Yocto: Switching to Systemd

If you want to use Systemd to replace the default init-system you can create your own distribution file like this:

 require conf/distro/poky.conf  
 DISTRO = "systemd-distribution"  
 DISTRO_NAME = "Based on Poky which uses Systemd as init system "  
 DISTRO_VERSION = "1.0"  
 DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " systemd"  
 # uncomment the following two line two use directfb  
 #DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " directfb"  
 #DISTRO_FEATURES_remove = " x11 wayland"  
 DISTRO_EXTRA_RDEPENDS += "\  
   initscripts \  
   systemd \  
   systemd-analyze \  
   "   
 # Switch init-system to systemd  
 VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_init_manager = "systemd"  
 DISTRO_FEATURES_BACKFILL_CONSIDERED = "sysvinit"  
 VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_initscripts = ""  

Then you need to change the distribution name in your local.conf:

 DISTRO ?= "systemd-distribution"  

If you build your system it should now use Systemd as init-service.

This is the original site I've found this information: Yocto part I – baseline boot time