After a thorough system analysis, YaST presents reasonable suggestions for all installation settings. The options that sometimes need manual intervention in common installation situations are presented under the
tab. Find more special options in the tab. After configuring any of the items presented in these dialogs, you are always returned to the summary window, which is updated accordingly. The individual settings are discussed in the following sections.In most cases, YaST proposes a reasonable partitioning scheme that can be accepted without change. YaST can also be used to customize the partitioning. This section describes the necessary steps.
![]() | IBM System z: Hard Disks |
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On the IBM System z platforms, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports SCSI hard disks as well as DASDs (direct access storage devices). While SCSI disks can be partitioned as described below, DASDs can have no more than three partition entries in their partition tables. |
Every hard disk has a partition table with space for four entries. An entry in the partition table can correspond to a primary partition or an extended partition. Only one extended partition entry is allowed, however.
A primary partition simply consists of a continuous range of cylinders (physical disk areas) assigned to a particular operating system. With primary partitions only, you would be limited to four partitions per hard disk, because more do not fit in the partition table. This is why extended partitions are used. Extended partitions are also continuous ranges of disk cylinders, but an extended partition may itself be subdivided into logical partitions. Logical partitions do not require entries in the partition table. In other words, an extended partition is a container for logical partitions.
If you need more than four partitions, create an extended partition as the fourth partition or earlier. This extended partition should span the entire remaining free cylinder range. Then create multiple logical partitions within the extended partition. The maximum number of logical partitions is 15 on SCSI, SATA, and Firewire disks and 63 on (E)IDE disks. It does not matter which types of partitions are used for Linux. Primary and logical partitions both work fine.
![]() | Hard Disks with a GPT Disk Label |
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For architectures using the GPT disk label, the number of primary partitions is not restricted. Consequently, there are no logical partitions. |
YaST normally proposes a reasonable partitioning scheme with sufficient disk space. If you want to implement your own partitioning scheme, consider the following recommendations concerning the requirements for different system types.
No graphical interface (X Window System) is installed, which means that only console applications can be used. Also, only a very basic selection of software is installed.
This includes the X Window System and some applications.
This includes a modern desktop environment, like KDE or GNOME, and also provides enough space for large application suites like Netscape or Mozilla.
All the packages included with SUSE Linux Enterprise are installed.
The partitions to create depend on the available space. The following are some basic partitioning guidelines:
One partition for the swap space and one root partition
(/
). In this case, the root partition must
allow for those directories that often reside on their own
partitions if more space is available.
A swap partition, a root partition (1 GB), and
one partition each for the following directories as needed:
/usr
(4 GB or more),
/opt
(4 GB or more), and
/var
(1 GB). If you do not want
to have separate partitions for these directories, add the
suggested disk space to the root partition. The rest of the
available space can be used for /home
.
Depending on the hardware, it might also be useful to create
a boot partition (/boot
) to hold the boot
mechanism and the Linux kernel. This partition should be located at
the start of the disk and should be at least 8 MB or one
cylinder. As a rule of thumb, always create such a partition if it
was included in YaST's original proposal. If you are unsure
about this, create a boot partition to be on the safe side.
You should also be aware that some (mostly commercial)
programs install their data in /opt
.
Therefore, either create a separate partition for
/opt
or make the root partition large enough.
When you select the partitioning item in the suggestion window for the first time, the YaST partitioning dialog displays the proposed partition settings. Accept these current settings as they are or change them before continuing. Alternatively, discard all the settings and start over from scratch.
Nothing in the partitioning setup is changed if you select Section 7.5.8, “Partitioner”. The original setup as proposed by YaST is offered there as a starting point.
. If you select , the opens. It allows tweaking the partition setup in every detail. This dialog is explained inSelecting
opens the dialog for hard disk selection. Use the list to choose among the existing hard disks on your system. SUSE Linux Enterprise will be installed on the disk selected in this dialog.The next step is to determine whether the entire disk should be used (Section 3.9.1.4, “Resizing a Windows Partition”. If desired, go to the dialog to create a custom partition setup as described in Section 7.5.8, “Partitioner”.
) or whether to use any existing partitions (if available) for the installation. If a Windows operating system was found on the disk, you are asked whether to delete or resize the partition. Before doing so, read![]() | Using the Entire Hard Disk for Installation |
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If you choose , all existing data on that disk is completely erased later in the installation process and is then lost. |
YaST checks during the installation whether the disk space is sufficient for the software selection made. If not, YaST automatically changes the software selection. The proposal dialog displays a notice to inform you about this. As long as there is sufficient disk space available, YaST simply accepts your settings and partitions the hard disk accordingly.
If a hard disk containing a Windows FAT or NTFS partition is selected as the installation target, YaST offers to delete or shrink this partition. In this way, you can install SUSE® Linux Enterprise even if there is currently not enough space on the hard disk. This functionality is especially useful if the selected hard disk contains only one Windows partition that covers the entire hard disk. This is sometimes the case on computers where Windows comes preinstalled. If YaST sees that there is not enough space on the selected hard disk, but that space could be made available by deleting or shrinking a Windows partition, it presents a dialog in which to choose one of these two options.
If you select
, the Windows partition is marked for deletion and the space is used for the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise.![]() | Deleting Windows |
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If you delete Windows, all data will be lost beyond recovery as soon as the formatting starts. |
To shrink the Windows partition, interrupt the installation and boot Windows to prepare the partition from there. Although this step is not strictly required for FAT partitions, it speeds up the resizing process and also makes it safer. These steps are vital for NTFS partitions.
In Windows, first run scandisk to make sure that the FAT partition is free of lost file fragments and crosslinks. After that, run defrag to move files to the beginning of the partition. This accelerates the resizing procedure in Linux.
If you have optimized virtual memory settings for Windows so a contiguous swap file is used with the same initial (minimum) and maximum size limit, consider another step. With these Windows settings, the resizing might split the swap file into many small parts scattered all over the FAT partition. Also, the entire swap file would need to be moved during the resizing, which makes the process rather slow. It is therefore useful to disable these Windows optimizations for the time being and reenable them after the resizing has been completed.
In Windows, run scandisk and defrag to move the files to the beginning of the hard disk. In contrast to the FAT file system, you must perform these steps. Otherwise the NTFS partition cannot be resized.
![]() | Disabling the Windows Swap File |
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If you operate your system with a permanent swap file on an NTFS file system, this file may be located at the end of the hard disk and remain there despite defrag. Therefore, it may be impossible to shrink the partition sufficiently. In this case, temporarily deactivate the swap file (the virtual memory in Windows). After the partition has been resized, reconfigure the virtual memory. |
After these preparations, return to the Linux partitioning setup and select
. After a quick check of the partition, YaST opens a dialog with a suggestion for resizing the Windows partition.The first bar graph shows how much disk space is currently occupied by Windows and how much space is still available. The second bar graph shows how the space would be distributed after the resizing, according to YaST's current proposal. See Figure 3.6, “Resizing the Windows Partition”. Accept the proposed settings or use the slider to change the partition sizing (within certain limits).
If you leave this dialog by selecting
, the settings are stored and you are returned to the previous dialog. The actual resizing takes place later, before the hard disk is formatted.SUSE Linux Enterprise contains a number of software packages for various application purposes. Click See Figure 3.7, “Installing and Removing Software with the YaST Package Manager”.
in the suggestion window to start the software selection and modify the installation scope according to your needs. Select your categories from the list in the middle and see the description in the right window. Each category contains a number of software packages that meet most requirements for that category. For more detailed selection of software packages to install, select to switch to the YaST Package Manager.![]() | Default Desktop |
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The default desktop of SUSE Linux Enterprise is GNOME. To install KDE, click and select from . |
If you have specific software needs, modify the current selection with the package manager, which greatly eases this task. The package manager offers various filter criteria to simplify selection from the numerous packages in SUSE Linux Enterprise.
The filter selection box is located at the top left under the menu bar. The default filter is For example, select The groups included in the current system type are preselected. Click the check boxes to select or deselect groups for installation. to set up your system as an NFS server or to install the Apache Web server.
. Patterns install packages based on the intended use or task of your system.The right part of the window displays a table listing the individual packages included in the current group. The table column furthest to the left shows the current status of each package. Two status flags are especially relevant for the installation: To learn more about them, read the detailed description of this module in Section 7.3.1, “Installing and Removing Software”.
(the box in front of the package name is checked) and (the box is empty). To select or deselect individual software packages, click the status box until the desired status is displayed. Alternatively, right-click the package line to access a pop-up menu listing all the possible status settings.Click the filter selection box to view the other possible filters. The selection according to
can also be used for the installation. This filter sorts the program packages by subjects in a tree structure to the left. The more you expand the branches, the more specific the selection of packages is and the fewer packages are displayed in the list of associated packages to the right. to search for a specific package. This is explained in detail inYou cannot simply install any combination of software packages. The different software packages must be compatible. Otherwise they might interfere with each other and cause conflicts that affect the system as a whole. Therefore, you may see alerts about unresolved package dependencies or conflicts after selecting or deselecting software packages in this dialog. If installing SUSE Linux Enterprise for the first time or if you do not understand the alerts, read Section 7.3.1, “Installing and Removing Software”, which provides detailed information about the operation of the package manager.
When satisfied with your software selection and all package dependencies or conflicts are resolved, click
to apply your changes and exit the module. During the installation, the changes are recorded internally and applied later when the actual installation starts.The language was selected at the beginning of the installation
as described in Section 3.4, “Language Selection”. However, you
can change this setting here and also select any additional
languages to install on your system. In the upper part of this
dialog, select the primary language. This is the language that will
be activated after installation. Adapt your keyboard and time zone
settings to the selected primary language by selecting those
options, if desired. Optionally, use to
set the language for the user root
. There are three options:
The value of the variable LC_CTYPE
in the
file /etc/sysconfig/language
is adopted for
the user root
. This
sets the localization for language-specific function calls.
The user root
has
the same language settings as the local user.
The language settings for the user root
are not affected by the
language selection. All locale
variables
are unset.
Make the setting for the locale explicitly with
.The list in the lower part of the language dialog allows for selection of additional languages to install. For all the languages selected in this list, YaST checks if there are any language-specific packages for any packages in your current software selection. If so, these packages are installed.
Click
to complete the configuration.This dialog presents all the hardware information YaST could obtain about your computer. Select any item in the list and click
to see detailed information about the selected item. You may also add PCI IDs to device drivers with this dialog.![]() | IBM System z: Keyboard and Mouse Configuration |
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On the IBM System z platforms, the installation is performed from a remote terminal. The host as such has no keyboard or mouse locally connected to it. |
Select the keyboard layout from the list. By default, the layout corresponds to the selected language. After changing the layout, test the characters that are special to the selected language layout to make sure that the selection is correct. To set special options regarding keyboard behavior, click Section 7.4.8, “Keyboard Layout”. When finished, click to return to the installation settings dialog.
. Find more information about that in![]() | IBM System z: Boot Loader Configuration |
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The module described below cannot be used to configure the boot loader (zipl) on the IBM System z platforms. |
During the installation, YaST proposes a boot configuration for your system. Normally, you can leave these settings unchanged. However, if you need a custom setup, modify the proposal for your system.
One possibility is to configure the boot mechanism to rely on a special boot floppy. Although this has the disadvantage that it requires the floppy to be in the drive when booting, it leaves an existing boot mechanism untouched. Normally this should not be necessary, however, because YaST can configure the boot loader to boot other existing operating systems as well. Another possibility with the configuration is to change the location of the boot mechanism on the hard disk.
To change the boot configuration proposed by YaST, select Section 21.3, “Configuring the Boot Loader with YaST”.
to open a dialog in which to change many details of the boot mechanism. For information, readSUSE Linux Enterprise can boot to different runlevels. Normally there should be no need to change anything here, but if necessary set the default runlevel with this dialog. Refer to Section 7.5.13, “System Services (Runlevel)” for information about runlevel configuration.
In this dialog, change your region and time zone by selecting them from the lists. Choose between
and (GMT) under . The selection depends on how the BIOS hardware clock is set on your machine. If it is set to GMT, which corresponds to UTC, your system can rely on SUSE Linux Enterprise to switch from standard time to daylight saving time and back automatically. Click to set the current date and time. When finished, click to return to the installation settings dialog.After making all installation settings, click
in the suggestion window to begin the installation. Confirm with in the dialog that opens. The installation usually takes between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the system performance and the software selected. As soon as all packages are installed, YaST boots into the new Linux system, after which you can configure the hardware and set up system services.On the IBM System z platforms, another IPL must be performed after installing the selected software packages. However, the procedure varies according to the type of installation:
In the IBM System z HMC, select , select , then enter the loading address (the device address of the root device). If using a ZFCP disk as boot device, choose and specify both ZFCP WWPN and LUN of the boot device. Now start the loading process.
Shut down the installed system with the
halt command. Log in at the VM guest under
the account name LINUX1
and proceed to IPL the installed system. If using a ZFCP disk as
the boot device, specify both the ZFCP WWPN and LUN of the boot device
prior to initiating the IPL. Note that the parameter length is
limited to eight characters. Longer numbers must be separated by
spaces:
SET LOADDEV PORT 50050763 00C590A9 LUN 50010000 00000000
Finally, initiate the IPL:
IPL 151 CLEAR
After IPLing the installed system, establish a connection with it to complete the installation. The steps involved in this vary depending on the type of connection used at the outset.
A message in the 3270 terminal asks you to connect to the Linux system using a VNC client. This message is easily missed, however, because it is mixed with kernel messages and because the terminal process might quit before you become aware of the message. If nothing happens during five minutes, try to initiate a connection to the Linux system using a VNC viewer.
If connecting using a Java-capable browser, enter the complete URL, consisting of the IP address of the installed system along with the port number, in the following fashion:
http://<IP of installed system>:5801/
When IPLing the installed system, make sure that the X server used for the first phase of the installation is still available. YaST opens on this X server to finish the installation.
![]() | IBM System z: Connecting from a Linux or UNIX system |
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Start ssh in an xterm. Other terminal emulators lack complete support for the text-based interface of YaST. |
A message in the 3270 terminal asks you to connect to the Linux system with an SSH client. This message is easily missed, however, because it is mixed with kernel messages and because the terminal process might quit before you become aware of the message.
Now perform the following steps to complete the installation:
Use SSH to log into the Linux system as root
. If the connection is denied
or times out, wait a few minutes then try again.
Execute the command /usr/lib/YaST2/startup/YaST2.ssh. yast does not suffice in this case.
After that, YaST starts to complete the installation of the remaining packages and create an initial system configuration.