Just a few notes to all that plan to try it:
– Running it live works as expected for what it is intended.
– If you plan to install, it is important to boot into the “default” boot entry prior to installing. The installer has unpredicted behaviour breaking a few things (reboot, poweroff) if you install using the non default init entries.
– To enable the multi-init grub menu after first install from iso just run
sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-multi-init-enabler
Username = antix
Password for user and root = antix
corporate use, servers, etc. What you say applies… S6 is the best chance of replacing systemd
home computers. Dont require supervision, only service management. A much simpler init system , like OpenRC , is needed for home use. Home users have had unnecessary complication foisted upon them.
so
I feel it is unfortunate that you did not include OpenRC.
That is not a criticism. You have made an amazing step
forward.
Well I actually have provided OpenRC (after I created the antiX & MX spins), which is available in my repos.
All these spins are primarily intended to be installed rather than run live.
Tried my first install… in a VM
antiX-23.1_amd64_init-diversity-edition_UNOFFICIAL_20240302.iso
No problems.
It seems identical to a normal Antix install
It boots to a B&W grub screen
All 4 init options are there, plus the default (top line)
It is difficult to pick which is which, because the lines dont wrap… they are in order default, sysvinit,runit,s6-rc,s6-66.
They all boot OK.
Things I noticed
the pointer /sbin/init no longer is set in the installed systems… it must be
some trick for the live system only
The Antix Control Centre->System->Choose Startup Services GUI works for
sysVinit and runit, but not for s6-rc or s6-66… ie it only works for the init systems which Antix currently supports officialy.
No matter which init version you boot, all the files are present for all systems.
s6-66 is causing me some confusion. In some of the distros I have tried
the command to start a service is of the form 66-start service, but in this
init-diversity install it is of the form 66 start service. I think 66 is rapidly
evolving , and the versions differ.
the parameter init=/lib/sysvinit/init is written into the kernel boot commandline, presumably by grub. So this is how each init version starts the
appropriate init process. It is hardwired into grub. What follows after PID#1 is started will then be appropriate for the chosen init system.
One consequence of doing it this way would be that it would be difficult to mix and match - eg use the sysvinit init with the s6-rc service management.
That is not a big issue, but people often use OpenRC as a service manager
on top of sysvinit, so it does arise.
The VM install was no problem.
I wonder what would happen with a hard install, if there were already a grub present which one wanted to preserve? I dont see how one could have this special init diversity grub menu, and preserve an existing multiboot grub
setup. I was not game to try.
It doesn’t hurt to try if you can spare a 10gb partition. I have tested installation on a few real systems (& so have others), nobody has reported anything bad happening.
I ignored the install warning about what to do if replacing sysVinit with OpenRC.
On reboot I get 6 grub menu items, and the last is OpenRC…choose that
and it boots with OpenRC
I would not try on my main system. It may mess with a very complicated multiboot setup.
I have a spare PC with only Debian and Gentoo on it. Will try with that.
I want to see if it preserves my grub setup. Do backup first.
Those were only required because of a limitation (or feature) of the antiX live mastering tools. It is safe to keep /sbin/init & delete all others on an installed system if you have no intention to remaster another live iso from your installed system.
The default file path for the init program is " /usr/sbin/init "
but it can be changed by the kernel boot parameter as
" init=/path/to/init_program ".
Now I understand those entries in /sbin
If, in the default version, I make /sbin/init a pointer, then default will boot whatever I point it to. The other versions will be unaffected, because they
override it on the cmdline.
Changing the pointer in the non-default versions will do nothing. They override it.
I have had a a long struggle with s6-66 in Obarun. Never really got a full
understanding and could only get some commands to work.
I think I will start again in your Antix.
Something else interesting . Adelie Linux has s6 init and supervision, combined with OpenRC service management. I could digest that a lot easier than
s6-rc or s6-66.
