I am proud to announce the release of linuxconf 1.6. This release incorporate many enhancement and features. The last official release was 1.3. Since, a major user interface rework has been done and many smaller features were added. Release 1.4 and 1.5 were only released on the linuxconf mailing list. It has been uploaded to sunsite in the pub/Linux/Incmoning directory and should move to /pub/Linux/System/admin/linuxconf-1.6.src.tar.gz. Binaries for both elf and a.out systems are provided at the same place. The major enhancement is the http mode. With this, you can now operate linuxconf using any web browser supporting forms. This makes administration of large linux networks a wonderful experience. You can navigate in linuxconf and even set bookmarks in your browser. Ultimatly one can build his corporate administration page with link to different part of linuxconf on different linux servers or workstation. While there exist other systems doing administration using http/html, none has the depth of linuxconf. See below (what is linuxconf). Here are the changes from 1.3 to 1.6 Linuxconf 1.6 ============= Linuxconf's http mode is now operationnal (see info below in linuxconf 1.4) on how to install manually in /etc/inetd.conf and friends. This features was the primary goal after the other official release 1.3. A new menu under networking let you control which machines or networks have access to linuxconf using the http protocol. To achieve proper operation under http mode and to enhance in general the user interface, several dialog have been reworked. The SAVE button is gone from all dialogs. Each time a sub-dialog is "accepted", this imply a save of the underlying database. For example, when creating a new user account and accepting it, /etc/passwd is immediatly updated. For a related raeson, the DEL button has moved from list items into the items dialog. This is nicer to operate this way (You know what you are deleting). Rework of the install script to support RedHat systems and Slackware. ------ --------- The install script is used both for the binary distribution and the source distribution install. It checks if linuxconf has already been installed and exit if so. Start for a module concept where modules tailored for management of non "standard" (Place where there are alternatives at least) can be loaded dynamicly. The first project is the apache http server. Not operationnal yet. There is a special license for modules. Because of the module concept, the basic support for httpd has been removed from linuxconf: It is not starting httpd anymore. askrunlevel do some work prior to setup its menu. -start kerneld if available (if it not already running) -mount file system which are not yet mounted When probing to configure (or find out what has to be configured), linuxconf does now a check for DNS connectivity. It sends a request to the DNS and expect an answer in 4 seconds. If the answer does not come in that time, linuxconf assume that there is a problem and offers you to stop the process. This avoid useless very long delay at boot time and will tell you why your machine looks frozen sometime. This behavior can be disabled for those who don't have full time connectivity to a DNS (Standalone home machine for one). See "Networking/Configure Name server specification (DNS)" menu option for detail. The update of the serial number of a primary dns table is now smarter. Instead of incrementing it once per change/session, linuxconf ask the running DNS (named) about the current "in memory" serial number and update from there. This was used especially for the http mode where every host you add to the DNS is done in an independant session (as seen from linuxconf); For it, it sounds like you quit linuxconf each time you enter a new host. When probing for thing to mount/remount in /etc/fstab, the proc filesystem was not checked. Start of a control panel in the main menu of linuxconf. It is now possible to -reboot shutdown -activate the changes in linuxconf without quiting This is especially convenient for web mode (http). Linuxconf 1.5 ============= Linuxconf 1.5 is also an intermediate release for testers. Unfortunatly, many new features of 1.4 were so needed that linuxconf 1.4 was put in production. To differentiate "too many" 1.4 variant, 1.5 was built. The major difference between 1.4 and 1.5 is that the html mode is much more usable. There are still some dialog that do not work (user management and DNS at least). It is much better and gives you a feel for it. It properly ask for a password when needed. HTML mode install the same way as with 1.4. (See below) To support HTML further, one key modification has to be made to many dialog: The SAVE button is gone. The sequence ADD-EDIT-ACCEPT-SAVE is now simpler. Some dialog still have a SAVE buttons. This is why the HTML mode is not complete. For exemple, when entering a new user, as soon as you have "accepted" the dialog, the user is created. The button DEL has now been moved directly in the dialog editing the object you want to delete. This is nicer and more compatible with the HTML mode. -Sometime linuxconf was failing to do an automatic boot if the fsck sequence was very long. fixed! -Some more permissions are checked on special directories and pppd. -/etc/conf.linuxconf is now 600 for enhance privacy about configuration features. -The word slave is managed properly in /etc/named.boot. Linuxconf do nothing with it though. -A new feature IP_RANGE in the DNS management. You can "document" your network by telling linuxconf which IP number range are available like this 206.123.21.2-20 serveurs 206.123.21.21-50 X terminals 206.123.21.51-126 Workstation net 1 206.123.21.128-254 Workstation net 2 When entering a new IP number for a DNS entry, linuxconf computes the first available IP number in each range. Using the combo box field (ctrl-X) you can pick the proper one. No more guessing for a free one. -Better validation in the dialog for filter program in /etc/aliases. -Basic support to select procmail instead of deliver as local delivry agent. -Complex user routing is now much more proven and better validated. Things like these can easily be done (with the same dialog as 1.4) info@virtual1.com ->info1 (local user) info@virtual2.com ->joe@anotherplace.com 999-9999@fax ->faxsend (A local email to fax filter) -Start of support for apache httpd. No operationnal yet. -A nug in the firewalling code was inserting the wrong number of ports in the kernel. fixed. -ppp client management: the lcp-echo feature of pppd is can be configured with linuxconf. It is worth it btw. It has completly hidden a problem with a buggy ppp connexion (Was it the modem, who cares, it recover by itself now). -Enhanced defaults for ppp client configuration. -ip alias can be set on the loopback device (LO) and this will be activated even in local (no network) mode. Perfect to simulate a network during a demo, with a single computer. -Some work has been started on user privilege. When done, this will split the different task done in linuxconf into many categories. When configuring a user account, you will see a checkbox for each. This allows you to delegate some administrative power to some users. Using his own password for exemple, a user will be allowed to create POP account but won't be allowed to create normal accounts. This is work in progress and does not show yet at the user interface level. -Support for SHADOW password. Mostly, linuxconf detect /etc/shadow and change the user account dialog and add new fields in it. The password is then store in /etc/shadow and the different field of /etc/shadow are properly managed. This does not require a recompile. Linuxconf will be always /etc/shadow aware. You still need to install the shadow package to get the new logins and friends. Linuxconf 1.4 ============= Linuxconf 1.4 is an intermediate release for testers including different things but mostly the html interface (configure your system straight with a web browser). To install linuxconf so it operates this way, just write in /etc/services (choose the port you wish) linuxconf 98/tcp in /etc/inetd.conf linuxconf stream tcp wait root /bin/linuxconf linuxconf --http and then do netconf --update linuxconf start on demand. From you web browser, open http://your_host:98/ and click, click ... Comments are welcome on this. -IPX interface management/configuration. Huge but simple dialog. -Some correction to pseudo-tty permission checking at boot time (Some pseudo-tty work not checked). -Permission and mode work not checked correctly for special devices -fastab editing was not providing access to the two last field (dump and fsck order). Now it does allows you to plug a number there in the dialog. -Email alias: Linuxconf was checking for duplicate case sensitivly. It has to be case insensitive. It is now. -One nice addition to mail configuration: Complex (user) routing. It is now possible to solve this kind of problem directly with linuxconf using a simple dialog. -your machine is the mail server of the domain virtual.com -You want to redirect all email for info@virtual.com to bozo@your_competitor.net Previously, linuxconf was only supporting special routing at the domain level. Using this, it is now possible to redirect a complete domain to a single user somewhere else. -/etc/sendmail.cf is now optionnaly generated even if you change the configuration. There is an option in the menu just for that. -All commands used by linuxconf are now visible in a menu in the main menu. You can interactivly change the path and the argument linuxconf is using to call the command. No need to recompile or to play in /usr/lib/linuxconf/conf.daemons anymore. -Firewalling now work with the latest kernels. The user interface has not changed though. Here is the ANNOUNCE file of linuxconf telling what it is Linuxconf 1.6 Introduction This is the seventh release of Linuxconf, a new admin tool for Linux. After more than two years of development at Solucorp, we are quite proud of it. It is available from sunsite.unc.edu as /pub/Linux/system/Admin/linuxconf-1.6.src.tar.gz /pub/Linux/system/Admin/linuxconf-1.6.bin-aout.tar.gz /pub/Linux/system/Admin/linuxconf-1.6.bin-elf.tar.gz 1. What is Linuxconf Linuxconf is a new admin tool for Linux. It goes much further than the simple set of user interface dialogs and script based utilities. It is a fully integrated utility which help you maintain a working Linux system without difficulties. Linuxconf knows how to manage quite a few things in your system. 2. Why is it "hot" Linuxconf is both a configurator and an activator. It is the one which decide if ... · A daemon must be started. · A configuration command must be executed. · A daemon must be killed/restarted. · A daemon must be signaled (kill -HUP ...). · A network interface must be (re)configured. · A network route must be set/remove. · A volume must be (re)mount. Linuxconf act based on configuration files. It knows about most Linux configuration files and can compare their status with what is running currently. Based on this query, Linuxconf can bring your system "current". Whether you use Linuxconf's user interface or edit the configuration files by hand is unimportant. The following command linuxconf --status will give you a report of what has to be done to bring the system "current". linuxconf --update will do it for you! Rebooting is simply not an option anymore. This is really its main goal. Every time you quit Linuxconf, it will probe all configuration files and make sure your workstation is "current". If it is not, it will tell you what have to be done and do it (you are allowed not to do it). 3. Linuxconf takes control very early One component of linuxconf is called "askrunlevel". It takes control very early. A call to /sbin/askrunlevel must be placed at the end of your /etc/rc.d/rc.S file (or equivalent such as /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit on redhat systems). This utility allows you to select a proper runlevel (logical operation mode) or to completly reconfigured your system even before the boot sequence is finished. From this utility, you are allowed to ... · Start Linux in graphical mode (xdm) and fully activate the networking. · Go graphic, without networking. · Run as an X terminal. · Start in text mode, full networking. · Text mode, no network. · Configure the workstation. Linuxconf allows you to configure the workstation even before it is fully booted. This is a winner as it saves you from false start boot (often with an invalid network configuration). 4. What Linuxconf knows so far Linuxconf knows how to configure and managed the following things. · System time, time zone, CMOS clock. · LILO management. · Basic networking configuration (IP numbers and net mask) of the four Ethernets adaptors. · Static routing. Default route. · Filesystems (/etc/fstab). · Routed daemon. · NIS client (ypbind). · NFS server. · PPP client configuration and activation. · Users and groups. · The named daemon. Yes Linuxconf provides a friendly interface to configure and maintain a DNS. Check this out! · Sendmail. Check this out! · Fire-walling (Packet filtering). · RARP setup. · IP Alias setup. · UUCP management. Further, Linuxconf provides a friendly interface to configure theses files and more. · /etc/fstab · /etc/host.conf · /etc/hosts · /etc/networks · /etc/resolv.conf 5. Command line mode Linuxconf provide a command line mode allowing better integration with shell scripts. Here is a sample · netconf --runlevel local | client | server · netconf --status · netconf --update · netconf --connect pppaccount · dnsconf --set host ip-number ... · dnsconf --unset host The dnsconf utility should be easily integrated with the DHCP daemon, allowing full synchronization with the DNS. 6. Web mode You can point your favorite web browser to any linuxconf's managed linux station and fully configure it. This is a major feature for remote administration. 7. Current state Linuxconf is now usable and already a big time saver. Linuxconf install over any standard Slackware system includind the latest 3.0 and redhat (3.0.3) systems. Just UN-tar linuxconf-1.3.bin- aout.tar.gz (or bin-elf) in the root and execute /install/doinst.sh. Read carefully what is written. Linuxconf may work with other distribution (it should in fact). I have no experience with other than Slackware (2.x and 3.0) at this point, so I can only recommend Linuxconf to really experienced users (Using something different than Slackware or redhat). This is the seventh public release. Many glitches has been cured. Linuxconf is now fully translatable. All strings has been moved from the source files and put in a dictionnary. 8. Documentation Linuxconf has online help (context) for most screen. (49 out of 69 help screen are done). This represent a lot of work. Comments and some help are welcome. 9. Technology Linuxconf is written in C++. It currently has a ncurses interface. It scores at around 38,500 lines of code. It currently compiled with GCC 2.6.2 and GCC 2.7.2. For GCC 2.6.2, define the environement variable OLDGCC export OLDGCC=on 10. Future Many more things are expect to be included in Linuxconf. Here are few of them. · Graphical user interface.. · Inittab, and getty management. · inetd.conf · Samba management. · sudo management. · bootp, DHCP. · httpd server configuration (Apache in progress). 11. Mailing list A mailing list has been setup to discuss bugs and features of Linuxconf. Join the list by sending a message to linuxconf-request@solucorp.qc.ca Send a message to the list using the following address. linuxconf@solucorp.qc.ca 12. Licensing Linuxconf is distributed under the GNU GPL license. See the file LICENSE included in the distribution. Like most other Linux components, there are very little restrictions about usage and redistribution. We would like to hear from distribution maintainer. Linuxconf is certainly a key candidate to ease Linux acceptance. Comments are welcome! 13. Author Linuxconf was written at Solucorp by Jacques Gelinas (jacques@solucorp.qc.ca). Solucorp is installing Linuxconf to customer site for some time now. Solucorp is a consulting company doing work in the following fields. · Linux! · Networking (Internet services, fire-walling). · Multi-platform software development. -------------------------------------------------------- Jacques Gelinas (jacques@solucorp.qc.ca) Linuxconf: The ultimate administration system for Linux. sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/system/Admin/linuxconf-...