Where is dnsmasq started and configured during the system startup under Ubuntu Lucid server?
I have not been able to find any startup script or service that actually starts and sets up dnsmasq.
I would like to get rid of the dhcp service, or prevent it from starting altogether.
The dnsmasq startup script is /etc/init.d/dnsmasq. It's called by symlinks from the /etc/rcX.d/ directories, for example: /etc/rc2.d/S15dnsmasq
If you don't want it to start, you can remove the package with sudo apt-get remove dnsmasq. Or you can leave it installed and just remove all symlinks from the /etc/rcX.d/ directories with the command: update-rc.d -f dnsmasq remove.
You can also edit /etc/default/dnsmasq and change "ENABLED=1" to "ENABLED=0" which will also tell it not to run in daemon mode.
Lastly, you can disable just the DHCP function by editing /etc/dnsmasq.conf and adding lines for your interfaces that you don't want DHCP on by adding, for example: "no-dhcp-interface=eth0". You might do this if you still wanted to use the DNS functionality.
Note: sometimes dnsmasq is installed as dnsmasq-base instead of dnsmasq in order to work with other packages such as NetworkManager (when sharing an internet connection) or Libvirt (for giving addresses to virtual machines).
