Start up

[astro_9040]

i was wondering how do you edit the start up screen where it has mounting usb's it loads alsa turns on all your networking devices if anyone knows what im talking about i'd appreciate the help

[drakebasher]

Not sure exactly what you'd like to do, but here's some background:
When you boot the system, first the kernel loads to RAM. The first program (process) is 'init'. init looks in a directory /etc/init.d/ to see what other processes should be started (I think in your system /etc/init.d/ is a symbolic link to /etc/rc.d/). The list of processes depends on what "runlevel" you are booting to. For a graphical display, you are probably booting to runlevel 5. For runlevel 5, the processes are in the directory /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/. Those processes (all of which are symbolic links to processes in ... I forget...) are run in alphabetical order, so that any file starting with 'K' will kill a process and any starting with 'S' will start a process. You see the result of each of those when, during booting, you see the "[OK]" or "[Failed]" on the right side of the screen.

You can read about the whole boot procedure here and here.

There should be an easy (it's all relative) to understand program listed under "System Tools" or something similar in your main menu. Be careful, take notes and do your research.

[astro_9040]

those two sites were very helpful thats what i wanted to know but now im just alittle lost on the link / symbols part it wont recognize them as a file so i can manipulate them have any idea of what im talking about or have any suggestions

[drakebasher]

I think that you want to prevent a service from starting when you boot your computer. If that's not what you need, let me know. Otherwise....

Adding and removing services

If you want to add, delete, or modify services in the rc*.d directories, you need to take a closer look at the files inside. A long listing reveals a structure like this:

lrwxrwxrwx . . . S10sysklogd -> ../init.d/sysklogd
lrwxrwxrwx . . . S12kerneld -> ../init.d/kerneld
lrwxrwxrwx . . . S15netstd_init -> ../init.d/netstd_init
lrwxrwxrwx . . . S18netbase -> ../init.d/netbase
...

The commands in an rc*.d directory are actually symbolic links to files in an init.d directory, usually in /etc or /etc/rc.d. Linux distributions contain these links so that they can use the same startup scripts for all runlevels. This convention is by no means a requirement, but it often makes organization a little easier.

To prevent one of the commands in the init.d directory from running in a particular runlevel, you might think of removing the symbolic link in the appropriate rc*.d directory. This does work, but if you make a mistake and ever need to put the link back in place, you might have trouble remembering the exact name of the link. Therefore, you shouldn't remove links in the rc*.d directories, but rather, add an underscore (_) to the beginning of the link name like this:

mv S99httpd _S99httpd

At boot time, rc ignores _S99httpd because it doesn't start with S or K. Furthermore, the original name is still obvious, and you have quick access to the command if you're in a pinch and need to start it by hand.

I think this is part where you are "a little lost", right? To do what is described above, you need to have root privledges. That is most convenient if you make yourself a "sudoer" so you can use the "sudo" command. Until you do that you should use the 'su' ("switch user") command like so:

su -
(enterpassword when requested)
mv S99httpd _S99httpd      <--this is from the example above&#58; insert your service here
&#40;type 'exit' to go back to regular user&#41;

If you are unsure which service is the one you want to prevent from starting, you may be able to boot Linux in the "interactive" mode by pressing 'i' as soon as init starts as indicated with a (probably colored) header which probably says "Welcome to Mandriva" or something like that just before the services start with all of the "[OK]" endings.

[astro_9040]

alright i thank you for all your help it turns out that i must've done something wrong the first time go round so now all i have to do is find the service i need to stop and stop it i also found out that the services in mandrake control center could be stopped too i just didnt know what i was talking about