F.1 Starting Admintool

This section shows basic information about starting Admintool, and specific information that might help when using Admintool to manage hosts, printers, and serial ports.

The first task you do with Admintool is to make yourself a member of the UNIX sysadmin group (also called group 14, because the sysadmin group by default has 14 as its group ID number). Once you are a member of the sysadmin group, you can log in as your normal user account--instead of having to log in as root--to perform local system management tasks with Admintool.

To make yourself a member of the sysadmin group, follow the instructions in "F.1.1 Adding Yourself to the sysadmin Group".

To start the Admintool software, follow these steps.

1. Log in to the system.

2. Become root.

   Unless you are a member of the special UNIX sysadmin group (GID 14), you must become root on your system to use Admintool. Root is a system user with special permission to modify system files.

   Use the su command to become root:

   $ su Password: (enter the root password here)#

   If the root account is password protected, you need to know the root password. If the root account is not password protected, you can simply press Return at the Password prompt. If you do not know the root password for your system, contact a system administrator at your site for help.

3. Start Admintool.

   # Admintool &

4. If you are not already a member of the sysadmin group, see "F.1.1 Adding Yourself to the sysadmin Group".

5. Use the Browse menu option to select the type of work you want to do with Admintool. You can select Users, Groups, Hosts, Printers, Serial Ports, and Software, as illustrated in the next screen.

   

F.1.1 Adding Yourself to the sysadmin Group

To add yourself to the sysadmin group, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the system and become root.

2. Start Admintool.

3. Select Groups from the Browse menu.

4. Click on sysadmin in the Admintool: Groups window.

5. Select Modify from the Edit menu.

6. Add your user account name to the Members List.

   

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   Note -

   When entering names in the Members Lists, separate names with a comma, but no spaces, for example: cathy,brett,joan

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7. Click on OK.

   This adds you to the sysadmin group. After you are member of the sysadmin group, you can start Admintool and manage your system without having to log in as root.