The boot process and how/where you can hack it.

1. BIOS (press F2 to setup, or press ESC to select 1st boot device)
2. GRUB loader (/boot/grub/menu.lst. see Install/run rescue console on the EEE )
3. kernel – see Rebuilding the kernel
4. initramfs – see Rebuilding initramfs
5. /sbin/fastinit – this is a binary file and sources is now available in http://cle.linux.org.tw/EeePC/1.0.6 for 701 and http://cle.linux.org.tw/EeePC/1.1 for 900 version. The package name is asus-xxx-core_xxx.tar.gz. YES, normal init and /etc/rc* directories are NOT used. Although you can boot the system with argument INIT=/sbin/init, it will result in a broken system with network, sound, etc not working. Looking into the source code of fastinit, here is an excerpt of commands run by it:

   /sbin/getty 38400 tty3 &
   /usr/bin/touch /tmp/shutdown
   /bin/mount -n -o remount,ro /
   /bin/mount -onoatime -L HOME /home > /dev/null 2>&1
   /sbin/hwclock --hctosys --localtime
   cd /etc/resolvconf/run/interface/%s
   /bin/run-parts --arg=-i /etc/resolvconf/update.d
   /sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 up > /dev/null
   /bin/cat /var/lib/urandom/random-seed >/dev/urandom > /dev/null 2>&1
   /bin/dd if=/dev/urandom of=/var/lib/urandom/random-seed \
   	bs=4096 count=1 >/dev/null 2>&1
   su -c startx -l user &> /dev/null
   /usr/sbin/services.sh &> /dev/null &
   /sbin/iwpriv ath0 radio 0 > /dev/null 2>&1
   /usr/bin/chvt 1 ; synclient TouchpadOff=1 ; clear ; /bin/echo -e "\033[?25l\033[30;40m"
   cp /boot/shutdown.fb /dev/fb/0
   /usr/sbin/alsactl store > /dev/null 2>&1
   /sbin/hwclock --systohc --localtime
   /sbin/unionctl.static / --remove / > /dev/null 2>&1
   

   Note: fastinit has been reimplemented for notes and code; see Eee fastinit reimplementation at hellabs.org.

6. startx → /usr/bin/startsimple.sh
7. /usr/sbin/services.sh – edit this to add “services” which start on boot
8. /etc/fastservices – If you don't feel comfortable with editing /usr/sbin/services.sh, the script refers to a file called /etc/fastservices (doesn't exist by default). You can create or edit this file to add services to the bootup process, one line per service. For example if you have installed Openssh-server, you can add a line to /etc/fastservices simply containing the word ssh. The name you need to add is the name of the startup file for the service, as found in /etc/init.d. This will slightly increase the boot time, but you probably won't notice the difference.