# The &ksysv; Handbook

Peter
Putzer

    putzer@kde.org

2001-03-21
1.03.06
1998
2000
2001
Peter Putzer
&FDLNotice;

&ksysv; is a graphical editor for the SysV style init configuration.

KDE
KSysV
Runlevel
Runlevel editor
System V init

## Introduction

Welcome to the &kde; System V Init Editor, commonly known (and hereafter referenced) as &ksysv;. This section introduces a few concepts and explains what you can do with &ksysv;.

## A Brief Description of System V Init

The following explanation is borrowed from tksysv (an inspiration for &ksysv;):

System V init is fast becoming the standard in the &Linux; world to control the startup of software at boot time. This is because it is arguably easier to use and more powerful and flexible than the traditional BSD init.

I won't go into the history here (mainly because I don't know it :-).

The init binary is located in `/sbin` and not `/etc`. This is important as one might try and upgrade a machine to System V init without re-installing and reformatting. The &Linux; kernel looks in `/etc` for its init first, so you must make sure and delete your old init from there if any.

SysV init also differs from BSD init in that the config files are in a subfolder of `/etc` instead of residing directly in `/etc`. This folder is called `rc.d`. In there you will find `rc.sysinit` and the following folders:

- `init.d/`

- `rc0.d/`

- `rc1.d/`

- `rc2.d/`

- `rc3.d/`

- `rc4.d/`

- `rc5.d/`

- `rc6.d`

`init.d` contains a bunch of scripts. Basically, you need one script for each service you may need to start at boot time or when entering another runlevel. Services include things like networking, NFS, &Sendmail;, httpd,&etc; Services do not include things like `setserial` that must only be run once and then exited. Things like that should go in the file `rc.local`.

`rc.local` should be in `/etc/rc.d` if you want one. Most systems include one even though it doesn't do much. You can also include an `rc.serial` in `/etc/rc.d` if you need to do serial port specific things at boot time.

The chain of events is as follows:

1. The kernel looks in several places for init and runs the first one it finds.

2. init runs `/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit`.

3. `rc.sysinit` does a bunch of necessary things and then runs `rc.serial` (if it exists)

4. init runs `rc.local`

5. init runs all the scripts for the default runlevel

The default runlevel is decided in `/etc/inittab`. You should have a line close to the top like:

    id:3:initdefault:

From this, you'd look in the second column and see that the default runlevel is 3, as should be the case for most systems. If you want to change it, you can edit `/etc/inittab` by hand and change the 3. Be very careful when you are messing with the inittab. If you do mess up, you can get in to fix it by rebooting and doing:

    LILO boot: linux single

This should allow you to boot into single user mode so you can fix it.

Now, how does it run all the right scripts? If you do an ``ls` `-l`` on `rc3.d`, you might see something like:

    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 13:11 S10network -> ../init.d/network
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 13:11 S30syslog -> ../init.d/syslog
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 13:32 S40cron -> ../init.d/cron
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 13:11 S50inet -> ../init.d/inet
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 13:11 S60nfs -> ../init.d/nfs
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 13:11 S70nfsfs -> ../init.d/nfsfs
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 13:11 S75keytable -> ../init.d/keytable
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 13:11 S80sendmail -> ../init.d/sendmail.init
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 13:11 S90lpd -> ../init.d/lpd.init
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 13:11 S99local -> ../rc.local

What you'll notice is that there are no real files in the folder. Everything there is a link to one of the scripts in the `init.d` folder.

The links also have an `S` and a number at the beginning. The `S` means to start this particular script and a `K` would mean to stop it. The number is just there for ordering purposes. Init will start all the services based on the order they appear. You can duplicate numbers, but it will only confuse you somewhat. You just need to use a two digit number only, along with an upper case `S` or `K` to start or stop the services you need to.

How does it start and stop services? Simple. Each of the scripts is written to accept an argument which can be `start` and `stop`. You can execute those scripts by hand in fact with a command like:

    /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd.init stop

To stop the httpd server. Init just reads the name and if it has a `K`, it calls the script with the `stop` argument. If it has an `S` it calls the script with a `start` argument.

### Why All These Runlevels ?

Some people want an easy way to setup machines to be multi-purpose. I could have a server runlevel that just runs httpd, sendmail, networking, &etc; Then I could have a user runlevel that runs kdm, networking, &etc;

## Onscreen Fundamentals

Here you learn how to use &ksysv;, which shouldn't be hard since it was designed to be as user-friendly as possible.

### Mouse

Using &ksysv; with a mouse or other pointing device is easy: just drag an entry from the Available Services area onto one of the six runlevels to start (or resp. stop) it in that runlevel.

You can also move scripts between runlevels, or change the position in a given runlevel, by dragging it around. Doing so removes the entry from its original runlevel (or position). This doesn't happen when you drag an entry from the Available Services area.

Entries are moved when you drag them to a new area. To copy a service to a different runlevel, you have to select Copy from the Edit or context menu and Paste it in the target runlevel.

The sorting number of an entry sometimes cannot be calculated. In such a case you have to edit the sorting numbers of surrounding entries before re-trying to insert the service.

Sorting numbers can range from 00 to 99, but no higher.

You can delete entries by dragging them onto the Trash Can area (symbolized by an icon depicting a garbage bin).

Currently there is no way to recover items dragged onto the Trash Can, so be careful!

### Keyboard

You can use the Tab key to switch focus between different panels (Available Services, Runlevel 1 Start, Runlevel 1 Stop, &etc;) and the cursor keys to move the selection up and down.

To move an entry to a different runlevel, Cut it to the clipboard (using &Ctrl; X and Paste it in the target runlevel (with &Ctrl; V).

To manually change an entries sorting number or name, press Enter to open the properties dialog. Use the Tab key to switch between different fields. Close the dialog by pressing Enter to accept the modifications, or press Esc to cancel any changes.

### The Menu Entries

A one by one description of &ksysv;'s menu.

#### The File menu

Because of the danger of data loss, all menu entries under File ask for confirmation before doing their work.

File Revert Configuration...

  Forget any changes you have made, and revert to the last saved configuration.

&Ctrl; O File Open...

  Open a previously saved configuration.

&Ctrl; S File Save Configuration

  Make your changes permanent. Saving does not generate any backup files, so use with care.

File Save As...

  Save a copy of your new configuration.

&Ctrl; L File Save Log...

  Save a log

&Ctrl; P File Print Log...

  Print a copy of the log.

&Ctrl; Q File Quit

  Quit &ksysv;.

#### The Edit menu

&Ctrl; Z Edit Undo

  Undo the last unsaved change made.

&Ctrl; Shift Z Edit Redo

  Redo the last item undone.

&Ctrl; X Edit Cut

  Cut the currently selected service to the clipboard.

&Ctrl; C Edit Copy

  Copy the selected entry to the clipboard, without removing it from its original position.

&Ctrl; V Edit Paste

  Paste the content of the clipboard at the current cursor position.

Edit Properties

  Open the properties dialog for the selected item.

#### The Tools menu

Tools Start Service...

  Start the selected service

Tools Stop Service...

  Stop the selected service

Tools Restart Service...

  Restart the selected service.

Tools Edit Service...

  Edit the selected service

#### The Settings menu

Settings Show Toolbar

  Toggle on and off display of the toolbar.

Settings Show Statusbar

  Toggle on and off display of the statusbar.

Settings Show Log

  Toggle on and off the display of the log window

Settings Save Settings

  Save your current settings.

Settings Configure Key bindings...

  Customize the default keybindings.

Settings Configure Toolbars...

  Customize the toolbar.

Settings Configure SysV-Init Editor...

  Customize the behavior of &ksysv;

#### The Help menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Configuration

All options are saved in `$`KDEHOME`/share/config/ksysvrc`. Defaults are taken from the global file (`$`KDEDIR`/share/config/ksysvrc`), if available, or else generated within &ksysv;. Changes to the defaults are stored in your local `ksysvrc`.

### Recognized Sections

Recognized sections and keys plus their default values.

#### &lsqb;Path Settings&rsqb;

Keyword
Default
Description
ScriptPath
/etc/rc.d/init.d
Path to the scripts used for starting and stopping services.
RunlevelPath
/etc/rc.d
Path to the runlevel subfolders.

#### &lsqb;Colors&rsqb;

Keyword
Default
Description
Changed
red
Color used for changed entries
New
blue
Color used for new entries

#### &lsqb;Geometry&rsqb;

Keyword
Default
Description
Width
Width of &ksysv;'s window
Height
Height of &ksysv;'s

#### &lsqb;Other Settings&rsqb;

Keyword
Default
Description
ToolBar
true
If the toolbar is enabled or not
StatusBar
true
If the statusbar is enabled or not
ShowLog
true
If the log window is shown or not
PanningFactor
80
100 - PanningFactor = percentage of window reserved for the logfile display

## Questions and Answers

I played around with the default runlevel, and now my machine reboots all the time. What can I do?

Enter `linux single` at the LILO prompt, and press Enter to boot into single user mode. Edit the file `/etc/inittab` and change to the default runlevel to something sane. `3` should normally be safe.

My Machine halts just after booting

See Question 1, above.

I scheduled some services to be run in runlevel X using &ksysv;, so why aren't they working?

If you're using SuSE or Delix (DLD) distributions, you also have to edit a distribution specific file in `/etc`. Please have a look at the manual of your distribution for details.

The approach to starting services used by the above mentioned distributions makes configuration of services easy for the proprietary configuration tools these distributions provide, but it is unfortunately non-standard. The &ksysv; authors plan to write a generic extension for this approach some time in the future, but don't hold your breath.

If you're using a different distribution, please check you have all the config files needed by the service, and whether they are in the correct locations. Some daemons for example Apache, (aka `httpd`) just die silently if their configuration files are missing or misconfigured.

## Standard semantics of Runlevels

These vary by distribution, so this is an incomplete list of the most common &Linux; distributions. If you have additional distributions, please email the author and have the information added to this manual.

&RedHat;
  Runlevel 0:

    halt (shuts down the machine)

  Runlevel 1:

    Single user mode.

  Runlevel 2:

    Multi user text only, without NFS.

  Runlevel 3:

    Multi user text-only, with full networking.

  Runlevel 4:

    Not used.

  Runlevel 5:

    Multi user X11 with full networking.

  Runlevel 6:

    Reboot

## License and Credits

&ksysv; Copyright © 1997-1998 Peter Putzer

- Peter Putzer, putzer@kde.org - Developer

Documentation:

- Peter Putzer, putzer@kde.org - Original content

- Eric Bischoff, e.bischoff@noos.fr - Editor

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

&install.intro.documentation; &install.compile.documentation;