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Re: LSB specification of runlevels



On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 09:07:29AM -0400, Theodore Tso wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 12:47:44PM +0200, Dominik Kubla wrote:
> > 
> > As it is the use of runlevel 5 for xdm clashes with the well-known
> > practice of having it rebooting the system to firmware level on System V-
> > based systems (most notably Sun's).  Granted that is something the
> > typical PC user does not need, but since linux works on Sun's as well...
> > 
> 
> This was discussed, but apparently there a number of Linux books
> already published which talk about using telinit 5 to enable X.  So
> while there was some appeal to changing runlevel 5 to synchronize with
> the rest of the world had some appeal, Alan Cox argued that to do so
> would violate the principle of least surprise for novice users in a
> very nasty way.

...
> 
> > Runlevel 5 has recently become widely used outside the Linux world to
> > indicate machine shutoff.  I guess it should halt if the machine isn't
> > capable of shutting itself off.  This would push xdm down into
> > runlevel 4.
> 
> We should not change this. Too many Linux books tell you about run level 5.
> Having everyone reboot their server as they thumb through Linux for the clueless
> will not win friends

I'm confused about the need for a server admin to boot a machine to
all sorts of run levels.  Last time I booted a **server** to other than 
the default was init=/bin/sh because of the pam thing.  And that was only 
a development server.  Not that init=/bin/sh really qualifies as a 
runlevel.  Before that the last time I wrestled with runlevels was
converting all our slackware systems to debian init.  I'd bet that
anyone running many different run levels frequently knows what they
are doing and will not be surprised if xdm shows up unexpectedly.

If the point of LSB is to save me the day it took to install Oracle 
(because I assumed it was **me** that did it wrong) then this is not 
only a very good thing but necessary.

Many thanks to those who are fighting to make it happen.  :-)

cfm

...writing to /var/mail/<username>?  how, um, "neanderthal"...



-- 

Christopher F. Miller, Publisher                             cfm@maine.com
MaineStreet Communications, Inc         208 Portland Road, Gray, ME  04039
1.207.657.5078                                       http://www.maine.com/
Content management, electronic commerce, internet integration, Debian linux



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