- Start the devfs daemon if devfs is used
- Mount the /proc filesystem
- Issue a "welcome" message to the console
- Set the console log level
- Unmount initrd
- Set the system clock
- Set the hostname
- Initialize the USB (Universal Serial Bus) controller and HID (Human Interface Device) components
- In the case of an unclean shutdown, run fsck on the root partition
- Remount the root filesystem read/write
- Initialize the LVM (Logical Volume Manager)
- Activate swap partitions
- Clear and re-initialize /etc/mtab
- If it exists, run /etc/rc.modules to load modules
- If VxVM (VERITAS Volume Manager) is installed, start it
- Check non-root filesystems
- Mount other filesystems
- Start the graphical boot display program
- Check filesystem quotas
- Run a number of initiallization scripts, if present
- /usr/sbin/kbdconfig
- /usr/sbin/passwd
- /usr/sbin/netconfig
- /usr/sbin/timeconfig
- /usr/sbin/authconfig
- /usr/sbin/ntsysv
- Delete some lock files
- Initialize the serial ports
- Handle SCSI tape
- Load USB storage
- Start the firewall
Source: http://glennastory.net/boot/sysinit.html