Tweaking and Cleaning Up
 

Hi Guys,
I've been using linux for years and I thouroughly enjoy every penguin filled moment. A few days ago I built the madwifi module successfully and threw it into my install with initially great success; but was a little concerned that the install created ath0 and wifi0 interfaces. There weren't any problems with it until this morning when wifi0 started assigning itself the 127.0.0.1 loopback address. lo interface didn't have 127.0.0.1 anymore and of course things like cups and a bunch of other local-server-local-client bits and pieces started throwing tantrums. I was terrified, I am an experienced linux user but I've solved more problems with rebuilding than I ever had diagnosing and repairing, but I managed to get through this one carefully pulling out modules and restoring bits and pieces. I'm ok now, and that got my thinking;

I resolved problems by carefully looking through modules.conf in /etc and reconstructing what looked like incorrect config (I've no idea how it got in there) and I noticed the other .conf file in /etc and opened up a couple to have a browse (after carefully backing them up) and noticed that a few of them had erroneous entries for various bits and pieces (no biggies, and wasn't causing any problems, just quirks). So my question is; what things can a linux user do, what conf files can he look in, to customise and streamline the system? what conf files typically have default values that should be tweaked and where can I find default configs that I should tune for my system?

Well, basically ANY.

As far as the quirky entries go, I'd instantaneously blame that on
the wizards and draks that manage your system ;}

In terms of customisation and stream-lining. Disable services you
d/won't need in (x)inetd, use sysconfig or whatever Mandrake uses
these days (I haven't had a good play with it since 7, only half-
hearted attempts on 8-10, and then given up on it completely, too
many "friendly but dysfunctional helpers").



Cheers,
Tink