Yup. Remember: alarms have to sound If my list is right, the following things run when ACTDEAD: welcome (just echo) rcS dsme dme kernel-power sshd actdead (just echo) cmt-act-dead (kill modem) console (serial console if R&D) dbus-actdead (same as "dbus", swap USER/ACT_DEAD start/stop) alsaped (ALSA policy daemon) dsme-dbus hal rcS-late ohmd sgx xomap mce n900-fmrx-enabler (yup, enable FM receiver ohmd (yes, it's activated twice..) pulseaudio clock-daemon hildon-control-panel-personalisation (make sure we have a theme!) rc-clean-fail-thumbnail (absurd in ACTDEAD mode) xsession and then, when X is up and running: 00settings 01dbus (dbus session, system already started) 03alarmd (get them alarms ringing! 10sapwood 14osso-systemui 15matchbox (start WM, why? because we can [*] 99initdone [*] OK, I suppose matchbox is started (and the theme framework setup) so that you get the familiar alarm UI if necessary. When I have some more time I will make a post for each system service (or for a group of them) with an explanation of what it does. I guess a Wiki would be the best way, but I just can't find a way of creating an article Add.: and more importantly, the reboot and shutdown process has to be duly documented.