What will happen if i make changes in inittab ?

[Mohammed Haris Khan]

What will happen if I make changes in /etc/inittab file as below: The line to be edited in /etc/inittab file: a::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now
After editing: a::ctrlaltdel:/bin/echo " disabled"

[Michal Kapalka (mikap) · Accepted solution]

hi,

if you like to disable CTRL+ALT+DEL,

them simply comment the line with #

mikap

[Ivan Ferreira]

Probably is just better if you comment that line adding # at the beggining.

Also, you must run init q to refresh the configuration.

[Matti_Kurkela]

After making the change, you must run "init q", "telinit q" or reboot to make the change take effect.

After that, pressing ctrl-alt-del on the system's PC keyboard will produce the text " disabled" on whatever is the current /dev/console output device, instead of executing a controlled reboot.

This is a fairly common modification in setups where Windows and Linux servers are placed near each other, as Ctrl-Alt-Del is a standard part of login procedure in modern Windowses.

You might wish to use the \a escape syntax to make the system beep, to make the "you're typing on the wrong keyboard, silly!" more immediately obvious:

/bin/echo -e "\\a disabled"

MK

[Andrew Cowan]

Lines should be commented using the ":" not "#" in "/etc/inittab".