Replacing init

http://www.fbunet.de/minit.shtml

If you have set up all needed services, you can try to boot your system with ninit the first time.

You should _not_ replace /sbin/init with /sbin/ninit because if your system doesn't boot correctly, you probably won't be able to change back to init.

That's why you should create an own entry in /etc/lilo.conf (or /etc/grub.conf) that is identical with your standard entry except one point: You pass init=/sbin/ninit to the kernel. My /etc/lilo.conf looks like:

prompt
timeout=50
default=ninit
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
lba32
compact

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.17
        label=linux
        read-only
        root=/dev/hda2

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.17
        label=ninit
        read-only
        root=/dev/hda2
        append="init=/sbin/ninit"

The same for grub:

default=0
timeout=10
title Linux (2.4.17)
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.17 ro root=/dev/hda2
title Linux (ninit) (2.4.17)
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.17 ro root=/dev/hda2 init=/sbin/ninit