Tuning systemd for embedded
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The document discusses tuning the systemd init system for embedded Linux environments, highlighting its modular and asynchronous architecture. It outlines systemd's features, including unit types, resource management via cgroups, and security capabilities, along with practical examples of customization and integration. It emphasizes systemd's importance in modernizing Linux and ensuring efficient resource allocation and fast boot times in embedded systems.
![SysV already has a big service manager: bash
[user@localhost]$ ls -l /sbin/init
26k
[user@localhost]$ ls -lh /bin/bash
1008K
[user@localhost]$ ls -lh /lib/systemd/systemd
1.3M](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/elcsystemd-150327021008-conversion-gate01/85/Tuning-systemd-for-embedded-31-320.jpg)
![[Socket activation demo with cups and ncat]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/elcsystemd-150327021008-conversion-gate01/85/Tuning-systemd-for-embedded-34-320.jpg)
![[runlevel demo with Fedora Qemu and Firefox]
Try: 'systemctl isolate multi-user.target'
[warning: KILLS X11]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/elcsystemd-150327021008-conversion-gate01/85/Tuning-systemd-for-embedded-42-320.jpg)
![Example: set display manager
[user@localhost ~]$ ls -l `locate display-manager.service`
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 35 Dec 11 2013
/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service ->
/usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service
[user@localhost ~]$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service
[Unit]
Description=GNOME Display Manager
[ . . . ]
[Install]
Alias=display-manager.service
or
WantedBy=graphical.target](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/elcsystemd-150327021008-conversion-gate01/85/Tuning-systemd-for-embedded-51-320.jpg)
![Example: change the default target
[alison@localhost ~]$ ls /etc/systemd/system/default.target
/etc/systemd/system/default.target ->
/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target
[alison@localhost ~]$ sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/default.target
[alison@localhost ~]$ sudo ln -s /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target
/etc/systemd/system/default.target
[alison@localhost ~]$ ~/bin/systemd-delta
[ . . . ]
[REDIRECTED] /etc/systemd/system/default.target →
/usr/lib/systemd/system/default.target](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/elcsystemd-150327021008-conversion-gate01/85/Tuning-systemd-for-embedded-53-320.jpg)
Tuning systemd for embedded
- 1. Tuning systemd for Embedded Alison Chaiken alison_chaiken@mentor.com Mar. 23, 2015 Latest version: http://she-devel.com/ELC_systemd.pdf Auxiliary files: http://she-devel.com/ELC_auxiliary.tar.bz2 Text in blue is hyperlinked.
- 3. Linux needs to keep innovating LicensedunderCCBY-SA3.0 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire-lite-bg- 10.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Fire-lite-bg-10.jpg “No one has a guaranteed position in the technology industry.” -- Bill Gates, Pirates of Silicon Valley “The only thing that can ever hurt Linux is Linux itself.” -- GKH, Linux Action Show “Success is a self-correcting phenomenom.” -- Gary Hamel
- 5. ● modular; ● asynchronous and concurrent; ● described by declarative sets of properties; ● bundled with analysis tools and tests; ● features a fully language-agnostic API. systemd is:
- 6. One daemon to rule them all xinetd: a daemon to lazily launch internet services when activity is detected on an AF_INET socket systemd: a daemon to lazily launch any system service when activity is detected on an AF_UNIX socket (oversimplification)
- 7. Complexity arising from many similar small units
- 8. init.d scripts systemd units ● Unit's action and parameters: ExecStart= ● Dependencies: Before=, After=, Requires=, Conflicts= and Wants=. ● Default dependencies: – Requires= and After= on basic.target; – Conflicts= and Before= on shutdown.target. ● Conditionals: ConditionPathExists, ConditionPathIsReadWrite!= ● Types of unit files: service, socket, device, mount, scope, slice, automount, swap, target, path, timer, snapshot
- 9. sysVinit runlevels ≈ systemd targets ● Targets are synchronization points. ● Check /lib/systemd/system/runlevel?.target symlinks: multi-user.target (runlevel 3 == text session) graphical.target (runlevel 5 == graphical session) ● Select boot-target : – via /etc/systemd/system/default.target symlink; – appending number or systemd.unit=<target> to bootargs.
- 10. plus: intuitively exposes kernel interfaces ● Including Capabilities, Watchdog, Cgroups and kdbus ('coming attraction') ● Kernel features configurable via simple ASCII options in unit files. ● Encourages creation of system policies via unit templates.
- 11. systemd and cgroups ● cgroups are a kernel-level mechanism for allocating resources: storage, memory, CPU and network. ● slices are groups of daemons whose resources are managed jointly. ● systemd scopes are resultant groups of user processes. ● Can set BlockIOWeight, IOSchedulingPriority, OOMScoreAdjust, CPUShares, MemoryLimit … Demo Example: limiting memory usage of Firefox.
- 12. systemd and security: granular encapsulationvia kernel's capabilities ● CapabilityBoundingSet ● PrivateTmp, PrivateDevices, PrivateNetwork ● JoinNamespaces ● ProtectSystem (/usr and /etc), ProtectHome ● ReadOnlyDirectories, InaccessibleDirectories ● systemd-nspawn: systemd's native containers Demo Example: limiting privileges of root-initiated program
- 13. systemd and watchdogs ● Support for soft or hard watchdogs ● RuntimeWatchdogSec sets a timer for petting the dog ● ShutdownWatchdogSec sets a timer to force reboot if shutdown hangs Demo Example: systemd and softdog
- 14. resource utilization ● systemd-211 in Poky includes 17 packages = 8 MB. ● systemd-219 builds 90 MB of executables (not all needed). ● minimal build = systemd, udevd and journald. ● Memory (RSS) of fully featured build: ≈9 MB; minimum build ≈5 MB. ● Features added/removed via './configure'. ● Get rid of D-Bus, syslog and bash?
- 15. using the systemd journal ● Easily pushed to a remote. ● Can be cryptographically 'sealed'. ● Configurable max size and rotation. ● Log-reading tools are simple: journalctl -xn journalctl -p err journalctl -u cron journalctl -o json-pretty systemctl status systemctl is-failed bluetooth systemctl --failed
- 16. Other embedded-relevant features ● Support for read-only rootfs ● Remote journaling via HTTP requests ● Coredumpctl: – read last core file – read stack trace automatically written to journal ● Timesyncd: lightweight network-time daemon ● 'systemctl snapshot' captures state to which the system can be restored
- 17. systemd prevents self-injury! ● Test out new units by trying them: – in /run – in *.conf.d directory – via bootargs ● No need ever to modify files in /lib/systemd. ● Services linked into basic.target.wants (≈runlevel 1) that won't work until graphical.target (runlevel 5) will start properly if their dependencies are correctly stated.
- 18. systemd and backwards compatibility
- 19. system updates Ye Good Olde Days: -- update kernel and modules -- separately update root fs Newfangled: -- update kernel and modules -- update device-tree -- separately update root fs
- 21. New system updates? Old: -- update kernel and modules -- separately update root fs New: -- update kernel and modules -- update device-tree? -- separately update root fs Newer: -- update kernel and modules -- update device-tree? -- update systemd? -- separately update root fs
- 22. systemd's 'Interface Portability and Stability Chart' Deprecated!
- 23. developing systemd ● git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd ● systemd-devel list: submit patches or ask questions ● Featureful utility library in src/shared/ #define streq(a,b) (strcmp((a),(b)) == 0) #define strneq(a, b, n) (strncmp((a), (b), (n)) == 0) #define strcaseeq(a,b) (strcasecmp((a),(b)) == 0) #define strncaseeq(a, b, n) (strncasecmp((a), (b), (n)) == 0) ● Complex autotools build system, many dependencies. ● 'Plumbing' dev tools in /lib/systemd, 'porcelain' tools in /bin
- 24. Summary ● Systemd has: – a superior design; – tight integration with the Linux kernel; – a vibrant developer community. ● systemd is the less stable part of kernel's ABI. ● Mostly things will 'just work'. ● systemd exemplifies modernization Linux needs to stay competitive.
- 26. Thanks ● Vladimir Pantelic, Tom Gundersen, Lennart Poettering, Jeff Waugh, Ivan Shapovalov, Mantas Mikulènas, Stephanie Lockwood-Childs and Jon Stanley for corrections and advice. ● Bill Ward, Jym Dyer and Janet Lafleur for use of their images.
- 27. Resources ● Man pages are part of systemd git repo. ● freedesktop.org: systemd mailing list archives and wiki ● Poettering's 0pointer.de blog ● ➟At wayback machine: “Booting up” articles ● Neil Brown series at LWN ● ➟Fedora's SysVinit to systemd cheatsheet ● Poettering's 'What's new' talk from FOSDEM 2015 ● Josh Triplett's Debconf talk video ● Linux Action Show interviews with Mark Shuttleworth and Lennart Poettering
- 29. Understanding dependencies Try: systemctl list-dependencies basic.target systemctl list-dependencies –after tmp.mount
- 30. Try: systemd-analyze dot rescue.target systemd-analyze dot basic.target > basic.dot dot -Tsvg basic.dot -o basic.svg eog basic.svg (or view basic.svg with any web browser) Understanding dependencies, p. 2
- 31. SysV already has a big service manager: bash [user@localhost]$ ls -l /sbin/init 26k [user@localhost]$ ls -lh /bin/bash 1008K [user@localhost]$ ls -lh /lib/systemd/systemd 1.3M
- 33. Greg K-H: “Tightly-coupled components” Originally from https://lwn.net/Articles/494095/
- 34. [Socket activation demo with cups and ncat]
- 35. systemd and udev ● udev is a kernel facility that handles device events. – merged into the systemd project. ● Rules are enabled by placement in /lib/udev/rules.d, unlike systemd unit enablement. ● Rule loading is ordered by numeric filename prefix, like old sysVinit scripts.
- 36. udev is still old-school Try: ls /lib/udev/rules.d cat /lib/udev/rules.d/99-systemd.rules
- 37. Hierarchy of unit files for system and user sessions ● Organized into system and user units ● /lib/systemd/system: systemd upstream defaults for system-wide services ● /etc/systemd/system: local customizations by override and extension ● /lib/systemd/user/: systemd's upstream defaults for per- user services ● $HOME/.local/share/systemd/user/ for user-installed units ● 'drop-ins' are run-time extensions
- 38. X Upstart Serial Linked list Fully parallel
- 39. Modularity can produce complexity photo courtesy Bill Ward
- 40. systemd and outside projects: CoreOS ● networkd was initially contributed by CoreOS developers. ● CoreOS's fleet “tool that presents your entire cluster as a single init system” is based on systemd. – Spin up new containers due to events on sockets. ● CoreOS devs are outside systemd inner circle. ● systemd has many patches from Arch, Intel, Debian . . .
- 41. systemd in embedded systems ● systemd is widely adopted in embedded systems because – proper allocation of resources is critical; – fastboot is required; – customization of boot sequence is common. ● Lack of backward compatibility for older kernels (due to firmware loading) is a pain point. ● Embedded use cases are not always understood by systemd devs.
- 42. [runlevel demo with Fedora Qemu and Firefox] Try: 'systemctl isolate multi-user.target' [warning: KILLS X11]
- 43. systemd is easy to use ● systemd utilities: – Try: apropos systemd | grep ctl ● All-ASCII configuration files: no hidden “registry”. ● Customization is by overriding default files. ● Many choices are controllable via symlinks. ● Bash-completion by default. ● Backwards compatibility with SysVinit
- 44. Override your defaults! photo courtesy Jym Dyer ● Replace a unit in /lib (upstream) by creating one of the same name in /etc (local changes). ● Add services to boot by symlinking them into /etc/systemd/system/default.target.wants. ● 'mask' unit with link to /dev/null. ● Best practice: do not change the files in /lib/systemd. ● Read in-use unit with 'systemctl cat'.
- 45. Extensions: drop-ins Try: systemd-delta Try: systemctl cat <list from 1st command>
- 46. Old way New way History X11 manages graphics memory Kernel's drm manages graphics memory “Linux Graphics Drivers: an I ntroduction,” p. 26 static /dev, then devfs udev getrlimit, setrlimit cgroups KDE3 and GNOME2 KDE4 and GNOME3 KDE and GNOME sysVinit systemd in progress X11 client-server model Wayland compositor
- 47. Crux of the problem: Dave Neary “There is no freedesktop.org process for proposing standards, identifying those which are proposals and those which are de facto implemented, and perhaps more importantly, there is no process for building consensus around a specification . . .” (comment regarding GNOME3)
- 48. systemd is . . . ● the basis of Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian and much embedded. ● praised by Jordan Hubbard of FreeBSD. ● tightly integrated with Linux kernel cgroups. ● the reference implementation for udev and for kdbus userspace access.
- 49. Customizing your installation ● Replace a unit in /lib (upstream) by creating one of the same name in /etc (local changes). ● Add services to boot by symlinking them into /etc/systemd/system/default.target.wants. ● Best practice: do not change the files in /lib/systemd
- 50. Sequence of targets on a typical system >$ ls -l /lib/systemd/system/default.target /lib/systemd/system/default.target -> graphical.target >$ cat /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target After=multi-user.target >$ cat /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target After=basic.target >$ cat /lib/systemd/system/basic.target After=sysinit.target sockets.target timers.target paths.target slices.target
- 51. Example: set display manager [user@localhost ~]$ ls -l `locate display-manager.service` lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 35 Dec 11 2013 /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service [user@localhost ~]$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service [Unit] Description=GNOME Display Manager [ . . . ] [Install] Alias=display-manager.service or WantedBy=graphical.target
- 52. sysinit, sockets and multi-user are composite targets >$ ls /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/ dbus.service@ systemd-ask-password-wall.path@ systemd- update-utmp-runlevel.service@ getty.target@ >$ ls /lib/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants: dbus.socket@ systemd-shutdownd.socket@ systemd-initctl.socket@ systemd-udevd-control.socket@ >$ ls /lib/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants: cryptsetup.target@ systemd-journald.service@ debian-fixup.service@ systemd-journal-flush.service@ Symlinks replace lines of conditional code in SysVinit scripts.
- 53. Example: change the default target [alison@localhost ~]$ ls /etc/systemd/system/default.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target -> /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target [alison@localhost ~]$ sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/default.target [alison@localhost ~]$ sudo ln -s /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target [alison@localhost ~]$ ~/bin/systemd-delta [ . . . ] [REDIRECTED] /etc/systemd/system/default.target → /usr/lib/systemd/system/default.target
- 54. problems ● systemd is modular, but: – interopability with other SW may be inadequately tested. ● Potentially rocky piecemeal transition by distros. – e.g., Debian installer doesn't warn about a separate /usr partition. ● Merciless deprecation of features (firmware loading, readahead . . . ). ● Frequent releases, not particularly stable.
- 55. Taxonomy of systemd dependencies Requires, RequiresOverridable, Requisite, RequisiteOverridable, Wants, BindsTo, PartOf, Conflicts, Before, After, OnFailure PropagateReloadsTo, ReloadPropagateFrom,
- 56. Brandon Philips at linux.conf.au
- 57. Brandon Philips at linux.conf.au
- 58. Design