[Gllug] Debian 2.2r3 Fun....

[Bruce Richardson]

On Sat, Oct 06, 2001 at 12:31:40AM +0100, David Irvine wrote:
> Try init 3
> 
> if X is booting automatically your probably  got your default runlevel
> set to 5 which is usually gui.  RL 3 is usually   multiuser, if you
> switch  to init 3 it should allow you to go  back to normal.
> Alternatively just edit your config file so that  X uses xdm and restart X.

That's Red Hat runlevels.  On a default Debian set-up, runlevels 2-5 are
identical and runlevel 2 is the default.  It's up to you to make any
adjustments you want.  The tool provided for this update-rc.d

On my laptop I wanted it to boot to the console by default but to X if
I chose, so I removed xdm from the startup scripts for runlevel 2.  This
involved 2 commands:

update-rc.d xdm remove

update-rc.d xdm start 99 345 stop 01 0126

If you are using Gnome or KDE then replace xdm with gdm or kdm.

Having done that, I just edited lilo.conf to name runlevel 2 "console"
and 3 "X" and I can choose my startup level from that little menu that
lilo gives you these days.


Off on a tangent, I think this little example illustrates an important
point about Debian: it assumes you are the sysadmin.  So

1.  It doesn't do preconfigured runlevels other than the standard 0, 1
and 6 - you're the sysadmin, you will want to set up your own runlevels
and don't want to have to clear away somebody else's idea of how to
confiture a system.

2.  The tool for modifying runlevels is also the one used by the package
management system.  It does the job so they don't add any others (no
equivalent to RH's ntsysv).  The tool assumes you have a working
knowledge of SysV init scripts and is designed to leave custom set-ups
untouched (which is why I had to do a "remove" before putting in the new
config).

That philosophy applies across the distribution.  They always try for
the most minimal and least interventionist config set-up, while
hopefully giving you flexible tools to generate your own configuration.
It's not one of the stated aims of the Debian project, though.  I think
it's a natural consequence of Debian being developed by such a large and
disparate pool of volunteers.  Over time they've learned that imposing
their own config preferences on a package only attracts aggro from the
other developers, who all have their own strong opinions on how to
configure things.

Most of the other distributions try for a configuration that anticipates
a wide range of common user needs.  You don't get that with Debian,
which can be a plus or a minus depending on your preferences.  Being
myself someone with strong opinions on how to configure things, I
personally find it a blessing as I don't spend a lot of time unpicking
a bunch of config scripts I don't want before creating my own set-up.

Before anyone jumps on me, yes, I know Slackware is extremely minimalist
but it also imposes some of Patrick Volkerding's personal config choices
- no PAM, BSD-style initscripts - which I don't want.

-- 
Bruce

If the universe were simple enough to be understood, we would be too
simple to understand it.
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