XST - 0.4
---------

The Ximian Setup Tools 0.4.0 codenamed "Perris Valley" has been released.

The Ximian Setup Tools are a set of cross-platform configuration utilities
for Linux and other Unices. Internally they are divided in a frontend and
backend, the frontends 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 configuration information. The Ximian Setup 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.

Changes since last release
--------------------------     

- Network tool improvements / bugfixes (Arturo).

- Support for translation of backend messages (Kenneth, Arturo).

- Removal of iteractive report/progress due to speed impact (Arturo, Hans Petter).

- Porting to Debian 2.2 (Arturo).

- Searching in users-admin (Anna, Tambet).

- Druid for users-admin simple mode (Anna, Tambet).

- New shares-admin interface (Anna, Hans Petter).

- Lots and lots of medium to small bugfixes (everyone).


Contributions
-------------

We need lots of help from anybody intersted in contributing to XST. 

- 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 in an unsupported distro/system and find out
   that it works correctly 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.


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.
     

The current set of tools include :
----------------------------------

- 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
     
- Shares admin

     Allows you to import and export NFS and samba
     shares.
     - import NFS & samba shares
     - export NFS & samba shares

- Disks admin

     Allows you to :
     - Mount and unmount local file systems.

- Memory admin

     Allows you to configure :
     - Swap partitions
     - Swap files
     - priorities of swap areas

Verification matrix
-------------------

This is a matrix describing the current status of tool platform/distribution
support. To the best of our knowledge.

Key:

+  Supported and tested. The tool will not ask you to select a compatible
   version or distribution. Of course, there may still be bugs. :-)
+? Supported, not tested. Same as '+', but we haven't tested it. In other
   words, it "should work", because we know it's compatible.
?  Unsupported, may work. You'll be asked to select a compatible version or
   distribution, which may or may not work.
-  Unsupported, doesn't work. We haven't worked on any version of that
   flavour. It's most possible that it won't work.


Red Hat Linux:

Version        5.2     6.0       6.1     6.2      7.0

Boot            +?      +?        +?      +       +
Disks           +?      +?        +?      +       +
Memory          +?      +?        +?      +       +
Network         +?      +?        +?      +       +
Shares          +?      +?        +?      +       +
Time            +?      +?        +?      +       +
Users           +?      +?        +?      +       +


Debian GNU/Linux:

Version        2.2    Woody

Boot            +       ?
Disks           +       ?
Memory          +       ?
Network         +       ?
Shares          +       ?
Time            +       ?
Users           +       ?


Linux Mandrake:

Version        7.0     7.2     8.0

Boot           ?       +       ?
Disks          ?       +       ?
Memory         ?       +       ?
Network        ?       +       ?
Shares         ?       +       ?
Time           ?       +       ?
Users          ?       +       ?


SuSE Linux:

Version        6.3     6.4     7.0

Boot            ?       ?       ?
Disks           ?       ?       ?
Memory          ?       ?       ?
Network         ?       ?       ?
Shares          ?       ?       ?
Time            ?       ?       ?
Users           ?       ?       ?


Turbolinux:

Version         6

Boot            ?
Disks           ?
Memory          ?
Network         -
Shares          ?
Time            -
Users           ?


Caldera OpenLinux:

Version     eDesktop 2.4

Boot            ?
Disks           ?
Memory          ?
Network         -
Shares          ?
Time            -
Users           ?


LinuxPPC:

Version        2000

Boot            -
Disks           ?
Memory          ?
Network         -
Shares          ?
Time            -
Users           ?


Yellow Dog Linux:

Version        1.2     2.0

Boot            -       -
Disks           ?       ?
Memory          ?       ?
Network         -       -
Shares          ?       ?
Time            -       -
Users           ?       ?


Solaris:

Version        7.0     8.0

Boot            -       -
Disks           -       -
Memory          -       -
Network         -       -
Shares          -       -
Time            -       -
Users           -       -


HPUX:

Version       10.0     11.0

Boot            -       -
Disks           -       -
Memory          -       -
Network         -       -
Shares          -       -
Time            -       -
Users           -       -



===========================================================================================
XST - 0.3
---------

The Ximian Setup Tools 0.3.0
codenamed : "They know what is what but they don't know what is what"
have been released.

You can get it here :
ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/setuptools/ximian-setup-tools-0.3.0.tar.gz

This is a working snapshot of a continuous effort, and the project is still
in its infancy. As such, there are no guarantees of usability, beauty or evil
masterplan compliance. Although we've made an effort to iron out all the
bugs, the tools may still damage your system configuration. For that reason,
we've created a backup system for your config files (see below).

This is a new features and beautification release. Most of the tools have new
artwork, courtesy of Tuomas and Jakub, and some have new interfaces by Anna.
Also, there is lots of new code.

Ximian Setup Tools now require, in addition to the GNOME libraries, the
latest version of GAL. You should get by with GAL 0.5, but the latest CVS
snapshot is recommended.


Tools in this release
---------------------

Boot     LILO boot parameters. Beautified.
Disks    Find local harddisk partitions and mount them. Not beautified.
Memory   Swap partitions and files. Not beautified.
Network  All kinds of network parameters. Multiple interfaces. Beautified.
Shares   NFS, SMB. Export, detect, import. Not beautified.
Time     System clock, timezone, timeserver synchronization. Beautified.
Users    Users and groups. Beautified.


Participation
-------------

We need help, in particular to test these tools and port them to as many
Unixy platforms and distributions as possible.

If this seems like a worthy challenge, please get in touch with us. Further
information can be found in the references section at the end of this text.

Also, if you have any problems with these tools (identified in detail or
not), we'd be absolutely delighted to hear from you.



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.


Changes since 0.2.1
-------------------

- Time beautified (Anna, Jacob).

- Time backend speedup (Chema).

- Added report display to frontend, which shows actions taken as
  configuration is read/written (Hans Petter).

- Source cleanup (Jacob).

- Backend code refactored (Hans Petter).

- Networking and Name Resolution merged to form new, pretty and more
  functional Network (Jacob, Arturo, Anna, Chema).

- Users fixed and polished (Tambet).

- Implemented Boot tool (Tambet).

- Platform detection and selection (Arturo, Hans Petter).

- New configuration backup/rescue scheme (Hans Petter).

- Generic code for parsing/modifying configuration files (Arturo).

- Countless bugfixes (everyone).


About the Ximian Setup Tools
----------------------------

- Primary audience - desktop users:

  These tools are intended to simplify the tasks of configuring a Unix system
  for workstations. They are not intended for configuring Unix servers.

- Unified system configuration:

  Configuring different Unix systems is different; every Unix system has
  different ways of being administrated. The Ximian Setup Tools aspire to
  unify handling of these systems.

- Adaptability:

  Each one of the Ximian Setup Tools is split in two parts: a backend (which
  is typically written in Perl) and a user interface frontend (which is
  typically written in C or Python).

  The backends are written in a way that should allow us to quickly adapt
  them to different flavors of Unix; the backend probes your system and
  parses the existing system files. When the user has finished editing the
  settings, the configuration is written back as patches to the system files.

  This means that the Ximian Setup Tools use whatever configuration files are
  available on your system, and you can still edit those files by hand or
  with other configuration tools without conflicts.

Supported platforms/linux distributions
---------------------------------------
This is the list of platforms that Ximian will focus to support. The XST are
a community effort so in no way is this list limiting the supported systems.
Contributions to the XST for support of other distributions or UNIX variants
is very much appreciated.

Please note that the following list is NOT a list of supported
distributions, but rather a list of distributions we are planning to
support.

REDHAT   - Red Hat Linux 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, and 7.0 
DEBIAN   - Debian GNU/Linux (Woody and Potato) 
SUSE     - SuSE 6.3, 6.4, and 7.0 
MANDRAKE - Linux Mandrake 6.1 and 7.0 
PPC      - LinuxPPC 2000
TURBO    - TurboLinux 6.0 
CALDERA  - Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 
YELLOW   - Yellow Dog Linux Champion Server 1.2 el
SOLARIS  - Solaris 7 and 8 on UltraSparc 
HPUX     - HP-UX


Verification matrix
------------------

This is a matrix describing the current status of tool platform/distribution
support. To the best of our knowledge.

        Red Hat    Debian  SuSE     MDK    PPC  Turbo  Cal  Yel  Sol    HPUX
        6.0 6.2    2.1     6.3 7.0  6.1    any  6.0    2.4  1.2  7.0    10.0
          6.1 7.0    2.2     6.4      7.0                          8.0    11.0

Boot     ? + + +    ? ?     ? ? ?    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -
Disks    ? ? + ?    ? ?     ? ? ?    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -
Memory   ? ? + +    ? ?     ? ? ?    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -
Network  ? + + +    - -     - - -    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -
Shares   ? ? + ?    ? ?     ? ? ?    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -
Time     ? + + +    ? ?     ? ? ?    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -
Users    ? + + +    ? ?     ? ? ?    ? ?    ?    ?      ?    ?    - -     - -


References
----------

Introduction: http://www.ximian.com/desktop/setuptools.php3

Whitepaper:   http://www.ximian.com/tech/helix-setup-tools.php3

Mailing list: http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/setup-tool-hackers

FTP:          ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/setuptools/

GNOME CVS:    Module "ximian-setup-tools".

IRC:          irc.gnome.org, #xst

Developers:   Chema Celorio <chema@ximian.com>
              Hans Petter Jansson <hpj@ximian.com>
              Arturo Espinosa <arturo@ximian.com>
              Tambet Ingo <tambet@ximian.com>
              Jacob Berkman <jacob@ximian.com>
              Bradford Hovinen <bradford@ximian.com>

Artists:      Anna Dirks <anna@ximian.com>
              Jakub Steiner <jakub@ximian.com>
              Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert@ximian.com>

Release of 0.2.1 (Suspicion breeds Confidence)
==============================================

- Ability to change users' passwords in Users, even with MD5 enabled.
  [Arturo, Tambet]

- Debian adaption for Name Resolution backend. [Michael Vogt]

- Fixes to build system. [Mathieu Lacage]

- Aesthetic improvements to EMap, used for timezone selection in Time.
  [Hans Petter]

- Wrote and added README, NEWS, AUTHORS and HACKING files to the
  distribution. [Hans Petter]

- Made Users XML handling more robust. [Tambet]

- Fixed problem arising when Users backend got empty logindefs keys, which
  lead to some crashes. [Young-Ho Cha]

- More intuitive IP entry in Networking. [Peter Hawkins]

- Massive translation work. [The GNOME translation team]

- I18n enabled in all frontends, shortcoming pointed out by Robert Vanyi.
  [Hans Petter]

- Graphical root authentication when started from GNOME panel menu, works
  through Red Hat's consolehelper. [Hans Petter]


Release of 0.2.0 (Un-ix)
========================

- Merged the existing tools into one package with shared, policy-enforcing
  code for the frontends. [Hans Petter]

- Shared Perl code for backends and a cleanup of existing Perl code. [Arturo]

- Implemented Time. [Hans Petter]

- Implemented Memory. [Bradford]

- Implemented Disks. [Hans Petter]

- Implemented Users. [Arturo, Tambet]

- Re-implemented parts of Memory to make the backend do all the config
  detection and manipulation. [Tambet]

- Simple protocol that allows the backends to tell the frontends about their
  progress, and progress indicators in all frontends. [Hans Petter]

- Handling of fstab is more gentle, preserving all manually set options,
  e.g. NFS' wsize, rsize. [Hans Petter]

- Integration with the new control-center. At this point, you need CVS
  control-center to make it work, but the icons show up in the old one as
  well. [Bradford, Hans Petter]

- Shares has more robust handling of user input. [Hans Petter]

- Totally reworked the timezone selector in the early release of Time. It now
  has locations instead of GMT offset strips, uses GdkPixbuf directly (faster
  and better-looking), and has some special effects. All of this is in a
  reusable widget called EMap and a surrogate widget-like layer called
  ETzMap. [Hans Petter]

- Debian support for Networking. [David Lee Ludwig]

- Shares now has more workarounds for pessimal SMB situations, like Windows
  master hosts that serve empty host lists (in error). [Hans Petter]

- Build-time massaging of interfaces and backends that makes life both
  easier and more conforming. [Arturo]

- Red Hat 7.0 fixes. [Hans Petter]

