I run an FTP server, and I just run the programs needed every time I restart it for whatever reason. But it would be soooooo nice if I could get some progs running when it goes through booting time. I need noip2 and proftpd to start on their own, can anyone help me do that?

Thanks everyone!

I can't remember the exact file, but for most distros its in /etc/rc.d (or whatever the folder is)
EDIT: /etc/rc.d/rc.local
Just add the command line thingys to there

Which distrobution are you talking about? For redhat you can use the command line:

chkconfig --list

tool or in the gui you can use:

redhat-config-services

Not sure about Mandrake or Debian though.

Ive used it in Slackware to do things like:
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows
(etc)

So its just non-gui tools, anything that you would run from bash that doesn't need Xwindows I would guess.

Sorry for not providing enough info ... It's a RH9 text-only server.

I'm gonna look at the rc.local stuff, I'll tell you how it goes, thanks!

Well I added /usr/src/pro*/proftpd -n -c /etc/proftpd.conf to the rc.local file and it loads the FTP server, but there's one problem ... it's a standalone server, so when it runs, it sticks there waiting for incoming connections. It doesn't load to the point where it asks me to login, so I can't do anything to the server if I do it this way.

There wouldn't be a way to autologin _then_ run proftpd, is there? I have to start the server as root (it switches to user anonymous before it actually inits), so it might be kinda ~ on security, but nobody's gonna break into my house and start breaking in or anything.

Another thing that would be really great - I use the switching "desktops" a lot (Alt-F1, Alt-F2, etc), so would there be any way to autologin on the Alt-F2 "desktop" to run top? I do this to monitor who's on the server.

Ack, it's really stuck. How can I pass an option to the kernel with grub to tell it to enter runlevel 1?

Nevermind, I figured out the runlevel stuff. Man it's so nice to be somewhat fluent in linux!! Couldn't have done it all without you guys.

So any ideas on making the server autoboot? Perhaps inetd? I'm not sure how to do that either, I just keep hearing about it.