Hi All -

Have read the man / info / howtos, but flummoxed by this...

Am trying to use rcconf to change the progs which run automatically at startup. I can run the program, and get the ncurses screen but cant figure out how to use it to change the settings....

I can tab or arrow key thru the list, but not make any changes / check current settings. Tried adding numbers, 'x' etc into the boxes by prog names, but no joy. I have heard others say that rcconf is easy to use... am I being dense, or is something wrong here?

This was the first time I installed a linux prog from the command line, so maybe I missed something essential??

Background info:

HDD install of debian 3.3 from Knoppix

Running on a server accessed as root via ssh (putty),

rcconf installed by downloading rcconf.deb & using # dpkg -i rcconf.deb

System spec: 1.7ghz, 384mb ram, hda = 20gb, hdb = 30gb

OK - halfway there...

I figured out that the space bar turns a service on by default - but how to remove / disable services I dont want?

The only option using rcconf seems to be to add services to all runlevels by adding a * to the box alongside the service name.

I'm trying to pare down unneccesary services from a machine I'm using as a (samba) file server - is there any easier way to do this??

Rcconf is designed to allow you to easily enable or disable some basic services. But rcconf is just a frontend for update-rc.d and if you want more fine-grained control over init scripts than rcconf offers, you should use update-rc.d instead.

Here's another thread that discusses update-rc.d:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=188307

Dead Parrot -

Thanks for the info on update-rc.d - using the 'remove' parameter with the -f (force) option seemed to do the trick!

Still confused about rcconf tho... I can get it to add new services (by using the space bar), but not remove them...

If its not too stupid a question, how would I use rcconf to remove services from the runlevel lists? (still v much a newb - apologies if this is so fundamental it isnt mentioned in the man pages!)

ps - the firewall i autotstarted with iptables in /etc/init.d seems to work.... rebooted & can no longer log into the server...

hey ho :-)

I think that rcconf has been purposedly made very simple.

To use it you first need to use the "su" command to become the "super user". Then type "rcconf" and hit Enter to lauch the rcconf program.

Now you can enable or disable services by moving the highlighted area with the up and down cursor keys and by pressing space bar when the service you wish to modify is highlighted.

When there's[*] in front of the service name, this means that the service is enabled and when there's only [ ], this means that the service is disabled. Press space bar once or twice and you'll notice how this toggles the selection from[*] to [ ] and back again.

To save your changed settings, press Tab to make <OK> highlighted and then hit Enter.

Couldn't get much simpler, now could it?

BTW, you can navigate in most ncurses GUIs using the same keys (cursor keys, space bar, Tab, and Enter).

Oh, I forgot to say that you need to restart services for the changes to take effect. There are several ways to do this without rebooting but a simple reboot also does the trick.

Dead Parrot -

many thanks! That was more or less the idiots guide I was after :-)

I think in that case there must be something wrong with my system, because when I fire it up here, rcconf only displays services not currently running, with the exception of services I had earlier used it to turn on... so I can use it to turn on new services, and to tunr them off once turned on with rcconf, but not to turn off any services that were previously already running - as these are not displayed... odd.

Never mind - academic now as update-rc.d did the trick.

Thx again!
Wolfpeach

Mystery solved. I guessed that some of the problems I had been having were to do with using Knoppix (3.3) as a HDD install, rather than Debian proper. And I was right... Knoppix is a boon for on-the-fly linux adventures, system rescue, diagnostics etc, but makes a weird & wobbly HDD install. Horses for courses.

I started over again with a fresh install of Debian Woody (using 2.4.18 kernel), and whaddya know, rcconf now works fine - Showing all autostarting services, not just the ones which had been added using rcconf.

Thx again for help!