These are the the configuration files we are going to custimise:
/etc/profile /etc/bashrc .bashrc
.bashrc .bash_profile .bash_logout .inputrc .less .lessrc .xinitrc
.fvwmrc .fvwm2rc95 .Xmodmap .Xmodmap.num .Xdefaults .jedrc
.abbrevs.sl .joerc .emacs
.
Don't add users until you have completed your system configuration; you'll
put the dot files in /etc/skel.
Arguably, the most important piece of software after the kernel. To tailor
the behaviour of bash
, these are the main files to edit:
$HOME/.bashrc
contains user aliases and functions;
$HOME/.bash_profile
contains user environment
stuff and startup programs;
$HOME/.inputrc
contains key bindings and other bits.
Examples of these files are shown below. First, the most important: /etc/profile. It's used to configure a lot of features in your Linux box, as you will see in the following sections. Please look out for reverse quotes!
# /etc/profile # System wide environment and startup programs # Functions and aliases go in /etc/bashrc # This file sets up the following features and programs: # path, prompts, a few environment variables, colour ls, less, # rxvt, Backspace key behaviour, xterm title. # # Users can override these settings and/or add others in their # $HOME/.bash_profile # first: root or normal user? Set PATH and umask accordingly. Note that the # PATH is normally set by login(1), but what if you access the machine # via ssh? if [ $(id -gn) = $(id -un) -a $(id -u) -gt 14 ]; then umask 002 # normal user PATH="/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:." else umask 022 # root PATH="/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin" fi # Now extend the PATH. PATH="$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin:$HOME/bin:." # !!! Beware of ./ !!! # notify the user: login or non-login shell. If login, the prompt is # blue; otherwise, magenta. Root's prompt is red. # See the Colour-ls mini HOWTO for an explanation of the escape codes. USER=$(whoami) if [ $LOGNAME = $USER ] ; then COLOUR=44 # blue else COLOUR=45 # magenta fi if [ $USER = 'root' ] ; then COLOUR=41 # red PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin" # my choice fi ESC="\033" PROMPT='\h' # hostname STYLE='m' # plain # PROMPT='\u' # username # STYLE=';1m' # bold PS1="\[$ESC[$COLOUR;37$STYLE\]$PROMPT:\[$ESC[37;40$STYLE\]\w\\$ " PS2="> " # Ulimits: no core dumps, max file size 200 Mb. ulimit -c 0 -f 200000 # a few variables USER=$(id -un) LOGNAME=$USER MAIL="/var/spool/mail/$USER" # sendmail, postfix, smail # MAIL="$HOME/Mailbox" # qmail NNTPSERVER=news.myisp.it # put your own here VISUAL=jed EDITOR=jed HOSTNAME=$(/bin/hostname) HISTSIZE=1000 HISTFILESIZE=1000 export PATH PS1 PS2 USER LOGNAME MAIL NNTPSERVER export VISUAL EDITOR HOSTNAME HISTSIZE HISTFILESIZE # enable colour ls eval $(dircolors /etc/DIR_COLORS -b) export LS_OPTIONS='-s -F -T 0 --color=yes' # customize less LESS='-M-Q' LESSEDIT="%E ?lt+%lt. %f" LESSOPEN="| lesspipe.sh %s" LESSCHARDEF=8bcccbcc13b.4b95.33b. # show colours in ls -l | less # LESSCHARSET=latin1 PAGER=less export LESS LESSEDIT LESSOPEN VISUAL LESSCHARDEF PAGER # you might need this to fix the backspace key in rxvt/xterm stty erase ^H # alternative: ^? # set xterm title: full path case $TERM in xterm*|rxvt) PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD}\007"' ;; esac for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do if [ -x $i ]; then . $i # beware - variables and aliases might get overridden! fi done # call fortune, if available if [ -x /usr/games/fortune ] ; then echo ; /usr/games/fortune ; echo fi
This is a sample /etc/bashrc:
# /etc/bashrc # System wide functions and aliases # Environment stuff goes in /etc/profile # Insert PS1 definitions here if you experience problems. export CDPATH="$CDPATH:~" # common aliases alias cp='cp -i' alias l=less alias ls="ls $LS_OPTIONS" alias mv='mv -i' alias rm='rm -i' alias rmbk='/bin/rm -f .*~ *~ *aux *bak *log *tmp 2> /dev/null' alias u='cd ..' alias which="type -path" alias x=startx # A few useful functions c () # cd to the new directory and list its contents { cd $1 ; ls } inst() # Install a .tar.gz archive in current directory { if [ $# != 0 ]; then tar zxvf $1; fi } cz() # List the contents of a .zip archive { if [ $# != 0 ]; then unzip -l $*; fi } ctgz() # List the contents of a .tar.gz archive { for file in $* ; do tar ztf ${file} done } tgz() # Create a .tgz archive a la zip. { if [ $# != 0 ]; then name=$1.tar; shift; tar -rvf ${name} $* ; gzip -9 ${name} fi } crpm() # list information on an .rpm file { if [ $# != 0 ]; then rpm -qil $1 | less; fi }
This is a sample .bashrc
:
# $HOME/.bashrc # Source global definitions if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then . /etc/bashrc fi # this is needed to notify the user that they are in non-login shell if [ "$GET_PS1" = "" ] ; then COLOUR=45; ESC="\033"; STYLE=';1m'; # STYLE='m' USER=$(whoami) export PS1="\[$ESC[$COLOUR;37$STYLE\]$USER:\[$ESC[37;40$STYLE\]\w\\$ " fi # personal aliases alias backup='tar -Mcvf /dev/fd0' alias dial='eznet up myisp' alias f='cd ~/fortran' alias hangup='eznet down' alias lyx='lyx -width 580 -height 450' alias restore='tar -M -xpvf /dev/fd0' # personal functions xj() # Launch xjed and a file in background { xjed $1 & }
This is a sample .bash_profile
:
# $HOME/.bash_profile # User specific environment and startup programs # This file contains user-defined settings that override # those in /etc/profile # Get user aliases and functions if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then GET_PS1="NO" # don't change the prompt colour . ~/.bashrc fi # set a few `default' directories export CDPATH="$CDPATH:$HOME:$HOME/text:$HOME/text/geology"
This is a sample .inputrc
:
# $HOME/.inputrc # key bindings "\e[1~": beginning-of-line "\e[3~": delete-char "\e[4~": end-of-line # (F1 .. F5) are "\e[[A" ... "\e[[E" "\e[[A": "info \C-m" set bell-style visible # please don't beep set meta-flag On # allow 8-bit input (i.e, accented letters) set convert-meta Off # don't strip 8-bit characters set output-meta On # display 8-bit characters correctly set horizontal-scroll-mode On # scroll long command lines set show-all-if-ambiguous On # after TAB is pressed
To make the backspace and delete keys work correctly in xterm
and
other X11 applications, the following is also needed:
.xinitrc
:
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
xmodmap $usermodmap
.Xmodmap
will contain:
keycode 22 = BackSpace
keycode 107 = Delete
this fixes the console. To fix xterm
:
.Xdefaults
:
xterm*VT100.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7F)\n\
<Key>Delete: string(0x1b) string("[3~")\n\
<Key>Home: string(0x1b) string("[1~")\n\
<Key>End: string(0x1b) string("[4~")\n\
Ctrl<Key>Prior: string(0x1b) string("[40~")\n\
Ctrl<Key>Next: string(0x1b) string("[41~")
nxterm*VT100.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7F)\n\
<Key>Delete: string(0x1b) string("[3~")\n\
<Key>Home: string(0x1b) string("[1~")\n\
<Key>End: string(0x1b) string("[4~")\n\
Ctrl<Key>Prior: string(0x1b) string("[40~")\n\
Ctrl<Key>Next: string(0x1b) string("[41~")
rxvt
is a wee bit more complicated, as some compile--time options
influence its behaviour. See the above /etc/profile.
More info in bash
(1) and readline
(3) man pages.
Don't expect every application to work correctly! If you run joe
in
xterm
, for instance, some keys won't work; the same holds for some
versions of rxvt
.
(This section doesn't apply to native English speakers.)
A.k.a. ``internationalisation''. Gasp. This long word means ``to adapt Linux to your local conventions: language, format of date, currency etc.''.
Although Red Hat has its own method for setting up i18n
(/etc/sysconfig/i18n), you may want to
enable your language only in some cases. I, for one, enabled i18n in
kdm
(via kdmconfig
) and xfce
, but want to read
English messages when I work in console or xterm.
Consider these lines:
LANG=it # choose your language: fr, de, es, ...
LANGUAGE=it
LC_ALL=it
export LANG LANGUAGE LC_ALL
If you insert them in your .xinitrc
or .xsession
just
before the line that starts the window manager, you'll get internationalised
messages - including those in xterms started from within the window manager.
But if you'd rather get English messages, set the language to ``en'' and put
the same lines in .bash_profile
.
ls
can display directory listings using colours to highlight
different file types. To enable this feature, you just need a couple of
lines in /etc/profile as seen above. However, this won't work
with old versions of rxvt
; use some flavour of xterm
instead. It looks like some old rxvt
s have a bug that prevents them
from inheriting the environment correctly in some circumstances.
With this excellent pager you can browse not only plain text files, but also gzip compressed, tar and zip archives, man pages, and what have you. Its configuration involves a few steps:
.lesskey
in your home directory:
^[[A back-line
^[[B forw-line
^[[C right-scroll
^[[D left-scroll
^[OA back-line
^[OB forw-line
^[OC right-scroll
^[OD left-scroll
^[[6~ forw-scroll
^[[5~ back-scroll
^[[1~ goto-line
^[[4~ goto-end
^[[7~ goto-line
^[[8~ goto-end
then run the command lesskey
. (These are escape sequences for
vt100-like terminals.) This creates a binary file .less
containing the key bindings.
#!/bin/sh # This is a preprocessor for 'less'. It is used when this environment # variable is set: LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s" lesspipe() { case "$1" in *.tar) tar tf $1 2>/dev/null ;; # View contents of .tar and .tgz files *.tgz|*.tar.gz|*.tar.Z|*.tar.z) tar ztf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.Z|*.z|*.gz) gzip -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; # View compressed files correctly *.bz2) bzip2 -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.zip) unzip -l $1 2>/dev/null ;; # View archives *.arj) unarj -l $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.rpm) rpm -qpil $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.cpio) cpio --list -F $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.1|*.2|*.3|*.4|*.5|*.6|*.7|*.8|*.9|*.n|*.l|*.man) FILE=`file -L $1` FILE=`echo $FILE | cut -d ' ' -f 2` if [ "$FILE" = "troff" ]; then groff -s -p -t -e -Tascii -mandoc $1 fi ;; *) file $1 | grep text > /dev/null ; if [ $? = 1 ] ; then # it's not some kind of text strings $1 fi ;; esac } lesspipe $1
chmod 755 lesspipe.sh
.
less
in
/etc/profile as seen above.
Only the most popular will be covered here.
I rarely use emacs
, so I have only a couple of tips for you.
Some emacs
distributions don't come preconfigured for colours and
syntax highlighting. Put this in your .emacs
:
(global-font-lock-mode t)
(setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t)
This only works in X11. Moreover, to enable accented characters you'll add this line:
(standard-display-european 1)
I'll leave it to you to peruse all of emacs
' documentation to find
out how to tailor it to your needs---potentially, it can take months of
hacking. The Dotfile generator (Section
Configuration Software) is a good helping hand.
Some versions of joe
don't work with colours in console, and some
special keys don't work either. A quick and dirty (and inelegant) solution
to the former problem is this:
~$ export TERM=vt100
~$ joe myfile
(edit your file)
~$ export TERM=linux
To make the special keys work, all you have to do is edit .joerc
,
.jstarrc
or your favourite emulation; you can start from the
system-wide config files in /usr/lib/joe. Look for the fourth
section (key bindings). This enables Home and End:
bol ^[ [ 1 ~ Go to beginning of line
eol ^[ [ 4 ~ Go to end of line
Find out the desired ESC sequences typing cat
followed by the
special keys.
This is my favourite editor: it does what I need, it's lighter and easier to
configure than emacs
, and emulates other editors quite well.
Many users at my university use jed
to emulate EDT
, VMS'
system editor.
jed
's configuration files are .jedrc
and
/usr/lib/jed/lib/*; the former can be adapted from
jed.rc
in the latter directory.
xjed
apparently doesn't recognise the DEL key, add or
comment out these lines in your .jedrc
:
#ifdef XWINDOWS
x_set_keysym (0xFFFF, 0, "\e[3~");
setkey (``delete_char_cmd'', "\e[3~");
#endif
jed
emulate EDT
(or other editors) all you
have to do is edit a couple of lines in .jedrc
. If you want the
numeric keypad `+
' to delete words instead of a single character,
add this in .jedrc
:
unsetkey("\eOl");
unsetkey("\eOP\eOl");
setkey("edt_wdel", "\eOl");
setkey("edt_uwdel", "\eOP\eOl");
after the line that reads () = evalfile("edt")
(or similar);
xjed
use the numeric keypad for EDT
emulation, insert the following in .Xmodmap
:
keycode 77 = KP_F1
keycode 112 = KP_F2
keycode 63 = KP_F3
keycode 82 = KP_F4
keycode 86 = KP_Separator
xjed
is done adding lines like these
in .Xdefaults
:
xjed*Geometry: 80x32+150+50
xjed*font: 10x20
xjed*background: midnight blue
# and so on...
$HOME/.abbrevs.sl
(you can change this
name by inserting variable Abbrev_File = "/usr/lib/jed/abbrev.sl";
in .jedrc
):
create_abbrev_table ("Global", "0-9A-Za-z");
define_abbrev ("Global", "GG", "Guido Gonzato");
create_abbrev_table ("TeX", "\\A-Za-z0-9");
define_abbrev ("TeX", "\\beq", "\\begin{equation}");
define_abbrev ("TeX", "\\eeq", "\\end{equation}");
% and so on...
and type ESC x abbrev_mode
to enable it. To enable the abbreviation
by default, add entries like these to your .jedrc
:
define text_mode_hook ()
{
set_abbrev_mode (1);
}
%
define fortran_hook ()
{
set_abbrev_mode (1);
use_abbrev_table ("Fortran");
}
% and so on...
Edit the global configuration in /usr/lib/pine.conf, taking
care at least of the following fields: user-domain
,
smtp-server
, and nntp-server
. Note that
inbox-path
depends on your MTA: if you use sendmail
or
postfix
, that'll be var/spool/mail/$USER
; with Qmail,
/home/$USER/Mailbox (but root will use
/var/qmail/alias/Mailbox.
Users can't use minicom
unless a global configuration has been made
by root. Remember to make it.
This package is probably the most convenient for simple sending/receiving of faxes. You'll have to tailor the script /usr/bin/fax or (mandrake) /etc/fax.config; easy job, but a couple of quirks caused me quite a headache:
at+fclass=?
. The reply may be
like 0,1,2
; 1 and 2 are the classes supported by your modem;
T
' or
`P
' won't work in some countries-in Italy, at least. Put
`ATDT
' or `ATDP
' instead;
-i
'
and `-k
', needed by efax
. If you want to add an AT command,
add it to the appropriate string leaving out `AT
' and preceding the
rest with either `-i
' or `-k
'. Example: to add the
`ATX3
' command to INIT, you'll append `-iX3
'.
That done, there are a few permissions to fix to enable non-root users to
send and receive faxes. The directories /var/lock and
/var/spool/fax must be writable. To do so, create the
group faxusers
, add users to it, then type:
~# chown root.faxusers /var/lock
~# mkdir /var/spool/fax # if it doesn't exist yet
~# chown root.faxusers /var/spool/fax; chmod g+w /var/spool/fax
As a normal user, you'll issue newgrp faxusers
before sendig a fax.
This essential tool suffers from a small snag. Owing to to the well-known
export regulations in the USA, the utility pdf2ps
doesn't work with
encrypted .pdf files. Never mind: point your browser to
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geoffk/pdfencrypt, download the file
pdf_sec.ps
and replace the file with the same name that
comes with the Ghostscript distribution.
The ``root'' of a TeX system is the directory $TEXMF, which is /usr/share/texmf in teTeX; other distributions may differ (search for ``texmf'' on your system). You normally add stuff or fiddle with files therein.
To include PostScript figures or TeX files that reside in subdirectories, it is convenient to expand TeX's search path to include subdirectories. Put this command in your .bash_profile:
export TEXINPUTS="$HOME/mylib::./figures"
which makes TeX search in $HOME/mylib
before the default
directories, and the directory ./figures
afterwards.
To configure the hyphenation pattern for your language, edit the file $TEXMF/tex/generic/config/language.dat, then do:
~# texconfig init ; texconfig hyphen
Even if you don't write in English, don't remove the entry ``english''; TeX pukes without it.
To tailor dvips
, the file to edit is
$TEXMF/dvips/config/config.ps. Be aware that the fields
regarding the default resolution also affect xdvi
's behaviour;
if you experience annoying attempts to create fonts each time you run it,
put the line
XDvi*mfmode:
in your .Xdefault
. This should help.
Additional LaTeX packages are available from your nearest CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) mirror site, e.g. ftp://ftp.dante.de/pub/tex. Unpack the package under $TEXMF/tex/latex.
If no .sty file exist, run the command latex newstyle.ins
or
latex newstyle.dtx
to create it, then run the command
texhash
so that teTeX recognises the new package.
I'll take it for granted that your kernel has PPP + TCP/IP support compiled
in, that loopback is enabled, and that you already have the pppd
package correctly installed and, if you will, set uid root. Obviously, your
ISP must support PPP.
There are now two ways to get PPP to work: a) manual configuration, and b) a configuration program that automagically sees to it. Whichever option you choose, have the following information on hand:
Manual configuration is a drudgery. It's about editing files and writing scripts; not too much work, but it's easy to make mistakes and newcomers are often intimidated. The PPP HOWTO is there for you. Alternatively, there are tools that ask for the information above and do all the work.
Gnome and KDE include, respectively, gnome-ppp
and kppp
which are easy enough to set up. Alternatively, I suggest that you have a
look at a couple of tty--based tools, wvdial
and eznet
.
You feed them your ISP's phone number, your username, your password, and
you're in business. Their home pages are
at
http://www.worldvisions.ca/wvdial and
http://www.hwaci.com/sw/eznet. Both are great, but I prefer
the latter.
First of all, create an /etc/resolv.conf like this:
nameserver w.x.y.z
where you'll insert the address of your ISP's nameserver. To create an
account with eznet
, issue the following command:
#~ eznet add service=YOUR_ISP user=NAME password=PASSWORD phone=PHONE
which creates the file /var/eznet/eznet.conf, owned by root.root
with permissions 600; chmod it to 666 if you want it to be world readable.
Now dial your ISP with eznet up YOUR_ISP
. If the modem keeps
waiting for the dial tone and won't connect, then try this command:
#~ eznet change YOUR_ISP init0=atx3
To hang up, the command is eznet down
. That's all!
wvdial
's setup is even shorter. Type wvdialconf
/etc/wvdial.conf
, then edit the resulting file to include your
username, password, and phone number. Try it out with wvdial
, and
keep your fingers crossed. To hang up, stop it with Ctrl-C.
To retrieve your mail from a POP3 server, you need a POP client. Most such
clients require that you run an MTA like sendmail
, qmail
or postfix
; a bit of an overkill on low-spec machines. However,
there are clients that work without an MTA. The first kind is well
represented by fetchmail
; the second by fetchpop
or
frenchie
. Sites:
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail/pop,
http://www.lowcountry.com/~jscottb/tcltk.shtml.
To configure these clients:
fetchpop
: the first time you run it, you'll be prompted for
some information. Answer the questions and you're set. fetchpop
must be used with the -r
switch if your ISP's POP3 server doesn't
implement the command LAST properly.
frenchie
: as above, edit
/.frenchie/frenchierc;
fetchmail
: adapt this sample .fetchmailrc
:
# $HOME/.fetchmailrc
poll mbox.myisp.com with protocol pop3;
user john there with password _Loo%ny is john here
One user reported that adding ``smtphost localhost'' to the second line
improved performance dramatically.
You must set the permissions to this file with the command
chmod 600 .fetchmailrc
, otherwise fetchmail
will rightly
refuse to start. This example is very basic; there are endless possibilities
of configuration. Check out at
http://www.ccil.org/~esr/fetchmail.
You will want to protect yourself from spam or huge mail messages. There
are two cases: 1) permanent connection to the net, 2) a POP link. In the
first case, you can write a .procmailrc
file, while in the second
there are tools for checking the mail prior to fetching it.
A very simple .procmailrc
that defines a few rules:
# $HOME/.procmailrc
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail # make sure it exists
# Store messages directed to the "foo" mailing list to $HOME/mail/foo
:0
* ^To:.*foo
foo
# Discard messages that are not explicitly sent to me or to one of the
# mailling lists I subscribed to.
:0
* !^TO(guido|jed|lugvr|ldp|nobody)
/dev/null
# ditto, for messages larger than 50k.
:0
* > 50000
/dev/null
man procmailex
for further examples.
POP users will want to use poppy
, a useful Perl script for checking
the mail before fetching it. Get it from
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/system/mail/pop.
Come on, it's no longer as difficult as it used to be... All major
distributions include a tool for setting up X11 (e.g.
XConfigurator
, sax
, XF86Setup
, or at least
xf86config
). X configuration is virtually automatic these days, but
a few video cards may cause a headache.
First of all, check out at the XFree86 site ( http://www.xfree86.org) whether your video card is supported. If so, then try this procedure:
X_version_bin.tgz
, X_version_set.tgz
, and all the servers.
Amongst other programs, the first archive contains the most up-to-date
SuperProbe
;
X_version_bin.tgz
to a temporary directory, cd to it,
and run ./SuperProbe
. If your video card is recognised, chances are
that you'll be able to set it up. Otherwise, hard luck;
X_version_set.tgz
from
/usr/X11R6/, then run XF86Setup
.
This has always worked for me, but your mileage may vary. Please note that most times X11 won't start because you chose wrong specs for your monitor! Start with conservative settings, i.e. 800x600 and 256 colours, then pump it up. Warning: these operations are dangerous and your monitor might be damaged!
If your card isn't supported, you can either: 1) wait for the next version of XFree86; 2) buy a commercial X server; 3) buy a supported video card. Quartum non datur.
We have seen above how to make a few special keys work. The sample file
.Xmodmap
works well if you want to use Xjed, but it makes the keypad
unusable. You'll then need another config file, which we'll call
.Xmodmap.num
:
! Definitions can be found in <X11/keysymdef.h>
keycode 77 = Num_Lock
keycode 112 = KP_Divide
keycode 63 = KP_Multiply
keycode 82 = KP_Subtract
keycode 86 = KP_Add
keycode 79 = KP_7
keycode 80 = KP_8
keycode 81 = KP_9
keycode 83 = KP_4
keycode 84 = KP_5
keycode 85 = KP_6
keycode 87 = KP_1
keycode 88 = KP_2
keycode 89 = KP_3
keycode 90 = KP_0
keycode 91 = KP_Decimal
Make sure that your /etc/X11/XF86Config does not contain these three lines:
ServerNumLock
Xleds
XkbDisable
and in case, comment them out. To re-enable the keypad, you'll issue the
command xmodmap .Xmodmap.num
.
To be greeted by a graphical login, edit the file /etc/inittab, which should include a line like this:
x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/X11/xdm -nodaemon # also kdm or gdm
where 5 is the runlevel corresponding to X11. Modify the line that defines the default runlevel (usually 2 or 3), changing it as above:
id:5:initdefault:
The number of colours is specified in /etc/X11/xdm/Xserver:
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -bpp 16 vt07 # first X server, 65k colours
:1 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1 -bpp 32 vt08 # second X server, true colour
If you already have .xinitrc
, copy it to .xsession
and
make the latter executable with chmod +x .xsession
. Now issue the
command telinit 5
and you're in business.
Once X works, there are endless possibilities of configuration; it depends on the window manager you use, there are tens to choose from. Mostly, it's all down to editing one or more ASCII files in your home directory; in other cases you don't have to edit a thing, and use an applet or even a menu.
Some examples:
$HOME/GNUstep
, and a cool configuration applet;
In short: if you don't mind editing config file, choose something like
icewm
, fvwm*
, blackbox
etc; if you do mind, the
choice is currently restricted to KDE, Gnome, WindowMaker, and Xfce. Email
me if I'm wrong.
It's important to have a good .xinitrc
. An example:
#!/bin/sh
# $HOME/.xinitrc
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
xmodmap $usermodmap
xset s noblank # turn off the screen saver
xset s 300 2 # screen saver start after 5 min
xset m 10 5 # set mouse acceleration
rxvt -cr green -ls -bg black -fg white -fn 7x14 \
-geometry 80x30+57+0 &
if [ "$1" = "" ] ; then # default
WINMGR=wmaker
else
WINMGR=$1
fi
$WINMGR
Although it doesn't appear to be strictly required, make
it executable with chmod +x .xinitrc
.
The .xinitrc
above lets you choose the window manager: try
$ startx startkde # or other w.m.
Find out where the app-defaults directory is (it should be /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults). Several apps keep a configuration file there.
Recent versions of XFree86 (say, > 3.3.4) use an X Font Server that supports PostScript Type 1 and True Type fonts natively, so you can use the wealth of fonts available on the net. There's a simple procedure to follow.
Suppose that you download a Type 1 font collection, e.g. Freefont ( ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/fonts/freefonts-0.10.tar.gz). To make it visible to the font server, unpack the archive from /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/. Then edit /etc/X11/fs/config, add an entry for the new directory, and restart the font server.
If you're rolling your own font collection, you'll need to supply the files
fonts.dir
and fonts.scale
; the tool to make them is
type1inst
, available from
http://http://goblet.anu.edu.au/~m9305357/type1inst.html.
As for the True Type fonts, group them in a directory of your choice and
create fonts.dir
using ttmkfdir > fonts.dir
, included in
the Freetype archive;
http://www.freetype.org. Then proceed as
above. For example, if you want to use the Windows fonts you have in, say,
/mnt/win/windows/fonts, go to that directory, run
ttmkfdir
, edit /etc/X11/fs/config and restart the font
server.
It all started from the original True Type X font server: http://http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/.
When you're done editing the dot files, copy them to /etc/skel as seen in Section Software Configuration.
rpm
is such a wonderful method of keeping packages under control
that I'm reluctant to install .tar.gz archives but in very few special cases
(e.g., security). Whenever you install a tarball, consider turning it into
an .rpm archive, then reinstall it; consult the RPM HOWTO. Also, if you use
recent gcc
versions, it may be advisable to put this in
your /etc/rpmrc
:
optflags: i386 -O2 -mpentiumpro
If you upgrade your machine, do your backup as usual and remember to save a few additional files. Some could be /etc/X11/XF86Config, /usr/bin/fax, all the stuff in /usr/local, the kernel configuration, the whole /etc, and all the mail in /var/spool/mail.
Then it's time to upgrade (in rare cases, downgrade!) applications that your distribution ship with, and to add additional packages. Keep a list of these ones.