If you want to get notified when an initscript fails, apply
the following patch to /etc/init.d/rc and /etc/init.d/rcS.


--- /etc/init.d/rc.sysvinit	2001-02-26 13:55:31.000000000 +0100
+++ /etc/init.d/rc	2003-08-05 21:29:09.000000000 +0200
@@ -24,10 +25,10 @@
 startup() {
   case "$1" in
 	*.sh)
-		$debug sh "$@"
+		$debug sh "$@" || /etc/init.d/failed "$@"
 		;;
 	*)
-		$debug "$@"
+		$debug "$@" || /etc/init.d/failed "$@"
 		;;
   esac
 }
--- /etc/init.d/rcS.sysvinit	1999-04-19 23:19:40.000000000 +0200
+++ /etc/init.d/rcS	2001-12-19 01:24:53.000000000 +0100
@@ -47,11 +47,11 @@
 				trap - INT QUIT TSTP
 				set start
 				. $i
-			)
+			) || /etc/init.d/failed $i start
 			;;
 		*)
 			# No sh extension, so fork subprocess.
-			$i start
+			$i start || /etc/init.d/failed $i start
 			;;
 	esac
 done
