You either need to install elogind or edit Xwrapper.config to allow X to run as root. See the section on startiing X from console in the release notes:
https://files.devuan.org/devuan_ascii/Release_notes.txt

thanks, i added line to Xwrapper.config and x windows works now.!

i upgraded to ascii from Debian Wheezy on this particular machine last night, in wheezy, it directly boot into 'icewm' once start the machine.  however, after upgrading to ascii, it failed to enter 'icewm' after init is done, instead displaying error message on the screen and bring me to user log in prompt, after loggin in as my username, i typed 'startx' and enter, it can launch into icewm but the screen would freeze every time.

The onscreen error message instructs me to look at '/home/erdos/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log for details so it's up-to-date log info.

i will look at my /etc/inittab file for any hints.

it seems the new 'xorg' has changed its behavior in ascii comparing with prior jessie xorg - since i know the same setup works under both Debian Wheezy and Devuan Jessie from experience.

What is the date on "~/.local/share/Xorg/Xorg.0.log"? (Should that be ...share/xorg/...?). My own system just uses /var/log/Xorg.x.log. Possibly you're looking at stale data?

But after running further upgrade to ascii, i encounter issues:
the upgrade itself was a success, no errors.

but after i rebooted the machine, as soon as i started x, the screen freezes, with no response from mouse or keyboard.

here's the related error info in '~/.local/share/Xorg/Xorg.0.log'

(EE)parse_vt_settings:  Cannot open /dev/tty0 (permission denied)
...
(EE)  xf86CloseConsole: KDSETMODE failed: bad file descriptor
(EE) xf86CloseConsole:  VT_GETMODE failed:  bad file descriptor
(EE) Server terminatored with error (1). closing log file

not sure what to do next