debian

HowTo: Finit on Debian GNU/Linux

HowTo use Finit to boot a Debian GNU/Linux system. It is assumed that the user has already installed a compiler, C library header files, and other tools needed to build a GNU configure based project. I.e., at the very least:

root@debian:~# apt install build-essential

Like the Alpine HowTo, you need to install libuEv and libite, but since this is Debian — which takes infinite care of its users ♥ ♥ ♥ we don't need to worry about pkg-config, except for having it installed so it can locate the uEv and lite libraries.

With Debian everything just works!™

... just make sure to install the following, so ifup and other basic tools pre-systemd work as intended.

root@debian:~# apt install initscripts console-setup

Note: as of Debian 11 (Bullseye), libuev and libite are part of the main section of Debian. So just install the -dev packages :)

The following script can then be used to configure, build, install and set up your system to run Finit:

user@debian:~/finit$ contrib/debian/build.sh

However, since /sbin/init already exists on your system, the script creates another entry in your GRUB config by updating $SUPPORTED_INITS in /etc/grub.d/10_inux and run update-grub. On reboot you will find a (finit) entry in the "Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux" section. It is of course also possible to change the default init to Finit:

user@debian:~/finit# cd /sbin
user@debian:/sbin# sudo mv init oldinit
user@debian:/sbin# sudo ln -s finit init

Before rebooting, check the default /etc/finit.conf and /etc/finit.d/*.conf files. The build + install script above provides a few sample .conf files. See initctl ls after boot for a list of enabled and available services, you can then use enable and disable comands to initctl, followed by reload to activate your changes.

You can also use a standard /etc/rc.local for one-shot tasks and initialization like keyboard language etc.

NOTE: X Window system, you may need to sudo apt install elogind (Bullseye and later), followed by initctl reload to activate it (it is enabled by default), and logout/login again. The elogind daemon ensures a regular non-root user can start and interact with an X session, otherwise keyboard and mouse won't work. When you're happy, you can enable the lightdm.conf, change the default runlevel to 3, and presto! you have a desktop again.

Have fun!
/Joachim ツ