Hello,
I wanted to better understand the inner workings of systemd. Just having
finished a LFS install on a test server, I thought LFS 7.2 might be a
good basis for this. My goal was to eventually replace SysVinit
completely with systemd. I fully expected lots of things to break, but
was pleasantly surprised, that getting systemd to work was not all that
hard. I started out with a guide from Lemon Lime which he posted on this
list a year ago. Because LFS 7.2 is using a customized non-standard
installation of Systemd/Udevd, additional steps were required. Systemd
has matured quite a bit since last year and more distributions are using
it, among them Arch Linux. Having lots of unit files available from
other distributions, makes the switch a lot easier.
I have everything working on my test server with a Plone CMS installed
and find the built-in monitoring and logging capabilities of systemd
quite remarkable. Bootup and shutdown times are considerably faster than
with SysVinit. The following guide was put together as I documented the
steps I took, and is intended help others to get started with systemd. I
have put it in a similar format as instructions in the BLFS book to make
it easier to apply.
I hope you'll find this guide helpful and would welcome your comments
and suggestions.
Chris
How to install Systemd-193 on LFS
=================================
Introduction to systemd
-----------------------
systemd is a system and service manager for Linux, compatible with SysV
and LSB init scripts. systemd provides aggressive parallelization
capabilities, uses socket and D-Bus activation for starting services,
offers on-demand starting of daemons, keeps track of processes using
Linux control groups, supports snapshotting and restoring of the system
state, maintains mount and automount points and implements an elaborate
transactional dependency-based service control logic. It can work as a
drop-in replacement for sysvinit.
I was able to have it build and work properly using an LFS-7.2 platform.
### Package Information
* Download (HTTP):
`http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/systemd-193.tar.xz`
* Download MD5 sum: `732a9de2b1d2a15cab639c987ff9e90e`
#### Required (versions from BLFS 2012-09-14)
libcap2-2.22, D-Bus-1.6.4, Gperf-3.0.4, USB Utils-006, PCI Utils-3.1.10,
GLib-2.32.4, (D-Bus will have to be re-installed after installing
systemd!)
Preparation
-----------
systemd can be installed alongside SysVinit and will start any init
scripts which do not have systemd equivalent unit files yet. It can also
be installed to fully replace SysVinit. In this guide systemd will first
be installed alongside SysVinit, then it can be tested, while optionally
booting into SysVinit or systemd. When satisfied that everything works
well in systemd, SysVinit can be completely replaced by systemd, and the
init scripts can be removed.
The required dependencies above will need a number of their own
dependencies to be fulfilled and can be installed in the
following order:
{(attr-2.4.46), libcap2-2.22 },
{(Expat-2.1.0 or libxml2-2.8.0), D-Bus-1.6.4},
{(XML-Parser-2.41), Intltool-0.50.2}, Gperf-3.0.4,
{(libusb-1.0.9), USB Utils-006}, PCI Utils-3.1.10,
{(pkg-config-0.27, libffi-3.0.11, PCRE-8.31,
Python-2.7.3),GLib-2.32.4}
We need a Linux kernel with devtmpfs and cgroups activated while autofs4
and ipv6 is recommended. systemd will work using the default options on
a 3.5.2 kernel with just the following two options added:
`CONFIG_DEVTMPFS=y CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT=y`
In `make menuconfig` these options can be found here:
Device Drivers --->
Generic Driver Options --->
[*] Maintain a devtmpfs filesystem to mount at /dev
[*] Automount devtmpfs at /dev, after the kernel
mounted the rootfs
In LFS chapter six Udev-188, a subset of systemd was installed using a
LFS specific makefile. I found, that the complete systemd-188 cannot be
easily installed over it, as this introduces various problems. Thus
Udev-188 must be uninstalled first, which will also allow us to use a
newer version of systemd than was used in LFS 7.2.
As the root user stop udevd first
udevadm control --exit
and then remove most files from Udev-188, while keeping the LFS specific
scripts:
rm -v /lib/udev/rules.d/*
rm -v /lib/{libudev.so.1,libudev.so.1.0.2}
rm -v /usr/lib/pkgconfig/{libudev.pc,udev.pc}
rm -v /usr/share/man/man7/udev.7*
rm -v /usr/share/man/man8/{udevadm.8*,udevd.8*}
rm -v /sbin/udevadm /usr/include/libudev.h /usr/lib/libudev.so
rm -v /lib/udev/{accelerometer,ata_id,cdrom_id,collect}
rm -v /lib/udev/{mtd_probe,scsi_id,udevd,v4l_id}
This will leave the following 7 files in place:
/lib/udev: init-net-rules.sh rule_generator.functions
write_cd_rules write_net_rules
/usr/share/doc/udev/lfs: 55-lfs.txt README
/etc/udev/rules.d: 55-lfs.rules
Installation of systemd
-----------------------
`systemd-tmpfiles` requires a 'lock' group, thus as the root user,
create a group:
groupadd -g 54 lock
Install systemd by running the following commands (you may wish to
review the output from ./configure --help first and add any desired
parameters to the configure command shown below):
./configure --with-distro=other \
--libexecdir=/usr/lib \
--localstatedir=/var \
--sysconfdir=/etc &&
make
When running tests before installing sytemd, 4 out of 14 tests will
fail. If run after systemd is installed, they should complete without
errors. The tests also require an existing /usr/lib/udev directory. If
you would like to run the unit tests, issue the following commands:
mkdir -pv /usr/lib/udev/rules.d
make check
Now, as the root user:
make install
# remove static libraries
rm -v /usr/lib/{libgudev-*.la,libsystemd-daemon.la}
rm -v /usr/lib/{libsystemd-id128.la,libsystemd-journal.la}
rm -v /usr/lib/{libsystemd-login.la,libudev.la}
ln -sfv /usr/lib/systemd/systemd /bin/systemd
mkdir -pv /var/log/journal
Move the rule `73-seat-late.rules`, which causes an error. There are
probably other rules we do not need, which could be moved out. (With the
LFS version of Udev, only a subset of rules were installed.)
mkdir -pv /usr/lib/udev/rules-unused/
mv -v /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/73-seat-late.rules \
/usr/lib/udev/rules-unused/
Setup /etc/machine-id, if it does not exist:
systemd-machine-id-setup
As the path to udevadm is hardcoded in some places, link to it:
ln -sv /usr/bin/udevadm /sbin/udevadm
Create other links, because udevd is no longer called udevd, but LFS
init.d/udev expects it here:
ln -sv /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd /lib/udev/udevd
ln -sv /usr/share/man/man8/systemd-udevd.8 \
/usr/share/man/man8/udevd.8
Command Explanations
--------------------
`--libexecdir=/usr/lib`: Note, that D-Bus ./configure may not find
systemd, when the systemd install paths are changed to be similar to the
paths used by Udev-188.
`--with-distro=other`: some major distributions have adapted systemd to
their distribution. Others will work just fine with the default
settings.
Configuring systemd
-------------------
### Config Files
/etc/systemd/*, /etc/dbus-1/system.d/*, /etc/hostname,
/etc/vconsole.conf, /etc/locale.conf, /etc/modules-load.d/*.conf,
/etc/sysctl.d/*.conf, /etc/tmpfiles.d/*.conf, /etc/binfmt.d/*.conf,
/etc/os-release, /etc/machine-id, /etc/machine-info
### Configuration Information
Most of the config files do not need to be modified, as the defaults
will work just fine.
Create /etc/hostname by running the following command as the root user
grep '^HOSTNAME=' \
/etc/sysconfig/network | sed 's/^HOSTNAME=//' >/etc/hostname
Adapt and create a locale file, by performing the following commands as
the root user:
cat > /etc/locale.conf << "EOF"
LANG=en_US
LC_COLLATE=C
EOF
We do not need to create /etc/timezone any more. In the release notes to
systemd-190: "timedated will no longer write or process /etc/timezone.
As we do not support late mounted /usr anymore /etc/localtime always
being a symlink is now safe, and hence the information in /etc/timezone
is not necessary anymore."
### Unit files for services
As the root user create some unit files to start important services.
Unit files of the appropriate name will mask the init scripts. Therefore
systemd will use the unit file in preference over the init script, if
available.
This unit file creates the /run/var directory to avoid errors from LSB
init scripts:
cat > /etc/systemd/system/lsb-prep.service << "EOF"
[Unit]
Description=Network Connectivity
Wants=local-fs.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/bin/mkdir -p /run/var
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
Create sysklogd service unit files:
cat > /etc/systemd/system/syslogd.service << "EOF"
[Unit]
Description=System Logging Service
Requires=syslog.target
Before=syslog.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/sbin/syslogd -p /run/systemd/journal/syslog -n -m 0
Sockets=syslog.socket
StandardOutput=null
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=syslog.service
EOF
cat > /etc/systemd/system/sysklogd.service << "EOF"
[Unit]
Description=System Kernel Logging Service
Requisite=syslog.service
BindTo=syslog.service
After=syslog.service
RefuseManualStart=true
[Service]
Type=forking
StandardOutput=syslog+console
StandardError=syslog+console
ExecStart=/sbin/klogd -c 6 -x
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
To enable the network, create a simple unit file for a static network
which uses the settings in /etc/sysconfig/ifconfig.eth0. Alternatively
enable the dhcpcd@eth0.service. One could also create a unit file which
will call the network/ifup scripts, that provide more functionality with
multiple interfaces.
Note, that this unit file requires the BROADCAST ip addr to be set in
ifconfig.eth0
cat > /etc/systemd/system/network.service << "EOF"
[Unit]
Description=Network Connectivity
Wants=network.target
Before=network.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
EnvironmentFile=/etc/sysconfig/ifconfig.eth0
ExecStart=/sbin/ip link set dev ${IFACE} up
ExecStart=/sbin/ip addr add ${IP}/${PREFIX} \
broadcast ${BROADCAST} dev ${IFACE}
ExecStart=/sbin/ip route add default via ${GATEWAY}
ExecStop=/sbin/ip addr flush dev ${IFACE}
ExecStop=/sbin/ip link set dev ${IFACE} down
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
Create the following links, which will enable essential services before
rebooting into systemd:
ln -sv /etc/systemd/system/lsb-prep.service \
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/lsb-prep.service
ln -sv /etc/systemd/system/syslogd.service \
/etc/systemd/system/syslog.service
ln -sv /etc/systemd/system/syslogd.service \
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/syslogd.service
ln -sv /etc/systemd/system/sysklogd.service \
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/sysklogd.service
ln -sv /etc/systemd/system/network.service \
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/network.service
Add a systemd entry to grub, check the `root=` entry to match your disk:
echo "menuentry \"Linux from Scratch (systemd)\" {" >> \
/boot/grub/grub.cfg
echo \
" linux /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro init=/bin/systemd" \
>> /boot/grub/grub.cfg
echo "}" >> /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Remember to rebuild and reinstall D-Bus-1.6.4, before rebooting into
systemd.
After booting with systemd, look at the systemd journal log from the
boot process:
journalctl -b
Optionally Replace SysVinit
---------------------------
The lfs-bootscripts scripts provide a lot of rich functionality to LFS.
Care should be taken, that all required features are covered by unit
files or by systemd itself, before removing them.
### Uninstall SysVinit
After systemd is running well, SysVinit can be removed . Check, that no
more LSB scripts are used by systemd using the following command:
systemctl | grep LSB
Remove the files belonging to SysVinit:
rm -v /usr/bin/{last,lastb,mesg,utmpdump}
rm -v /usr/include/initreq.h /etc/inittab /bin/pidof
rm -v /usr/share/man/man1/{last.1*,lastb.1*,mesg.1*,utmpdump.1*}
rm -v /usr/share/man/man5/{initscript.5*,inittab.5*}
rm -v /usr/share/man/man8/{bootlogd.8*,fstab-decode.8*}
rm -v /usr/share/man/man8/{fstab-decode.8*,init.8*}
rm -v /usr/share/man/man8/{killall5.8*,pidof.8*,sulogin.8*}
rm -v /sbin/{bootlogd,fstab-decode,halt,init,killall5,poweroff}
rm -v /sbin/{reboot,runlevel,shutdown,sulogin,telinit}
Replace sysvinit commands with links to systemd:
ln -sv /usr/lib/systemd/systemd /sbin/init
for tool in runlevel reboot shutdown poweroff halt telinit; do
ln -svf '/usr/bin/systemctl' "/sbin/$tool"
done
#### Uninstall LFS-Bootscripts
Now we can also move out the lfs-bootscripts and those services
installed with other programs:
mkdir -pv /etc/rc.d/init.bak/
mv -v /etc/rc.d/init.d/* /etc/rc.d/init.bak/
for rcX in rc0 rc1 rc2 rc3 rc4 rc5 rc6 rcS; do
rm -v /etc/rc.d/$rcX.d/*
done
The files in /etc/sysconfig, which were installed by lfs-bootscripts
might still come in handy to refer to or to utilize their settings from
within unit files. We could also keep ipup/ifdown for networking and the
lsb functions in /lib/services.
#### Mtab symlink
The version of Util-linux used in LFS 7.2 contains support for systems
without the /etc/mtab file, which use asymlink to `/proc/mounts`
instead.
Making `mtab` a symlink to `/proc/mounts` is advised by systemd,
otherwise there is a reminder during boot: `/etc/mtab is not a symlink
or not pointing to /proc/self/mounts. This is not supported anymore.
Please make sure to replace this file by a symlink to avoid incorrect
or misleading mount output.`
Removing /etc/mtab earlier would cause an error in /init.d/mountfs when
booting LFS via sysvinit. Now that we are not using the init scripts any
more, we can make this change:
ln -svf /proc/mounts /etc/mtab
Contents
--------
**Installed Programs:** systemctl, journalctl, udevadm,
systemd-udevd, ...
**Installed Libraries:** libudev.so, libgudev-1.0.so,
libsystemd-daemon.so, libsystemd-id128.so, libsystemd-journal.so,
libsystemd-login.so
**Installed Directories:** /etc/systemd/, /usr/include/systemd/,
/usr/lib/udev/, /usr/lib/systemd/
### Short Descriptions
* _systemctl_ may be used to control the state of the systemd system and
service manager
* _journalctl_ may be used to query the contents of the systemd journal
as written by systemd-journald.service
### Further information:
[ Developer ]( http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd )
[ Arch Linux Wiki ]( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd )
__Last updated on 2012-10-02__
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