Drakxtools Future Directions

From Rosalab Wiki
Revision as of 21:55, 6 December 2012 by D uragan (Talk | contribs) (Update to reflect ROSA Desktop 2012 state of art)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
This is a page snapshot, showing old (but not deleted) versions of images and templates.
Jump to: navigation, search
Info1.png
Please, not that this page is for developers, and its purpose is to discuss the future development of drakxtools in ROSA. For a list of replacements already shipped in ROSA Marathon 2012, please, refer to Drakxtools Replacements instead!

Drakxtools is a set of scripts and modules unique to Mandriva written in Perl with GTK UI (more precisely - using own wrappers upon perl-GTK). Drakxtools development was started a dozen of years ago; however, year by year it becomes harder and harder to maintain and enhance them due to not very flexible internal structure and tons of legacy code. We believe that most of drakxtools do not satisfy modern needs and should be replaced with more convenient contemporary analogues.

Some thoughts about drakxtools replacement:

  • for many tools, there are analogues in KDE4 control center
  • ... however, some tools are really unique to Mandriva, and currently we don't have any estimates on how long will it take to develop their analogues
  • for some tools KDE analogues exists, but they are separate applications (not part of KDE control center)
  • some tools are bounded to Mandriva infrastructure (Mandriva Club accounts, wiki logins, etc.), so they should be dropped in ROSA in either case; the question is do we want to develop their analogues
  • one more thing unique to ROSA/Mandriva is ROSA Control Center (Drakconf) which is just a wrapper that invokes appropriate tools with appropriate parameters

Possible replacements for current Drakconf configurators are listed in the table below.

Note that if some tool is not installed in the system, then corresponding menu entry in Drakconf is not displayed. So if some package is not installed by default, then users don't have corresponding Drakconf entry in a freshly installed system. Probably replacement of such packages should be considered as a low priority task.

Drakconf

Below is the table with Drakconf sections, corresponding MDV-specific tools and suggested replacements.

Drakconf section Cmdline tool Package (SRPM) Replace with Comments
Software Management
Software Management
Install & Remove Software rpmdrake rpmdrake Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
Update your system MandrivaUpdate rpmdrake Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
Configure updates frequency mdkapplet-config mdkonline Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
Configure media sources for install and update edit-urpm-sources.pl rpmdrake Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
Access to extended maintenance mdkapplet-add-media-helper mdkonline Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS This one is valuable for MDV only
Others
Package Stats drakstats drakstats rosa-popularity-contest the package is not installed by default
Hardware
Manage your hardware
Browse and configure hardware harddrake2 drakxtools Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
? Kinfocenter
The tool provides user with a list of all hardware; for every device, it can run corresponding configurator (draksound for sound card, diskdrake for harddrives/cdrom, etc.)
Kinfocenter can be used to display the hardware available, but not to configure it.
Sound Configuration draksound drakxtools KDE System Settings -> "Multimedia" -> "Phonon"
Gnome Control Center -> Sound
Configure graphics
Set up the graphical server XFdrake drakx-kbd-mouse-x11 Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
KDE System Settings -> "Display and Monitor"
Gnome Control Center -> Monitors
Configure mouse and keyboard
Set up the keyboard layout keyboarddrake drakx-kbd-mouse-x11 KDE System Settings -> "Input Devices"
Gnome Control Center -> Keyboard
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Set up the pointer device (mouse, touchpad) mousedrake drakx-kbd-mouse-x11 KDE System Settings -> "Input Devices"
Gnome Control Center -> Mouse
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Configure printing and scanning
Set up the printer(s), the print job queues, ... system-config-printer system-config-printer Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
system-config-printer-kde is not in a good shape atm, as wel as the new printer setup module for KDE CC
system-config-printer is a standalone tool written in Python, but we can try to use its KDE wrapper
Set up scanner scannerdrake drakxtools
Configure a fax server drakfax_server drakfax the package is not installed by default
Others
Set up a UPS for power monitoring drakups drakxtools
Network & Internet
Manage your network devices
Network Center draknetcenter drakx-net KDE System Settings -> "Network Settings"
Gnome Control Center -> Network
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Set up a new network interface (LAN, ISDN, ADSL, ...) drakconnect --wizard drakx-net KDE System Settings -> "Network Settings"
Gnome Control Center -> Network Connections
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Remove a connection drakconnect --del drakx-net KDE System Settings -> "Network Settings"
Gnome Control Center -> Network Connections
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Personalize and Secure your network
Proxy drakproxy drakx-net KDE System Settings -> "Network Settings" -> "Proxy"
Gnome Control Center -> Network Proxy
Share the Internet connection with other local machines drakgw drakx-net KDE System Settings -> "Network Settings"
Manage different network profiles draknetprofile drakx-net NetworkManager
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Profile support is not perfect, to be improved in future.
In any case, some functionality of draknetprofile was broken even in ROSA 2011
Configure VPN connection to secure network access drakvpn drakx-net KDE System Settings -> "Network Settings"
Gnome Control Center -> Network Connections
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Others
Hosts definitions drakhosts drakx-net  ??? Drop
In Gnome, this can be done in Gnome Control Center -> Network
If user wants to modify /etc/hosts, then he is probably an advanced user who can do it with any text editor
System
Manage system services
Authentication drakauth drakxtools Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012 Integration with Win domains - no replacement atm
Menu Style drakmenustyle drakmenustyle KDE System Settings -> "Application Appearance" the package is not installed by default
Manage system services by enabling or disabling them drakxservices drakxtools system-config-services
Manage, add and remove fonts. Import Windows(TM) fonts drakfont drakxtools KDE System Settings -> "Font Management"
Localization
Manage date and time drakclock drakxtools KDE System Settings -> "Date and Time"
Gnome Control Center -> Time and Date
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Manage localization for your system localedrake drakxtools KDE System Settings -> "Locale"
Gnome Control Center -> Keyboard -> Layout
Standard KDE configurator should be patched to edit ~/.i18n in order to affect all applications
Administration tools
View and search system logs logdrake drakxtools ksystemlog logdrake has two features not implemented in ksystemlog: mail alerts and logs of Mandriva-specific tools
Open a console as administrator drakconsole drakconf Applications -> "Root Terminal"
In Gnome: Applications -> Tools -> Root Terminal
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Manage users on system userdrake, adduserdrake userdrake, drakxtools Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
kuser - doesn't satisfy all our need atm
Gnome Control Center -> Users and Groups
Import Windows(TM) documents and settings transfugdrake transfugdrake
Backups drakbackup drakbackup backuppc? the package is not installed by default
Probably desktop users will be satisfied with BackInTime or analogues, more powerful tools are in the scope of the Server distribution. so perhaps it is enough to have backuppc in contrib for those users who really want to have powerful backup program
Snapshots draksnapshot-config draksnapshot BackInTime; luckybackup; fwbackups
Virtualization drakvirt drakvirt the package is not installed by default
Network Sharing
Configure Windows(R) shares
Access Windows (SMB) shared drives and directories diskdrake --smb drakxtools Dolphin (Network -> Samba Shares)
Nautilus -> Network
Share drives and directories with Windows (SMB) systems draksambashare drakx-net Dolphin (Right click on folder name -> Properties -> Share)
Nautilus (Right click on folder name -> Share Folder)
Should we configure the system to enable file sharing for users by default?
(currently one should enable samba sharing for users in the KDE control center)
Configure NFS shares
Access NFS shared drives and directories diskdrake --nfs drakxtools
Share drives and directories using NFS draknfs drakx-net In Gnome: Gnome Control Center -> NFS
Configure WebDAV shares
Access WebDAV shared drives and directories diskdrake --dav drakxtools Dolphin (Network -> Add Network Folder)
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Local disks
Local disks
Manage disk partitions diskdrake --hd drakxtools  ? gparted
KDE Partition Manager
qtparted
gparted supports LVM in 'read-only' mode.
gparted launched in ROSA displays a strange (very small) unallocated space at the end of every disk.
KDE Partition Manager looks nice, though it has received no activity since 2010.
qtparted is currently developed by bero
Configure CDROM mount options diskdrake --removable drakxtools KDE System Settings -> "Removable Devices"
Share your hard disk partitions diskdrake --fileshare drakxtools This item is obsolete. In ROSA, users can just share their folders using Dolphin (or Nautilus in Gnome).
Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
Security
Security
Configure system security, permissions and audit msecgui msec-gui leave standalone tool written in Python; the package is not installed by default
Configure TOMOYO Linux policy tomoyo-gui tomoyo-gui leave standalone tool written in Python; the package is not installed by default
Set up your personal firewall drakfirewall drakx-net
Configure authentication for Mandriva tools draksec drakxtools Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012  !!! Probably we will have to rework this one if we replace some MDV tools
Advanced setup for network interfaces and firewall drakinvictus drakx-net
Parental Controls drakguard drakguard Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012
Boot
Configure boot steps
Set up boot system drakboot --boot drakxtools GRUB2 Editor
Grub Customizer
Dropped ROSA Desktop 2012
Set up display manager drakedm drakxtools Dropped in ROSA 2012 LTS
there is no need in this for many users; experienced ones can just change DM value in the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file

Unused Sections

The following tools are mentioned in Control_Center.pm, but it seems that they are absent in modern repos and we should not bother about them:

  • "Manage park" => park-rpmdrake
  • "Programs scheduling" => drakcronat
  • "Remote Control" => rfbdrake

Drakbug

drakxtools also provide the 'drakbug' tool which is invoked when some drak* program is crashed. Users do report bugs using this tool in MDV bugzilla, it would be nice for us to have a replacement.

Drakdvb

One more standalone tool provided by drakxtools is drakdvb which currently lacks icon in the Control Center.

Moved to KDE CC in ROSA Desktop 2012.

Packages

Drakxtools is not the only package with MDV-specific configuration tools and accompanying scripts. The complete list of packages looks like the following:

SRPM RPMs
drakbackup drakbackup
drakconf drakconf
drakconf-icons
drakfax drakfax
drakguard drakguard
drakmenustyle drakmenustyle
draksnapshot draksnapshot
drakstats drakstats
drakvirt drakvirt
drakx-kbd-mouse-x11 drakx-kbd-mouse-x11
drakx-net drakx-net
drakx-net-text
drakx-net-applet
libdrakx-net
drakxtools drakxtools
drakxtools-backend
drakxtools-curses
drakxtools-http
drakx-finish-install
harddrake
harddrake-ui
mdkonline mdkonline
rpmdrake rpmdrake
transfugdrake transfugdrake
userdrake userdrake

There are also several standalone non-Perl packages (see the table above), they are not mention in this list.

Dependent Packages

The following packages depend on the ones listed above:

RPM SRPM Description Comments
a320raid a320raid a320raid pcitable entries for Adaptec HostRAID support Dependency on drakxtools seems to be superfluous and can be safely dropped.
Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2007
adp94xx adp94xx adp94xx pcitable entries for Adaptec HostRAID support Dependency on drakxtools seems to be superfluous and can be safely dropped.
Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2007
adpahci adpahci adpahci pcitable entries for Adaptec HostRAID support Dependency on drakxtools seems to be superfluous and can be safely dropped.
Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2007
bcd bcd Tool to build Mandriva ISO  ??? Drop, ABF possibilities to build ISO images are enough for us?
bootloader-utils bootloader-utils Utilities needed to install/remove a kernel. Also for updating bootloaders Used by kernel, dracut, pm-tools.
We'll have to rewrite this in any case when switching to Grub2
drak3d drak3d 3D desktop effects tools  ??? Drop and use KDE System Settings instead
Required by harddrake
drakbt drakbt The Mandriva Linux Bittorrent link and status checker Drop. Current implementation is highly bounded to MDV infrastructure (Mandriva Club & co.).
drakcluster drakcluster Graphic interface to admin and setup the server cluster
drakcowsay drakcowsay Graphical interface for cowsay
drakfirsttime drakfirsttime The Mandriva Linux First Time Wizard  ??? Should go away if we develop a new installer. It is hard to get rid of drakxtools in the current installer, we can't use KDE tools there
draklive-install draklive-install Live installer
drakoo drakoo This wizard is run on first run of OpenOffice.org and enables to
select the default file format (either native OpenOffice.org one or Microsoft(R) Office)
Drop. The way suggested in the drakoo (set DOC_DEFAULTS* variables in ~/.oofficerc) doesn't seem to work with LibreOffice. It is easier for users to choose default format in the LibreOffice itself (Tools - Options - Load/Save - General - Default file format and ODF settings).
drakpxelinux drakpxelinux Quick configuration of PXE menu parameters
draktermserv draktermserv Terminal server configurator Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2009.0
Required by terminal-server2 ("Terminal Server - Unionfs version") which was also not rebuilt after 2009.
drakwizard drakwizard drakwizard allows you to launch :


- server wizard: configures basic services.
- global wizard: wizard that launch each other.
- dhcpd, dns, ftp, apache, time wizards, ssh.

gdm gdm The GNOME Display Manager Requires drakx-kbd-mouse-x11 to ensure XFdrake is always installed. Can we just drop this dependency if we drop XFdrake itself?
gdm-220 gdm-220 The GNOME Display Manager Why do we need both gdm-2.20 and gdm-2.32? According to Mattew, gdm-2.32 has some troubles with GNOME3, while gdm-220 works fine.
grub2 grub2 GNU GRUB is a Multiboot boot loader Grub2 itself doesn't require draktools, but its current postinstall and preuninstall scripts invoke /usr/sbin/bootloader-config from drakxtools-backend
This dependency will be dropped once we use grub2 as the only supported bootloader.
Fixed in grub2 in ROSA - dependency is no longer needed and has been dropped.
hsfmodem hsfmodem Conexant HSF controllerless modem driver for Linux Dependency on drakxtools seems to be superfluous and can be safely dropped.
Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2010.1
hwdb-clients hwdb-clients Hardware database clients Mandriva-specific package
ipw3945d ipw3945d Regulatory daemon for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 (IPW3945ABG) Wifi adapter Dependency on drakxtools seems to be superfluous and can be safely dropped.
Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2009.0
ipw3945-ucode ipw3945-ucode Firmware for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 (IPW3945ABG) Wifi adapter Dependency on drakxtools seems to be superfluous and can be safely dropped.
Last time the package was rebuilt for MDV 2009.0
memtest86+ memtest86+ A stand alone memory test for i386 architecture systems The package itself doesn't require draktools, but its current postinstall and preuninstall scripts invoke /usr/sbin/bootloader-config from drakxtools-backend
mklivecd mklivecd Builds a LiveCD from an existing Mandriva Linux installation
mountloop mountloop Allow users to mount files (in particular, encrypted filesystems) via loopback drakxtools are used by drakloop - a graphical frontend for mountloop
nautilus-filesharing nautilus-filesharing Filesharing extension for Nautilus Drop. This is a Mandriva-specific Nautilus wrapper which invokes "diskdrake --fileshare" and accompanying scripts from drakxtools. However, Nautilus is able to share folders using Samba by itself.
old_rpmdrake old_rpmdrake Mandriva Linux graphical front end for sofware installation/removal Drop. Was used to compare behavior of new rpmdrake with the old one.
suspend suspend Userland tools for suspend-to-disk and suspend-to-RAM The package itself doesn't require draktools, but its postinstall script invokes /usr/sbin/bootloader-config from drakxtools-backend
task-ede task-ede Metapackage for EDE (Equinox desktop environment)  ??? Drop, doesn't seem to work in either case.