What services can I disable?

[fryem720]

Howdy all. I am running FC2 and KDE 3.3 on an HP zt1175 laptop. I have it hooked up to an external keyboard, an optical mouse and an external hard drive through a usb 2.0 pcmia card, as well as a printer. I don't run a mail server and I don't connect to a network - just the internet. I use it at home and don't take it anywhere.

My computer runs the following services:

BEGIN CODE:

[rob@xxxxxxx]$ /sbin/chkconfig --list | less

readahead_early 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:on 6:off
pcmcia 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
crond 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
xinetd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
iptables 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
autofs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
hpoj 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
httpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
named 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
vncserver 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
sendmail 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
rhnsd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
yum 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
anacron 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
sshd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
ifplugd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
rawdevices 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
xfs 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
syslog 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
smartd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
smb 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
irda 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
gpm 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
cups 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
random 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
postgresql 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
microcode_ctl 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
apmd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
gkrellmd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
portmap 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
mysqld 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
mdmpd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
irqbalance 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
acpid 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
saslauthd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
winbind 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
isdn 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
snmptrapd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
:

END CODE.

What services can I turn off?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

[imdeemvp]

I believe that is totally upto you. You should only have running the services you really need.

[fryem720]

imdeemvp: Yeah, I know it's up to me. That's the beauty of linux, right?

Seriously, though, I should have made my post a little clearer. Although I've been using linux for about six months, I am still quite the newbie, so I really don't know which services are the ones that I need. Given how I use my system, can you suggest which services it should be safe for me to disable?

On another note, is there a link anywhere to a list of all the services typically found on a linux box (or at least one running fc2), what they do, and what might be safe to disable?

Thanks for your help!

[pigpen]

Here's my list of services in runlevel 5 which I use almost exclusively on this particular machine:

[pigpen@pc50511 pigpen]$ /sbin/chkconfig --list | grep "5:on"
microcode_ctl   0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
gpm             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
random          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cpuspeed        0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
messagebus      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
smartd          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
sysstat         0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
readahead_early 0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:on    6:off
atd             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
anacron         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
readahead       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:on    6:off
ntpd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
acpid           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
crond           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
syslog          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
apmd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
xfs             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

You definitely don't need ntpd. gpm is only needed if you use the mouse in a virtual console. If you don't want to control your laptop via internet you can also turn off the sshd.
It's very likely that you need pcmcia and cupsd for printing. Hope that helps.

[pparks1]

fryem720,

If you loaded one of the X windows systems, you can go in and get a little information on what each of these items do. I am using gnome and you go into Applications, System Settings, Server Settings, Services.

I know for a fact that I disabled the following
anacron because my machine is always on
apmd because I run on a desktop and don't need battery management
cpuspeed because my cpu does not support this feature
cups because I don't have a need to print
irqbalance because I don't use a multi processor system
isdn because I don't have a need for these services
lm_sensors motherboard doesn't support the sensors
mDNSResponder because it wasn' needed
kudzu because I don't add hardware to my system (usually)
pcmcia because my desktop doesn't have pcmcia capability

So, just read the description and try shutting off what you don't need. You can always turn it back on later if you find that something you need no longer works.

[imdeemvp]

Pigpen's example sounds fair enough.

[fryem720]

Thanks everyone. I'll play with this a bit and report back in a day or so.

[sej7278]

definitely disable sendmail - what a stupid default it is to have that enabled on fedora!

[pparks1]

Actually having sendmail is not a terrible idea. With sendmail enabled, the system is able to send you emails about crontab and logwatch to the local root account. Always a good idea to look through results of logwatch for break-in attempts, etc.

the default sendmail config is to not accept email from anything other than localhost

[alphonsebrown]

Originally Posted by pparks1

fryem720,

cpuspeed because my cpu does not support this feature
irqbalance because I don't use a multi processor system

how to see that my CPU supports cpuspeed ? it's AMD athlon XP thoughbread 266MHZ @ 300 current

how to make cpuspeed behave properly?

[jgionet]

is there a list somewhere of what each service actually does? (description/importance??)

[alphonsebrown]

Originally Posted by jgionet

is there a list somewhere of what each service actually does? (description/importance??)

yes the former exists while the subsequent is up to you

/main/sysytem settings/more settings/services this is gnome for kde was simillar asair

[tashirosgt]

/main/system settings/more settings/services does have brief information. But most people would find facts like:
iiim is "a major component of IIIMSF" of little help. It seems to me that people have no choice except to look up each service on the web.

I'll make the bold statement: No, there is no useful guide that explains what services are needed. (And I'll be happy if I am contradicted.)

[dEEM]

Originally Posted by pparks1

So, just read the description and try shutting off what you don't need. You can always turn it back on later if you find that something you need no longer works.

Where do i find a description for the services listed in chkconfig?
Thanks!

[paxromana]

here are some links that might help you out
http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/startupman/
http://www.hosef.org/wiki/DisablingLinuxServices