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Init Systems

An init system is PID 1 — the first process that runs when your computer boots. It starts everything else: filesystems, networking, display manager, services. Think of it as a foreman: it doesn't do the work itself, but it makes sure everything happens in the right order.

Antergos NeXT lets you choose between four init systems during online installation. (Offline mode uses Dinit, the default.)

Don't know what to pick? Stick with Dinit — it's the default, it's fast, and it's what Antergos NeXT ships with. OpenRC is also available but currently broken in Antergos NeXT (services don't enable correctly on installed systems).

The inits

Init Philosophy Complexity Speed Used by
Dinit Modern, dependency-based, parallel Medium Very fast Antergos NeXT (default), Chimera Linux, Artix, new projects
OpenRC Traditional, modular, shell-script-based Low Fast Gentoo, Artix, Devuan, Alpine — currently broken in Antergos NeXT
Runit Minimal, supervision-based, Unix-like Low Very fast Void Linux, AntiX
S6 Full supervision suite, modular Medium-High Very fast Artix, embedded systems

Choosing an init

If you want... Pick...
The fastest boot, automatic dependency resolution Dinit
Something familiar, well-documented, simple OpenRC
The simplest supervision-based approach Runit
The most powerful non-systemd init with full supervision S6

What they all have in common

  • No systemd — all four are independent implementations
  • Service scripts — services are configured via files in /etc/
  • Runlevels — groups of services that start together under different conditions
  • Plain-text logging — logs go to /var/log/, not journalctl

Key differences

Aspect Dinit OpenRC Runit S6
Service format Declarative .conf files Shell scripts Executable run scripts run scripts + s6-rc database
Dependencies Automatic Manual (need/use) None Automatic (s6-rc)
Supervision Optional No Yes (runsv) Yes (s6-supervise)
Logging None built-in syslog Per-service (optional) Per-service (s6-log)
Init script None needed /etc/init.d/ /etc/runit/1/2/3 s6-linux-init

Learning Linux with init systems

If you're new to Linux, init systems are one of the best ways to understand how your OS works under the hood:

  • Processes — PID 1, service trees, process supervision
  • Boot order — what needs to start before what
  • Dependencies — why NetworkManager needs dbus, why dbus needs udev
  • Runlevels — why your system behaves differently in single-user vs normal boot

The best part? If you break something with services, you can always fix it by re-enabling or starting it manually. Service management is much simpler than kernel config or package management.

Switching init after install

Artix provides a switching init guide that also works on Antergos NeXT. The process involves installing the new init's packages, configuring its services, and updating the bootloader.