On 17-Aug-2000 Paul D. Smith wrote:
> I'm sure this has been discussed before (I have an uneasy feeling it may
> be a "oh no, not this again" question); maybe someone can put the
> rationale into a file in /usr/share/doc/ somewhere? I tried searching
> the list archives (user, x, boot, etc.) with various keywords (init,
> xdm, level, etc.) but came up empty.
>
> Why is xdm started at runlevel 2 in Debian? In all the systems I'm
> familiar with, both Linux and proprietary, xdm was always started at a
> runlevel after 3 (typically 5). This way you could boot the box into a
> non-graphical login merely by specifying a different runlevel.
>
> Is there some new standard that specifies a graphical login at runlevel
> 2 now? Why this difference in behavior? If there's some documentation
> somewhere that describes this I'm happy to go look there.
>
> Also, in this environment what is the correct way to boot into a console
> login and avoid starting XDM? I find it hard to believe the "correct"
> way is to edit /etc/init.d/xdm and add in an "exit 0" to the top, which
> is what I've been doing :-/.
If you had looked more carefully, you would have seen that xdm isn't started
only at runlevel 2, it's started at every runlevel. The Debian Policy
Manual says:
By default `update-rc.d' will start services in each of the multi-user
state runlevels (2, 3, 4, and 5) and stop them in the halt runlevel
(0), the single-user runlevel (1) and the reboot runlevel (6). The
system administrator will have the opportunity to customize runlevels
by either running `update-rc.d', by simply adding, moving, or removing
the symbolic links in `/etc/rc<n>.d' if symbolic links are being used,
or by modifying `/etc/runlevel.conf' if the `file-rc' method is being
used.
So links are installed in every rc* directories, but you can create/delete them
at your liking. (This is the Right Way(tm) IMO, because it doesn't force a
particular runlevel config).
Now if you want runlevel 2 console-only, delete /etc/rc2.d/S99xdm, or even
better, replace it with K01xdm.
