What services to run?

[dw5437]

Is there a man or a place to find out what services I don't need and to keep them from running on startup? I read up on avahi and the only thing I got out of that was a headache. I didn't understand any of it but I think Gnome needs it. What about multi-cast? I get a list like this

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3075 2007-02-12 01:40 915resolution
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2710 2008-04-18 23:19 acpid
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 762 2007-08-30 21:48 acpi-support
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9708 2008-02-27 07:22 alsa-utils
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1084 2007-03-05 00:38 anacron
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1667 2007-05-23 07:59 apmd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2181 2008-02-05 06:41 apport
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 969 2006-07-20 21:15 atd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2594 2008-03-21 05:38 avahi-daemon
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2426 2008-07-07 16:00 bind9
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6609 2008-04-21 02:34 bluetooth
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3597 2006-10-06 06:34 bootclean
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2121 2006-10-06 06:34 bootlogd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1768 2007-10-04 06:17 bootmisc.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1795 2008-03-27 18:23 brltty
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3454 2008-04-19 00:05 checkfs.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 10602 2008-04-19 00:05 checkroot.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6355 2007-05-30 07:29 console-screen.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1634 2008-01-28 11:49 console-setup
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1761 2006-12-20 08:46 cron
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2287 2008-04-21 15:15 cupsys
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4546 2008-02-29 03:21 dbus

about 4 pages long in /etc/init.d
I would hate to go through these one at a time to stop stuff from running just to have them run again after a reboot. I don't think I really need most of these.
:

[rbanavara]

not sure on this, but if you are looking to optimize your system, here is a link for 'fly like a butterfly' article (This has been quoted in some articles on this forum as well):

http://www.xlntsolution.com/index.php/2 ... butterfly/

[chattr]

[snip]

about 4 pages long in /etc/init.d
I would hate to go through these one at a time to stop stuff from running just to have them run again after a reboot. I don't think I really need most of these.

Those services ( in /etc/init.d/ ) don't necessarily all run on boot.

open a terminal and type ' runlevel ' ( no quotes )

It'll return a number, let's say ' 2 '.

Then, cd to /etc/rc[the_number_runlevel_returned].d/

and then do an ' ls *S*'

That will show you which services start ( the *S* ) in your runlevel.

Note: just because the service starts in your runlevel doesn't mean that the service continues to run when the boot process completes. To see all running processes in your system, open a terminal and type " sudo ps aux | less "

Now, what is it that you're trying to accomplish ? A speedier machine ? A faster boot ? Inreased security ?

[dw5437]

Thanks for the answers. Much appreciated. What I am trying to achieve is security.

[chattr]

Thanks for the answers. Much appreciated. What I am trying to achieve is security.

Security is an enormous topic and can't be dealt with adequately in one, two or twenty forum posts.

Let's deal only with running services at first.

Would you post the output of typing in a terminal ' sudo netstat -tulpan ' ? That will list tcp and udp processes/progams listening on all network interfaces.

[dw5437]

Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:139 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5633/smbd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:37424 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5319/named
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5319/named
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5376/cupsd
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:953 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5319/named
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:445 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 5633/smbd
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:58274 200.179.179.118:16834 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 51 192.168.1.3:60961 89.100.5.56:9000 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 1 192.168.1.3:43691 212.17.141.53:62742 SYN_SENT 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:58418 86.131.87.187:30009 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 1 192.168.1.3:48556 68.184.176.57:53618 SYN_SENT 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:40875 86.129.33.63:16694 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:50365 24.47.53.87:16643 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:52878 72.229.58.131:10170 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 20272 192.168.1.3:54289 86.147.10.157:44648 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 60 192.168.1.3:35153 220.233.79.75:49982 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:37074 74.203.241.32:80 ESTABLISHED 7368/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:36007 77.248.39.43:37392 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 1 192.168.1.3:54641 74.44.219.62:28089 SYN_SENT 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:52137 74.203.241.34:80 ESTABLISHED 7368/firefox
tcp 0 1 192.168.1.3:46000 76.89.137.150:46775 SYN_SENT 6919/python
tcp 0 23168 192.168.1.3:34778 201.82.156.143:42299 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
tcp 0 1 192.168.1.3:59068 89.249.245.79:30767 SYN_SENT 6919/python
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:40394 92.237.230.36:21523 ESTABLISHED 6919/python
udp 0 0 192.168.1.3:137 0.0.0.0:* 5606/nmbd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:137 0.0.0.0:* 5606/nmbd
udp 0 0 192.168.1.3:138 0.0.0.0:* 5606/nmbd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:138 0.0.0.0:* 5606/nmbd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:44073 0.0.0.0:* 5319/named
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:43053 0.0.0.0:* 5345/avahi-daemon:
udp 0 0 192.168.1.3:53 0.0.0.0:* 5319/named
udp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* 5319/named
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:68 0.0.0.0:* 5795/dhclient
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5353 0.0.0.0:* 5345/avahi-daemon:
dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $

There it is. Thanks for the reply

[chattr]

There's nothing in that list I'd be concerned about, provided you want to print (cupsd) to connect to a MS-Windows machine using samba (smbd and nmbd), and that you want to run a nameserver on your machine (named). Are those services necessary?

The odd connections I see are the python ones, such as

tcp 0 0 192.168.1.3:40394 92.237.230.36:21523 ESTABLISHED 6919/python

Would you post the output when you do in a terminal

Code: Select all

sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919"

[dw5437]

I can't get into root anymore for some reason. Here are the results

dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $ sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919"
dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $ sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919"
dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $

The only thing I have done is added the new Mint update. Perhaps that done it. I will reboot and try again.

I print but only locally. Don't connect to Windows and don't need any servers.

[chattr]

I can't get into root anymore for some reason. Here are the results

dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $ sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919"
dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $ sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919"
dw5437@dw5437-desktop ~ $

The only thing I have done is added the new Mint update. Perhaps that done it. I will reboot and try again.

I print but only locally. Don't connect to Windows and don't need any servers.

That's probably because since you last ran ' sudo netstat -tulpan ' a day or so ago, the process has stopped. If ' sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919" ' doesn't return anything, it's because there's no process with process id 6919.

Do ' sudo netstat -tulpan ' again, look for a python process, and if you find one, use it's process id in the ' sudo ps aux|grep " [6]919" ' command, substituting the new id for [6]919.

You need cupsd to print, even locally.

If you make no network connection with MS-Windows machines, you can remove samba packages, which will also stop the servers.