WORK IN PROGRESS

This is a copy of the Migration article. I wanted to edit it, but since the changes are somewhat major and I'm not 100% about some stuff, I created this first.

Please review the changes and contact me through the forum in case any corrections should be made. Only the "Download the Artix packages" and "Install your chosen init" sections got affected. Here are the reasons for changing them:

- Firstly, there aren't any instruction for dinit, and the init packages got updated with ones from the installation guide (+ the -system ones)

- Secondly, I think that some software (like nano and connman) should be removed, as it can be replaced and it's a matter of taste. A notice got added instead. I also debate the inclusion of "artix-branding-base", since it's not required for a basic installation. Additionally, the common packages got split from the ones that require an init system, making the commands easier to read

Migration guide to Artix

Note: Migration is for advanced users that know what they are doing. In general, doing a fresh installation is the preferred way to get started on Artix.

All commands below must be run as root.

Prepare the repositories

To begin, replace pacman.conf and the mirrorlist with Artix's:

 mv -vf /etc/pacman.conf /etc/pacman.conf.arch
 curl https://gitea.artixlinux.org/packages/pacman/raw/branch/master/pacman.conf -o /etc/pacman.conf
 mv -vf /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch
 curl https://gitea.artixlinux.org/packages/artix-mirrorlist/raw/branch/master/mirrorlist -o /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
 cp -vf /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.artix

If you had multilib enabled, don't forget to uncomment the following sets of lines in /etc/pacman.conf:

 [lib32]
 Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

 [multilib]
 Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch

Clean up the packages cache

Clean all cache, because some of our own packages will have a different signature and pacman will complain. If you have a large cache and want to keep it, don't -Scc but you'll be asked to remove some corrupted packages and re-download. Then, force sync:

 pacman -Scc && pacman -Syy

Lower Pacman security levels

To install the artix-keyring package, you need to temporarily lower pacman's security levels for the installation in your /etc/pacman.conf.

 #SigLevel = Required DatabaseOptional
 SigLevel = Never

With Required DatabaseOptional being the original options.

Install the Artix PGP keyring

To install artix-keyring, you must sign a master key manually:

 pacman -S artix-keyring
 pacman-key --populate artix
 pacman-key --lsign-key 95AEC5D0C1E294FC9F82B253573A673A53C01BC2

Restore Pacman security levels

Do it now, or you may very well forget it:

 SigLevel = Required DatabaseOptional
 #SigLevel = Never

Backup a list of your active daemons

Save a list of your running systemd services, you'll need to install the respective init scripts afterwards.

 systemctl list-units --state=running | grep -v systemd | awk '{print $1}' | grep service > daemon.list

You are now ready for the installation of the Artix components, as well as the replacement init scripts for your systemd services.

Download the Artix packages

You should fetch the basic packages in the pacman cache (not really mandatory, but if you lose your internet connection in the middle of the update, you might be left without an init). Base and base-devel groups must also be reinstalled in order to be replaced by the ones in the [system] repo. Finally, choose one of Artix's inits (openrc, runit, s6, or dinit), and its init scripts.

 pacman -Sw base base-devel grub linux linux-headers mkinitcpio \
   rsync lsb-release esysusers etmpfiles artix-branding-base

And run one of the following, depending on your init:

 pacman -Sw openrc elogind-openrc openrc-system

or

 pacman -Sw runit elogind-runit runit-system

or

 pacman -Sw s6-base elogind-s6 s6-system

or

 pacman -Sw dinit elogind-dinit dinit-system

Remove systemd

Now that the packages are cached, you can send systemd and its family to oblivion (answer 'yes' to all pacman questions below).

 pacman -Rdd --noconfirm systemd systemd-libs systemd-sysvcompat pacman-mirrorlist dbus
 rm -fv /etc/resolv.conf

Restore the Artix mirrorlist, deleted by the previous operation:

 cp -vf /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.artix /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

After you've done this you MUST also complete the next step, otherwise you're left without an init system. If you're doing this remotely (e.g. through ssh), please keep another ssh session open, just in case the first one freezes (it has happened, thank you systemd).

Install your chosen init

Finally, you can install the packages previously downloaded with pacman -Sw. Simple enough:

 pacman -S base base-devel grub linux linux-headers mkinitcpio \
   rsync lsb-release esysusers etmpfiles artix-branding-base

And:

 pacman -S openrc elogind-openrc openrc-system

or

 pacman -S runit elogind-runit runit-system

or

 pacman -S s6-base elogind-s6 s6-system

or

 pacman -S dinit elogind-dinit dinit-system

Note: don't forget to install a network manager (e.g. connman or netifrc), a text editor and any other software that you consider vital.

Reinstall packages from Artix repositories

First, make sure your locale is C for grep(1):

 export LC_ALL=C

Replace all Arch packages with Artix ones:

 pacman -Sl system | grep installed | cut -d" " -f2 | pacman -S -
 pacman -Sl world | grep installed | cut -d" " -f2 | pacman -S -
 pacman -Sl galaxy | grep installed | cut -d" " -f2 | pacman -S -

And in case you had 32-bit support enabled:

 pacman -Sl lib32 | grep installed | cut -d" " -f2 | pacman -S -

Install init scripts

  • Note: these init scripts are all optional and can be skipped.

Also, install and enable the initscripts for your running services, an example follows (replace init with either openrc, runit, s6, or dinit):

 pacman -S --needed acpid-init alsa-utils-init cronie-init cups-init fuse-init haveged-init hdparm-init openssh-init samba-init syslog-ng-init

Enable services

OpenRC
 for daemon in acpid alsasound cronie cupsd xdm fuse haveged hdparm smb sshd syslog-ng; do rc-update add $daemon default; done

You almost certainly need to enable udev unless you know what you're doing; dbus and elogind are no longer required to be explicitly enabled, as they are started on demand (OpenRC only).

 rc-update add udev sysinit
Runit
 for daemon in acpid alsasound cronie cupsd dbus elogind xdm fuse haveged hdparm smb sshd syslog-ng; do ln -s /etc/runit/sv/$daemon /etc/runit/runsvdir/default; done
s6
 touch /etc/s6/adminsv/default/contents.d/{acpid,cronie,cupsd,elogind,xdm,fuse,haveged,hdparm,smbd,sshd,syslog-ng}
 s6-db-reload

Configure networking

Edit your network configuration file, it's /etc/conf.d/net. This is especially important if you're converting a remote box, or you may very well be locked out of it. Depending on whether you use persistent device naming or not, you must symlink /etc/init.d/net.lo to net.enp0s3 or net.eth0 respectively. The interface names are used only as examples, make sure you find out what applies to you system. If in doubt (and have only got one ethernet interface), you can disable persistent device naming with a kernel command line (GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX below) and go with net.eth0. OpenRC has its own network manager, netifrc which by default uses DHCP for the wired interface.

 vi /etc/conf.d/net
 echo 'GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0"' >>/etc/default/grub		# disable persistent device naming
 ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth0
 rc-update add net.eth0 boot
 pacman -S --needed netifrc

Create a basic /etc/resolv.conf, in the example we use Cloudflare's DNS:

 nano /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 1.1.1.1

LVM setups

If you have an LVM setup, you must install the lvm2-init and device-mapper-init packages, otherwise the logical volumes will be inactive after reboot. Both of these packages are part of the init-system group, so you probably have it installed already. Enable the services at boot:

OpenRC:
 rc-update add lvm boot
 rc-update add device-mapper boot
Runit:
 ln -s /etc/runit/sv/lvm2 /etc/runit/runsvdir/default
 ln -s /etc/runit/sv/device-mapper /etc/runit/runsvdir/default
s6 (lvm2-s6 is already enabled on boot during install):
 touch /etc/s6/adminsv/default/contents.d/device-mapper
 s6-db-reload

Remove more systemd cruft

You can optionally remove some systemd junk accounts too:

 for user in journal journal-gateway timesync network bus-proxy journal-remote journal-upload resolve coredump; do
   userdel systemd-$user
 done
 rm -vfr /{etc,var/lib}/systemd

Make sure you remove any 'init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd' or similar directives from your bootloader config, as the linux kernel by default launches /sbin/init. Also, remove any 'x-systemd' directives from /etc/fstab.

Update the bootloader and the kernel initramfs

New mkinitcpio and grub were installed, so you better reconfigure them. Copy the new /etc/mkinitcpio.pacnew over to /etc/mkinitcpio, /etc/default/grub.pacnew to /etc/default/grub, recreate the kernel's initramfs with mkinitcpio and reinstall grub. If you had committed any changes to the original files (i.e. resume hook in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf or a custom kernel cmdline parameter in grub), you should merge them now.

Recreate your initramfs and grub configuration file
 mkinitcpio -p linux (the default Artix kernel) or mkinitcpio -P (all installed kernels)
 update-grub
Reinstall GRUB
  • For UEFI:
 grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub (default for most setups)
 grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp_mount --bootloader-id=grub (some users reported success with this one)
  • For BIOS:
 grub-install /dev/sdX (replace sdX with sda, sdb, or whatever your disk is)

Reboot

You won't be able to reboot normally, as the bloated PID1 binary is missing now. Do it with the kernel SysRq trigger.

 sync
 umount -a
 mount -f / -o remount,ro
 echo s >| /proc/sysrq-trigger
 echo u >| /proc/sysrq-trigger
 echo b >| /proc/sysrq-trigger

Some additional configuration may still be needed, especially with regards to desktop functionality. The configuration section at systemd-free.org will give you some ideas although elogind is used instead of consolekit now.