Tweaking Open Suse services

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hello All,
I want to tweak my open suse linux box. Therefor i would like to disable all services that i do not absolutely need on my machine

Question:

  1. Is there an [name, functionality] list of all installable functions that can be installed on Open Suse Linux?
    I’ve tried to figure out what some services really do om my machine, by reading the “one liner descriptions” of some services in the Yast tool.

  2. Is there an (graphical) overview of the DEPENDANCIES between the services on Open Suse Linux?
    I like to know which (basic) services powers which other services., That way i am able to determine which service can be safely shutdown before corrupting my machine by shutting down the wrong ones

Thanks for your assistance, hints, tips, tricks :slight_smile:

#2

ronaldvermeij wrote:

> I want to tweak my open suse linux box. Therefor i would like to
> disable all services that i do not absolutely need on my machine
>
> Question:
> 1. Is there an [name, functionality] list of all installable functions
> that can be installed on Open Suse Linux?
> I’ve tried to figure out what some services really do om my machine, by
> reading the “one liner descriptions” of some services in the Yast tool.

You can run “chkconfig” command (being root). That will show you the
available services and their current status.

> 2. Is there an (graphical) overview of the DEPENDANCIES between the
> services on Open Suse Linux?
> I like to know which (basic) services powers which other services.,
> That way i am able to determine which service can be safely shutdown
> before corrupting my machine by shutting down the wrong ones

Service “dependencies” can be displayed on each the boot script located
at /etc/init.d/

Pick one file from there and open it with an editor. You will see (at the
top of the file) something like this:

BEGIN INIT INFO

Provides: aaeventd

Required-Start: apparmor

Required-Stop:

Default-Start: 2 3 5

Default-Stop:

Short-Description: AppArmor Notification and Reporting

Description: AppArmor Notification and Reporting daemon

END INIT INFO

“Required-start” field tells “what service is being needed” (kind of
dependency) by this one. The above example needs says serice “apparmor” to
be launched so the service itself can start.

Anyway, I would go with YaST runlevel editor module.

It will tell you all the services that comes with opensuse and you can also
switch them on/off from here. besides, if you want to start a service that
requires another service, it will automatically activate it.

OTOH, there are some “critical” system services that you should not
disable at all (cron, dbus, haldaemon, syslog…) and there are others that
can be safely turned off because they are just program services and
not “system services” (i.e., smbfs, spamd, susefirewall…).

Turning such services will depend on your needs and what programs do you
want to keep running on your system.

Greetings,

–
Camaleón

#3

Hello Camaleón
Thank you very much for your “crystal clear explanation” on the services and where to find the info. This is what i was looking for :wink:

I am glad that i now know where the OS stores its info. When possible, I try to do the stuff without gui’s like yast, from the command-line. That helps me gaining insight how linux does it’s job. Ok the learning curve is steeper, but the rewards are greater in the end

Last question:

  • Where can I find a list of all “critical linux (suse) services” so that i do not shut down one of them?
  • Is there a more detailed services documentation to be found somewhere?
    You showed met the content of the files in /etc/init.d, but some of them contain “one single line of descriptive text” :frowning:

Thanks again for the quick and clear response Camaleón!

Regards, Ronald

#4

ronaldvermeij wrote:

> Hello Camaleón
> Thank you very much for your “crystal clear explanation” on the
> services and where to find the info. This is what i was looking for :wink:

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

> I am glad that i now know where the OS stores its info. When possible,
> I try to do the stuff without gui’s like yast, from the command-line.
> That helps me gaining insight how linux does it’s job. Ok the learning
> curve is steeper, but the rewards are greater in the end
>
> LAST QUESTION:
> - Where can I find a list of all “critical linux (suse) services” so
> that i do not shut down one of them?

I cannot find any detailed description of the services that are critical for
the system to properly start :-(.

In fact, there are several on the list I dunno what are they for O:-)

BTW, opensuse user (vavai) wrote an article on his blog about this same
issue:

  1. Disable Unnecessary Services
    http://vavai.net/2009/01/15/opensuse-tweak-increase-opensuse-speed-performance/

I don’t know if that reamins true for all opensuse versions because services
tend to change on every release, so read it with care :-?

My wise advice: do not disable a service you don’t know what it does. Better
ask first to this forum or in any opensuse mailing list to get more
feedback :slight_smile:

> - Is there a more detailed services documentation to be found
> somewhere?
> You showed met the content of the files in /etc/init.d, but some of
> them contain “one single line of descriptive text” :frowning:

Novell provides some useful documentation on this, take a look:

14.2 The init Process
http://www.novell.com/documentation/opensuse111/opensuse111_reference/?page=/documentation/opensuse111/opensuse111_reference/data/sec_boot_init.html

Google is another source of information. Search for any service you are
interested in to get more info.

> Thanks again for the quick and clear response Camaleón!

HTH.

Greetings,

–
Camaleón

#5

Mind: you might tune yourself in a situation, where asking for help is no longer possible. What makes you want to turn services off? If it’s for the sake of speed, please first stop/uninstall the resource eating combo of kerry/beagle

#6

Hello Knurpth
“Mind: you might tune yourself in a situation, where asking for help is no longer possible.”

  1. That is why i (google first and) ask the experts (second) over here BEFORE i start tweaking an do something stupid :wink:

“What makes you want to turn services off?”
2. I want to understand the architecture of the operating system through and through. I want to gain insight on the inner workings op Linux and Suse

I already found Interactive map of Linux kernel that has pretty overview of the Linux Kernel.
And i already found the http://www.tldp.org/ website, that tell me a lot over the inner works of Linux

But i want to draw,document my own Linux Services overview, so that i am able to visualize the “inside of Linux”.

  1. Reducing resources that my os needs om my computer.
  2. Increase Booting / Shutdown speed
  3. Start only the services i really need, for security reasons
    What you do not start up, can not be hacked :slight_smile:

“If it’s for the sake of speed, please first stop/uninstall the resource eating combo of kerry/beagle”
6. Already done that Knurpth. I use my own brain , a clear folder structure and very self_explanatory filenames to keep my computer organised, not a piece of software :slight_smile:

Regards, Ronald