OpenRC and runit: Interoperability question on migrating service packages

Short Answer

There is no officially supported converter that turns OpenRC service scripts into runit run scripts. On Artix, migration means replacing every -openrc service package with its -runit counterpart in a single pacman transaction, installing the runit base, and then pointing the bootloader at the runit init. The two init families' service packages conflict with each other, so coexistence is not a supported state — pacman will force a replacement rather than let both live side by side.

What Is Confirmed vs. Assumed

Confirmed by Artix's packaging design: service packages are split per init (cronie-openrc vs. cronie-runit), the variants declare mutual conflicts, and mixing families across the system is unsupported. Assumed and worth verifying against the current Artix wiki before you start: exact package names for the runit base (e.g., runit plus its rc/meta packages), the runsvdir-managed directory layout (commonly /run/runit/service or /etc/runit/runsvdir/current), and the exact init= path. These details have changed over time, so treat the wiki as authoritative.

Migration Steps for This Case

1. Inventory the installed init packages: pacman -Qs openrc. This list is your replacement checklist.
2. Confirm repo ordering puts Artix repos before Arch repos in /etc/pacman.conf. Pulling a service from Arch can drag in systemd-linked variants that will not run under runit.
3. In one transaction, install the runit base and swap each -openrc package for its -runit equivalent, e.g. pacman -S runit cronie-runit elogind-runit ... and let pacman remove the conflicting OpenRC variants. Do not reboot mid-way; a half-migrated system may not boot cleanly.
4. Recreate enablement. OpenRC's rc-update runlevel state does not carry over; runit enables services by symlinking service directories into the runsvdir-managed directory, so re-enable each service explicitly.
5. Change the bootloader kernel parameter to the runit init (e.g., init=/bin/runit-init — verify the path on your system) and reboot.

elogind, seatd, and Session Management

Artix does not use systemd at all; elogind is the init-agnostic logind replacement and works under both supervisors. The catch is that its supervision package must match the active init: swap elogind-openrc for elogind-runit in the same transaction as everything else. The same applies to seatd if you use it. After reboot, verify with loginctl that a session is registered and that power/seat actions work.

Verification and Rollback

After rebooting, check cat /proc/1/comm (should show runit), then sv status on the supervised service directory to confirm services came up. Before committing to the init= change, keep a fallback ready: a bootloader entry that still boots the old init, or live media so you can chroot in and repair package state. A wrong init= path is the most common way this migration leaves a system unbootable, and it is entirely recoverable if you prepared the fallback first.