Looking for a comprehensive guide to how (K)Ubuntu starts

[Duane Whitty]

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On 16-08-17 09:22 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Aug 2016 12:51:37 +0200, Liam Proven wrote:
>> On 14 August 2016 at 18:56, Duane Whitty wrote:
>>> A small correction: I am using 14.04.1 not 14.04.4
>> 
>> Then forget about it, because the init system used in 14.x has
>> been removed and replaced in 16.x with systemd.
>> 
>> If you want to track such things by hand, Ubuntu is not the
>> distro for you. I'd suggest Arch Linux or Gentoo.
> 
> The chances are good that some day the Ubuntu Wiki and help pages
> will have more contributors [1] than just 81 direct members of the 
> "Ubuntu Wiki Editors" team [2] and perhaps a few additional
> contributors by the flavour's documentation teams.
> 
> I'm using Arch and Ubuntu and I edited Wikis for both distros.
> Indeed, while the Arch community might be smaller than the Ubuntu
> community, the user base contributing to the Arch Wikis most likely
> is much higher.
> 
> As you can see somebody applied for membership 2016-07-21 [2], I've
> done 17 hours ago.
> 
> However, to understand systemd, an Ubuntu user anyway could read 
> freedesktop.org and even Arch Wikis. To get more information about 
> upstart by a Wiki is something else.
> 
> Regards, Ralf
> 
> [1] 
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-doc/2016-August/020145.html
>
>  [2] 
> https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-wiki-editors/+members?active_batch=75&ac
tive_direction=backwards&active_start=75
>
> 
> 
Thanks everyone for your responses and pointers.

I am making headway, figuring out how the old style Sys V init system
works, how upstart works and I've read about how systemd works on
16.X.  I foresee a migration to 16 in the near(ish) future.

The old style init system is not actually that complicated but what
confused me was the naming collision between it and the upstart
system.  Oh well ;-)

I've also come to appreciate to a fuller extent how NetworkManager
works and I've cleared up some misconceptions I had about that
package.  For instance I thought it was tied to a GUI, which it is
not.  I now understand how the managed versus not managed system
works.  Amazingly I was able to get my devices working by having
NetworkManager manage them when I thought I was disabling Network
Manager.  I.e., the system worked in spite of my uneducated
interference :-)

Note to anyone searching the archives: If you take an interface out of
/etc/network/interfaces then you ARE directing NetworkManager to
manage it.  In the file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf in the
section [ifupdown] setting managed=false, directs NetworkManager vis a
vis the ifupdown plugin not to manage whatever interfaces you HAVE
listed in /etc/network/interfaces.

I am still educating myself wrt how Debian/Ubuntu Linux works.  As a
result of my quest I have found something called "The Debian
Administrator's Handbook".

So even though there does not seem (so far) to be one authoritative
text on how the whole system works, from the bare metal to all the
services which run on it, I am piecing together what I need to know
little by little.  Thanks to everyone who has helped.  I will be more
than happy to contribute back anything I learn.

To the whole community I would like to say that so far Ubuntu
generally and Kubuntu specifically seems like a great distro and it
has enabled me to work quite productively.

Best Regards,
Duane

- -- 
Duane Whitty
duane at nofroth.com

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