I was away from the keyboard a very long time (had to work
outside/outdoor for a life), so very likely i missed a lot. Sorry in
anticipation if i'm doubling something:

One system is/was running devuan ascii quite nicely but when i came
back i did an 'apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade' and i
realize(d), that openrc (which i was used to use) was removed. When i
try to reinstall openrc, i see that nearly the complete system would be
removed
--------
alsa-firmware-loaders bluetooth bluez bumblebee ceni clamav
clamav-daemon clamav-freshclam clamav-milter clamav-unofficial-sigs
clamsmtp clamtk cups cups-browsed cups-core-drivers cups-daemon
gnumeric gnumeric-plugins-extra hplip init initramfs-tools
initramfs-tools-core initscripts inxi kodi kodi-bin kodi-data
linux-image-4.6-4.dmz.2-liquorix-amd64 linux-image-4.6.0-1-amd64
linux-image-4.7.0-3.1-liquorix-amd64 primus printer-driver-gutenprint
printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-postscript-hp printer-driver-splix
procps sane-utils sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-core task-print-server udev
virtualbox virtualbox-ext-pack virtualbox-guest-x11 virtualbox-qt xorg
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all
xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-libinput
xserver-xorg-input-mouse xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse xserver-xorg-video-all
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-trident
xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware Die folgenden NEUEN
Pakete werden installiert: libeinfo1 librc1 makedev openrc WARNUNG: Die
folgenden essentiellen Pakete werden entfernt. Dies sollte NICHT
geschehen, außer Sie wissen genau, was Sie tun! init sysvinit-core
(wegen init)
-----------

BTW, this is the same with the option --no-install-recommends

When i installed openrc time ago, installation was smooth and i did not
have any of this problems. Did devuan became incompatible with openrc
in the meantime?

A small, side problem, i will have to solve in the next future: My
zram-init script does not work anymore. May be it's why i installed it
under openrc?

Anyway, any pointer will be highly welcome!

Thanks a lot in advance!