Speed Up 9.10 by Disabling Services [KARMIC KOALA BIBLE #11]

For speed freaks out there, let's look at how we may tune the PC to load only those system services that we need, disabling unnecessary ones. Not only does this give a faster boot time but can also shore up potential security risks.

When you install Windows, unless you've got a PC crammed full of resource, one of the first things you would ideally do is to disable all those generally useless services, some of which are only there as legacies from prehistoric versions when Bill was practically poor and wearing those windows-sized glasses. (I hear Windows 7 is better, or at least the spectacles have improved.)

With Ubuntu Karmic, so toned a system it is, there aren't that many services one can disable but, if you really want the barest possible Koala - and everyone likes a Koala bear - saving on startup time a tad, here's how.

Disabling Services using BUM

Get the friendly GUI application, Ubuntu BootUp Manager or BUM for short (hey, no wise cracks):-

sudo aptitude install bum

Kick it up. Have to be root for this one:-

sudo bum

Or alternatively, navigate the menu:-

System > Administration > BootUp-Manager

.. either way, after giving your admin password, it'll take a little while to start the first time, while the programme scans your system.

One nice feature with BUM is the addition of a human-friendly description to each somewhat cryptic service name, to help identify what you may or may not wish to enable or kill.

To deactivate a service, simply uncheck the box next to the service item.

Otherwise, BUM benefits more advanced users with powerful run level editing functionality. At the bottom of the app's dialogue box, check the Advanced tab and a couple of tabs appear - Services and Startup and Shutdown Scripts: with these you can edit run levels, which basically means you can set whatever services to operate under different system conditions (maybe just for the root administrator, else for everyone, and more .. although run levels are not the point of this tutorial so, er, Google that.)

Disabling Services using sysv-rc-conf

An alternative method is using sysv-rc-conf, which is essentially the same but that works only from the terminal, and that misses the human-friendly service descriptions.

Download it:-

sudo aptitude install sysv-rc-conf

And, again as root, open it up:-

sudo sysv-rc-conf

Disabling Services using Command Line Syntax

The quickest way to deactivate services is by running the update-rc.d script from the terminal.

Let's say, for example, that you want to disable cron, the service that schedules tasks:-

update-rc.d -f cron remove

Like I say, I'm not getting into run levels here, but you can use update-rc.d to alter these too, as well as to start and stop services, and to prioritise them. To find out more, including examples:-

man update-rc.d

List of Services to Consider Disabling

Requirements vary, sure, but these are typical suspects to off-load.

Human-Readable Descriptions of init Scripts

For a handy list of services, coupled with their user-friendly descriptions, take a look at this page on the Ubuntu wiki.