Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux:LISA: Linux Installation and System function GetCookie (name) { var arg = name + "="; var alen = arg.length; var clen = document.cookie.length; var i = 0; while (i < clen) { var j = i + alen; if (document.cookie.substring(i, j) == arg) { var end = document.cookie.indexOf (";", j); if (end == -1) end = document.cookie.length; return unescape(document.cookie.substring(j, end)); } i = document.cookie.indexOf(" ", i) + 1; if (i == 0) break; } return null; } var m1=''; var gifstr=GetCookie("UsrType"); if((gifstr!=0 ) && (gifstr!=null)) { m2=gifstr; } document.write(m1+m2+m3);            Keyword Title Author ISBN Publisher Imprint Brief Full  Advanced      Search  Search Tips Please Select ----------- Components Content Mgt Certification Databases Enterprise Mgt Fun/Games Groupware Hardware IBM Redbooks Intranet Dev Middleware Multimedia Networks OS Prod Apps Programming Security UI Web Services Webmaster Y2K ----------- New Titles ----------- Free Archive To access the contents, click the chapter and section titles. Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux (Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing) Author(s): Manuel Ricart ISBN: 078971826x Publication Date: 12/22/98 function isIE4() { return( navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1 && (navigator.appVersion.charAt(0)=='4') ); } function bookMarkit() { var url="../../../../../www.itknowledge.com/PSUser/EWBookMarks.html@url="+window.location+"&isbn=0"; parent.location.href=url; //var win = window.open(url,"myitk"); //if(!isIE4()) // win.focus(); } Search this book:   Previous Table of Contents Next Chapter 21LISA: Linux Installation and System Administration Utility In This Chapter •  Basic Functions of LISA •  Verbose System Analysis •  Software Package Administration •  System Configuration •  Network Configuration Area Caldera OpenLinux includes an administration and configuration tool called LISA. LISA provides an interface to user management, package installation, and system configuration. Some of these tasks are described in other sections because it is faster and more powerful to use the host programs directly rather than use them through LISA. LISA is not freely distributed software, so it is not a common part of other Linux distributions. For simple networks, it provides access to all the common aspects of system and software configuration. To use LISA, you must be logged in as root. LISA provides a UI through a console; therefore, system configuration can be done even if you are not using the X Window system. Navigation and operation are done using the arrow keys to select command options. The Enter key is used to choose selected commands, and the Esc key is used to go up a level or to exit the program. On screens that display controls, you can use the Spacebar to mark a highlighted option. Basic Functions of LISA LISA groups its functionality into three categories: •  System Analysis •  Software Package Administration •  System Configuration The utility also provides a help system that discusses several topics of interest for system administrators. You should browse this section for additional information and help resources. Here’s the main screen it presents when you start it up. The main LISA screen. Use your arrow keys to highlight a category and press Enter to go there. Press Esc to exit the program. For viewing online help about using LISA, press F1. Detailed information about the current selection can be obtained by pressing F2. Verbose System Analysis The system analysis area can give you information about your hardware and configuration settings. This information is useful to assess your current hardware and configuration settings. The system analysis area is subdivided into several other areas: •  Automatic System Analysis: This area displays basic system information, such as when the system was last started, the current load, the host name, and the IP address of your computer. •  Automatic Kernel Analysis: The kernel analysis displays information on the kernel currently in use on your system. It includes information such as kernel version, who built it, the compiler used for building it, the file systems that it supports, and current devices. •  Automatic Hardware Analysis: The hardware area displays the more detailed information about your hardware, such as the type of processor installed, the amount of RAM, the size of the swap disk, information about your graphics card, disk drives, PCMCIA, and other hardware devices. •  Automatic Partition Analysis: This area displays information on the disk partitions in your computer. It lists the partitions by their device names and provides the size and type for each of the partitions. •  Automatic Network Analysis: The network area provides information about your network devices and configuration. It displays information on the traffic handled by your Ethernet devices and detailed configuration information (IP, netmask, broadcast address, and so on). In addition, it displays the current routing table. (This information shows how packets are forwarded from your computer to other networks.) •  Display Boot Process Messages: This area displays the boot messages from the last boot. Checking this area after installing a new kernel can tell you if your hardware was recognized properly. When your computer boots, it is very hard to follow these messages because they scroll by so quickly. This information is also available from /var/log/messages, but that file includes every boot plus other running information. The Boot Process area is more succinct. •  Display Script Configuration File: This area displays the /etc/lst.cnf file. This file contains information that packages use to find out information about your system. You should not edit this file by hand. It makes for interesting (or boring) reading, depending on your interests. •  Display System Configuration File: This area displays another configuration file, /etc/system.cnf, used by the system to configure itself. You should not change this file by hand. Software Package Administration This area is a front end to RPM (discussed in Chapter 20, “Installing Programs and Applications”). You can use LISA to perform tasks similar to what you can do with RPM. For novice users, this could be an easier way to perform those tasks. The Software Package Administration area subdivides into four sections: •  Select installation source: This allows you to select the source for the RPM packages. You can install packages using a path or a specific CD-ROM on the local hard disk or available through the Network via NFS. At the time of this writing Caldera has a public NFS server available at IP 207.179.39.2; the path is /OpenLinux-1.3. You can use this method to upgrade and install new packages provided you have the bandwidth. This method for installation relies on fast network access, so PPP connection via a modem is probably not fast enough for this. •  Information about the available software packages: This area displays a screen listing all the installed packages. Select one to see the details. This is similar to going into RPM and issuing rpm –qi packagename. •  Installation of additional software packages: You can install additional packages using this area if you provide an installation path (CD-ROM or NFS) volume. This is an installation interface to RPM. •  Remove software packages that have already been installed: This is a de-installation interface to RPM. 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