Alpine Linux utilizes BusyBox, OpenRC, and musl libc as its infrastructure, offering extreme lightweight, security, and simplicity, widely used in containers and embedded fields. However, when installing the Wayland graphical user interface environment, it is necessary to first install the eudev and elogind packages, which are forks of systemd, and there are some packages that have strong dependencies on libsystemd, adding extra adaptation work for Alpine’s package maintainers. Nevertheless, recent developments suggest that this situation may soon change.
Recently, users and developers closely monitoring the progress of Alpine Linux have discovered that a large number of packages with the suffix -systemd, such as blueman-systemd and xdg-desktop-portal-systemd, have been added to the Edge version of the software repository. The contents of these packages provide service unit files located in /usr/lib/systemd/system and /usr/lib/systemd/user. Their concentrated appearance indicates that the Alpine development team is actively building a system environment capable of natively running systemd.
This repository change is not an isolated event. Just a few days ago, Lennart Poettering, the chief developer of the systemd project, merged an important update in the project’s code repository, bringing “experimental” support for musl libc to systemd. Alpine Linux uses musl libc instead of the more common glibc as its C standard library, which has previously been seen as a major technical barrier to the full integration of systemd into Alpine.
The close timing of these two pieces of news is no coincidence, but rather a clear signal of mutual engagement between Alpine Linux and the systemd project.
If Alpine Linux ultimately decides to provide official support for systemd, it would be a positive development for desktop users, as more software would be better adapted to the Alpine system. It would also provide an additional option for users in server, container, or embedded environments, aligning with the philosophy of the open-source world, which offers users ample choices.