Ubuntu® Linux® Bible

Chapter 19. Understanding the Ubuntu Startup and Shutdown Processes

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding the Linux boot process

• Monitoring the Linux boot process

• Optimizing the Linux boot process

• Understanding the Linux shutdown process

Nowadays, booting an Ubuntu Linux system involves watching a friendly splash screen display a variety of system status messages and progress bars as it proceeds through the various commands that are part of the boot, initialization, and startup processes. This is all well and good, but sometimes it's nice to know what's actually going on under the hood. It's similarly interesting to know how your Ubuntu system performs an orderly shutdown, which is what happens when you select System

This chapter describes the general phases of the Linux boot process and any things that are specific to Ubuntu Linux. It then discusses how you can get detailed information about all of the processes executed when your system starts, so that you can look for ways to speed up your system's boot process, and discusses upcoming improvements that will further speed up the boot process in general. The chapter concludes with an explanation of what happens when you shut down your system, which is relatively short, because this is really just the reverse of the last stage of the boot process.

Overview of the Ubuntu Linux Startup Process

This section describes the process of booting an Ubuntu ...