> > What is the best way to manage services without using Linuxconf. It is my > understanding that Linuxconf is being phased out in Red Hat, and I've heard > lots of security-types badmouth it. > > Specifically what I want to be able to do is control whether Samba starts at > boot, whether Apache does, cron, and so on. Well, first a VERY quick explanation of how those services get started. Services get started either via (x)inetd or by script files in a special directory tree in /etc/rc.d (assuming sysV (I think) style init). In rc.d you will find multiple directories, such as init.d and rc1.d, rc2.d, rc3.d, etc. When ENTERING runlevel , all scripts that start with 'S' in rc.d are executed, in directory sort order. When LEAVING runlevel , all scripts that start with 'K' in rc.d are executed. Notice that all those scripts in rc.d are softlinks to the actual scripts over in init.d. There are 2 ways to disable services started from rc.d - 1 - rename the script to something besides 'S....' 2 - delete the script entirely I prefer option 1. For things in (x)inetd, see the man page and comment out or disable the services you don't want. rc