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There are two ways to start the TurtleBot:

a. Using the linux service:

sudo service turtlebot start

The service starts the TurtleBot drivers in the background by launching the turtlebot.launch file located in /etc/ros/electric (or fuerte or whatever distro you are running). The advantage of using the service is that it launches a file in user editable space, so you can configure and change your TurtleBot launch files without changing the debian install. You need to do this when calibrating your robot or changing the URDF when you add an arm or move the sensor locations.

b. Using the default launch file:

roslaunch turtlebot_bringup minimal.launch

This launch file starts the TurtleBot with the default configuration (default URDF and calibration). Typically you should not edit this file because it is the default installation on your computer and typically if you need to add sudo to edit the file then you shouldn't do it.

Unfortunately I don't know a good way to look at the output of a launch file running in the background. I recently added status to the turtlebot_dashboard to improve visibility into what was happening in the background.

To stop the service from running at startup you need to remove /etc/init/turtlebot.conf. If you look at the install.sh script in turtlebot_bringup/upstart you'll see how the service is installed on your TurtleBot.