I want xampp to start and stop when the server is rebooted but the info below is not all that clear to a linux nub
where do i type this part Simply type egrep :initdefault: /etc/inittab. i did it in the linux terminal but got no answer from it
After I rebooted my Linux box XAMPP stopped running! How can I fix this?
Correct. That's normal Linux behaviour (which applies to any other Unix-like system. It's the admin's job to make sure a particular application is started at bootup.
There is no real standard way to configure the boot process of a Linux system, but most of them should allow you to start XAMPP at boot time using the following steps.
First, find out your default runlevel.
Simply type egrep :initdefault: /etc/inittab.
You should now see a line containing a number between two colons.
In most cases 3 or 5 (2 if you're using Debian).
Go into the directory which configures this runlevel. If for example your runlevel is 3, then you have to change into the /etc/rc.d/rc3.d directory:
cd /etc/rc.d/rc3.d
If your system didn't provide /etc/rc.d/rc3.d please try also /etc/init.d/rc3.d and /etc/rc3.d.
Now carry out the actual configuration by typing:
ln -s /opt/lampp/lampp S99lampp
ln -s /opt/lampp/lampp K01lampp
Now XAMPP should start and stop automatically if you boot or shutdown your machine.