I just installed VectorLinux (it's Slack-based) and my inetd services are not running at boot time. I've used the admin tool 'vasm' to configure inetd services to run at boot time, but it doesn't happen. I can run inetd from the command line, and all the services will then run, so it appears inetd itself is not at fault. I've been rooting around in /etc/rc.d to see if any of those scripts call it, even in a commented-out line, but none of them do. (my ethernet card and my gateway don't get configured at boot either, despite vasm telling me they should, and that I can easily do so from the command line - same root problem at work?) I saw that the 'functions' file, in it's opening comments, claims that it is for /etc/init.d/ services, yet there is no /etc/init.d directory. There is an /etc/rc.d/init.d directory. I can't find what boot script uses the routines in the functions file, so I don't know if this error is only in that single comment, or if whoever is calling these functions is looking at a nonexistent directory. inetd resides in /etc/rc.d/init.d/, so that would certainly prevent inetd from running. Anybody know where inetd is supposed to be called from, and how to get it to work properly? As a last resort, is there any harm, or inefficiency, in simply putting in my own call to inetd in, say, rc.local?

Well, in Slack 9, it's started from /etc/rc.inet2.

All my rc.inet2 does is configure eth1, which is odd, since I don't have an eth1.

cd /etc/rc.d
grep inetd *

That should find it, make sure it's executable (chmod a+x filename to make it so)

(in slackware it's rc.inetd, most likely it's the same in vector)

grepping for inetd was the first thing I did when trying to figure out when it's supposed to be called. Nada.

There is a script called inet in /etc/rc.d/init.d/, which does make some calls to inetd, but I can't find any references to this either in any of the start-up scripts, and the calls encompass stopping and restarting services as well as starting, so perhaps it isn't intended to be the original boot-time start-up of inetd.

I guess I'll just put a call to inetd in rc.inet2 (and get rid of the out-of-left-field eth1 configuration in there), but I'm really curious as to why an otherwise basic and hassle-free install would screw up something so basic (or alternatively how I managed to break the proper config in under a day).

The above post is mine.