SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration

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SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration

• Chapter 4
• Administer Linux with YaST

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Objectives

• Objective 1YaST Basics
• Objective 2Become Familiar with YaST Modules
• Objective 3Understand the Role of SuSEconfig

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Objective 1YaST Basics

• YaST (Yet another Setup Tool)
• Used to complete many configuration tasks as a
  SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop administrator
• The YaST user interface can appear in two modes
• ncurses text mode
• Qt fully graphical mode
• In the graphical interface, you can control YaST
  with the mouse
• You are asked to enter the root password
• See Figure 4-1

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Objective 1YaST Basics (continued)
Figure 4-1 Enter root password
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Objective 1YaST Basics (continued)
Figure 4-2 YaST graphical interface
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Objective 1YaST Basics (continued)

• To start the ncurses interface of YaST, you can
  start a terminal emulation
• Enter su - to get root permissions
• After entering the root password, start YaST by
  entering yast
• See Figure 4-3
• The ncurses interface is controlled with the
  keyboard
• Except for the controls and the appearance
• The graphical mode and the text mode of YaST are
  identical

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Objective 1YaST Basics (continued)
Figure 4-3 YaST text mode
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Objective 1YaST Basics (continued)

• You can list the available YaST modules with the
  yast -l command or yast list
• The main dialog of YaST is called the Yast
  Control Center
• On the right side, you can access any YaST module
  available
• When you finish making changes with a YaST module
• YaST uses backend services such as SuSEconfig to
  implement the changes in the system

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Objective 2Become Familiar with YaST Modules

• This objective will cover the following modules
• YaST Hardware Information Module
• YaST Date and Time Module
• YaST Language Module
• YaST Keyboard Module

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YaST Hardware Information Module

• Used to gather information on the hardware
  available in the machine
• Not used to change any settings
• Invoked by selecting Computer gt More Applications
  gt System gt YaST gt Hardware Information
• See Figure 4-4
• You can browse information by expanding the
  sections of the tree

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Figure 4-4 YaST Hardware Information module
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YaST Date and Time Module

• Can be used to change the date and time, the time
  zone, and whether your hardware clock is adjusted
  to local time or UTC
• Started by selecting Computer gt More Applications
  gt System gt YaST gt System gt Date and Time
• See Figure 4-5

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Figure 4-5 YaST Date and Time module
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YaST Language Module

• Changes the language settings in the virtual
  terminals and on the desktop
• Started by selecting Computer gt More Applications
  gt System gt YaST gt Language
• See Figure 4-6
• Change the Primary Language in the drop-down list
  in the upper part of the dialog
• Adjust the time zone and keyboard settings
  according to your language choice
• Possible to select secondary languages

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Figure 4-6 YaST Language module
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YaST Keyboard Module

• Allows you to change the keyboard layout
• Started by selecting Computer gt More Applications
  gt System gt YaST gt System gt Keyboard Layout
• See Figure 4-7

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Figure 4-7 YaST Keyboard module
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Exercise 4-1 Get to Know YaST

• In this exercise, you use the different user
  interfaces of YaST and start some YaST modules to
  do the following
• Start the graphical user interface of YaST
• View the /proc/version file with the YaST System
  Log module
• Set the time and date
• View the /proc/version file with the ncurses user
  interface of YaST

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Objective 3Understand the Role of SuSEconfig

• You can consider YaST as a front end to various
  other programs
• Most of the time, YaST writes the configuration
  changes directly into the final configuration
  file
• In other cases, the information you enter is
  first written to a file in the directory
  /etc/sysconfig/
• Before it is written into the final configuration
  file

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Objective 3Understand the Role of SuSEconfig
(continued)

• SuSEconfig
• Tool used in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to
  configure the system
• According to the variables that are set in the
  various files in /etc/sysconfig/ and its
  subdirectories
• SuSEconfig acts as a back end for YaST
• SuSEconfig uses the subsystem-specific scripts in
  /sbin/conf.d/ to configure the various subsystems

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Summary

• The main system configuration utility in SLES is
  YaST
• By navigating to the Hardware Information module
  in YaST, you can view information about your
  computer hardware that is useful in
  troubleshooting hardware devices
• YaST also contains modules that can be used to
  configure the time, date, language, and keyboard
  settings for your SUSE Linux system

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Summary (continued)

• YaST typically saves information to the
  /etc/sysconfig directory and uses SuSEconfig to
  configure the information on the system