2. MCC's Components

Mandrakelinux Control Center (MCC) is Mandrakelinux's main configuration tool. It enables the system administrator to configure the hardware and the services used by all users. The tools accessible through the Mandrakelinux Control Center greatly simplify the administration of the system, particularly by avoiding the use of the “evil” command line.

You will find this icon in your window manager panel. You can also access the Mandrakelinux Control Center through the main menu (System+Configuration->Configure your computer).

[Note]Note

Mandrakelinux Control Center is also available from the command line in text mode by running drakconf.

Figure 1. The Control Center's Main Window

The Control Center's Main Window

We will detail some of the available menu entries:

The tools are sorted into categories. The following table lists all the tools it contains as well as references to the corresponding sections of this manual.

Table 1. Overview of Graphical Tools

BootSection 1, “Configuring the Login Mode”
 Section 2, “Changing your Boot-Up Configuration”
 Section 3, “Customizing your Boot Theme”
HardwareSection 1, “Configuring your Hardware”
 Section 2, “Controlling the Graphical Configuration”
 Section 4, “Changing your Keyboard Layout”
 Section 5, “Changing your Mouse”
 Section 6, “Configuring Printers with PrinterDrake”
 Section 8, “Setting up your UPS”
Mount PointsSection 1, “Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake”
 Section 2, “Managing Removable Devices”
 Section 4, “Importing Remote NFS Directories”
 Section 3, “Importing Remote SMB Directories”
 Section 6, “Setting up WebDAV Mount Points”. This is an experimental utility to mount remote WebDAV directories.
 Section 5, “Allowing Users to Share Folders”
Network & InternetSection 1, “Network and Internet Connection Management”
 DrakProxy: a simple tool which allows you to configure any proxies your computer may need to use to access the Internet.
 Section 2, “Internet Connection Sharing”
SecuritySection 1, “Securing your Machine through DrakSec”. Available only in Mandrakelinux Control Center's expert mode.
 Section 2, “Controlling File Permissions with DrakPerm”. Available only in Mandrakelinux Control Center's expert mode.
 Section 3, “Securing your Internet Access via DrakFirewall”
SystemSection 1, “Customizing your Menus with MenuDrake”
 Display manager chooser: DrakeDM enables you to choose the X11 Display Manager for users who graphically log onto the machine. Basically, all display managers offer the same features, it's just a question of taste.
 Section 2, “Configuring Start-Up Services”
 Section 3, “Managing Available Fonts on your System with DrakFont”
 Section 4, “Setting your Machine's Date and Time”
 Section 5, “Monitoring System Activity and Status”
 Console: simply opens a terminal to directly enter commands with the administrator account (root).
 Section 7, “Managing Users and Groups”
 Section 8, “Backing Up and Restoring your Files”
 DrakAuth enables you to select the authentication mode to be used to authenticate users on your system. Available only in Mandrakelinux Control Center's expert mode.
Software ManagementChapter 1, Package Management through Rpmdrake
[Note]Note

Another category, Server Wizards, appears if the drakwizard package is installed. The documentation for those wizards is available on-disk or in the Server Administration Guide. It contains wizards which enable you to do basic configuration of common LAN services such as web, FTP, mail and database servers.

The same happens with the Online Administration category, which only appears if the rfbdrake package is installed. This tool allows you to take control of a remote host (Linux/UNIX®, Windows®).