Part V Initial System Configuration #

YaST allows you to configure hardware items such as audio hardware, your system keyboard layout or printers.

Sophisticated system configurations require specific disk setups. All common partitioning tasks can be done with YaST. To get persistent device naming with block devices, use the block devices below /dev/disk/by-id or /dev/disk/by-uuid. Logical Volume Management (LVM) is a disk partitioning scheme t…

Use YaST's software management module to search for software components you want to add or remove. YaST resolves all dependencies for you. To install packages not shipped with the installation media, add additional software repositories to your setup and let YaST manage them. Keep your system up-to-date by managing software updates with the update applet.

Modules and extensions add parts or functionality to the system. Modules are fully supported parts of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with a different life cycle and update timeline. They are a set of packages, have a clearly defined scope and are delivered via online channel only.

Extensions, such as the Workstation Extension or the High Availability Extension, add extra functionality to the system and require an own registration key that is liable for costs. Extensions are delivered via online channel or physical media. Registering at the SUSE Customer Center or a local registration server is a prerequisite for subscribing to the online channels. The Package Hub (Section 15.6, “SUSE Package Hub”) and SUSE Software Development Kit (Section 15.5, “SUSE Software Development Kit (SDK) 12 SP5”) extensions are exceptions which do not require a registration key and are not covered by SUSE support agreements.

A list of modules and extensions for your product is available after having registered your system at SUSE Customer Center or a local registration server. If you skipped the registration step during the installation, you can register your system at any time using the SUSE Customer Center Configuration module in YaST. For details, refer to Section 21.8, “Registering Your System”.

Some add-on products are also provided by third parties, for example, binary-only drivers that are needed by certain hardware to function properly. If you have such hardware, refer to the release notes for more information about availability of binary drivers for your system. The release notes are available from http://www.suse.com/releasenotes/, from YaST or from /usr/share/doc/release-notes/ in your installed system.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports the parallel installation of multiple kernel versions. When installing a second kernel, a boot entry and an initrd are automatically created, so no further manual configuration is needed. When rebooting the machine, the newly added kernel is available as an additional boot option.

Using this functionality, you can safely test kernel updates while being able to always fall back to the proven former kernel. To do this, do not use the update tools (such as the YaST Online Update or the updater applet), but instead follow the process described in this chapter.

During installation, you could have created a local user for your system. With the YaST module User and Group Management you can add more users or edit existing ones. It also lets you configure your system to authenticate users with a network server.

This chapter explains how to configure language and country settings. You can change the language globally for the whole system, individually for certain users or desktops, or temporarily for single applications. Additionally, you can configure secondary languages and adjust the date and country settings.