Fall 2023 hardcore list of 17 linux distributions without elogind and other systemd parts

Welcome antiX and Noir linux to the strict list, with edition 23 antiX is fully functional and lighter than ever without a trace of elogind!

        Edited:  September 24th 2023 (replacing older strict list)

This list is going to be short and there may be a sublist of distros with a medium strict standard.  We shall explain what the object is, below the short list (which we hope the community will assist in making longer as we have not been able to currently review the work of every distro and fork).

Fall 2023 list of “healthy” hardcore distros in alphabetical order with date/activity indicator (xxx)

1.    antiX —> antixlinux.com debian fork without systemd/elogind nearly as famous and popular as Debian itself now
2.    CarbsLinux —> carbslinux.org (Kiss fork with CPT pkg manager shinit/sinit/runit/busybox 02/2023 )
3.     Glasnost —> www.glasnost.org (Kiss fork – multi-arch tarballs 05/2022)
4.     Glaucus linux –> glaucuslinux.org (active 09/2023)
   
5.     Hyperbola Linux —> hyperbola.info A libre gnu-linux  distro like debian with pacman, or arch but stable as debian in transition to a BSD system – so it will be removed again (active 09/2023)
6.     Iglunix Linux —> https://github.com/iglunix/iglunix/releases, https://iglunix.xyz. (musl busybox no-gnu + alt kernels + wayland NoX) (active 09/2023)
7.     Joborun Linux —> http://pozol.eu Arch based w/o systemd building env runit (default) + s6/66 (optional). (active 09/2023)
8.    Kiss Linux –> kisslinux.org independent from community influence (dormant for quite some time) (neglected but still a strong base to start something new)
9.     Kwort Linux –> kwort.org  (active 09/2023)
10.     Mere Linux —> merelinux.org  (alpha project – active 1/2023 Musl + pacman  – it boots now!)
11.     NOIR linux –> github.com/noirlinux a promising kiss-linux fork with a more aumated building system (may 2023)
12.     Oasislinux –> oasislinux/oasis (active 09/2023)
13.     Obarun Linux –> obarun.org (the most extensive general use distribution that meets the criteria) (active 09/2023)
14.     PCLinuxOS —> pclinuxos.com a long term distro with wide variety of ready made sw without elogind or systemd
15.     Sabotage Linux  –> sabotage-linux  (most inspiring commitments and goals) (active 09/2023)
16.     Superboxon Linux –> superboxon.com  Slackware  based BSD type init, no elogind,PAM (active 09/2023)
17.     Venom Linux —> venomlinux.org  (forked from LFS – glibc now with runit –  active 9/23)

recently removed:

1.     Mutiny linux –> mutiny.red   site vanished/down

Please keep the recommendations going, for inclusion and exclusion from the list.  We can not keep and maintain installations for all of them, we count on you.

Hardcore because they seem honest and dedicated to the war against totalitarianism by IBM and other mega corporations to dominate the Open and Free software world.

Advertising policy on sysdfree (the Case of Artix and Gable)

Dear Gable

If you just wanted to place a plug for your system of choice, like any good fan-boy would, you are welcome to do so.  But when this plug (a form of an informal advertisement for free in web-land) includes inaccuracies, false characterizations, and right-out lies, you open up an area of criticism and correction of your plug that may end up as a boomerang to become a negative advertisement.  And below is your comment and source included, unaltered, unmoderated, and still waits a response.  We thought it would be a valuable separate discussion, since it is a bit off-topic to discuss other objects than the article specifies (not that we were ever so strict on this), to just speak here about Artix specifically, in contrast of its other two Arch alternatives.

Joborun vs Obarun linux

The surface:

obarun  stands for OpenboxRunit … but has been the home for arch based s6 implementation with tools (currently 66) to make s6 less hostile to MOST users of linux.  Runit only lasted a few weeks before s6 was implemented and runit dumped.  Currently featuring a graphic installer of base, openbox, jwm, xfce4, and plasma desktops and a setup of s6/66 to get you going.

joborun stands for JwmOpenBoxObarunRunit, so it is everything Obarun can be, plus runit that can coexist and alternatively boot instead of s6/66, but also replaces most core Arch pkgs with ones built in vaccuum of systemd/logind/udevd.   Currently not including an installer, or an iso image, but an old fashioned tarball of the base and instructions on how to make it a bootable system within minutes.  Joborun is basically a source based distro, although it provides 2 tarballs, base system, and builder system, and binary repositories of all packages it provides source for.  You always need a binary system to build your binaries, joborun just makes the process easier and quicker, without frustrating fails.

In the pandemic of global neo-liberal capitalist dictatorship we are still here

… and so are all the projects we support and exhibit.

WordPress continues to make our life miserable, with all their new guis a web-client-google-apis.  As if they are no longer capable of developing their own code for a web-client interface they must add google functionality, which in turn is not supported by all safety and privacy minded browsers, only those produced by google and mozilla corporations, making it hard to protect yourselves against the corporate bandits and have adequate functionality to publish.

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.

Were you about to install Obarun? Wait!!

There are new images available for March 2020

Links to March 2020 iso and docker images at the bottom of this message.

Both live images are capable of installing base, openbox, jwm, xfce4, or KDE-plasma, featuring the late 66 evolution 0.2.5.2-1 and the latest s6 suite of software.

66 0.2.5 features an additional modifier to the 66-tree functionality -S. With this option a bundle of services under a specific tree that is enabled will only start after another tree of services. (read https://wiki.obarun.org/doku.php?id=66-tree)

Spark Linux – Arch beauty and minimalism all in one

A while ago, an Obarun user, Dr Saleem Khan (1) urged me to try Spark Linux and it was the first time I heard of it.  It must have been during some real busy period and it was since forgotten.  While I was trying to clean up the list of linux distributions without systemd the name came up again.  Thanks, Saleem.

By no means do I think this is for entry level users to try as a distribution with a full desktop, but for minimalists who are accustomed to arch this is an exercise of how minimal can you get with a ready off the shelf arch base on which you can build from ground up.

The project is severely undocumented, although there is not much to document for an experienced user. Spark (by Jack L. Frost) uses sinit as its init system and ssm which is an inhouse Simple Service Manager by Spark founder.

Sinit according to its source suckless (they suck less) is:

sinit – suckless init

sinit is a suckless init, initially based on Rich Felker’s minimal init.

sinit is considered complete and no further development is expected to happen.

Relevant links sinit + daemontools-encore

sinit was created by Dimitris Papastamos and was “finished” in 2015, that I believe is a year after runit was finished as a frame of reference.

Update your 66? no, you 66-update your 66

Coming up, any day now, is your new 66 package.

obcore-testing/66 0.2.4.0-5 (base s6-suite)
  small tools built around s6 and s6-rc programs

obcore/66 0.2.3.2-1 (base s6-suite)
   small tools built around s6 and s6-rc programs
 No .zstd packaging here, just good old xz, despite of the 0,0094 second decompression advantage. 🙂

Ok, 0.2.4 over 0.2.3… brings yet one more tool to you. Still, the package (66) is only a fraction of systemd, but it has more “features”. That database of trees and services you have created, after a major reorganization of 66 and its service file definitions and syntax do not have to be destroyed and recreated, not for the root and not for the user. Simply run 66-update as root and as user after each upgrade to ensure perfect transitioning to the upgraded software. 66-update -v4 for maximum verbosity.

The next step in development will be a more automated backup and restore of your trees and services structure.

In the past 9 months 66 evolved quite a bit and after each major evolutionary step the safest way to upgrade was to destroy old trees (delete them) and recreate them and populate them with services. Not any more. But that is not all. 66-update doesn’t mean it is a one way procedure, Say you found out something is wrong, you located the bug of the century, something wrong with 66, and you want to downgrade back to the previous edition of 66. You downgrade the package and run 66-update again.

 

PS  Now, if someone who is not banned from r/linux or r/archlinux could try and crosspost this important announcement there, to see if you can do this for a banned user like me, it would be nice to know, that I can still piss them off with my existence.

You want to update your 66, no, you 66-update your 66
byu/fungalnet inobarun

antiX – runit – brief stop and onto s6 and 66 : How to

1st some history/background:
Back some time ago an alternative to sysvinit was developed called daemontools (look at sources below) and people liked it.   From “it” runit was cloned, very similar but started from scratch, to be as small, as light, as simple, and as responsive as hw itself.  Runit set some goals for its development, kept being refined and eliminating any bugs, it worked on as many architectures as people could get their hands on, and the chief runit man decided to put it to bed.  Runit has been frozen in time by its developer.  Don’t expect it to catch up with other system development unless Void decides to clone it and develop it on their own, which in some ways they already do, but it is more polishing up the existing runit.

News about Obarun news

New base and JWM live images reflect all the recent upgrades and fixes, of 66 and related tools, a few small bugs found on last month’s installer were also fixed.

Download of base, JWM, and docker images here, on the Obarun Download site.

This new set of iso images reflect another major edition of the 66 software as reflected in the official announcement.  The main 66 package itself got smaller and more responsive than ever, and some of its non-essential tools moved to a separate package.  Since the upgrade from 66 v.2.0.xx to 2.1.xx required some manual tweaking this was a reason to create yet another full X/jwm live image.

If you haven’t tried Obarun you don’t know what you are missing.