I would like to write a text user interface (TUI) to adjust some text config files etc.

Is there a tool or application for creating TUIs like this.

I’m talking about those types of config tools which you see executed at first boot.

Any ideas?

One possible option is "dialog" "A utility for creating TTY dialog boxes"

You could also have a look at the source code for things like firstboot and system-config-securitylevel-tui.

Thanks for the info. Dialog looks perfect for my needs.

I also found SNACK but dialog looks a better fit for this project.

All this said I got dialog working on one test host but ever since I can't install it and get it to perform corectly

when I try and run a script I get the following message

.rror: Unkown option
Use --help to list options.

line 4: --msgbox: command not found

Any thoughts?

the same script works on one box but not the other??????

Confused

[root@hazardous ~]# locate msgbox
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox1
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox2
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox3
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox4-8bit
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox5
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox6
/usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox6a
/usr/share/tk8.4/msgbox.tcl
/usr/share/tk8.4/demos/msgbox.tcl
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.2.1.el5-i686/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/msgbox.c
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.4.1.el5-i686/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/msgbox.c
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.7.1.el5-i686/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/msgbox.c
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-164.6.1.el5-i686/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/msgbox.c
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-164.el5-i686/scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/msgbox.c
[root@hazardous ~]# which msgbox
/usr/bin/which: no msgbox in (/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin)
[root@hazardous ~]# rpm -qf /usr/share/tk8.4/msgbox.tcl
tk-8.4.13-5.el5_1.1
[root@hazardous ~]# rpm -qf /usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox
dialog-1.0.20051107-1.2.2

Is tk installed on both systems?

on the last command
rpm -qf /usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20051107/samples/msgbox dialog-1.0.20051107-1.2.2

this compeates on the box that doesn't work other than that the other commands return the same results although they are no the same as the result listed?

????

"compeates"? Sorry we seem to have a language barrier - I'm not following you at all.

What does "rpm -q tk" show on both boxes?

Apologies
The last command completes on the system that doesn’t work and returns the following results
xxxx.RPM Is not owned by any packages
The same command does not auto complete on the system that does work and so has not returned any results!

Even though I am English a few beers later, etc …..

Moscow steak $120, advice on centos.org priceless….

rpm -q tk the same on both.

Post your script. I bet you have an error/wrong quote/other error.

The test script is super simple and is the same on both host including file properterys as far as I can tell.

#!/bin/sh
# First shell script with "dialog"
dialog --title "Dialog message box" \
--msgbox "\n Hello world !" 6 25

Hang on.... you may have somthing there, just cut and past the text via an ssh session on both hosts and the same script now works.

Stupid question but what hidden charicters (I assume carrage returns or somthing) are diferent? ????

You may need to escape the "!" when using shell like "\!".

Maybe file permissions.

Run a stat on the file .sh files and have the following results.

[root@localhost INSTALL]# stat 1.sh
File: `1.sh'
Size: 127 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 1465947 Links: 1
Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2009-11-10 18:17:00.000000000 +0000
Modify: 2009-11-10 18:16:55.000000000 +0000
Change: 2009-11-10 18:16:55.000000000 +0000
[root@localhost INSTALL]# stat 2.sh
File: `2.sh'
Size: 125 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 1465950 Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2009-11-10 18:16:15.000000000 +0000
Modify: 2009-11-10 17:49:35.000000000 +0000
Change: 2009-11-10 17:49:35.000000000 +0000

2 works and was past form the working host.

ignore permisions.

Yes, struggling to understand what I am doing wrong.

I think it maybe somthing fundimental to bash scripts or to diaog.

Anyone have any ideas or areas I should investigate?

Many thanks

Back up for a moment... does the output of show "enforcing"? If so, check your /var/log/messages files for info regarding selinux issues.
Work fine even with "!" in your test script.

This command does not return any text.

I have tried putting ! in the script and this does not make any diference

the odd thig is that if I cut and past the simple script from the working system to the non working system the script works.

What I'm doing wrong must be super stupid.

just a bit more info.

I have the following statment in my kickstart on both systems

# SELinux configuration
selinux --disabled

Quote:

As you discovered, that just means it selinux is not running at all.

Have you added any custom items to your .bashrc like aliases or export's? Have you tried more than one user on the system? This is odd...