There are scripts in Arch Linux which Linux Mint does not have, nevertheless here are the things I learned from installing and breaking Arch Linux numerous times.
About rc.conf
1. absolute path: /etc/rc.conf
2. Load the modules (drivers) during boot up.
3. Load the daemons during boot up. Daemon loading is in order from left to right, wrong order will break system with undesirable and frustrating result.
4. Define how an interface gets ip address either statically defined or assigned by dhcp server.
5. Define computer hostname.
6. Support for network file system whereby network interface is not shutdown and persistently turned on.
7. Locale, keyboard type and timezone are defined here.
About inittab
1. absolute path: /etc/inittab
2. Define how you want to boot Linux i.e. runlevel (init) 3 or 5. Init 3 is boot up in console, init 5 is boot up in X11.
3. Define virtual terminals, with the definition user can switch among 6 virtual terminals from tty1 to 6 by using Alt + F1(to 6).
4. Define the type of login manager to use if init 5 is chosen: xdm (X), kdm (kde), gdm (gnome), slim (slim desktop login manager), lxdm (lxde desktop manager).
5. Define ctrl + alt + del means reboot now and 3 seconds between warning and kill signal. This is why when you press these keyboard keys Linux is rebooted.
6. Define if a system has a serial console a tty is spawned.
About fstab
1. absolute path: /etc/fstab
2. Define how and where your devices are mounted, devices can be virtual such as tmpfs, process can also be mounted.
About X
1. Required packages: xorg-server, xorg-server-utils, xorg-utils, xorg-xinit.
2. xinit initializes and starts your window manager or desktop manager.
3. Test packages: xterm (terminal window), xorg-xclock (monographic clock), xorgtwm (X window manager).
4. Before start connecting to X server, make sure mouse and keyboard drivers and at least one true type fonts are installed. Video driver must be installed, make sure dbus is installed.
5. mouse: xf86-input-mouse, keyboard: xf86-input-keyboard, true type font: ttf-dejavu (the best, it works on every dm and wm)
6. Use startx (absolute path /usr/bin/startx) script to launch X window to test if you can connect to X server and see X window or not.
About dbus
1. absolute path: /usr/bin/dbus-daemon.
2. To start dbus-daemon manually do this /etc/rc.d/dbus start. As you can see dbus is a script that takes in user’s input (start|stop|restart; first user input is stored in $1).
3. To start dbus-daemon automatically for every boot up insert the word dbus BEFORE network within MODULES(….) array.
4. If dbus is inserted after network, then no network interface will be present. This is because dbus is the medium to communicate with udevd to identify your ethernet interface, if this is inserted after network then udevd cannot find your ethernet interface and will timeout and move on to detect other devices. My ethernet interface was missing after boot, it took me four re-installation to know this fact.
About rc.d sub directory
1. absolute path: /etc/rc.d/<all your scripts>
2. If you want to start a service you can initiate it by /etc/rc.d/sshd start for example. This is provided if your program provides start service script and store it into /etc/rc.d, otherwise you have to write your own bash script.
3. Most of the linux distribution has service scripts stored in /etc/init.d sub directory, they are the same as Arch’s way /etc/rc.d/<script> start|stop|restart.
About window manager
X window, Fluxbox, Openbox and Awesome are examples of window manager.
1. Window manager can run as stand alone without desktop environment to save cpu resources.
2. Can only quit and shut down X, cannot do hibernate, shutdown, suspend and reboot.
3. Window manager let user controls how their Window behaves like minimize, maximize, restore size and close the window. It allows user to control how Window/s look/s like.
4. Provides virtual desktop where you can switch among number of desktops.
5. Let user to control short cuts to invoke window.
6. In essence window manager only takes care of window nothing else, that is to say panels, docking are not window manager’s job.
About desktop manager
KDE, Gnome, XFCE, LXDE, Enlightenment are examples of desktop manager. Only KDE has its own window manager the rest do not.
1. Provide panels to insert your programs for easy invocation of window.
2. Provide docking station to conveniently invoking your window.
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