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Author: Fred DC
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: [DNG] Devuan-ascii: Upgrading runit to 2.1.2-5 can hose your system
Hi,

My apololgies for sounding a bit emotional about this issue.

If, up to now, you have "runit" running as pid 1 and managed to
maintain the ability to boot from the kernel commandline using
the sysv-init read on.

The latest update to package 'runit' *wipes* out the 2 binaries
/sbin/runit-init and /sbin/runit, in other words, the carpet has been
pulled from under the init. To add injury to insult the /etc/service
which is a link to /etc/runit/runsvdir/current gets wiped out as well.

During the installation it ask you if the existing 3 runlevel scripts
must be preserved and it does execute your choice (during the
*downgrade* it will however wipe out your existing 3 scripts). At no
time during the *upgrade* process you will see any other warning!!
It appears the the 2 vital binaries have been moved to a new package
'runit-init'. 'runit-init' is *not* marked in the package 'runit' as
a 'recommends' nor as 'suggests'.

Next surprise. Package 'runit-init' *cannot* co-exist with sysv-init.
It will *uninstall* package 'sysvinit-core' and why?...because of 3
so-called runit compatabilty scripts (shutdown, halt/reboot and
runlevel. No diversion of these 3 sysv-executables - no, the whole
sysvinit-core with its /sbin/init had to be removed. So the
alternative boot-option is gone!

Be warned!

BTW, there is a ready solution for making the sysv 'halt/reboot' and
'shutdown' work under 'runit as pid 1'. I use it and it works!
See link: https://wiki.debian.org/runit

Regards

Fred

PS: I was able to recover the OS and everything is back to normal, but
I did put package 'runit' on hold in 'aptitude' and it will stay that
way until the package is not of 'grade experimental' quality anymore.
I know that 'ascii' is 'testing' - but I also know it is not 'unstable'
nor 'experimental' and after all, this is DEVUAN. We are dealing here
with the init-system.