Linux systems provide 10 runlevels, from 0 to 9. Conventionally only seven, from 0-6 are used though.

init 0 halts the system while init 6 reboots the system. Init 1 runs the system with most basic of the services. Now init 1 is something that I used to think can be used only for system maintenance and no real work. But that perception of mine changed today. You can run the entire webserver in init 1. Today one of our internal servers “delta” had some problem with its message bus daemon. Messagebus in turns calls dbus-daemon.

From http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus

D-Bus is a message bus system, a simple way for applications to talk to one another. In addition to interprocess communication, D-Bus helps coordinate process lifecycle; it makes it simple and reliable to code a “single instance” application or daemon, and to launch applications and daemons on demand when their services are needed.

Ok, so there was some problem starting this messagebus service and as this service was configured in init 2,3,5, the system won’t boot completely but rather be stuck at starting messagebus :(. This is a fedora 9 server as of now! I waited for as long as a couple of hours for it to start but it simply wont. And other time it will just start off as if nothing had happened!

Anyways, so we needed the server urgently in the morning coz festember billing system is hosted on delta. I then started the system in single user mode. Then went to init 1 to see if something can be done. I started sshd, network, httpd and mysqld services. And voila, the webservices of delta were up and running. And we could also use the entire services of delta using ssh -XCYP!

wow! So as much as I can understand, runlevels only define the default services that will be started. It doesnt hamper any other aspect of the system.Only the ldap users are not accessible as of now

Hail init 1!

Other things that I did while trying to start the messagebus. I actually edited the init files! System files that I would normally not even think of editing. But thats the power of linux. It lets you do any and everything as long as you know what you want and what you need to do

I’m sure that many of the fellow Nittians will be looking forward to breaking their blogging dormancy with the culmination of the most awaited event in college life – the one that affirms your illusion that you are an engineer. So am I. So here go the details of the trip to Trichy where I went yesterday to collect the most valuable paper in my life so far.

I had booked a ticket to Trichy in KPN travels (Knowing People’s Needs or K. P. Natarajan Travels, whatever you want) and was waiting in the office reading “The Brothers Karamazov”. Within about 30 minutes, I could see Kutty (Buddha mil gaya), PK and Srinath enter the office. That’s not all, About 8 more fellow Nittians were to travel in the same bus. At 10, we boarded the KA 11 A 9199. It was a long (10 hours) and sleepless journey where any hope of a slight sleep was promptly shattered by the cries of “Bathroom poravangallam polaam (Thou shalt ease yourself)” by the bus boy. Looking at its brighter side, we could wish Srinath on his birthday exactly at midnight. The talks later ranged from media criticism to mythology, with “guess who” contributing the maximum.

At about 07:!5:36, we decided to get down at the Chatram bus stand and take a taxi to the college (incidentally, the cool song “Taxi Taxi” is running as I type). The taxi went through unknown areas in Trichy and believe it or not, we saw a Kaveri with water! (Yes, it was Trichy only). The cloyingly sweet song “Kangal Irandal” from Subramaniapuram was played adding to my discomfort (tune to SS Music to know why). The taxi reached Lapis and we were quick to dump the luggage at Suren’s room. We got ready fast and reached the EEE department to collect the convocation gowns but skipped the long queue for lunch tokens.

We met quite a few batch mates there including Kaushik Ram, Prasanna, Asish and Mithilji.  We then proceeded to the only open eatery – The Buhari canteen (Uyarthara Asaiva unavagam) and had breakfast. We assembled back at Barn by 10 and took out allotted seats after wearing the crazy gown (Batman meets the Yellow power ranger) that would make any superhero wince. I also met ARS, who was sporting a conventionally fashionable (and hence unconventional for him, though the experimentation continued) hair style The event began at 10:30 and carried on with its dose of speeches and statistics. Medals were awarded for the class toppers, but not before the seated guys got their certificates. I think the ‘inspiring’ speeches need not be covered by me; instead you can do a Google search and hit “I’m feeling lucky”. I’ll just mention that Mr. A. Karthikeyan of EEE department was the only M.S. graduate from the college this year.

After an asynchronized throwing of neckties into the air, we gathered the dusty gown and accessories from the ground and returned them for a reimbursement (Corporate culture showing up). This was followed by the lunch again at Buhari’s and I returned to Suren’s room. I gathered my bag after 10 minutes and set out for what turned out to be a long walk. Me and PK got caught in the rain and somehow reached the Snacky and waited for the rain to subside. This took time equal to the eating of 1 Pav Bhaji. I then went to the Garnet Hostel to meet the third year guys. But before that, me, Srinath and Kaushik Ram spend some unintentionally hilarious scenes from the Vijay starrer “Thirupa-cheeeeeee!”. After the body and mind has relaxed I went to meet the guys – VK, Chidanand, Siddharth and Udaya - as cheerful as ever. I also went through Chidanand’s canvas paintings and whoa, they were just terrific.

The excruciating heat, that I would have labeled “pleasant” a few months ago, had already drained off all the energy. At about 5, I reached the EEE department to meet Rahul Govindan who was visibly vexed over the placement scenario. Vijesh also turned up and I was lucky to meet him there. After ridiculing each other for some 20 minutes, we dispersed. I then had a cursory rendezvous with the faculty of EEE department and left for Garnet at 6. I bid farewell to the third year guys and went to Pearl to check out if I had missed anyone. On the way, I met Piyush Srivastava and talked to him for about 10 minutes. After making sure that I did not forget any final year present, I went over to the Nescafe shop outside Pearl.

I ordered a Maggi there and started to enjoy the panoramic view of the sunset. As I was standing confined within the fences of the shop, ironically, a strange sense of freedom crept up. Indeed, the umbilical cord was cut off from the (Alma) Mater (hehe, I hear your tsks and mchs…). Standing near the same post where we had discussed, a few months before, innovative ways to kill the wasps inside it, I was now sure that a return to the campus was unsure. I had finished the soggy Maggi by now and went to order something that many would not dare to in Bangalore. “Anna, oru Ice Tea”.

I started walking towards the bus stand as the sweat started to go into my head. I, again, met Vijesh and Rahul at the snacky and it was 7 when I left the campus. I took the first bus to the city and the headache had already started to show. The journey was very tiring (so tiring that even now I feel tired to think of a shocking adjective) and I managed to reach the KPN office at 8:35 after having 4 idlis at Hotel Saravana Bhavan (Not THE HSB, this is Oattal SaravaNa Bavan).  I dozed off at the office for about an hour and woke up just in time to board the bus. Again, I could meet a few Nittians on the bus, notably Alo, who I had not met since 8th semester. The sleep that day was uninterrupted except for a stray call from a person named Bharath Subramanian* who called me at 10:30 and started talking about Wireless connectivity and Wall-E.

I reached Madiwala, Bengaluru at 0700 today after a decent sleep and took an auto back through the radically different streets, amazingly, never once stopping at a traffic signal.


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*: star