Configuration problems: pointer needed to config files

["Edward C. Jones" <edcjones erols com>]

I am currenting installing and configuring RedHat 6.0 with GNOME
and Enlightenment on a PC.

When an automated configuration program fails (which they still
often do in many Linux situations) I start burrowing through the
system looking for the problems. The hardest steps in this
process are the first ones: locating the relevent config files
and finding the correct ways to call the configured program.

A notorious example is PPP where I have too much experience.
Which PPP config files are used by Linuxconf, the "PPP Dialer"
applet, and the "Modem Lights" applet? How do these programs use
the config files? What are the command line invocations for these
programs? I eventually got things to work because of experience
with "ppp-on".

There should be pointers from each configuration program into the
relevent parts of the system. For example, the PPP part of
Linuxconf should point to the applets (and how to install them),
the config files, the HOWTOs, and a FAQ ("How do I let a
non-privileged user start PPP?").

I have run into problems of this type with every complex computer
system I have ever used. Part of the documentation specs should
be a hierarchy of ways the user can interact with the system
starting with an automated config program and ending with the
source code.

Thanks,
  Ed Jones