what dependency-based linux init systems suitable for embedded systems?

Question

Currently, I run Linux on an arm board using Sysvinit, but the network drivers of my board are not the best which causes the network service to stall the boot for a while, I also have problems with framebuffer initializations being a bit late.

The solution to my problem would be to user parallel service starting, I can enable that in Sysvinit but there will be a dependency nightmare, so I need an init system that support dependencies and can run services in parallel.

So far I've found cinit and after reading about it I really like the idea behind it and implementation(I haven't tested it though), from what I've read it seems it's a simple system which is somewhat compatible with Sysvinit, it has "want" and "need" dependency types(similar to systemd wants and require).

The cinit project hasn't been updated since 2009 and the main git repo is down, only the github mirror repo is still functioning, so it's clear that the project is dead.

Is the project maintained elsewhere? as a fork maybe?

What other similar init systems do we have that has those functionalities? it should be suitable for embedded systems(small footprint), I don't like systemd especially on an embedded system where I continually work on and debug booting.

Update: I'm also looking to test my board with build systems, so I would prefer if the init system is compatible with build systems such as Yoctoproject and Buildroot.

Answer 1

There is a whole page dedicated to this purpose, which excludes systemd: http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Alternatives_to_systemd

Keep in mind that some of the systems listed under the 'process supervisors and service managers' section are capable of dependency management as well.

Of these, I know that dinit, OpenRC, and nosh are capable of wants/needs dependency management, although more of them likely support this.

I personally believe that sysvinit with dependency-based parallel service startup using insserv and startpar can be managed without a 'dependency nightmare', and I would encourage you to explore these options if compatibility is a high priority.