Chapter 16. Mandrake Control Center

Table of Contents
16.1. Creating a Boot Disk
16.2. Changing Your Boot-Up Configuration
16.2.1. Configuring of The Bootloader
16.2.2. Configuring The Login Mode
16.3. Creating a Boot Disk For a (Semi-) Automated Installation
16.4. Controlling The Graphical Configuration
16.4.1. Changing The Resolution of Your Display
16.4.2. X Configuration Expert Mode
16.5. Configuring Your Hardware
16.5.1. Introduction
16.5.2. harddrake
16.5.3. HardDrake Wizard
16.5.4. Problems/Troubleshooting
16.5.5. Other Information
16.6. Changing Your Mouse
16.7. Configuring Printers
16.7.1. The Printer Configuration Wizard
16.7.2. Reconfiguring an Existing Printer
16.7.3. Expert Mode
16.8. Changing Your Keyboard Layout
16.9. Managing Your Partitions
16.9.1. The Interface
16.9.2. In Practice: Resize an Old Partition And Create a New One
16.9.3. A Note About The Expert Mode: Save The Partition Table
16.10. Managing Removable Devices
16.11. Importing Remote SMB Directories
16.12. Importing Remote NFS Directories
16.13. Allow Users to Share Directories
16.14. Configuring Your Machine as a Gateway
16.15. Setting Your Security Level
16.16. Customizing Your Menus
16.16.1. Add a New Menu Entry
16.16.2. Advanced Features
16.17. Configuring Start-Up Services
16.18. Managing The Fonts Available on Your System
16.19. Managing Users on Your System
16.19.1. The Interface
16.19.2. Adding a New User
16.19.3. Other Features
16.20. Adjusting Date And Time
16.21. Searching Through The Log Files
16.22. Access to The Console

Mandrake Control Center is the main configuration tool for your Mandrake Linux distribution. It enables the system administrator to configure the hardware and services used for all users. The tools accessed through the Mandrake Control Center greatly simplify the use of the system, notably by avoiding the use of the evil command line :-)

Not all tools accessible from the Mandrake Control Center are described in this chapter: notably "Package Management" and "Configuring Internet Connections".

Figure 16-1. The Control Center Icon

Note

Control Center is also available from the command line in text mode by running DrakConf or mcc.

The following image shows you the window that pops up when you click on the Control Center icon on the desktop (figure 16-1).

Figure 16-2. The Control Center's Main Window

The only menu worth detailing is the Options one:

The tools are sorted into six categories (or more depending on the packages installed) on the left of the window. You can open a category by clicking on the label. Following are all the tools and references to the corresponding manual sections.

Table 16-1. A Fast Review of Mandrake Graphical Tools

Boot Creating a Boot Disk
  Changing Your Boot-Up Configuration
  Creating a Boot Disk For a (Semi-) Automated Installation
Hardware Controlling The Graphical Configuration
  Configuring Your Hardware
  Changing Your Mouse
  Configuring Printers
  Changing Your Keyboard Layout
Mount PointsManaging Your Partitions
 Managing Removable Devices
 Importing Remote NFS Directories
 Importing Remote SMB Directories
Network & Internet "Configuring Internet Connections"
  Configuring Your Machine as a Gateway
Security Setting Your Security Level
System Customizing Your Menus
  Configuring Start-Up Services
  Managing The Fonts Available on Your System
  Adjusting Date And Time
  "Package Management"
  Searching Through The Log Files
  Access to The Console

Note

A seventh category, Configuration Wizards, appears if the wizdrake package is installed. The documentation for those wizards is available inline or in the Server Reference Manual. This category contains 12 wizards allowing basic configuration of common LAN services as well as web and FTP servers.

16.1. Creating a Boot Disk

If you did not create one at installation time, this tool allows you to create a boot disk. This rescue disk allows you to perform some maintenance tasks on your system in case of failure.

See the section Using drakfloppy to Create a Boot Disk of the Reference Manual for more information on the use of this tool.


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