initdefault has no effect

[Mike Burger]

> Mike Burger wrote:
>> Mike Burger wrote:
>>> Tim wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 2009-04-05 at 22:42 -0700, Jonathan Ryshpan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have /etc/inittab set up as follows, but the system always starts
>>>>> with the X Window System running.  What am I missing?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> # id:5:initdefault:
>>>>> id:1:initdefault:
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I seem to recall seeing that before, delete the commented-out line.
>>>>
>>> In order to comment out a line in inttab, you need to use a
>>> semicolon, rather than a pound sign.
>> To clarify...the reason that this didn't work, in the first place, is
>> that the initial initdefault line wasn't truly commented out, due to
>> the pound sign instead of the semicolon.
>>
>> After that, the init processing for an entry stops on the first
>> match...since the "not properly commented" entry was first, it got
>> matched, and runlevel 5 was how the system came up.
>>
> I don't quite understand what you are saying....
>
> You said "the init processing for an entry stops on the first match".
> What is being matched to what?  Also, if the # isn't a comment character
> then how are the other 25 lines in the inittab being parsed?
>
> Thanks....

Again...within inittab, the # character is not a comment delimiter...the ;
character is.

Because the # was used, the first default line was matched, therefore
processing to determine the default runlevel stopped at the first
match...the line with the 5 in it.

Subsequent lines, which do not contain "initdefault" are processed,
because they do not match the "initdefault" parameter that was matched
above.
-- 
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org

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