Red Hat, as well as most of its derivatives, uses run levels listed below:

0 Halt
1 Single user
2 Not used/User definable
3 Full multi-user, console logins only
4 Not used/User definable
5 Full multi-user, with display manager as well as console logins
6 Reboot
Oracle can be started on run level 3 and remains up at 4 and 5. It should go dow
n when server is moving to levels 0,1,2 and 6.
Which services are started at which run levels can be managed with the chkconfig
tool, which keeps its configuration files in /etc/rc.d directory.
Use following command to list all the services controlled by chkconfig and wheth
er they are on/off for each runlevel:
/sbin/chkconfig list
You will notice that usually Oracle is not listed among the services. We are goi
ng to fix that.
Here is how to configure your server to take care of Oracle:
1. As user oracle mark Oracle SID entry at /etc/oratab as auto start (change N to
Y).
2. As user oracle modify $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart in the following manner:
Find the line with ORACLE_HOME_LISTNER=(somewhere around line 78)
If it reads like this:
ORACLE_HOME_LISTNER=/ade/vikrkuma_new/oracle
then change it to read:
ORACLE_HOME_LISTNER=$ORACLE_HOME
Do not ask me who vikrkuma is and why he is so important that Oracle ships i
nstallation media for years with his name engraved in the core of a major script
. Just take time to thank people that spent much time debugging the stuffy stuff
.