Startup services (Re: ubuntu-laptop useful?)

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sat, May 06, 2006 at 03:08:43PM +0200, Thilo Six wrote:
> quote from that page:
> The boot time can be dramatically improved by removing all unneeded
> services.
> 
> Which is really true.

How much of a difference did you observe?

> Services i usually remove:
> 
> # history | grep remove
> [...]
>   145  update-rc.d -f kdm remove

Almost every Kubuntu user actually wants this, and it's not installed by
default elsewhere.

>   202  update-rc.d -f mdadm-raid remove
>   203  update-rc.d -f lvm remove
>   204  update-rc.d -f evms remove

These can be slow on some systems because they scan all storage devices
looking for volumes to activate.  However, this scan is the only way to know
if there are volumes which should be activated.

In Edgy, these will presumably be changed to be udev hooks and run
asynchronously in the background, which should improve the situation.

>   206  update-rc.d -f cupsys remove
>   207  update-rc.d -f hplip remove

Similar problem; there's no way to know if a printer is connected
(especially if it's turned off at boot time).  Most desktop users seem to
want to print at some point in their lives, and CUPS needs to be running
then.  It runs with special privileges, so it can't be started by the user.
Remember that a printer could be turned on or connected at any time, and
parallel port printers can't be automatically detected (USB printers could
theoretically trigger the startup of printing services when connected).

Regarding hplip, see
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/hplip/+bug/20309

>   208  update-rc.d -f hotkey-setup remove
>   209  update-rc.d -f pcmcia remove
>   210  update-rc.d -f powernowd remove
>   274  update-rc.d -f laptop-mode remove

These all exit very quickly when the relevant hardware is not present.

>   211  update-rc.d -f bluez-utils remove

Similar problem as for lvm/evms/mdadm, and could potentially be addressed in
the same way.

>   263  update-rc.d -f brltty remove
>   279  update-rc.d -f festival remove

These don't start by default.

>   541  update-rc.d -f hddtemp remove

Not installed by default.

>   595  update-rc.d -f rsync remove

This exits very quickly unless explicitly enabled by editing a configuration
file.

>   597  update-rc.d -f resolvconf remove

Not installed by default.

-- 
 - mdz