We've completed our installation of RedHat 9 and reviewed the hardware configurations that potentially wouldn't occur during the installation.  Now what do we do?  Many of us have begun to explore the GNOME desktop and personalize our desktops.  This is a very good start but we really need to learn some basic skills that will prove invaluable later.  Chapter 3 in our textbook discusses many of these skills that we are going to begin learning in this lesson.  I must admit the textbook is a little presumptuous in the reader's understanding of Linux/Unix commnands.  The activities encountered in class will help the student work through Chapter 3 with success.

During the installation process, one of the selections that was made pretained to the type of login.  If you chose the default, it was the graphical login.  The other choice is a text based login.  We may not realize it but  the installation went very smooth.  What would you do if your Graphical User Interface gave you severe problems during the installation.  You'd have to reinstall Linux or use a method to avoid this situation.  Until the Xserver has been tested I always use the text based login.  The first task the class will perform is to reconfigure the hardware for the Xserver and test it.

Reconfiguring the Video

The systems being used have all successfully had RedHat 9 installed so let's use a utility called the Hardware Browser.  This utility is started by the path; Main Menu (RedHat) Icon on the Panel --> System Tools -->  Hardware Browser.  When you double click on the Hardware Browser, you'll be asked for the superuser password.  Once the password is correctly entered, the hardware installed in the system will be listed in a window.

• Record the video card and monitor model and vendor.

• The monitor may not be visible so check the actual monitor for the correct make and model.

• There are several ways to initiate a session to reconfigure the video.
1. Click on the Main Menu (RedHat) --> System Settings --> Display.  The video can be reconfigured within this utility.  
2. This utility can also be started within a GNOME Terminal.  To open a GNOME terminal, click on the Main Menu (RedHat) --> System Tools --> Terminal or by right clicking the mouse on an empty desktop and selecting new terminal from the menu.  With the GNOME terminal type "redhat-config-xfree86".
3. To reconfigure video from the text based command line, you must be operating at the runlevel 3.  This is achieved through entering some commands in a GNOME terminal.  Within a GNOME terminal become a superuser by typing the command "su -".  Enter the superuser password when requested.  You are now the superuser.  When working within GNOME you are at runlevel 5.  To go to runlevel 3, type 'init 3'.  The GUI will be stopped and you'll be placed at the text based command line.  Enter "redhad-config-xfree86" to start the video configuration utility.

• Under the guidance of your instructor try a monitor that will not work properly.  This will give you some experience with the utility when everything doesn't work smoothly.  See if you can save the configuration.  If you can good.  Now start the Xserver by typing 'startx' and pressing ENTER.  Does the GUI start?  What happens?

• Your next task is to fix what you just broke.  In the Xserver configuration utility, enter the correct monitor and test your configuration.  What happens when you test it?  Does it work?  Once you have it working start your GUI.

Other Text based Utilities

Now we're on the roll, let's acquaint ourselves with a couple of other configuration utilities.  Some are only for RedHat and others work on many other distributions.  Let's review these utilities and what they do.

• setup -  This utility was used by many of you to configure sound cards that weren't recognized during the installation process.  Type 'setup' at the command prompt and press ENTER.

• mouseconfig - This utility is used to configure a mouse in the text based mode.  It can be very useful if you ever change a mouse on your system.  A newer utility entitled, "redhat-config-mouse" will work too.

•  redhat-config-soundcard - This utility is used to detect a sound card.  If your system has an older legacy sound card an older utility entitled, "sndconfig" will have to be used.  This utility can be transferred from and older version of RedHat.

• redhat-config-keyboard - This utility is used to configure a keyboard.

• authconfig - This utility is used to configure your authentication setup.

• timeconfig - This utility changes the time zone in your system.

• netconfig - This utility changes your network configuration.  If you have a network card that isn't recognized by RedHat during the installation process, this utility will not solve all of your configuration problems but it will help.

• ntsysv - This utility changes your system services that are started at boot time.  We'll use this utility to shut down our firewall before it causes us some annoying problems in class.

• firewall-config - This utility assists an adminstrator in configuring a firewall.  This was available on earlier versions of RedHat but may not be available on our publisher's version of RedHat 9.

• printtool - This is quite obvious.  It configures the printers on the system but it cannot be executed at the command line.  You must execute it in a teminal window within GNOME or KDE.