Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 11 - ADMINISTRATION GUIDE... Instruction Manual

SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop
www.novell.com11
March17,2009 Administration Guide

Administration Guide
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Contents
About This Guide ix
Part I Support and Common Tasks 1
1YaST Online Update 3
1.1 Installing Patches Manually Using the Qt Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Installing Patches Manually Using the gtk Interface . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Automatic Online Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2Gathering System Information for Support 9
2.1 Novell Support Link Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Using Supportcong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Submitting Information to Novell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3YaST in Text Mode 15
3.1 Navigation in Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2 Restriction of Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 YaST Command Line Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4GNOME Conguration for Administrators 21
4.1 TheGConfSystem........................ 21
4.2 Customizing Main Menu, Panel, and Application Browser . . . . . . . . 24
4.3 Starting Applications Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.4 Automounting and Managing Media Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.5 Changing Preferred Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.6 Managing Proles Using Sabayon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.7 Adding Document Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.8 Desktop Lock Down Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.9 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5Managing Software with Command Line Tools 33
5.1 UsingZypper........................... 33
5.2 RPM—the Package Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6Accessing Remote Desktops with Nomad 51
6.1 Nomad Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.2 Installation and Set-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.3 UsingNomad........................... 54
6.4 Troubleshooting ......................... 54
6.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7Bash and Bash Scripts 57
7.1 What is “The Shell”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.2 Writing Shell Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.3 Redirecting Command Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.4 UsingAliases........................... 65
7.5 Using Variables in Bash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.6 Grouping And Combining Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.7 Working with Common Flow Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.8 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Part II System 71
832-Bit and 64-Bit Applications in a 64-Bit System Environment 73
8.1 RuntimeSupport......................... 73
8.2 Software Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.3 Software Compilation on Biarch Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8.4 Kernel Specications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9Booting and Conguring a Linux System 77
9.1 The Linux Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9.2 TheinitProcess.......................... 81
9.3 System Conguration via /etc/syscong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

10 The Boot Loader GRUB 93
10.1 BootingwithGRUB........................ 94
10.2 Conguring the Boot Loader with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
10.3 Uninstalling the Linux Boot Loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
10.4 Creating Boot CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
10.5 The Graphical SUSE Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
10.6 Troubleshooting......................... 111
10.7 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
11 Special System Features 113
11.1 Information about Special Software Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
11.2 VirtualConsoles......................... 120
11.3 Keyboard Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
11.4 Language and Country-Specic Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
12 Printer Operation 127
12.1 The Workow of the Printing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
12.2 Methods and Protocols for Connecting Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
12.3 Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
12.4 NetworkPrinters......................... 131
12.5 Graphical Printing Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
12.6 Printing from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
12.7 Special Features in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop . . . . . . . . . . 134
12.8 Troubleshooting......................... 137
13 Dynamic Kernel Device Management with udev 145
13.1 The /dev Directory....................... 145
13.2 Kernel uevents and udev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
13.3 Drivers, Kernel Modules and Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
13.4 Booting and Initial Device Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
13.5 Monitoring the Running udev Daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
13.6 Inuencing Kernel Device Event Handling with udev Rules . . . . . . . 149
13.7 Persistent Device Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
13.8 Files used by udev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
13.9 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
14 The X Window System 159
14.1 Manually Conguring the X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
14.2 Installing and Conguring Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
14.3 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

15 Accessing File Systems with FUSE 173
15.1 ConguringFUSE........................ 173
15.2 Mounting an NTFS Partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
15.3 Mounting Remote File System with SSHFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
15.4 Mounting an ISO File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
15.5 Available FUSE Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
15.6 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Part III Mobile Computers 177
16 Mobile Computing with Linux 179
16.1 Laptops ............................ 179
16.2 MobileHardware ........................ 187
16.3 Cellular Phones and PDAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
16.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
17 Power Management 191
17.1 Power Saving Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
17.2 ACPI.............................. 192
17.3 Rest for the Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
17.4 Troubleshooting......................... 198
17.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
18 Using Tablet PCs 201
18.1 Installing Tablet PC Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
18.2 Conguring Your Tablet Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
18.3 Using the Virtual Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
18.4 Rotating Your Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
18.5 Using Gesture Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
18.6 Taking Notes and Sketching with the Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
18.7 Troubleshooting......................... 210
18.8 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Part IV Services 213
19 Basic Networking 215
19.1 IP Addresses and Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
19.2 IPv6—The Next Generation Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
19.3 NameResolution ........................ 230

19.4 Conguring a Network Connection with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
19.5 NetworkManager ........................ 252
19.6 Conguring a Network Connection Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
19.7 smpppd as Dial-up Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
20 Wireless Communication 271
20.1 WirelessLAN.......................... 271
21 SLP Services in the Network 281
21.1 Installation........................... 281
21.2 ActivatingSLP.......................... 282
21.3 SLP Front-Ends in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . 282
21.4 Providing Services via SLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
21.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
22 Time Synchronization with NTP 285
22.1 Conguring an NTP Client with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
22.2 Manually Conguring ntp in the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
22.3 Setting Up a Local Reference Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
23 Using NetworkManager 291
23.1 Use Cases for NetworkManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
23.2 Enabling NetworkManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
23.3 Conguring Network Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
23.4 Using KDE NetworkManager Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
23.5 Using GNOME NetworkManager Applet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
23.6 NetworkManager and VPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
23.7 NetworkManager and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
23.8 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
23.9 Troubleshooting......................... 301
23.10 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
24 Samba 305
24.1 Terminology........................... 305
24.2 Conguring a Samba Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
24.3 Conguring Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
24.4 Samba as Login Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
24.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

25 Sharing File Systems with NFS 311
25.1 Installing the Required Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
25.2 Importing File Systems with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
25.3 Importing File Systems Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
25.4 NFS with Kerberos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
25.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
26 File Synchronization 317
26.1 Available Data Synchronization Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
26.2 Determining Factors for Selecting a Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
26.3 Introduction to CVS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
26.4 Introduction to rsync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
26.5 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

About This Guide
This guide is intended for use by professional network and system administrators during
the operation of SUSE® Linux Enterprise. As such, it is solely concerned with ensuring
that SUSE Linux Enterprise is properly congured and that the required services on
the network are available to allow it to function properly as initially installed. This
guide does not cover the process of ensuring that SUSE Linux Enterprise offers proper
compatibility with your enterprise's application software or that its core functionality
meets those requirements. It assumes that a full requirements audit has been done and
the installation has been requested or that a test installation, for the purpose of such an
audit, has been requested.
This guide contains the following:
Administration
SUSE Linux Enterprise offers a wide range of tools to customize various aspects
of the system. This part introduces a few of them.
System
Learn more about the underlying operating system by studying this part. SUSE
Linux Enterprise supports a number of hardware architectures and you can use this
to adapt your own applications to run on SUSE Linux Enterprise. The boot loader
and boot procedure information assists you in understanding how your Linux system
works and how your own custom scripts and applications may blend in with it.
Mobile Computing
Laptops, and the communication between mobile devices like PDAs, or cellular
phones and SUSE Linux Enterprise need some special attention. Take care for
power conservation and for the integration of different devices into a changing
network environment. Also get in touch with the background technologies that
provide the needed functionality.
Services
SUSE Linux Enterprise is designed to be a network operating system. SUSE®
Linux Enterprise Desktop includes client support for many network services. It
integrates well into heterogeneous environments including MS Windows clients
and servers.

Many chapters in this manual contain links to additional documentation resources. This
includes additional documentation that is available on the system as well as documen-
tation available on the Internet.
For an overview of the documentation available for your product and the latest docu-
mentation updates, refer to http://www.novell.com/documentation.
1 Available Documentation
We provide HTML and PDF versions of our books in different languages. The following
manuals for users and administrators are available on this product:
GNOME User Guide (↑GNOME User Guide)
Introduces the GNOME desktop of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. It guides you
through using and conguring the desktop and helps you perform key tasks. It is
intended mainly for end users who want to make efcient use of GNOME desktop
as their default desktop.
Application Guide (↑Application Guide)
Learn how to use and congure key desktop applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop. This guide introduces browsers and e-mail clients as well as ofce appli-
cations and collaboration tools. It also covers graphics and multimedia applications.
Deployment Guide (↑Deployment Guide)
Shows how to install single or multiple systems and how to exploit the product
inherent capabilities for a deployment infrastructure. Choose from various approach-
es, ranging from a local installation or a network installation server to a mass de-
ployment using a remote-controlled, highly-customized, and automated installation
technique.
Administration Guide (page 1)
Covers system administration tasks like maintaining, monitoring and customizing
an initially installed system.
Security Guide (↑Security Guide)
Introduces basic concepts of system security, covering both local and network se-
curity aspects. Shows how to make use of the product inherent security software
like Novell AppArmor (which lets you specify per program which les the program
xAdministration Guide