The second place to look for information is in the /var/log/messages file. This file is recorded by the syslog daemon, which accepts input from libraries, daemons, and the kernel. Each line in the messages file is timestamped. This file is a good place to look for errors that occurred during the init scripts stage of booting. For example, to see the last few messages from the nameserver:

# grep named /var/log/messages | tail -3
Jan 12 20:17:41 time /usr/sbin/named[350]: listening on IPv4 interface lo, 127.0.0.1#53
Jan 12 20:17:41 time /usr/sbin/named[350]: listening on IPv4 interface eth0, 10.0.0.1#53
Jan 12 20:17:41 time /usr/sbin/named[350]: running