..:::FabiOnline:::..

I wanted to try the “infamous” systemd on my Debian Wheezy: Let’s start with a refresh (being root)
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

After that we can install systemd  – initially I’ve used version present in repository Wheezy/stable (44-11 + deb7u4)
apt-get install systemd systemd-sysv
After writing the funny sentence,  installation is completed.

Now, we have to edit the grub to make sure that systemd will start without any problems:
nano /etc/default/grub
At the last row I added, (under the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT section):
init=/bin/systemd

Then i have updated grub:
sudo update-grub2
After reboot, Systemd is perfectly working.

At that point I wanted to try also the latest systemd version present in backports repository (204-14 ~ bpo70 +1); so i’ve enabled backports repository
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
adding wheezy-backports repository in sources.list:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main contrib non-free

After saving, type:
apt-get update
finally we can install  systemd backports repository version(204-14~bpo70+1):
apt-get install -t wheezy-backports systemd systemd-sysv

After reboot will have systemd working; considerations: the system reboot seems to be, in my case, slightly faster.

Below some useful commands operating in Systemd:

systemctl
Show all active services

systemd-analyze
Prints the time spent in the kernel before userspace has been reached, the time spent in the initial RAM disk (initrd) before normal system userspace has been reached, and the time normal system userspace took to initialize. Note that these measurements simply measure the time passed up to the point where all system services have been spawned, but not necessarily until they fully finished initialization.
systemd-analyze blame
a list of all units running, sorted according to the time you have used the services. This information can be used to optimize startup times, for example we can disable startup of a service (systemctl disable foo service) that maybe we don’t need and that takes a long time to start.
Note that the result could be misleading; for example, the start time of a service might be slow simply because it waits for initialization of another service is complete.

systemctl start foo.service
activate a service immediately (replace foo service with a real service)

systemctl stop foo.service
Disable a service immediately

systemctl restart foo.service
Restart a service

systemctl status foo.service
Check status of a service

systemctl enable foo.service
Enable a service to startup on boot

systemctl disable foo.service
Disable a service at boot

systemctl is-enabled foo.service; echo $?
Check whether a particular service or less at startup

May happen to have to re-install Debian (and derivates) in another pc/server
Certainly, if new machine has  a similar hardware i could clone hard disk; but more often the other machine has a different hardware…
So it is useful to save a list of installed packages; to have them immediately available during reinstallation in another (or in same) machine avoiding to remember  all packages one by one 🙂
As first thing is useful to make a copy of /etc/apt/sources.list or annotate  repository are you using   (wheezy, backports, etc) somewhere.

Open terminal (being root) and type:
dpkg –get-selections > /home/$USER/pacchetti.txt

At this way was created a file named “pacchetti.txt” in my  /home directory;
now you can save your file somewhere; for example, in an external usb drive,so you can use it when you’ll need.

How to restore packages:
Place file pacchetti.txt in your /home , then select packages in your file by typing:
sudo dpkg –set-selections < /home/$USER/pacchetti.txt
and install selected packages by typing  :
sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade
  Selected packages will be installed (obviously if missing).

I’ve found this very interesting distro and i immediately installed it:
First consideration: I wanted Debian Debian Debian:-), I  to try Wheezy with KDE and I must say that, as usual, there is nothing to say, rock-solid distro for server use; I think it is absolutely unbeatable (obviously should be installed without graphics).
However for Desktop use, I’d rather like to have a kernel a little less dated and capable of recognizing without too much trouble most recent devices and of course a Kde version newest than the 4.84.
I discarded Debian testing version because I have no more desire/time to put me to fiddle around every time will be a kernel update; I haven’t even taken into consideration  Sid version (unstable), (then better go directly to Ubuntu and derivatives, but I was not interested about it.)
During my research i’ve found Zevenos Neptune, a Debian-wheezy based 64-bit version of distro Zevenos.
It’s Debian Wheezy but in addition has numerous packages derived from testing version; in practice Zevenos team has recompiled some testing packages for making them compatible for Debian Wheezy version.
So we can find:
kernel: 3.10.5 (with a lot additional drivers)
KDE 4.10.5 (full)
Xorg: 7.7
Libreoffice 4.1
There is also a software Manager named  Apper that has nothing to envy to Synaptic (which I installed anyway)and surely it working  better than Muon, here it is below along with cute drop-down terminal, Yakuake

There is also an interesting menu

After installing I proceeded to Add Nvidia proprietary drivers for my gt630 (i installed the 304.88 from repository) and afterwards I activated and tested the effects of KDE

If you want a really stable distro Debian based, I recommend you try Zevenos Neptune, you won’t be disapointed:-)