[Setup-tool-hackers] GNOME System Tools 0.23 has been released

[Carlos Garnacho <garnacho tuxerver net>]

The GNOME System Tools version 0.23.0 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
==========================

  general
  =======
  - Configuration is now stored in GConf (Carlos García, Garnacho)
  - Icons now appear in system-settings:/// in nautilus (Garnacho)
  - Now uses VTE terminal widget for authentication (Garnacho)
  - Added RedHat 8 support (Martin Lundberg)

  boot
  ====
  - Added a dialog to edit the kernel parameters that are passed at boot time (Carlos García)
  - HIG-ified gui (Carlos García, Garnacho)

  network
  =======
  - Added more modem options, such as volume and tones or pulses dialing (Garnacho)
  - HIG-ified gui (Garnacho, Carlos García)

  runlevel
  ========
  - now runlevel-admin allows changing priorities in services (Garnacho)
  - added a dialog to launch scripts (Garnacho)
  - added more services descriptions (Martin Lundberg)

  time
  ====
  - the calendar now displays sunday or monday as the beginning day depending on the active locale (Garnacho)
  - remodelled and HIG-ified gui (Garnacho)

  users
  =====
  - added search bar again (Garnacho)
  - added user profiles again (Garnacho)

  ...plus other lots of bugfixing (Garnacho, Carlos García)


Downloading
===========
You can get it from : ftp://ftp.gnome.org/Public/GNOME/sources/gnome-system-tools/0.23/

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

* GConf

* VTE

* 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 GNOME System Tool.

The backup path is /var/cache/setup-tools-backends/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 at tuxerver dot net>

Developers

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

Artists

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