This is disappointing.

****@devuan-nuc:~/work$ xrestop -d 5
xrestop: Unable to open display!
****@devuan-nuc:~/work$ echo $DISPLAY
:0
****@devuan-nuc:~/work$ xhost +
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
****@devuan-nuc:~/work$ xrestop -d 5
xrestop: Unable to open display!

Also tried that as root in a terminal shell, same result. Looks like I need to figure out why that is not working.

I've heard similar anecdotes, and I have bought "refurbished" drives that have had data on them. I have never had that happen with new disks to date.

For the record, I did not ass-u-me the new disk was blank. I verified it was blank as soon as it was installed and I booted the system. Thanks for the heads up for anyone else reading this though.

Added: This is a bit of a tangent from the original post we should probably take elsewhere. That said, if your "dead" or used disk has sensitive data on it then have it run through a disk shredder, or otherwise destroy it to the point it is unreadable. If you need to return a defective disk for a replacement, consider not doing that and just buy another new disk and destroy the defective one. These are the only ways to be sure your data on that disk does not escape your control.

To complete this saga, after doing the steps I outlined above and rebooting, when I created my new home logical volume, all the bits were created as expected. I did not have to make any special symlinks. I just had to make the file system with mkfs.ext4, create the new /home2 mount point, mount it, and edit /etc/fstab to make it stick.

I have already been through all the guides, mate. This problem with lvcreate AFTER INSTALLATION is not addressed in any of them. As you can see above, I found a workaround.

Huh, interesting. I am web searching to find out how to make the LVM stuff work on Devuan. Look at "Never use ..." under the Notes section on this page: https://www.thegeekdiary.com/how-to-cre … h-devices/

Yet those are used when logical volumes are made using the Devuan installer. Weird.

Yeah, I'm off down the wrong rabbit hole with the #PV thing.

This is my home system. I cannot copy files from the work systems to my home, nor vice versa, for diff without breaking company security rules. Besides, I am on vacation from work which is why I have time to work on my home setup. Not gonna login to work just for this. Someone would notice, and I would get pinged for workthing.

I can take a gander at the work systems when I am back at work next week to see if I can find a difference with my eyeball-mark-I.

Thank you for your suggestions.

This is a brand new disk, just taken out of the factory packaging this past weekend. It was completely blank when I added it as a PV then created the VG for the first time and attempted to create the first logical volume on it using the same LVM steps at the CLI I have used hundreds of times in my job as a Unix / Linux administrator at a regional ISP. Since then I have removed all the LVM data and started from a completely blank disk more than once now. There was nothing on the disk to confuse LVM from the start.

That said, my company uses primarily Red Hat / CentOS (ICK!). So I suspect there is a difference between those and Devuan / Debian that I am missing.

I am a seasoned *nixer, if you consider 30+ years seasoned, and I take Devuan seriously. I also thought the joke was hilarious. The gopher stuff was what made it funny to me. Especially that gopher actually worked! Ingenious!