Systemd 239 Is Being Prepped For Release With Many Changes

[starshipeleven]

There already is logind (part of the systemd suite), which manages seats and sessions, and PAM, which provides an authentication API. The actual login managers nowadays do little more than display a message asking users to enter their login name and password. So this is arguably one of the rare cases where we don't need more systemd.

they still made systemd-ask-password for cases where you want to go lighter than that

Don't give them ideas

too late, systemd-ask-password exists already

[waxhead]

Why complain about breaking changes? I don't like then either but the systemd guys have starte that they do not have a high priority for maintaining backwards compatibility unless there are very good reasons to do so. systemd is a moving target as distros should pick one 'snapshot' and deal with it. Ideal? Hell no, but at least the changes are documented and systemd actually works quite well.

[jacob]

If systemd is already running before we log in, why not just get rid of a log-in manager and make systemd require a password

There already is logind (part of the systemd suite), which manages seats and sessions, and PAM, which provides an authentication API. The actual login managers nowadays do little more than display a message asking users to enter their login name and password. So this is arguably one of the rare cases where we don't need more systemd.

[Templar82]

If systemd is already running before we log in, why not just get rid of a log-in manager and make systemd require a password

Don't give them ideas

[starshipeleven]

The only concern I have about it is if there's some gaping security hole in it.

That's a tradeoff I can accept. With shell scripts you're almost always sure there is some obscure way you didn't think of where someone could abuse your script.

[DMJC]

Systemd sucked for a little while when it first came in, but now that it's stabilised meh. It doesn't really change things one way or another. The only concern I have about it is if there's some gaping security hole in it.

[starshipeleven]

If systemd is already running before we log in, why not just get rid of a log-in manager and make systemd require a password

dealing with passwords in an init system is agains security principles and against the Unix philosophy of keeping each daemon's scope focused on a specific topic.
That functionality is implemented in dedicated daemons, not in the main init system.

If you need a simpler password dialog than logind+graphical login manager, the systemd project offers a simpler daemon called systemd-ask-password which works fine without a login manager (using plymouth), or without a graphical user interface at all (console or serial console). https://www.freedesktop.org/software...-password.html

[Michael_S]

Funny. People complain how systemd is worse than <insert your favorite alternative here>. However when they fix systemd bugs and improve it in other ways, the people will complain even more and more.

Once you hate something badly enough, everything it does is offensive. Not sure if this link will work.

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/bd/ae/a6/bdaea62d970b4715a506ebcc964a10a3--offensive-humor-memes-gratitude-journals.jpg

(I'm picking on the people with an irrational dislike of systemd, not systemd itself.)

[dlocklear01]

If systemd is already running before we log in, why not just get rid of a log-in manager and make systemd require a password

[droste]

3) How much harder would it be to provide a wrapper that prints extra message "this will stop working at some point in the future" and keeps backward compatibility in the first place?

From your second post:
The systemd-resolve tool has been renamed to resolvectl (it also remains available under the old name, for compatibility)