By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using +sysvinit as its boot system by default. But how can one keep using +sysvinit in Jessie? It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes, +courtesy of +Erich +Schubert and +Simon +McVittie. + +
If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and +keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file +/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit with this content before +you upgrade:
+ ++Package: systemd-sysv +Pin: release o=Debian +Pin-Priority: -1 +
+ +
This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider +installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade +solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid +systemd as a default boot system. The end result should be that the +upgraded system keep using sysvinit.
+ +If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to +get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by +debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the +installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot. Either by +using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the +preseed file used. First, the kernel command line argument: + +
+preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core" +
+ +
Next, the line to use in a preseed file:
+ ++d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core +
+ +
One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing +the sysvinit-core package.
+ +I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the +sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs +on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware +devices show up during boot. But on the other hand, the new default +boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before +Jessie is released.
+