YaST in Text Mode (ncurses)

This chapter addresses system administrators and experts who do not run an X server on their systems and rely on the text-based installation tool. It provides basic information for starting and operating YaST in text mode (ncurses). It also explains how to update your system online automatically to keep it as up-to-date as possible.

Usage

The usage may be unfamiliar, but is very simple. Basically, the entire program can be controlled with , + , Space, the arrow keys (and ), , and shortcuts. When Yast2 is started in text mode, the YaST Control Center appears first. It is shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1: The Main Screen of YaST in Text-Mode

There are three areas here. The left frame, which is surrounded by a thick white border, features the categories to which the various modules belong. The active category is indicated by a colored background. The right frame, which is surrounded by a thin white border, provides an overview of the modules contained in the active category. The bottom frame contains the buttons for ` Help' and ` Exit'.

When the YaST Control Center is started, the category ` Software' is selected automatically. Use the and keys to change the category. To start a module from the selected category, press . The module selection now appears with a thick border. Use the and keys to select the desired module. Keep the arrow keys pressed to scroll through the list of available modules. When a module is selected, the module title appears with a colorful background and a brief description is displayed in the bottom frame.

Press to start the desired module. Various buttons or selection fields in the module contain a letter with a different color (yellow by default).

Use the combination + letter to select a button directly without navigating there with .

Exit the YaST Control Center by pressing the ` Exit' button or by selecting the item ` Exit' in the category overview and pressing .

Restriction of Key Combinations

If your window manager uses key combinations, the combinations in YaST might not work. Keys like or might be occupied by the settings of the terminal.

Replacing with :

shortcuts can be executed with instead of . For example, + H replaces + H.

Replacement of backward and forward navigation by +F and +B:

If the and combinations are occupied by the window manager or the terminal, the combinations + F (forward) and + B (backward) can be used instead.

Restriction of function keys:

The F keys are also used for functions. Here, too, certain F key might be occupied by the terminal and may not be available for YaST. However, the key combinations and F keys should always be fully available on a pure text console.

Using the Modules

The following assumes that the key combinations are functional. If necessary, replace the key combinations as described above or switch to a pure text console.

Navigation between buttons and selection lists

With and + , switch buttons or the frames containing selection lists.

Navigation in selection lists

Use the arrow keys (and ) to navigate among the individual elements in an active frame, for example, among the individual modules of a module group in the control center.

Checking of radio buttons and check boxes

Select items with empty square brackets (check boxes) with Space or . The buttons at the bottom of the individual modules are selected with when they are selected (green background) or with + yellow key. See Figure 3.2.

The function keys

The F keys (F1 to F12) enable quick access to the various buttons. Which function keys are actually mapped to buttons depends on which YaST module is active, as the different modules offer different buttons (such as details, info, add, and delete). The various functions mapped to the F keys are explained in the YaST help, which can be accessed with F1.

Figure 3.2: The Software Installation Module

Starting the Individual Modules

To save time, the individual YaST modules can also be started directly. To start the modules, use yast <modulename>. The network module, for example, is started with yast lan. A list of all module names available on your system can be viewed with the command yast -l or yast -list.

YaST Online Update

The YaST Online Update (YOU) can be controlled and started from the console. As SuSE @nohyphen root, enter the command

yast online_update

to load the latest patch list and all applicable rpms from the first server in the list /etc/suseservers. Use -h to get a list of all options available. Information about the patches is stored in /var/lib/YaST2/you/<arch>/update/<version>/patches. SuSE @nohyphen root permissions are required to read this. <version> refers to the respective version of SuSE Linux. <arch> refers to the architecture you run SuSE Linux on.

The advantage of this method is that it can be automated. For example, the system administrator can download the packages overnight and install the needed ones in the morning.

The cron Job for YOU

The following are basic instructions for creating a cron job to update the system automatically. Basically, there are two different possibilities for setting up a cron job. The simpler method for this is described here. The following steps are necessary:

1. Become SuSE @nohyphen root.

2. Start the crontab editor with crontab -e.

3. Press i for the insertion mode of vi.

4. Enter the following lines:
   
     MAILTO='' ''
   
     13 3 * * 0   /sbin/yast online_update
   
     53 3 * * 0   /sbin/yast online_update auto.install
   
   
   

   The first five elements of the last two lines have the following meaning when read from left to right: minutes, hours, day of the month, month of the year, day of the week (0 is Sunday). * disregards that value. In this example, the first entry starts the cron job every Sunday at 3:13 a.m. The second job starts forty minutes later at 3:53 a.m. The line MAILTO'' '' prevents root from receiving the output as an e-mail and can, of course, be omitted.

   
   

   Caution

   Enter arbitrary times for the cron jobs and preferably not the times from the example above, because this could overload the FTP server.

   
   

5. Save the cron job by consecutively pressing Esc :wq and or Esc ZZ.

The cron daemon is automatically restarted and your cron job is added to /var/spool/cron/tabs/root.