I had a similar problem with Debian 9.3. I started by creating a barebones VM (all options deselected on the tasksel page). After the machine was created and rebooted, I logged in as root and did apt-get install gnome-core. This produced the error with rtkit daemon and dbus configure hanging as you described.
I got around the problem with the following steps: - ctrl-z to get out of the apt-get install command that is hanging at dbus - reboot the machine - try apt-get install gnome-core again - this results in a message indicating there are some problems and you should try a dpkg command - run the $ dpkg --configure -a as suggested by the above - reinstall rtkit, i.e. $ apt-get install --reinstall rtkit Then when I reboot, everything seems to be working fine and the machine comes up with the gnome login screen. -- Mark Sack about.me/marksack<http://about.me/marksack>
