devuan_daedalus_5.0.1_amd64_netinstall.iso

I put the "sysvinit" version on /dev/sda6, and "runit" on /dev/sda7.  In both cases, the "Software selection" consisted just "standard system utilities" [ie no "Desktop Environment"], and installation completed.  After installation, I added xorg, openbox, tint2, lxterminal, and was able to "startx" to produce a welcome "black screen" that I can work with!

I don't know why I found this so difficult, but thanks for your patience.

sysv-rc-conf

, for

runlevel 4

I removed the flag to run tdm, this is my display manager. Closed

sysv-rc-conf

and ran the

telinit 4

command.
Received a text screen with an invitation. I entered, the free command showed about 290 KB of occupied memory, in graphical mode about 490 KB.
To return to graphical mode, the command

telinit 2

Now, to enter in text mode, you just need to select

runlevel 4

.

Intel Core 2350M laptop.  I can't remember the command to list graphics card, but that can't be important.

In the interim, I tried install [on a different partition] without any X11 packages, just Console stuff, and on reboot it stopped [hung] after the message "Starting bluetooth:  bluetoothd".  I guess no-one tried that yet.

I done that on all my latest Devuan installations including Daedalus to be able to set up the graphical desktop my way. I use netinstalls and disable anything else but the standard system utilities in the sw selection, and do a reboot past the final steps including the grub install. Never had any issues, it simply worked. Independent from if I have network or not, on real HW or in a VM. The console should come up, sometimes when firmware is missing with not so nice graphics, but still readable. No Intel or NVidea involved though, pure AMD stuff.
Have you left out something, skipped an important step during expert install? What kind of PC we are talking about? efi or legacy install? What did you modify versus the procedure described here: https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … all-devuan ?

In the interim, I tried install [on a different partition] without any X11 packages, just Console stuff, and on reboot it stopped [hung] after the message "Starting bluetooth:  bluetoothd".  I guess no-one tried that yet.

# The default runlevel.
id:2:initdefault:

Change it to

# The default runlevel.
id:1:initdefault:

And your system will start up to runlevel 1 (no graphics, kind of single-user mode.

This file exists in Devuan 5 (Daedalus) with my OpenRC as the init system. I don't know how about Runit.

And, besides, you can always come back to a text console using Ctrl-Alt-F1 (or F2 or...) and then type (as root)

init 1

.
That's old Unix school.  Good luck.

update-service --remove /etc/sv/slim

which would not remove /etc/sv/slim but would remove the symbolic link, /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/slim. I just tested this with lightdm instead of slim, and it worked fine. Be aware that it will kill your graphical session. I'm running in qemu, and it left me with a black screen. Might be different on real hardware. I rebooted and got a console login screen. And startx works.

Also note that in debian/devuan, runit will use the sysvinit script if there are no runit scripts for a service. I don't know if this has anything to do with your problem, but maybe it's a useful clue.

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=5538

the talk is about having X start as a non-root init. But it is workable.

You may have to read it all to glean the most workable edits for Devuan.

I hope this helps.

ps, I had it working with open-rc init system.