We are a systemd free linux community

Edited again: 2018-11-15

As the previous site started out (08/2017) of the temporary need for Artix users to meet and exchange experiences, share solutions to problems, now that Artix has its official site, we have decided to move in the direction the site had already taken anyway.  Freedom and equality of access and exchange of information.

Antix is to Debian what Obarun is to Arch, and Devuan is to debian what Artix is to arch.  Such projects/distributions seem to be very promising in concept and execution.  Equally promising, if not more, is Void and Adélie linux taking an independent path.  Unfortunately we can not cover the progress of too many distros and at times we may have to drop a few from the list and concentrate on the few we believe there is future and hope.  We have dropped Devuan over a year ago due to serious doubts with the project’s management, and now we have decided Artix has to go too.

Ataraxia and the need for a stricter list of distros

A while ago someone I didn’t know contacted me in reddit about the list of distributions without systemd, suggesting I should add ataraxia linux.  Ataraxia Linux was very similar to kiss-linux, source based, musl, but featuring an array of init and service supervision systems available to choose.  A few weeks ago, someone (turns out to be the same person) added a comment to this blog to this more precise list of “linux distributions without systemd” and suggested I should add Ataraxia to the list, and I did.

Then a comment comes in by someone who is really going through the list of distributions and also has been reviewing the narrow list of distributions, or systems, built on musl instead of glibc.  He alerted me to the fact that Ataraxia is now using systemd as its default init system.  It didn’t strike me as odd in the beginning, even though I had recently given it a try.  I was under the impression, never tried, that systemd couldn’t be built on musl as it wasn’t even written in C.  So I asked that same guy, who turns out to be the distro owner of ataraxia, how has he  achieved this, and I got a single word response:  “patching”.

7 – Modules of services and service bundles

This was topic #7 from the proposed list and since this is going to become a hot topic soon, in linux-system-administration circles, we thought of introducing our community to the basic principles.

If you read up what module means, where the term comes from, where is it utilized, you may end up more confused than you were before you encountered the term.  If you are French or speak French well, since the term appears more native in this language than others, and since it has more applications you are familiar with, the concept may be easier to digest.  There is also a mathematical operationalization of the term, which is a very specific concept in mathematics that is, that makes the term more understandable, but if you are not into theoretical mathematics don’t even touch that subject.  Don’t go there!

Boot/Shutdown console output on obarun or any 66 driven distribution

A hint/trick to control console output during booting and shutdown/reboot.

Users come in all shapes and forms.  Some users dislike looking at too much output on their console while the system is booting, while others like to see more, so if something is wrong they pick it up right away and go fix it and reboot.  Some prefer the aesthetics of looking at a splash screen (defined in their grub, lilo, or syslinux configuration).  With Obarun and any distribution 66 is installed not many complain about too much output, quite the opposite, people see very little and then either a console login prompt appears (indicating booting is complete and all predetermined services are up and running) or a display manager has kicked in and off they are to a graphic login screen.

New Obarun live image based on all new 66 0.4 edition

A new Obarun live image has become available on July 10th 2020 and it brings many updates and changes.  From the live JWM session you can install a base system, Openbox, JWM, XFCE4, or KDE-Plasma with corresponding setup of 66 root and user service structure already set-up.  All recent (July 9th 2020) stable Arch-Linux upgraded software based and a much improved installer is onboard.  You can run the live system off of a CD (still fits) or Dvd or USB stick, or a virtual machine as a common disk system or a RAM only system from its syslinux editable boot menu.

NOTE:  Previous Obarun images and installer may not work without manual intervention to incorporate the new GPG keyring for Obarun.  Therefore older versions of pacman will not upgrade or install software, hence the net-install process will fail.

A new list of distributions – Linux without systemd

321 is easy to remember sysdfree.wordpress.com/321 – the link to this list

Last edited Sept 20th 2020

Our long list of all open-source systems without systemd as init will be maintained and current (to our best efforts and continuous feedback by users and distro members) from now on.  In a way it is redundant to have a list of non-linux systems as part of the list as systemd can not be used outside linux as far as we know, as it would be redundant to have a list of musl (instead of glibc) based systems without systemd, as systemd is written based on glibc and it would be next to impossible to rewrite and build in another C library. IBM’s little trojan horse, among other problems, was ill conceived as a trojan horse to begin with.

New blood, new linux distributions without systemd

Two new distributions (Sulinox and Split Linux) to keep an eye on were added on our 2 lists of systemd without systemd.  The early first list of all systems we know without systemd (including BSD varieties) and our more detailed list of 66 linux distributions without systemd.

The first is called Sulinox, an independent linux distribution, built on glibc with OpenRC as init, a base software available on repositories with a few varieties of desktops, and elogind present, available for X86_64 architectures.  The distribution is aimed at expert users who know and like to build packages from source.  To do so in a more organized way and maintain system integrity Sulinox has developed their own package manager called inary.  For those of you who like to keep an eye on the source repository of a distribution and follow development in detail we warn you that comments are in Turkish, although the rest of the documentation for the distro and the package manager is written in English.

2 How to remove systemd from Debian Buster

As mentioned in the proposed topics of July2nd2020 this is article 2 from that list.

This came from a community member as a proposed topic.

How to remove systemd from Debian Buster

older-pig:  A guide for removing systemd from Debian Buster and fixes for some issues which may occur because of that
https://gitlab.com/older-pig/buster-nosystemd

5 Does the “typical linux user” have anything to gain over traditional scripts?

This is article 5 from the latest proposed list of topics

Probably the most valuable content this community has produced was condemned by immaturity and lack of organization (on our part) to set the parameters of the procedure within which a productive debate can occur.

One of the reasons people without bosses, authoritarian structures, fail to organize and formulate their own power structures is because they have been conditioned to be vicious aformalists (anti or non formalists in terms of organizational tendency).  Individuals born and raised within this patriarchal system of authority can only behave like spoiled children all their life.  Sorry cynwulf1 and mobinmob, but you used and abused your expertise to block all other possible participants and concentrated on your own duel of expertise competition.

The content of your expert testimonies may be of value, but next time something like this happens fungalnet is not going to be here and be nice, you will be moderated and either respect an open process discussion or you can take your dialogs somewhere else.  Imagine if in a Union meeting two characters, with very accute and experienced authoritative voices,  converted the meeting into a dialog where everyone else was forced to be quiet and listen,  Two people from within an amphitheater, can dominate nad hijack all discussion to what they think the object of the meeting is.  Not here, not again!

Fungalnet failed to set the rules of a debate, it occured in a totally unrelated subject, fungalnet let it go on, you both ignored fungalnet trying to present the case of “the average linux user”, and now the question still remains open.  Neither of you, consumed in your own expert testimony, were able to convince (we believe) for either or.

The question remains,  should we “average linux users” (who may use a workstation for editing text, browsing the net, manipulating images, video, or audio, or who may be an average linux admin hosting a home or small office network of file, mail, firewall, backup, print, and other servers).  Are scripts as found in Antix or Open/Free{BSD}, enough, or are supervision suites such as those of Void, Obarun, Adelie, Spark, Artix, a benefit to users?

Coming up next the new sysdfree resurrection

Just so when “some” were happy this is done and over with, POP goes the sysdfree community project again.  From now on, we will have a summary article of what is coming up next, and a series of articles discussing in detail the most worthy or note-worthy topics of interest.  Since  YOU haven’t been contributiong much to the community, it will be OUR topics of interest.

Why did we vanish for a little while?  After all this closure and prohibition to end the covid diaspora we have been burning some skinny road bike tires enjoying the end of spring and the starrt of a very HOT summer.  So now that it is getting hot, we will stay indoors again enough to write something up.  Yeeahhheee!!!! Or is it Yaaayyyy….!!!

1  Devuan:  Boring new stable release a year later  (you wanted an article .. go find one elsewhere).

2  Debian:  Script that runs and removes systemd and installs sysvinit and reboots to a systemd init free system.

3  Adelie (and Alpine) free and non-free independent repository

4  Black Artix, as if Artix wasn’t shady enough

5  Adequacy of traditions scripts (sysV or BSD inits) necessity of supervision suites (s6, 66, synit, minit, perp) or other alternatives such as OpenRC.

6  Split Linux, based on Void, security, anonymity, real firewalling, and more ….

7  Enough with supervising dry-cut monolythic services, the future is in modules (modular services and bundles of services).  If systemd was already burried and done with, this builds a pyramid on top, just so nobody will ever dear to open the mummy’s coffin.

8  Live streaming with Terry Barentsen on 2 wheels, no gas or dirty coal electric motors!

9  Kiss gets a new package manager

10  The shit (green energy environmental disaster) has to stop.  A documentary about the end of the planet’s ecosystem and who are the deceiving actors causing it.  It may be the most revealing 100′ of your life, or at least your recent world perception.

11  A song for our own resurrection:

            __________   –  “*”  –   __________

Everybody knows that the employer takes all the moral responsibility …

… the employee is just doing “his job”, and if he doesn’t do it someone else will.  Were you as tired of listening to such excuses when your colleagues were asked whether they were willing to work for the “defense industry” or surveillance agencies?  Everyone has heard this one time or another as an excuse, “I am just doing the job I am paid to do”, but rarely do we hear from those who turned the offer down.  Those who are not rich by any means, and not have high executive positions in larger organizations, and were fully capable to do much more, but not willing to violate their own principles.

WARNING:  This has everything to do with open/free software, linux, init systems, and “choices” people make.

Huawei attempts to submit a backdoor patch to Linux kernel

“The kernel protection tool was supposed to introduce a series of security-hardening options to the Linux kernel. However, on inspection, the patch was found to introduce a backdoor to the Linux kernel project. “

https://androidrookies.com/huawei-dev-team-sends-a-buggy-hksp-patch-with-backdoor-to-linux-foundation/

Luke, don’t follow the Force blindly, you dumb shit! freenode – Irc – trap

32 years of irc, same trap, same practice, higher motives.  Talk on bitnet was safer and email can be safe, but chatrooms and forums is asking for trouble.

Assumptions:  You use linux or other unix, you install binary packages, you have questions that need immediate answers.

Question1:  where do you go?   How do you get there

Answer1:  where the distro you use lists (web site) as places of contact

If it says Irc, freenode (owned by a London Stock Exchange “security technologies” corporation) channel #..name..of…distro…  channel, then ask.

Question 3:  What do you use to get to freenode irc server?

Answer:  I am Luke, the intergalactic dumb shit, I do what they tell me.  I look at the repository, there might be hexchat or polari or irssi or more, it doesn’t matter, I download and install the most “popular” software, run it, enter the server, go to the room, ask my question, get my answer, go about my business.  No biggie!