Re: Debian Developers Have Been Listening!
On Mon, 22 May 2017 08:30:15 +0900 Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Fri, May 19, 2017 at 1:48 AM, Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > A while ago, I initiated the "If Linux Is About Choice ..." thread
> > about why there is no choice of inits during an initial install.
> >
> > Since that time, I've tested several systemd-less distros[1] as
> > well as Stretch as replacements for my aging Wheezy system. With
> > Stretch my plan was to see if I could replace systemd as the init
> > without removing it just leaving its components (some or all as
> > necessary) to meet dependencies without it breaking the system
>
> ???
Could you be a little more specific? Or should I?
> > That way there would be no
> > need for third party repos or jumping through hoops to keep a
> > systemd-less working. I figured it would be a somewhat difficult,
> > time consuming process. However, I made a discovery during these
> > tests: The Debian developers had already done it for me. They made
> > switching from systemd as the init to sysvinit or runit easy just
> > by issuing a couple commands. Here's what you do.
>
> I thought that information came out several times in the thread you
> mention having started -- that it was possible to install the base
> system, then disable and remove the main systemd component, just
> leaving some of the pieces that have been picked up as dependencies
> by other packages.
That scenerio was mentioned and was known by me, but usually used to
prevent systemd from being installed all. But since Debian is now
systemd dependent and doing that will cause problems. You either have
to use third party repos or compile stuff yourself, have local repos,
etc just to get things to work. I ended up with a simplier solution:
Just treat systemd like any other dependency, then no special repos,
compiling, etc. And it worked! And the Stretch developers made it
easy to do which wasn't available with Jessie. Thank you developers.
My original thread was on why there is no choice of init at install
time. You have choices on almost everything else. Anyway, most of the
answers were ambiguous, a few acrimonious. No matter.
> Maybe the discussion of using more advanced techniques to keep from
> ever installing systemd in the first place hid the information about
> the removal approach.
Too many hoops to jump through to eliminate systemd if major
components (GNOME, udev, udisks2, policykit-1, etc) have it (or parts of
it) as dependencies. Just look at all Devuan had to go through to do
it.
> If so, it would seem to be worthwhile to have this separate thread,
> as well.
I don't think it would do any good. Debian has chosen systemd, for
better or worse, and I don't see that changing. Users and
administrators will either adapt or adopt another distro.
I just hope my little "fix" is useful to someone else. FWIW, I found
without systemd as the init and supervisor, I have about 7.5 MB more
free RAM.
B
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