Visit https://devuan.org/get-devuan and locate the latest download image.

Fetch the image (Raspberry Pi Zero)

wget http://devuan.ksx4system.net/devuan_ascii/embedded/devuan_ascii_2.0.0_armel_raspi1.img.xz

Verify the file with the hash on the download page.

Decompress.

unxz devuan_ascii_2.0.0_armel_raspi1.img.xz

Place a microsd card in your desktop system and write the image.

In this instance, the microsd card is detected as sdd.

sudo dd if=devuan_ascii_2.0.0_armel_raspi1.img of=/dev/sdd bs=4M

Initiate a rescan of the device.

su root -c 'echo 1 > /sys/block/sdd/device/rescan'

Mount the RPi boot partition and make some changes.

su -m
mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt
vi /mnt/config.txt

Some example options for config.txt.

sdtv_mode=2
#dtparam=audio=on
gpu_mem=16
dtparam=spi=on
dtoverlay=spi-bcm2835
#dtoverlay=mcp2515-can0,oscillator=16000000,interrupt=25
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtparam=i2c_vc=on
#dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=4
#dtoverlay=dht11,gpiopin=17

Un mount the boot partition.

umount /mnt

Mount the system partition and set up networking. This will allow us to login after the Pi boots and finalise the set up.

mount /dev/sdd2 /mnt
vi /mnt/etc/network/interfaces
vi /mnt/etc/resolv.conf

If you need to use WiFI, Eg. BELKIN FD00000, place the firmware in /lib/firmware (rt73.bin).

Un mount the system partition.

umount /mnt

apt-get install firmware-brcm80211
wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RPi-Distro/firmware-nonfree/master/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt -o /lib/firmware/brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt

Edit /etc/inittab and disable unnecessary gettys and reboot.

Because we disabled the useless swap generator, do it by hand.

swapoff /var/swap
dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/swap bs=4M count=512
mkswap /var/swap
echo "/var/swap none swap sw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
reboot

When we log in now we have a mean and lean linux installation but no service management. I prefer runit or you may prefer daemontools.

Set up runit/daemontools now as required and you are done.