OSNews

As you can see each of the 7 components are further divided into sub-settings like for instance the Software component consists of (Change of Source Installation, Install/Remove Software, Online Update, Patch CD Update, System Update). If you click on any one of these components another YaST window is launched which is completely self-explanatory. The documentation of the settings on the left makes a new user at ease. He/She merely has to change the settings and click the Next Tab. YaST2 manages everything else automatically. So when I decided to update some patches and install some new virtual components, I clicked on the Online Update window. It started by checking the installed services. Then it asked for the desired FTP site to begin the transfer [Here, obviously select the one closest to your geographical location]. Once the site is selected and if you have gone for a manual update [by default] it begins to check for the newer updated patches and recommended components. Here you may select as many components as you like and below you would see the size of the downloadable content. In my case it was 57 MB. Once I clicked on the next button it began to retrieve the packages and install them. The time required to do this depends on your network speed. In my case it took about 90 minutes [ I use Broadband Cable Access] for the complete update. Once the packages are installed the system is re-written and the window closes. There you go, once again far too simple.

The Hardware component detects the hardware settings of the machine it consists of (CD-ROM, Disk Controller, Graphics Card Monitor, Hardware Information, IDE-DMA, Joystick, Printer, Scanner, Select Mouse Model, Sound, TV Card). Here, if there has been any problem of the hardware settings during the installation you may reconfigure the required resource. I was amazed to see that it configured my scanner Acer 3300 just like that without bothering me about the SANE settings or documentations. Even the printer configuration is much comparable to Microsoft Windows easiness, with drivers of many printers already available. The Hardware Information clearly displays the present disk usage including the partition table.

The Network Devices component consists of detection of actual network components (DSL, Fax, ISDN, Modem, Network Card, Phone Answering). Each of these components can be detected and installed by mere few clicks. This feature is more or less common in the all the Linux flavors. Next comes my favorite component Tab – Network Services. The real joy of working in Linux is experienced via the services in this component. ( DHCP Server, DNS Server, DNS and Hostname, HTTP Server, Host Names, Kerberos Client, LDAP Client, Mail Transport Agent, NFS Client, NFS Server, NIS Client – Server, NIS+ Client, NTP Client, Network Services – (inetd), Proxy, Routing, Samba Client – Server, TFTP Server). So, you only have to select the desired service to run and click on it. If the service is not installed YaST2 will ask for the desired CD [Mostly CD No. 3-4] and install it. Then with some resource settings and server identifications the required service is installed. Even Microsoft Windows 2K/XP Control Panel can’t boast of such user friendliness. I got my computer running as a Samba client in no time, file transfer in the Workgroup via the SMB protocol was real breeze. I also intend to run Apache Web Server on my machine very soon and I think that with such easy services at hand the things are going to be comparatively much simpler.

Then we have the Security and Users component [Another one of my favorites]. It consists of (Edit/ Create groups, Edit/ Create users, Firewall, Security Settings). I tried the Firewall component settings, which can be configured in 4 easy steps.

1.Select the interface type (External / Internal ) [ In my case it was eth0]
2.Select the services to configure on the server (Web, Mail, Other) [ These were further sub-divided into HTTP, HTTP + SSL for Web, SMTP, POP, IMAP for Mail and SSH, Telnet, RSA for Others]
3.Select the features for the server ( Allow Traceroutes, Forward/ Do Masquereading, Protect All running Services, Protect from all Internal Network)
4.Select the Logging Options ( Standard – logging critically accepted/dropped packets, Debug – logging all the accepted/dropped packets)

I even tried the Security Settings Option. Here it has been very clearly mentioned about the type of settings to configure depending on the use of the machine (Home Workstation, Network Workstation, Network Server) . There is an option of custom settings consisting of (Password Checking, Boot Permissions, Login Settings, User Additions and other Miscellaneous settings) for manually setting the security features.

The sixth main component is System which deals with all the System level features like ( Boot Loader Configuration, Language choice, Boot – Rescue CD creation, Editor for /etc/sysconfig, LVM, Partitioner based on GNU Parted, Power tweak, Profile Manager, Runlevel Editor, Selection for Keyboard and Time Zone, System Backup). All the settings very easy to manage and configure. [Again the STD settings found on any Linux box] . Finally we come to the last component consisting to Miscellaneous settings and services like [Load Vendor Driver CD, Post a Query, View Setup Log, View Sys Log] A standard option for any OS.

Well, till now we have been talking about all the goody and nice features of YaST2 but there are a few things SuSE people should work upon to enhance YaST’s QoS. First of all, the immediate drawback that I noticed is the app loading time. When a new app is launched the time taken for package initiation, reading and checking for the dependencies is still quite significant even on a machine with 128 MB RAM. This hampers the newbies patience and quest for new installation. Secondly, installing RPM packages is a pain on YaST2 even a small package of a few MBs takes a lot of time. The good old rpm –ivh (packagename).ix86.rpm is much faster to ignore. Also the idea to include YaST2 on KDE Controller is not good, by my opinion. KDE Controller has its own features, which cannot be compared with any configurator. If only YaST2 could get the apt-get feature of Debian it would reach the dream for any OS user.

Overall we can conclude that YaST2 is one of the best Linux configurator available till now [as per my opinion] and hope that with its next release YaST3 things go on at improving pace.

About the author:
Sameer Niphadkar is a final year Computer Science Engineering student from the University of Mumbai(Bombay). He has been in computers for the past six years and his main areas of interest lie in System Administration, Cluster Management and OS Program Development. He has worked with various System Archtectures and can be contacted at sniphadkar@NOSPAM.linux.net

1. "Survey of YaST2, Page 1/2"
2. "Survey of YaST2, Page 2/2"