ksysv (starting services/daemons at boot)

[c123]

I want to deactivate some services from starting up at boot (or more precisely when I switch to run level 5). ksysv is a vey nice tool for doinf this, only the descriptions for the various services are blank.

Where can I get descriptions for the services? Is it just a case on 'man name_of_daemon' (forgot to try this ;)

Otherwise can someone tell me either
a. what services I definately should leave running
b. what services are started by defaul after a Knoppix (debain-style install).

TIA

[garyng]

I would like to know too about what services is absolutely necessary. The service(debian style) is located in /etc/init.d/ . The system start up is at /etc/rcS.d/ and for various level at /etc/rc?.d/ where '?' is the number 1-6.

A brief browsing makes me feel that most services in the standard debian installation are not needed, other than may be the logging daemon, hotplug and X, for a typical boot and forget workstation.

[Durand Hicks]

Man update-rc.d should give you the info you need to set, remove services at startup. For example these are the two commands I use:

update-rc.d -f servicename/packagename remove (to remove services from startup at next boots)

update-rc.d servicename/packagename defaults ## (to run services at startup with a default number of 20 or ## which is your specified number to start with. The lower the number, the earlier it starts)

I must admit, at first I deleted the symlinks to prevent them from starting before I googled the update-rc.d command. That's what I get for being a newbie, but we all have to start somewhere.

HTH,

Durand

[c123]

I want to learn how to do this stuff form the shell, but at the moment I'm taking the easy way out and using the graphical "Sys V Init Editor" (in KDE, it's K => System => Sys-V Init Editor; in any WM type "ksysv &" as root from a shell).

For finding information, I try three things
1. man "name_of_daemon"
2. apropos "name_of_daemon"
3. Google.com

So far I too have deleted start scripts instead of turning them into stop scripts :( Never mind, they're easy to add again (in the Sys V Init Editor), and hopefully I should remember the correct way next time (Knoppix 3.4!). Also a lot of the services I deleted I doubt I'll ever need - won't ever be using ISDN for example.

Real shame that all the 'Description' fields in the Editor are blank :(

@Durand Hicks
I get a an "undocumented" message :(

christopher@roro:~$ man update-rc.d
No manual entry for update-rc.d
See 'man 7 undocumented' for help when manual pages are not available.

[Stephen]

So far I too have deleted start scripts instead of turning them into stop scripts Never mind, they're easy to add again (in the Sys V Init Editor), and hopefully I should remember the correct way next time (Knoppix 3.4!). Also a lot of the services I deleted I doubt I'll ever need - won't ever be using ISDN for example.

Just get rid of the packages (apt-get --purge remove package) there is no need to even be bothering with the update-rc.d that is only for applications that you WANT on your system configured in a certain way not leftovers you will never use.

@Durand Hicks
I get a an "undocumented" message

christopher@roro:~$ man update-rc.d
No manual entry for update-rc.d
See 'man 7 undocumented' for help when manual pages are not available.

That looks like a problem with the sysvinit of knoppix which is installed the solution can be a little over the top just to get a man page back but I have a page here on how to do it if you want to try.

[Durand Hicks]

Stephen,

I checked your instructions for getting the man pages for update-rc.d and it looks like way too much effort just to get some information. I found it by using google, and it pointed me to the linux documentation page website, and that's where I located it. Originally, google said it was chapter 3.3 but it has since been moved to chapter 9, IIRC.

Durand