Re: Linuxconf

["David Engel " <david@ods.com>]

On Sat, May 30, 1998 at 07:02:52PM +0000, Rev. Joseph Carter wrote:
> Um, linuxconf is X based isn't it?  If so, it's not going to be useful as a
> catch-all easy way to configure Linux because you still have to configure X. 
> I have ideas how to fix that problem, but as of yet not NEARLY enough
> experience with C to even begin the project on my own.
> 
> That doesn't acount for the machines on which X doesn't run..

Reportedly, linuxconf supports text-only and web interfaces in
addition to an X interface.  There is a demo of the web interface on
the linuxconf page (http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf).
Unfortunately, I can't try it because our firewall doesn't allow web
access on nonstandard ports.

On Sat, May 30, 1998 at 08:53:17PM +0100, Jules Bean wrote:
> But, moving to such a 'registry' system could be biting off a big mouthful -
> it would certainly need some dedicated and skilled programmers to get it off
> the ground.

A registry type system has the big advantage of making it easier to
share configuration data among multiple packages.  However, any
registry system for Linux mustn't make the mistake made by MS.  The
registry absolutely must be editable using a plain text editor.  I've
seen to many cases where even a guru couldn't repair a corrupted
Win95/NT registry and the only recourse was to reinstall the whole
system.

On Sun, May 31, 1998 at 12:19:25PM +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
> yeah, linuxconf looks cool. if it weren't for two problems with it, i'd
> use it myself and recommend it to others.
> 
> 1. it replaces sysvinit with it's own bizarre startup script system.
>    apparently the author has done some work on this so that it is more
>    compatible with the existing sysvinit standard.

I believe recent versions of linuxconf have at least partially solved
this.  RedHat 5.1 includes both sysvinit and linuxconf so this is
probably true.

> 2. like all similar configuration tools that i have looked at and had the
>    misfortune of using, it makes it very dangerous to edit the text file
>    configuration with a text editor as nature intended :-)

Again, recent versions of linuxconf reportedly handle this.  It is not
clear to me yet, however, if linuxconf also maintains its own
database/registry that it keeps in sync with the text files.

David
-- 
David Engel                        ODS Networks
david@sw.ods.com                   1001 E. Arapaho Road
(972) 234-6400                     Richardson, TX  75081


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