SimpleInitGen

A lightweight, user-friendly Linux init generator.

What is an init?

The init is the first userspace program executed by the Linux kernel after boot. It’s responsible for:

• Starting essential services and daemons
• Mounting partitions and filesystems
• Handing control over to the shell or login manager

Without a proper init, your system won’t know how to transition from kernel space to user space.

Getting ready

First, we need to install some packages.

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install make gcc binutils

On Arch:

sudo pacman -S make gcc binutils

Configuring

Just run:

chmod +x configure
./configure

It will prompt you with a few questions to customize how your init script behaves.

Compiling

After you answered the questions 2 files will be made:

• init.c (Main C file)
• Makefile (To easily compile)

To compile, just run:

make

And you have a init program that you could just put in your initramfs!