iB::Topic::Faster system init: runit ?

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Topic: Faster system init: runit ?, ...Nice to have...

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The_Pirate Offline

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Posts: 9
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: Sep. 15 2006,19:39

Hi -
I am very happy with DSL, and use it for a bunch of rather old and small PC's and laptops. The only thing is, when installed to a harddisk, it seems to plough trough the usual sysv-init. Very, very slowly. This seems to be quite a weighty argument for Win98...

This is perhaps the slowest thing happening in a Linux box - any Linux box - and, especially on a i586/133 laptop it becomes tedious. May i humbly suggest that the developers cast a weary eye on something called 'runit' - a small and seemingly fast sysv-init replacement. It can be found at the runit webpage.

I could imagine that a small script could read the configuration, after the Knoppix-live-cd routine have got the system up and running - and then transfer it to runit, when performing a HD install. But, i'm just guessing.

I am sad to say, i'm a malebarian developer: so far, anything i touch, will beyond any reasonable doubt FUBAR. But if anybody else can put this into good use....

Ladies, gentlemen - thank you for your patience with me.

WDef

Group: Members
Posts: 798
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Sep. 20 2006,11:44

Interesting. I might try this out for myself. I agree the slow boot is a bore, not just on dsl either.

The tried 'n' true conservative init process does seem safe, though.

WDef

Group: Members
Posts: 798
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Sep. 23 2006,15:34

Today I've been mucking around with runit on a hd install of dsl.

Have replaced init, runit is working. However:

1. Would like to work out how to logon without running a new getty as a service and then switching to tty5.

2. Getting a clean shutdown is currently a bit convoluted - seems I have to quit X, switch tty's again, run /etc/runit/3, hit ctrl-c (or is it ctrl-alt-del?) some unspecified number of times, hope for the best etc. Commands like 'shutdown -r now' no longer work and need to be replaced by appropriate scripts.

3. Also be nice to auto start X as user dsl without the getty and logging on.

These things are probably work-outable.

Re speed: the main gains of runit are in starting up services *in parallel*, which means a fat distro like Fedora that starts lots of services by default (too many - I switch many of them off) would benefit enormously from runit.

But dsl doesn't run much in the way of services normally ...

Re boot speed: the tedious part of a dsl hd install boot is knoppix-autoconfig regenerating *everything* every boot. Some can be switched off by boot params, some need hacking of knoppix-autoconfig to switch off. Nothing to do with init.

Nonetheless Runit is light, and the service management features look like they'd be really nice to use once learned.

The_Pirate Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 9
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: Sep. 23 2006,19:22

Thanks for trying it!

I guess your problems may be exactly what services to start and stop - i admit, i'm not exactly good with this.

My idea was to take the configuration from that darn knoppix-autoconfig, transfer it into something that runit could use - and _then_ there ought to be a speedy boot! I'm sorry, when reading my original message, i have explained that poorly.

I guess it would also give a speed gain to just transfer it to sysvinit, but why not go for the Full Monty...?

Anyway, thank you for trying. I may not be totally insane after all...