An explanation of the system initialization in VectorLinux 6.0 Lite

[sdboyd]

Are you interested in learning more about what happens when VectorLinux is starting up? I have written a document describing what is happening after the kernel is loaded, and your PC is going through the startup scripts at lightning speed. (Well, actually - faster than most of us can read.)

http://www.sdboyd56.com/VectorLinux/system_init-VL6.0.html

I'm not an expert on Linux system initialization - I just wanted to learn more about what is going on, and what gets loaded during bootup and share that info with others. I'm also interested in learning how to reduce my boot time. I'll be posting more about that on my Website in the near future.

Scott

[uelsk8s]

very nice.
init also runs rc.vlinit, which runs any startup script in the default runlevel.

if your goal is fast boot, you can install the texas flood bootscripts from here: http://ftp-osl.osuosl.org/pub/vectorlinux/Uelsk8s/texas-flood-2.1-i586-1vl60.tlz
the scripts are not too hard to configure for specific hardware, but much harder for a distro, that does not know what hardware it will be booting.

let us know how you progress.

Uelsk8s

[sdboyd]

very nice.
init also runs rc.vlinit, which runs any startup script in the default runlevel.

I found out my system was set to use rc.sysvinit, so I didn't notice any messages from rc.vlinit. I have changed it to use rc.vlinit now, and the Web page has been updated to include rc.vlinit

I'll be experimenting with the texas flood bootscripts within the next few days. I'll let everyone know how it goes...
 
Scott

[stretchedthin]

Please do, I'd be interested in what you find out.  Especially any configuration tips and tricks.

[stretchedthin]

I've been playing with this texas flood and boot speeds do seem to be faster.  I do need some advice in getting gdm to work with it though.  I can't use gdm to launch into the xfce environment with it.  It tells me that it can not find my home directory /home/ken even though it is there.  I can launch into the lxde environment from gdm but not xfce.  If I switch to kdm in the /etc/texasflood.conf file then I'm OK launching into gdm again.

What am I missing.

[sdboyd]

I've been playing with this texas flood and boot speeds do seem to be faster.  I do need some advice in getting gdm to work with it though. 

I haven't got to the point where I can boot from the texas flood boot-scripts. I tried installing texas flood tonight, and got a bunch of errors in the output of the install script. The biggest error was the lack of the /etc/init.d directory in Vector. Looks like I'll have to manually install the files, using the install script as a template. Luckily, I'm using another partition to experiment with - not my production partition. Would of been a lot easier had there been some documentation included.

BTW - I use kdm and JWM, so I probably won't be able to help you resolve your issue with gdm and texas flood.

[sdboyd]

Thursday night (the 12th) - I have completely re-written the buggy install script for texas flood and modified it for VL. Testing still to be done... Looks like some of the included boot scripts will need some hacking to be optimized for VL. Lots of fun coming up!

I'm going out of town over the weekend, so I will work on it more when I return Sunday night.

Scott

[stretchedthin]

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[sdboyd]

I've started a new message thread for my work on the texas flood boot-scripts:

http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=10860.0

I'll be posting my updates on that new thread.

Scott