HOWTO create a run level

From Gentoo Linux Wiki

It has been suggested that this article be Merged into one article with Runlevel.    (Discuss)

[edit] Introduction

This Howto will explain how you can make additional runlevels. Runlevels can be very handy if you (for example) want to make seperate runlevels for a graphical, and text-mode boot.

[edit] Creating the Run Level

Creating a new run level is as simple as creating a new directory in /etc/runlevels/. For example, to create a new runlevel "example":

cd /etc/runlevels
mkdir <new-runlevel-name>

To add services to this new runlevel, you can use rc-update, for example, to add service "example_service" to runlevel "example"

rc-update add example_service example

[edit] Creating runlevel console

You could also create runlevel based on another runlevel. In this example we will create old init3 runlevel without graphical login.

cp -R /etc/runlevels/default /etc/runlevels/console
rm /etc/runlevels/console/xdm

[edit] Using the new run level

[edit] At boot time

To specify a runlevel other than the default upon boot, append softlevel=your_runlevel_name to your kernel's options.

[edit] Example grub.conf

title=Gentoo Linux - New Runlevel
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/bzImage-2.6.8-r7 root=/dev/hda3 softlevel=new-runlevel

[edit] After boot

To switch to runlevel "example":

rc example

To return to default runlevel:

rc default

[edit] Resources

Initscripts: Changing the Runlevel Behaviour