SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Chapter 4 Administer Linux with YaST

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objectives Objective 1—YaST Basics Objective 2—Become Familiar with YaST Modules Objective 3—Understand the Role of SuSEconfig 2

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 1—YaST 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 3

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 1—YaST Basics (continued) 4 Figure 4-1 Enter root password

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 1—YaST Basics (continued) 5 Figure 4-2 YaST graphical interface

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 1—YaST 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 6

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 1—YaST Basics (continued) 7 Figure 4-3 YaST text mode

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 1—YaST 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 8

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 2—Become 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 9

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration 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 > More Applications > System > YaST > Hardware Information –See Figure 4-4 You can browse information by expanding the sections of the tree 10

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration11 Figure 4-4 YaST Hardware Information module

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration 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 > More Applications > System > YaST > System > Date and Time –See Figure

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration13 Figure 4-5 YaST Date and Time module

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration YaST Language Module Changes the language settings in the virtual terminals and on the desktop Started by selecting Computer > More Applications > System > YaST > 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 14

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration15 Figure 4-6 YaST Language module

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration YaST Keyboard Module Allows you to change the keyboard layout Started by selecting Computer > More Applications > System > YaST > System > Keyboard Layout –See Figure

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration17 Figure 4-7 YaST Keyboard module

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration 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 18

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 3—Understand 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 19

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Objective 3—Understand 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 20

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration 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 21

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Summary (continued) YaST typically saves information to the /etc/sysconfig directory and uses SuSEconfig to configure the information on the system 22