Customizing your Desktop

Configuring Security, networking and managing packages in PCQLinux through an easy to use graphical user interface

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Once you've installed the desktop edition of PCQLinux 2007, you can customize it according to your environment. Let's see how to add/ remove programs, configure the firewall and other security settings, and configure the networking.

Add/Remove Program
The Add/Remove Software option in PCQLinux 2007 Desktop edition is of great use and this Linux distro lets you do this easily. When you open the Add/Remove Software option under the application menu, it pops up a window called 'Package Manager', which has Browse, Search and List options.

Drilling down the Browse option, you will find other options like Desktop Environment, Application, etc in which applications are grouped. When you select any one of these you will find the grouped application on the right box, where you can see what all is installed and what's not.

For removing the software, uncheck the checkbox provided and click on Apply. It, then, displays a window that shows the details of what you are removing from your computer, so that if you want to remove them, click on Continue else Cancel. Installing software is as simple as removing it, and you just have to check the package you want to install and click on Apply. This will show you the details of what all things are to be installed. You can then choose to install or cancel the operation. And, of course, don't forget to insert the PCQLinux2007 Desktop edition CD.

Package Manager displaying different desktop environments which are installed and which are not

The 'List' option shows all details-all packages installed or not, etc. With the 'Search' option, you can search for the packages that are installed and you can also remove them. Note that search option is only to work with installed packages.

Configure Security Policies
SELinux (Security-enhanced Linux) is used for enhanced security in Linux. It is used to enforce MAC (Mandatory Access Control) architecture called flask in Linux kernel.

It can enforce a security policy, defined by the administrator, over all processes and objects in the system. You can configure this under the 'Security level and firewall' option, which is under System>Administration. It lets you enable and/or disable the SELinux settings. If you want to enable it, you actually won't have the enable option but two other options namely Permissive and Enforcing. If you select any of these type, you have the option for policy type which has three options-targeted, mls and strict--included in it. You also have the option of modifying the SELinux policy.

Security Level Configuration lets you Enable and Disable the Firewall and other Trusted Services

Firewall
Configuring the firewall in PCQLinux is pretty simple. Just open up the 'Security level and Firewall' from System>Administration. There you will be prompted for choosing security level for your computer. Under the Firewall tab, you have the firewall enabling and disabling option. After you turn on you firewall, you get a list of trusted services, which is actually what you can permit access to, through the firewall. Other than this, you have an option called 'other port', which lets you allow specific ports for custom developed services or for any service which is not included in the firewall list.

Networking
If your computer is connected to network, there are two ways for obtaining an IP address for it. One is the default setting (DHCP) in which your system will automatically be assigned an IP by your administrator. Second one is assigning a static IP address to your system. You get these options at System> Administration>Network. Here in the network configuration window that pops up, select the active Ethernet port and click on Edit. This opens a window with two radio buttons for 'Automatically obtain IP address settings with dhcp' (default) and 'Statically set IP address '. In the latter, you have to assign a static IP address to your computer. Note that your IP address should not match with anyone else on the network. You've to provide three things: IP Address, Subnet mask and default gateway address to complete setup.

Configure Wi-Fi access
Today most WiFi cards available in the market work with Linux seamlessly. All you have to do is to plug in the card in your PCQLinux 2007 machine (notebook or desktop) and the hardware finder application, called Kudzu, will automatically detect and load the driver for it. Once done, you can go to the wireless configuration tool in System>Administration>Network. Make sure that your wireless card is identified and is displayed under Hardware tab. After this is done, go to Edit button to set the ESSID, Mode, and WEP key for you wireless network. You can Monitor and Activate the wireless interface using the Network Monitor.

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