[plug] Systemd, good or bad

Brad Campbell brad at fnarfbargle.com
Mon Sep 22 07:34:12 UTC 2014


This does not qualify as epic, but I have no qualms about rebooting it 
if I have to, I just don't have to.

brad at bklaptop:~$ ssh xxxxxxxx.xxx uptime
  08:01:25 up 1302 days,  9:28,  0 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

I'm from the same school. Reboots are for hardware upgrades or kernel 
security vulnerabilities (and only if that vulnerability applies to 
_that_ server). Firmware updates sometimes can't be avoided, but I can 
count on one hand how many of them I've had to apply since 1996 that 
could not wait until a scheduled maintenance window.

I get the on-demand virtual server thing, but I'd have thought that was 
a bit of a niche. Perhaps I'm wrong.



On 22/09/14 13:00, /sbin/Southen wrote:
> It's far more embarrassing that systemd has introduced to Linux the
> "reboot to apply update" feature of Windows, because so many "essential"
> system services are bolted into PID 1 if any part of them needs to be
> upgraded the entire system needs to be rebooted. Previously restarting
> the relevant service was enough, the kernel and any other services could
> remain operating for years. Only if there was an actual serious kernel
> update was a reboot required and kexec/ksplice/et al were well on the
> way to solving that too.
> Apparently this is not a problem for the systemd developers, since their
> target has always been on-demand virtual machines in datacenters - not
> servers, desktops or laptops - so rapid start up times and constant
> reboots are expected.
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 11:38 AM, Hani Jabr <hani at nuix.net
> <mailto:hani at nuix.net>> wrote:
>
>     Boot times may not matter to most people who only use Linux
>     desktops, but when you have dozens or hundreds of servers boot times
>     start to matter a lot. Firmware upgrades, patches, app upgrades,
>     system changes. You can leave them up and running for years, but you
>     don't. And that matters when there's more than one.
>
>     And let's face it, it's embarrassing for Linux when a sparc box
>     takes five times longer to POST and still boots up first...
>
>     Hani
>
>
>
>      > On 22 Sep 2014, at 11:12, Brad Campbell <brad at fnarfbargle.com
>     <mailto:brad at fnarfbargle.com>> wrote:
>      >
>      > I've heard a few people tout faster boot times as the main
>     positive thing about systemd. Personally the 3-4 times a year I
>     actually boot a linux machine makes me care a _lot_ less about boot
>     times and a lot more about being able to fix broken stuff with basic
>     hand tools.
>      >
>      > What I do care about is the ability to bring up and repair a
>     broken machine without remote hands or worrying about the behavior
>     of a dark bag of vipers. I can fix and/or tailor init scripts on the
>     fly. I don't natively speak dbus.
>      >
>      > Hibernate/Suspend has worked well now for years. Even my laptop
>     only gets cold booted a couple of times a year. If I need to boot
>     into Windows I suspend Linux and pop the battery out. Boot Windows,
>     and when I re-boot back into linux it just un-hibernates to where I
>     was before.
>      > I suspend2both so if the battery dies I can un-hibernate,
>     otherwise just wake it up with a keypress and I'm back in.
>      >
>      > I guess I'm just grumpy as I see it as yet another case of change
>     for change's sake. Reading Lennart's blog again it really reads like
>     he thinks linux will take OSX users by booting as fast as OSX, when
>     in reality it's the totalitarian stewardship of OSX and the "one
>     true path" that keeps users. They don't have to worry about dpkg vs
>     rpm or Gnome vs anything else usable these days. It just works for a
>     majority of the population and linux will never get there.
>      >
>      > When my mum phones up and asks a question about her Mac I can
>     pretty much talk her through from memory, but when she uses the
>     Ubuntu laptop I have set up for her to do her banking on I have to
>     vnc in because shit keeps moving from release to release and I don't
>     use Ubuntu anymore (and I can't see her coping with Debian and
>     XMonad somehow).
>      >
>      > I see systemd as one of those black boxes that "just works",
>     except that when it doesn't you are looking for a black button
>     illuminated by a black light on a black control panel on a black
>     wall in a black cave and it's very likely you'll be eaten by the
>     Grue before you find it.
>      >
>      > Don't mind me, I'm just getting old and cantankerous.
>      >
>      >> On 22/09/14 05:39, B15HOP wrote:
>      >> As much as I want to care about SystemD, I find that it's incredibly
>      >> fast with bootup times.
>      >>
>      >> Some people say that it's a turn for the worse, I think it's another
>      >> good option for another good cause. I think that Linux should
>     always be
>      >> about modularity and user demand. If a person wants oranges
>     instead of
>      >> apples, then so be it... Why do distro managers always try to
>     make it
>      >> easier by just going down either A or B. It just cuts people out
>     that
>      >> might already enjoy the distro. There are so many distros out
>     there that
>      >> Linux has become obfuscated rather than a collaboration effort.
>     Linus
>      >> then wonders why it hasn't won over the desktop, pretty easy to see
>      >> why... As much as I don't like SystemD, it grew on me once I got the
>      >> hang of it.
>      >>
>      >> A happy Arch user.
>      >>
>      >> Phillip.
>      >>
>      >> On Mon, Sep 8, 2014 at 6:56 AM, Bill Kenworthy
>     <billk at iinet.net.au <mailto:billk at iinet.net.au>
>      >> <mailto:billk at iinet.net.au <mailto:billk at iinet.net.au>>> wrote:
>      >>
>      >>    Systemd caused one of the longest ever flamefests on the
>     gentoo mail
>      >>    lists! - end result is openrc is still the default init but
>     we have to
>      >>    put up with odd bits of systemd and its servants scattered
>     through the
>      >>    system :(  Systemd had a (very) few supporters but its more
>     that its
>      >>    being forced on people against their better judgement.
>      >>
>      >>    The reputation of the systemd devs is very poor due to
>     pulseaudio so
>      >>    that is a black mark against it being just "accepted" - the
>     battle lines
>      >>    have already been drawn - it will be interesting to see if
>     redhats data
>      >>    centre business suffers irreparable damage as the resistance
>     from server
>      >>    admins is very high against it.
>      >>
>      >>    Keep in mind that "YOU", the typical user are just collateral
>     damage -
>      >>    the target of systemd is the cloud.  Fast boot, use it and
>     and then
>      >>    throwaway the image when done is the target.  Keeping an
>     image running
>      >>    reliably for months is not a priority any longer (check out
>     the use of
>      >>    "chaosmonkey" in the data centre).  When people like gnome
>     (another
>      >>    bunch of losers :) jumped on board it has twisted the market
>     towards
>      >>    something that's just not appropriate for most individual
>     users.  I dont
>      >>    think I can hold out forever, but will do do so until its no
>     longer
>      >>    viable.
>      >>
>      >>    Dont like where your distro is going - choose another or
>     build your own
>      >>    - give up and follow the sheep, you are lost!
>      >>
>      >>     From a happy lxde, moving to lxqt, eudev and openrc user :)
>      >>    BillK
>      >>
>      >>
>      >>
>      >>
>      >>
>      >>
>      >>    On 08/09/14 06:13, Hani Jabr wrote:
>      >>     > It's not a couple of seconds, it's a few minutes when you have
>      >>    multiple applications that take time to start up, but can
>     start in
>      >>    parallel.  That is important on production systems.
>      >>     >
>      >>     > Systemd seems like a rubbish implementation of something
>     that's
>      >>    long overdue on Linux.  Every unix except AIX has implemented
>      >>    something similar.
>      >>     >
>      >>     > Hani
>      >>     >
>      >>     >
>      >>     >
>      >>     >> On 7 Sep 2014, at 23:49, Alexander <alex at spottedmouse.com
>     <mailto:alex at spottedmouse.com>
>      >>    <mailto:alex at spottedmouse.com
>     <mailto:alex at spottedmouse.com>>> wrote:
>      >>     >>
>      >>     >> Found some more details:
>      >>     >>
>      >>     >> http://www.tecmint.com/systemd-replaces-init-in-linux/
>      >>     >>
>      >>     >> I think this article makes a good case against systemd.
>     Why do
>      >>    we need
>      >>     >> all this extra complexity for a couple of seconds we save
>     during
>      >>     >> startup. Since when is the startup time a measure for
>     anything.
>      >>    Maybe I
>      >>     >> am getting too old. Have fond memories of uptime being a
>     measure for
>      >>     >> things. Reminds me a little of the time when a new version of
>      >>    windows
>      >>     >> was released, which had a faster startup time as a major
>     feature.
>      >>     >>
>      >>     >>
>      >>     >>> On 03/09/14 14:56, Alexander wrote:
>      >>     >>> Just ran across : http://boycottsystemd.org/ and thought
>     fellow
>      >>    pluggers
>      >>     >>> may be interested as well.
>      >>     >>> _______________________________________________
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>     <mailto:plug at plug.org.au>>
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>      >>    <mailto:committee at plug.org.au <mailto:committee at plug.org.au>>
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>      >>     >> _______________________________________________
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>      >>
>      >>
>      >>
>      >> --
>      >> "The ecological crisis is a moral issue." PJP 2nd
>      >>
>      >>
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>      >
>      > _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Sebastian Southen
> Systems Administrator,
> Murdoch IT Society
>
>
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