Why chkconfig is not available in ubuntu 12.10

Question

I can not use chkconfig tools in ubuntu 12.10

It's a very useful tools to configure the service to autostart or not. Why it's not available now.

Answer 1

sysv-rc-conf is an alternate option for ubuntu

usage is almost the same,

install : sudo apt-get install sysv-rc-conf

apache2 auto start sysv-rc-conf apache2 on

check the status sysv-rc-conf --list apache2

Answer 2

The Upstart equivalent of chkconfig is the update-rc.d. There's some info on how to use it in the UbuntuBootupHowto linked in L. D. James's answer.

Admittedly, this tool is anything but friendly; it tends to expose the ugly underbelly of SysV init with all it's gory runlevel and priority blackmagic. I have almost never managed to get it to do what I want in the first go. chkconfig did a fantastic job of abstracting all those numbers away and providing a simple, usable interface that was loved by all. Nevertheless, it was always lipstick on a pig.

It's a brave new world and I would suggest you put in some time towards learning how Upstart works so that you can wire new jobs using that. For existing packages/applications that still provide you with SysV init scripts, update-rc.d should allow you to do everything that chkconfig did, except for one usecase. update-rc.d provides no clean way to see what the current status of a given service is, i.e., there is no equivalent of chkconfig --list. For this particular case, I'd suggest ls -l /etc/rc*.d/*${service_name}.

HTH

Answer 3

The Ubuntu 12.10 chkconfig package is available for manual install at: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/quantal/+package/chkconfig

For information and examples on using the "new" upstart look at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpstartHowto and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBootupHowto

Answer 4

As of 12.04, chkconfig could be installed using sudo apt-get install chkconfig. I've used it only rarely. I would recommend using Upstart.

Jobservice, along with jobs-admin is a gui based tool for handling some upstart scripts if that is your preference. It can be installed from the software center of by running sudo apt-get install jobservice jobs-admin from a terminal.

If I recall, there did not appear to be an easy way to add new jobs from the GUI.

Answer 5

chkconfig is a redhat-ism. In Ubuntu we use upstart instead of sysvinit as used by redhat.