README for the System V style init, version 2.86 init, shutdown, halt, reboot, wall, last, mesg, runlevel, killall5, pidof, sulogin. All programs, files and scripts in this package are covered by the Gnu Public License, and copyrighted by me. If you are not using Debian and the debianized package, you will have to install the new init by hand. You should be able to drop the binaries into a Slackware or Redhat system, I think. Here is a list of preferred directories to install the progs & manpages: wall.1, last.1, mesg.1 /usr/man/man1 inittab.5, initscript.5 /usr/man/man5 init.8, halt.8, reboot.8, shutdown.8, powerd.8, killall5.8, pidof.8, runlevel.8, sulogin.8 /usr/man/man8 init /sbin/init inittab /etc/inittab initscript.sample /etc/initscript.sample telinit a link (with ln(1) ) to init, either in /bin or in /sbin. halt /sbin/halt reboot a link to /sbin/halt in the same directory killall5 /sbin/killall5 pidof a link to /sbin/killall5 in the same directory. runlevel /sbin/runlevel shutdown /sbin/shutdown. wall /usr/bin/wall mesg /usr/bin/mesg last /usr/bin/last sulogin /sbin/sulogin bootlogd /sbin/bootlogd utmpdump don't install, it's just a debug thingy. If you already _have_ a "wall" in /bin (the SLS release had, for example) do _not_ install this wall. Chances are that the wall you are already using is linked to /bin/write. Either first _remove_ /bin/wall before installing the new one, or don't install the new one at all. You might want to create a file called "/etc/shutdown.allow". Read the manual page on shutdown to find out more about this. Running from a read-only file system (CDROM?): o All communication to init goes through the FIFO /dev/initctl. There should be no problem using a read-only root file system IF you use a Linux kernel > 1.3.66. Older kernels don't allow writing to a FIFO on a read-only file system. Miquel van Smoorenburg