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In this hour you'll learn how to use Red Hat Software's graphic system-administration utilities. These easy-to-use programs are an efficient and handy way to configure and maintain your system. You'll quickly learn why many Linux users prefer the Red Hat Linux distribution, and why several of the tools, such as the rpm command, or the Red Hat Package Manager, have become standard tools in the Linux system administrator's toolbox.
This collection of Red Hat tools proves that Linux system management is becoming easier, and is catching up with the graphic system administration tools provided by commercial UNIX operating systems. In fact, if you have experience with any other systems, you may find the Red Hat tools easier to use.
This section discusses Otto Hammersmith's control-panel, through which you can access eight system administrator tools. You must run the X Window System in order to use the control-panel command, which you'll find under the /usr/bin directory. You'll also need to be logged in as the root operator to use all but one of control-panel's tools.
To start the control-panel command, which uses files under the /usr/lib/rhs directory, type its name on the command line of an X11 terminal window.
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# control-panel &
This command line starts the control-panel command. A vertical window with large buttons appears. You can select different tools by moving your cursor over a button and pressing the left mouse button. You also can change control-panel's window to display horizontally through its File menu (see Figure 22.1).
| TIME SAVER |
The fstool utility is also part of the control-panel command, but according to Red Hat Software, you should instead use the cabaret command (discussed later in this hour in the section "Maintaining Your Filesystem with the cabaret Command"). The cabaret command also is available through the setup utility. |
Figure 22.1.
The control-panel
command is used to
run and display Red
Hat system administration
tools you can use
as the root operators to
manage your system.
Some of the control-panel tools have built-in help. For information about the control-panel command, read its manual page.
As a system administrator, you may find yourself adding, deleting, or changing users and user information. If you don't want to use the adduser, passwd, chsh, chgrp, and chfn commands (discussed in Hour 20, "Basic System Administration"), you can use the usercfg command (see Figure 22.2). This graphic tool presents a dialog box that enables you to implement the following tasks:
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Run this command by clicking the usercfg button in the control-panel window, or by starting a terminal window and typing the following:
# usercfg
Figure 22.2.
The usercfg command is
a graphic interface to
several command-line
system administration
commands.
)
The tksysv command, by Donnie Barnes, is a run-level editor for Linux. While you don't need to know all of the technical details about run-levels (you can find a description in the /etc/inittab file), you should know that this tool changes which system services are started or stopped when you log in at the console, run the X Window System, or reboot your system into the single-user mode for system maintenance.
The tksysv command presents a dialog box with a list of services on the left and five columns on the right, with each column representing a run level.
| CAUTION |
You should definitely read the tksysv command's built-in help, accessed through the command's Help menu. Make sure you know what you're doing, because stopping services can have a drastic effect by potentially disabling PPP connections, printing, or other system features you normally need. |
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Start tksysv by clicking on the Runlevel Editor button in the control-panel window, or by starting a terminal window and typing the following:
# tksysv
The timetool command is used to set or reset your system's date and time. You also can set your system to use a 24-hour clock. When you use timetool, you'll see a dialog box that enables you to set the date and time. When you select a portion of the date or time, the portion is highlighted in red (if you're using a color monitor, of course). Change the value by clicking the up or down arrow in the dialog box. This tool can be especially handy if you live in an area using daylight savings time!
To use the timetool command, select the Date and Time button from the control-panel, or start the command from a terminal window by typing the following:
# timetool
Details about using the printtool command, used to install and set up your system's printer(s), are in Hour 15, "Preparing Documents."
The netcfg command is a convenient way for system administrators to easily configure networking services and devices (see Figure 22.3). It's not necessary to go into the details of network configuration, or to discuss using this command in great depth, but you should know that this command installs networking services, such as Point-to-Point Protocol or Serial Line Interface Protocol connections. This is a handy tool you can use to set the hostname of your computer, add domain nameserver addresses for connecting to your Internet service provider, configure your system's loopback network device (necessary if you want to run the Common Desktop Environment, discussed in Hour 8, "Exploring Other X11 Window Managers"), or add other network services for your users.
Start the netcfg command through the control-panel, or by typing its name on the command line:
# netcfg &