I don't think you can resize FAT partitions with gparted. I'm surprised you didn't get an error message about that.
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug- … 00010.html

You'll need to make the fat32 the right size to begin with. If rufus won't let you do that, use refracta2usb. You should make it a little larger than the iso file, so there's room for a copy of the kernel and initrd for booting the stick. If you need to make this live-usb in a Windows environment, you'll need to find another way. Refracta2usb only runs on linux.

The sysvinit entry in the boot menu has 'init=/lib/sysvinit/init'. That gets used in debian when systemd is installed along with sysvinit, and in that case, /sbin/init is a symbolic link pointing to systemd. In devuan, /sbin/init should be the real init (a real file, not a symlink.) Does /lib/sysvinit/init even exist on your setup?

It's not two different kernels, it's two different entries in the boot menu. Look at the menuentry for each in /boot/grub/grub.cfg to see if there's a difference in the linux lines.

I've only seen that on debian, where you had a choice to boot with sysvinit or systemd. How did you install devuan?

I don't know what most of that output means, but probably reversing the changes you made should let that script work again - just uncomment those lines you commented.

Also (off-topic) unless you're sure you need it, I'd recommend removing live-tools. AFAIK, the only thing it does is get in the way of running update-initramfs.

apt-get remove imagemagick
j

Do NOT run 'apt-get autoremove' at this time.

apt-get intstall cups

Some or all of the packages that were marked for autoremoval will get marked as manually installed. (they get removed from the autoremoval list.) I'm not sure if you'll need to install cups-filters or the driver.

There's some problem with jessie-security on the old amprolla. I don't know the details, but it's not a new problem. Change sources from auto.mirror.devuan.org to pkgmaster.devuan.org.

Another odd thing is that there are two versions in ascii/stretch security. I don't know if you'll need to specifiy the version you want, or if you'll just get the later version. To specify the version,

apt-get install thunderbird-l10n-xx=1:52.7.0-1~deb9u1

Replace xx with your country code.

It's a known issue.

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=1950
https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/2 … 27.en.html

TL;DR:

rm /etc/init.d/udev

Then repeat the upgrade.

You're running into the metapackage problem. When you install a metapackage like task-mate-desktop, it pulls in everything you might need for a complete dekstop environement, and when you try to remove a piece of that DE, it breaks the metapackage, which wants to remove ALL of its deps. There are a couple of ways around this, but they both involve starting out with a small installation and adding pieces instead of starting big and removing pieces. When you get to the tasksel window in the installer, un-check the destkop environment box. (maybe un-check everything except standard system utilities.

Then start installing what you want. You could install the mate metapackage, and that would be tied to fewer dependencies than the task- package. Or better yet, install mate-core, see what that brings in, and then start adding other pieces that you need. This way takes a little more work to find what you want, but it makes it a lot easier if you want to remove something.

These might help:

apt-cache rdepends exim4
aptitude why exim4

I think I suggested checking the debian wiki for the graphics drivers. I did not suggest using debian sources.

DO NOT USE DEBIAN OR UBUNTU SOURCES IN YOUR sources.list file.

https://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo
https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged ascii main contrib non-free

For all those ubuntu packages, just remove 'unbuntu' from the name and install it. For example, instead of installing libreoffice-ubuntu from the ppa, install libreoffice from the devuan repository. Do the same with the other packages.

I don't know. Last time I built a heads iso was a year ago. Last time I built a plain devuan iso with live-sdk was a couple weeks ago.

Are you getting any error messages on-screen or in the logs? Is it creating an iso that doesn't work, or not making an iso at all? Is filesystem.squashfs getting created? (look in live-sdk/tmp/devuan-whatever/binary/live/)

You have ascii and ascii-security in your sources. You could add ascii-updates.

The deb-src lines are for source packages. Unless you're planning on creating .deb packages, you can comment those lines.

The problem with synaptic (and gparted and just about anything else that requires root privileges) is that pkexec is broken. One workaround as mentioned above is to start it from a terminal as root. Another option is to edit the .desktop file so it runs a different command. Change the line that has 'Exec=synaptic-pkexec' to one of the following.

Exec=gksu synaptic
or
Exec=xterm -e 'su -c synaptic'

or replace xterm with your favorite terminal.

Note: you don't need to be in the sudo group to use gksu.
Note2: if you are in the sudo group, synaptic might work from the menu without editing the .desktop file. (It did for me in a test install.)