To run the executable I can cd to its location and do $ ./basilisk

Are the entire contents of the supplied tarball present in the directory along with the executable? The tarball includes the shared libraries which are needed to run the browser.

The error message in the OP suggests that the browser is looking in /usr/local/share/ for the libraries, which might happen if they're not in the same directory as the executable.

Use this to upload the log file to a pastebin:

curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io < ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log

And I see that Flatpak no longer relies on systemd so you should probably try that instead when we've fixed this.

What did you do with the contents of the tarball? How do you start the browser? Do you apply LD_LIBRARY_PATH correctly when starting the browser?

The contents of the tarball included the executable, but I may not understand your question. To run the executable I can cd to its location and do $ ./basilisk (I actually do it with the shortcut C-A-b, which amounts to the same thing.

Your supposition is correct. I downloaded the skypeforlinux deb file, placed into a local repository, created a Packages.gz file that incorporated it, did Aptitude update, and then installed skypeforlinux. I've purged it, but that didn't help. My mouse still frozen. I had not heard of Fllatpak. I do not see systemd among
its dependencies. Incidentally I found that C-A-DEL does not stop the xserver. I removed the lock file and killed its process. Running startx again did not solve the problem of no mouse.

The xserver log file now has

_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: ... SocketCreateListener() failed
_XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: server already running
(EE) Fatal server error
(EE) Cannot establish any listening sockets - make sure an X server isn't already running
...

I tried $ startx --:1 without luck.

I tried # apt-get --reinstall xorg without luck

Sorry I was not clearer. As for Basilisk, I downloaded the tar.xz file from the Basilisk site and ran unxz and then tar on it to unarchive the executable.

And then? What did you do with the contents of the tarball? How do you start the browser? Do you apply LD_LIBRARY_PATH correctly when starting the browser?

There is no such package in the Devuan repositories so I presume you did something else beforehand? The Skype website offers a .deb package which adds the MS repositories to your system, is that what you used?

I would personally use the Flatpak instead but I think you might need systemd for that so...

It's always best to post the full logs (using code tags), you may have missed some important information. For example the log file will show which configuration files are being read.

When startx no longer worked. the log reported these errors:

(EE) open /dev/dri/card0: no such file or directory
(EE) Unable to find a valid framebuffer or device
(EE) open /dev/fb0: no such file or directory
(EE) Screen 0 deleted beacsue no mating configuration
(EE) VESA(0): Cannot read int vect
(EE) Screens found but none have a usable configituration

These errors are why I ran # dpkg-reconfigure xerver-xorg. I expected but did not get a feedback from the command (a long time since I last used it) and so
ran # X -configure without checking to see if the former command had worked.. This seemed to fix the problem and gave plenty of feedback. Now I can
start Basilisk, but now I've lost the mouse. There were no additions in Xorg.0.log,  I ran # dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg but failed to recover the mouse.
When I log in as root, still no mouse.

I'm not sure what config files to remove and still leave xorg installed. I lack all the files appended to man xorg except the executable. Why wouldn't a reconfiguration of xorg overwrite any old damaged configurations ?

To install Basilisk I used the tar.xz file from the web site.

What does "used" mean, exactly? Which command(s) did you run?

How, exactly? Which command(s) did you run?

Why not? What happened when you tried? Logs are always useful for troubleshooting that sort of thing.

That tool is obsolete, don't use it. You probably just need to remove any and all X.Org configuration files.

So on my laptop installed firefox-esr to get a browser, and it worked. Then I installed skypeforlinux. When started the Skype  GUI was blank/empty and most menu items inoperative, including status. When I shut down my desktop I could not longer start X as user.

I got x server back by doing # X -configure  (# dpkg -reconfigure xserver-xorg didn't seem to do anything). I go back to run basilisk. This time it started, but my mouse frozen. I stopped the x server, logged in again but but starting basilisk still freezes mouse. If I don't find a solution I'll try to revert to the version of Basilisk that worked with Ascii.

Basilisk won't start because: "XPCOMGlueLoad glue error for /usr/local/share/Basilisk/basilisk/basilisk/libxul.so: libdbus-glib-1.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Couldn't load XPCOM."

How did you install Basilisk? That's a soname error, which suggests that you've just copied it over from another system.

Apt-get install libvpx

Hope it helps!

Now I install Beowulf 3.0.0 on a laptop along with Basilisk. Basilisk won't start because: "XPCOMGlueLoad glue error for /usr/local/share/Basilisk/basilisk/basilisk/libxul.so: libdbus-glib-1.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Couldn't load XPCOM."

This is a newer version of Basilisk, but I don't know the version of my old Basilisk. Required dependencies are

libnspr4.so
libplc4.so
libplds4.so
libnssutil3.so
libnss3.so
libsmime3.so
libssl3.so
libmozsqlite3.so
liblgpllibs.so
libmozgtk.so
libxul.so