Frederick Abrams <fred at ...> writes: > ... *** Look at /etc/rc.sysinit, by which time proc is already mounted: ... # Configure kernel parameters update_boot_stage RCkernelparam <================= insert debugging statements BEFORE sysctl sysctl -e -p /etc/sysctl.conf >/dev/null 2>&1 for file in /etc/sysctl.d/* ; do is_ignored_file "$file" && continue test -f "$file" && sysctl -e -p "$file" >/dev/null 2>&1 done <================= insert debugging statements AFTER sysctl You can modify this script and add debugging statements before and after this code (marked <===== ), like: echo "debugging BEFORE sysctl" >> /test.out ls -l /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max >> /test.out 2>&1 echo "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max=" >> /test.out cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max >> /test.out 2>&1 and repectively echo "debugging AFTER sysctl" >> /test.out ls -l /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max >> /test.out 2>&1 echo "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max=" >> /test.out cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max >> /test.out 2>&1 *** Also, remember that: - sysctl can load from any other file than sysctl.conf during boot time - 'sysctl -w' can write to and modify proc - echo "..." > /proc/... style entries can do the same from anywhere So, it may be prudent to scan for these entries in: grep -ir sysctl /etc/rc* grep -ir sysctl /etc/init* grep -ir sysctl /etc/sysconfig grep -ir sysctl /root/ or, just to pick one of your cases: grep -ir net.ipv4.netfilter.ip_conntrack_max /etc grep -ir net.ipv4.netfilter.ip_conntrack_max /root *** Last thing to consider. Note that in that script snippet above there is this line ... update_boot_stage RCkernelparam ... The function update_boot_stage deals with Plymouth. RHGB stands for RedHat Grapical Boot. You can try to remove it (and "quiet" too for a good measure) from Grub kernel boot line, by pressing the 'a' key at Grub startup and editing the kernel command line. Btw, any funny Grub kernel boot parameters beyond that ? JB