| Red Hat Linux 7.1: The Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide |
|---|
| Prev | Chapter 3. Boot Process, Init, and Shutdown | Next |
The following information outlines some of the various files in
/etc/sysconfig, their function, and their
contents. This information is not intended to be complete, as many of
these files have a variety of options that are only used in very specific
or rare circumstances.
The following files are normally found in
/etc/sysconfig:
amd
apmd
authconfig
cipe
clock
desktop
firewall
harddisks
hwconf
i18n
init
irda
keyboard
kudzu
mouse
network
pcmcia
rawdevices
sendmail
soundcard
ups
vncservers
It is possible that your system may be missing a few of them if the
corresponding program that would need that file is not installed.
Let's take a look at each one.
The /etc/sysconfig/amd file contains various
parameters used by amd allowing for the
automounting and automatic unmounting of filesystems.
The /etc/sysconfig/apmd file is used by
apmd as a configuration for what
things to start/stop/change on suspend or resume. It is set up to
turn on or off apmd during startup,
depending on whether your hardware supports Advanced
Power Management (APM) or
if you choose not to use it. apm is a
monitoring daemon that works with power management code within the
Linux kernel. It can alert you to a low battery if you are using Red Hat Linux
on a laptop, among other things.
The /etc/sysconfig/authconfig file sets the kind
of authorization to be used on the host. It contains one or more
of the following lines:
USEMD5=<value>,
where
<value> is
one of the following:
USEKERBEROS=<value>, where <value> is one of the following:
USELDAPAUTH=<value>, where <value> is one of the following:
The /etc/sysconfig/cipe file configures
cipe when it starts.
It may contains the following sample values:
DEVICE=eth0, which specifies the network adapter
that cipe will utilize.
PORT=9999, which designates the UDP port number
to be used by the cipe process in both endpoints.
PEER=0.0.0.0, which specifies the real
address of the remote cipe
endpoint. You can set this address dynamically by setting this
value to 0.0.0.0.
IPADDR=0.0.0.0, which specifies the virtual
address at the local end of the cipe tunnel.
PTPADDR=0.0.0.0, which specifies the virtual
address at the remote end of the cipe tunnel.
The /etc/sysconfig/clock file controls the
interpretation of values read from the system clock. Earlier
releases of Red Hat Linux used the following values (which are deprecated):
Currently, the correct values are:
UTC=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
ARC=<value>,
where <value> is the
following:
ZONE=<filename>
— Indicates the timezone file under
/usr/share/zoneinfo that
/etc/localtime is a copy of, such as:
The /etc/sysconfig/desktop file specifies
the desktop manager to be run, such as:
The /etc/sysconfig/firewall file contains
various firewall settings. By default, this file is created but empty.
The /etc/sysconfig/harddisks file allows
you to tune your hard drive(s).
 | Warning |
|---|
| | Don't make changes to this file lightly. If you change the default values
stored here, you could corrupt all of the data on your hard drive(s).
|
The /etc/sysconfig/harddisks file may contain the following:
USE_DMA=1, where setting this to 1 enables DMA. However, with
some chipsets and hard drive combinations, DMA can cause data
corruption. Check with your hard drive documentation
or manufacturer before enabling this.
Multiple_IO=16, where a setting of 16 allows
for multiple sectors per I/O interrupt. When enabled, this
feature reduces operating system overhead by 30-50%. Use with caution.
EIDE_32BIT=3 enables (E)IDE 32-bit I/O
support to an interface card.
LOOKAHEAD=1 enables drive read-lookahead.
EXTRA_PARAMS= specifies where extra parameters can be added.
The /etc/sysconfig/hwconf file lists all the
hardware that kudzu detected on your
system, as well as the drivers used, vendor ID and device ID
information. The kudzu program detects and configures
new and/or changed hardware on a system. The
/etc/sysconfig/hwconf file is not meant to be
manually edited. If you do edit it, devices could suddenly show up
as being added or removed.
The /etc/sysconfig/i18n file sets the default
language, such as:
The /etc/sysconfig/init file controls how the
system will appear and function during bootup.
The following values may be used:
BOOTUP=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following:
BOOTUP=color means the standard color
boot display, where the success or failure of devices
and services starting up is shown in different colors.
BOOTUP=verbose means an old style
display, which provides more information than purely a
message of success or failure.
Anything else means a new display, but without
ANSI-formatting.
RES_COL=<value>, where
<value> is the number of
the column of the screen to start status labels. Defaults to 60.
MOVE_TO_COL=<value>, where
<value> moves the
cursor to the value in the RES_COL
line. Defaults to ANSI sequences output by echo
-e.
SETCOLOR_SUCCESS=<value>,
where <value> sets the
color to a color indicating success. Defaults to ANSI sequences output by echo
-e, setting the color to green.
SETCOLOR_FAILURE=<value>, where
<value> sets the
color to a color indicating failure. Defaults to ANSI
sequences output by echo -e, setting the
color to red.
SETCOLOR_WARNING=<value>, where
<value> sets the
color to a color indicating warning. Defaults to ANSI
sequences output by echo -e, setting the
color to yellow.
SETCOLOR_NORMAL=<value>, where
<value> sets the
color to 'normal'. Defaults to ANSI sequences output by
echo -e.
LOGLEVEL=<value>, where
<value> sets the
initial console logging level for the kernel. The default
is 7; 8 means everything (including debugging); 1 means
nothing except kernel
panics. syslogd will override
this once it starts.
PROMPT=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
The /etc/sysconfig/irda file controls how
infared devices on your system are configured at startup.
The following values may be used:
IRDA=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
yes —
irattach will be run, which
periodically checks to see if anything is trying to
connect to the infrared port, such as another notebook
computer trying to make a network connection. For infrared
devices to work on your system, this line must be set to
yes.
no —
irattach will not be run,
preventing infrared device communication.
DEVICE=<value>, where
<value> is the device
(usually a serial port) that handles infrared
connections.
DONGLE=<value>, where
<value> specifies the type of
dongle being used for infrared communication. This setting
exists for people who use serial dongles rather than real
infrared ports. A dongle is a device that is attached to a
traditional serial port to communicate via infrared. This
line is commented out by default because notebooks with real
infrared ports are far more common than computers with add-on
dongles.
DISCOVERY=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
yes — Starts
irattach in discovery mode,
meaning it actively checks for other infrared devices. This
needs to be turned on for the machine to be actively
looking for an infrared connection (meaning the peer
that does not initiate the connection).
no — Does not start
irattach in discovery mode.
The /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file controls
the behavior of the keyboard. The following values may be used:
KEYBOARDTYPE=sun|pc, which is used on
SPARCs only. sun means a Sun keyboard is
attached on /dev/kbd, and
pc means a PS/2 keyboard connected to a
PS/2 port.
KEYTABLE=<file>,
where <file> is the name of a
keytable file. For example:
KEYTABLE="us". The files that can be used
as keytables start in /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/i386 and branch
into different keyboard layouts from there, all labeled
<file>.kmap.gz.
The first file found beneath
/usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/i386that matches
the KEYTABLE setting is used.
The /etc/sysconfig/kuzdu allows you to
specify a safe probe of your system's hardware by
kudzu at boot time. A safe probe is one
that disables serial port and DDC monitor probing.
The /etc/sysconfig/mouse file is used to
specify information about the available mouse. The following
values may be used:
FULLNAME=<value>, where
<value> refers to the
full name of the kind of mouse being used.
MOUSETYPE=<value>,
where <value> is one of the following:
microsoft — A Microsoft™ mouse.
mouseman — A MouseMan™ mouse.
mousesystems — A Mouse Systems™
mouse.
ps/2 — A PS/2 mouse.
msbm — A Microsoft™ bus mouse.
logibm — A Logitech™ bus mouse.
atibm — An ATI™ bus mouse.
logitech — A Logitech™ mouse.
mmseries — An older MouseMan™
mouse.
mmhittab — An mmhittab mouse.
XEMU3=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
yes — The mouse only has two
buttons, but three mouse buttons should be emulated.
no — The mouse already has three
buttons.
XMOUSETYPE=<value>, where
<value> refers to the
kind of mouse used when X is running. The options here are
the same as the MOUSETYPE setting in this
same file.
In addition, /dev/mouse is a symbolic link that
points to the actual mouse device.
The /etc/sysconfig/network file is used to
specify information about the desired network configuration. The
following values may be used:
NETWORKING=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
HOSTNAME=<value>,
where <value> should be the
Fully Qualified Domain Name
(FQDN), such as
hostname.domain.com,
but can be whatever hostname you want.
 | Note |
|---|
| | For compatibility with older software that people might
install (such as trn), the
/etc/HOSTNAME file should contain the
same value as here.
|
GATEWAY=<value>,
where <value> is the IP address of
the network's gateway.
GATEWAYDEV=<value>,
where <value> is the gateway
device, such as eth0.
NISDOMAIN=<value>,
where <value> is the NIS domain
name.
The /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia file is used to
specify PCMCIA configuration information. The following values
may be used:
PCMCIA=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following:
PCIC=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following:
PCIC_OPTS=<value>,
where <value> is the socket driver
(i82365 or tcic) timing parameters.
CORE_OPTS=<value>,
where <value> is the list of
pcmcia_core options.
CARDMGR_OPTS=<value>,
where <value> is the list of
options for the PCMCIA cardmgr
(such as -q for quiet mode;
-m to look for loadable kernel modules in
the specified directory, and so on). Read the
cardmgr man page for more
information.
The /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices file is used to
configure raw device bindings, such as:
/dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sda1
/dev/raw/raw2 8 5 |
The /etc/sysconfig/sendmail file allows messages
to be sent to one or more recipients, routing the message over
whatever networks are necessary. The file sets the default values
for the Sendmail application to run. Its
default values are to run as a background daemon, and to check its
queue once an hour in case something has backed up.
The following values may be used:
DAEMON=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following boolean values:
yes —
Sendmail should be configured
to listen to port 25 for incoming
mail. yes implies the use of
Sendmail's
-bd options.
no —
Sendmail should not be
configured to listen to port 25 for incoming mail.
QUEUE=1h which is given to
Sendmail as
-q$QUEUE. The -q option is
not given to Sendmail if
/etc/sysconfig/sendmail exists and
QUEUE is empty or undefined.
The /etc/sysconfig/soundcard file is
generated by sndconfig and should not
be modified. The sole use of this file is to determine what card entry
in the menu to pop up by default the next time
sndconfig is run. Soundcard
configuration information is located in the
/etc/modules.conf file.
It may contain the following:
The /etc/sysconfig/ups file is used to
specify information about any Uninterruptible Power
Supplies (UPS) connected to your
system. A UPS can be very valuable for a Red Hat Linux system because it
gives you time to correctly shut down the system in the case of
power interruption. The following values may be used:
SERVER=<value>,
where <value> is one of the
following:
MODEL=<value>,
where <value> must be one of the following
or set to NONE if no UPS is connected to
the system:
apcsmart — For a APC SmartUPS™
or similar device.
fentonups — For a Fenton UPS™.
optiups — For an OPTI-UPS™ device.
bestups — For a Best Power™ UPS.
genericups — For a generic
brand UPS.
ups-trust425+625 — For a
Trust™ UPS.
DEVICE=<value>,
where <value> specifies where the
UPS is connected, such as /dev/ttyS0.
OPTIONS=<value>, where
<value> is a special
command that needs to be passed to the UPS.
The /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file configures how
the Virtual Network Computing
(VNC) server starts up. VNC is a
remote display system which allows you to view a desktop environment
not only on the machine where it is running but across different networks
(from a LAN to the Internet) and using a wide variety of machine
architectures.
It may contain the following:
The following files are normally found in
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts, where
<if-name>
represents the name of the network interface:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/network-functions
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<if-name>
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<if-name>-<clone-name>
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-<if-name>
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/dip-<if-name>
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post
Let's take a look at each one.
These are symbolic links to /sbin/ifup and
/sbin/ifdown, respectively. These are the
only two scripts in this directory that should be called directly;
these two scripts call all the other scripts as needed. These
symbolic links are here for legacy purposes only — they will probably
be removed in future versions, so only
/sbin/ifup and
/sbin/ifdown should currently be used.
These scripts normally take one argument: the name of the device
(such as eth0). They are called with a second
argument of boot during the boot sequence so
that devices that are not meant to be brought up on boot
(ONBOOT=no, [see below]) can be ignored at that
time.
Not really a public file. Contains functions which the scripts
use for bringing interfaces up and down. In particular, it
contains most of the code for handling alternative interface
configurations and interface change notification through
netreport, which is the program that
tells network management scripts to send a SIGIO signal to the
process which called netreport when any
network interface status changes occur.
The first file defines an interface, while the second file
contains only the parts of the definition that are different in a
"alias" (or alternative) interface. Both require that an
<if-name> (name of
a network interface) is specified. For example, the network
numbers might be different but everything else might be the same,
so only the network numbers would be in the clone file while all
the device information would be in the base
ifcfg file.
The items that can be defined in an ifcfg
file depend on the interface type.
The following values are common:
DEVICE=<name>,
where <name is the name of the
physical device (except dynamically-allocated PPP devices
where it is the "logical name").
IPADDR=<addr>,
where <addr> is the IP address.
NETMASK=<mask>,
where <mask> is the netmask value.
NETWORK=<addr>,
where <addr> is the network
address.
BROADCAST=<addr>,
where
<addr> is the broadcast
address.
GATEWAY=<addr>,
where <addr> is the gateway
address.
ONBOOT=<answer>,
where <answer> is one of the
following:
USERCTL=<answer>,
where <answer> is one of the
following:
BOOTPROTO=<proto>,
where <proto> is one of the
following:
none — No boot-time protocol
should be used.
bootp — The BOOTP protocol should
be used.
dhcp — The DHCP protocol should be
used.
The following values are common to all SLIP
files:
PERSIST=<answer>,
where <answer> is one of the
following:
yes — This device should be kept
active at all times, even if deactivated after a modem
hang up.
no — This device should not be
kept active at all times.
MODEMPORT=<port>,
where <port> is the modem port's
device name (for example,
"/dev/modem").
LINESPEED=<baud>,
where <baud> is the modem's
linespeed (for example, "115200").
DEFABORT=<answer>,
where <answer> is one of the
following:
This file is a chat script for SLIP connections and is
intended to establish the connection. For SLIP devices, a DIP
script is written from the chat script.
This file is called when any network device (except a SLIP device)
comes up. It calls
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-routes to
bring up static routes that depend on that device, brings up
aliases for that device, and sets the hostname if it is not
already set — and a hostname can be found for the IP for
that device. ifup-post sends SIGIO to any
programs that have requested notification of network events.
This file could be extended to set up name service configuration,
call arbitrary scripts, and more, as needed.
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