Re: [gentoo-user] Re: runlevels and service list

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On Sunday 20 September 2009 14:50:02 William Kenworthy wrote:
> On Sun, 2009-09-20 at 15:40 +0300, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> > On 09/20/2009 03:34 PM, William Kenworthy wrote:
> > > Is there a "reference" list of what services should be started in which
> > > runlevels?  I am interested in hald and dbus in particular.
> > >
> > > Googling shows mostly people set them to the default runlevel, but I
> > > would like a reference or reason ...
> >
> > The reason is that they are used by X, and since X is in the default
> > runlevel, hal and dbus go there too.
> 
> Lots of other things use them as well - not just X, so thats not a
> reason (and lots of systems that dont have X but need dbus and hal).  I
> would like to know why they are started in the default run-level, not at
> boot which seems more reasonable for low level hardware support.

It comes down to personal preference. Any service in the boot runlevel will 
always be started, unlike default or other runlevels which can be run or not 
run by user choice. There's no good reason to mandate that dbus and hal will 
*always* run.

Normally, nothing in the boot runlevel uses hal or dbus as these are userspace 
daemons used by apps that run when the system is up in its normal state. The 
primary consumer of dbus is of course the desktop. When the system is in 
single user mode for maintenance, dbus and hal will not normally be required.

If it makes you feel better, start dbus and hal in the boot runlevel by all 
means. They are normally in default because everything that uses them is in 
default.

Like I said earlier, there is no good, sane, all-encompassing reason to have 
or not have them in boot. They are not there by default because the maintainer 
probably saw no good reason to do so, and for no other reason.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com