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  1. Introduction
  2. Boot Process
  3. Init and System Initialization
  4. rc.sysinit script
  5. rc script
  6. functions script
  7. Services
  8. apm daemon
  9. network startup
  10. The network script file
  11. The network-functions file
  12. Portmap startup
  13. Random initialization
  14. Syslog initialization
  15. Gated
  16. Atd
  17. cron initialization
  18. pcmcia
  19. inetd daemon
  20. named daemon
  21. lpd daemon
  22. mars-nwe
  23. netfs startup
  24. dhcpd daemon
  25. autofs daemon
  26. keytable daemon
  27. sendmail daemon
  28. gpm daemon
  29. httpd daemon
  30. xfs startup
  31. smb startup
  32. innd startup
  33. linuxconf startup
  34. rc.local script
  35. Init, Getty, Login
  36. The shell
  37. Shutting down
  38. X
  39. Conclusions
  40. App A. rc.sysinit listing
  41. App B. functions listing
  42. App C. rc listing
  43. Credits

The CTDP Linux Startup Manual Version 0.5.0 June 5, 2000


To understand how linux starts you should first learn about the operation of your shell and script programming at least to some extent.

Learning about how the system starts up will greatly enhance a person's knowledge of Linux. You will learn more about how the system operates, including the operation of the shell and script files along with gaining familiarity with such things as system logging and kernel logging. You will also learn what files are used to configure the system, where they are stored and how they are used. This will better enable system administrators to configure their systems. I wrote this document because I found in-depth documentation of how the system starts and gets configured hard to find. I wrote this as I analyzed the system, for my own use and to enable others to learn the system quicker.