[SOLVED] Any distro without systemd with Gnome 3 available?

deepclutch · 05-26-2020, 05:19 AM

As it says in the title, I am looking for a distro with sysVinit or openRC and other init options which can work perfectly with Gnome 3. If not, recent Cinnamon desktop also is my last choice. I have Devuan already in my other computer and it runs fine on KDE. But, Gnome seems difficult.

What are my options? GUIX seems interesting. I am inclined to Debian package management if available.

Edit: I know systemd just works fine in most cases including Ubuntu. But, curious if choices exist.

Lysander666 · 05-26-2020, 05:29 AM

There are some, but they fall into the advanced/niche category.

https://distrowatch.com/search.php?o...=Active#simple

shruggy · 05-26-2020, 05:34 AM

GNOME 3.22 should be available on Devuan 2 (Ascii) post-install. It just couldn't be selected during installation.

ehartman · 05-26-2020, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepclutch

I have Devuan already in my other computer and it runs fine on KDE. But, Gnome seems difficult.

Yes, because systemd and gnome 3 are rather closely bound. There are some alternatives, but mostly some functionality of systemd has to be simulated for gnome3 to work.
But, for instance, there is Dropline Gnome (www.droplinegnome.org/ as a 3rd party project for Slackware Linux.

Mill J · 05-26-2020, 08:34 AM

Well Void Linux has a Cinnamon edition, not sure about gnome. It's rolling and uses runit instead of systemd.

DavidMcCann · 05-26-2020, 11:28 AM

Of the ones listed by Distrowatch (see post #2), Zenwalk and Funtoo have reasonable reputations, but they don't default to Gnome so (as with Devuan) there's no telling how good their Gnome is. It seems that Devuan uses libsystemd0 and elogind (whatever they may be) to enable some systemd-dependent stuff to work.

z80 · 05-26-2020, 12:00 PM

Cinnamon builds are availanle for Slackware.

deepclutch · 05-26-2020, 01:46 PM

How is MX Linux? And I see Parabola, Calculate Linux. Anyone using these?

z80 · 05-26-2020, 01:53 PM

MX Linux is Debian based and Debian has systemd ...
Parabola is loosely based on Arch and Arch nowadays has systemd, so ...
Calculate is based on Gentoo and Gentoo has systemd, so ...

Edited to add:

If you want Gnome 3 then you have to use systemd.
If you don't want systemd you have to avoid Gnome 3.
Simple as that.

Mill J · 05-26-2020, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepclutch

How is MX Linux?

It's great. I think you can select systemd for init but systemd isn't the default init system. Don't know about gnome or cinnamon.

Is there a particular reason you need gnome?

Mill J · 06-02-2020, 12:28 PM

On installing Gnu Guix recently I seen they had the option to install gnome although I went with Openbox instead

. Guix uses the Gnu Shepherd init system. A very neat system.

deepclutch · 06-11-2020, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mill J

It's great. I think you can select systemd for init but systemd isn't the default init system. Don't know about gnome or cinnamon.

Is there a particular reason you need gnome?

I prefer it. Yes, it is sad that Gnome 3.x has dependencies which may be hardlinked to systemd*. Unfortunate. Guix is on my lens, but wonder if I've to get to do kernel recompile to get my wifi card and other firmware stuff that may not be present in default Guix system. Thank you all for the replies. Meantime, Devuan released 2.0.

Mill J · 06-11-2020, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepclutch

Guix is on my lens, but wonder if I've to get to do kernel recompile to get my wifi card and other firmware stuff that may not be present in default Guix system. Thank you all for the replies. Meantime, Devuan released 2.0.

Very likely some essential drivers will be missing. Linux-libre isn't exactly hardware friendly. But I'm not sure if a recompile is necessary. Sometimes it's as simple as manually copying a file or loading a module, etc. Your mileage may vary.

ehartman · 06-11-2020, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepclutch

Meantime, Devuan released 2.0.

I believe even 3.0:

Quote:

Devuan Releases

Beowulf 3.0.0 is our current stable release.

(from devuan.org)

deepclutch · 06-12-2020, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehartman

I believe even 3.0:

(from devuan.org)

Yup. I meant Beowulf. Sorry for the wrong version number. Yet to upgrade to 3.0. I have KDE with Devuan ASCII. It was a little difficult getting some manual dependencies installed along with lightdm to get KDE working when I installed.

BTW, I had tried Gentoo long long back. However, if Gentoo or Funtoo provides pre-compiled binaries and a good package manager? I think there's Calculate, Sabayon anyone using these distros.