fsmithred wrote on 12.06.2015 14:40:
>
> Not the OP here, and not exactly what you're asking, but here's what I did
> yesterday:
>
> Installed devuan-alpha2-amd64 netinstall iso in virtualbox. At tasksel, I
> un-checked Print Server and Devuan Desktop Environment, and I checked
> XFCE. All seemed to be working well after install.
>
>

> dpkg -l | grep systemd
> ii  libpam-systemd:amd64                  215-17+deb8u1
>      amd64        system and service manager - PAM module
> ii  libsystemd0:amd64                     215-17+deb8u1
>      amd64        systemd utility library
> ii  systemd                               215-17+deb8u1
>      amd64        system and service manager
> ii  systemd-shim                          9-1
>      amd64        shim for systemd

>
>
> 'aptitude why' pointed to task-xfce-desktop as the reason for systemd
> packages, so I attempted to remove that.
>
> 'apt-get -s remove task-xfce-desktop libpam-systemd systemd' gave me a
> long list of packages that were no longer needed and were set to
> autoremove. (See below for the full list.) So I apt-get installed that
> list of packages and then I could remove systemd, systemd-shim and
> libpam-systemd without losing my whole desktop environment.
>
> After that, shutdown and reboot buttons stopped working in xfce and
> lightdm. Only logout from the desktop worked, bringing me to the login screen.
>
> Then I added back systemd, systemd-shim and libpam-systemd. Desktop
> buttons are no longer gray, but shutdown and reboot only bring me to the
> lightdm login screen. Power button choices in lightdm are all grayed out.
> That's not what I expected, and I don't know what's different from the
> original install. If I get a chance to do it again, I can make full
> packages lists before and after to see if something else got removed but
> not reinstalled.

The following might help (no guarantees, it's from the top of my head - don't
have my notes at hand right now):

- Make sure you're using sysvinit-core as init system, and slim or lightdm as
your display manager.

- Purge everything *systemd*! However, you may want to keep libsystemd0, in
case you want to use gvfs, cups, pulse or anything else that (still) depends
on it.

- Install: policykit-1, consolekit, libpam-ck-connector, upower

- A reboot at this point should be in order, not sure if it's exactly necessary.

HTH, Regards,
Urban