Setting the keyboard layout is done using the loadkeys command for text consoles. You may then run Xconfigurator or edit the Keyboard section in XF86Config manually to configure the layout for graphical mode. The Gnome Keyboard Applet enables real-time switching between layouts.
Use the setfont tool to load fonts in text mode. RedHat comes with a standard inputrc file which enables combining of characters, such as é (meta characters). The system admin should then add the line
export INPUTRC="/etc/inputrc" |
to the /etc/bashrc file. The environment variables LC_CTYPE, SYSFONT and SYSTERM need to be set to appropriate values.
To ensure the use of the right font for the Euro symbol, set SYSFONT to lat0-16.psf.
RedHat provides the timeconfig tool to configure system time parameters. Information about the system clock is set in /etc/sysconfig/clock, time zone data in /etc/localtime.
Setting time information is usually done at installation time. After that, it can be kept up to date using an NTP (Network Time Protocol) client. Most Linux systems support ntpd by default. See the documentation that comes with the package.
If you'd rather get your messages from the system in Dutch or French, you may want to set the LANG and LANGUAGE environment variables, thus enabling locale support for the desired language.
The Belgian HOWTO gives more detailed information on configuring your machine for Flanders, la Wallonie and the Oostkantons, on how to get on the Internet in Belgium and contains a list of Belgian providers of Linux related commercial and free services.
The Francophones HOWTO discusses the available support for the French language indepth.
The list of HOWTOs contains references to Belarusian, Chinese, Esperanto, Finnish, Hebrew, Hellenic, Latvian, Polish, Portugese, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai and Turkish localization instructions.