2. MCC's Components

The Mandriva Linux Control Center (MCC) enables the system administrator to configure the hardware and the services used by all users in a friendly way.

Access the Mandriva Linux Control Center through the main menu (System+ConfigurationConfigure Your Computer).

[Note] Text Mode Configuration

Some of the Mandriva Linux Control Center components are also available from the command line in text mode by running drakconf.

[Note] Tools Availability

Some of the Control Center tools will be shown only when they are actually installed on the system.

Figure 1. The Control Center's Main Window

The Control Center's Main Window

Here are some of the available menu entries:

The tools are sorted into categories. The following table lists them all and refers to the corresponding sections of this manual.

Table 1. Overview of Graphical Tools

Software Management Chapter 1, Package Management
Hardware Section 1, “Configuring Your Hardware”
  Section 2, “Controlling the Graphical Configuration”
  Section 3, “Configuring a 3D Desktop”
  Section 4, “Setting up a TV Card with DrakxTV”
  Section 5, “Changing Your Keyboard Layout”
  Section 6, “Changing Your Mouse”
  Section 7, “Configuring Printers with PrinterDrake”
  Section 8, “Installing and Sharing Scanners”
  Section 9, “Setting up your UPS”
Network & Internet Section 1, “Network and Internet Connection Management”
  Section 1.6, “Proxy Settings”
  Section 2, “Sharing an Internet Connection”
  Section 4, “Activating and Managing Network Profiles”
  Section 3, “Managing Wireless Connections (Roaming)”
  Configure VPN Connections: Allows you to setup a Virtual Private Network with a remote VPN server. Protocols supported are Cisco VPN Concentrator and OpenVPN.
  Manage host definitions: If you have fixed IP addresses on your network, this tool allows you to associate names to those IPs, easier to remember.
System Select the authentication method:

This tool allows you to change the way users are authenticated on your computer. Various authentication methods are available. If you select a method other than Local file, you are asked to provide parameters which vary from one method to the other. If you don't know those parameters, you should ask your network administrator. Available only in Mandriva Linux Control Center's expert mode.

  Menu style configuration: This utility allows you to switch the menu style from the “Discovery” one, to the more complete “Mandriva” one.
  Display manager chooser: allows you to choose the X11 display manager for users who graphically log onto the machine. Basically, all display managers offer the same features, it's just a question of taste.
  Section 1, “Configuring Start-Up Services”
  Section 2, “Managing Fonts on your System with DrakFont”
  Section 3, “Setting your Machine's Date and Time”
  Select the language and the country or region: This utility allows you to switch the main language of the system, as well as local settings. First choose the language to be used, then the country or region.
  Section 4, “Monitoring System Activity”
  Console: simply opens a terminal to directly enter commands from the administrator account (root).
  Section 6, “Managing Users and Groups”
  Section 7, “Backing Up and Restoring your Files”
Mount Points Section 1, “Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake”
  Section 2, “Managing Removable Devices”
  Section 4, “Importing Remote NFS Directories”
  Manage NFS Shares: Allows you to create and maintain shares to be mounted by other UNIX® machines on the local network.
  Section 3, “Importing Remote SMB Directories”
  Section 6, “Setting up WebDAV Mount Points”. This utility allows you to mount remote WebDAV directories.
  Section 5, “Allowing Users to Share Folders”
  Manage Samba configuration: This tool allows you to manage the folders and printers of your machine shared with Windows® machines on the local network. It also allows you to manage Samba users for shares access control.
Security Section 1, “Securing your Machine through DrakSec”. Available only in Mandriva Linux Control Center's expert mode.
  Section 2, “Controlling File Permissions with DrakPerm”. Available only in Mandriva Linux Control Center's expert mode.
  Section 3, “Securing your Internet Access via DrakFirewall”
  Setup network interfaces failover and firewall replication: mainly useful for clusters, this tool allows you to define redundancy for network interfaces, as well as firewall replication.
Boot Section 1, “Configuring the Login Mode”
  Section 2, “Changing Your Boot-up Configuration”
  Section 3, “Customizing your Boot Theme”

[Note] Note

Additionally, the Online Administration category only appears if the rfbdrake package is installed. This tool allows you to take control of a remote host (Linux/UNIX®, Windows®). We cover the usage Rfbdrake in Chapter 2, Controlling a Remote Machine.

Some other categories and tools appear if the drakwizard package is installed. The documentation for those server wizards is available in the Server Administration Guide. Those wizards enable you to do basic configuration of common LAN services such as web, FTP, mail and database servers.