Novell is one of the few linux vendors that
provides manuals that try to help users beyond installing the product.
The following manuals are available for OpenSuse 10.2:
The online versions of the manuals are updated regularly, even
after your version of the distribution is current, so check for updates at least
a couple times a year to be sure you have the latest version.
The OpenSuse process offers a freely-downloadable distribution
that contains only open-source software, with the ability to add non–open-source
packages (like the Java Runtime Engine) separately. In addition, OpenSuse serves
as the basis for the retail versions of SUSE Linux.
The OpenSuse media is bootable and will install OpenSuse
directly after booting from it. You might need to change your BIOS booting
sequence
to boot from your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. If you install 64-bit version you need
to enable virtual machine instruction on D620 laptop.
To change the boot sequence, reboot your computer. Among the first
things you see on your screen as the computer starts up is the method of accessing
your BIOS settings. On Dell this is F2 key; press this key as soon as you see it.
Shortly, the BIOS settings will appear.
Look for a setting title called Boot Sequence, Boot Order, or
something similar. This setting determines where the BIOS looks for a bootloader
code that tells it the volume is bootable.
Every drive that may be bootable should be listed here. The new
order should point first to the DVD drive, then the hard drive (which may be identified
as either IDE or SCSI instead of the Windows drive letter), and then everything
else.
Checking DVD before the hard drive will slow your boot time a few seconds, so you
may want to reset the Boot sequence after your SUSE Linux installation is completed.There are two versions of Suse 32 bit and 64 bit. 64-bit version requires
CPUs with extended instruction set (AMD64 and Intel 64
CPU). Intel Duo series used in D620 is such CPU. It cannot run on old Pentium 4.
For dual boot 64 bit system is better as it will match the system used on the
server: For servers 64-bit version is better as it
allow to access more then 16G of RAM and on configurations from 4G to 16G works
faster.
The only exception is virtual machine environment: 32-bit kernel is better
for VMware environment.
Availability of SUSE for 64-bit Intel and AMD hardware platforms does not
necessarily mean that all the applications included have already been ported
to 64-bit platforms. Often this is not true and some application even
commercial one are distributed in 32-bit mode. OpenSuse supports the use of 32-bit applications in a
64-bit system environment.
To be executed correctly, every application requires a range of
libraries. Unfortunately, the names for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions
of these libraries are identical. They must be differentiated from each
other by placement:
- To retain compatibility with the 32-bit version, the
libraries are stored at the same place in the system as in the 32-bit
environment. The 32-bit version of libc.so.6
is located under /lib/libc.so.6 in both
the 32-bit and 64-bit environments.
- All 64-bit libraries and object files are located in
directories called lib64. The 64-bit
object files you would normally expect to find under
/lib, and /usr/lib
are now found under /lib64, and
/usr/lib64. This means that there is space
for the 32-bit libraries under /lib and
/usr/lib, so the filename for both
versions can remain unchanged.
Subdirectories of 32-bit /lib
directories whose data content does not depend on the word size are not
moved.
The installed 32-bit and 64-bit libraries must have an
API (application programming interface) that matches the installed
header files. The normal openSUSE environment is designed according to
this principle.
- The 64-bit kernels for x86_64 offer both a 64-bit and a
32-bit kernel ABI (application binary interface). The latter is
identical with the ABI for the corresponding 32-bit kernel. This means
that the 32-bit application can communicate with the 64-bit kernel in
the same way as with the 32-bit kernel.
- The 32-bit emulation of system calls for a 64-bit kernel
does not support all the APIs used by system programs. This depends on
the platform. For this reason, a small number of applications, like
lspci, must be compiled
- A 64-bit kernel can only load 64-bit kernel modules that
have been specially compiled for this kernel. It is not possible to use
32-bit kernel modules.
In the case of manually updated libraries, you need to resolve
these issues yourself.
The Linux Boot Process
The Linux boot process consists of several stages each
represented by another component. The following list briefly summarizes the
boot process and features all the major components involved.
Installation from CD/DVD
CD/DVD are default installation medium for YAST. Local CD/DVD installations are very much the same for Solaris and
OpenSuse. The
installation program prompts for information when it is required. A menu of options
is presented in some parts so that you can select the appropriate choice or choices.
As with a Solaris installation, Linux will perform the following operations.
- Probe the hardware for devices and load the appropriate device drivers.
- Select language
- Accept license agreement
- Select a time zone.
- Select GUI (Gnome of KDE). Gnome will be used in lectures.
- Assign a host name.
- Set up a network setup type (DHCP or static IP)
- If static IP, you will be asked to enter the IP address, subnet mask,
default gateway, and DNS servers to use.
- You can also use DHCP.
- Select installation type (the initial not upgrade ).
- Repartition hard disk:
- Desktop has 150G drive
- Laptops have 100G drive
- Prompt for a automatic or manual disk layout for the file systems.
Select manual and allocate 4G for swap and 10G for root and 8G for /home
partitions (if you have a separate /home partition you can upgrade system
without need to restore your data)
- Select filesystem for partitions. You should use
ext3fs as your filesystem
- Prompt for the software bundle or packages to install. You need carefully
browse and add your own choices of software packages to the default selection
proposed by the installer, so click on the Change button and select Software
from the menu, which brings you to the main Software Selection screen
- suse installs vim and screen automatically
- Add several packages that I will use in lectures:
- vino -- VNC for Gnome
- mc (Midnight commander, requres glib),
- gvim
- expect (requres TCL).
- Wireshark
- nmap
- Other packages that you might be interested in.
OpenSuse 10 usually recognizes most devices and installs without major hardware
problems on standard desktop and laptop.
Note: In Solaris, the installation program will use the current console
as an I/O device, and if you are using a serial interface, it will use that same
serial interface. In Linux for IA32 , the default console device used for installation
is the graphics card. If you need to install the system using a serial interface,
you need to specifically tell the installation program to do so by adding the
nofb console=ttyS0 kernel boot options.
Installing using remote display
In Solaris, you can install using the local graphic display or the serial interface.
In Linux, you can install using the local graphic display, serial interface, and
a few other remote modes.
In RHEL, you have the following options:
|
Add a display=IP_OF_REMOTE_X:0
argument to the kernel boot line for using a remote X Server for displaying
the installation GUI. |
|
Add a vnc vncpassword=MIN_6_CHAR_PASS
argument to the kernel boot line for using a VNC client from another machine
to connect to the installation GUI. |
In SLES, you have the following options:
|
Add a usessh=1
sshpassword=MIN_1_CHAR_PASS
argument to the kernel boot line for starting a
ssh installation. If you connect with
ssh -X, you can have graphical GUI. |
|
Add a vnc=1 vncpassword=MIN_5_CHAR_PASS
argument to the kernel boot line for using a
vnclient from another machine to connect to the installation GUI. |
Partitioning
The two minimum partitions are the root partition, signified with a forward
slash (/), and a swap partition, which Linux uses as virtual memory.
You also would benefit form a separate /home partitions for the reasons
explained above. Traditionally, the size of the swap partition is equivalent to (or a multiple
of) the amount of hardware RAM you have installed.
If you have only these two partitions, YaST will put all standard directories on the same partition as /. These are
-
/bin—Binary files.
-
/boot—Files to boot Linux.
-
/dev—Device drivers.
-
/etc—Configuration files.
-
/home—Each user gets a data directory under this one
(should generally be a separate partition)
-
/lib—Libraries, the underlying code for many applications.
-
/media—Removable disks and drives (floppy discs, CD-ROMs,
Zips).
-
/mnt—The mount directory, where all partitions (mount points)
are listed.
-
/opt—Some applications install to this directory instead
of /usr.
-
/proc—A dynamic directory where all running processes are
logged. Constantly changing.
-
/root—Not to be confused with plain / (also called "root"),
this is the home directory for the root user.
-
/sbin—System binaries, usually files that need to run during
startup.
-
/srv—Services.
-
/tmp—Temporary files.
-
/usr—Most applications, libraries and man files.
-
/var—Variable data, including
syslog, print spoolers,
mail files, cron files, are stored here.
Fun with Configuration Files
Instead of a single file linux configuration files are often spitted into chunks
which are stored then
into directories. The main file just assembles the chunks. As in other areas of
life this quest to more flexibility actually sometimes backfire and turns into
its opposite.
Some of those "hacked" files include /etc/profile (with chunks
stored at /etc/profile.d), crontab (crontab.d), syslog (actually Suse uses
syslog-ng instead of regular syslog), etc. RC files are structures
similarly to Solaris with links to each run level.
Some of the more important system-related configuration files
in this directory are
-
fstab — corresponds to Solaris vfstab.
Lists mountable storage
devices. Structures are similar to Solaris and lists each device's mount
point, its location on the partition table, instructions on whether it
should mount automatically on boot, and a few other mounting options.
-
inittab —The system initialization table defines
the different runlevels that the system uses at boot to start your computer.
Changes to this file (which can be made manually, but also in YaST) can
determine whether you boot to a graphical GUI or to text mode.
-
modprobe.conf and modprobe.conf.local —The
main modprobe.conf file contains directions and options used when loading
kernel modules to operate various pieces of hardware, such as sound cards, USB
devices, network cards, and the like. The contents of this file are used during
boot. SUSE updates this file from time to time so manual chances can be
overwritten. You can use modprobe.conf.local to
keep those changes from being overwritten.
-
passwd and shadow.
Like Solaris Suse uses
/etc/shadow to
store hashes and password expiration information.
Choosing and Using a Shell
Suse uses different default shell then Solaris called Bash. Often new Suse users try to avoid it, preferring
old ksh shell. But it is a better interactive shell then Korn shell.
Also the default ksh in linux is broken. That means that bash is
preferable. Unless you are an expert in shell programming you will not notice
any difference except more user friendliness (arrow keys work as well as !
command completion). Profiles for bash are usually better then profiles for ksh
(which in many cases are dismal).
bash was one of the original GNU projects, it has been in development since 1987. Version
3.0 was released in July 2004. As
you might guess from the name, bash (Bourne Again Shell) is the logical
successor to the venerable Unix shell (sh) written by Steve Bourne. This
is the best Korn-style interactive shell.
You can tweak bash's performance by editing the
.bashrc configuration file. Root can edit the systemwide .bashrc,
and each user on the system may have his or her own configuration file, although
a user cannot override the system configuration.
Running YaST from the Shell
YaST is an old and rather clumsy tool with pretty idiosyncratic
interface but it has goood capabilities to recognize hardware and
install correct software. So while interface is antiquted the
capabilities are not. Due to history of its development (it was
first command line tool later converted into GUI tool, it still can runs in command line.
Command line version is called
yast
while GUI version yast2.
Actually diagnostic
is much better in this mode as GUI version is to a certain extent a hack. You need to be root to
invoke YaST. Just type
yast at the root prompt.
This can also be useful in recovery mode when the system
won't boot to the GUI login screen. It also can also serve for
the installation of new packages if yast is configured correctly.
To maneuver around the menus and choices, use the accelerator
keys highlighted on each screen. Press the Alt key with the highlighted
letter to move to the item you want. For example, in any screen, press Alt+H
to get Help on that screen. When finished, press Alt+Q to Quit and return
to the shell prompt.
All YaST modules that are in the GUI version work in the command-line
version as well.
September 12, 2002 | IBM
SuSE Server
Setup
SuSE Client
Install
The installer certainly takes a while, but after the install, the system
is set up with all online repose including non-oss repos (including if I
remember correct packman) and all installed packages (and thus the whole OS)
were up to date.
It certainly takes a while (though only an hour orso here) but it isn't
'antiquated'. It has many more options and features available than ubuntu
and pclinuxos for example, and it leaves your system fully updated with all
the latest updates.
That said, I do imagine that would be difficult to see after being bored to
death for 6 hours. I certainly don't blame you for some hard feelings there.
The livecd system would indeed by a good idea.
===
It is not necessary to download anything from the internet during
installation. If you only want to use the CD medium uncheck the "Use online
repositories" checkbox. It needs to be selected by default so netinstalls
will "just work", and CD users can still have a complete experience with
flash, java etc if they have an internet connection during install.
A live-cd with installer will be released in a week or so. (There is one for
RC-1) This allows installing from the desktop as in some other
distributions. It is significantly less flexible than the normal installer
though. And using a livecd does not show whether things will work, in fact
things are far less likely to work on a livecd.
Codec installation from packman you should find significantly easier than in
previous versions. If you attempt to play an mp3 in e.g. amarok if you don't
have fluendo's support installed (I think it will be if you included media
from the online repositories) Then you would be linked to http://software.opensuse.org/codecs
The "community information" there will get you the fullest support, and will
no longer require knowing how to add the packman repository etc.
Installing Linux SUSE 10
Novell Documentation SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 - Installation Summary
Linux Partition HOWTO
Network
Install HOWTO
C H A P T E R
5 - Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and 10
Novell Documentation SUSE Linux 10 - SUSE Linux 10 Reference Guide
Section 1.0, Remote Installation
Section 2.0, Advanced Disk Setup
A guy with negative installation experience. Some points are well taken :
attempt to minimize Suse breaks patching process, others are exaggerated.
He also forgot to mention that OpenSuse is free.
Copyright © 1996-2007 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov.
www.softpanorama.org was
created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP)
in the author free time.
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Last modified:
February 28, 2008
