> Instead of replacing them, systemd could have provided optional or mandatory services (eg time, dhcp, etc) that could be passed into systemd

If sntp is not sufficient for your needs, just disable systemd own sntp solution (systemctl disable...) and use chrony (systemctl start / systemctl enable to make it persistent): then `systemctl status systemd-timesyncd.service` will show you it has been disabled

> but I do know people doing on-prem kubernetes loads that have had to...

What did they have to do? `systemctl disable systemd-timesyncd` is not very complicated. If they want to create a service, they can have it disable timesyncd iff chrony has started successfully (in an ExecStartPost), or doing a logic chain.

It's extremely practical: you can create very precise logic chains with systemd (if this and that, then...)

> My initial fights with systemd's dependency management meant that disabling its internal DHCP had several cascading consequences with other things that expected networking to be "up". This is to say nothing of the tooling that expects a full-slate of systemd services.

Maybe I can help you with that - I used to run a non systemd DHCP when I needed a rapid DHCP to reduce the TTFB for a specific configuration (read https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2755461 if you are not familiar with rapid DHCP)

It did not require much effort, just "inserting" my own service in the dependency chain.

Create a /etc/systemd/system/my-dhcpcd@.service with : (put the right option for your dhcp in execstart)

```

[Unit]

Description=dhcpcd on %I

Wants=network.target

Before=network.target

BindsTo=sys-subsystem-net-devices-%i.device

After=sys-subsystem-net-devices-%i.device

[Service]

Type=forking

ExecStart=/usr/bin/dhcpcd -q -w %I

ExecStop=/usr/bin/dhcpcd -x %I

ExecStop=/usr/sbin/ip addr flush dev %I

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

```

Using the @ syntax, you can create a dhcp just for the one interface you care about: then use systemctl daemon-reload, and start your custom service as my-dhcpd@eth1 : the %i will be replaced by eth1

If you are interested in rapid dhcp, I give more details on https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/1392wrc/dhcpcd_1...

> I am only now starting to plan the upgrade of our ubuntu 20.04 fleet to 24.04, so maybe it is better now...

It shouldn't be very hard to fix, I had a similar setup working with a 18.04 and a 20.04

> My initial fights with systemd's dependency management meant that disabling its internal DHCP had several cascading consequences with other things that expected networking to be "up". This is to say nothing of the tooling that expects a full-slate of systemd services.

You need to insert yourself in the dependencies, but the example I gave above should be sufficient to do that

> This is now mostly deprecated by SLAAC, but DHCPv6 deployments will be needed for awhile as it's all that windows' IPv6 implementation supported until recently. You can't just say "RFC now supports SLAAC...don't whine to me that DHCPv6 doesn't work as it's not part of the RFC".

I have maintained such solutions and I had both SLAAC and DHCPv6: giving multiple IPv6 to an host is fine. On linux side, you can even use preferred_lft to change the priority (ex: use 0 to have an IPv6 address that will reply to connections, but that will not be used to initiate connections, for example if you don't want to expose "easy to remember" short addresses like yourprefix:subnet::1

In case you don't know, systemd-networkd IPv6AcceptRA is a separate option (and section) from DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 - you could decide to use either or both, and also do more advanced routing with RouteMetric to prefer one over the other if you have different gateways for redundancy

If what I've explained is not clear, try to read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd-networkd it's a good starting guide.

If you have more advanced IPv6 needs, it's usually to request a /56: use PrefixDelegationHint

You can then chunk it out with systemd: check https://major.io/p/dhcpv6-prefix-delegation-with-systemd-net... for a nice guide

> People have tried, but the response can be TL;DR'd to "works on my machine/setup" or to go harass AWS, Microsoft (via AD), etc to make things work the way the systemd mainainers think is right.

Everything we talked about doesn't seem very complicated.

If with all the pointers I've provided you still can't make it work, or if you run into more complicated problems, send an email (username at outlook), I will see what I can do.