How to block the real systemd from being installed.

[edbarx]

Warnings:

1. If you are not skilled enough to cope with serious breakages leading to very probable unbootability, this howto is NOT for you.
2. As systemd is an OS loader/manager, you are NOW RESPONSIBLE to provide an alternative.

The lethal concoction :

1. Install equivs
2. Open a text editor to create this file. This file has been copied from the control file for dpkg since that is an essential package and we want to avoid our fake systemd package from being rejected or automatically uninstalled.
3. This is the control file:

   Code: Select all

   Package: systemd
   Version: 215-5+z10000
   Architecture: amd64
   Essential: yes
   Origin: debianfork
   Maintainer: your_name
   Installed-Size: 1
   Pre-Depends: libbz2-1.0, libc6 (>= 2.14), liblzma5 (>= 5.1.1alpha+20120614), libselinux1 (>= 2.3), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4), tar (>= 1.23)
   Suggests: apt
   Section: admin
   Priority: required
   Multi-Arch: foreign
   Description: systemd placeholder (dummy)
    This package provides a neat/messy way,  depending on your values, to avoid systemd
    being installed
    .
    Enjoy.

4. Save the file and run the following command:

   Code: Select all

   equivs-build the-name-for-the-text-file-you-created-for-control

5. Install the package with dpkg.

Currently, this results in Gnome not being installable due to unsatisfied dependencies that cannot be pulled.

You have been warned.

[reinob]

Currently, this results in Gnome not being installable due to unsatisfied dependencies that cannot be pulled.

Is this unsatisfied dependency libpam-systemd?
It currently (sid) depends on an exact version of systemd (= 215-5+b1), so it cannot be satisfied by your equivalent package.

Perhaps you could try making also a dummy package for libpam-systemd and make sure the module is removed from the PAM config (I don't have my laptop with me right now so I cannot tell you the exact path/line).

[EDIT1] It's /etc/pam.d/common-session. The line has "session optional pam_systemd.so"

Add. merely as a suggestion: you could remove the pre-depends and suggests (taken from dpkg). Not that it will change anything (because most people will have dpkg installed :), but it cleans up the package a bit.

[EDIT2] Make sure that /usr/bin/update-rc.d (and possibly invoke-rc.d) point to the right directory (inside your "rootkit"), as, at least where I checked (sid with systemd and jessie with sysvinit) they contain hardcoded paths (it's just a perl script anyway). The binary package is sysv-rc.