Ximian Setup Tools 0.11

[Chema Celorio <chema ximian com>]

The Ximian Setup Tools version 0.11 have been released.

The Ximian Setup Tools are a set of cross-platform configuration
utilities for Linux and other Unix systems. Internally they are divided
in frontends and backends. The frontend knows nothing about the
underlying system and provides the same user interface across the
different types of systems. The backend knows how to read and write the
configuration information. The Ximian Setup Tools do not impose a new
database on the system: they work with the default configuration files
so that configuration can still be done by hand or by other tools.

Screenshots
===========
You can view screenshots of the most recent tools at
http://primates.ximian.com/~chema/xst/

Changes since last release
==========================

    * Added Font tool. (Tambet)
    * Added support for Red Hat 7.2 for everything but network-tool
(Arturo)
    * Added support for Grub. (Arturo)
    * Improved error reporting. (Arturo)
    * Time now changes the clock when a timezone change is made and ntp
state is loaded correctly. (Hans)
    * Lots of bugfixing in the existing tools. (Everyone)
    * Conditionaly compile with/without archiver support (Chema) 

Downloading
===========
You can get it from :
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/unstable/sources/ximian-setup-tools

Help Wanted
===========
We still need lots of help from anybody interested in contributing to
XST, even if it's only an email letting us know whether the tools worked
for your system. You can also submit bug reports at
http://bugzilla.ximian.com

Testing
-------
Testing that the tools work correctly on your system and either filing
detailed bug reports or confirming that they work correctly is greatly
appreciated. If you test a tool on an unsupported distro/system and find
out that it works correctly, please let us know so that we can update
the supported tools matrix (see below).

Porting
-------
The backends are designed as to minimize the effort needed to support
more distros/systems. A great way to contribute is to port the tools to
another distribution/system.

Prerequisites
=============

- Without archiver support  [--without-archiver]:

* GNOME 1.4 libaries

* gal >= 0.12, available at
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/unstable/sources/gal/gal-0.12.tar.gz

* gnome-print >= 0.34 available at 
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/gnome-print/gnome-print-0.34.tar.gz

- With archiver support [--with-archiver] without archiver requirements
plus "

* control-center >= 1.5.11 available at 
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/unstable/sources/control-center/control-center-1.5.11.tar.gz

* bonobo

Stability
=========
The tools have been stable on our systems recently. However, since this
tools modify your system configuration we suggest that only people which
are going to be able to solve a problem if something goes wrong use them
at the time. We have created a backup system so that the changes made to
the configuration files are tracked and stored (see below).

In particular we've found the display tool to uncover some X problems
which might make X crash. Save all your documents before trying out the
display-tool.


Mailing list / IRC
==================
For discussion and feedback, sign up for our mailing
list:http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/setup-tool-hackers

You can also find us in the #xst channel on IRC server irc.gnome.org

Whitepaper
==========
You can find the latest version of the XST whitepaper at:
http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/helix-setup-tools.html

Backup system
=============
Every time a tool modifies your system configuration files, it makes
backups of those files. The backups are rotated (for 9 levels in total),
and the backup made the first time the tool was run is kept forever.
This means that you can revert your system configuration to the point
before you ever ran a Ximian Setup Tool.

The backup path is /var/cache/ximian-setup-tools/backup/<tool>/<id>/. In
this directory, you'll find a complete snapshot of the files that were
modified. The original directory structure leading up to these files is
also kept. <id> runs from 1-9, and when the first backup is rotated out,
it is kept in a special catalog called "First", which is never touched
again.

Current Tool Set
================
- Network admin
Allows you to configure your:

    * hostname
    * samba hostname and workgroup
    * DNS servers
    * search domains
    * hosts (/etc/hosts)
    * Network interfaces
    * ppp
    * ethernet
    * slip
    * wavelan (limited support)

- Time admin
Allows you to configure your:

    * Date & Time
    * Timezone
    * NTPD servers

- Users admin
Allows you to manage:

    * Users
    * username / full name
    * password
    * home dir
    * shell
    * groups
    * Groups

- Boot admin
Allows you to set:

    * Default boot partition
    * Partition type and label
    * Timeout
    * Kernel image
    * Kernel extra parameters (append)
    * adding or deleting partitions from the boot manager

- Shares admin
Allows you to import and export NFS and samba shares.

    * import NFS & samba shares
    * export NFS & samba shares

- Display admin
Allows you to configure your:

    * Resolution
    * Color depth

- Internet Sharing admin
Lets you share your internet connection with a LAN, configuring:

    * Masquerading
    * DHCP server and ranges

- Font tool
Allows you to install and configure:

    * New truetype fonts
    * Change your current fonts

Verification matrix
===================

This is a matrix describing the current status of tool
platform/distribution support, to the best of our knowledge.

Key:

  +  Supported and tested. The tool will not ask you to select a
compatible
  version or distribution. Of course, there may still be bugs. :-)
  +? Supported, not tested. Same as '+', but we haven't tested it. In
other
  words, it "should work", because we know it's compatible.
  ?  Unsupported, may work. You'll be asked to select a compatible
version or
  distribution, which may or may not work.
  -  Unsupported, doesn't work. We haven't worked on any version of that
  flavour. It's most likely that it won't work.


  Red Hat Linux:

  Version        5.2     6.0     6.1     6.2     7.0     7.1    7.2 

  Boot            +?      +?      +?      +       +       +      +
  Network         +?      +?      +?      +       +       +      -
  Shares          +?      +?      +?      +       +       +      +
  Time            +?      +?      +?      +       +       +      +
  Users           +?      +?      +?      +       +       +      +
  Display          ?       ?       ?      ?       +       +      +
  Internetsharing  ?       ?       ?      ?       +       +      +
  Font             ?       ?       ?      ?       ?       ?      +

  Debian GNU/Linux:

  Version        2.2    Woody

  Boot            +       +
  Network         +       +?
  Shares          +       +
  Time            +       +
  Users           +       +?
  Display         +       +
  Internetsharing +       +
  Font            ?       ?

  Woody comments: You'll have to echo 'woody' > /etc/debian_version to
  make the ximian-setup-tools detect your distribution. 


  Linux Mandrake:

  Version        7.0     7.1     7.2     8.0

  Boot            ?       ?       +       ?
  Network         ?       ?       +       ?
  Shares          ?       ?       +       ?
  Time            ?       ?       +       ?
  Users           ?       ?       +       ?
  Display         ?       ?       ?       ?
  Internetsharing ?       ?       +       ?
  Font            ?       ?       ?       ?

  SuSE Linux:

  Version        6.3     6.4     7.0     7.1

  Boot            ?       ?       +       ?
  Network         ?       ?       +?      ?
  Shares          ?       ?       +       ?
  Time            ?       ?       +       ?
  Users           ?       ?       +       ?
  Display         ?       ?       ?       ?
  Internetsharing ?       ?       ?       ?
  Font            ?       ?       ?       ?

  Turbolinux:

  Version         6

  Boot            ?
  Network         -
  Shares          ?
  Time            -
  Users           ?
  Display         +?
  Internetsharing ?
  Font            ?

  LinuxPPC:

  Version        2000

  Boot            -
  Network         -
  Shares          ?
  Time            -
  Users           ?
  Display         ?
  Internetsharing ?
  Font            ?

  Yellow Dog Linux:

  Version        1.2     2.0

  Boot            -       -
  Network         -       -
  Shares          ?       ?
  Time            -       -
  Users           ?       ?
  Display         ?       ?
  Internetsharing ?       ?
  Font            ?       ?

  Solaris:

  Version        7.0     8.0

  Boot            -       -
  Network         -       -
  Shares          -       -
  Time            -       -
  Users           -       -
  Display         -       -
  Internetsharing -       -
  Font            -       -

  HPUX:

  Version       10.0     11.0

  Boot            -       -
  Network         -       -
  Shares          -       -
  Time            -       -
  Users           -       -
  Display         -       -
  Internetsharing -       -
  Font            -       -

  FreeBSD:

  Version        4.x     5.x

  Boot            -       -
  Network         -       -
  Shares          ?       ?
  Time            -       -
  Users           ?       ?
  Display         -       -
  Internetsharing -       -
  Font            -       -

Credits
=======

Developers

Arturo Espinosa <arturo ximian com>
Hans Petter Jansson <hpj ximian com>
Tambet Ingo <tambet ximian com>
Chema Celorio <chema ximian com>
Bradford Hovinen <bradford ximian com>
Israel Escalante <israel ximian com>
Jacob Berkman <jacob ximian com>

Artists

Jakub Steiner <jimmac ximian com>
Anna Dirks <anna ximian com>
Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert ximian com>
Joakim Ziegler <joakim ximian com>



-- 
"Please don't think that what we need are good ideas or new projects,
what we
really need is to finish our old ideas and current projects"

==============================================================
Chema Celorio                           chema ximian com
                                        http://www.gnome.org/~chema
Ximian Inc.                             http://www.ximian.com