Init running before other initialisation?
 

I have Slackware 9.1 (Kernel 2.4) on my PC and I notice that the output from init (INIT) scripts come before some other initialisation like USB etc. Anybody has any clue why this is so?. So does it mean that INIT is getting started before the other kernel initialisation is completed?. I always thought that INIT was called as the last thing in the kernel startup sequence. Or, is it just that I am seeing some jumbled console output?
Thanks!

INIT answers
 

INIT is the very very very first thing that starts. The kernel loads itself up, does all its initialization tasks ( just getting the kernel loaded and running).

Then, the kernel runs INIT. And then INIT does everything else: starting up scripts, to mount drives, and start services, and X, and terminal login programs, and whatever else you want. but INIT runs it all - it is the first program to run (and usually the last one before you shut down).

You can read more about it at the linux documentation project's howto on system administration:

here

here

and here

...it's really good stuff to know.

Another thing to remember is that init starts the logging daemons kerld and syslogd. So of course nothing gets logged until init is started. And the root filesystem is initially mounted read-only and it is init which remounts it read-write, another reason nothing is logged until init is started.