Installation Guide/Configure Services

1 Service management

Most casual desktop users would rarely need to interact with the service manager; but it is a good idea to learn the basics. The process is the same, now while in the chroot, and afterward during normal use.

1.1 Systemd

Interaction with systemd is done through the systemctl command. Read a:systemd#Basic systemctl usage for more information.

1.2 OpenrRC

Systemd services normally must be manually "started" and/or "enabled" for auto-start. Interaction with OpenrRC is done through the rc-update, rc-service, and rc-status commands.

Newly installed services will need to be added to specific runlevels. The 'default' runlevel is the only one that most users will need. Note, however, that essential services are enabled by default (e.g. dbus, elogind, opensysusers and opentmpfiles). You will need to "chroot" into the target system first, in order to accomplish this. That will normally not be necessary, once the system is installed and running.

To activate the 'NetworkManager' service, for example:

# rc-update add NetworkManager default