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New init system enters testing phase

The "runit guy in Artix", @konimex, has been busy lately with another init system, namely dinit.
Here's the announcement in artix-dev mailing list:

====================================================
Good day, people.

After few days of testing, I can say that Artix's dinit implementation
is "mostly complete". At least for most basic functions, some rather
complex service scripts (such as postgres), and at least basic testing
for two DMs already used in our ISOs (LightDM and SDDM).

While I don't want to rush the deployment, I think a public testing
should be possible. Some things need to be tested further, such as
wpa_supplicant (I don't have any usable wireless-enabled devices to test
on), LVM2 volumes (whether LVM-on-LUKS or LUKS-on-LVM), display managers
other than LightDM and SDDM, and of course, even more packages. [system]
and [world] scripts should be complete, but [galaxy] is rather sparse. I
should also begin to work with the documentation (start, stop, and
creating new services).

Crude docs as of now:

- Start service: dinitctl start service_name
- Stop service: dinitctl stop service_name
- Restart service: dinitctl restart service_name
- Enable service: dinitctl enable service_name
- Disable service: dinitctl disable service_name
- List services: dinitctl list

Directories:

- Main dinit dir: /etc/dinit.d
- Config dir: /etc/dinit.d/config
- Scripts dir: /etc/dinit.d/scripts

A very early test ISO has been made, you can download at [1] for base
ISO, and [2] for LxQt one.

WARNING: For the time being you will need to append init=/bin/dinit to
the kernel cmdline on GRUB, otherwise it won't run at all.

[1]
https://github.com/konimex/artools/releases/download/2021.10/artix-base-dinit-20211031-x86_64.iso
[2]
https://github.com/konimex/artools/releases/download/2021.10/artix-lxqt-dinit-20211031-x86_64.iso
====================================================

The ISOs are also available in the testing section of our EU download server.

Re: New init system enters testing phase

Reply #1 –
I tested the lxqt dinit ISO today on real hardware (Asus laptop, built-in Wifi), and both NetworkManager+wpa_supplicant and just bare wpa_supplicant worked without problems, as in I was able to access the Internet, browse the web and update the live system normally.

Re: New init system enters testing phase

Reply #2 –
Works fine in qemu on aarch64
ARMtix

Re: New init system enters testing phase

Reply #3 –
Wow you guys are work dorks. The amount of effort invested into all those flavours and init variants is really impressive. It seems to me that ATM Artix is one of the most actively developed distros if not THE most.

Re: New init system enters testing phase

Reply #4 –
I wasn't planning to announce this to the public until Friday, but oh well, might as well say something here.

So why yet another init?
I guess the answer would be "why not?". Personally, I always like to test out alternatives of common implementations, including inits, compilers, C libraries, C++ libraries, and many others. Runit was my first experiment towards that (although Void have done that first), and dinit will be my second foray to alternatives in case of init systems.

What about runit, then?
I will still maintain runit on Artix, albeit I'll take on a more background role. runit-rc will still be under my wing though in case something happens.

How can I install dinit?
Unfortunately, for now, you can't just install it by using simple pacman -S so there will be some manual makepkg going on, and no this isn't going to AUR. This is because the service scripts aren't even complete and the packages aren't in the Artix repo yet. I'm planning to get it done by Friday and get testing ISO fully out this weekend.

Where's the docs?
Coming soon!

How can I follow along?
dinit on Artix is not ready yet because there are still missing scripts, but you can follow along on https://gitea.artixlinux.org/konimex/dinit (for packages) and https://gitea.artixlinux.org/konimex/dinit-rc (for the stage 1 scripts). In time, https://gitea.artixlinux.org/artixlinux/packages-dinit will be officially opened and the packages from my personal repo will be moved to the Artix repo.

Shoutout to davmac314 (dinit creator) and q66 of Chimera Linux!
now only the dinit guy in artix

Re: New init system enters testing phase

Reply #5 –
Seem pretty easy to use. Thanks for the great work, @konimex

 

Re: New init system enters testing phase

Reply #6 –
@konimex , are we getting a testing ISO this weekend? Checked the repo, looks like most pkgs are already in place.