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Chapter 3. Boot Process, Init, and Shutdown

3.7.1.9.

/etc/sysconfig/gpm

The

/etc/sysconfig/gpm

file is used to pass arguments to the

gpm

daemon at boot time. The

gpm

daemon is the mouse server which allows mouse acceleration and middle click pasting. For more

information about what parameters you can use in this file, type

man gpm

. By default, it sets the

mouse device to

/dev/mouse

.

3.7.1.10.

/etc/sysconfig/harddisks

The

/etc/sysconfig/harddisks

file allows you to tune your hard drive(s). You can also use

/etc/sysconfig/hardiskhd[a h]

, to configure parameters for specific drives.

Warning

Do not make changes to this file lightly. If you change the default values stored here, you could corrupt

all of the data on your hard drive(s).

The

/etc/sysconfig/harddisks

file may contain the following:

  USE_DMA=1

, where setting this to 1 enables DMA. However, with some chipsets and hard drive

combinations, DMA can cause data corruption. Check with your hard drive documentation or man 

ufacturer before enabling this.

  Multiple_IO=16

, where a setting of 16 allows for multiple sectors per I/O interrupt. When en 

abled, this feature reduces operating system overhead by 30 50%. Use with caution.

  EIDE_32BIT=3

enables (E)IDE 32 bit I/O support to an interface card.

  LOOKAHEAD=1

enables drive read lookahead.

  EXTRA_PARAMS=

specifies where extra parameters can be added.

3.7.1.11.

/etc/sysconfig/hwconf

The

/etc/sysconfig/hwconf

file lists all the hardware that

kudzu

detected on your system, as well

as the drivers used, vendor ID and device ID information. The

kudzu

program detects and configures

new and/or changed hardware on a system. The

/etc/sysconfig/hwconf

file is not meant to be

manually edited. If you do edit it, devices could suddenly show up as being added or removed.

3.7.1.12.

/etc/sysconfig/i18n

The

/etc/sysconfig/i18n

file sets the default language, such as:

LANG="en_US"

3.7.1.13.

/etc/sysconfig/identd

The

/etc/sysconfig/identd

file is used to pass arguments to the

identd

daemon at boot time.

The

identd

daemon returns the username of processes with open TCP/IP connections. Some services

on the network, such as FTP and IRC servers, will complain and cause slow responses if

identd

is

not running. But in general,

identd

is not a required service, so if security is a concern, you should

not run it. For more information about what parameters you can use in this file, type

man identd

.

By default, the file contains no parameters.