install s6 init system

jrkb · 2023-04-25 11:16:00

Hi everyone,

I want to install either chimaera or daedalus with s6 init.
What are the steps I need to do to achieve this?

Here what I tried:
According to https://www.devuan.org/os/init-freedom s6 is supported, but I cannot manage to select it.
First, I tried the graphical installer, which didn't ask me for my preferred init, and I got sysvinit (which I definitely not want).
Then, I somehow figured out that I need to install with a non-graphical installer, and assumed it should be on the desktop iso.
This didn't work out, I can only select sysvinit, openrc or runit.

I cloned different iso's and installed the system now around 7 times, and spent quite some hours on this, but so far without success.
Can somebody be so kind to point me in the right direction? Also, what do you think about including this information either on the init-freedom page, or on the download page? Most people probably come to Devuan, because they care about the init system. Or is it already posted somewhere, and I cannot find it? In this case, sorry for bothering, and I appreciate if you still let me know.

Thank you for your time reading this and thanks for this fantastic operating system!!

Lorenzo · 2023-04-25 22:39:33

Hi,

happy to be wrong about this, but as far as I know there is no s6-init package in Devuan.. you can install the s6 package, but all the init integration is not provided, so you have to serve yourself.

According to https://www.devuan.org/os/init-freedom s6 is supported, but I cannot manage to select it.

That page says " either available or being considered for inclusion "; I think only runit and openrc are provided as alternative init *for now*

Lorenzo

jrkb · 2023-04-27 13:17:06

makes sense, thank you!

aitor · 2023-10-11 14:04:36

Lorenzo wrote:

Hi,
happy to be wrong about this, but as far as I know there is no s6-init package in Devuan.. you can install the s6 package, but all the init integration is not provided, so you have to serve yourself.
According to https://www.devuan.org/os/init-freedom s6 is supported, but I cannot manage to select it.
That page says " either available or being considered for inclusion "; I think only runit and openrc are provided as alternative init *for now*
Lorenzo

There is a gnuinos image build with s6 for trial use and testing:

https://www.gnuinos.org/mirror/daedalus … rimental)/

The announcement:

https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/thread/20 … a8.en.html

Prowler_Gr · 2023-12-23 13:30:54

aitor wrote:

There is a gnuinos image build with s6 for trial use and testing:
https://www.gnuinos.org/mirror/daedalus … rimental)/
The announcement:
https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/thread/20 … a8.en.html

I just registered on the forum to say a big thank you for being the first to make a serious effort to port s6/s6-rc on a debian based system.

Prowler_Gr · 2023-12-23 14:47:41

My own Devuan s6-rc respin (heavily modified from the gnuinos image) for anybody that may be interested

Devuan_5.0_Daedalus_amd64_s6-20231223_2221.iso
Devuan_5.0_Daedalus_amd64_s6-20231223_2221.iso.sha256

User: devuan
Password: devuan
root password: toor

I should say that it is highly experimental but also extremely functional.

Included:

- Upgraded to the latest devuan kernel & installed some non-free-firmware (essential to be tested on real hardware)
- Fixed a few issues with some s6-rc scripts & bundles that were causing failures on the original gnuinos image.
- Lightdm (active display manager & enabled in "Default" bundle)
- KDE Plasma (default desktop on autologin)
- XFCE (available through display manager)
- LXDE (available through display manager)
- LXQT (available through display manager)
- IceWM (available through display manager)
- Fluxbox (available through display manager)
- dhcpcd (active & enabled in "Default" bundle)
- NetworkManager (active & enabled in "Default" bundle)
- bluetoothd (active & enabled in "Default" bundle)
- ufw (active & enabled in "Default" bundle)
- xrdp (active & enabled in "Default" bundle)
- samba (active & enabled in "Default" bundle)

- sddm (available but inactive - not in "Default" bundle)
- lxdm (available but inactive - not in "Default" bundle)

I hope this assists in getting some traction for s6-rc to slowly be officially supported in Devuan/Debian.

Devuan-s6 Screenshot

Last edited by Prowler_Gr (2023-12-24 02:10:22)

Prowler_Gr · 2023-12-31 07:09:53

I also created an antiX-23 s6 respin if anybody is interested

AntiX-23_amd64_s6-20231231

User: antix
Password: antix
root password: antix

antiX-s6 Screenshot

Last edited by Prowler_Gr (2023-12-31 10:29:59)

Prowler_Gr · 2024-01-05 15:34:29

...& finally a 32bit (i386) respin of antiX-23

antiX-23_i386_s6-init_20240105.iso

User: antix
Password: antix
root password: antix

fred43 · 2024-01-06 02:25:22

The debian-daedalus version is not booting up at all.
ISO is not corrupted and dd'd to 2 different usb-keys.
Tried to boot from 2 different computers.
Booting on an EFI and Non-Efi and unsecure failed
Booting on an EFI only and unsecure failed.

If I select the USB-key and press the return key it just returns me to the selection dialoge again.

sorry
Fred

Prowler_Gr · 2024-01-06 04:52:52

The debian-daedalus version is not booting up at all.
ISO is not corrupted and dd'd to 2 different usb-keys.

Try re-downloading.
It certainly boots, it was very popular in the antiX forum.

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic … er/page/6/

This led me to create the 2 antiX respins.

aitor · 2024-01-14 14:32:33

I've posted in the Antix forum:

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/reply/129159/

Alverstone · 2026-06-30 21:25:18

https://codeberg.org/Alverstone/s6-rc-based-boot

No lvm, no mdadm, no dmtab, cryptsetup is in DIY mode (gotta modify the dmcrypt-{up,down}.sh scripts). Apologies, but I can't help you with packaging. It is extremely easy to deploy, but there aren't many service definitions to work with. I maintain a separate, private repository with some longruns and oneshots and all in all they are very easy to write for stage 2. I can't guarantee the correctness of the startup sequence from the Debian point of view, but if it boots my Gentoo installation, it will probably boot a Devuan installation too. Hopefully somebody finds it useful, but if not, well...

And I do not provide ISOs!

EDIT: I should mention that it depends on the systemd-tmpfiles binary, which is not present in Devuan, so you will also need to port some of that code. Sysvinit on Devuan uses /bin/kmod, and I don't know what manages the systemd style tmpfiles. In other words, some of it will require additional work on your side to get it working

Last edited by Alverstone (2026-06-30 21:32:27)

fsmithred · 2026-06-30 22:06:56

Devuan has systemd-standalone-tmpfiles which Provides systemd-tmpfiles. I don't know if that's helpful in this situation.

Alverstone · Yesterday 18:07:09

Check the devuan branch. With quite a bit of effort I made it boot. There were some annoying issues getting s6-linux-init to work, but all of it happened because s6 is not packaged in Devuan. The s6 package is worth nothing, since s6 itself doesn't really offer anything runit can't do. I had to manually compile

skalibs
execline
s6
s6-rc
s6-portable-utils
s6-linux-utils
s6-linux-init

and put it all to /usr/local. With this out of the way, it should function. I don't frequently monitor forums, but if somebody decides to try it out, I'm here and on the Gentoo forum for the most part. It's really simple so everybody should be able to tinker it without much effort, but maybe you want to rub the quality in my face etc

Some GOTCHAS:

when you use s6-linux-init-maker modify -p to include /usr/local/bin
when you use s6-linux-init-maker remember that PID 1 doesn't have /usr/local/bin in its PATH, so edit the generated init execline script to invoke /usr/local/bin/s6-linux-init
if you compile manually execlineb is in /usr/local/bin, but is expected to be in /bin, so either symlink, or use the Devuan package
udevadm from eudev does not provide the -w/--setle flag for trigger, so it will take quite a bit of time for all events to settle, unlike e.g. on Gentoo which uses a standalone udev binary directly from systemd. As an option try commenting it out and see how it goes.

Last edited by Alverstone (Yesterday 18:17:56)

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#1 2023-04-25 11:16:00

install s6 init system

#2 2023-04-25 22:39:33

Re: install s6 init system

#3 2023-04-27 13:17:06

Re: install s6 init system

#4 2023-10-11 14:04:36

Re: install s6 init system

#5 2023-12-23 13:30:54

Re: install s6 init system

#6 2023-12-23 14:47:41

Re: install s6 init system

#7 2023-12-31 07:09:53

Re: install s6 init system

#8 2024-01-05 15:34:29

Re: install s6 init system

#9 2024-01-06 02:25:22

Re: install s6 init system

#10 2024-01-06 04:52:52

Re: install s6 init system

#11 2024-01-14 14:32:33

Re: install s6 init system

#12 2026-06-30 21:25:18

Re: install s6 init system

#13 2026-06-30 22:06:56

Re: install s6 init system

#14 Yesterday 18:07:09

Re: install s6 init system

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