unofficial antiX 23.1 with 3 init and 4 service managers – no elogind needed

boot screen of iso

ProwlerGr:

I am proud to announce the release of my UNOFFICIAL antix 23.1 remaster which includes 4 inits that can be selected through grub in an MX style grub menu

antix-23.1_amd64_init-diversity-edition_UNOFFICIAL_20240205.iso
antix-23.1_amd64_init-diversity-edition_UNOFFICIAL_20240205.iso.md5

antix-23.1_i386_init-diversity-edition_UNOFFICIAL_20240205.iso
antix-23.1_i386_init-diversity-edition_UNOFFICIAL_20240205.iso.md5

user: antix
passwd: antix
root passwd: antix

This includes many refinements from all of my previous s6-rc/s6-66 respins most notably:
– Everything has been installed from debs – my sources are available in my experimental-s6 repo http://deb-s6-rc-66-init-experimental.duckdns.org:8080/dists/experimental-s6/antix-s6/

antiX 23 next stable based on debian’s bookworm is here already

antix-23-beta2-iso-files-for-testing/ (release announcement and sourgeforge or is it sourceforce .. repository of images)

Based on the announcement above we tested the runit based full image with an urge to hunt and find something to criticize, constructively of course.  We uninstalled some things we don’t like, even when they work right, installed some others, openbox, pcmanfm, lxterminal, conky, and everything worked.  No elogind, no dbus running, no polkit, no automount or auto.. anything.  Then we flipped repos to sid, where things are expected to be exciting.  A beta release, and unstable repositories, which defeats the purpose of testing bookworm (testing repo a few weeks ago for Debian) … but you can only test antiX to a certain point before it gets too boring.

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.

Why was Nutyx dropped from our lists

NO PUBLICITY IS BAD PUBLICITY

In our initial review of Nutyx, more than a year ago, we did not see a distro struggling for identity, we applauded their effort to make a linux system work without components of the pest (systemd, pulseaudio, gnome, wayland, etc.) but independently using the “stable” consolekit2, sysvinit as tried and refined for decades, and their very own tool for package management, cards.  Revisiting it now, after comments on our list of linux distributions without systemd, we were both disappointed and curious on why and how they did such a thing.  We have seen others go, but they were more like forks of a system than an independent distribution.  Like ArchBang, the fleadog of flea dogs.

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.

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.

Keep It Simple Stupid Linux, Kiss for short

Hello,

I’d like to inform you about my new Linux distribution called KISS.

https://getkiss.org https://k1ss.org https://k1ss.org/projects
https://github.com/kisslinux

Info:

Independent (not based on anything else).
Source based (like gentoo or crux).
Busybox coreutils.
Busybox init (busybox includes runit style services, sysvinit style services or plain shell scripts)
Musl libc.
No dbus.
No pam.
No polkit.
No systemd.
No gettext/intltool.
Packages compile without Telemetry/tracking.

Dylan Araps

 ██ ▄█▀ ██▓  ██████   ██████
 ██▄█▒ ▓██▒▒██    ▒ ▒██    ▒
▓███▄░ ▒██▒░ ▓██▄   ░ ▓██▄
▓██ █▄ ░██░  ▒   ██▒  ▒   ██▒
▒██▒ █▄░██░▒██████▒▒▒██████▒▒
▒ ▒▒ ▓▒░▓  ▒ ▒▓▒ ▒ ░▒ ▒▓▒ ▒ ░
░ ░▒ ▒░ ▒ ░░ ░▒  ░ ░░ ░▒  ░ ░
░ ░░ ░  ▒ ░░  ░  ░  ░  ░  ░
░  ░    ░        ░        ░

 

Update 02/22/2020

by Oneirosopher:

 

Hi yee all,

I’m not in charge of KISS Linux, just interested by this distro –which I have not installed by the way.

The link to KISS Linux is broken. The former site seems abandoned. Please now follow:

https://k1ss.org/

It seems that the same Dylan has also conceived neofetch & sowm

https://k1ss.org/projects

Regards

Introduction to 66suite – s6 made easy – thanks to Obarun

S6 appears as the init system that few distributions have chosen as their default init and service management/supervision (obarun and possibly Adélie once stable is released).  There are quite a few commercial servers running on this system.  For general personal use s6 seems complex, but complex is not always a bad thing.  It would be unfair to compare it with older systems such as SysV-init.  Sysvinit is the system that the overwhelming majority of enterprise system administrators had learned on and relied on for decades (yes it is more than one).  Upstart seems extinct by now, and OpenRC is getting old as well, and didn’t necessarily deviate much from the path of sysvinit.  But then there is Runit.  Void and Artix appear the first two we think right away that use it. S6 is a step further into the future of unix-like systems.

We are a systemd free linux community

Edited again: 2023-02-23

Antix is to Debian what Joborun 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, Sabotage, and Kiss linux taking an independent path. 

In depth analysis of init systems

Davin McCall wrote a very extensive report on the peculiarities of init systems and service supervisors,  how some of their differences are based on choice of compromises.  On the vagaries of init systems

Then, some days later, a response to this article came from Chris Siebenmann who introduces us to even more dillemas and criteria to choose what init system suits a specific use best. 

New Artix LXQT runit and OpenRC iso images

artix-lxqt-gremlins-20181004-x86_64

artix-lxqt-runit-gremlins-20181004-x86_64.iso	Oct 4 2018	854.2 MB
artix-lxqt-runit-gremlins-20181004-x86_64-pkgs.txt	Oct 4 2018	12.0 kB
artix-lxqt-openrc-gremlins-20181004-x86_64.iso	Oct 4 2018	857.2 MB
artix-lxqt-openrc-gremlins-20181004-x86_64-pkgs.txt	Oct 4 2018	12.2 kB