Question

You were introduced to some common administrative commands in this chapter. However, there are other utilities that come with other Linux distributions that were not mentioned in the textbook, such as: linuxconf, LISA, YaST, and TurboUserCfg. Using the Internet, man/info pages, or other reference books as a research resource, write a short paper describing any two of these administrative utilities. Be sure to detail what these utilities do, and what distributions they are typically packaged with. Also, no student is allowed to copy large portions on a source. Each student is required to write in his or her own words what was learned by reading a source.

Answer 1

YaST Command:

YaST Command Line Options

Besides the text mode interface, YaST provides a pure command line interface. To get a list of YaST command line options, enter:

yast -h

Starting the Individual Modules

To save time, the individual YaST modules can be started directly. To start a module, enter:

yast <module_name>

View a list of all module names available on your system with yast -l or yast --list. Start the network module, for example, with yast lan.

Installing Packages from the Command Line

If you know a package name and the package is provided by any of your active installation sources, you can use command line option -i to install the package:

yast -i <package_name>

or

yast --install <package_name>

package_name can be a single short package name, for example gvim which is installed with dependency checking or the full path to an rpm package, which is installed without dependency checking.

Disabling Syncing with rug

Normally, all YaST installation sources are synced with zmd daemon and rug. If you have a problem with syncing between YaST and rug, disable syncing and repair your configuration by removing the problematic source and adding a functional source. To disable syncing, issue the following command:

yast inst_source norug

The command does not switch off syncing permanently.

Command Line Parameters of the YaST Modules

To use YaST functionality in scripts, YaST provides command line support for individual modules. Not all modules have a command line support. To display the available options of a module, enter:

yast <module_name> --help

If a module does not provide command line support, the module is started in text mode and the following message appears:

This YaST2 module does not support the command line interface.

linuxconf:

An interactive configuration and activation utility.

This utility allows you to configure the following topics

• Networking (client)
  • Basic TCP/IP setup
  • Routing
  • DNS location
  • NIS client
  • IPX (novell) setup
  • PPP and SLIP dialout
• Networking (server)
  • Boot services: RARP and DHCP
  • DNS
  • IP Aliasing
  • NFS
  • Mail
  • Uucp
• X11
• User account
• File systems (partitions)
• Boot mode
  • LILO
  • Boot run-level

One key difference between Linuxconf and other configuration utility is that Linuxconf take care of the activation.

As an example, if you elect to make some portion of your hard drive available to other machine (export a file system or a portion of it) via NFS (Network File System), Linuxconf will not only help you entering the configuration information but will start the NFS server.

If you change your mind later and delete the NFS configuration, Linuxconf will stop the NFS server.

2. Command line usage

Linuxconf is an interactive utility. It may be used as a command line utility. It is useful to do script. Furthermore, Linuxconf has several alias allowing you to enter directly into one of its functionality. Here they are.

• domainname Print and set the NIS domainname.
• dnsconf It gets you directly in the main menu of the DNS configurator.
  • dnsconf --newdomain domain [ template-domain]
  • Install a domain in the DNS. Use optionally another domain as a template to fill the various field of the domain definition. This includes the DNS advertising section, the email advertising and the various delays.
  • dnsconf --set host ip ...
  • Install a host definition in the DNS configuration. It will update the domain and the reverse mappings.
  • dnsconf --set host --fromrange range-name
  • Install a host definition, except that Linuxconf allocates the IP itself. It uses the given range to locate the first available IP.
  • dnsconf --setcname host real-host
  • Install a a nickname for a host in the DNS configuration.
  • dnsconf --setfromip host ip
  • Install a host definition in the DNS configuration. It will update the domain and the reverse mappings. Unlike the --set option, this will delete all other host entry which point to this IP number. This functionality is provided as a hook for automatic DNS update from a DHCP server.
  • dnsconf --setmx host
  • domain mailserver .../ Install one or more MX record for a host or domain in the DNS configuration. The order is used to set the preference.
  • dnsconf --setns host
  • domain mailserver .../ Install one or more NS record for a host or domain in the DNS configuration.
  • dnsconf --unset host
  • Remove all reference to a host (A record and PTR record) from the DNS configuration.
• fixperm fixperm make sure the vital files and directories have proper ownership and permissions. Without argument, it prints it command line option.
• fsconf It gets you directly in the file-systems configuration menu.
  • fsconf --check
  • Do some sanity check (and correction) in /etc/fstab.
• hostname Print and set the host name.
• linuxconf Without argument, it simply gets in linuxconf's main menu.
  • linuxconf --archive [sub-system ...]
  • Archive the configuration files of the current system profile version. Optionnaly, you can specify a list of sub-systems to archive. Without further argument, Linuxconf will archive all sub-systems.
  • linuxconf --diff [sub-system ...]
  • Compare the current configuration file with the last revision stored in the archive for the current system profile version. Optionnaly, you can specify a list of sub-systems to process. Without further argument, Linuxconf will process all sub-systems.
  • linuxconf --extract [sub-system ...]
  • Extract the last copy archived of the configuration files of the current system profile version. Optionnaly, you can specify a list of sub-systems to extract. Without further argument, Linuxconf will extract all sub-systems. This effectivly overwrite the configuration file with older copy from the profile archive: Use with care !!!
  • linuxconf --history [sub-system ...]
  • Show the archive log of the all configuration files of the current system profile version. Optionnaly, you can specify a list of sub-systems to process. Without further argument, Linuxconf will process all sub-systems.
  • linuxconf --gui
  • Linuxconf will operate in GUI mode even if it is configured differently (see the features menu).
  • linuxconf --guiproto
  • This tells Linuxconf that it has been started from a GUI front-end, which expect GUI commands. Using this alone on the command line is useless. Here are some examples
  •         remadmin --exec linuxconf --guiproto
  •         remadmin --exec ssh one_server linuxconf --guiproto
  •                         
  • linuxconf --shutdown
  • Jump straight in the shutdown dialog. Useful to setup a button in your X desktop.
  • linuxconf --text
  • Linuxconf will operate in text mode even under X11. This may be useful for under-power workstations, where the text mode is quicker.
• passwd Allows you to change your password, or the password of other users if you are root or knows the root password. "passwd -h" shows the options
• netconf Without argument, will get you into the networking sub-menu of Linuxconf. Here are the command line options.
  • netconf --connect pppsetup [--fore]
  • Establish a PPP connection using the pppsetup specification. Optionnally stays in foreground (--fore option). netconf will terminate (when not using --fore) only when the link is up or the connection has failed. A useful code is return. This allows easy script like this
  •                         #!/bin/sh
  •                         if netconf --connect config
  •                         then
  •                                 you can use the network right away
  •                         else
  •                                 the connection has failed
  •                         fi
  •                         
  • netconf --dialctl
  • This presents the list of all PPP/Slip dialout configurations and show for each ones their status (connected or not). When selecting one, if it is currently not connected, Linuxconf asks if you wish to establish the connection. You need proper privilege or the root password to do that. If the connection is established, then it asks if you wish to disconnect. Again proper privileges are needed. This command line option points to the same function as the "Activate/terminate PPP links" menu entry of the control panel. This command is suitage to include in users's desktop menu.
  • netconf --disconnect pppsetup
  • Terminate a PPP connection.
  • netconf --resetfw
  • Turn off packet filtering (Firewall) completely. This is normally used as an emergency trick to bring back a network to life after applying a "too" drastic fire-walling rule. netconf --update will reactivate theses rules.
  • netconf --runlevel local | client | server
  • Switch the workstation to a different operation mode.
  • netconf --status
  • Check what has to be done to bring the workstation in sync with its configuration.
  • netconf --update
  • Make the configuration file effective (make what netconf --status tells you that have to be done.
• userconf It gets you directly in the user configuration menu. Here are the command line options:
  • userconf --adduser userid group username shell
  • This creates a user account and update (if available) the various disk quota records from defaults. There is no defaults. The HOME (using default base directory) directory is created with proper /etc/skel handling. You may use the passwd command with the -P to set the password for the new account.
  • userconf --deluser userid
  • This deletes an account

3. The WWW interface

Linuxconf may be operated from an Web browser. To access Linuxconf on your machine, point your browser to

http://your_machine:98/

From there, you will have access to the same menu like the normal user interface. You may even set book marks allowing you to get back quickly to one configuration screen later.

3.1 Specific entries to the WWW interface

A special entry point has been created, allowing users to change their own password from a browser. To access this, you must use a special URL. We suggest that you encode this URL in one of your corporate HTML page (change your own password, click here). The URL is

http://your_machine:98/htmlmod:userpass:

4. General information

Linuxconf has been written at Solucorp by Jacques Gelinas (jacques@solucorp.qc.ca).

Comments and bug reports are accepted via email.

Most screens do have a help button. You can access this buttons using the TAB key or directly using the F1 function key.

Some fields have a companion pop-up selection list. These fields are identified with a down pointing arrow at the right end. You can depress the cntl-X key (Control and X at the same time) to activate the pop-up. You can pick a choice and either confirm the selection with the ENTER key or TAB your way to the QUIT button.

The function key F3 escape from any dialog.

5. Mailing list

There are two mailing lists for linuxconf. There are linuxconf@solucorp.qc.ca and linuxconf-announce@solucorp.qc.ca

5.1 linuxconf@solucorp.qc.ca

linuxconf@solucorp.qc.ca is used to ask question and discuss various aspect of linuxconf. To subscribe to this list, send a message to

        linuxconf-request@solucorp.qc.ca

Include the following line in the body of the message

        subscribe linuxconf

Optionnally, you can specify another subscription email address by appending to the line like this

        subscribe linuxconf joe@super-domain.com

You can send message to linuxconf@solucorp.qc.ca. It is possible to send messages without being subscribed

5.2 linuxconf-announce@solucorp.qc.ca

linuxconf-announce is used to send various messages about new releases. This list is not moderated. This means that anyone who have an announce about linuxconf may use it.

To subscribe to linuxconf-announce, send a message to

        linuxconf-announce-request@solucorp.qc.ca

Include the following line in the body of the message

        subscribe linuxconf-announce

Optionnally, you can specify another subscription email address by appending to the line like this

        subscribe linuxconf-announce joe@super-domain.com

Then you can send your announce to linuxconf-announce@solucorp.qc.ca. Please restrict yourself to announce. Questions and comments are more appropriate in the linuxconf mailing list.

5.3 Unsubscribing

Send a message to either

        linuxconf-request@solucorp.qc.ca

        or

        linuxconf-announce-request@solucorp.qc.ca

with the word unsubscribe in the body.