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The following information outlines some of the various files in
the /etc/sysconfig/ directory, 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
arpwatch authconfig
cipe
clock
desktop
dhcpd firewall
gpm harddisks
hwconf
i18n
identd init
ipchains
iptables
irda
keyboard
kudzu
mouse
named netdump network
ntpd pcmcia
radvd rawdevices
redhat-config-users samba sendmail
soundcard
squid
tux ups
vncservers
xinetd
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.
Next, we will 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/arpwatch file is used to
pass arguments to the arpwatch daemon at boot
time. The arpwatch daemon maintains a table of
Ethernet MAC addresses and their IP address pairings. For more
information about what parameters you can use in this file, type
man arpwatch. By default, this file sets the
owner of the arpwatch process to the user
pcap.
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/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/dhcpd file is used to pass
arguments to the dhcpd daemon at boot time. The
dhcpd daemon implements the Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and the Internet Bootstrap Protocol
(BOOTP). DHCP and BOOTP assign hostnames to machines on the network.
For more information about what parameters you can use in this file,
type man dhcpd.
The /etc/sysconfig/firewall file contains
various firewall settings. By default, this file is
empty.
The /etc/sysconfig/gpm file is used to pass
arguments to the gpm daemon at boot time. The
gpm daemon is the mouse server which allows mouse
acceleration and middle-click pasting. For more information about
what parameters you can use in this file, type man
gpm. By default, it sets the mouse device to
/dev/mouse.
The /etc/sysconfig/harddisks file allows you to
tune your hard drive(s). You can also use
/etc/sysconfig/hardiskhd[a-h], to configure
parameters for specific drives.
 | Warning |
|---|
| | Do not 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/identd file is used to pass
arguments to the identd daemon at boot time. The
identd daemon returns the username of processes
with open TCP/IP connections. Some services on the network, such as
FTP and IRC servers, will complain and cause slow responses if
identd is not running. But in general,
identd is not a required service, so if security
is a concern, you should not run it. For more information about what
parameters you can use in this file, type man
identd. By default, the file contains no parameters.
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/ipchains file contains
information used by the kernel to set up ipchains
rules regarding packet filtering.
This file is modified by running the service ipchains
save command when valid ipchains rules
are in place. You should not manually edit this file. Instead, use
the ipchains command to configure the necessary
packet filtering rules and then save the rules to this file.
Like /etc/sysconfig/ipchains, the
/etc/sysconfig/iptables file stores information
used by the kernel to provide specialized packet filtering
services. However, this file is used by iptables
rather than ipchains.
You should not modify this file by hand unless you are familiar with
methods used to construct iptables rules. These
rules are written to /etc/sysconfig/iptables by
the service iptables save command, which stores
the current iptables rules by running the
/sbin/iptables-save program. Then, when
iptables is restarted, such as is the case when
the system is booted, the /sbin/iptables-restore
program reads the file and reinstitutes the packet filtering rules.
The /etc/sysconfig/irda file controls how
infrared 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:d
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 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.
DEVICE=<value>,
where <value> is the mouse device.
In addition, /dev/mouse is a symbolic link that
points to the actual mouse device.
The /etc/sysconfig/named file is used to pass
arguments to the named daemon at boot time. The
named daemon is a Domain Name
System (DNS) server which
implements the Berkeley Internet Name Domain
(BIND) version 9 distribution. This server
maintains a table of which hostnames are associated with IP
addresses on the network.
Currently, only the following values may be used:
ROOTDIR="</some/where>",
where
</some/where>
refers to the full directory path of a configured chroot
environment under which named will run. This
chroot environment must first be configured. Type info
chroot for more information on how to do this.
OPTIONS="<value>",
where
<value> any
option listed in the man page for named
except -t. In place of
-t, use the ROOTDIR
line above instead.
For more information about what parameters you can use in this file,
type man named. For detailed information on how
to configure a BIND DNS server, see Chapter 17. By
default, the file contains no parameters.
The /etc/sysconfig/netdump is the
configuration file for the /etc/init.d/netdump
service. The netdump service sends both oops data
and memory dumps over the network. In
general, netdump is not a required service, so
you should only run it if you absolutely need to. For more information
about what parameters you can use in this file, type man
netdump.
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/ntpd file is used to pass
arguments to the ntpd daemon at boot time. The
ntpd daemon sets and maintains the system clock
to synchronize with an Internet standard time server. It
implements version 4 of the Network Time Protocol (NTP). For more
information about what parameters you can use in this file, point a
browser at the following file:
/usr/share/doc/ntp-<version>/ntpd.htm
(where <version> is the version number of
ntpd). By default, this file sets the owner of
the ntpd process to the user
ntp.
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/radvd file is used to pass
arguments to the radvd daemon at boot time.
The radvd daemon listens to for router requests
and sends router advertisements for the IP version 6 protocol. This
service allows hosts on a network to dynamically change their
default routers based on these router advertisements. For more
information about what parameters you can use in this file, type
man radvd. By default, this file sets the owner
of the radvd process to the user
radvd.
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/redhat-config-users is the
configuration file for the graphical application,
redhat-config-users. Under Red Hat Linux 7.3
this file is used to only to filter out system users. For more
information on using this application, see the chapter called
User and Group Configuration in the
Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.
The /etc/sysconfig/samba file is used to pass
arguments to the smbd and the
nmbd daemons at boot time. The
smbd daemon offers file sharing connectivity for
Windows clients on the network. The nmbd daemon
offers NetBIOS over IP naming services. For more information about
what parameters you can use in this file, type man
smbd. By default, this file sets smbd
and nmbd to run in daemon mode.
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/squid file is used to pass
arguments to the squid daemon at boot time. The
squid daemon is a proxy caching server for Web
client applications. For more information on configuring a
squid proxy server, use a Web browser to open the
/usr/share/doc/squid-<version>/
directory (replace <version>
with the squid version number installed on your
system). By default, this file sets squid top
start in daemon mode and sets the amount of time before it shuts
itself down.
The /etc/sysconfig/tux is the configuration
file for the TUX, the kernel-based web server. For more information
on configuring the TUX server, use a Web browser to open the
/usr/share/doc/tux-<version>/tux/index.html
(replace <version> with the version
number of TUX installed on your system). The parameters available
for this file are listed in
/usr/share/doc/tux-<version>/tux/parameters.html.
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:
VNCSERVERS=<value>, where
<value> is set to
something like "1:fred", to indicate that a
VNC server should be started for user fred on display :1. User
fred must have set a VNC password using
vncpasswd before attempting to connect to
the remote VNC server.
Note that when you use a VNC server, your communication with it is
unencrypted, and so it should not be used on an untrusted
network. For specific instructions concerning the use of SSH to
secure the VNC communication, please read the information found at http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/sshvnc.html.
To find out more about SSH, see Chapter 10 or
Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.
The /etc/sysconfig/xinetd file is used to pass
arguments to the xinetd daemon at boot time. The
xinetd daemon starts programs that provide
Internet services when a request to the port for that service is
received. For more information about what parameters you can use in
this file, type man xinetd. For more information
on the xinetd service, see the Section called Access Control Using xinetd in Chapter 9.
The following directories are normally found in
/etc/sysconfig/ and a basic description of what
they contain:
apm-scripts — This contains the Red
Hat APM suspend/resume script. You should not edit this file
directly. If you need customization, simple create a file called
/etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/apmcontinue and it
will be called at the end of the script. Also, you can control the script
by editing /etc/sysconfig/apmd.
cbq — This directory contains the
configuration files needed to do Class Based Queuing for
bandwidth management on network interfaces. networking — This directory is used
by Red Hat Network Administration Tool
and should not be edited manually. For more information about
configuring interfaces using the Red Hat Network
Administration Tool, see the chapter called
Network Configuration in the
Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.
network-scripts — This directory
contains the following network-related configuration files:
Network configuration files for each configured network
interface, such as ifcfg-eth0 for
the eth0 Ethernet interface. Scripts used to bring up and down network interfaces,
such as ifup and
ifdown.
Scripts used to bring up and down ISDN interfaces, such
as ifup-isdn and
ifdown-isdn
Various shared network function scripts which should not
be edited directly.
For more information on the network-scripts
directory, see Chapter 13
rhn — This directory contains the
configuration files for the Red Hat Network
Registration Client, the Red Hat Update
Agent Configuration Tool, the Red Hat
Update Agent, and the Red Hat Update
Agent panel applet as well as the
systemid and GPG keys. No files in this
directory should be edited by hand. For more information on the
Red Hat Network, see the Red Hat Network website at the following
URL: https://rhn.redhat.com/.
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Disclaimer: For authoritative source or latest update to this
documentation, please refer to http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/ |
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Quotes: There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
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