[gentoo-user] A systemd-only Gentoo system

[gentoo-user] A systemd-only Gentoo system

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

Hi; I've been running systemd in Gentoo since September from 2010, and
it works great for me: all my machines run it at this point. Right
now, we are getting really close to the point where we will be able to
uninstall sys-apps/openrc, sys-apps/sysvinit and sys-apps/baselayout,
and run a systemd-only Gentoo system.

I wanted to try to do exactly that, using a custom overlay, and it
turns out it's not that difficult: almost all the pieces are already
in the portage tree, and most of the ones missing are being tracked
right now in the Gentoo bugzilla. So after creating my overlay and
testing it on all my machines, I wanted to share the experience with
others.

Please note that this is as experimental as it can get, and certainly
not for the faint of heart. You will be running the latest versions of
the kernel, systemd, udev and probably dracut, and you will be saying
goodbye to (up until now) core components of Gentoo: baselayout and
openrc. If you follow all of the steps, you will not even have
/etc/init.d and /etc/conf.d directories.

If you already run systemd, the steps are not that difficult; if you
are not running systemd, I *strongly* recommend first to install it
and try it before attempting to use this overlay.

The overlay lives in
https://github.com/canek-pelaez/gentoo-systemd-only and you can get it
with

git clone git://github.com/canek-pelaez/gentoo-systemd-only.git

There is a README on it with step by step instructions, that you can
also read in this page:

http://xochitl.matem.unam.mx/~canek/gentoo-systemd-only/index.html

The normal warnings apply: I do not take any responsibility for any
harm your system may suffer, and it is intended for Gentoo users that
know what they are doing. If something breaks, you get to keep the
pieces.

If you do try it and find any problems with the overlay, please let me
know and I will try to fix them (and please don't bother the Gentoo
devs with said problems: they know nothing of this overlay, and I'm
doing this all by my own). I also will try to keep the overlay sync'ed
with the portage tree.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

[gentoo-user] Re: A systemd-only Gentoo system

[James]

Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko <at> gmail.com> writes:


> Hi; I've been running systemd in Gentoo since September from 2010, and
> it works great for me: all my machines run it at this point.


Well, I'm curious.

How well does systemd work with uClibc based systems? More 
specifically does systemd work well with embedded linux systems?

How does systemd work with a system that uses SElinux?

How well does a group of (systemd) systems work
with a wide deployment of a distributed file system,
such as BTRFS?


Just curious if you know about any of these areas related
to systemd.

James

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A systemd-only Gentoo system

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 10:32 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>> Hi; I've been running systemd in Gentoo since September from 2010, and
>> it works great for me: all my machines run it at this point.
>
>
> Well, I'm curious.
>
> How well does systemd work with uClibc based systems? More
> specifically does systemd work well with embedded linux systems?

I don't know first hand: I use systemd in my desktop and laptop
machines, a media center, and a couple of servers. However, ProFUSION
(http://profusion.mobi/) is a company specialized in embedded systems,
and they are huge supporters (and contributors) of systemd. I hear the
embedded guys in general  like a lot the idea of systemd.

> How does systemd work with a system that uses SElinux?

I don't use SELinux: however, the first distribution that shipped
systemd by default (Fedora) uses SELinux also by default, so I would
*think* it  works. But again, I don't use it.

> How well does a group of (systemd) systems work
> with a wide deployment of a distributed file system,
> such as BTRFS?

No idea. I personally use ext4, and I'm not looking forward to move my
systems to btrfs.

> Just curious if you know about any of these areas related
> to systemd.

Not really; I think my use cases are pretty simple and common.

But if you are interested in systemd, I think you should try it first
in simple setups, and certainly as provided by the Gentoo devs. My
overlay is for people like me, who already use systemd (in quite
common setups), and who would like to experiment a system without
OpenRC just for the "fun" of trying something new, inestable, and
potentially dangerous.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

[gentoo-user] Re: A systemd-only Gentoo system

[James]

Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko <at> gmail.com> writes:


> But if you are interested in systemd, I think you should try it first
> in simple setups, and certainly as provided by the Gentoo devs. 

I'll keep an eye on systemd and keep reading up on it. I like what
I read so maybe I'll give it a test drive, when I get some time.

thanks,
James

Re: [gentoo-user] A systemd-only Gentoo system

[William Hubbs]

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On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 06:19:35PM -0600, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
> Hi; I've been running systemd in Gentoo since September from 2010, and
> it works great for me: all my machines run it at this point. Right
> now, we are getting really close to the point where we will be able to
> uninstall sys-apps/openrc, sys-apps/sysvinit and sys-apps/baselayout,
> and run a systemd-only Gentoo system.

All baselayout-2 provides is the basic filesystem layout which should
work regardless of the init system you are using.

Is there some reason you can't leave baselayout-2 installed?

William


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Re: [gentoo-user] A systemd-only Gentoo system

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 1:11 PM, William Hubbs <williamh@gentoo.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 06:19:35PM -0600, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
>> Hi; I've been running systemd in Gentoo since September from 2010, and
>> it works great for me: all my machines run it at this point. Right
>> now, we are getting really close to the point where we will be able to
>> uninstall sys-apps/openrc, sys-apps/sysvinit and sys-apps/baselayout,
>> and run a systemd-only Gentoo system.
>
> All baselayout-2 provides is the basic filesystem layout which should
> work regardless of the init system you are using.
>
> Is there some reason you can't leave baselayout-2 installed?

From baselayout-2.0.3:

PDEPEND="sys-apps/openrc"

I agree, baselayout should not depend on the init system.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México