Convert init to systemd

Question

I'm running a customized linux distribution built with reference to ubuntu 12.04 which has init as user space startup process by default. But now I want to switch over to systemd init system which is available from ubuntu 15.04. I installed the systemd components & libraries and also written unit files to replace init.d service daemon scripts.

I want to know how the system can start the systemd as init process?

Answer 1

The kernel starts the init system located in /sbin/init (see also this wikipedia article ) This process is responsible for starting every other process and should not die or exit (this will result in a panic).

One can also temporarily change the init daemon by using the init boot param on the kernel command line: init=/path/to/init_program .

Depending on your bootloader you should be able to edit the kernel commandline and test your changes.