Via Rick Thomas on the Debian Users mailing list:

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In any case, the solution I came up with is

apt-get --purge install -y sysvinit-core dbus- glib-networking- libgtk-3-0-
apt-get --purge autoremove

Note the trailing minus-signs on dbus- glib-networking- libgtk-3-0- These packages need to be deleted in the same pass as sysvinit-core is added.

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I haven’t had the chance to try this yet, but it certainly looks reasonable.

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Later: here’s what you should actually use:

apt install sysvinit-core dbus- elogind

Looks like XFCE4 is not going to work without systemd, though.

From the Debian init-diversity mailing list:

“I just wanted to speed up the backport as much as possible – as-is, Buster is useless for GUI users.”

So, we’ll need to wait for backports.

apt install sysvinit-core elogind/unstable libelogind0/unstable libelogind0:i386/unstable libpam-elogind/unstable libpam-elogind-compat/experimental

might work, but is unlikely to make you happy long term. Wait for backports.