Re: Runit in Ubuntu Jammy

[Lorenzo <plorenzo@disroot.org>]

Hi,

On Sat, 1 Oct 2022 06:07:28 +0200
Paul Gerdes <pgerdes89@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello everyone. I am trying to get a minimal ubuntu desktop
> installation without systemd.
> Do you know if there is a way to get runit, openrc or sysvinit
> running as an init replacement on modern ubuntu? Could you please
> give me a Guide on how to install it and set it up?
> 
> Runit Packages are already available in Ubuntu Repos. Together with
> 'init-system-helpers'.
> See here:
> https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=runit&searchon=names
> 
> I know its not officially supported in Ubuntu, but Debian 11 can run
> without systemd. There should be a way to do this.

There is probably a way but you are on your own, did you consider to do
this directly in Debian or even better in a derivative that supports
runit, like Devuan?

Anyway, going back to your question, to have runit as init system on
Ubuntu Jammy or Kinetic I would try as following (not tested!):

1. install packages available in Ubuntu;
   # apt-get install runit getty-run runit-helper
   # apt-get remove runit-run runit-systemd

2. download packages that are unavailable in Ubuntu from Debian
   and install manually: download runit-init, insserv, startpar,
   sysv-rc, initscripts [1];
   then first install [2] insserv and startpar, then sysv-rc and finally
   initscripts.
   Note that you can't proceed further if installation of those packages
   fails.
   Also, if /etc/rc2.d/ is empty, you may want to run
   'update.rc.d service-name enable' for each service that you want to
   be automatically stated on boot with runit; this is sysvinit stuff
   but see next point

3. boot with init=/lib/runit/runit-init GRUB parameter (not
   /sbin/runit-init !), and you should get at least a getty login on
   tty1. As a fallback, sysvinit scripts enabled in /etc/rc2.d/ are run
   sequentially when a corresponding (same basename) runit service is
   missing from /etc/sv/ , so you may also get other services
   running unsupervised.
   Note that no Desktop-Environment that requires systemd-logind will
   work at this stage, as systemd-logind requires systemd as PID 1.
   You need to download and install elogind, libelogind0 and
   libpam-elogind packages from Debian... and you can't do this in one
   step because elogind conflicts with systemd, and systemd doesn't
   allow to be removed while is PID 1, extra fun here!

4. if everything with step 3 is ok, proceed with installing runit-init
   package: ( init is an empty metapackage)
   # apt-get --allow-remove-essential remove init
   # apt -i /path/to/runit-init.deb

5. now start replacing sysv services with runit services: you can look
   at runscipts from the Void project, but there are many collections
   around if you search in GitHub.

Best,
Lorenzo

> 
> Thanks for your help
> Greetings


[1] https://packages.debian.org/sid/runit-init
    https://packages.debian.org/sid/insserv
    https://packages.debian.org/sid/startpar
    https://packages.debian.org/sid/sysv-rc
    https://packages.debian.org/sid/initscripts

[2] use 'apt -i /path/to/downloaded/debs/packagename.deb'