Hi, thanks Jonny, I tried transientlog and had to modify the install script I believe (removed systemctl daemon-reload from install.sh, Anyway I got it to work, but it was unreliable after I installed fail2ban and ufw. It would work if I stopped, deleted the permanentlog file and started it again. So I went searching for someone who has got ram2log working for sysv and I found this > https://energytalk.co.za/t/gx-device-lo … g2ram/2130

I have 3 Arm sbc devices, one is a old bananapi pro. All are headless and have new fresh devuan installs on them. I followed the tutorial for log2ram above, it all went smooth, seems to work.
The other 2 smb's are located remotely and both running devuan daedalus as well. As I installed to the next one via ssh I did this too I thought this would work but it never came back after I rebooted (end of the install tutorial), so :-(

Maybe somebody here could look and suggest change(s) to that tutorial. I am not sure if I typed something wrong on my second device or not.
The only complaint during install was when entering this (both devices)- sudo update-rc.d log2ram-init.sh start 06 S . stop 80 0 6 . I got this: update-rc.d: warning: start and stop actions are no longer supported; falling back to defaults otherwise no errors.

So maybe the tutorial works and maybe its doesn't. cheers

Edit: I just thought of this, On the bannanapro install, for root command I do not have to enter sudo first. Such as #findmnt on the other 2 I have to enter sudo first #sudo findmnt I wonder if this is my problem. The tutorial in link , he did say "IMPORTANT: Install findmnt - needed to log2ram core tool:"
hmmmmm

Edit#2: Actually after more digging around I can use findmnt (/sbin), but not anything located in /bin unless I type sudo first.
I bet that could be my problem

Edit#3: sleuthing around the internet today, I guess I should have used su - to get the correct path. I logged in as a normal user, then "su root" but I guess that is not enough, still need to su - first. Got the remote sbc rebooted and the root file system mounted.  Its just busybox inititramfs and dropbear right now. Log file doesn't have much of a clue. I'll get this eventually sorted out and post a reply here, so if it works then there is alternative beside transientlog.