Does the Gentoo dev team own the maintenance of OpenRC?

[red6]

I am looking for a really good guide on OpenRC because I am really tired of systemd bloat on my embedded systems.

I need examples to get me started. I do like the Cheatsheet for OpenRC to Systemd but I am wanting to go back to a fast small supported init system.

Mark

[Zucca]

There are a lots of documentation on the wiki, but looks like we lack some kind of "quick guide".
The quide in Handbook is pretty good.
(It, however, lacks the information about openrc-init, which can replace sysvinit (/sbin/init).)

but I am wanting to go back to a fast small supported init system.

... if you're adventurous, there are more to choose from.

That being said, I think, the "most supported" configuration is sysvinit + openrc.

[red6]

Glad you pointed the handbook to me. BTW, I am using Alpine Linux and not Gentoo. Gentoo is way above my pay scale:)

But it would appear that Gentoo OpenRC and Alpine OpenRC are different.

I guess I should ask the Alpine folks why they do not seem to have a concise document of their implementation.

Or maybe I should at one of my FreeBSD 14.2 lab systems and see if it is running OpenRC instead of SysVinit.

Also I could do some testing with MX-Linux and/or Artix.

[Zucca]

Gentoo is way above my pay scale:)

When you eventually try, we're here to help. ;)

[sam_]

OpenRC was a wholly Gentoo project but it was split out because other distributions use it and its maintainer(s) wanted them to feel comfortable and that their voice would be heard.

[Naib]

But it would appear that Gentoo OpenRC and Alpine OpenRC are different.

How so? I have used Openrc from the moment it was available on gentoo (goo Uber) and I also have several Alpine instances (metal and containers). While there are some subtle patches, the user side of things are the same

[red6]

I just followed the guide to run some basic commands and did not get the same results.

Maybe just very unimportant differences. Maybe the documentation is based on 3.19. I am running 3.20 on Alpine.

Either way, I really am pissed off with systemD. I have seen comments on it with respect to Ubuntu 25. And hard to say what Debian 13 Trixie will do this summer.

[Naib]

like what? any examples?
https://docs.alpinelinux.org/user-handb ... penrc.html
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/OpenRC
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/OpenRC


and the best resource *IF* you are use to systemd... https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/OpenRC_to_ ... Cheatsheet

[red6]

OpenRC was a wholly Gentoo project but it was split out because other distributions use it and its maintainer(s) wanted them to feel comfortable and that their voice would be heard.

Interesting. Thanks.

So I am guessing this is not the best place to ask questions about OpenRC.

[Zucca]

So I am guessing this is not the best place to ask questions about OpenRC.

One of the best, if not the best.

[red6]

So I am guessing this is not the best place to ask questions about OpenRC.

One of the best, if not the best.

Good to know that this is a good home for OpenRC experts.

And maybe I should spend the time to try to learn how to spin up Gentoo and manage it.

So a nerd question here.... Are there any good tips to get Gentoo running on a cloud provider?

My Proxmox server is currently lacking a power supply unit. Ideally an image that I could upload to a Vultr or a Digital Ocean or a Linode or Racknerd.

[Zucca]

Are there any good tips to get Gentoo running on a cloud provider?

I know at least one person (can't recall who) here on the forums said they run Gentoo on Linode.

You may want to read this news article.

[pietinger]

I know at least one person (can't recall who) here on the forums said they run Gentoo on Linode.

I can remember because I was involved: viewtopic-t-1171592.html

[red6]

But it would appear that Gentoo OpenRC and Alpine OpenRC are different.

How so? I have used Openrc from the moment it was available on gentoo (goo Uber) and I also have several Alpine instances (metal and containers). While there are some subtle patches, the user side of things are the same

This is my Alpine system... (on Linode).

It is pretty much the same as the handbook. I just did not find a line specifying "id:3:initdefault:".

# /etc/inittab

::sysinit:/sbin/openrc sysinit
::sysinit:/sbin/openrc boot
::wait:/sbin/openrc default

# Set up a couple of getty's
ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 ttyS0
#tty2::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
#tty3::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
#tty4::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
#tty5::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
tty1::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1

# Put a getty on the serial port
#ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100

# Stuff to do for the 3-finger salute
::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/reboot

# Stuff to do before rebooting
::shutdown:/sbin/openrc shutdown

# enable login on alternative console
#ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L 0 ttyS0 vt100

[grknight]

It is pretty much the same as the handbook. I just did not find a line specifying "id:3:initdefault:".

You can ask Alpine about this sysvinit config as it has nothing to do with OpenRC directly.
It appears as if it is bypassing all runlevels (OpenRC does not care) and runs the processes without them.
It is starting OpenRC with "sysinit" and "wait" actions. They have likely patched their sysvinit as "shutdown" is not a standard action.

Gentoo starts OpenRC via sysvinit with "sysinit", then "bootwait", and then standard runlevels pointing to "wait" actions.

[red6]

It is pretty much the same as the handbook. I just did not find a line specifying "id:3:initdefault:".

You can ask Alpine about this sysvinit config as it has nothing to do with OpenRC directly.
It appears as if it is bypassing all runlevels (OpenRC does not care) and runs the processes without them.
It is starting OpenRC with "sysinit" and "wait" actions. They have likely patched their sysvinit as "shutdown" is not a standard action.

Gentoo starts OpenRC via sysvinit with "sysinit", then "bootwait", and then standard runlevels pointing to "wait" actions.

Thanks for that info!

[red6]

I know at least one person (can't recall who) here on the forums said they run Gentoo on Linode.

I can remember because I was involved: viewtopic-t-1171592.html

I did manage to get an instance of Gentoo running on Linode. Just not sure about the exact version of the cloud image.

Code: Select all

# uname -a
Linux localhost 6.6.30-gentoo-x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Jul  3 07:30:25 UTC 2024 x86_64 AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

# cat /etc/os-release
NAME=Gentoo
ID=gentoo
PRETTY_NAME="Gentoo Linux"
ANSI_COLOR="1;32"
HOME_URL="https://www.gentoo.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.gentoo.org/support/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.gentoo.org/"
VERSION_ID="2.15"

[GDH-gentoo]

This is my Alpine system... (on Linode).

It is pretty much the same as the handbook. I just did not find a line specifying "id:3:initdefault:".

# /etc/inittab

::sysinit:/sbin/openrc sysinit
::sysinit:/sbin/openrc boot
::wait:/sbin/openrc default

# Set up a couple of getty's
ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 ttyS0
#tty2::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
#tty3::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
#tty4::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
#tty5::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
tty1::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1

# Put a getty on the serial port
#ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100

# Stuff to do for the 3-finger salute
::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/reboot

# Stuff to do before rebooting
::shutdown:/sbin/openrc shutdown

# enable login on alternative console
#ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L 0 ttyS0 vt100

Just to clear any confusion, this is not OpenRC configuration, it is BusyBox init configuration.

Alpine runs OpenRC on top of BusyBox init, Gentoo runs it on top of sysvinit, so /etc/inittab is going to be different.

[red6]

That explains things nicely. This gives me good reason to walk away from Alpine and continue my education on Gentoo.

Busybox in the supply chain of Alpine is likely not a prudent way to go.

So the next question would be...

Why do I see... I really did not expect to see any trace of "systemd"

Code: Select all

# ps aux | grep systemd
root      1591  0.0  0.2  21632  2160 ?        Ss   May22   0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd

[GDH-gentoo]

You are looking at the udev daemon. Alpine uses eudev as the udev daemon implementation. Gentoo splits systemd's implementation of the udev daemon from the rest of the package, so that it can be used on Gentoo with OpenRC.

EDIT:

BTW, I am using Alpine Linux and not Gentoo.

Busybox in the supply chain of Alpine is likely not a prudent way to go.

Oh? Alpine is BusyBox/musl/Linux rather than GNU/Linux, I thought you knew...

[red6]

Are there any good tips to get Gentoo running on a cloud provider?

I know at least one person (can't recall who) here on the forums said they run Gentoo on Linode.

You may want to read this news article.

Happy to report that I have launched Gentoo on Linode and the cloud init stuff is looking really good. The cloud init scripts were authored by an expert I think.

Also, I found that downsizing instances is better than ever. So I can launch a very costly instance to expedite compile times from 20 hours to 10 minutes.

And then I can create a Linode image and launch it on the smallest possible offering.

Downsizing on Linode was a very long process of of resizing the disk but it seems Linode does it for you. Makes sense to me. They removed an impedent to downsizing. It will pay off for Linode/Akamai.