I'd like to file a bug report about this, but I'm uncertain if I should file against udev or eudev.  Any suggestions?

I found the problem, by accident, by attempting to boot into recovery mode.  With the more verbose startup messages, I saw that the system was getting stuck on initializing my video card.  This is not a very good failure mode, though.  I believe on Debian it gives you a brief message at startup to install the proper video firmware and then keeps booting after that.

I chrooted into the Devuan install and installed firmware-amd-graphics then tried to boot into Devuan again and it worked!  Yay!  Hopefully this helps others if they have another Linux partition and can chroot in to fix the problem.

Thanks!

Just trying to help...

Shouldn't this be updated now?  https://devuan.org/os/

@golinux, thanks for that.  I was able to finally submit it, although the feedback from my bug report is already not very encouraging.

I have tried this exact sequence in a VM running Devuan Ascii and while it freezes the display for a few, it becomes unfrozen and finishes the performance test.  So it's either a driver issue or maybe an issue with the Devuan-provided AMD firmware.

Wow GNUser, thanks for that!   Pretty nice!

While I've not used it, gdevilspie is supposed to allow you to make geometry and positioning rules for windows.  I'm uncertain if it has any issues running alongside with Mate or other desktop environments but it's worth a shot!

The Atril and AbiWord window size thing is irritating to me too, but I use JWM and can make window rules in its config file then windows will always appear the way I want.

If it helps, this is what I got after installing midori and running midori -g and loading youtube:

$ midori -g
Launching command: '/usr/bin/gdb' --batch -ex 'set print thread-events off' -ex run -ex 'set logging on /run/user/1000/midori/gdb.bt' -ex 'bt' --return-child-result --args midori 
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property `gtk-primary-button-warps-slider' of type `gboolean' from rc file value "((GString*) 0x5555557e4160)" of type `gboolean'
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Dswing.aatext=true -Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=on
openjdk version "1.8.0_181"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_181-8u181-b13-1~deb9u1-b13)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.181-b13, mixed mode)

Thread 1 "midori" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00007ffff13aef79 in JSC::JSCell::toPrimitive(JSC::ExecState*, JSC::PreferredPrimitiveType) const () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0.so.0
#0  0x00007ffff13aef79 in JSC::JSCell::toPrimitive(JSC::ExecState*, JSC::PreferredPrimitiveType) const () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0.so.0
#1  0x00007ffff141684b in JSC::JSValue::toStringSlowCase(JSC::ExecState*) const () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0.so.0
#2  0x00007ffff126ef59 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0.so.0
#3  0x00007ffff126f722 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0.so.0
#4  0x00007fff9406f92e in ?? ()
#5  0x00007fffffffd140 in ?? ()
#6  0x00007fffe0c70000 in ?? ()
#7  0x00007fff62050348 in ?? ()
#8  0x00007fffffffd1b0 in ?? ()
#9  0x00007fff78667580 in ?? ()
#10 0x00007fffffffd1c0 in ?? ()
#11 0x00007fffffffd140 in ?? ()
#12 0x00007ffff1259013 in JSC::JITCode::execute(JSC::VM*, JSC::ProtoCallFrame*, JSC::Register*) () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0.so.0
Backtrace stopped: previous frame inner to this frame (corrupt stack?)

Man, this stinks.

I am very much an opponent of systemd.  I actively seek out and use non-systemd distros.  I've been using PCLinuxOS for quite a few weeks now with much success, but Devuan has a special place in my heart (and on its own hard-disk).

I believe each non-systemd distro is becoming weakened and ends up idle or dying because there seems to be a lack of unity among the remaining non-systemd distros.  If work and plans to 'circle the wagons' hasn't yet started, it should soon, otherwise in the future we'll be forced to use distros with systemd and our freedom to choose will be pretty much gone.

I wish I was a more skilled developer then I'd be on-board.  I just make small utility apps and don't do 'big guy' stuff.  Unfortunately most of the skilled developers out there have been heavily influenced by the pro-systemd crowd and probably don't see much benefit from non-systemd distros.  Many of the things I've read out there show folks' apathy toward the systemd situation.  "What's the big deal?  It works, I don't care" they might say about systemd.  But if you've used as many Linux distros with systemd as I have, you see the mess systemd makes. :'(

I hope, and want, Devuan to succeed.

Thanks to this post, I'm back on Devuan Beowulf from Linux Mint!  Hooray!

Hi fred43,

Thanks for that very informative post!  I will definitely refer to it when I get Beowulf back on here. 

Ascii is fine, but Beowulf was needed because it has some newer packages that I need.  I had to leave Devuan because the video driver for my older AMD/ATI chipset was corrupting the screen and basically froze Xorg while it works fine on Mint (and thus Ubuntu).  Nothing against Devuan, I use my computer for work and needed something stable.  I want to try the proprietary driver with Devuan and see if that works.

Thanks again!

Thanks for that.   I'll check out the Ascii backports.