c-ludenberg
442980a7af
why the FUCK did i think making an init selector was a good idea
artix themselves dont even ship services in their online installer
they just give you a bare system and say "figure it out" and
it WORKS because people can just install their init of choice
afterwards. but nooooo i had to be clever and build a whole
netinstall-add monstrosity with openrc/runit/s6 service groups
that broke constantly because basestrap --overwrite is a lie
and init packages conflict with each other and sddm-openrc +
lightdm-openrc both Provide: init-displaymanager and pacman
just goes 🖕 during install.
so anyway. dinit only now. you want something else? read
changing-init.md, i literally copied the artix wiki tutorial.
i am not maintaining four init service groups in netinstall.yaml
for the rest of my life. this is my villain origin story.
actual changes:
- ripped out offline calamares mode (was never truly offline)
- ripped out packagechooser.conf (good fucking riddance)
- added packagechooser_dm.conf so you can at least pick your DM
- added BYODE offline installer (bare system + btrfs + snapper,
no DE, you pacman -Sy plasma-meta yourself)
- added yay + snapper + btrfs-progs to rootfs
- shoved Init Services + DM groups into netinstall.yaml (dinit
only, obviously)
- updated every markdown file that mentioned another init like
they were cursed (they were)
- wrote changing-init.md so i can just paste the link next time
someone asks
- X-KDE-IsAdminApplication=true so KDE stops acting like
calamares is a virus (its not, its just desperate)
63 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
63 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: Init Systems
|
|
layout: default
|
|
nav_order: 3
|
|
has_children: true
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
# 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 ships with **Dinit** as its default init system. The pages below describe the major init systems available on Artix Linux for educational purposes. If you want to switch init on an installed system, see [Changing init](changing-init).
|
|
|
|
## The inits
|
|
|
|
| Init | Philosophy | Complexity | Speed | Used by |
|
|
|------|-----------|------------|-------|---------|
|
|
| [Dinit](dinit) | Modern, dependency-based, parallel | Medium | Very fast | Antergos NeXT (default), Chimera Linux, Artix |
|
|
| [OpenRC](openrc) | Traditional, modular, shell-script-based | Low | Fast | Gentoo, Artix, Devuan, Alpine |
|
|
| [Runit](runit) | Minimal, supervision-based, Unix-like | Low | Very fast | Void Linux, AntiX |
|
|
| [S6](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](https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/SwitchInit) that also works on Antergos NeXT. The process involves installing the new init's packages, configuring its services, and updating the bootloader.
|