Open SUSE® 11.0 and SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server Bible

Chapter 9. Configuring the System with YaST

IN THIS CHAPTER

• YaST and YaST modules

• Keeping time with NTP

• Configuring a printer

• Online updating with YaST

• Installing additional software with YaST

• Installing other systems from yours

SUSE's central system configuration tool is called YaST. YaST is (and always has been) an integral part of the design of the SUSE Linux distributions, and is the biggest feature that differentiates SUSE from other versions of Linux. The aim of YaST is to provide a central place to do system configuration. YaST has a modular design, so additional modules can easily be added, providing a set of tools for different tasks that share a common look and feel. Most of the configuration tools included in the installer are identical in look and feel as well as functionality to the YaST modules that are available after installation.

YaST is also designed with a layer of abstraction between its functions and the user interface: This means you can run a YaST module in a text console or graphically and get the same functionality and same menus. The YaST modules can also be called from the GNOME Control Center, where icons for the YaST modules are mixed with the GNOME-specific icons. In contrast, Red Hat and Fedora have a number of disparate system configuration tools. But some of them have text mode versions only, whereas some are available in text and graphical mode, but with differing capabilities. Also, in Red Hat-derived systems, the installer is a monolithic program that ...