GNOME System Tools 0.22.0

[Carlos Garnacho <garnacho tuxerver net>]

The GNOME System Tools version 0.22.0 have been released.

The GNOME System Tools are a set of cross-platform configuration
utilities for Linux and other Unix systems. Internally they are divided
in frontends and backends. The frontend knows nothing about the
underlying system and provides the same user interface across the
different types of systems. The backend knows how to read and write the
configuration information. The GNOME System Tools do not impose a new
database on the system: they work with the default configuration files
so that configuration can still be done by hand or by other tools.

Screenshots
===========
You can view screenshots of the most recent tools at
http://www.gnome.org/projects/gst/screenshots.html

Changes since last release
==========================

- removed deprecated functions, it now compiles with
*_DISABLE_DEPRECATED (Garnacho)
- removed several compiler warnings (Garnacho)
- added distro logos in the "unsupported distro" dialog (Garnacho)
- solved a lot of bugs (Tambet, Garnacho)
- boot-admin uses GtkTreeView (Garnacho)
- removed GAL dependency (Garnacho)
- improved UI (Garnacho, Tambet)
- HIG patially applied (Garnacho)
- boot-admin autodetects grub or lilo (Garnacho)
- added Slackware support in time and users (Álvaro peña)
- added Gentoo support in time (Markus Bertheau)

Downloading
===========
You can get it from :
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/unstable/sources/gnome-system-tools/

Help Wanted
===========
We still need lots of help from anybody interested in contributing to
GST, even if it's only an email letting us know whether the tools worked
for your system. You can also submit bug reports at
http://bugzilla.gnome.org

Testing
-------
Testing that the tools work correctly on your system and either filing
detailed bug reports or confirming that they work correctly is greatly
appreciated. If you test a tool on an unsupported distro/system and find
out that it works correctly, please let us know so that we can update
the supported tools matrix (see below).

Porting
-------
The backends are designed as to minimize the effort needed to support
more distros/systems. A great way to contribute is to port the tools to
another distribution/system.

Prerequisites
=============

* GNOME 2 libraries

* gal-2.0

* gnome-print 

Stability
=========
The tools have been stable on our systems recently. However, since this
tools modify your system configuration we suggest that only people which
are going to be able to solve a problem if something goes wrong use them
at the time. We have created a backup system so that the changes made to
the configuration files are tracked and stored.

Mailing list / IRC
==================
For discussion and feedback, sign up for our mailing
list:http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/setup-tool-hackers

You can also find us in the #gst channel on IRC server irc.gnome.org

Whitepaper
==========
You can find the latest version of the GST whitepaper at:
http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/helix-setup-tools.html

Backup system
=============
Every time a tool modifies your system configuration files, it makes
backups of those files. The backups are rotated (for 9 levels in total),
and the backup made the first time the tool was run is kept forever.
This means that you can revert your system configuration to the point
before you ever ran a Ximian Setup Tool.

The backup path is /var/cache/ximian-setup-tools/backup/<tool>/<id>/. In
this directory, you'll find a complete snapshot of the files that were
modified. The original directory structure leading up to these files is
also kept. <id> runs from 1-9, and when the first backup is rotated out,
it is kept in a special catalog called "First", which is never touched
again.

Current Tool Set
================
- Runlevel admin
Allows you to configure:
    * the services your computer will run at startup
    * in which runleves do they run

- Network admin
Allows you to configure your:

    * hostname
    * samba hostname and workgroup
    * DNS servers
    * search domains
    * hosts (/etc/hosts)
    * Network interfaces
    * ppp
    * ethernet
    * slip
    * wavelan (limited support)

- Time admin
Allows you to configure your:

    * Date & Time
    * Timezone
    * NTPD servers

- Users admin
Allows you to manage:

    * Users
    * username / full name
    * password
    * home dir
    * shell
    * groups
    * Groups

- Boot admin
Allows you to set:

    * Default boot partition
    * Partition type and label
    * Timeout
    * Kernel image
    * Kernel extra parameters (append)
    * adding or deleting partitions from the boot manager
    
Credits
=======

Maintainer

Carlos Garnacho Parro <garnacho tuxerver net>

Developers

Arturo Espinosa <arturo ximian com>
Hans Petter Jansson <hpj ximian com>
Tambet Ingo <tambet ximian com>
Chema Celorio <chema ximian com>
Bradford Hovinen <bradford ximian com>
Israel Escalante <israel ximian com>
Jacob Berkman <jacob ximian com>
Carlos Garnacho Parro <garnacho tuxerver net>

Artists

Jakub Steiner <jimmac ximian com>
Anna Dirks <anna ximian com>
Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert ximian com>
Joakim Ziegler <joakim ximian com>

-- 
Carlos Garnacho <garnacho tuxerver net>