It sounds like you are looking for more of a workstation than a server. Things
like http, ftp, you want disabled to secure and free up some memory?
Depending on the distubation, things will be in differant places.
The inetd process runs quite a few services out of this, telnet, ftp, talk,
others. do a "favorite editor" /etc/inetd.conf
use a # (hash, pound, number) sign to comment out services you don't need. For
a workstation setup, most if not all can be commented out.
Then for the other programs that start on boot time. Most distubation have them
under /etc/rc.d, /etc/init.d, or /usr/sbin/init.d, /usr/sbin/rc.d
Once you find the directly, there will be some sub directoy called rc2.d, rc5.d
and things like that. (if not look under /etc/rcN.d for them).
Find your run level by doing a who -r, when you find what run level you are at
(ussually 2 or 3) go the the rcN.d directory, where N is your runlevel. In here
they will be some scripts, again depending on your distro, they may differ.
Under distro that are more "System V" like, they will have LNNprogram_name.
The L will either be a S or K, for Start or Kill. NN with be a number.
program_name will be the name of the program that starts up.
Say you don't want apache (the web server) the start by default. do a ls -l
LNNapache. If it is a sys link, do a rm SNNapache KNNapache. Some distro call
this LNNhttpd.
If you don't know what it is, or it is a regular file, do NOT delete it.
If there is the LNNprogram_name method, that means your distro is a little "BSD"
infulenced, old slackware was like this. You will have to do a "favortie
editor" rcN whereis N is your run level. Go though this file and comment out
the stuff you don't want.
Don't delete, move or comment out stuff that you don't know what it does, don't
delete it, if it is a regualer file.
Search around in those dirs and look for a README file, most distro have them on
how they start up programs at boot, differant distro, do it differant ways, also
check any manuals, distro web page for more information on exactly how they do
it on your system.
Also you can kill some tty (virtual console) if you are primarly an X person,
ussually this can be done with "favorite editor" /etc/system and commenting out
some lines.
Also I would recommened the low-memory how-to, it tells how to disable programs,
free up some extra memory, good doc, find it under /usr/doc or www.linux.org ->
support -> (mini?) how-to's
To see what process are running on the system due a ps aux (as root) to see
everyone's process, includeing system, yours and any users. If you don't know
what something is do a `man process name` and see what it is, and determine if
you need it, if not, disable it at start up.
Another command that is usefull is the top command (I don't think your need root
for this), do a shift M to sort procs by memory useage, and a shift P to sort
procs by process useage. The more they use, the higher they will be on the
chart. Find the bigger procs on the system and see if you need them, if not
free up some resources.
also you can recompile your kernel, that should help some, if you haven't
already, but that is a differant story.
Longer then I though it would be, as always, use this info at your own risk.
Jack
Those mispelled words give it character.
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 18:11:04 -0700
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>Subject: fastest way to boot
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>What is the fastest setting, in particular the fewest demons, that allows a
linux box to boot and be able to dial up (ppp)? KDE should run too.
>
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