Difference between revisions of "Configure System Settings"
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Windows users will be familiar the registry, which stores system settings in a proprietary database spanned across two files named ''system.dat'' and ''user.dat''. Both of these files are susceptible to corruption, tampering and security issues, and a Windows system cannot boot without them. Almost every setting in a Linux system is stored in a text-based configuration file stored somewhere within the filesystem. All of these files are accessible from a command prompt and can be modified using a simple text editor such as [http://www.nano-editor.org/ nano]. | Windows users will be familiar the registry, which stores system settings in a proprietary database spanned across two files named ''system.dat'' and ''user.dat''. Both of these files are susceptible to corruption, tampering and security issues, and a Windows system cannot boot without them. Almost every setting in a Linux system is stored in a text-based configuration file stored somewhere within the filesystem. All of these files are accessible from a command prompt and can be modified using a simple text editor such as [http://www.nano-editor.org/ nano]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | = Using nano = | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Open files for writing using the command '''nano -w /path/to/file''' | ||
| + | * Search for text using '''Ctrl-w''' (press Ctrl-w again to find next instance) | ||
| + | * Delete an entire line of text using '''Ctrl-k''' | ||
| + | * Save the file and exit nano using '''Ctrl-x''' | ||
# before setting up the new environment we need to copy over the network settings | # before setting up the new environment we need to copy over the network settings | ||
Revision as of 18:22, 17 November 2010
Installing Gentoo - Configure System Settings
Windows users will be familiar the registry, which stores system settings in a proprietary database spanned across two files named system.dat and user.dat. Both of these files are susceptible to corruption, tampering and security issues, and a Windows system cannot boot without them. Almost every setting in a Linux system is stored in a text-based configuration file stored somewhere within the filesystem. All of these files are accessible from a command prompt and can be modified using a simple text editor such as nano.
Using nano
- Open files for writing using the command nano -w /path/to/file
- Search for text using Ctrl-w (press Ctrl-w again to find next instance)
- Delete an entire line of text using Ctrl-k
- Save the file and exit nano using Ctrl-x
- before setting up the new environment we need to copy over the network settings
cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/
- in order to compile the kernel in the new environment we need to mount the dev and proc systems
mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
- now, we enter the new environment.
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash env-update && source /etc/profile
- now we set the system time zone. in this example I use the Canada Pacific (Vancouver) setting.
unlink /etc/localtime ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Pacific /etc/localtime
nano -w /etc/conf.d/clock
- make the following changes:
CLOCK="local" TIMEZONE="America/Vancouver"
- as usual, ctrl-x then y to exit nano. now, let's set our networking info.
nano -w /etc/conf.d/hostname
HOSTNAME="yourcomputersname"
- we also need to configure the domain.
nano -w /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 yourcomputersname.domain.com yourcomptuersname localhost
- exit nano. to start networking automatically at boot,
rc-update add net.eth0 default
- have numlock enabled at startup.
rc-update add numlock default
- now its time for some system configuration. first, we need to create our fstab.
nano -w /etc/fstab
- gr0x0rd's fstab
-
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime,user 1 2 /dev/sda3 / ext3 noatime 0 1 /dev/sda2 none swap sw 0 0 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,user 0 0
- /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0
- glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
- POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
- (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will
- use almost no memory if not populated with files)
shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0
- now, lets set the root password.
passwd