[PDF]openSUSE Startup

www.novell.com


openSUSE


10.2


November 29, 2006


Start-Up



A NOVELL BUSINESS





Start-Up

Copyright © 2006 Novell, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foun¬
dation; with the Invariant Section being this copyright notice and license. A copy of the license is in¬
cluded in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.

Novell, the Novell logo, the N logo, openSUSE, SUSE, and the SUSE “geeko” logo are registered
trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. * Linux is a registered trademark
of Linus Torvalds. All other third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

All information found in this book has been compiled with utmost attention to detail. However, this
does not guarantee complete accuracy. Neither Novell, Inc., SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, the authors,
nor the translators shall be held liable for possible errors or the consequences thereof



Contents


About This Guide vii

Part I Installation and Setup 1

1 Installation with YaST 3

1.1 Hardware Requirements. 4

1.2 System Start-Up for Installation. 4

1.3 The Boot Screen. 7

1.4 Language Selection. 9

1.5 Media Check. 10

1.6 License Agreement. 11

1.7 System Analysis. 11

1.8 Time Zone. 13

1.9 Desktop Selection. 14

1.10 Installation Summary. 15

1.11 Performing the Installation. 22

1.12 Configuration. 23

1.13 Graphical Login. 29

2 Setting Up Hardware Components with YaST 31

2.1 Probing Your Hardware. 31

2.2 Setting Up Graphics Card and Monitor. 32

2.3 Setting Up Keyboard and Mouse. 33

2.4 Setting Up Sound Cards. 36

2.5 Setting Up a Printer. 38

2.6 Setting Up a Scanner. 42






















3 Installing or Removing Software 45

3.1 Installing Software. 45

3.2 Removing Software. 49

3.3 Adding Installation Source. 49

3.4 Installing Add-On Products. 50

3.5 Keeping the System Up-to-date. 51

4 Accessing the Internet 55

4.1 Direct Internet connection. 55

4.2 Internet Connection Via Network. 58

5 Managing Users with YaST 59

5.1 Managing User Accounts. 60

5.2 Managing Groups. 63

5.3 Changing the User Authentication Method. 64

6 Changing the System Language with YaST 67

6.1 Switching the Desktop Language. 67

6.2 Installing Additional System Languages. 68

6.3 Switching the System Language. 70

Part II Basics 71

7 Basic Concepts 73

7.1 User Concept. 73

7.2 The Linux File System. 75

7.3 File Access Permissions. 82

8 Shell Basics 85

8.1 Starting a Shell. 86

8.2 Entering Commands. 87

8.3 Working with Files and Directories. 91

8.4 Becoming Root. 95

8.5 Modifying File Permissions. 96

8.6 Useful Features of the Shell. 98

8.7 Editing Texts. 103

8.8 Searching for Files or Contents. 104

8.9 Viewing Text Files. 106

8.10 Redirection and Pipes. 107





























Part III Mobility 109

9 Mobile Computing with Linux 111

9.1 Laptops. Ill

9.2 Mobile Hardware. 118

9.3 Cellular Phones and PDAs. 119

9.4 For More Information. 120

10 Managing Network Connections with NetworkManager 121

10.1 NetworkManager and SCPM. 122

10.2 NetworkManager and Security. 123

10.3 Controlling NetworkManager. 123

10.4 Common Tasks. 124

11 Copying and Sharing Files 127

11.1 Scenarios. 128

11.2 Access Methods. 129

11.3 Accessing Files on Different Operating Systems on the same Computer . 132

11.4 Copying Files between Linux Computers. 133

11.5 Copying Files between Linux and Windows Computers with 55H. 138

11.6 Sharing Files between Linux Computers. 139

11.7 Sharing Files between Linux and Windows with Samba. 143

11.8 For More Information. 146

Part IV Help and Troubleshooting 147

12 Help and Documentation 149

12.1 Using the 5U5E Help Center. 149

12.2 Man Pages. 153

12.3 Info Pages. 154

12.4 The Linux Documentation Project. 154

12.5 Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia. 155

12.6 Guides and Books. 155

12.7 Package Documentation. 156

12.8 Usenet. 157

12.9 Standards and Specifications. 157

1 3 Common Problems and Their Solutions 161

13.1 Finding and Gathering Information. 161




























13.2 Installation Problems. 164

13.3 Boot Problems. 172

13.4 Login Problems. 175

13.5 Network Problems. 181

13.6 Data Problems. 186

13.7 Support for openSUSE. 198

A GNU Licenses 203

A.1 GNU General Public License. 203

A.2 GNU Free Documentation License. 211

Index 221











About This Guide


This manual will see you through your initial contact with openSUSE™. Check out the
various parts of this manual to learn how to install, use and enjoy your system.

Installation and Setup

Guides you through the installation process and the basic configuration of your
system. Introduces YaST, the central tool for installation and configuration of your
system. Learn how to set up or modify key components of your system: hardware
components such as monitors or printers and network connections such as Internet
access. Find how to install or remove software, how to administer users and groups,
and how to make use of the various system languages available with openSUSE.

Basics

This part mainly addresses to users changing to Linux from other operating systems.
It introduces basic Linux concepts such as the user concept, the structure of the file
system and access permissions for files and directories. An introduction to the shell
is also provided, although you hardly ever need the command line to interact with
your system nowadays.

Mobility

Get an overview of the features openSUSE offers to support mobile working with
laptops, mobile storage devices such as external hard disks and PDAs or cellular
phones. Learn how to use NetworkManager to easily integrate your machine into
different network environments or different types of networks. Find advice on how
to exchange files between different systems, be it on different partitions of one
computer (Linux/Windows*), or from one computer to another (Linux/Linux,
Linux/Windows).

Help and Troubleshooting

Provides an overview of where to find help and additional documentation in case
you need more information or want to perform specific tasks with your system.
Also find a compilation of the most frequent problems and annoyances and learn
how to solve these problems on your own.



1 Feedback


We want to hear your comments and suggestions about this manual and the other doc¬
umentation included with this product. Please use the User Comments feature at the
bottom of each page of the online documentation and enter your comments there.


2 Additional Documentation


There are other manuals available on this openSUSE product, either online at http: / /
WWW. no veil. com/document at ion/ opensusel 02 or in your installed system
under / usr/share/doc/manual:

KDE User Guide

This manual introduces the KDE desktop of your openSUSE and a variety of appli¬
cations that will be available to you when working with the KDE desktop. It guides
you through using these applications and helps you perform key tasks. It is intended
mainly for end users who want to make efficient use of KDE in everyday life.

GNOME User Guide

This manual introduces the GNOME desktop of your openSUSE and a variety of
applications that will be available to you when working with the GNOME desktop.
It guides you through using these applications and helps you perform key tasks. It
is intended mainly for end users who want to make efficient use of applications
running on the GNOME desktop.

Reference

This manual gives you a general understanding of openSUSE and covers advanced
system administration tasks with openSUSE . It is intended mainly for system ad¬
ministrators and home users with basic system administration knowledge. It provides
detailed information about advanced deployment scenarios, administration of your
system, the interaction of key system components and the set-up of various network
and file services openSUSE offers.

Novel I AppArmor Administration Guide

This guide contains in-depth information about the use of AppArmor in your envi¬
ronment.


viii


Start-Up


3 Documentation Conventions


The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:

• /etc/passwd: filenames and directory names

• placeholder: replace placeholder with the actual value

• PATH: the environment variable PATH

• Is, —help: commands, options, and parameters

• user: users or groups

• Alt, Alt + FI: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as
on a keyboard

• File, File Save As: menu items, buttons

• Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, 1 Reference): This is a reference to a chapter
in another book.

4 About the Making of This Manual

This book is written in Novdoc, a subset of DocBook (see http : / /www. docbook
. or g). The XML source files were validafed by xml 1 i nt, processed byxsltproc,
and converted into XSL-FO using a customized version of Norman Walsh's stylesheets.
The final PDF is formalled fhrough XEP from RenderX.


5 Source Code


The source code of openSUSE is publicly available. To download the source code,
proceed as outlined under http : / /www. novell. com/products/ suselinux/
sour ce_code . html. If requesfed we send you fhe source code on a DVD. We need
fo charge a $15 or €15 fee for creafion, handling and posfage. To requesf a DVD of fhe
source code, send an e-mail fo sourcedvd@suse.de [mailto : sourcedvd@suse
. de] or mail fhe requesf fo:


About This Guide


ix


SUSE Linux Products GmbH
Product Management openSUSE
Maxfeldstr. 5
D-90409 Niirnberg
Germany

6 Acknowledgments

With a lot of voluntary commitment, the developers of Linux cooperate on a global
scale to promote the development of Linux. We thank them for their efforts—^this dis¬
tribution would not exist without them. Furthermore, we thank Frank Zappa and Pawar.
Special thanks, of course, go to Linus Torvalds.

Have a lot of fun!

Your SUSE Team


X Start-Up



Part I. Installation and Setup




Installation with YaST



You install your openSUSE^M system with YaST, the central tool for installation and
configuration of your system. YaST guides you through the installation process and
the basic configuration of your system. During the installation and configuration process,
YaST analyzes both your current system settings and your hardware components and
proposes installation settings based on this analysis. By default, YaST displays an
overview of all installation steps on the left hand side of the window and provides online
help texts for each step. Click Help to view the help text and Steps to switch back to
the overview.

If you are a first-time user of openSUSE, you will probably follow the default YaST
proposals in most parts, but you can also adjust the settings as described here if you
want to fine-tune your system according to your needs and wishes. Background infor¬
mation is provided where appropriate. Many parts of the basic system configuration
(such as user accounts or system language) can also be modified after the installation
process.


Installation with YaST


3



1.1 Hardware Requirements

openSUSE supports most PC hardware components. The following requirements should
be met to ensure smooth operation of openSUSE:

Processor

Intel: Pentium 1-4 or Xeon

AMD: Duron, Athlon, Athlon XP, Athlon MP, Athlon 64, Sempron or Opteron
Main Memory

At least 256 MB; 512 MB recommended
Hard Disk Space

At least 500 MB for minimal system; 3 GB recommended for standard system

Sound and Graphics Cards

Supports most modern sound and graphics cards

For complete system requirements, visit www. opensuse . org/sysreqs.

1.2 System Start-Up for Installation

You can install openSUSE either from local installation sources, such as the openSUSE
CDs or DVD or you can choose a network-based installation and get the installation
sources from an FTP, HTTP, or NFS server. Any of these approaches requires physical
access to the system to install and user interaction during the installation. The installation
procedure is basically the same, no matter which installation source or method you
prefer.


4 Start-Up


1.2.1 Boot Options

Boot options other than CD or DVD exist and can be used if problems arise booting
from CD or DVD. These options are described in Table 1.1, “Boot Options” (page 5).

Table 1.1 Boot Options


Boot Option

Description

CD-ROM

This is the easiest boot option. This option can be used if the
system has a local CD-ROM drive that is supported by Linux.

Floppy

The images for generating boot floppies are located on CD 1 in
the /boot directory. A README is available in the same direc¬
tory.

PXE or BOOTP

This must be supported by the system's BIOS or firmware and
a hoof server musf be available in the network. This task can also
be handled by another openSUSE system.

Hard Disk

openSUSE can also be booted from the hard disk. To do this,
copy the kernel (linux) and the installation system (initrd)
from the directory /boot/loader on CD 1 to the hard disk
and add the appropriate entry to the boot loader.


1.2.2 Installing from the openSUSE Media

Install from physical boot media (your openSUSE media kit) as follows:

1 Insert the medium into your CD or DVD drive.

2 Reboot the system.

3 At the boot screen, select Installation and follow the instructions given in Sec¬
tion 1.3, “The Boot Screen” (page 7) and the following sections.


Installation with YaST


5





1.2.3 Installing from a Network Server Using
SLP

If your network setup supports OpenSLP and your network installation source has been
configured to announce itself via OpenSLP (see Section 1.2, “Setting Up the Server
Holding the Installation Sources” (Chapter 1, Remote Installation, tReference)), proceed
as follows to install openSUSE.

1 Set up an installation server as described in Section 1.2, “Setting Up the Server
Holding the Installation Sources” (Chapter 1, Remote Installation, tReference).

2 Insert the first CD of the media kit into the CD-ROM drive an reboot the machine.

3 At the boot screen, select Installation, press F4 then select SLP.

The installation program retrieves the location of the network installation source
using OpenSLP and configures the network connection with DHCP. If the DHCP
network configuration fails, you are prompted to enter the appropriate parameters
manually. The installation then proceeds normally.

4 Finish the installation as if you had chosen to install from physical media.

1.2.4 Installing from a Network Server

To perform a manual installation using a network installation source, proceed as follows:

1 Set up an installation server as described in Section 1.2, “Setting Up the Server
Holding the Installation Sources” (Chapter 1, Remote Installation, tReference).

2 Insert the first CD or DVD of the media kit into the corresponding drive then
reboot the machine.

3 At the boot screen, select Installation and use the boot options prompt to pass
additional information, such as:

• Location of the installation server:

install=protocoi: inst_source


6 Start-Up



Replace protocol with the protocol prefix for the service used by the in¬
stallation server (nf s, http, or ftp). Replace inst_source with the
IP address of the installation server.

• Network configuration parameters if your setup does not support DHCP
configuration (for reference, see Section 1.4.3, “Using Custom Boot Options”
(Chapter 1, Remote Installation, tReference)).


4 Press Enter to boot for installation. If no network parameters have been specified
at the boot options prompt, the installation routines tiy to set up the network using
DHCP. If this fails, you are prompted for these parameters. After you have pro¬
vided them, the installation proceeds.

5 Finish the installation as if you had chosen to install from the physical media.

1.3 The Boot Screen


The boot screen displays a number of options for the installation procedure. Boot from
Hard D/s^ boots the installed system. This item is selected by default, because the CD
is often left in the drive. To install the system, select one of the installation options with
the arrow keys. The relevant options are:

Installation

The normal installation mode. All modern hardware functions are enabled.
Installation—ACPI Disabled

If the normal installation fails, this might be due to the system hardware not sup¬
porting ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface). If this seems to be the
case, use this option to install without ACPI support.

Installation—Local APIC Disabled

If the normal installation fails, this might be due to the system hardware not sup¬
porting local APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers). If this seems
to be the case, use this option to install without local APIC support.

If you are not sure, tiy one of the following options first: Installation—ACPI Dis¬
abled or Installation—Safe Settings.


Installation with YaST


7



Installation—Safe Settings

Boots the system with the DMA mode (for CD-ROM drives) and power management
functions disabled. Experts can also use the command line to enter or change kernel
parameters.

Rescue System

Starts a minimal Linux system without a graphical user interface. For more infor¬
mation, see Section “Using the Rescue System” (page 193).

Firmware Test

Starts a BIOS checker that validates ACPI and other parts of your BIOS.
>>>