If you get the error while starting vsFTPd, which reads somewhat like this:

[root@fed ~]# /etc/init.d/vsftpd start
Starting vsftpd for extern: 500 OOPS: vsftpd: not configured for standalone, must be started from inetd
[FAILED]

Don`t panic. Normally inetd is not included on a default Fedora 8 installation. The default network daemon used is the xinetd. So starting vsftpd from inetd is ruled out of question. So what you do to fix the problem is this:

Open in a text editor, your /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file as root. Now locate the line which reads listen=. Set the value of this listen directive to YES, which should now read as listen=YES . Make sure, the line containing this directive is un-commented. This sets vsFTPd for running in the standalone mode. If you notice, the same has been mentioned in the comments area for the listen directive in the same config file. This shows that most of your linux troubleshooting can be done by suitably tinkering the proper .conf file.