View source for OpenRC, an alternative to systemd

This is an archived copy of a same-named Manjaro Wiki page.<br>
The Manjaro Wiki page titled "OpenRC" no longer exists. It redirects to the original of this archived page, which bears a warning header stating <b>Manjaro does no longer support OpenRC</b>
[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/OpenRC OpenRC] is a dependency based [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Init init] system maintained by the Gentoo developers, that works with the system provided init program, normally [http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/sysvinit sysvinit]. It is not a replacement for sysvinit.
It is an alternative to systemd for users that like more control over their system, and do not want all the features that systemd provides and automatically activates.
== Installation ==
<b>Warning: OpenRC on Manjaro has been [https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-openrc-will-be-discontinued/28387 discontinued]</b>
OpenRC is available from the the Manjaro repositories. It can be installed as:
 sudo pacman -S openrc-base
The output of the above command looks like the following:
 $ sudo pacman -S openrc-base
 :: There are 10 members in group openrc-base:
 :: Repository community
    1) cronie-openrc  2) cryptsetup-openrc  3) dbus-openrc
    4) device-mapper-openrc  5) dhcpcd-openrc  6) glibc-openrc
    7) inetutils-openrc  8) lvm2-openrc  9) mdadm-openrc  10) openrc-core
 Enter a selection (default=all): 
 resolving dependencies...
 looking for inter-conflicts...
 :: openrc-core and systemd-sysvcompat are in conflict. Remove systemd-sysvcompat? [y/N] y
 Packages (12): systemd-sysvcompat-212-3 [removal]  sysvinit-2.88-15
                cronie-openrc-20140614-1  cryptsetup-openrc-20140614-1
                dbus-openrc-20140614-1  device-mapper-openrc-20140614-1
                dhcpcd-openrc-20140614-1  glibc-openrc-20140614-1
                inetutils-openrc-20140614-1  lvm2-openrc-20140614-1
                mdadm-openrc-20140614-1  openrc-core-0.12.4-16
 Total Download Size:    0.22 MiB
 Total Installed Size:   1.19 MiB
 :: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
After installing the ''openrc-base'' package group, OpenRC should boot by default instead of systemd. 
Note that it will boot to a command line, as the service for a graphical display manager has not yet been installed.
On installing ''openrc-base'', one may get messages like:
 run 'rc-update add dbus default'
 run 'rc-update add cronie default'
Running these command(s) adds the service(s) to the specified runlevels. For example on running:
 sudo rc-update add dbus default
The dbus service would be added to the default runelevel and would automatically be started at boot.
''dbus'' (system message bus) and ''cronie'' (for cron) are some common services that can be enabled.
=== Additional packages ===
==== Display Manager ====
To boot to a graphical display manager, the '''displaymanager-openrc''' package can be installed.
After installing it, the ''/etc/conf.d/xdm'' file needs to be edited to specify the display manager.
For example, to use '''lightdm''', change the line:
 DISPLAYMANAGER="xdm"
to
 DISPLAYMANAGER="lightdm"
Finally the '''xdm''' service can be added to default runlevel:
 sudo rc-update add xdm default
'''Note:'''
''lightdm'' and a ''lightdm-greeter'' (like ''lightdm-gtk-greeter'') should be installed to use lightdm as display manager.
An alternative to ''lightdm'' is [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDM LXDM]. However the version in the repository does not automatically start a ck-session on login; alternative [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/lxdm-consolekit/ lxdm-consolekit] from the AUR can be used. 
==== Audio (ALSA) ====
The '''alsa-utils-openrc''' package can be installed. After installing it, run:
 sudo rc-update add alsasound default
to automatically start ''alsa'' at boot.
==== Network Manager ====
By default ''dhcpcd'' is enabled via [https://github.com/gentoo/netifrc netifrc]. However if one uses Wifi to connect to the internet, or need a graphical network applet, then '''networkmanager-openrc''' can be installed.
''networkmanager-openrc'' replaces the normal networkmanager package in the repos. Also, it requires ''consolekit'' and ''polkit-consolekit'', which replaces the normal polkit from the repos.
Other alternatives like ''wicd-openrc'' and ''connman-openrc'' are also available.
==== Consolekit ====
The '''consolekit-openrc''' package can be installed. Consolekit supports multi-user setups, mounting of partitions by unauthorized users, etc. See the [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ConsoleKit Gentoo-Wiki] for more details. 
Consolekit also allows a normal (non-root) user to shutdown or restart the system if the desktop environment supports it.
==== openrc-desktop ====
The ''openrc-desktop'' package group can be used to install most of the above desktop related packages in one go. For example:
 $ sudo pacman -S openrc-desktop
 :: There are 6 members in group openrc-desktop:
 :: Repository community
    1) acpid-openrc  2) alsa-utils-openrc  3) avahi-openrc  4) consolekit-openrc
    5) displaymanager-openrc  6) gpm-openrc
 Enter a selection (default=all): 
 resolving dependencies...
 looking for inter-conflicts...
 Packages (6): acpid-openrc-20140614-1  alsa-utils-openrc-20140614-1
               avahi-openrc-20140614-1  consolekit-openrc-20140614-1
               displaymanager-openrc-20140614-1  gpm-openrc-20140614-1
 Total Installed Size:   0.12 MiB
 Net Upgrade Size:       0.00 MiB
 :: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
==== Others ====
===== ACPI =====
For handling acpi events, '''acpid-openrc''' can be installed and enabled (see [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acpid this] for more details on acpid).
===== Logging =====
For logging, a logger can be chosen from ''metalog-openrc'', ''syslog-ng-openrc'', and ''rsyslog-openrc'', by installing the package and enabling its respective service.
===== Suspend/Hibernate =====
To suspend and hibernate via the command line, '''pm-utils''' can be installed. You may also need the '''upower-pm-utils''' package if suspend and hibernate does not work. 
=== Note ===
If using plymouth, then /etc/mkinitcpio.conf would need to be edited to remove the '''plymouth''' hook, as plymouth does not work correctly with OpenRC. The hooks line should look like:
 HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block resume filesystems keyboard keymap fsck"
After that would need to regenerate the initrd as:
 sudo mkinitcpio -p linux<version>
For example,
 sudo mkinitcpio -p linux314
== Configuration ==
=== Adding or Removing services ===
Services can be added to startup with:
 sudo rc-update add <service> <runlevel>
For example,
 sudo rc-update add sshd default
runlevel can be skipped if adding services to the current runlevel, ie:
 sudo rc-update add sshd
A service can be removed from startup with:
 sudo rc-update del <service> <runlevel>
=== Check running services ===
To check what services are running, one can type:
 rc-status
=== Start / stop / restart services ===
To start / stop / restart services ''immediately'', the '''rc-service''' command can be used. For example:
 sudo rc-service networkmanager restart
=== Some common services ===
To enable printing support, the '''cups-openrc''' package can be installed. For example,
 $ sudo pacman -S cups-openrc
 resolving dependencies...
 looking for inter-conflicts...
 Packages (1): cups-openrc-20141014-1
 Total Installed Size:   0.01 MiB
 Net Upgrade Size:       0.00 MiB
 :: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
The service for it is ''cupsd''.
 $ sudo rc-service cupsd start
 * Starting cupsd ...                                                                                                       [ ok ]
For ssh, the '''openssh-openrc''' package can be installed.
The service for it is named ''sshd''.
<b>Tip ~~ All services present can be listed with the "rc-service --list" command.</b>
== Using Consolekit ==
<b>Warning:  Consolekit has been deprecated in Manjaro in favour of [https://forum.manjaro.org/t/switch-from-consolekit-to-elogind/19412 elogind]</b>
Additionally, if not already done, [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ConsoleKit consolekit] can be installed to perform root actions like shutting down or restarting system as non-root user from your Desktop Environment.
Consolekit can be installed in the following way:
 sudo pacman -S consolekit-openrc polkit-consolekit cgmanager-openrc
The output looks like the following:
 $ sudo pacman -S consolekit-openrc polkit-consolekit cgmanager-openrc
 resolving dependencies...
 looking for inter-conflicts...
 :: polkit-consolekit and polkit are in conflict. Remove polkit? [y/N] y
 Packages (9): cgmanager-0.37-2  consolekit-1.0.0-3  libnih-1.0.3-2  openrc-core-0.17-2  polkit-0.112-2 [removal]  cgmanager-openrc-20150911-1
               consolekit-openrc-20150911-1  polkit-consolekit-0.113-1
 Total Download Size:    0.92 MiB
 Total Installed Size:   4.44 MiB
 Net Upgrade Size:       2.84 MiB
 :: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
After installing it can be enabled with "sudo rc-update add consolekit" and would be activated after a reboot.
To check that consolekit is running and a ck-session was started, the following command can be used:
 ck-list-sessions
The output looks like the following:
 Session1:
 	unix-user = '1000'
 	realname = 'Aaditya Bagga'
 	seat = 'Seat1'
 	session-type = ''
 	active = TRUE
 	x11-display = ':0'
 	x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
 	display-device = ''
 	remote-host-name = ''
 	is-local = TRUE
 	on-since = '2014-06-15T13:29:58.652929Z'
 	login-session-id = ''
If you are not getting any output, then maybe a ck-session is not being started by your display manager.
To start a ck-session and X session from the command line following syntax could be used:
 ck-launch-session <session-name>
For example,
 ck-launch-session startxfce4
=== a few "gotcha" issues to avoid ===
Display managers that are known to work with consolekit are '''lightdm''', '''lxdm''' (via [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/lxdm-consolekit/ lxdm-consolekit]), '''kdm''' (via [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/kdebase-workspace-consolekit/ kdebase-workspace-consolekit]), and '''mdm''' (via [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mdm-nosystemd/ mdm-nosystemd]). 
If you start a graphical session from the command line, [http://archbang/viewtopic.php?pid=1394#p1394 this forum post] may be of some help.
If you use Openbox or another Window Manager along with [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Oblogout oblogout], then [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/oblogout-consolekit/ oblogout-consolekit] from the AUR can be used for having a graphical logout interface.
== Replacing systemd with eudev ==
With OpenRC being used as init system, the role of systemd is reduced to that of a [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev udev] provider, and for compatibility reasons.
[http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/eudev/ eudev], developed by the Gentoo folks, can be used as replacement. Note that removing systemd could cause some incompatibilities with existing software.
The steps to install eudev are as follows:
 sudo pacman -S eudev eudev-systemdcompat
The output looks like the following:
 $ sudo pacman -S eudev eudev-systemdcompat
 resolving dependencies...
 looking for conflicting packages...
 :: eudev and libsystemd are in conflict (libgudev-1.0.so). Remove libsystemd? [y/N] y
 :: eudev-systemdcompat and systemd are in conflict. Remove systemd? [y/N] y
 warning: dependency cycle detected:
 warning: eudev-systemdcompat will be installed before its eudev dependency
 Packages (4) libsystemd-219-6 [removal]  systemd-219-6 [removal]  eudev-3.0-1  eudev-systemdcompat-219-2
 Total Download Size:     0.95 MiB
 Total Installed Size:    7.09 MiB
 Net Upgrade Size:      -18.78 MiB
 :: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
After the above steps systemd would be uninstalled and replaced by eudev and its counterparts.
=== Note ===
''eudev-systemdcompat'' has been superseded by ''eudev-systemd'' and ''libeudev-systemd'' [https://forum.manjaro.org/t/update-troubles/9046 (link)].
== Troubleshooting ==
=== Boot logs ===
The boot logs for OpenRC are stored in ''/var/log/rc.log''
=== Get warning at shutdown ===
If at shutdown there is a message like:
 WARNING: /usr/lib/rc/cache is not writable!
Then this directory can be created as:
 sudo mkdir /usr/lib/rc/cache
=== Error about /etc/sysctl.conf not found ===
It can be created with:
 sudo touch /etc/sysctl.conf
=== Enable Swap (for GPT partitions) ===
If you were using systemd on a GPT partitioned hard disk, then you may need to enable swap via ''/etc/fstab''. This is so because systemd handled swap automatically on GPT partitions, and gave error if it was mounted via fstab.
I added the following entry to my ''/etc/fstab''
 # /dev/sda10
 UUID=0c3e9434-bc5c-461c-a5e4-4e9fe5f9a149	swap	swap	sw	0	0
=== Using tmpfs ===
systemd used to set a ''tmpfs'' by default; to set it manually via ''/etc/fstab'', the following lines can be added:
 tmpfs		/tmp		tmpfs   nodev,nosuid          	0  	0
See the [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab#tmpfs Arch Wiki] for more details.
=== Module auto-loading ===
For OpenRC, the '''modules to be loaded at boot''' are specified in ''/etc/conf.d/modules'' rather than being present as individual files in ''/etc/modules-load.d''
The required modules can be manually moved over. 
An example ''/etc/conf.d/modules'' file looks like the following:
 # You should consult your kernel documentation and configuration
 # for a list of modules and their options.
 modules="vboxdrv"
=== Setting hostname ===
If your hostname is being displayed as '''localhost''' even if there a different hostname in ''/etc/hostname'', then you probably need to change your hostname in ''/etc/conf.d/hostname''
=== Setting keymap ===
The keymap for the console can be set via editing /etc/conf.d/keymaps
For X11 (graphical part of the system), it can be set via /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-keyboard.conf
For more information have a look at the [http://wiki.gentoo.org/index.php?title=Keyboard_layout_switching Gentoo wiki] (with the difference that in Arch/Manjaro the keymaps are stored in ''/usr/share/kbd/keymaps'' [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keymap]).
=== Setting Hardware clock ===
Can be done by editing /etc/conf.d/hwclock
=== Shutting down / rebooting ===
To shutdown the system, the "poweroff" command can be used.
Similarly to reboot, the "reboot" command can be used.
=== X does not start from a virtual terminal ===
With Xorg-1.16, Arch Linux decided to make X rootless using systemd-logind [https://www.archlinux.org/news/xorg-server-116-is-now-available/].
This means that using "startx" from a virtual terminal will possibly not work for users of OpenRC init system.
The workaround is to create a file /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config with the contents:
 # Xorg.wrap configuation file
 needs_root_rights = yes
Reference: [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1441150#p1441150 Arch forum]
=== Input devices not working ===
With ''eudev-3.0'', a new '''input''' group was introduced; you could try adding your user to it.
 sudo gpasswd -a <user> input
Reference: https://github.com/gentoo/eudev/issues/107
=== MySQL service not working ===
Have a look here: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/mariadb-daemon-dont-start-in-openrc/20356
=== Pulseaudio does not start / work ===
See: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/pulseaudio-and-openrc/5881/1
=== Ctrl + Alt + Backspace causes problems with some display managers ===
Have a look here: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/ctrl-alt-backspace-doesnt-log-out-zaps-xorg-openrc
=== Httpd (Apache) service status says crashed ===
If the httpd process is running but "rc-status" shows the service as crashed, try editing ''/etc/init.d/httpd'' and remove the start-stop-daemon call when starting the service:
  # sed 's|start-stop-daemon --start -- ${APACHE2} ${APACHE2_OPTS} -k start|${APACHE2} ${APACHE2_OPTS} -k start|' -i /etc/init.d/httpd
Forum link: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/solved-apache-service-httpd-status-status-crashed/19878
'''Edit'''
A better solution seems to be to explicitly add the ''pidfile'' option to start stop daemon:
  # sed 's|start-stop-daemon --start|start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile ${PIDFILE}|' -i /etc/init.d/httpd
More details: https://bitbucket.org/aadityabagga/openrc-services-ng/issues/4/issue-with-httpd-service
=== Unable to build ISO using manjaro-tools on OpenRC ===
Try loading the ''loop'' module, see https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-tools-14-on-testing-openrc/17156 for more info.
== Further Reading ==
* [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openrc The Arch Wiki]
* [ OpenRC on Arch Linux]
* [https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Autostart_X_at_Login_-_OpenRC_%26_SystemD Autostart X at Login - OpenRC]

* [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:X86/Working/Initscripts Initscripts]
* [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/local.d /etc/local.d]