TurnKey Configuration Console (AKA Confconsole) is a terminal based, menu driven config tool. It provides some basic info and allows users to easily access and update many common TurnKey configuration options.

We aim to keep this documentation up to date, but the Confconsole documentation source (on GitHub) should always be up to date.

TurnKey GNU/Linux Configuration Console

Contents:

• Overview
• Main screen and basic functionality
• Advanced
• Installation
• Upgrading
• Plugins

Overview

The objective of Confconsole is to provide users with basic network information and perform some common tasks. Configuration is performed via menus, rather than requiring commands to be run within a terminal.

Confconsole is licensed under GPLv3.

Main screen and basic functionality

When Confconsole is started, the main screen is displayed. At boot, Confconsole is invoked automatically on the default vt (virtual terminal). However until run as 'root', Confconsole runs in "limited" mode and no configuration is allowed.

Auto starting Confconsole "limited" mode on boot can be disabled by adding 'noconfconsole' to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX variable. Edit the Grub variable in /etc/default/grub and run 'update-grub'.

The information provided by the main screen/"limited" mode includes:

• The current external IP address
• The services the user may connect to over the network
• TKLBAM status

Advanced

The "Advanced" Confconsole option menus are only available in "full mode". "Full" mode is invoked on the first terminal login as 'root' (or 'admin' on an AWS Marketplace instances). Launching on every login can be enable via:

Confconsole >> Advanced >> System Settings

Confconsole "full" mode can also be started manually by 'root' (prefix with 'sudo' on AWS MP):

confconsole

The advanced menu:

Advanced options available in "full" mode are accessed by selecting the "Advanced" button on the initial Main screen. Some appliances include additional options, but the options available in all appliances are:

• Networking:
  • Set a static IP address or enable DHCP
    • IMPORTANT: this should not be changed when network configuration is handled externally
  • Let's Encrypt:
    • Enable/disable auto SSL cert update
    • Get SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt - supports HTTP-01 and DNS-01
  • Mail relaying:
    • Configure and enable remote SMTP email relay
  • Proxy settings:
    • Configure apt proxy
  • Region config:
    • Keyboard layout
    • Locales and language
    • Tzdata (timezone)
  • System settings:
    • Enable/Disable Confconsole autostart
    • Config SecUpdate default behavior
    • Install security updates
    • Update hostname
  • Install the system to the hard disk (only when running live)
  • Reboot the appliance
  • Shut down the appliance
  • Quit (back to commandline)

  Network config notes

  When setting a static IP address or requesting DHCP, unless the user has manually updated the interfaces file - /etc/network/interfaces - the changes will be permanent.

  Installation

  Confconsole is pre-installed by default in all TurnKey Linux Appliances so no installation should be required for TurnKey users. However, if you wish to ensure that you are running the latest version, please see below for how to upgrade.

  Confconsole should be compatible with vanilla Debian (and probably vanilla Ubuntu too). Most, if not all dependencies should be available from the default Debian "main" repo.

  Upgrading

  To ensure that you are running the latest Confconsole version, you can check for upgrades via apt:

  apt-get update
  apt-get install confconsole
  

  Plugins

  Most confconsole functionality is provided via a plugins system. The plugins system allows support for additional functionality via simply dropping a plugin file within the Confconsole file hierarchy. We aim to add additional functionality via plugins as we go.

  Developers may be interested in reading further about the Plugins system.