Ubuntu Wiki

Disable start of unnecessary services during boot

For convenience of the inexperienced user, a lot of services are started during boot. This often includes services which you never need, either because you just don't want them (e. g. ntpdate, setting your system time from a time server, which delays the boot time quiet a bit especially if you are not on-line when booting) or you simply don't have the device (e. g. the HP printing and scanning system which is of no use for you if you don't own a HP device).

While it generally does not harm to have this services started, they increase the boot time which is just annoying. So this is what you gain by deactivating those services: a reduced boot time.BR Performancewise you will hardly notice a difference when less services are running, unless you have a small system with very limited resources.

A simple tool to manage the start of services is bum, the boot-up manager.BR There might be other tools out which allow more fine graining, but bum is easy to use and will do the job just fine for most users. If you really need to alter more services try sysv-rc-conf, a ncurses based tool, which gives you control over all services.BR You may have to install the package 'bum' first, either via synaptic or with the usualBR

sudo apt-get install bum

It needs root privileges to run, so start it withBR

sudo bum

It takes quiet a while to start up. Don't get impatient it is most likely not crashed.

Within bum you can activate/deactivate the start of a service by simply clicking on the checkbox at the begin of the line for each of the listed services.BR It might be sufficient to work on the tab active after start. However, you will see a short explanation for each service, which might help to identify services you don't need, when you switch to the 'Services' tab.BR When unchecking a service (= don't start at next boot) which is already running, you are asked whether it should be stopped.

A word of caution, though.BR Be careful when deactivating services. At worst case, the wrong service not started might render your system unable to boot/run properly. For instance it is most likely not a good idea to prevent the cupsys service from being started, if you want to print via cups.

So if in doubt: leave the service activated !

Get more information about it first. You can always come back and deactivate it later.