Description of problem: rc.sysinit is not calling sysctl Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): initscripts-8.45.38-2.el5.src.rpm How reproducible: add entry to /etc/sysctl.conf "kernel.printk = 4 4 1 7" "sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf" at the cli sets this value but on reboot the value of /proc/sys/kernel/printk is back to 6 4 1 7 Steps to Reproduce: 1. add value kernel.printk = 4 4 1 7 to /etc/syscltl.conf 2. issue sysctl -p command 3. reboot and issue command cat /proc/sys/kernel/printk Actual results: 6 4 1 7 Expected results: 4 4 1 7 Additional info: rc.sysinit has a line saying "apply_sysctl" but there is no /sbin/sysctl -e -p /etc/sysctl.conf >/dev/null 2>&1 (though adding this makes no difference)
Assorted things (including the syslog daemon itself) frob this particular value during bootup - this behavior will not be changed in a RHEL minor release. If you need to change this value with sysctl, it needs to be done it in rc.local. This is fixed in RHEL 6, to the best of my knowledge, but it won't be fixed for RHEL 5.