Ximian Setup Tools 0.5

[Chema Celorio <chema ximian com>]

The Ximian Setup Tools 0.5.1 have been released.

The Ximian Setup Tools are a set of cross-platform configuration utilities
for Linux and other Unices. 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 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.

Changes since last release
--------------------------

- Bugs bugs bugs. Too many to count (Everybody)
- New distros supported/testsed : Red Hat 7.1, SuSE 7.0
  Debian Woody (Arturo, Joakim, Chema) [*1]
- Added a debian dir (thanks hadess)
- Blinking removed from time tool (Hans Petter)
- User profiles in users tool (Tambet)
- Significant speedup (Hans Petter)
- Time-tool front end improvements (Chema)
- Timezone setting on Debian fixed (Hans Petter)
- All tools can save their state between sessions (Tambet)
- Searchbar is complexity-aware in users tool (Tambet)
- Sort list of selectable distributions (Nils Barth)
- Fixed shares tool SMB problems (Hans Petter)
- Location management builds by default now (Bradford)
- Beginnings of FreeBSD support (Theo van Klaveren)
- New root authentication based on work by Chris L. Bond (Hans Petter)
- You can now avoid having your DNS settings overriden with DHCP information
  with systems using pump (Arturo)
- Lots of strings marked for translation and typos corrected (Carlos)

[*1] - Debian Woody "mapping" stanzas for /etc/network/interfaces are not supported
yet. Modem and ISDN connections for SuSE 7.0 are not yet implemented as well.

Downloading
----------
You can get it from :

ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/setuptools/
or (once the mirrors sync)
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/unstable/sources/ximian-setup-tools

Contributions
-------------

We are happy to say that a lot of contributions have started flowing
in. We still need lots of help from anybody interested in contributing
to XST. 

- 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 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.


Mailing list / IRC
------------------

We have a mailing list set up at :
http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/setup-tool-hackers

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


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.
     
Location Management
-------------------

Location management is available under the program
"location-manager-capplet", now built by default.

This program runs in two modes: per-user and global. In per-user mode
(the default), the capplets available from the control center are
location-managed. In order to use this mode, you will need to fetch
the GNOME Control Center from CVS (HEAD branch). A release of the
Control Center with capplets that support location management will be
made shortly.

In global mode, the Ximian Setup Tools themselves are location
managed. To invoke the location manager in this mode, pass the -g
option. Of course, you will need to be running as root to run the
location manager in this mode.


The current set of tools include :
----------------------------------

- 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

- Disks admin

     Allows you to :
     - Mount and unmount local file systems.

- Memory admin

     Allows you to configure :
     - Swap partitions
     - Swap files
     - priorities of swap areas


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 possible that it won't work.


Red Hat Linux:

Version        5.2     6.0     6.1     6.2     7.0     7.1

Boot            +?      +?      +?      +       +       +
Disks           +?      +?      +?      +       +       +
Memory          +?      +?      +?      +       +       +
Network         +?      +?      +?      +       +       +
Shares          +?      +?      +?      +       +       +
Time            +?      +?      +?      +       +       +
Users           +?      +?      +?      +       +       +


Debian GNU/Linux:

Version        2.2    Woody

Boot            +       +
Disks           +       +
Memory          +       +
Network         +       +?
Shares          +       +
Time            +       +
Users           +       +?

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            ?       ?       +       ?
Disks           ?       ?       +       ?
Memory          ?       ?       +       ?
Network         ?       ?       +       ?
Shares          ?       ?       +       ?
Time            ?       ?       +       ?
Users           ?       ?       +       ?


SuSE Linux:

Version        6.3     6.4     7.0     7.1

Boot            ?       ?       +       ?
Disks           ?       ?       +       ?
Memory          ?       ?       +       ?
Network         ?       ?       +?      ?
Shares          ?       ?       +       ?
Time            ?       ?       +       ?
Users           ?       ?       +       ?


Turbolinux:

Version         6

Boot            ?
Disks           ?
Memory          ?
Network         -
Shares          ?
Time            -
Users           ?


LinuxPPC:

Version        2000

Boot            -
Disks           ?
Memory          ?
Network         -
Shares          ?
Time            -
Users           ?


Yellow Dog Linux:

Version        1.2     2.0

Boot            -       -
Disks           ?       ?
Memory          ?       ?
Network         -       -
Shares          ?       ?
Time            -       -
Users           ?       ?


Solaris:

Version        7.0     8.0

Boot            -       -
Disks           -       -
Memory          -       -
Network         -       -
Shares          -       -
Time            -       -
Users           -       -


HPUX:

Version       10.0     11.0

Boot            -       -
Disks           -       -
Memory          -       -
Network         -       -
Shares          -       -
Time            -       -
Users           -       -


FreeBSD:

Version        4.x     5.x

Boot            -       -
Disks           -       -
Memory          -       -
Network         -       -
Shares          ?       ?
Time            -       -
Users           ?       ?