7.6. System V Bootscript Usage and Configuration

#### Linux From Scratch - Version 7.10-rc1

### Chapter 7. System Configuration

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# 7.6. System V Bootscript Usage and Configuration

## 7.6.1. How Do the System V Bootscripts Work?

Linux uses a special booting facility named SysVinit that is based on a concept of run-levels. It can be quite different from one system to another, so it cannot be assumed that because things worked in one particular Linux distribution, they should work the same in LFS too. LFS has its own way of doing things, but it respects generally accepted standards.

SysVinit (which will be referred to as “init” from now on) works using a run-levels scheme. There are seven (numbered 0 to 6) run-levels (actually, there are more run-levels, but they are for special cases and are generally not used. See `init(8)` for more details), and each one of those corresponds to the actions the computer is supposed to perform when it starts up. The default run-level is 3. Here are the descriptions of the different run-levels as they are implemented:

0: halt the computer
1: single-user mode
2: multi-user mode without networking
3: multi-user mode with networking
4: reserved for customization, otherwise does the same as 3
5: same as 4, it is usually used for GUI login (like X's xdm or KDE's kdm)
6: reboot the computer

## 7.6.2. Configuring Sysvinit

During the kernel initialization, the first program that is run is either specified on the command line or, by default init. This program reads the initialization file `/etc/inittab`. Create this file with:

    cat > /etc/inittab << "EOF"
    # Begin /etc/inittab

    id:3:initdefault:

    si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc S

    l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 0
    l1:S1:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 1
    l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 2
    l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 3
    l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 4
    l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 5
    l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc 6

    ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t1 -a -r now

    su:S016:once:/sbin/sulogin

    1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty --noclear tty1 9600
    2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty2 9600
    3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty3 9600
    4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty4 9600
    5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty5 9600
    6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty tty6 9600

    # End /etc/inittab
    EOF

An explanation of this initialization file is in the man page for inittab. For LFS, the key command that is run is rc. The initialization file above will instruct rc to run all the scripts starting with an S in the `/etc/rc.d/rcS.d` directory followed by all the scripts starting with an S in the `/etc/rc.d/rc?.d` directory where the question mark is specified by the initdefault value.

As a convenience, the rc script reads a library of functions in `/lib/lsb/init-functions`. This library also reads an optional configuration file, `/etc/sysconfig/rc.site`. Any of the system configuration file parameters described in subsequent sections can be alternatively placed in this file allowing consolidation of all system parameters in this one file.

As a debugging convenience, the functions script also logs all output to `/run/var/bootlog`. Since the `/run` directory is a tmpfs, this file is not persistent across boots, however it is appended to the more permanent file `/var/log/boot.log` at the end of the boot process.

### 7.6.2.1. Changing Run Levels

Changing run-levels is done with init `<runlevel>`, where `<runlevel>` is the target run-level. For example, to reboot the computer, a user could issue the init 6 command, which is an alias for the reboot command. Likewise, init 0 is an alias for the halt command.

There are a number of directories under `/etc/rc.d` that look like `rc?.d` (where ? is the number of the run-level) and `rcsysinit.d`, all containing a number of symbolic links. Some begin with a K, the others begin with an S, and all of them have two numbers following the initial letter. The K means to stop (kill) a service and the S means to start a service. The numbers determine the order in which the scripts are run, from 00 to 99—the lower the number the earlier it gets executed. When init switches to another run-level, the appropriate services are either started or stopped, depending on the runlevel chosen.

The real scripts are in `/etc/rc.d/init.d`. They do the actual work, and the symlinks all point to them. K links and S links point to the same script in `/etc/rc.d/init.d`. This is because the scripts can be called with different parameters like `start`, `stop`, `restart`, `reload`, and `status`. When a K link is encountered, the appropriate script is run with the `stop` argument. When an S link is encountered, the appropriate script is run with the `start` argument.

There is one exception to this explanation. Links that start with an S in the `rc0.d` and `rc6.d` directories will not cause anything to be started. They will be called with the parameter `stop` to stop something. The logic behind this is that when a user is going to reboot or halt the system, nothing needs to be started. The system only needs to be stopped.

These are descriptions of what the arguments make the scripts do:

`start`

  The service is started.

`stop`

  The service is stopped.

`restart`

  The service is stopped and then started again.

`reload`

  The configuration of the service is updated. This is used after the configuration file of a service was modified, when the service does not need to be restarted.

`status`

  Tells if the service is running and with which PIDs.

Feel free to modify the way the boot process works (after all, it is your own LFS system). The files given here are an example of how it can be done.

## 7.6.3. Udev Bootscripts

The `/etc/rc.d/init.d/udev` initscript starts udevd, triggers any "coldplug" devices that have already been created by the kernel and waits for any rules to complete. The script also unsets the uevent handler from the default of `/sbin/hotplug` . This is done because the kernel no longer needs to call out to an external binary. Instead udevd will listen on a netlink socket for uevents that the kernel raises.

The /etc/rc.d/init.d/udev_retry initscript takes care of re-triggering events for subsystems whose rules may rely on filesystems that are not mounted until the mountfs script is run (in particular, `/usr` and `/var` may cause this). This script runs after the mountfs script, so those rules (if re-triggered) should succeed the second time around. It is configured from the `/etc/sysconfig/udev_retry` file; any words in this file other than comments are considered subsystem names to trigger at retry time. To find the subsystem of a device, use udevadm info --attribute-walk <device> where <device> is an absolute path in /dev or /sys such as /dev/sr0 or /sys/class/rtc.

### 7.6.3.1. Module Loading

Device drivers compiled as modules may have aliases built into them. Aliases are visible in the output of the modinfo program and are usually related to the bus-specific identifiers of devices supported by a module. For example, the snd-fm801 driver supports PCI devices with vendor ID 0x1319 and device ID 0x0801, and has an alias of “pci:v00001319d00000801sv*sd*bc04sc01i*”. For most devices, the bus driver exports the alias of the driver that would handle the device via `sysfs`. E.g., the `/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:0d.0/modalias` file might contain the string “pci:v00001319d00000801sv00001319sd00001319bc04sc01i00”. The default rules provided with Udev will cause udevd to call out to /sbin/modprobe with the contents of the `MODALIAS` uevent environment variable (which should be the same as the contents of the `modalias` file in sysfs), thus loading all modules whose aliases match this string after wildcard expansion.

In this example, this means that, in addition to snd-fm801, the obsolete (and unwanted) forte driver will be loaded if it is available. See below for ways in which the loading of unwanted drivers can be prevented.

The kernel itself is also able to load modules for network protocols, filesystems and NLS support on demand.

### 7.6.3.2. Handling Hotpluggable/Dynamic Devices

When you plug in a device, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) MP3 player, the kernel recognizes that the device is now connected and generates a uevent. This uevent is then handled by udevd as described above.

## 7.6.4. Configuring the System Clock

The setclock script reads the time from the hardware clock, also known as the BIOS or the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) clock. If the hardware clock is set to UTC, this script will convert the hardware clock's time to the local time using the `/etc/localtime` file (which tells the hwclock program which timezone the user is in). There is no way to detect whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC, so this needs to be configured manually.

The setclock is run via udev when the kernel detects the hardware capability upon boot. It can also be run manually with the stop parameter to store the system time to the CMOS clock.

If you cannot remember whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC, find out by running the `hwclock --localtime --show` command. This will display what the current time is according to the hardware clock. If this time matches whatever your watch says, then the hardware clock is set to local time. If the output from hwclock is not local time, chances are it is set to UTC time. Verify this by adding or subtracting the proper amount of hours for the timezone to the time shown by hwclock. For example, if you are currently in the MST timezone, which is also known as GMT -0700, add seven hours to the local time.

Change the value of the `UTC` variable below to a value of `0` (zero) if the hardware clock is not set to UTC time.

Create a new file `/etc/sysconfig/clock` by running the following:

    cat > /etc/sysconfig/clock << "EOF"
    # Begin /etc/sysconfig/clock

    UTC=1

    # Set this to any options you might need to give to hwclock,
    # such as machine hardware clock type for Alphas.
    CLOCKPARAMS=

    # End /etc/sysconfig/clock
    EOF

A good hint explaining how to deal with time on LFS is available at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/time.txt. It explains issues such as time zones, UTC, and the `TZ` environment variable.

### Note

The CLOCKPARAMS and UTC paramaters may be alternatively set in the `/etc/sysconfig/rc.site` file.

## 7.6.5. Configuring the Linux Console

This section discusses how to configure the console bootscript that sets up the keyboard map, console font and console kernel log level. If non-ASCII characters (e.g., the copyright sign, the British pound sign and Euro symbol) will not be used and the keyboard is a U.S. one, much of this section can be skipped. Without the configuration file, (or equivalent settings in `rc.site`), the console bootscript will do nothing.

The console script reads the `/etc/sysconfig/console` file for configuration information. Decide which keymap and screen font will be used. Various language-specific HOWTOs can also help with this, see http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/other-lang.html. If still in doubt, look in the `/usr/share/keymaps` and `/usr/share/consolefonts` directories for valid keymaps and screen fonts. Read `loadkeys(1)` and `setfont(8)` manual pages to determine the correct arguments for these programs.

The `/etc/sysconfig/console` file should contain lines of the form: VARIABLE="value". The following variables are recognized:

LOGLEVEL

  This variable specifies the log level for kernel messages sent to the console as set by dmesg. Valid levels are from "1" (no messages) to "8". The default level is "7".

KEYMAP

  This variable specifies the arguments for the loadkeys program, typically, the name of keymap to load, e.g., “it”. If this variable is not set, the bootscript will not run the loadkeys program, and the default kernel keymap will be used. Note that a few keymaps have multiple versions with the same name (cz and its variants in qwerty/ and qwertz/, es in olpc/ and qwerty/, and trf in fgGIod/ and qwerty/). In these cases the parent directory should also be specified (e.g. qwerty/es) to ensure the proper keymap is loaded.

KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS

  This (rarely used) variable specifies the arguments for the second call to the loadkeys program. This is useful if the stock keymap is not completely satisfactory and a small adjustment has to be made. E.g., to include the Euro sign into a keymap that normally doesn't have it, set this variable to “euro2”.

FONT

  This variable specifies the arguments for the setfont program. Typically, this includes the font name, “-m”, and the name of the application character map to load. E.g., in order to load the “lat1-16” font together with the “8859-1” application character map (as it is appropriate in the USA), set this variable to “lat1-16 -m 8859-1”. In UTF-8 mode, the kernel uses the application character map for conversion of composed 8-bit key codes in the keymap to UTF-8, and thus the argument of the "-m" parameter should be set to the encoding of the composed key codes in the keymap.

UNICODE

  Set this variable to “1”, “yes” or “true” in order to put the console into UTF-8 mode. This is useful in UTF-8 based locales and harmful otherwise.

LEGACY_CHARSET

  For many keyboard layouts, there is no stock Unicode keymap in the Kbd package. The console bootscript will convert an available keymap to UTF-8 on the fly if this variable is set to the encoding of the available non-UTF-8 keymap.

Some examples:

- For a non-Unicode setup, only the KEYMAP and FONT variables are generally needed. E.g., for a Polish setup, one would use:

      cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
      # Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

      KEYMAP="pl2"
      FONT="lat2a-16 -m 8859-2"

      # End /etc/sysconfig/console
      EOF

- As mentioned above, it is sometimes necessary to adjust a stock keymap slightly. The following example adds the Euro symbol to the German keymap:

      cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
      # Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

      KEYMAP="de-latin1"
      KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
      FONT="lat0-16 -m 8859-15"

      # End /etc/sysconfig/console
      EOF

- The following is a Unicode-enabled example for Bulgarian, where a stock UTF-8 keymap exists:

      cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
      # Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

      UNICODE="1"
      KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
      FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16"

      # End /etc/sysconfig/console
      EOF

- Due to the use of a 512-glyph LatArCyrHeb-16 font in the previous example, bright colors are no longer available on the Linux console unless a framebuffer is used. If one wants to have bright colors without framebuffer and can live without characters not belonging to his language, it is still possible to use a language-specific 256-glyph font, as illustrated below:

      cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
      # Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

      UNICODE="1"
      KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
      FONT="cyr-sun16"

      # End /etc/sysconfig/console
      EOF

- The following example illustrates keymap autoconversion from ISO-8859-15 to UTF-8 and enabling dead keys in Unicode mode:

      cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
      # Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

      UNICODE="1"
      KEYMAP="de-latin1"
      KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
      LEGACY_CHARSET="iso-8859-15"
      FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16 -m 8859-15"

      # End /etc/sysconfig/console
      EOF

- Some keymaps have dead keys (i.e., keys that don't produce a character by themselves, but put an accent on the character produced by the next key) or define composition rules (such as: “press Ctrl+. A E to get Æ” in the default keymap). Linux-4.7.2 interprets dead keys and composition rules in the keymap correctly only when the source characters to be composed together are not multibyte. This deficiency doesn't affect keymaps for European languages, because there accents are added to unaccented ASCII characters, or two ASCII characters are composed together. However, in UTF-8 mode it is a problem, e.g., for the Greek language, where one sometimes needs to put an accent on the letter “alpha”. The solution is either to avoid the use of UTF-8, or to install the X window system that doesn't have this limitation in its input handling.

- For Chinese, Japanese, Korean and some other languages, the Linux console cannot be configured to display the needed characters. Users who need such languages should install the X Window System, fonts that cover the necessary character ranges, and the proper input method (e.g., SCIM, it supports a wide variety of languages).

### Note

The `/etc/sysconfig/console` file only controls the Linux text console localization. It has nothing to do with setting the proper keyboard layout and terminal fonts in the X Window System, with ssh sessions or with a serial console. In such situations, limitations mentioned in the last two list items above do not apply.

## 7.6.6. Creating Files at Boot

At times, it is desired to create files at boot time. For instance, the `/tmp/.ICE-unix` directory may be desired. This can be done by creating an entry in the `/etc/sysconfig/createfiles` configuration script. The format of this file is embedded in the comments of the default configuration file.

## 7.6.7. Configuring the sysklogd Script

The `sysklogd` script invokes the syslogd program as a part of System V initialization. The `-m 0` option turns off the periodic timestamp mark that syslogd writes to the log files every 20 minutes by default. If you want to turn on this periodic timestamp mark, edit `/etc/sysconfig/rc.site` and define the variable SYSKLOGD_PARMS to the desired value. For instance, to remove all parameters, set the variable to a null value:

    SYSKLOGD_PARMS=

See `man syslogd` for more options.

## 7.6.8. The rc.site File

The optional `/etc/sysconfig/rc.site` file contains settings that are automatically set for each SystemV boot script. It can alternatively set the values specified in the `hostname`, `console`, and `clock` files in the `/etc/sysconfig/` directory. If the associated variables are present in both these separate files and `rc.site`, the values in the script specific files have precedence.

`rc.site` also contains parameters that can customize other aspects of the boot process. Setting the IPROMPT variable will enable selective running of bootscripts. Other options are described in the file comments. The default version of the file is as follows:

    # rc.site
    # Optional parameters for boot scripts.

    # Distro Information
    # These values, if specified here, override the defaults
    #DISTRO="Linux From Scratch" # The distro name
    #DISTRO_CONTACT="lfs-dev@linuxfromscratch.org" # Bug report address
    #DISTRO_MINI="LFS" # Short name used in filenames for distro config

    # Define custom colors used in messages printed to the screen

    # Please consult `man console_codes` for more information
    # under the "ECMA-48 Set Graphics Rendition" section
    #
    # Warning: when switching from a 8bit to a 9bit font,
    # the linux console will reinterpret the bold (1;) to
    # the top 256 glyphs of the 9bit font.  This does
    # not affect framebuffer consoles

    # These values, if specified here, override the defaults
    #BRACKET="\\033[1;34m" # Blue
    #FAILURE="\\033[1;31m" # Red
    #INFO="\\033[1;36m"    # Cyan
    #NORMAL="\\033[0;39m"  # Grey
    #SUCCESS="\\033[1;32m" # Green
    #WARNING="\\033[1;33m" # Yellow

    # Use a colored prefix
    # These values, if specified here, override the defaults
    #BMPREFIX="     "
    #SUCCESS_PREFIX="${SUCCESS}  *  ${NORMAL}"
    #FAILURE_PREFIX="${FAILURE}*****${NORMAL}"
    #WARNING_PREFIX="${WARNING} *** ${NORMAL}"

    # Manually seet the right edge of message output (characters)
    # Useful when resetting console font during boot to override
    # automatic screen width detection
    #COLUMNS=120

    # Interactive startup
    #IPROMPT="yes" # Whether to display the interactive boot prompt
    #itime="3"    # The amount of time (in seconds) to display the prompt

    # The total length of the distro welcome string, without escape codes
    #wlen=$(echo "Welcome to ${DISTRO}" | wc -c )
    #welcome_message="Welcome to ${INFO}${DISTRO}${NORMAL}"

    # The total length of the interactive string, without escape codes
    #ilen=$(echo "Press 'I' to enter interactive startup" | wc -c )
    #i_message="Press '${FAILURE}I${NORMAL}' to enter interactive startup"

    # Set scripts to skip the file system check on reboot
    #FASTBOOT=yes

    # Skip reading from the console
    #HEADLESS=yes

    # Write out fsck progress if yes
    #VERBOSE_FSCK=no

    # Speed up boot without waiting for settle in udev
    #OMIT_UDEV_SETTLE=y

    # Speed up boot without waiting for settle in udev_retry
    #OMIT_UDEV_RETRY_SETTLE=yes

    # Skip cleaning /tmp if yes
    #SKIPTMPCLEAN=no

    # For setclock
    #UTC=1
    #CLOCKPARAMS=

    # For consolelog (Note that the default, 7=debug, is noisy)
    #LOGLEVEL=7

    # For network
    #HOSTNAME=mylfs

    # Delay between TERM and KILL signals at shutdown
    #KILLDELAY=3

    # Optional sysklogd parameters
    #SYSKLOGD_PARMS="-m 0"

    # Console parameters
    #UNICODE=1
    #KEYMAP="de-latin1"
    #KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
    #FONT="lat0-16 -m 8859-15"
    #LEGACY_CHARSET=

### 7.6.8.1. Customizing the Boot and Shutdown Scripts

The LFS boot scripts boot and shut down a system in a fairly efficient manner, but there are a few tweaks that you can make in the rc.site file to improve speed even more and to adjust messages according to your preferences. To do this, adjust the settings in the `/etc/sysconfig/rc.site` file above.

- During the boot script `udev`, there is a call to udev settle that requires some time to complete. This time may or may not be required depending on devices present in the system. If you only have simple partitions and a single ethernet card, the boot process will probably not need to wait for this command. To skip it, set the variable OMIT_UDEV_SETTLE=y.

- The boot script `udev_retry` also runs udev settle by default. This command is only needed by default if the `/var` directory is separately mounted. This is because the clock needs the file `/var/lib/hwclock/adjtime`. Other customizations may also need to wait for udev to complete, but in many installations it is not needed. Skip the command by setting the variable OMIT_UDEV_RETRY_SETTLE=y.

- By default, the file system checks are silent. This can appear to be a delay during the bootup process. To turn on the fsck output, set the variable VERBOSE_FSCK=y.

- When rebooting, you may want to skip the filesystem check, fsck, completely. To do this, either create the file `/fastboot` or reboot the system with the command /sbin/shutdown -f -r now. On the other hand, you can force all file systems to be checked by creating `/forcefsck` or running shutdown with the `-F` parameter instead of `-f`.

  Setting the variable FASTBOOT=y will disable fsck during the boot process until it is removed. This is not recommended on a permanent basis.

- Normally, all files in the `/tmp` directory are deleted at boot time. Depending on the number of files or directories present, this can cause a noticeable delay in the boot process. To skip removing these files set the variable SKIPTMPCLEAN=y.

- During shutdown, the init program sends a TERM signal to each program it has started (e.g. agetty), waits for a set time (default 3 seconds), and sends each process a KILL signal and waits again. This process is repeated in the sendsignals script for any processes that are not shut down by their own scripts. The delay for init can be set by passing a parameter. For example to remove the delay in init, pass the -t0 parameter when shutting down or rebooting (e.g. /sbin/shutdown -t0 -r now). The delay for the sendsignals script can be skipped by setting the parameter KILLDELAY=0.

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