see if it's running.

A hibernated system already knows what hardware you have, where it is and what modules need to be loaded. That saves a lot of time.

Currently, you can use the installer isos to install directly from the medium to avoid having to download the packages. That can save you some time, but those packages still need to be unpacked and configured. Or you can use the live isos and avoid downloading, unpacking and configuring the packages, but then you don't get to choose what packages are installed.

If you want a package selection that's different from the default, then you either have to do it yourself starting from a minimal install, or you have to find a derivative distribution that has what you want.

I keep thinking of other ways to do this, but I haven't come up with anything that I think is good enough to replace what we already have.

Thanks for the warning. I kept a copy of my modified cryptdisks-functions before upgrading, and the only differences between that and the latest version are my edits, so I only need to copy the modified file into place again.

Nobody has volunteered to adopt this package in devuan, and I believe this is a 'wontfix' bug upstream. Keep a copy of your edits handy.

I'm re-posting something I posted to dng this morning.

I can confirm that auto.mirror.devuan.org (packages.devuan.org) updates ahead of deb.devuan.org (pkgmaster.devuan.org) and that this has been going on for some time, maybe a few months. (Maybe since auto.mirror got upgraded to amprolla3, but not sure about that.)

Sometimes it's days before pkgmaster catches up, and I'm not sure if it ever catches up without help from one of the sysadmins.

Here's a current example - the latest firefox-esr is in jessie-security, but only in auto.mirror.

# apt-cache policy firefox-esr
firefox-esr:
  Installed: 60.6.1esr-1~deb8u1
  Candidate: 60.6.2esr-1~deb8u1
  Version table:
     60.6.2esr-1~deb8u1 0
        500 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-security/main amd64 Packages
 *** 60.6.1esr-1~deb8u1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     52.8.1esr-1~deb8u1 0
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie/main amd64 Packages

FWIW, I also tried this using "pkgmaster" and "packages" instead of "deb" and "auto.mirror" in sources.list and got the same result.

fsmithred

The mini.isos from february no longer work and need to be rebuilt. New isos should be coming soon. (I'm guessing it'll be a couple weeks, not a couple days.)

Try apt-get install libelogind0=241.1-1 (Maybe need to do the same for elogind, too.) I'm guessing that there were some changes in dependencies in the interim versions of libelogind0 and you two are caught in some kind of twilight zone.

Another thing you (sgage) could try if the 250 packages are going to be set to autoremoval (as opposed to actually being removed) is to remove libsystemd0 and then install libelogind0 (even if it's already installed). Since libelogind0 Provides libsystemd0, all those packages that want lsd0 will be happy and will be taken off the autoremove list. Maybe.

The point of the metapackage is so that you can get a working desktop without having to type something like

apt install  xfconf xfdesktop4 xfwm4 xfce4-terminal xfce4-session xfce4-xkb-plugin xfce4-panel \
thunar thunar-volman thunar-archive-plugin xfce4-notifyd libnotify-bin mesa-utils  \
xfce4-power-manager xfce4-cpugraph-plugin  xfwm4-themes \

Of course, now you don't have to type all that. You could just copy/paste it or modify it to fit your needs.

If you install the packages individually, you can remove them individually. You can even do this if the packages were automatically installed because of a dependency. When you 'apt-get install' a package that was automatically installed, its status gets changed to manually installed. Then, when you remove the metapackage, the manually installed packages won't be removed.