Opensuse103 Reference

openSUSE
10.3
September27,2007
www.novell.com
Reference
Reference
Copyright 2006-2007 Novell, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Section being this copyright notice and license. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.
SUSE, openSUSE, the openSUSE logo, Novell, the Novell logo, the N logo, are registered
trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Linux* is a registered trademark
of Linus Torvalds. All other third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. A
trademark symbol ( , , etc.) denotes a Novell trademark; an asterisk (*) denotes a third-party
trademark.
All information found in this book has been compiled with utmost attention to detail. However, this
does not guarantee complete accuracy. Neither Novell, Inc., SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, the authors,
nor the translators shall be held liable for possible errors or the consequences thereof.
Contents
About This Guide
xiii
Part I Advanced Deployment Scenarios
1 Remote Installation
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
Installation Scenarios for Remote Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Setting Up the Server Holding the Installation Sources . . . . . . . . .
Preparing the Boot of the Target System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Booting the Target System for Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monitoring the Installation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 Advanced Disk Setup

2.1
2.2
2.3
Using the YaST Partitioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LVM Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Soft RAID Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
12
22
31
36
41
41
49
55
Part II Administration
61
3 Online Update
63
3.1
3.2
YaST Online Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Update from the Command Line with zypper . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 YaST in Text Mode

4.1
4.2
Navigation in Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Restriction of Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
66
69
70
71
4.3
YaST Command Line Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 Updating the System and System Changes

5.1
5.2
75
Updating the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Software Changes from Version to Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 RPMthe Package Manager

6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
Verifying Package Authenticity . . . . . . . .

Managing Packages: Install, Update, and Uninstall
RPM and Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Delta RPM Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RPM Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installing and Compiling Source Packages . . . .
Compiling RPM Packages with build . . . . . .
Tools for RPM Archives and the RPM Database .
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The Workflow of the Printing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Methods and Protocols for Connecting Printers . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Network Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Graphical Printing Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Printing from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Special Features in openSUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Manually Configuring the X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Installing and Configuring Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Basic Components . . . . . . . . .
Setting Up a Virtual Machine Host . .
Setting Up Virtual Machines . . . . .
Managing a Virtualization Environment
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1 0 System Monitoring Utilities

10.1
99
99
100
100
103
104
104
108
117
9 Xen Virtualization
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
86
86
87
89
90
93
95
96
97
8 The X Window System

8.1
8.2
8.3
75
78
85
7 Printer Operation
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
72
Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
131
135
139
146
151
152
10.2
10.3
10.4
10.5
10.6
10.7
10.8
10.9
Files and File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hardware Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The /proc File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
System Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
User Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Time and Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
154
156
159
160
163
167
171
171
Part III System
173
1 1 32-Bit and 64-Bit Applications in a 64-Bit System Environment
175
11.1
11.2
11.3
11.4
Runtime Support . . . . . . . . . . .
Software Development . . . . . . . . .
Software Compilation on Biarch Platforms .
Kernel Specifications . . . . . . . . . .
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1 2 Booting and Configuring a Linux System

12.1
12.2
12.3
179
The Linux Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The init Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
System Configuration via /etc/sysconfig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 3 The Boot Loader

13.1
13.2
13.3
13.4
13.5
13.6
13.7
13.8
Selecting a Boot Loader . . . . . . .

Booting with GRUB . . . . . . . . .
Configuring the Boot Loader with YaST
Uninstalling the Linux Boot Loader . .
Creating Boot CDs . . . . . . . . .
The Graphical SUSE Screen . . . . .
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . .
For More Information . . . . . . .
179
183
192
195
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1 4 Special System Features

14.1
14.2
14.3
14.4
175
176
176
178
Information about Special Software Packages

Virtual Consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Keyboard Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . .
Language and Country-Specific Settings . . .
196
196
205
209
209
210
211
213
215
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215
222
222
223
1 5 Dynamic Kernel Device Management with udev

15.1
15.2
15.3
15.4
15.5
15.6
15.7
15.8
15.9
The /dev Directory . . . . . . . . . . .

Kernel uevents and udev . . . . . . . . .
Drivers, Kernel Modules, and Devices . . . .
Booting and Initial Device Setup . . . . . .
Monitoring the Running udev Daemon . . .
Influencing Kernel Device Event Handling with
Persistent Device Naming . . . . . . . . .
Files used by udev . . . . . . . . . . . .
For More Information . . . . . . . . . .
227
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udev Rules
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1 6 File Systems in Linux

16.1
16.2
16.3
16.4
16.5
Terminology . . . . . . .
Major File Systems in Linux
Some Other Supported File
Large File Support in Linux
For More Information . .
241
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Systems
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1 7 Access Control Lists in Linux

17.1
17.2
17.3
17.4
17.5
17.6
Traditional File Permissions

Advantages of ACLs . . .
Definitions . . . . . . .
Handling ACLs . . . . . .
ACL Support in Applications
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Structure of a PAM Configuration File .

The PAM Configuration of sshd . . .
Configuring PAM Using pam-config . .
For More Information . . . . . . .
Using the Bash Shell . . . .

Users and Access Permissions
Important Linux Commands .
The vi Editor . . . . . . .
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253
253
254
262
262
263
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1 9 Working with the Shell

19.1
19.2
19.3
19.4
241
242
247
248
249
251
1 8 Authentication with PAM

18.1
18.2
18.3
18.4
227
228
228
229
229
231
237
238
239
264
266
268
269
271
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271
277
280
291
Part IV Services
297
2 0 Basic Networking
299
20.1
20.2
20.3
20.4
20.5
20.6
IP Addresses and Routing . . . . . . . . .

IPv6The Next Generation Internet . . . .
Name Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring a Network Connection with YaST
Configuring a Network Connection Manually .
smpppd as Dial-up Assistant . . . . . . . .
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2 1 SLP Services in the Network

21.1
21.2
21.3
21.4
21.5
21.6
Installation . . . . . . .
Activating SLP . . . . . .
SLP Front-Ends in openSUSE
Installation over SLP . . .
Providing Services via SLP .
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349
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2 2 The Domain Name System

22.1
22.2
22.3
22.4
22.5
22.6
22.7
22.8
22.9
22.10
DNS Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuration with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting the Name Server BIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Configuration File /etc/named.conf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Zone Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dynamic Update of Zone Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Secure Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DNS Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring a DHCP Server with

DHCP Software Packages . . .
The DHCP Server dhcpd . . .
For More Information . . . .
353
354
354
361
363
367
372
372
373
374
375
YaST
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2 4 Time Synchronization with NTP

24.1
24.2
24.3
349
350
350
351
351
352
353
2 3 DHCP
23.1
23.2
23.3
23.4
302
305
314
315
332
345
Configuring an NTP Client with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Configuring xntp in the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Setting Up a Local Reference Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
376
387
388
391
393
393
398
398
2 5 Using NIS
25.1
25.2
401
Configuring NIS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Configuring NIS Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 6 LDAPA Directory Service

26.1
26.2
26.3
26.4
26.5
26.6
26.7
26.8
26.9
409
LDAP versus NIS . . . . . . . . . . . .

Structure of an LDAP Directory Tree . . .
Configuring an LDAP Server with YaST . . .
Configuring an LDAP Client with YaST . . .
Configuring LDAP Users and Groups in YaST
Browsing the LDAP Directory Tree . . . .
Manually Configuring an LDAP Server . . .
Manually Administering LDAP Data . . . .
For More Information . . . . . . . . .
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2 7 Active Directory Support

27.1
27.2
27.3
27.4
27.5
Integrating Linux and AD Environments . . .

Background Information for Linux AD Support
Configuring a Linux Client for Active Directory
Logging In to an AD Domain . . . . . . . .
Changing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . .
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NFS Client Configuration . . .

Exporting File Systems over NFS
Exporting File Systems Manually
NFS with Kerberos . . . . . .
For More Information . . . .
Terminology . . . . . . . .
Installing a Samba Server . .
Starting and Stopping Samba
Configuring a Samba Server .
Configuring Clients . . . . .
Samba as Login Server . . .
For More Information . . .
441
442
447
450
452
455
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2 9 Samba
29.1
29.2
29.3
29.4
29.5
29.6
29.7
410
411
414
419
426
428
429
435
439
441
2 8 Sharing File Systems with NFS

28.1
28.2
28.3
28.4
28.5
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469
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3 0 The Apache HTTP Server

30.1
30.2
30.3
30.4
30.5
30.6
30.7
30.8
30.9
481
Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring Apache . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting and Stopping Apache . . . . . . .
Installing, Activating, and Configuring Modules
Getting CGI Scripts to Work . . . . . . . .
Setting Up a Secure Web Server with SSL . .
Avoiding Security Problems . . . . . . . .
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . .
For More Information . . . . . . . . . .
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3 1 Setting up a FTP server with YaST

31.1
31.2
31.3
31.4
31.5
31.6
Starting the FTP server . .

FTP General Settings . . .
FTP Performance Settings .
Authentication . . . . .
Expert Settings . . . . .
For more information . .
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481
483
497
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509
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521
522
523
523
524
524
Part V Mobility
525
3 2 Power Management
527
32.1
32.2
32.3
32.4
Power Saving Functions

ACPI . . . . . . . .
Rest for the Hard Disk
The powersave Package
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3 3 Wireless Communication
33.1
33.2
33.3
543
Wireless LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bluetooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Infrared Data Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 4 Using Tablet PCs

34.1
34.2
34.3
34.4
34.5
34.6
34.7
Installing Tablet PC Packages . . . . . .

Configuring Your Tablet Device . . . . .
Using the Virtual Keyboard . . . . . .
Rotating Your Display . . . . . . . . .
Using Gesture Recognition . . . . . .
Taking Notes and Sketching with the Pen
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . .
527
528
536
537
543
553
560
565
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566
567
567
568
568
569
571
34.8
573
Part VI Security
575
3 5 Masquerading and Firewalls
577
35.1
35.2
35.3
35.4
35.5
Packet Filtering with iptables .

Masquerading Basics . . . .
Firewalling Basics . . . . .
SuSEfirewall2 . . . . . . .
For More Information . . .
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3 6 SSHSecure Network Operations

36.1
36.2
36.3
36.4
36.5
36.6
36.7
36.8
589
The OpenSSH Package . . . . . . . . . .

The ssh Program . . . . . . . . . . . . .
scpSecure Copy . . . . . . . . . . . .
sftpSecure File Transfer . . . . . . . . .
The SSH Daemon (sshd)Server-Side . . . .
SSH Authentication Mechanisms . . . . . .
X, Authentication, and Forwarding Mechanisms
Configuring An SSH Daemon with YaST . . .
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3 7 Managing X.509 Certification

37.1
37.2
The Principles of Digital Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

YaST Modules for CA Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kerberos Terminology .
How Kerberos Works . .
Users' View of Kerberos .
For More Information .
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3 9 Installing and Administering Kerberos

39.1
39.2
39.3
39.4
39.5
39.6
39.7
589
590
590
591
591
592
593
594
597
3 8 Network AuthenticationKerberos
38.1
38.2
38.3
38.4
577
580
581
582
587
Kerberos Network Topology . . . . . . . .

Choosing the Kerberos Realms . . . . . . .
Setting Up the KDC Hardware . . . . . . .
Configuring Time Synchronization . . . . .
Configuring the KDC . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring Kerberos Clients . . . . . . .
Configuring Remote Kerberos Administration
613
615
618
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622
623
624
625
626
628
634
39.8
39.9
39.10
39.11
Creating Kerberos Service Principals . . . .

Enabling PAM Support for Kerberos . . . .
Configuring SSH for Kerberos Authentication .
Using LDAP and Kerberos . . . . . . . . .
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4 0 Encrypting Partitions and Files

40.1
40.2
40.3
Setting Up an Encrypted File System with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . .

Using Encrypted Home Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Using vi to Encrypt Single Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 1 Confining Privileges with AppArmor

41.1
41.2
41.3
Installing Novell AppArmor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Enabling and Disabling Novell AppArmor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Getting Started with Profiling Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 2 Security and Confidentiality

42.1
42.2
42.3
Local Security and Network Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Some General Security Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Using the Central Security Reporting Address . . . . . . . . . . . .
636
637
638
639
643
644
647
649
651
652
652
654
661
662
671
673
A An Example Network
675
B GNU Licenses
677
B.1
B.2
Index
GNU General Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
677
680
685
About This Guide

This manual gives you a general understanding of openSUSE. It is intended mainly
for system administrators and home users with basic system administration knowledge.
Check out the various parts of this manuals for a selection of applications needed in
everyday life and in-depth descriptions of advanced installation and configuration scenarios.
Advanced Deployment Scenarios
Learn how to deploy openSUSE from a remote location and become acquainted
with complex disk setup scenarios.
Administration
Learn how to update and configure your openSUSE, how to administrate your
system from a remote location, and get to know some important utilities for Linux
administrators.
System
Get an introduction to the components of your Linux system and a deeper understanding of their interaction.
Services
Learn how to configure the various network and file services that come with
openSUSE.
Mobility
Get an introduction to mobile computing with openSUSE and learn how to configure
the various options for wireless computing, power management, and profile management.
Security
Become acquainted with openSUSE security features and learn how to setup and
configure services that will make your system secure.
1 Feedback
We want to hear your comments and suggestions about this manual and the other documentation included with this product. Please use the User Comments feature at the
bottom of each page of the online documentation and enter your comments there.
2 Additional Documentation
We provide HTML and PDF versions of our books in different languages. The following
manuals are available on this product:
Start-Up
Guides you through the installation and basic configuration of your system. For
newcomers, the manual also introduces basic Linux concepts such as the file system,
the user concept and access permissions and gives an overview of the features
openSUSE offers to support mobile computing. Provides help and advice in troubleshooting.
KDE Quick Start
Gives a short introduction to the KDE desktop and some key applications running
on it.
KDE User Guide
Introduces the KDE desktop of openSUSE and a variety of applications shipping
with it. It guides you through using these applications and helps you perform key
tasks. It is intended mainly for end users who want to make efficient use of KDE
in everyday life.
GNOME Quick Start
Gives a short introduction to the GNOME desktop and some key applications
running on it.
GNOME User Guide
Introduces the GNOME desktop of openSUSE and a variety of applications you
will encounter when working with the GNOME desktop. It guides you through
using these applications and helps you perform key tasks. It is intended mainly for
end users who want to make efficient use of applications running on the GNOME
desktop.
xiv
Reference
Reference
Gives you a general understanding of openSUSE and covers advanced system administration tasks. It is intended mainly for system administrators and home users
with basic system administration knowledge. It provides detailed information about
advanced deployment scenarios, administration of your system, the interaction of
key system components and the set-up of various network and file services openSUSE offers.
Novell AppArmor Quick Start
Helps you understand the main concepts behind Novell AppArmor.
Novell AppArmor Administration Guide
Contains in-depth information about the use of Novell AppArmor in your environment.
Lessons For Lizards
A community book project for the openSUSE distribution. A snapshot of the
manual written by the open source community is released on an equal footing with
the Novell/SUSE manuals. The lessons are written in a cook book style and cover
more specific or exotic topics than the traditional manuals. For more information,
see http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Lessons
_for_Lizards.
Find HTML versions of the openSUSE manuals in your installed system under /usr/
share/doc/manual or in the help centers of your KDE or GNOME desktop. You
can also access the documentation on the Web at http://www.novell.com/
documentation/opensuse103/ where you can download PDF or HTML versions
of the manuals. For information where to find the books on your installation media,
refer to the Release Notes of this product, available from your installed system under
/usr/share/doc/release-notes/.
3 Documentation Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
/etc/passwd: filenames and directory names
placeholder: replace placeholder with the actual value
About This Guide
xv
PATH: the environment variable PATH

ls, --help: commands, options, and parameters
user: users or groups
Alt, Alt + F1: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as
on a keyboard
File, File > Save As: menu items, buttons
Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, Another Manual): This is a reference to a
chapter in another manual.
4 About the Making of This Manual

This book is written in Novdoc, a subset of DocBook (see http://www.docbook
.org). The XML source files were validated by xmllint, processed by xsltproc,
and converted into HTML using a customized version of Norman Walsh's stylesheets.
5 Source Code
The source code of openSUSE is publicly available. To download the source code,
proceed as outlined under http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/
source_code.html. If requested we send you the source code on a DVD. We need
to charge a $15 or 15 fee for creation, handling and postage. To request a DVD of the
source code, send an e-mail to [email protected] [mailto:sourcedvd@suse
.de] or mail the request to:
SUSE Linux Products GmbH
Product Management openSUSE
Maxfeldstr. 5
D-90409 Nrnberg
Germany
xvi
Reference
6 Acknowledgments
With a lot of voluntary commitment, the developers of Linux cooperate on a global
scale to promote the development of Linux. We thank them for their effortsthis distribution would not exist without them. Furthermore, we thank Frank Zappa and Pawar.
Special thanks, of course, go to Linus Torvalds.
Have a lot of fun!
Your SUSE Team
About This Guide
xvii
Part I. Advanced Deployment

Scenarios
Remote Installation
openSUSE can be installed in several different ways. As well as the usual media installation covered in Chapter 1, Installation with YaST (Start-Up), you can choose
from various network-based approaches or even take a completely hands-off approach
to the installation of openSUSE.
Each method is introduced by means of two short check lists: one listing the prerequisites
for this method and the other illustrating the basic procedure. More detail is then provided for all the techniques used in these installation scenarios.
NOTE
In the following sections, the system to hold your new openSUSE installation
is referred to as target system or installation target. The term installation source
is used for all sources of installation data. This includes physical media, such
as CD and DVD, and network servers distributing the installation data in your
network.
1.1 Installation Scenarios for Remote

Installation
This section introduces the most common installation scenarios for remote installations.
For each scenario, carefully check the list of prerequisites and follow the procedure
outlined for this scenario. If in need of detailed instructions for a particular step, follow
the links provided for each one of them.
Remote Installation
IMPORTANT
The configuration of the X Window System is not part of any remote installation
process. After the installation has finished, log in to the target system as root,
enter telinit 3, and start SaX2 to configure the graphics hardware as described in Section Setting Up Graphics Card and Monitor (Chapter 2, Setting
Up Hardware Components with YaST, Start-Up).
1.1.1 Simple Remote Installation via

VNCStatic Network Configuration
This type of installation still requires some degree of physical access to the target system
to boot for installation. The installation itself is entirely controlled by a remote workstation using VNC to connect to the installation program. User interaction is required as
with the manual installation in Chapter 1, Installation with YaST (Start-Up).
For this type of installation, make sure that the following requirements are met:
Remote installation source: NFS, HTTP, FTP, or SMB with working network
connection
Target system with working network connection
Controlling system with working network connection and VNC viewer software
or Java-enabled browser (Firefox, Konqueror, Internet Explorer, or Opera)
Physical boot medium (CD or DVD) for booting the target system
Valid static IP addresses already assigned to the installation source and the controlling system
Valid static IP address to assign to the target system
To perform this kind of installation, proceed as follows:
1 Set up the installation source as described in Section 1.2, Setting Up the Server
Holding the Installation Sources (page 12). Choose an NFS, HTTP, or FTP
network server. For an SMB installation source, refer to Section 1.2.5, Managing
an SMB Installation Source (page 20).
Reference
2 Boot the target system using the first CD or DVD of the openSUSE media kit.
3 When the boot screen of the target system appears, use the boot options prompt
to set the appropriate VNC options and the address of the installation source.
This is described in detail in Section 1.4, Booting the Target System for Installation (page 31).
The target system boots to a text-based environment, giving the network address
and display number under which the graphical installation environment can be
addressed by any VNC viewer application or browser. VNC installations announce
themselves over OpenSLP and can be found using Konqueror in service:/
or slp:/ mode.
4 On the controlling workstation, open a VNC viewing application or Web
browser and connect to the target system as described in Section 1.5.1, VNC
Installation (page 36).
5 Perform the installation as described in Chapter 1, Installation with YaST (StartUp). Reconnect to the target system after it reboots for the final part of the installation.
6 Finish the installation.

VNCDynamic Network Configuration
to boot for installation. The network configuration is made with DHCP. The installation
itself is entirely controlled from a remote workstation using VNC to connect to the installer, but still requires user interaction for the actual configuration efforts.
connection
Remote Installation
Physical boot medium (CD, DVD, or custom boot disk) for booting the target system
Running DHCP server providing IP addresses
to set the appropriate VNC options and the address of the installation source.
This is described in detail in Section 1.4, Booting the Target System for Installation (page 31).
and display number under which the graphical installation environment can be
addressed by any VNC viewer application or browser. VNC installations announce
themselves over OpenSLP and can be found using Konqueror in service:/
or slp:/ mode.
Reference
1.1.3 Remote Installation via VNCPXE

Boot and Wake on LAN
This type of installation is completely hands-off. The target machine is started and
booted remotely. User interaction is only needed for the actual installation. This approach
is suitable for cross-site deployments.
To perform this type of installation, make sure that the following requirements are met:
connection
TFTP server
Running DHCP server for your network
Target system capable of PXE boot, networking, and Wake on LAN, plugged in
and connected to the network
To perform this type of installation, proceed as follows:
network server or configure an SMB installation source as described in Section 1.2.5, Managing an SMB Installation Source (page 20).
2 Set up a TFTP server to hold a boot image that can be pulled by the target system.
This is described in Section 1.3.2, Setting Up a TFTP Server (page 24).
3 Set up a DHCP server to provide IP addresses to all machines and reveal the location of the TFTP server to the target system. This is described in Section 1.3.1,
Setting Up a DHCP Server (page 22).
4 Prepare the target system for PXE boot. This is described in further detail in
Section 1.3.5, Preparing the Target System for PXE Boot (page 30).
Remote Installation
5 Initiate the boot process of the target system using Wake on LAN. This is described in Section 1.3.7, Wake on LAN (page 31).

SSHStatic Network Configuration
to boot for installation and to determine the IP address of the installation target. The
installation itself is entirely controlled from a remote workstation using SSH to connect
to the installer. User interaction is required as with the regular installation described in
Chapter 1, Installation with YaST (Start-Up).
connection
Controlling system with working network connection and working SSH client
software
Physical boot medium (CD, DVD, or custom boot disk) for the target system
Valid static IP addresses already assigned to the installation source and the controlling system
Valid static IP address to assign to the target system
Reference

to set the appropriate parameters for network connection, address of the installation source, and SSH enablement. This is described in detail in Section 1.4.3,
Using Custom Boot Options (page 33).
under which the graphical installation environment can be addressed by any SSH
client.
4 On the controlling workstation, open a terminal window and connect to the target
system as described in Section Connecting to the Installation Program
(page 38).

SSHDynamic Network Configuration
to boot for installation and determine the IP address of the installation target. The installation itself is entirely controlled from a remote workstation using VNC to connect to
the installer, but still requires user interaction for the actual configuration efforts.
Remote Installation
connection
Controlling system with working network connection and working SSH client
software
Physical boot medium (CD or DVD) for booting the target system
Running DHCP server providing IP addresses
to pass the appropriate parameters for network connection, location of the installation source, and SSH enablement. See Section 1.4.3, Using Custom Boot
Options (page 33) for detailed instructions on the use of these parameters.
The target system boots to a text-based environment, giving you the network
address under which the graphical installation environment can be addressed by
any SSH client.
4 On the controlling workstation, open a terminal window and connect to the target
system as described in Section Connecting to the Installation Program
(page 38).
10
Reference
1.1.6 Remote Installation via SSHPXE Boot

and Wake on LAN
This type of installation is completely hands-off. The target machine is started and
booted remotely.
To perform this type of installation, make sure that the following requirements are met:
connection
TFTP server
Running DHCP server for your network, providing a static IP to the host to install
Target system capable of PXE boot, networking, and Wake on LAN, plugged in
and connected to the network
Controlling system with working network connection and SSH client software
To perform this type of installation, proceed as follows:
network server. For the configuration of an SMB installation source, refer to
Section 1.2.5, Managing an SMB Installation Source (page 20).
2 Set up a TFTP server to hold a boot image that can be pulled by the target system.
This is described in Section 1.3.2, Setting Up a TFTP Server (page 24).
3 Set up a DHCP server to provide IP addresses to all machines and reveal the location of the TFTP server to the target system. This is described in Section 1.3.1,
Setting Up a DHCP Server (page 22).
4 Prepare the target system for PXE boot. This is described in further detail in
Section 1.3.5, Preparing the Target System for PXE Boot (page 30).
5 Initiate the boot process of the target system using Wake on LAN. This is described in Section 1.3.7, Wake on LAN (page 31).
Remote Installation
11
6 On the controlling workstation, start an SSH client and connect to the target
system as described in Section 1.5.2, SSH Installation (page 38).
1.2 Setting Up the Server Holding the

Installation Sources
Depending on the operating system running on the machine to use as network installation
source for openSUSE, there are several options for the server configuration. The easiest
way to set up an installation server is to use YaST on SUSE Linux 9.3 and higher. On
other versions of openSUSE, set up the installation source manually.
TIP
You can even use a Microsoft Windows machine as installation server for your
Linux deployment. See Section 1.2.5, Managing an SMB Installation Source
(page 20) for details.
1.2.1 Setting Up an Installation Server Using

YaST
YaST offers a graphical tool for creating network installation sources. It supports HTTP,
FTP, and NFS network installation servers.
1 Log in as root to the machine that should act as installation server.
2 Install the yast2-instserver package.
3 Start YaST > Miscellaneous > Installation Server.
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Reference
4 Select the server type (HTTP, FTP, or NFS). The selected server service is
started automatically every time the system starts. If a service of the selected
type is already running on your system and you want to configure it manually
for the server, deactivate the automatic configuration of the server service with
Do Not Configure Any Network Services. In both cases, define the directory in
which the installation data should be made available on the server.
5 Configure the required server type. This step relates to the automatic configuration
of server services. It is skipped when automatic configuration is deactivated.
Define an alias for the root directory of the FTP or HTTP server on which the
installation data should be found. The installation source will later be located
under ftp://Server-IP/Alias/Name (FTP) or under
http://Server-IP/Alias/Name (HTTP). Name stands for the name of
the installation source, which is defined in the following step. If you selected
NFS in the previous step, define wild cards and export options. The NFS server
will be accessible under nfs://Server-IP/Name. Details of NFS and exports
can be found in Chapter 28, Sharing File Systems with NFS (page 455).
TIP: Firewall Settings
Make sure that the firewall settings of your server system allow traffic
on the ports for HTTP, NFS, and FTP. If they currently do not, start the
YaST firewall module and open the respective ports.
6 Configure the installation source. Before the installation media are copied to their
destination, define the name of the installation source (ideally, an easily remembered abbreviation of the product and version). YaST allows providing ISO images of the media instead of copies of the installation CDs. If you want this, activate the relevant check box and specify the directory path under which the ISO
files can be found locally. Depending on the product to distribute using this installation server, it might be that more add-on CDs or service pack CDs are required and should be added as extra installation sources. To announce your installation server in the network via OpenSLP, activate the appropriate option.
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13
TIP
Consider announcing your installation source via OpenSLP if your network
setup supports this option. This saves you from entering the network installation path on every target machine. The target systems are just
booted using the SLP boot option and find the network installation source
without any further configuration. For details on this option, refer to
Section 1.4, Booting the Target System for Installation (page 31).
7 Upload the installation data. The most lengthy step in configuring an installation
server is copying the actual installation CDs. Insert the media in the sequence
requested by YaST and wait for the copying procedure to end. When the sources
have been fully copied, return to the overview of existing information sources
and close the configuration by selecting Finish.
Your installation server is now fully configured and ready for service. It is automatically started every time the system is started. No further intervention is required. You only need to configure and start this service correctly by hand if you
have deactivated the automatic configuration of the selected network service
with YaST as an initial step.
To deactivate an installation source, select the installation source to remove then select
Delete. The installation data are removed from the system. To deactivate the network
service, use the respective YaST module.
If your installation server should provide the installation data for more than one product
of product version, start the YaST installation server module and select Add in the
overview of existing installation sources to configure the new installation source.
1.2.2 Setting Up an NFS Installation Source

Manually
Setting up an NFS source for installation is basically done in two steps. In the first step,
create the directory structure holding the installation data and copy the installation
media over to this structure. Second, export the directory holding the installation data
to the network.
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Reference
To create a directory holding the installation data, proceed as follows:

1 Log in as root.
2 Create a directory that should later hold all installation data and change into this
directory. For example:
mkdir install/product/productversion
cd install/product/productversion
Replace product with an abbreviation of the product name and

productversion with a string that contains the product name and version.
3 For each CD contained in the media kit execute the following commands:
3a Copy the entire content of the installation CD into the installation server directory:
cp -a /media/path_to_your_CD-ROM_drive .
Replace path_to_your_CD-ROM_drive with the actual path under

which your CD or DVD drive is addressed. Depending on the type of drive
used in your system, this can be cdrom, cdrecorder, dvd, or
dvdrecorder.
3b Rename the directory to the CD number:
mv path_to_your_CD-ROM_drive CDx
Replace x with the actual number of your CD.

On openSUSE, you can export the installation sources with NFS using YaST. Proceed
as follows:
1 Log in as root.
2 Start YaST > Network Services > NFS Server.
3 Select Start and Open Port in Firewall and click Next.
4 Select Add Directory and browse for the directory containing the installation
sources, in this case, productversion.
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5 Select Add Host and enter the hostnames of the machines to which to export the
installation data. Instead of specifying hostnames here, you could also use wild
cards, ranges of network addresses, or just the domain name of your network.
Enter the appropriate export options or leave the default, which works fine in
most setups. For more information about the syntax used in exporting NFS shares,
read the exports man page.
6 Click Finish. The NFS server holding the openSUSE installation sources is automatically started and integrated into the boot process.
If you prefer manually exporting the installation sources via NFS instead of using the
YaST NFS Server module, proceed as follows:
1 Log in as root.
2 Open the file /etc/exports and enter the following line:
/productversion *(ro,root_squash,sync)
This exports the directory /productversion to any host that is part of this
network or to any host that can connect to this server. To limit the access to this
server, use netmasks or domain names instead of the general wild card *. Refer
to the export man page for details. Save and exit this configuration file.
3 To add the NFS service to the list of servers started during system boot, execute
the following commands:
insserv /etc/init.d/nfsserver
insserv /etc/init.d/portmap
4 Start the NFS server with rcnfsserver start. If you need to change the
configuration of your NFS server later, modify the configuration file and restart
the NFS daemon with rcnfsserver restart.
Announcing the NFS server via OpenSLP makes its address known to all clients in
your network.
1 Log in as root.
2 Enter the directory /etc/slp.reg.d/.
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3 Create a configuration file called install.suse.nfs.reg containing the

following lines:
# Register the NFS Installation Server
service:install.suse:nfs://$HOSTNAME/path_to_instsource/CD1,en,65535
description=NFS Installation Source
Replace path_to_instsource with the actual path to the installation source

on your server.
4 Save this configuration file and start the OpenSLP daemon with rcslpd start.
For more information about OpenSLP, refer to the package documentation located under
/usr/share/doc/packages/openslp/ or refer to Chapter 21, SLP Services
in the Network (page 349).
1.2.3 Setting Up an FTP Installation Source

Manually
Creating an FTP installation source is very similar to creating an NFS installation source.
FTP installation sources can be announced over the network using OpenSLP as well.
1 Create a directory holding the installation sources as described in Section 1.2.2,
Setting Up an NFS Installation Source Manually (page 14).
2 Configure the FTP server to distribute the contents of your installation directory:
2a Log in as root and install the package vsftpd using the YaST package
manager.
2b Enter the FTP server root directory:
cd /srv/ftp
2c Create a subdirectory holding the installation sources in the FTP root directory:
mkdir instsource
Replace instsource with the product name.
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2d Mount the contents of the installation repository into the change root environment of the FTP server:
mount --bind path_to_instsource /srv/ftp/instsource
Replace path_to_instsource and instsource with values matching

your setup. If you need to make this permanent, add it to /etc/fstab.
2e Start vsftpd with vsftpd.
3 Announce the installation source via OpenSLP, if this is supported by your network setup:
3a Create a configuration file called install.suse.ftp.reg under /etc/
slp/reg.d/ that contains the following lines:
# Register the FTP Installation Server
service:install.suse:ftp://$HOSTNAME/srv/ftp/instsource/CD1,en,65535
description=FTP Installation Source
Replace instsource with the actual name to the installation source directory on your server. The service: line should be entered as one continuous
line.
3b Save this configuration file and start the OpenSLP daemon with rcslpd
start.
TIP: Configuring an FTP Server with YaST

If you prefer using YaST over manually configuring the FTP installation server,
refer to Chapter 31, Setting up a FTP server with YaST (page 521) for more information on how to use the YaST FTP server module.
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1.2.4 Setting Up an HTTP Installation Source

Manually
Creating an HTTP installation source is very similar to creating an NFS installation
source. HTTP installation sources can be announced over the network using OpenSLP
as well.
1 Create a directory holding the installation sources as described in Section 1.2.2,
Setting Up an NFS Installation Source Manually (page 14).
2 Configure the HTTP server to distribute the contents of your installation directory:
2a Install the Web server Apache as described in Section 30.1.2, Installation
(page 482).
2b Enter the root directory of the HTTP server (/srv/www/htdocs) and
create a subdirectory that will hold the installation sources:
mkdir instsource
Replace instsource with the product name.

2c Create a symbolic link from the location of the installation sources to the
root directory of the Web server (/srv/www/htdocs):
ln -s /path_instsource /srv/www/htdocs/instsource
2d Modify the configuration file of the HTTP server (/etc/apache2/

default-server.conf) to make it follow symbolic links. Replace the
following line:
Options None
with
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
2e Reload the HTTP server configuration using rcapache2 reload.
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3 Announce the installation source via OpenSLP, if this is supported by your network setup:
3a Create a configuration file called install.suse.http.reg under
/etc/slp/reg.d/ that contains the following lines:
# Register the HTTP Installation Server
service:install.suse:http://$HOSTNAME/srv/www/htdocs/instsource/CD1/,en,65535
description=HTTP Installation Source
Replace instsource with the actual path to the installation source on

your server. The service: line should be entered as one continuous line.
3b Save this configuration file and start the OpenSLP daemon using rcslpd
restart.
1.2.5 Managing an SMB Installation Source

Using SMB, you can import the installation sources from a Microsoft Windows server
and start your Linux deployment even with no Linux machine around.
To set up an exported Windows Share holding your openSUSE installation sources,
proceed as follows:
1 Log in to your Windows machine.
2 Start Explorer and create a new folder that will hold the entire installation tree
and name it INSTALL, for example.
3 Export this share according the procedure outlined in your Windows documentation.
4 Enter this share and create a subfolder, called product. Replace product
with the actual product name.
5 Enter the INSTALL/product folder and copy each CD or DVD to a separate
folder, such as CD1 and CD2.
To use a SMB mounted share as installation source, proceed as follows:
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Reference
1 Boot the installation target.

2 Select Installation.
3 Press F4 for a selection of installation sources.
4 Choose SMB and enter the Windows machine's name or IP address, the share
name (INSTALL/product/CD1, in this example), username, and password.
After you hit Enter, YaST starts and you can perform the installation.
1.2.6 Using ISO Images of the Installation

Media on the Server
Instead of copying physical media into your server directory manually, you can also
mount the ISO images of the installation media into your installation server and use
them as installation source. To set up an HTTP, NFS or FTP server that uses ISO images
instead of media copies, proceed as follows:
1 Download the ISO images and save them to the machine to use as the installation
server.
2 Log in as root.
3 Choose and create an appropriate location for the installation data, as described
in Section 1.2.2, Setting Up an NFS Installation Source Manually (page 14),
Section 1.2.3, Setting Up an FTP Installation Source Manually (page 17), or
Section 1.2.4, Setting Up an HTTP Installation Source Manually (page 19).
4 Create subdirectories for each CD or DVD.
5 To mount and unpack each ISO image to the final location, issue the following
command:
mount -o loop path_to_iso path_to_instsource/product/mediumx
Replace path_to_iso with the path to your local copy of the ISO image,
path_to_instsource with the source directory of your server, product
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with the product name, and mediumx with the type (CD or DVD) and number
of media you are using.
6 Repeat the previous step to mount all ISO images needed for your product.
7 Start your installation server as usual, as described in Section 1.2.2, Setting Up
an NFS Installation Source Manually (page 14), Section 1.2.3, Setting Up an
FTP Installation Source Manually (page 17), or Section 1.2.4, Setting Up an
HTTP Installation Source Manually (page 19).
1.3 Preparing the Boot of the Target

System
This section covers the configuration tasks needed in complex boot scenarios. It contains
ready-to-apply configuration examples for DHCP, PXE boot, TFTP, and Wake on
LAN.
1.3.1 Setting Up a DHCP Server

A DHCP server on openSUSE is set up by manually editing the appropriate configuration
files. This section covers extending an existing DHCP server configuration to provide
the data needed to serve in a TFTP, PXE, and WOL environment.
Setting Up a DHCP Server Manually

All the DHCP server needs to do, apart from providing automatic address allocation to
your network clients, is to announce the IP address of the TFTP server and the file that
should be pulled in by the installation routines on the target machine.
1 Log in as root to the machine hosting the DHCP server.
2 Append the following lines to your DHCP server's configuration file located
under /etc/dhcpd.conf:
group {
# PXE related stuff
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Reference
#
# "next server" defines the tftp server that will be used
next server ip_tftp_server:
#
# "filename" specifies the pxelinux image on the tftp server
# the server runs in chroot under /srv/tftpboot
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
Replace ip_of_the_tftp_server with the actual IP address of the TFTP

server. For more information about the options available in dhcpd.conf, refer
to the dhcpd.conf manual page.
3 Restart the DHCP server by executing rcdhcpd restart.
If you plan on using SSH for the remote control of a PXE and Wake on LAN installation,
explicitly specify the IP address DHCP should provide to the installation target. To
achieve this, modify the above-mentioned DHCP configuration according to the following example:
group {
# PXE related stuff
#
# "next server" defines the tftp server that will be used
next server ip_tftp_server:
#
# "filename" specifies the pxelinux image on the tftp server
# the server runs in chroot under /srv/tftpboot
filename "pxelinux.0";
host test { hardware ethernet mac_address;
fixed-address some_ip_address; }
}
The host statement introduces the hostname of the installation target. To bind the
hostname and IP address to a specific host, you must know and specify the system's
hardware (MAC) address. Replace all the variables used in this example with the actual
values that match your environment.
After restarting the DHCP server, it provides a static IP to the host specified, enabling
you to connect to the system via SSH.
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23
1.3.2 Setting Up a TFTP Server

Set up a TFTP server with YaST or set it up manually on any other Linux operating
system that supports xinetd and tftp. The TFTP server delivers the boot image to the
target system once it boots and sends a request for it.
Setting Up a TFTP Server Using YaST

1 Log in as root.
2 Install the yast2-tftp-server package.
3 Start YaST > Network Services > TFTP Server and install the requested package.
4 Click Enable to make sure that the server is started and included in the boot
routines. No further action from your side is required to secure this. xinetd starts
tftpd at boot time.
5 Click Open Port in Firewall to open the appropriate port in the firewall running
on your machine. If there is no firewall running on your server, this option is not
available.
6 Click Browse to browse for the boot image directory. The default directory
/tftpboot is created and selected automatically.
7 Click Finish to apply your settings and start the server.
Setting Up a TFTP Server Manually

1 Log in as root and install the packages tftp and xinetd.
2 If unavailable, create /srv/tftpboot and /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux
.cfg directories.
3 Add the appropriate files needed for the boot image as described in Section 1.3.3,
Using PXE Boot (page 25).
4 Modify the configuration of xinetd located under /etc/xinetd.d/ to make
sure that the TFTP server is started on boot:
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Reference
4a If it does not exist, create a file called tftp under this directory with touch
tftp. Then run chmod 755 tftp.
4b Open the file tftp and add the following lines:
service tftp
{
socket_type
protocol
wait
user
server
server_args
disable
}
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
dgram
udp
yes
root
/usr/sbin/in.tftpd
-s /srv/tftpboot
no
4c Save the file and restart xinetd with rcxinetd restart.
1.3.3 Using PXE Boot

Some technical background information as well as PXE's complete specifications are
available in the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Specification (http://www
.pix.net/software/pxeboot/archive/pxespec.pdf).
1 Change to the directory of your installation repository and copy the linux,
initrd, message, and memtest files to the /srv/tftpboot directory
by entering the following:
cp -a boot/loader/linux boot/loader/initrd
boot/loader/message boot/loader/memtest /srv/tftpboot
2 Install the syslinux package directly from your installation CDs or DVDs
with YaST.
3 Copy the /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 file to the /srv/
tftpboot directory by entering the following:
cp -a /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /srv/tftpboot
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25
4 Change to the directory of your installation repository and copy the isolinux
.cfg file to /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default by entering the
following:
cp -a boot/loader/isolinux.cfg /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
5 Edit the /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file and remove the

lines beginning with gfxboot, readinfo, and framebuffer.
6 Insert the following entries in the append lines of the default failsafe and
apic labels:
insmod=kernel module
By means of this entry, enter the network kernel module needed to support
network installation on the PXE client. Replace kernel module with the
appropriate module name for your network device.
netdevice=interface
This entry defines the client's network interface that must be used for the
network installation. It is only necessary if the client is equipped with several
network cards and must be adapted accordingly. In case of a single network
card, this entry can be omitted.
install=nfs://ip_instserver/path_instsource/CD1
This entry defines the NFS server and the installation source for the client
installation. Replace ip_instserver with the actual IP address of your
installation server. path_instsource should be replaced with the actual
path to the installation sources. HTTP, FTP, or SMB sources are addressed
in a similar manner, except for the protocol prefix, which should read http,
ftp, or smb.
IMPORTANT
If you need to pass other boot options to the installation routines,
such as SSH or VNC boot parameters, append them to the install
entry. An overview of parameters and some examples are given in
Section 1.4, Booting the Target System for Installation (page 31).
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Reference
An example /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file follows.

Adjust the protocol prefix for the installation source to match your network setup
and specify your preferred method of connecting to the installer by adding the
vnc and vncpassword or the usessh and sshpassword options to the
install entry. The lines separated by \ must be entered as one continuous
line without a line break and without the \.
default linux
# default
label linux
kernel linux
append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 insmod=e100 \
install=nfs://ip_instserver/path_instsource/product/CD1
# failsafe
label failsafe
kernel linux
append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off \
insmod=e100 install=nfs://ip_instserver/path_instsource/product/CD1
# apic
label apic
kernel linux
append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 apic insmod=e100 \
install=nfs://ip_instserver/path_instsource/product/CD1
# manual
label manual
kernel linux
append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 manual=1
# rescue
label rescue
kernel linux
append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 rescue=1
# memory test
label memtest
kernel memtest
# hard disk
label harddisk
localboot 0
implicit
display
prompt
timeout
0
message
1
100
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27
Replace ip_instserver and path_instsource with the values used in

your setup.
The following section serves as a short reference to the PXELINUX options used
in this setup. Find more information about the options available in the documentation of the syslinux package located under /usr/share/doc/
packages/syslinux/.
1.3.4 PXELINUX Configuration Options

The options listed here are a subset of all the options available for the PXELINUX
configuration file.
DEFAULT kernel options...
Sets the default kernel command line. If PXELINUX boots automatically, it acts
as if the entries after DEFAULT had been typed in at the boot prompt, except the
auto option is automatically added, indicating an automatic boot.
If no configuration file is present or no DEFAULT entry is present in the configuration file, the default is the kernel name linux with no options.
APPEND options...
Add one or more options to the kernel command line. These are added for both
automatic and manual boots. The options are added at the very beginning of the
kernel command line, usually permitting explicitly entered kernel options to override
them.
LABEL label KERNEL image APPEND options...
Indicates that if label is entered as the kernel to boot, PXELINUX should instead
boot image and the specified APPEND options should be used instead of the ones
specified in the global section of the file (before the first LABEL command). The
default for image is the same as label and, if no APPEND is given, the default
is to use the global entry (if any). Up to 128 LABEL entries are permitted.
Note that GRUB uses the following syntax:
title mytitle
kernel my_kernel my_kernel_options
initrd myinitrd
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PXELINUX uses the following syntax:

label mylabel
kernel mykernel
append myoptions
Labels are mangled as if they were filenames and they must be unique after mangling. For example, the two labels v2.1.30 and v2.1.31 would not be distinguishable under PXELINUX because both mangle to the same DOS filename.
The kernel does not have to be a Linux kernel; it can be a boot sector or a COMBOOT file.
APPEND Append nothing. APPEND with a single hyphen as argument in a LABEL section
can be used to override a global APPEND.
LOCALBOOT type
On PXELINUX, specifying LOCALBOOT 0 instead of a KERNEL option means
invoking this particular label and causes a local disk boot instead of a kernel boot.
Argument
Description
Perform a normal boot
Perform a local boot with the Universal Network Driver Interface (UNDI) driver still resident in memory
Perform a local boot with the entire PXE stack, including the
UNDI driver, still resident in memory
All other values are undefined. If you do not know what the UNDI or PXE stacks
are, specify 0.
TIMEOUT time-out
Indicates how long to wait at the boot prompt until booting automatically, in units
of 1/10 second. The time-out is canceled as soon as the user types anything on the
keyboard, assuming the user will complete the command begun. A time-out of zero
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29
disables the time-out completely (this is also the default). The maximum possible
time-out value is 35996 (just less than one hour).
PROMPT flag_val
If flag_val is 0, displays the boot prompt only if Shift or Alt is pressed or Caps
Lock or Scroll Lock is set (this is the default). If flag_val is 1, always displays
the boot prompt.
F2 filename
F1 filename
..etc...
F9 filename
F10 filename
Displays the indicated file on the screen when a function key is pressed at the boot
prompt. This can be used to implement preboot online help (presumably for the
kernel command line options). For backward compatibility with earlier releases,
F10 can be also entered as F0. Note that there is currently no way to bind filenames
to F11 and F12.
1.3.5 Preparing the Target System for PXE

Boot
Prepare the system's BIOS for PXE boot by including the PXE option in the BIOS boot
order.
WARNING: BIOS Boot Order
Do not place the PXE option ahead of the hard disk boot option in the BIOS.
Otherwise this system would try to reinstall itself every time you boot it.
1.3.6 Preparing the Target System for Wake

on LAN
Wake on LAN (WOL) requires the appropriate BIOS option to be enabled prior to the
installation. Also, note down the MAC address of the target system. This data is needed
to initiate Wake on LAN.
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Reference
1.3.7 Wake on LAN

Wake on LAN allows a machine to be turned on by a special network packet containing
the machine's MAC address. Because every machine in the world has a unique MAC
identifier, you do not need to worry about accidentally turning on the wrong machine.
IMPORTANT: Wake on LAN across Different Network Segments
If the controlling machine is not located in the same network segment as the
installation target that should be awakened, either configure the WOL requests
to be sent as multicasts or remotely control a machine on that network segment
to act as the sender of these requests.
1.3.8 Manual Wake on LAN

1 Log in as root.
2 Start YaST > Software Management and install the package netdiag.
3 Open a terminal and enter the following command as root to wake the target:
ether-wake
mac_of_target
Replace mac_of_target with the actual MAC address of the target.
1.4 Booting the Target System for

Installation
Basically, there are two different ways to customize the boot process for installation
apart from those mentioned under Section 1.3.7, Wake on LAN (page 31) and Section 1.3.3, Using PXE Boot (page 25). You can either use the default boot options
and function keys or use the boot options prompt of the installation boot screen to pass
any boot options that the installation kernel might need on this particular hardware.
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1.4.1 Using the Default Boot Options

The boot options are described in detail in Chapter 1, Installation with YaST (StartUp). Generally, just selecting Installation starts the installation boot process.
If problems occur, use InstallationACPI Disabled or InstallationSafe Settings. For
more information about troubleshooting the installation process, refer to Section Installation Problems (Chapter 13, Common Problems and Their Solutions, Start-Up).
1.4.2 Using the F Keys

The menu bar at the bottom screen offers some advanced functionality needed in some
setups. Using the F keys, you can specify additional options to pass to the installation
routines without having to know the detailed syntax of these parameters (see Section 1.4.3, Using Custom Boot Options (page 33)).
See the table below for a complete set of the options available.
Table 1.1
F Keys During Installation
Key
Purpose
Available Options
F1
Provide help
None
F2
Select the installation language All supported languages
F3
Change screen resolution for

installation
Text mode
VESA
resolution #1
resolution #2
...
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Reference
Key
Purpose
F4
Select the installation source
Available Options
CD-ROM or DVD
SLP
FTP
HTTP
NFS
SMB
Hard Disk
F5
Choose appropriate kernel options
Default
No ACPI
No local APIC
InstallationACPI Disabled
InstallationSafe Settings
F6
Apply driver update disk
Driver
1.4.3 Using Custom Boot Options

Using the appropriate set of boot options helps facilitate your installation procedure.
Many parameters can also be configured later using the linuxrc routines, but using the
boot options is easier. In some automated setups, the boot options can be provided with
initrd or an info file.
The following table lists all installation scenarios mentioned in this chapter with the
required parameters for booting and the corresponding boot options. Just append all of
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them in the order they appear in this table to get one boot option string that is handed
to the installation routines. For example (all in one line):
install=... netdevice=... hostip=...netmask=... vnc=... vncpassword=...
Replace all the values (...) in this string with the values appropriate for your setup.
Table 1.2
34
Installation (Boot) Scenarios Used in This Chapter
Installation Scenario
Parameters Needed for Boot Options

Booting
Chapter 1, Installation
with YaST (Start-Up)
None: system boots auto- None needed

matically
Section 1.1.1, Simple

Remote Installation via
VNCStatic Network
Configuration (page 4)
Location of the installation server

Network device
IP address
Netmask
Gateway
VNC enablement
VNC password
install=(nfs,http,
ftp,smb)://path
_to_instmedia
netdevice=some
_netdevice (only
needed if several network
devices are available)
hostip=some_ip
netmask=some
_netmask
gateway=ip
_gateway
vnc=1
vncpassword=some
_password

VNCDynamic Network Configuration
(page 5)

VNC enablement
VNC password
install=(nfs,http,
ftp,smb)://path
_to_instmedia
vnc=1
vncpassword=some
_password
Reference

Booting
Section 1.1.3, Remote

Installation via
VNCPXE Boot and
Wake on LAN
(page 7)

Location of the
TFTP server
VNC enablement
VNC password
Not applicable; process managed through PXE and DHCP

SSHStatic Network

Network device
IP address
Netmask
Gateway
SSH enablement
SSH password
install=(nfs,http,
ftp,smb)://path
_to_instmedia
netdevice=some
_netdevice (only
needed if several network
devices are available)
hostip=some_ip
netmask=some
_netmask
gateway=ip
_gateway
usessh=1
sshpassword=some
_password

SSHDynamic Network

SSH enablement
SSH password
install=(nfs,http,
ftp,smb)://path
_to_instmedia
usessh=1
sshpassword=some
_password
Section 1.1.6, Remote

Installation via
SSHPXE Boot and
Not applicable; process managed through PXE and DHCP
Remote Installation
35
Wake on LAN
(page 11)

Booting
Location of the
TFTP server
SSH enablement
SSH password
TIP: More Information about linuxrc Boot Options

Find more information about the linuxrc boot options used for booting a Linux
system in /usr/share/doc/packages/linuxrc/linuxrc.html.
1.5 Monitoring the Installation

Process
There are several options for remotely monitoring the installation process. If the proper
boot options have been specified while booting for installation, either VNC or SSH can
be used to control the installation and system configuration from a remote workstation.
1.5.1 VNC Installation

Using any VNC viewer software, you can remotely control the installation of openSUSE
from virtually any operating system. This section introduces the setup using a VNC
viewer application or a Web browser.
Preparing for VNC Installation

All you need to do on the installation target to prepare for a VNC installation is to
provide the appropriate boot options at the initial boot for installation (see Section 1.4.3,
Using Custom Boot Options (page 33)). The target system boots into a text-based
environment and waits for a VNC client to connect to the installation program.
36
Reference
The installation program announces the IP address and display number needed to connect
for installation. If you have physical access to the target system, this information is
provided right after the system booted for installation. Enter this data when your VNC
client software prompts for it and provide your VNC password.
Because the installation target announces itself via OpenSLP, you can retrieve the address
information of the installation target via an SLP browser without the need for any
physical contact to the installation itself provided your network setup and all machines
support OpenSLP:
1 Start the KDE file and Web browser Konqueror.
2 Enter service://yast.installation.suse in the location bar. The
target system then appears as an icon in the Konqueror screen. Clicking this icon
launches the KDE VNC viewer in which to perform the installation. Alternatively,
run your VNC viewer software with the IP address provided and add :1 at the
end of the IP address for the display the installation is running on.
Connecting to the Installation Program

Basically, there are two ways to connect to a VNC server (the installation target in this
case). You can either start an independent VNC viewer application on any operating
system or connect using a Java-enabled Web browser.
Using VNC, you can control the installation of a Linux system from any other operating
system, including other Linux flavors, Windows, or Mac OS.
On a Linux machine, make sure that the package tightvnc is installed. On a Windows
machine, install the Windows port of this application, which can be obtained at the
TightVNC home page (http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html).
To connect to the installation program running on the target machine, proceed as
follows:
1 Start the VNC viewer.
2 Enter the IP address and display number of the installation target as provided by
the SLP browser or the installation program itself:
ip_address:display_number
Remote Installation
37
A window opens on your desktop displaying the YaST screens as in a normal

local installation.
Using a Web browser to connect to the installation program makes you totally independent of any VNC software or the underlying operating system. As long as the browser
application has Java support enabled, you can use any browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Opera, etc.) to perform the installation of your Linux system.
To perform a VNC installation, proceed as follows:
1 Launch your preferred Web browser.
2 Enter the following at the address prompt:
http://ip_address_of_target:5801
3 Enter your VNC password when prompted to do so. The browser window now
displays the YaST screens as in a normal local installation.
1.5.2 SSH Installation

Using SSH, you can remotely control the installation of your Linux machine using any
SSH client software.
Preparing for SSH Installation

Apart from installing the appropriate software package (OpenSSH for Linux and PuTTY
for Windows), you just need to pass the appropriate boot options to enable SSH for
installation. See Section 1.4.3, Using Custom Boot Options (page 33) for details.
OpenSSH is installed by default on any SUSE Linuxbased operating system.
Connecting to the Installation Program

1 Retrieve the installation target's IP address. If you have physical access to the
target machine, just take the IP address the installation routine provides at the
console after the initial boot. Otherwise take the IP address that has been assigned
to this particular host in the DHCP server configuration.
2 At a command line, enter the following command:
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Reference
ssh -X root@ip_address_of_target
Replace ip_address_of_target with the actual IP address of the installation

target.
3 When prompted for a username, enter root.
4 When prompted for the password, enter the password that has been set with the
SSH boot option. After you have successfully authenticated, a command line
prompt for the installation target appears.
5 Enter yast to launch the installation program. A window opens showing the
normal YaST screens as described in Chapter 1, Installation with YaST (StartUp).
Remote Installation
39
Advanced Disk Setup

Sophisticated system configurations require particular disk setups. All common partitioning tasks may be done with YaST. To get persistent device naming with block devices, use the devices below /dev/disk/by-id or /dev/disk/by-uuid. Logical Volume Management (LVM) is a disk partitioning scheme that is designed to be
much more flexible than the physical partitioning used in standard setups. Its snapshot
functionality enables you to create data backups easily. Redundant Array of Independent
Disks (RAID) offers increased data integrity, performance, and fault tolerance.
2.1 Using the YaST Partitioner

With the expert partitioner, shown in Figure 2.1, The YaST Partitioner (page 42),
manually modify the partitioning of one or several hard disks. Partitions can be added,
deleted, resized, and edited. Also access the soft RAID and LVM configuration from
this YaST module.
WARNING: Repartitioning the Running System
Although it is possible to repartition your system while it is running, the risk
of making a mistake that causes data loss is very high. Try to avoid repartitioning
your installed system and always do a complete backup of your data before
attempting to do so.
Advanced Disk Setup
41
Figure 2.1 The YaST Partitioner
All existing or suggested partitions on all connected hard disks are displayed in the list
of the YaST Expert Partitioner dialog. Entire hard disks are listed as devices without
numbers, such as /dev/sda. Partitions are listed as parts of these devices, such as
/dev/sda1. The size, type, file system, and mount point of the hard disks and their
partitions are also displayed. The mount point describes where the partition appears in
the Linux file system tree.
If you run the expert dialog during installation, any free hard disk space is also listed
and automatically selected. To provide more disk space to openSUSE, free the needed
space starting from the bottom toward the top of the list (starting from the last partition
of a hard disk toward the first). For example, if you have three partitions, you cannot
use the second exclusively for openSUSE and retain the third and first for other operating
systems.
2.1.1 Partition Types

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.
42
Reference
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.
2.1.2 Creating a Partition

To create a partition from scratch, proceed as follows:
1 Select Create. If several hard disks are connected, a selection dialog appears in
which to select a hard disk for the new partition.
2 Specify the partition type (primary or extended). Create up to four primary partitions or up to three primary partitions and one extended partition. Within the
extended partition, create several logical partitions (see Section 2.1.1, Partition
Types (page 42)).
3 Select the file system to use and a mount point. YaST suggests a mount point
for each partition created. Refer to Chapter 16, File Systems in Linux (page 241)
for details on the various file systems.
4 Specify additional file system options if your setup requires them. This is necessary, for example, if you need persistent device names. For details on the available
options, refer to Section 2.1.3, Editing a Partition (page 44).
5 Click OK > Apply to apply your partitioning setup and leave the partitioning
module.
If you created the partition during installation, you are returned to the installation
overview screen.
Advanced Disk Setup
43
2.1.3 Editing a Partition

When you create a new partition or modify an existing partition, set various parameters.
For new partitions, suitable parameters are set by YaST and usually do not require any
modification. To edit your partition setup manually, proceed as follows:
1 Select the partition.
2 Click Edit to edit the partition and set the parameters:
File System ID
Even if you do not want to format the partition at this stage, assign it a file
system ID to ensure that the partition is registered correctly. Possible values
include Linux, Linux swap, Linux LVM, and Linux RAID. For LVM and
RAID details, refer to Section 2.2, LVM Configuration (page 49) and
Section 2.3, Soft RAID Configuration (page 55).
File System
Change the file system or format the partition here. Changing the file system
or reformatting partitions irreversibly deletes all data from the partition . For
details on the various file systems, refer to Chapter 16, File Systems in Linux
(page 241).
Swap is a special format that allows the partition to be used as virtual memory. Create a swap partition of at least 256 MB. However, if you use up your
swap space, consider adding more memory to your system instead of adding
more swap space.
Ext3 is the default file system for the Linux partitions. ReiserFS, JFS, and
Ext3 are journaling file systems. These file systems are able to restore the
system very quickly after a system crash, because write processes are logged
during the operation. Furthermore, ReiserFS is very fast in handling lots of
small files. Ext2 is not a journaling file system. However, it is rock solid and
good for smaller partitions, because it does not require much disk space for
management.
Encrypt File System
If you activate the encryption, all data is written to the hard disk in encrypted
form. This increases the security of sensitive data, but slightly reduces the
system speed, because the encryption takes some time. More information
44
Reference
about the encryption of file systems is provided in Chapter 40, Encrypting

Partitions and Files (page 643).
Fstab Options
Specify various parameters contained in the global file system administration
file (/etc/fstab). The default settings should suffice for most setups.
You can, for example, change the file system identification from the device
name to a volume label. In the volume label, use all characters except / and
space.
To get persistent devices names, use the mount option Device ID or UUID.
In openSUSE, persistent device names are enabled by default.
If you intend to use quota on the file system, use the mount option Enable
Quota Support. This must be done before you can define quotas for users in
the YaST User Management module. For further information on how to
configure user quota, refer to Section Managing Quotas (Chapter 5, Managing Users with YaST, Start-Up).
Mount Point
Specify the directory at which the partition should be mounted in the file
system tree. Select from various YaST proposals or enter any other name.
3 Select OK > Apply to activate the partition.
2.1.4 Expert Options

Expert opens a menu containing the following commands:
Reread Partition Table
Rereads the partitioning from disk. For example, you need this after manual partitioning in the text console.
Delete Partition Table and Disk Label
This completely overwrites the old partition table. For example, this can be helpful
if you have problems with unconventional disk labels. Using this method, all data
on the hard disk is lost.
Advanced Disk Setup
45
Call iSCSI configuration

To access SCSI over IP block devices, you first have to configure iSCSI. This results
in additionally available devices in the main partition list.
2.1.5 More Partitioning Tips

The following section comprises a few hints and tips on partitioning that should help
you in taking the right decisions while setting up your system.
TIP: Cylinder Numbers
Note, that different partitioning tools may start counting the cylinders of a
partition with 0 or with 1. When calculating the number of cylinders, you should
always use the difference between the last and the first cylinder number and
add one.
Foreign Partitions and fstab

If the partitioning is performed by YaST and other partitions are detected in the system,
these partitions are also added to the /etc/fstab file to enable easy access to this
data. This file contains all partitions in the system with their properties, such as the file
system, mount point, and user permissions.
Example 2.1 /etc/fstab: Partition Data
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_SAMSUNG_SV4002H0413J1FR917614-part1 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0
The partitions, regardless of whether they are Linux or FAT partitions, are specified
with the options noauto and user. This allows any user to mount or unmount these
partitions as needed. For security reasons, YaST does not automatically enter the exec
option here, which is needed for executing programs from the location. However, to
run programs from there, you can enter this option manually. This measure is necessary
if you encounter system messages such as bad interpreter or Permission denied.
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Reference
Using swap
Swap is used to extend the physically available memory. This way it is possible to use
more memory than physical ram available. The memory management system of kernels
before 2.4.10 needed swap as a safety measure. In those times, if you did not have twice
the size of your ram in swap, the performance of the system suffered. This does not
hold true anymore as these limitations no longer exist.
When the kernel runs out of memory, it swaps out pages of memory that are not used
frequently. Therefore, the running applications have more memory available and even
their caching works more smoothly.
If an application tries to allocate as much memory as it can possibly get, there are some
problems with swap. There are three major cases to look at:
System with no swap
The application gets all memory that can be freed by any means. All caches are
freed, and thus all other applications are slowed down. After several minutes, the
out of memory killer mechanism of the kernel will become active and kill the process.
System with medum sized swap (128 MB256 MB)
At first, the system is slowed down like a system without swap. After all physical
ram has been used up, swap space is used as well. At this point, the system becomes
very slow and it becomes impossible to run commands from remote. Depending
on the speed of the hard disks that run the swap space, the system stays in this
condition for about 10 to 15 minutes until the out of memory killer of the kernel
resolves the issue.
System with lots of swap (several GB)
You better do not have an application that is running wild and swapping frantically,
in this case. If you do have this problem, the system will need many hours to recover.
In the process, it is likely that other processes get timeouts and faults, leaving the
system in an undefined state, even if the faulty process is killed. In this case, you
better just reboot the machine hard and try to get it running again. Lots of swap is
only useful if you have an application that relies on this feature. Such applications
(like databases or graphics manipulation programs) have an option to directly use
hard disk space for their needs. It is advisable to use this option instead of using
lots of swap space.
Advanced Disk Setup
47
If your system does not run wild, but needs more swap after some time, it is possible
to extend the swap space online. If you prepared a partition for swap space, just add
this partition with YaST. If you do not have a partition available, you may also just use
a swap file to extend the swap. Swap files are generally slower than partitions, but
compared to physical ram, both are extremely slow and the actual speed difference is
not as important as one would think in the first place.
Procedure 2.1 Adding a Swap File Manually
To add a swap file in the running system, proceed as follows:
1 Create an empty file in your system. For example, if you want to add a swap file
with 128 MB swap at /var/lib/swap/swapfile, use the commands:
mkdir -p /var/lib/swap
dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/lib/swap/swapfile bs=1M count=128
2 Initialize this swap file with the command

mkswap /var/lib/swap/swapfile
3 Activate the swap with the command

swapon /var/lib/swap/swapfile
To disable this swap file, you use the command

swapoff /var/lib/swap/swapfile
4 Check the current available swap spaces with the command

cat /proc/swaps
Note, that at this point this is only temporary swap space. After the next reboot,
it is not used anymore.
5 To enable this swap file permanently, add the following line to /etc/fstab:
/var/lib/swap/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0
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Reference
2.1.6 Partitioning and LVM

From the expert partitioner, access the LVM configuration with LVM (see Section 2.2,
LVM Configuration (page 49)). However, if a working LVM configuration already
exists on your system, it is automatically activated as soon as you enter the LVM configuration for the first time in a session. In this case, any disks containing a partition
belonging to an activated volume group cannot be repartitioned because the Linux
kernel cannot reread the modified partition table of a hard disk when any partition on
this disk is in use. However, if you already have a functioning LVM configuration on
your system, physical repartitioning should not be necessary. Instead, change the configuration of the logical volumes.
At the beginning of the physical volumes (PVs), information about the volume is written
to the partition. To reuse such a partition for other non-LVM purposes, it is advisable
to delete the beginning of this volume. For example, in the VG system and PV /dev/
sda2, do this with the command dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda2 bs=512
count=1.
WARNING: File System for Booting
The file system used for booting (the root file system or /boot) must not be
stored on an LVM logical volume. Instead, store it on a normal physical partition.
2.2 LVM Configuration

This section briefly describes the principles behind LVM and its basic features that
make it useful under many circumstances. In Section 2.2.2, LVM Configuration with
YaST (page 51), learn how to set up LVM with YaST.
WARNING
Using LVM might be associated with increased risk, such as data loss. Risks also
include application crashes, power failures, and faulty commands. Save your
data before implementing LVM or reconfiguring volumes. Never work without
a backup.
Advanced Disk Setup
49
2.2.1 The Logical Volume Manager

The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) enables flexible distribution of hard disk space
over several file systems. It was developed because sometimes the need to change the
segmentation of hard disk space arises only after the initial partitioning during installation
has already been done. Because it is difficult to modify partitions on a running system,
LVM provides a virtual pool (volume group, VG for short) of memory space from
which logical volumes (LVs) can be created as needed. The operating system accesses
these LVs instead of the physical partitions. Volume groups can span more than only
one disk so that several disks or parts of them may constitute one single VG. This way,
LVM provides a kind of abstraction from the physical disk space that allows its segmentation to be changed in a much easier and safer way than physical repartitioning does.
Background information regarding physical partitioning can be found in Section 2.1.1,
Partition Types (page 42) and Section 2.1, Using the YaST Partitioner (page 41).
Figure 2.2 Physical Partitioning versus LVM
DISK
PART
PART
DISK 1
PART
PART
PART
DISK 2
PART
PART
VG 1
MP
MP
MP
PART
VG 2
LV 1
LV 2
LV 3
LV 4
MP
MP
MP
MP
Figure 2.2, Physical Partitioning versus LVM (page 50) compares physical partitioning
(left) with LVM segmentation (right). On the left side, one single disk has been divided
into three physical partitions (PART), each with a mount point (MP) assigned so that
the operating system can access them. On the right side, two disks have been divided
into two and three physical partitions each. Two LVM volume groups (VG 1 and VG 2)
have been defined. VG 1 contains two partitions from DISK 1 and one from DISK 2.
VG 2 contains the remaining two partitions from DISK 2. In LVM, the physical disk
partitions that are incorporated in a volume group are called physical volumes (PVs).
Within the volume groups, four logical volumes (LV 1 through LV 4) have been defined,
which can be used by the operating system via the associated mount points. The border
50
Reference
between different logical volumes need not be aligned with any partition border. See
the border between LV 1 and LV 2 in this example.
LVM features:
Several hard disks or partitions can be combined in a large logical volume.
Provided the configuration is suitable, an LV (such as /usr) can be enlarged when
the free space is exhausted.
Using LVM, it is possible to add hard disks or LVs in a running system. However,
this requires hot-swappable hardware that is capable of such actions.
It is possible to activate a "striping mode" that distributes the data stream of a logical
volume over several physical volumes. If these physical volumes reside on different
disks, this can improve the reading and writing performance just like RAID 0.
The snapshot feature enables consistent backups (especially for servers) in the
running system.
With these features, using LVM already makes sense for heavily used home PCs or
small servers. If you have a growing data stock, as in the case of databases, music
archives, or user directories, LVM is just the right thing for you. This would allow file
systems that are larger than the physical hard disk. Another advantage of LVM is that
up to 256 LVs can be added. However, keep in mind that working with LVM is different
from working with conventional partitions. Instructions and further information about
configuring LVM is available in the official LVM HOWTO at http://tldp.org/
HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/.
Starting from kernel version 2.6, LVM version 2 is available, which is downwardcompatible with the previous LVM and enables the continued management of old volume
groups. When creating new volume groups, decide whether to use the new format or
the downward-compatible version. LVM 2 does not require any kernel patches. It makes
use of the device mapper integrated in kernel 2.6. This kernel only supports LVM version 2. Therefore, when talking about LVM, this section always refers to LVM version 2.
2.2.2 LVM Configuration with YaST

The YaST LVM configuration can be reached from the YaST Expert Partitioner (see
Section 2.1, Using the YaST Partitioner (page 41)). This partitioning tool enables
Advanced Disk Setup
51
you to edit and delete existing partitions and create new ones that should be used with
LVM. There, create an LVM partition by first clicking Create > Do not format then
selecting 0x8E Linux LVM as the partition identifier. After creating all the partitions to
use with LVM, click LVM to start the LVM configuration.
Creating Volume Groups

If no volume group exists on your system yet, you are prompted to add one (see Figure 2.3, Creating a Volume Group (page 52)). It is possible to create additional groups
with Add group, but usually one single volume group is sufficient. system is suggested
as a name for the volume group in which the openSUSE system files are located. The
physical extent size defines the size of a physical block in the volume group. All the
disk space in a volume group is handled in chunks of this size. This value is normally
set to 4 MB and allows for a maximum size of 256 GB for physical and logical volumes.
The physical extent size should only be increased, for example, to 8, 16, or 32 MB, if
you need logical volumes larger than 256 GB.
Figure 2.3 Creating a Volume Group
Configuring Physical Volumes

Once a volume group has been created, the following dialog lists all partitions with either
the Linux LVM or Linux native type. No swap or DOS partitions are shown. If a
partition is already assigned to a volume group, the name of the volume group is shown
in the list. Unassigned partitions are indicated with --.
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Reference
If there are several volume groups, set the current volume group in the selection box
to the upper left. The buttons in the upper right enable creation of additional volume
groups and deletion of existing volume groups. Only volume groups that do not have
any partitions assigned can be deleted. All partitions that are assigned to a volume group
are also referred to as a physical volumes (PV).
Figure 2.4 Physical Volume Setup
To add a previously unassigned partition to the selected volume group, first click the
partition then Add Volume. At this point, the name of the volume group is entered next
to the selected partition. Assign all partitions reserved for LVM to a volume group.
Otherwise, the space on the partition remains unused. Before exiting the dialog, every
volume group must be assigned at least one physical volume. After assigning all physical volumes, click Next to proceed to the configuration of logical volumes.
Configuring Logical Volumes

After the volume group has been filled with physical volumes, define the logical volumes
the operating system should use in the next dialog. Set the current volume group in a
selection box to the upper left. Next to it, the free space in the current volume group is
shown. The list below contains all logical volumes in that volume group. All normal
Linux partitions to which a mount point is assigned, all swap partitions, and all already
Advanced Disk Setup
53
existing logical volumes are listed here. Add, Edit, and Remove logical volumes as
needed until all space in the volume group has been exhausted. Assign at least one
logical volume to each volume group.
Figure 2.5 Logical Volume Management
To create a new logical volume, click Add and fill out the pop-up that opens. As for
partitioning, enter the size, file system, and mount point. Normally, a file system, such
as reiserfs or ext2, is created on a logical volume and is then designated a mount point.
The files stored on this logical volume can be found at this mount point on the installed
system. Additionally it is possible to distribute the data stream in the logical volume
among several physical volumes (striping). If these physical volumes reside on different
hard disks, this generally results in a better reading and writing performance (like
RAID 0). However, a striping LV with n stripes can only be created correctly if the
hard disk space required by the LV can be distributed evenly to n physical volumes.
If, for example, only two physical volumes are available, a logical volume with three
stripes is impossible.
WARNING: Striping
YaST has no chance at this point to verify the correctness of your entries concerning striping. Any mistake made here is apparent only later when the LVM
is implemented on disk.
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Reference
Figure 2.6 Creating Logical Volumes
If you have already configured LVM on your system, the existing logical volumes can
be entered now. Before continuing, assign appropriate mount points to these logical
volumes too. With Next, return to the YaST Expert Partitioner and finish your work
there.
Direct LVM Management

If you already have configured LVM and only want to change something, there is an
alternative way to do that. In the YaST Control Center, select System > LVM. Basically
this dialog allows the same actions as described above with the exception of physical
partitioning. It shows the existing physical volumes and logical volumes in two lists
and you can manage your LVM system using the methods already described.
2.3 Soft RAID Configuration

The purpose of RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is to combine several
hard disk partitions into one large virtual hard disk to optimize performance, data secu-
Advanced Disk Setup
55
rity, or both. Most RAID controllers use the SCSI protocol because it can address a
larger number of hard disks in a more effective way than the IDE protocol and is more
suitable for parallel processing of commands. There are some RAID controllers that
support IDE or SATA hard disks. Soft RAID provides the advantages of RAID systems
without the additional cost of hardware RAID controllers. However, this requires some
CPU time and has memory requirements that make it unsuitable for real high performance computers.
2.3.1 RAID Levels

openSUSE offers the option of combining several hard disks into one soft RAID
system with the help. RAID implies several strategies for combining several hard disks
in a RAID system, each with different goals, advantages, and characteristics. These
variations are commonly known as RAID levels.
Common RAID levels are:
RAID 0
This level improves the performance of your data access by spreading out blocks
of each file across multiple disk drives. Actually, this is not really a RAID, because
it does not provide data backup, but the name RAID 0 for this type of system has
become the norm. With RAID 0, two or more hard disks are pooled together. The
performance is very good, but the RAID system is destroyed and your data lost if
even one hard disk fails.
RAID 1
This level provides adequate security for your data, because the data is copied to
another hard disk 1:1. This is known as hard disk mirroring. If a disk is destroyed,
a copy of its contents is available on another one. All of them except one could be
damaged without endangering your data. However, if damage is not detected, it
also may happen that damaged data is mirrored to the correct disk and data corruption happens that way. The writing performance suffers a little in the copying process
compared to when using single disk access (10 to 20 % slower), but read access is
significantly faster in comparison to any one of the normal physical hard disks,
because the data is duplicated so can be parallel scanned. Generally it can be said
that Level 1 provides nearly twice the read transaction rate of single disks and almost
the same write transaction rate as single disks.
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RAID 2 and RAID 3

These are not typical RAID implementations. Level 2 stripes data at the bit level
rather than the block level. Level 3 provides byte-level striping with a dedicated
parity disk and cannot service simultaneous multiple requests. Both levels are only
rarely used.
RAID 4
Level 4 provides block-level striping just like Level 0 combined with a dedicated
parity disk. In the case of a data disk failure, the parity data is used to create a replacement disk. However, the parity disk may create a bottleneck for write access.
Nevertheless, Level 4 is sometimes used.
RAID 5
RAID 5 is an optimized compromise between Level 0 and Level 1 in terms of
performance and redundancy. The hard disk space equals the number of disks used
minus one. The data is distributed over the hard disks as with RAID 0. Parity blocks,
created on one of the partitions, are there for security reasons. They are linked to
each other with XOR, enabling the contents to be reconstructed by the corresponding
parity block in case of system failure. With RAID 5, no more than one hard disk
can fail at the same time. If one hard disk fails, it must be replaced as soon as possible to avoid the risk of losing data.
RAID 6
To further increase the reliability of the RAID system, it is possible to use RAID 6.
In this level, even if two disks fail, the array still can be reconstructed. With RAID 6,
at least 4 hard disks are needed to run the array. Note, that when running as software
raid, this configuration needs a considerable amount of CPU time and memory.
Other RAID Levels
Several other RAID levels have been developed (RAIDn, RAID 10, RAID 0+1,
RAID 30, RAID 50, etc.), some of them being proprietary implementations created
by hardware vendors. These levels are not very widespread, so are not explained
here.
2.3.2 Soft RAID Configuration with YaST

The YaST soft RAID configuration can be reached from the YaST Expert Partitioner,
described in Section 2.1, Using the YaST Partitioner (page 41). This partitioning
tool enables you to edit and delete existing partitions and create new ones that should
Advanced Disk Setup
57
be used with soft RAID. There, create RAID partitions by first clicking Create > Do
not format then selecting 0xFD Linux RAID as the partition identifier. For RAID 0 and
RAID 1, at least two partitions are neededfor RAID 1, usually exactly two and no
more. If RAID 5 is used, at least three partitions are required. It is recommended to
take only partitions of the same size. The RAID partitions should be stored on different
hard disks to decrease the risk of losing data if one is defective (RAID 1 and 5) and to
optimize the performance of RAID 0. After creating all the partitions to use with RAID,
click RAID > Create RAID to start the RAID configuration.
TIP
Starting with openSUSE 10.2, the system detects the settings of pseudo RAID
adapters found on many mainboards. These are used to setup the software
RAID without additional interaction.
In the next dialog, choose between RAID levels 0, 1, and 5 (see Section 2.3.1, RAID
Levels (page 56) for details). After Next is clicked, the following dialog lists all partitions with either the Linux RAID or Linux native type (see Figure 2.7, RAID
Partitions (page 58)). No swap or DOS partitions are shown. If a partition is already
assigned to a RAID volume, the name of the RAID device (for example, /dev/md0)
is shown in the list. Unassigned partitions are indicated with --.
Figure 2.7 RAID Partitions
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Reference
To add a previously unassigned partition to the selected RAID volume, first click the
partition then Add. At this point, the name of the RAID device is entered next to the
selected partition. Assign all partitions reserved for RAID. Otherwise, the space on the
partition remains unused. After assigning all partitions, click Next to proceed to the
settings dialog where you can fine-tune the performance (see Figure 2.8, File System
Settings (page 59)).
Figure 2.8 File System Settings
As with conventional partitioning, set the file system to use as well as encryption and
the mount point for the RAID volume. Checking Persistent Superblock ensures that
the RAID partitions are recognized as such when booting. After completing the configuration with Finish, see the /dev/md0 device and others indicated with RAID in the
expert partitioner.
2.3.3 Troubleshooting
Check the file /proc/mdstats to find out whether a RAID partition has been destroyed. In the event of a system failure, shut down your Linux system and replace the
defective hard disk with a new one partitioned the same way. Then restart your system
and enter the command mdadm /dev/mdX --add /dev/sdX. Replace 'X' with
Advanced Disk Setup
59
your particular device identifiers. This integrates the hard disk automatically into the
RAID system and fully reconstructs it.
2.3.4 For More Information

Configuration instructions and more details for soft RAID can be found in the HOWTOs
at http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html.
Linux RAID mailing lists are also available, such as http://marc.theaimsgroup
.com/?l=linux-raid.
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Part II. Administration
Online Update
openSUSE offers a continuous stream of software security updates for your product.
By default openSUSE Updater is used to keep your system up-to-date. Refer to Section Keeping the System Up-to-date (Chapter 3, Installing or Removing Software,
Start-Up) for further information on openSUSE Updater. This chapter covers alternative
graphical tools and command line utilities for updating software packages.
The current patches for openSUSE are available from an update software repository.
If you have registered your product during the installation, an update repository is already
configured. If you have not registered openSUSE, you can do so by running Software
> Online Update Configuration in YaST. Alternatively, you can manually add an update
repository from a source you trust with each update tool. Please refer to the respective
application described below for instructions.
openSUSE provides updates with different relevance levels. Security updates fix
severe security hazards and should definitely be installed. Recommended updates fix
issues that could compromise your computer, whereas Optional updates fix nonsecurity relevant issues or provide enhancements.
3.1 YaST Online Update

To install updates and improvements with YaST, run Software > Online Update. All
new patches (except the optional ones) that are currently available for your system are
already marked for installation. Clicking Accept automatically installs these patches.
After the installation has completed, confirm with Finish. Your system is now up-todate.
Online Update
63
TIP
YaST Online Update has been integrated into the YaST software management
module. This ensures that the newest version of a package is always installed.
It is no longer necessary to run an online update after installing new packages.
3.1.1 Installing Patches Manually

The Online Update window consists of five sections. The list of all patches available
is on the left. Find the description of the selected patch displayed below the list of
patches. The disk usage is displayed at the bottom of the left column. The right column
lists the packages included in the selected patch (a patch can consist of several packages)
and, below, a detailed description of the selected package.
Figure 3.1 YaST Online Update
The patch display lists patches available for openSUSE. The patches are sorted by relevance, security-wise. The color of the patch name as well as a pop-up window under
the mouse cursor indicate the security status of the patch: Security (red),
Recommended (blue), or Optional (black). There are three different views on
patches. Use Show Patch Category to toggle the views:
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Installable Patches (default view)

Patches currently not installed that apply to packages installed on your system.
Installable and Installed Patches
All patches that apply to packages installed on your system.
All Patches
All patches available for openSUSE.
A list entry consists of a symbol and the patch name. For a list of possible symbols,
press Shift + F1. Actions required by Security and Recommended patches are automatically preset. These actions are Autoinstall, Autoupdate, or Autodelete. Actions
for Optional patches are not presetright-click on a patch and choose an action
from the list.
Most patches include updates for several packages. If you want to change actions for
single packages, right-click on a package in the package window and choose an action.
Once you have marked all patches and packages as desired, proceed with Accept.
3.1.2 Automatic Online Update

YaST also offers the possibility to set up an automatic update. Open Software > Automatic Online Update for the configuration screen. You can either configure a Daily or
a Weekly update. Some patches, such as kernel updates, require user interaction, which
would cause the automatic update procedure to stop. Therefore you should check Skip
Interactive Patches, if you want the update procedure to proceed fully automatically.
Having done so, you should run a manual Online Update from time to time in order to
install patches that require interaction.
3.1.3 Adding an Update Repository

To add or remove repositoreis, use the Software > Software Repositories module, described in Section Adding Software Repositories (Chapter 3, Installing or Removing
Software, Start-Up).
Online Update
65
3.2 Update from the Command Line

with zypper
openSUSE comes with a command line tool for installing and updating packageszypper. It is especially useful to accomplish remote software management tasks or to
manage software from shell scripts.
3.2.1 Installing and Removing Software with

Zypper
To install a package from registered installation repositories, use zypper in
package_name. To remove an installed package, use zypper rm package_name.
By default, zypper asks for confirmation before installing or removing a selected
package. Override this behavior using the --non-interactive option. Note that
this option must be given before the actual mode (install, remove, and update) as in
zypper --non-interactive in package_name. This option allows the
use of zypper in scripts and cron jobs.
3.2.2 Updating Software with Zypper

There are two different ways to update software using zypper. To integrate all officially
released patches into your system, just run the zypper up command. In this case, all
patches that are available in your installation repositories are checked for relevance,
and installed if necessary.
If an installation source just has new packages, but does not provide a patch for this
package, zypper up does not show any effect. To update one of these packages, you
must reinstall the respective package with the zypper in package_name command.
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3.2.3 Managing Installation Repositories

All installation or update commands of zypper rely on a list of installation repositories
known to zypper. To list all installation repositories known to the system, use the
command zypper sl.
If you want to remove an installation repository, first list all the repositories and then
use the command zypper sd #number. For example, the installation repository
you want to remove could be represented by the following line (line break added for
layout reasons):
2 | No | Yes | YaST | openSUSE FACTORY Extra 10.3 | \
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-Factory-non-oss/inst-source-extra/
In this case run the command zypper sd 2 to remove this installation repository
from the list.
To add an installation repository, you can use the command zypper sa
installation_repository. Information about additional installation sources
is provided at http://en.opensuse.org/Installation_Sources.
3.2.4 Using the Zypper Shell

Sometimes, several different zypper commands must be run in a sequence. To prevent
zypper from rereading all the databases for each zypper command, it is possible to run
zypper in shell mode: zypper sh.
When the shell is running, just issue the zypper commands with the respective parameters:
zypper sh
zypper> in zsh
...
zypper> exit
Using the zypper shell is usually faster, because all the relevant data stays in memory.
Zypper supports the readline library. This means that you can use all the command line
editing functions in the zypper shell that are also available in the Bash shell. Zypper
maintains its command history in file ~/.zypper_history.
Online Update
67

For more information about updating from the command line, enter zypper --help
or see the zypper(8) man page. For examples and detailed information, visit
http://en.opensuse.org/Using_zypper.
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YaST in Text Mode

This section is intended for system administrators and experts who do not run an X
server on their systems and depend on the text-based installation tool. It provides basic
information about starting and operating YaST in text mode.
Figure 4.1 Main Window of YaST in Text Mode
When YaST is started in text mode, the YaST Control Center appears first. See Figure 4.1 . The main window consists of three areas. The left frame, which is surrounded
by a thick white border, features the categories to which the various modules belong.
The active category is indicated by a colored background. The right frame, which is
YaST in Text Mode
69
surrounded by a thin white border, provides an overview of the modules available in

the active category. The bottom frame contains the buttons for Help and Quit.
When the YaST Control Center is started, the category Software is selected automatically. Use and to change the category. To start a module from the selected category,
press . The module selection now appears with a thick border. Use and to select
the desired module. Keep the arrow keys pressed to scroll through the list of available
modules. When a module is selected, the module title appears with a colored background
and a brief description is displayed in the bottom frame.
Press Enter to start the desired module. Various buttons or selection fields in the module
contain a letter with a different color (yellow by default). Use Alt + yellow_letter to
select a button directly instead of navigating there with Tab. Exit the YaST Control
Center by pressing Alt + Q or by selecting Quit and pressing Enter.
4.1 Navigation in Modules

The following description of the control elements in the YaST modules assumes that
all function keys and Alt key combinations work and are not assigned different global
functions. Read Section 4.2, Restriction of Key Combinations (page 71) for information about possible exceptions.
Navigation among Buttons and Selection Lists
Use Tab and Alt + Tab or Shift + Tab to navigate among the buttons and the frames
containing selection lists.
Navigation in Selection Lists
Use the arrow keys ( and ) to navigate among the individual elements in an active
frame containing a selection list. If individual entries within a frame exceed its
width, use Shift + or Shift + to scroll horizontally to the right and left. Alternatively, use Ctrl + E or Ctrl + A. This combination can also be used if using or
would result in changing the active frame or the current selection list, as in the
Control Center.
Buttons, Radio Buttons, and Check Boxes
To select buttons with empty square brackets (check boxes) or empty parentheses
(radio buttons), press Space or Enter. Alternatively, radio buttons and check boxes
can be selected directly with Alt + yellow_letter. In this case, you do not need to
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Reference
confirm with Enter. If you navigate to an item with Tab, press Enter to execute the
selected action or activate the respective menu item.
Function Keys
The F keys (F1 to F12) enable quick access to the various buttons. Which function
keys are actually mapped to which buttons depends on the active YaST module,
because the different modules offer different buttons (Details, Info, Add, Delete,
etc.). Use F10 for OK, Next, and Finish. Press F1 to access the YaST help, which
shows the functions mapped to the individual F keys.
Figure 4.2 The Software Installation Module
4.2 Restriction of Key Combinations

If your window manager uses global Alt combinations, the Alt combinations in YaST
might not work. Keys like Alt or Shift can also be occupied by the settings of the terminal.
Replacing Alt with Esc
Alt shortcuts can be executed with Esc instead of Alt. For example, Esc H replaces
Alt + H. (First press Esc, then press H.)
YaST in Text Mode
71
Backward and Forward Navigation with Ctrl + F and Ctrl + B

If the Alt and Shift combinations are occupied by the window manager or the terminal, use the combinations Ctrl + F (forward) and Ctrl + B (backward) instead.
Restriction of Function Keys
The F keys are also used for functions. Certain function keys might be occupied
by the terminal and may not be available for YaST. However, the Alt key combinations and function keys should always be fully available on a pure text console.
4.3 YaST Command Line Options

Besides the text mode interface, YaST provides a pure command line interface. To get
a list of YaST command line options, enter:
yast -h
4.3.1 Starting the Individual Modules

To save time, the individual YaST modules can be started directly. To start a module,
enter:
yast <module_name>
View a list of all module names available on your system with yast -l or yast
--list. Start the network module, for example, with yast lan.
4.3.2 Installing Packages from the Command

Line
If you know a package name and the package is provided by any of your active installation repositories, you can use command line option -i to install the package:
yast -i <package_name>
or
yast --install <package_name>
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Reference
package_name can be a single short package name, for example gvim which is installed with dependency checking or the full path to an rpm package, which is installed
without dependency checking.
If you need a command-line based software management utility with functionality beyond what YaST provides, consider using zypper. This new utility uses the same software
management library that is also the foundation for the YaST package manager. The
basic usage of zypper is covered in Section 3.2, Update from the Command Line with
zypper (page 66).
4.3.3 Command Line Parameters of the YaST

Modules
To use YaST functionality in scripts, YaST provides command line support for individual modules. Not all modules have a command line support. To display the available
options of a module, enter:
yast <module_name> help
If a module does not provide command line support, the module is started in text mode
and the following message appears:
This YaST2 module does not support the command line interface.
YaST in Text Mode
73
Updating the System and

System Changes
You can update an existing system without completely reinstalling it. There are two
types of updates: updating individual software packages and updating the entire system.
5.1 Updating the System

Software tends to grow from version to version. Therefore, take a look at the available
partition space with df before updating. If you suspect you are running short of disk
space, secure your data before you update and repartition your system. There is no
general rule of thumb regarding how much space each partition should have. Space
requirements depend on your particular partitioning profile, the software selected, and
the version numbers of the system.
5.1.1 Preparations
Before updating, copy the old configuration files to a separate medium, such as
streamer, removable hard disk, USB stick, or ZIP drive, to secure the data. This primarily applies to files stored in /etc as well as some of the directories and files in /var
and /opt. You may also want to write the user data in /home (the HOME directories)
to a backup medium. Back up this data as root. Only root has read permission for
all local files.
Before starting your update, make note of the root partition. The command df / lists
the device name of the root partition. In Example 5.1, List with df -h (page 76),
the root partition to write down is /dev/sda3 (mounted as /).
Updating the System and System Changes
75
Example 5.1 List with df -h

Filesystem
/dev/sda3
udev
/dev/sda5
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
Size
74G
252M
116G
39G
4.6G
Used Avail Use% Mounted on

22G
53G 29% /
124K 252M
1% /dev
5.8G 111G
5% /home
1.6G
37G
4% /windows/C
2.6G 2.1G 57% /windows/D
5.1.2 Possible Problems

If you update a default system from the previous version to this version, YaST works
out necessary changes and performs them. Depending on your customizations, some
steps or the entire update procedure may fail and you must resort to copying back your
backup data. Here, we point out more issues to check before starting the system update.
Checking passwd and group in /etc

Before updating the system, make sure that /etc/passwd and /etc/group do not
contain any syntax errors. For this purpose, start the verification utilities pwck and
grpck as root and eliminate any reported errors.
PostgreSQL
Before updating PostgreSQL (postgres), dump the databases. See the manual page
of pg_dump. This is only necessary if you actually used PostgreSQL prior to your
update.
5.1.3 Updating with YaST

Following the preparation procedure outlined in Section 5.1.1, Preparations (page 75),
you can now update your system:
1 Boot the system as for the installation, described in Section System Start-Up
for Installation (Chapter 1, Installation with YaST, Start-Up). In YaST, choose
a language and select Update in the Installation Mode dialog. Do not select New
Installation. Also add repositories to make sure to get all available software updated whenever possible. Find more information about installation repositories
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Reference
in Section Add-On Products and Repositories (Chapter 1, Installation with

YaST, Start-Up).
2 YaST determines whether there are multiple root partitions. If there is only one,
continue with the next step. If there are several, select the right partition and
confirm with Next (/dev/sda3 was selected in the example in Section 5.1.1,
Preparations (page 75)). YaST reads the old fstab on this partition to analyze
and mount the file systems listed there.
3 Check the previously used repositories, if there are any. Enable all the repositories
you still want to use and update third-party software from. Click the Toggle
Status for every list item, if appropriate.
4 In case you added repositories during the update procedure as recommended
above, you now can activate those you are actually interested in.
5 In the Installation Settings dialog, adjust the settings according to your requirements. Normally, you can leave the default settings untouched, but if you intend
to enhance your system, check the packages offered in the Software Selection
submenus or add support for additional languages.
You also have the possibility to make backups of various system components.
Selecting backups slows down the update process. Use this option if you do not
have a recent system backup.
6 Confirm the update by clicking Start Update.
Once the basic update installation is finished, test the Internet connection as offered by
the YaST dialog. Finally, YaST updates the remaining software, offers the Novell
Customer Center Configuration, and displays the release notes. Click Finish to write
the YaST configuration.
5.1.4 Updating Individual Packages

Regardless of your overall updated environment, you can always update individual
packages. From this point on, however, it is your responsibility to ensure that your
system remains consistent. Update advice can be found at http://www.novell
.com/linux/download/updates/.
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Select components from the YaST package selection list according to your needs. If
you select a package essential for the overall operation of the system, YaST issues a
warning. Such packages should be updated only in the update mode. For example, many
packages contain shared libraries. If you update these programs and applications in
the running system, things might malfunction.
5.2 Software Changes from Version

to Version
The individual aspects changed from version to version are outlined in the following
in detail. This summary indicates, for example, whether basic settings have been completely reconfigured, whether configuration files have been moved to other places, or
whether common applications have been significantly changed. Significant modifications
that affect the daily use of the system at either the user level or the administrator level
are mentioned here.
Problems and special issues of the respective versions are published online as they are
identified. See the links listed below. Important updates of individual packages can be
accessed at http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/
downloads/ using the YaST Online Update. For more information, see Chapter 3,
Online Update (page 63).
5.2.1 From 9.3 to 10.0

Refer to the article Known Problems and Special Features in SUSE Linux 10 in the
SUSE Support Database at http://portal.suse.com under the keyword special
features.
Becoming the Superuser Using su

By default, calling su to become root does not set the PATH for root. Either call
su - to start a login shell with the complete environment for root or set
ALWAYS_SET_PATH to yes in /etc/default/su if you want to change the default
behavior of su.
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Powersave Configuration Variables

Names of the powersave configuration variables are changed for consistency, but the
sysconfig files are still the same. Find more information in Section 32.4.1, Configuring
the powersave Package (page 537).
PCMCIA
cardmgr no longer manages PC cards. Instead, as with Cardbus cards and other subsystems, a kernel module manages them. All necessary actions are executed by
hotplug. The pcmcia start script has been removed and cardctl is replaced by
pccardctl. For more information, see /usr/share/doc/packages/
pcmciautils/README.SUSE.
Setting Up D-BUS for Interprocess Communication

in .xinitrc
Many applications now rely on D-BUS for interprocess communication (IPC). Calling
dbus-launch starts dbus-daemon. The systemwide /etc/X11/xinit/
xinitrc uses dbus-launch to start the window manager.
If you have a local ~/.xinitrc file, you must change it accordingly. Otherwise applications like f-spot, banshee, tomboy, or Network Manager banshee might fail. Save
your old ~/.xinitrc. Then copy the new template file into your home directory
with:
cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc.template ~/.xinitrc
Finally, add your customizations from the saved .xinitrc.
NTP-Related Files Renamed

For reasons of compatibility with LSB (Linux Standard Base), most configuration files
and the init script were renamed from xntp to ntp. The new filenames are:
/etc/slp.reg.d/ntp.reg
/etc/init.d/ntp
/etc/logrotate.d/ntp
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/usr/sbin/rcntp
/etc/sysconfig/ntp
Hotplug Events Handled by the udev Daemon

Hotplug events are now completely handled by the udev daemon (udevd). We do not
use the event multiplexer system in /etc/hotplug.d and /etc/dev.d anymore.
Instead udevd calls all hotplug helper tools directly, according to its rules. Udev rules
and helper tools are provided by udev and various other packages.
TEI XSL Stylesheets

Find the TEI XSL stylesheets (tei-xsl-stylesheets) with a new directory layout
at /usr/share/xml/tei/stylesheet/rahtz/current. From there, for
example, use base/p4/html/tei.xsl to produce HTML output. For more information, see http://www.tei-c.org/Stylesheets/teic/
File System Change Notification for GNOME

Applications
For proper functionality, GNOME applications depend on file system change notification
support. For local-only file systems, install the gamin package (preferred) or run the
FAM daemon. For remote file systems, run FAM on both the server and client and open
the firewall for RPC calls by FAM.
GNOME (gnome-vfs2 and libgda) contains a wrapper that picks gamin or fam to provide
file system change notification:
If the FAM daemon is not running, gamin is preferred. (Rationale: Inotify is supported only by gamin and it is more efficient for local file systems).
If the FAM daemon is running, FAM is preferred (Rationale: If FAM is running,
you probably want remote notification, which is supported only by FAM).
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5.2.2 From 10.0 to 10.1

Refer to the article Known Problems and Special Features in SUSE Linux 10 in the
SUSE Support Database at http://www.novell.com/suselinuxportal
under the keyword special features.
Apache 2.2
For Apache version 2.2, Chapter 30, The Apache HTTP Server (page 481) was completely
reworked. In addition, find generic upgrade information at http://httpd.apache
.org/docs/2.2/upgrading.html and the description of new features at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/new_features_2_2.html.
Starting an FTP Server (vsftpd)

By default, xinetd no longer starts the vsftpd FTP server. It is now a stand-alone
daemon and you must configure it with the YaST runtime editor.
Firefox 1.5: The URL Open Command

With Firefox 1.5, the method for applications to open a Firefox instance or window has
changed. The new method was already partly available in former versions where the
behavior was implemented in the wrapper script.
If your application does not use mozilla-xremote-client or firefox
-remote, you do not have to change anything. Otherwise the new command to open
a URL is firefox url and it does not matter whether Firefox is already running or
not. If it is already running, it follows the preference configured in Open links from
other applications in.
From the command line, you can influence the behavior by using firefox
-new-window url or firefox -new-tab url.
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Firefox with Pango Support

On some computers, Firefox with Pango support enabled is very slow. The performance
seems to depend on the X server. Set MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=0 if you want to switch
on font rendering for your environment anyway:
export MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=0
firefox
Updating to MySQL 5.0

As with every major release update, it is strongly recommended to perform a backup
of the MySQL table files and create an SQL dump beforehand. After the update, /etc/
init.d/mysql automatically executes mysql_fix_privilege_tables. Refer
to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/upgrade.html for
more information and detailed instructions.
Local and IO APIC

The local and IO APIC for the 32-bit x86 architecture has changed. A local and IO
APIC (I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) is an SMP-capable replacement
for PC-style interrupt controllers. SMP systems and all recent uniprocessor systems
have such a controller.
Until now, local and IO APIC was disabled on uniprocessor systems by default and
had to be manually activated by using the "apic" kernel parameter. Now it runs by default
and can be manually deactivated. For 64-bit systems, APIC is always enabled by default.
Any system with a BIOS version newer than 2001 gets local and IO APIC activated
by default unless local and IO APIC is disabled in the BIOS or by the user.
Any BIOS from Intel newer than 1998 gets local and IO APIC activated by default.
Any system with more than one CPU gets local and IO APIC activated by default.
If you experience problems with devices not working properly, you can manually apply
the following configuration options:
To disable local APIC, use nolapic (this implies disabling IO APICs).
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To disable IO APIC, use noapic.

To get the same default as earlier releases, use nolapic.
ulimit Settings
The ulimit settings can be configured in /etc/sysconfig/ulimit. By default,
only two limits are changed from the kernel defaults:
SOFTVIRTUALLIMIT=80 limits a single process so that it does not allocate more
than 80% of the available virtual memory (RAM and swap).
SOFTRESIDENTLIMIT=85 limits a single process so that it does not occupy
more than 85% of the physical memory (RAM).
These soft limits can be overridden with the ulimit command by the user. Hard limits
could only be overridden by root.
The values have been chosen conservatively to avoid breaking large processes that have
worked before. If there are no legitimate processes with huge memory consumption,
set the limits lower to provide more effective protection against run-away processes.
The limits are per process and thus not an effective protection against malicious users.
The limits are meant to protect against accidental excessive memory usage.
To configure different limits depending on the user, use the pam_limits functionality
and configure /etc/security/limits.conf. The ulimit package is not required
for that, but both mechanisms can be used in parallel. The limits configured in limits
.conf override the global defaults from the ulimit package.
Unlocking CD and DVD Drives and Ejecting Media

A new mounting mechanism replaces the submount system used earlier. This new
mechanism does not unmount media automatically, but on hardware request. Some
devices, most notably older CD drives but also some new drives with broken firmware,
do not send this signal. To eject the media on such devices, select Eject in the context
menu (opened by right-clicking) of the device in "My Computer" or select Eject in the
context menu of the device icon on the desktop.
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5.2.3 From 10.1 to 10.2

Refer to the Bugs article in the openSUSE wiki at http://en.opensuse.org/
Bugs.
The Standard Kernel

The kernel-default package contains the standard kernel for both uniprocessor
and multiprocessor systems. The kernel comes with SMP support and runs with minimal
overhead on uniprocessor systems. There is no kernel-smp package anymore.
Add-On Medium with Additional Languages

Include the language add-on medium in your list of installation sources, if you want
better support for one of our tier 2 languages. Tier 2 languages are all but the tier 1
languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, simplified
and traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Czech). Support for tier 1 languages is available
on the standard media set.
5.2.4 From 10.2 to 10.3

Refer to the Bugs article in the openSUSE wiki at http://en.opensuse.org/
Bugs.
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RPMthe Package Manager
RPM (RPM Package Manager) is used for managing software packages. Its main
commands are rpm and rpmbuild. The powerful RPM database can be queried by
the users, system administrators, and package builders for detailed information about
the installed software.
Essentially, rpm has five modes: installing, uninstalling, or updating software packages;
rebuilding the RPM database; querying RPM bases or individual RPM archives; integrity
checking of packages; and signing packages. rpmbuild can be used to build installable
packages from pristine sources.
Installable RPM archives are packed in a special binary format. These archives consist
of the program files to install and certain meta information used during the installation
by rpm to configure the software package or stored in the RPM database for documentation purposes. RPM archives normally have the extension .rpm.
TIP: Software Development Packages
For a number of packages, the components needed for software development
(libraries, headers, include files, etc.) have been put into separate packages.
These development packages are only needed if you want to compile software
yourself, for example, the most recent GNOME packages. They can be identified
by the name extension -devel, such as the packages alsa-devel,
gimp-devel, and kdelibs3-devel.
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6.1 Verifying Package Authenticity

RPM packages have a GnuPG signature. The key including the fingerprint is:
1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <[email protected]>
Key fingerprint = 79C1 79B2 E1C8 20C1 890F 9994 A84E DAE8 9C80 0ACA
The command rpm --checksig package-1.2.3.rpm can be used to verify

the signature of an RPM package to determine whether it really originates from SUSE
or from another trustworthy facility. This is especially recommended for update packages
from the Internet. The SUSE public package signature key normally resides in /root/
.gnupg/. The key is additionally located in the directory /usr/lib/rpm/gnupg/
to enable normal users to verify the signature of RPM packages.
6.2 Managing Packages: Install,

Update, and Uninstall
Normally, the installation of an RPM archive is quite simple: rpm -i package.rpm.
With this command, the package is installed, but only if its dependencies are fulfilled
and there are no conflicts with other packages. With an error message, rpm requests
those packages that need to be installed to meet dependency requirements. In the
background, the RPM database ensures that no conflicts arisea specific file can only
belong to one package. By choosing different options, you can force rpm to ignore
these defaults, but this is only for experts. Otherwise, risk compromising the integrity
of the system and possibly jeopardize the ability to update the system.
The options -U or --upgrade and -F or --freshen can be used to update a
package, for example, rpm -F package.rpm. This command removes the files of
the old version and immediately installs the new files. The difference between the two
versions is that -U installs packages that previously did not exist in the system, but -F
merely updates previously installed packages. When updating, rpm updates configuration
files carefully using the following strategy:
If a configuration file was not changed by the system administrator, rpm installs
the new version of the appropriate file. No action by the system administrator is
required.
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If a configuration file was changed by the system administrator before the update,
rpm saves the changed file with the extension .rpmorig or .rpmsave (backup
file) and installs the version from the new package, but only if the originally installed
file and the newer version are different. If this is the case, compare the backup file
(.rpmorig or .rpmsave) with the newly installed file and make your changes
again in the new file. Afterwards, be sure to delete all .rpmorig and .rpmsave
files to avoid problems with future updates.
.rpmnew files appear if the configuration file already exists and if the noreplace
label was specified in the .spec file.
Following an update, .rpmsave and .rpmnew files should be removed after comparing them, so they do not obstruct future updates. The .rpmorig extension is assigned
if the file has not previously been recognized by the RPM database.
Otherwise, .rpmsave is used. In other words, .rpmorig results from updating from
a foreign format to RPM. .rpmsave results from updating from an older RPM to a
newer RPM. .rpmnew does not disclose any information as to whether the system
administrator has made any changes to the configuration file. A list of these files is
available in /var/adm/rpmconfigcheck. Some configuration files (like /etc/
httpd/httpd.conf) are not overwritten to allow continued operation.
The -U switch is not just an equivalent to uninstalling with the -e option and installing
with the -i option. Use -U whenever possible.
To remove a package, enter rpm -e package. rpm only deletes the package if there
are no unresolved dependencies. It is theoretically impossible to delete Tcl/Tk, for example, as long as another application requires it. Even in this case, RPM calls for assistance from the database. If such a deletion isfor whatever reason and under unusual
circumstancesimpossible, even if no additional dependencies exist, it may be helpful
to rebuild the RPM database using the option --rebuilddb.
6.3 RPM and Patches

To guarantee the operational security of a system, update packages must be installed
in the system from time to time. Previously, a bug in a package could only be eliminated
by replacing the entire package. Large packages with bugs in small files could easily
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result in large amounts of data. However the SUSE RPM offers a feature enabling the
installation of patches in packages.
The most important considerations are demonstrated using pine as an example:
Is the patch RPM suitable for my system?
To check this, first query the installed version of the package. For pine, this can be
done with
rpm -q pine
pine-4.44-188
Then check if the patch RPM is suitable for this version of pine:
rpm -qp --basedon pine-4.44-224.i586.patch.rpm
pine = 4.44-188
pine = 4.44-195
pine = 4.44-207
This patch is suitable for three different versions of pine. The installed version in
the example is also listed, so the patch can be installed.
Which files are replaced by the patch?
The files affected by a patch can easily be seen in the patch RPM. The rpm parameter -P allows selection of special patch features. Display the list of files with the
following command:
rpm -qpPl pine-4.44-224.i586.patch.rpm
/etc/pine.conf
/etc/pine.conf.fixed
/usr/bin/pine
or, if the patch is already installed, with the following command:

rpm -qPl pine
/etc/pine.conf
/etc/pine.conf.fixed
/usr/bin/pine
How can a patch RPM be installed in the system?

Patch RPMs are used just like normal RPMs. The only difference is that a suitable
RPM must already be installed.
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Which patches are already installed in the system and for which package versions?
A list of all patches installed in the system can be displayed with the command
rpm -qPa. If only one patch is installed in a new system (as in this example), the
list appears as follows:
rpm -qPa
pine-4.44-224
If, at a later date, you want to know which package version was originally installed,
this information is also available in the RPM database. For pine, this information
can be displayed with the following command:
rpm -q --basedon pine
pine = 4.44-188
More information, including information about the patch feature of RPM, is available
in the man pages of rpm and rpmbuild.
6.4 Delta RPM Packages

Delta RPM packages contain the difference between an old and a new version of an
RPM package. Applying a delta RPM on an old RPM results in the complete new RPM.
It is not necessary to have a copy of the old RPM, because a delta RPM can also work
with an installed RPM. The delta RPM packages are even smaller in size than patch
RPMs, which is an advantage when transferring update packages over the Internet. The
drawback is that update operations with delta RPMs involved consume considerably
more CPU cycles than plain or patch RPMs.
The prepdeltarpm, writedeltarpm, and applydeltarpm binaries are part
of the delta RPM suite (package deltarpm) and help you create and apply delta RPM
packages. With the following commands, create a delta RPM called new.delta.rpm.
The following command assumes that old.rpm and new.rpm are present:
prepdeltarpm -s seq -i info old.rpm > old.cpio
prepdeltarpm -f new.rpm > new.cpio
xdelta delta -0 old.cpio new.cpio delta
writedeltarpm new.rpm delta info new.delta.rpm
Finally, remove the temporary working files old.cpio, new.cpio, and delta.
Using applydeltarpm, you can reconstruct the new RPM from the file system if
the old package is already installed:
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applydeltarpm new.delta.rpm new.rpm
To derive it from the old RPM without accessing the file system, use the -r option:
applydeltarpm -r old.rpm new.delta.rpm new.rpm
See /usr/share/doc/packages/deltarpm/README" for technical details.
6.5 RPM Queries

With the -q option, rpm initiates queries, making it possible to inspect an RPM archive
(by adding the option -p) and also to query the RPM database of installed packages.
Several switches are available to specify the type of information required. See Table 6.1,
The Most Important RPM Query Options (page 90).
Table 6.1
90
The Most Important RPM Query Options
-i
Package information
-l
File list
-f FILE
Query the package that contains the file FILE (the full
path must be specified with FILE)
-s
File list with status information (implies -l)
-d
List only documentation files (implies -l)
-c
List only configuration files (implies -l)
--dump
File list with complete details (to be used with -l, -c, or
-d)
--provides
List features of the package that another package can request with --requires
--requires, -R
Capabilities the package requires
--scripts
Installation scripts (preinstall, postinstall, uninstall)
Reference
For example, the command rpm -q -i wget displays the information shown in
Example 6.1, rpm -q -i wget (page 91).
Example 6.1 rpm -q -i wget
Name
: wget
Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version
: 1.9.1
Vendor: SUSE LINUX AG,
Nuernberg, Germany
Release
: 50
Build Date: Sat 02 Oct 2004
03:49:13 AM CEST
Install date: Mon 11 Oct 2004 10:24:56 AM CEST
Build Host: f53.suse.de
Group
: Productivity/Networking/Web/Utilities
Source RPM:
wget-1.9.1-50.src.rpm
Size
: 1637514
License: GPL
Signature
: DSA/SHA1, Sat 02 Oct 2004 03:59:56 AM CEST, Key ID
a84edae89c800aca
Packager
: http://www.suse.de/feedback
URL
: http://wget.sunsite.dk/
Summary
: A tool for mirroring FTP and HTTP servers
Description :
Wget enables you to retrieve WWW documents or FTP files from a server.
This can be done in script files or via the command line.
[...]
The option -f only works if you specify the complete filename with its full path. Provide
as many filenames as desired. For example, the following command
rpm -q -f /bin/rpm /usr/bin/wget
results in:
rpm-4.1.1-191
wget-1.9.1-50
If only part of the filename is known, use a shell script as shown in Example 6.2, Script
to Search for Packages (page 91). Pass the partial filename to the script shown as a
parameter when running it.
Example 6.2 Script to Search for Packages
#! /bin/sh
for i in $(rpm -q -a -l | grep $1); do
echo "\"$i\" is in package:"
rpm -q -f $i
echo ""
done
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The command rpm -q --changelog rpm displays a detailed list of change information about a specific package, sorted by date. This example shows information about
the package rpm.
With the help of the installed RPM database, verification checks can be made. Initiate
these with -V, -y, or --verify. With this option, rpm shows all files in a package
that have been changed since installation. rpm uses eight character symbols to give
some hints about the following changes:
Table 6.2
RPM Verify Options
MD5 check sum
File size
Symbolic link
Modification time
Major and minor device numbers
Owner
Group
Mode (permissions and file type)
In the case of configuration files, the letter c is printed. For example, for changes to
/etc/wgetrc (wget):
rpm -V wget
S.5....T c /etc/wgetrc
The files of the RPM database are placed in /var/lib/rpm. If the partition /usr
has a size of 1 GB, this database can occupy nearly 30 MB, especially after a complete
update. If the database is much larger than expected, it is useful to rebuild the database
with the option --rebuilddb. Before doing this, make a backup of the old database.
The cron script cron.daily makes daily copies of the database (packed with gzip)
and stores them in /var/adm/backup/rpmdb. The number of copies is controlled
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by the variable MAX_RPMDB_BACKUPS (default: 5) in /etc/sysconfig/backup.

The size of a single backup is approximately 1 MB for 1 GB in /usr.
6.6 Installing and Compiling Source

Packages
All source packages carry a .src.rpm extension (source RPM).
TIP
Source packages can be copied from the installation medium to the hard disk
and unpacked with YaST. They are not, however, marked as installed ([i]) in
the package manager. This is because the source packages are not entered in
the RPM database. Only installed operating system software is listed in the RPM
database. When you install a source package, only the source code is added
to the system.
The following directories must be available for rpm and rpmbuild in /usr/src/
packages (unless you specified custom settings in a file like /etc/rpmrc):
SOURCES
for the original sources (.tar.bz2 or .tar.gz files, etc.) and for distributionspecific adjustments (mostly .diff or .patch files)
SPECS
for the .spec files, similar to a meta Makefile, which control the build process
BUILD
all the sources are unpacked, patched, and compiled in this directory
RPMS
where the completed binary packages are stored
SRPMS
here are the source RPMs
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When you install a source package with YaST, all the necessary components are installed
in /usr/src/packages: the sources and the adjustments in SOURCES and the
relevant .spec file in SPECS.
WARNING
Do not experiment with system components (glibc, rpm, sysvinit, etc.),
because this endangers the operability of your system.
The following example uses the wget.src.rpm package. After installing the package
with YaST, you should have files similar to the following listing:
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/nops_doc.diff
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/toplev_destdir.diff
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-1.9.1+ipvmisc.patch
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-1.9.1-brokentime.patch
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-1.9.1-passive_ftp.diff
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-LFS-20040909.tar.bz2
/usr/src/packages/SOURCES/wget-wrong_charset.patch
/usr/src/packages/SPECS/wget.spec
rpmbuild -b X /usr/src/packages/SPECS/wget.spec starts the compilation. X is a wild card for various stages of the build process (see the output of
--help or the RPM documentation for details). The following is merely a brief explanation:
-bp
Prepare sources in /usr/src/packages/BUILD: unpack and patch.
-bc
Do the same as -bp, but with additional compilation.
-bi
Do the same as -bp, but with additional installation of the built software. Caution:
if the package does not support the BuildRoot feature, you might overwrite configuration files.
-bb
Do the same as -bi, but with the additional creation of the binary package. If the
compile was successful, the binary should be in /usr/src/packages/RPMS.
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-ba
Do the same as -bb, but with the additional creation of the source RPM. If the
compilation was successful, the binary should be in /usr/src/packages/
SRPMS.
--short-circuit
Skip some steps.
The binary RPM created can now be installed with rpm -i or, preferably, with rpm
-U. Installation with rpm makes it appear in the RPM database.
6.7 Compiling RPM Packages with

build
The danger with many packages is that unwanted files are added to the running system
during the build process. To prevent this, use build, which creates a defined environment in which the package is built. To establish this chroot environment, the build
script must be provided with a complete package tree. This tree can be made available
on the hard disk, via NFS, or from DVD. Set the position with build --rpms
directory. Unlike rpm, the build command looks for the SPEC file in the source
directory. To build wget (like in the above example) with the DVD mounted in the
system under /media/dvd, use the following commands as root:
cd /usr/src/packages/SOURCES/
mv ../SPECS/wget.spec .
build --rpms /media/dvd/suse/ wget.spec
Subsequently, a minimum environment is established at /var/tmp/build-root.

The package is built in this environment. Upon completion, the resulting packages are
located in /var/tmp/build-root/usr/src/packages/RPMS.
The build script offers a number of additional options. For example, cause the script
to prefer your own RPMs, omit the initialization of the build environment, or limit the
rpm command to one of the above-mentioned stages. Access additional information
with build --help and by reading the build man page.
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6.8 Tools for RPM Archives and the

RPM Database
Midnight Commander (mc) can display the contents of RPM archives and copy parts
of them. It represents archives as virtual file systems, offering all usual menu options
of Midnight Commander. Display the HEADER with F3. View the archive structure
with the cursor keys and Enter. Copy archive components with F5.
KDE offers the kpackage tool as a front-end for rpm. A full-featured package manager
is available as a YaST module (see Chapter 3, Installing or Removing Software (StartUp)).
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Printer Operation
openSUSE supports printing with many types of printers, including remote network
printers. Printers can be configured with YaST or manually. For configuration instructions, refer to Section Setting Up a Printer (Chapter 2, Setting Up Hardware Components with YaST, Start-Up). Both graphical and command line utilities are available
for starting and managing print jobs. If your printer does not work as expected, refer
to Section 7.8, Troubleshooting (page 108).
CUPS is the standard print system in openSUSE. CUPS is highly user-oriented. In many
cases, it is compatible with LPRng or can be adapted with relatively little effort. LPRng
is included in openSUSE only for reasons of compatibility.
Printers can be distinguished by interface, such as USB or network, and printer language.
When buying a printer, make sure that the printer has an interface (like USB or parallel
port) that is available on your hardware and a suitable printer language. Printers can be
categorized on the basis of the following three classes of printer languages:
PostScript Printers
PostScript is the printer language in which most print jobs in Linux and Unix are
generated and processed by the internal print system. This language is already quite
old and very efficient. If PostScript documents can be processed directly by the
printer and do not need to be converted in additional stages in the print system, the
number of potential error sources is reduced. Because PostScript printers are subject
to substantial license costs, these printers usually cost more than printers without
a PostScript interpreter.
Printer Operation
97
Standard Printer (Languages Like PCL and ESC/P)

Although these printer languages are quite old, they are still undergoing expansion
to address new features in printers. In the case of known printer languages, the
print system can convert PostScript jobs to the respective printer language with the
help of Ghostscript. This processing stage is referred to as interpreting. The bestknown languages are PCL, which is mostly used by HP printers and their clones,
and ESC/P, which is used by Epson printers. These printer languages are usually
supported by Linux and produce a decent print result. Linux may not be able to
address some functions of extremely new and fancy printers, because the open
source developers may still be working on these features. Except for HP developing
hpijs drivers, there are currently no printer manufacturers who develop Linux
drivers and make them available to Linux distributors under an open source license.
Most of these printers are in the medium price range.
Proprietary Printers (Also Called GDI Printers)
These printers do not support any of the common printer languages. They use their
own undocumented printer languages, which are subject to change when a new
edition of a model is released. Usually only Windows drivers are available for these
printers. See Section 7.8.1, Printers without Standard Printer Language Support
(page 108) for more information.
Before you buy a new printer, refer to the following sources to check how well the
printer you intend to buy is supported:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/
The LinuxPrinting.org printer database.
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
The Ghostscript Web page.
/usr/share/doc/packages/ghostscript/catalog.devices
List of included drivers.
The online databases always show the latest Linux support status. However, a Linux
distribution can only integrate the drivers available at production time. Accordingly, a
printer currently rated as perfectly supported may not have had this status when the
latest openSUSE version was released. Thus, the databases may not necessarily indicate
the correct status, but only provide an approximation.
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7.1 The Workflow of the Printing

System
The user creates a print job. The print job consists of the data to print plus information
for the spooler, such as the name of the printer or the name of the printer queue, and,
optionally, information for the filter, such as printer-specific options.
At least one dedicated printer queue exists for every printer. The spooler holds the print
job in the queue until the desired printer is ready to receive data. When the printer is
ready, the spooler sends the data through the filter and back-end to the printer.
The filter converts the data generated by the application that is printing (usually
PostScript or PDF, but also ASCII, JPEG, etc.) into printer-specific data (PostScript,
PCL, ESC/P, etc.). The features of the printer are described in the PPD files. A PPD
file contains printer-specific options with the parameters needed to enable them on the
printer. The filter system makes sure that options selected by the user are enabled.
If you use a PostScript printer, the filter system converts the data into printer-specific
PostScript. This does not require a printer driver. If you use a non-PostScript printer,
the filter system converts the data into printer-specific data using Ghostscript. This requires a Ghostscript printer driver suitable for your printer. The back-end receives the
printer-specific data from the filter then passes it to the printer.
7.2 Methods and Protocols for

Connecting Printers
There are various possibilities for connecting a printer to the system. The configuration
of the CUPS print system does not distinguish between a local printer and a printer
connected to the system over the network. In Linux, local printers must be connected
as described in the manual of the printer manufacturer. CUPS supports serial, USB,
parallel, and SCSI connections. For more information about the printer connection,
read the article CUPS in a Nutshell in the Support Database at http://en.opensuse
.org/SDB:CUPS_in_a_Nutshell.
Printer Operation
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WARNING: Changing Cable Connections in a Running System

When connecting the printer to the machine, do not forget that only USB devices can be plugged in or unplugged during operation. To avoid damaging
your system or printer, shut down the system before changing any connections
that are not USB.
7.3 Installing the Software

PPD (PostScript printer description) is the computer language that describes the properties, like resolution, and options, such as the availability of a duplex unit. These descriptions are required for using various printer options in CUPS. Without a PPD file,
the print data would be forwarded to the printer in a raw state, which is usually not
desired. During the installation of openSUSE, many PPD files are preinstalled to enable
even printers without PostScript support to be used.
To configure a PostScript printer, the best approach is to get a suitable PPD file. Many
PPD files are available in the package manufacturer-PPDs, which is automatically
installed within the scope of the standard installation. See Section 7.7.3, PPD Files in
Various Packages (page 106) and Section 7.8.2, No Suitable PPD File Available for
a PostScript Printer (page 109).
New PPD files can be stored in the directory /usr/share/cups/model/ or added
to the print system with YaST (as described in Section Adding PPD Files with YaST
(Chapter 2, Setting Up Hardware Components with YaST, Start-Up)). Subsequently,
the PPD file can be selected during the installation.
Be careful if a printer manufacturer wants you to install entire software packages in
addition to modifying configuration files. First, this kind of installation would result in
the loss of the support provided by openSUSE and, second, print commands may work
differently and the system may no longer be able to address devices of other manufacturers. For this reason, the installation of manufacturer software is not recommended.
7.4 Network Printers

A network printer can support various protocols, some of them even concurrently. Although most of the supported protocols are standardized, some manufacturers expand
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(modify) the standard because they test systems that have not implemented the standard
correctly or because they want to provide certain functions that are not available in the
standard. Manufacturers then provide drivers for only a few operating systems, eliminating difficulties with those systems. Unfortunately, Linux drivers are rarely provided.
The current situation is such that you cannot act on the assumption that every protocol
works smoothly in Linux. Therefore, you may have to experiment with various options
to achieve a functional configuration.
IMPORTANT: Remote Access Settings
By default, the cupsd only listens on internal network interfaces (localhost).
When setting up a CUPS network server you need to adjust the Listen directive in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf to listen to the outer network.
CUPS supports the socket, LPD, IPP, and smb protocols.
socket
Socket refers to a connection in which the data is sent to an Internet socket without
first performing a data handshake. Some of the socket port numbers that are commonly used are 9100 or 35. The device URI (uniform resource identifier) syntax
is socket://IP.of.the.printer:port, for example,
socket://192.168.2.202:9100/.
LPD (Line Printer Daemon)
The proven LPD protocol is described in RFC 1179. Under this protocol, some
job-related data, such as the ID of the printer queue, is sent before the actual print
data is sent. Therefore, a printer queue must be specified when configuring the
LPD protocol for the data transmission. The implementations of diverse printer
manufacturers are flexible enough to accept any name as the printer queue. If necessary, the printer manual should indicate what name to use. LPT, LPT1, LP1, or
similar names are often used. An LPD queue can also be configured on a different
Linux or Unix host in the CUPS system. The port number for an LPD service is
515. An example device URI is lpd://192.168.2.202/LPT1.
IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)
IPP is a relatively new (1999) protocol based on the HTTP protocol. With IPP,
more job-related data is transmitted than with the other protocols. CUPS uses IPP
for internal data transmission. This is the preferred protocol for a forwarding queue
between two CUPS servers. The name of the print queue is necessary to configure
Printer Operation
101
IPP correctly. The port number for IPP is 631. Example device URIs are
ipp://192.168.2.202/ps and ipp://192.168.2.202/printers/ps.
SMB (Windows Share)
CUPS also supports printing on printers connected to Windows shares. The protocol
used for this purpose is SMB. SMB uses the port numbers 137, 138, and 139.
Example device URIs are
smb://user:password@workgroup/smb.example.com/printer,
smb://user:[email protected]/printer, and
smb://smb.example.com/printer.
The protocol supported by the printer must be determined before configuration. If the
manufacturer does not provide the needed information, the command nmap, which
comes with the nmap package, can be used to guess the protocol. nmap checks a host
for open ports. For example:
nmap -p 35,137-139,515,631,9100-10000 printerIP
7.4.1 Configuring CUPS with Command Line

Tools
Apart from setting CUPS options with YaST when configuring a network printer, CUPS
can be configured with command line tools like lpadmin and lpoptions. You need
a device URI consisting of a back-end, such as USB, and parameters, like /dev/usb/
lp0. For example, the full URI could be parallel:/dev/lp0 (printer connected
to the first parallel port) or usb:/dev/usb/lp0 (first detected printer connected to
the USB port).
With lpadmin, the CUPS server administrator can add, remove, or manage class and
print queues. To add a print queue, use the following syntax:
lpadmin -p queue -v device-URI -P PPD-file -E
Then the device (-v) is available as queue (-p), using the specified PPD file (-P).
This means that you must know the PPD file and the name of the device to configure
the printer manually.
Do not use -E as the first option. For all CUPS commands, -E as the first argument
sets use of an encrypted connection. To enable the printer, -E must be used as shown
in the following example:
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Reference
lpadmin -p ps -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -P \
/usr/share/cups/model/Postscript.ppd.gz -E
The following example configures a network printer:

lpadmin -p ps -v socket://192.168.2.202:9100/ -P \
/usr/share/cups/model/Postscript-level1.ppd.gz -E
For more options of lpadmin, see the man page of lpadmin(1).

During printer setup, certain options are set as default. These options can be modified
for every print job (depending on the print tool used). Changing these default options
with YaST is also possible. Using command line tools, set default options as follows:
1 First, list all options:
lpoptions -p queue -l
Example:
Resolution/Output Resolution: 150dpi *300dpi 600dpi
The activated default option is identified by a preceding asterisk (*).

2 Change the option with lpadmin:
lpadmin -p queue -o Resolution=600dpi
3 Check the new setting:

lpoptions -p queue -l
Resolution/Output Resolution: 150dpi 300dpi *600dpi
When a normal user runs lpoptions, the settings are written to ~/.lpoptions.
However, root settings are written to /etc/cups/lpoptions.
7.5 Graphical Printing Interfaces

Tools such as xpp and the KDE program KPrinter provide a graphical interface for
choosing queues and setting both CUPS standard options and printer-specific options
made available through the PPD file. You can even use KPrinter as the standard printing
interface of non-KDE applications. In the print dialog of these applications, specify
either kprinter or kprinter --stdin as the print command. The command to
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103
use depends on how the application transmits the datajust try which one results in
starting KPrinter. If set up correctly, the application should open the KPrinter dialog
whenever a print job is issued from it, so you can use the dialog to select a queue and
set other printing options. This requires that the application's own print setup does not
conflict with that of KPrinter and that printing options are only changed through
KPrinter after it has been enabled. More information on KPrinter is available in Section Printing (Chapter 1, Getting Started with the KDE Desktop, KDE User Guide).
7.6 Printing from the Command Line

To print from the command line, enter lp -d queuename filename, substituting
the corresponding names for queuename and filename.
Some applications rely on the lp command for printing. In this case, enter the correct
command in the application's print dialog, usually without specifying filename, for
example, lp -d queuename.
7.7 Special Features in openSUSE

A number of CUPS features have been adapted for openSUSE. Some of the most important changes are covered here.
7.7.1 CUPS and Firewall

After having performed a default installation of openSUSE, SuSEfirewall2 is active
and the external network devices are configured to be in the External Zone which
blocks incoming traffic. These default settings have to be adjusted when using CUPS.
More information about the SUSEfirewall2 configuration is available in Section 35.4,
SuSEfirewall2 (page 582).
CUPS Client
Normally a CUPS client runs on a regular workstation located in a network behind a
firewall. In this case it is recommended to configure the external network devices to
be in the Internal Zone, so the workstation is reachable from within the network.
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CUPS Server
If the CUPS server is part of network protected by a firewall, the external network device
should be configured to be in the Internal Zone of the firewall. When being part
of the external zone, the TCP and UDP port 631 needs to be opened in order to make
the CUPS server available in the network.
7.7.2 Changes in the CUPS Print Service

Generalized Functionality for BrowseAllow and
BrowseDeny
The access permissions set for BrowseAllow and BrowseDeny apply to all kinds
of packages sent to cupsd. The default settings in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf are
as follows:
BrowseAllow @LOCAL
BrowseDeny All
and
<Location />
Order Deny,Allow
Deny From All
Allow From 127.0.0.1
Allow From 127.0.0.2
Allow From @LOCAL
</Location>
In this way, only LOCAL hosts can access cupsd on a CUPS server. LOCAL hosts are
hosts whose IP addresses belong to a non-PPP interface (interfaces whose
IFF_POINTOPOINT flags are not set) and whose IP addresses belong to the same
network as the CUPS server. Packets from all other hosts are rejected immediately.
cupsd Activated by Default

In a standard installation, cupsd is activated automatically, enabling comfortable access
to the queues of CUPS network servers without any additional manual actions. The
items in Section Generalized Functionality for BrowseAllow and BrowseDeny
Printer Operation
105
(page 105) are vital preconditions for this feature, because otherwise the security would
not be sufficient for an automatic activation of cupsd.
7.7.3 PPD Files in Various Packages

The YaST printer configuration sets up the queues for CUPS using only the PPD files
installed in /usr/share/cups/model. To find the suitable PPD files for the
printer model, YaST compares the vendor and model determined during hardware detection with the vendors and models in all PPD files available in /usr/share/cups/
model on the system. For this purpose, the YaST printer configuration generates a
database from the vendor and model information extracted from the PPD files. When
you select a printer from the list of vendors and models, receive the PPD files matching
the vendor and model.
The configuration using only PPD files and no other information sources has the advantage that the PPD files in /usr/share/cups/model can be modified freely. The
YaST printer configuration recognizes changes and regenerates the vendor and model
database. For example, if you only have PostScript printers, normally you do not need
the Foomatic PPD files in the cups-drivers package or the Gimp-Print PPD files
in the cups-drivers-stp package. Instead, the PPD files for your PostScript
printers can be copied directly to /usr/share/cups/model (if they do not already
exist in the manufacturer-PPDs package) to achieve an optimum configuration
for your printers.
CUPS PPD Files in the cups Package

The generic PPD files in the cups package have been complemented with adapted
Foomatic PPD files for PostScript level 1 and level 2 printers:
/usr/share/cups/model/Postscript-level1.ppd.gz
/usr/share/cups/model/Postscript-level2.ppd.gz
PPD Files in the cups-drivers Package

Normally, the Foomatic printer filter foomatic-rip is used together with Ghostscript
for non-PostScript printers. Suitable Foomatic PPD files have the entries *NickName:
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Reference
... Foomatic/Ghostscript driver and *cupsFilter: ...

foomatic-rip. These PPD files are located in the cups-drivers package.
YaST prefers a Foomatic PPD file if a Foomatic PPD file with the entry *NickName:
... Foomatic ... (recommended) matches the printer model and the
manufacturer-PPDs package does not contain a more suitable PPD file.
Gimp-Print PPD Files in the cups-drivers-stp

Package
Instead of foomatic-rip, the CUPS filter rastertoprinter from Gimp-Print
can be used for many non-PostScript printers. This filter and suitable Gimp-Print PPD
files are available in the cups-drivers-stp package. The Gimp-Print PPD files
are located in /usr/share/cups/model/stp/ and have the entries *NickName:
... CUPS+Gimp-Print and *cupsFilter: ... rastertoprinter.
PPD Files from Printer Manufacturers in the

manufacturer-PPDs Package
The manufacturer-PPDs package contains PPD files from printer manufacturers
that are released under a sufficiently liberal license. PostScript printers should be configured with the suitable PPD file of the printer manufacturer, because this file enables
the use of all functions of the PostScript printer. YaST prefers a PPD file from the
manufacturer-PPDs package if the following conditions are met:
The vendor and model determined during the hardware detection match the vendor
and model in a PPD file from the manufacturer-PPDs package.
The PPD file from the manufacturer-PPDs package is the only suitable PPD
file for the printer model or a there is a Foomatic PPD file with a *NickName:
... Foomatic/Postscript (recommended) entry that also matches the
printer model.
Accordingly, YaST does not use any PPD file from the manufacturer-PPDs
package in the following cases:
The PPD file from the the manufacturer-PPDs package does not match the
vendor and model. This may happen if the manufacturer-PPDs package con-
Printer Operation
107
tains only one PPD file for similar models, for example, if there is no separate PPD
file for the individual models of a model series, but the model name is specified in
a form like Funprinter 1000 series in the PPD file.
The Foomatic PostScript PPD file is not recommended. This may be because the
printer model does not operate efficiently enough in PostScript mode, for example,
the printer may be unreliable in this mode because it has too little memory or the
printer is too slow because its processor is too weak. Furthermore, the printer may
not support PostScript by default, for example, because PostScript support is only
available as an optional module.
If a PPD file from the manufacturer-PPDs package is suitable for a PostScript
printer, but YaST cannot configure it for these reasons, select the respective printer
model manually in YaST.
7.8 Troubleshooting
The following sections cover some of the most frequently encountered printer hardware
and software problems and ways to solve or circumvent these problems. Among the
topics covered are GDI printers, PPD files, and port configuration. Common network
printer problems, defective printouts, and queue handling are also addressed.
7.8.1 Printers without Standard Printer

Language Support
These printers do not support any common printer language and can only be addressed
with special proprietary control sequences. Therefore they can only work with the operating system versions for which the manufacturer delivers a driver. GDI is a programming interface developed by Microsoft* for graphics devices. Usually the manufacturer
delivers drivers only for Windows and because the Windows driver uses the GDI interface, these printers are also called GDI printers. The actual problem is not the programming interface, but the fact that these printers can only be addressed with the proprietary
printer language of the respective printer model.
Some GDI printers can be switched to operate either in GDI mode or one of the standard
printer languages. See the manual of the printer whether it is possible. Some models
require a special Windows software to do the switch (note that the Windows printer
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Reference
driver may always switch the printer back into GDI mode when printing from Windows).
For other GDI printers there are extension modules for a standard printer language
available.
Some manufacturers provide proprietary drivers for their printers. The disadvantage of
proprietary printer drivers is that there is no guarantee that these work with the installed
print system and that they are suitable for the various hardware platforms. In contrast,
printers that support a standard printer language do not depend on a special print system
version or a special hardware platform.
Instead of spending time trying to make a proprietary Linux driver work, it may be
more cost-effective to purchase a supported printer. This would solve the driver problem
once and for all, eliminating the need to install and configure special driver software
and obtain driver updates that may be required due to new developments in the print
system.
7.8.2 No Suitable PPD File Available for a

PostScript Printer
If the manufacturer-PPDs package does not contain any suitable PPD file for a
PostScript printer, it should be possible to use the PPD file from the driver CD of the
printer manufacturer or download a suitable PPD file from the Web page of the printer
manufacturer.
If the PPD file is provided as a zip archive (.zip) or a self-extracting zip archive (.exe),
unpack it with unzip. First, review the license terms of the PPD file. Then use the
cupstestppd utility to check if the PPD file complies with Adobe PostScript
Printer Description File Format Specification, version 4.3. If the utility returns FAIL,
the errors in the PPD files are serious and are likely to cause major problems. The
problem spots reported by cupstestppd should be eliminated. If necessary, ask the
printer manufacturer for a suitable PPD file.
7.8.3 Parallel Ports

The safest approach is to connect the printer directly to the first parallel port and to select
the following parallel port settings in the BIOS:
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109
I/O address: 378 (hexadecimal)

Interrupt: irrelevant
Mode: Normal, SPP, or Output Only
DMA: disabled
If the printer cannot be addressed on the parallel port despite these settings, enter the
I/O address explicitly in accordance with the setting in the BIOS in the form 0x378
in /etc/modprobe.conf. If there are two parallel ports that are set to the I/O addresses 378 and 278 (hexadecimal), enter these in the form 0x378,0x278.
If interrupt 7 is free, it can be activated with the entry shown in Example 7.1, /etc/
modprobe.conf: Interrupt Mode for the First Parallel Port (page 110). Before activating the interrupt mode, check the file /proc/interrupts to see which interrupts
are already in use. Only the interrupts currently being used are displayed. This may
change depending on which hardware components are active. The interrupt for the
parallel port must not be used by any other device. If you are not sure, use the polling
mode with irq=none.
Example 7.1 /etc/modprobe.conf: Interrupt Mode for the First Parallel Port
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
options parport_pc io=0x378 irq=7
7.8.4 Network Printer Connections

Identifying Network Problems
Connect the printer directly to the computer. For test purposes, configure the
printer as a local printer. If this works, the problems are related to the network.
Checking the TCP/IP Network
The TCP/IP network and name resolution must be functional.
Checking the Remote Accessibility
By default, the cupsd only listens on internal network interfaces (localhost).
Check whether the Listen directive(s) in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf allow
access from the outer network:
Listen 192.168.2,*:631
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Reference
Checking the Firewall Settings

A CUPS server either needs to be in the internal firewall zone or, when being in
the external zone, must be able to send and receive data on the UDP and TCP port
631.
Checking a Remote lpd
Use the following command to test if a TCP connection can be established to lpd
(port 515) on host:
netcat -z host 515 && echo ok || echo failed
If the connection to lpd cannot be established, lpd may not be active or there
may be basic network problems.
As the user root, use the following command to query a (possibly very long)
status report for queue on remote host, provided the respective lpd is active
and the host accepts queries:
echo -e "\004queue" \
| netcat -w 2 -p 722 host 515
If lpd does not respond, it may not be active or there may be basic network problems. If lpd responds, the response should show why printing is not possible on
the queue on host. If you receive a response like that in Example 7.2, Error
Message from lpd (page 111), the problem is caused by the remote lpd.
Example 7.2 Error Message from lpd
lpd: your host does not have line printer access
lpd: queue does not exist
printer: spooling disabled
printer: printing disabled
Checking a Remote cupsd

By default, the CUPS network server should broadcast its queues every 30 seconds
on UDP port 631. Accordingly, the following command can be used to test whether
there is a CUPS network server in the network.
netcat -u -l -p 631 & PID=$! ; sleep 40 ; kill $PID
If a broadcasting CUPS network server exists, the output appears as shown in Example 7.3, Broadcast from the CUPS Network Server (page 112).
Printer Operation
111
Example 7.3 Broadcast from the CUPS Network Server

ipp://192.168.2.202:631/printers/queue
The following command can be used to test if a TCP connection can be established
to cupsd (port 631) on host:
netcat -z host 631 && echo ok || echo failed
If the connection to cupsd cannot be established, cupsd may not be active or

there may be basic network problems. lpstat -h host -l -t returns a
(possibly very long) status report for all queues on host, provided the respective
cupsd is active and the host accepts queries.
The next command can be used to test if the queue on host accepts a print job
consisting of a single carriage-return character. Nothing should be printed. Possibly,
a blank page may be ejected.
echo -en "\r" \
| lp -d queue -h host
Troubleshooting a Network Printer or Print Server Box

Spoolers running in a print server box sometimes cause problems when they have
to deal with a lot of print jobs. Because this is caused by the spooler in the print
server box, there is nothing you can do about it. As a work-around, circumvent the
spooler in the print server box by addressing the printer connected to the print
server box directly with TCP socket. See Section 7.4, Network Printers (page 100).
In this way, the print server box is reduced to a converter between the various forms
of data transfer (TCP/IP network and local printer connection). To use this method,
you need to know the TCP port on the print server box. If the printer is connected
to the print server box and powered on, this TCP port can usually be determined
with the nmap utility from the nmap package some time after the print server box
is powered on. For example, nmap IP-address may deliver the following
output for a print server box:
Port
23/tcp
80/tcp
515/tcp
631/tcp
9100/tcp
State
open
open
open
open
open
Service
telnet
http
printer
cups
jetdirect
This output indicates that the printer connected to the print server box can be addressed via TCP socket on port 9100. By default, nmap only checks a number of
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Reference
commonly known ports listed in /usr/share/nmap/nmap-services. To

check all possible ports, use the command nmap
-p from_port-to_port IP-address. This may take some time. For further
information, refer to the man page of nmap.
Enter a command like
echo -en "\rHello\r\f" | netcat -w 1 IP-address port
cat file | netcat -w 1 IP-address port
to send character strings or files directly to the respective port to test if the printer
can be addressed on this port.
7.8.5 Defective Printouts without Error

Message
For the print system, the print job is completed when the CUPS back-end completes
the data transfer to the recipient (printer). If the further processing on the recipient fails,
for example, if the printer is not able to print the printer-specific data, the print system
does not notice this. If the printer is not able to print the printer-specific data, select a
different PPD file that is more suitable for the printer.
7.8.6 Disabled Queues

If the data transfer to the recipient fails entirely after several attempts, the CUPS backend, such as USB or socket, reports an error to the print system (to cupsd). The
back-end decides whether and how many attempts make sense until the data transfer
is reported as impossible. Because further attempts would be in vain, cupsd disables
printing for the respective queue. After eliminating the cause of the problem, the system
administrator must reenable printing with the command /usr/bin/enable.
7.8.7 CUPS Browsing: Deleting Print Jobs

If a CUPS network server broadcasts its queues to the client hosts via browsing and a
suitable local cupsd is active on the client hosts, the client cupsd accepts print jobs
from applications and forwards them to the cupsd on the server. When cupsd accepts
a print job, it is assigned a new job number. Therefore, the job number on the client
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113
host is different from the job number on the server. Because a print job is usually forwarded immediately, it cannot be deleted with the job number on the client host, because
the client cupsd regards the print job as completed as soon as it has been forwarded
to the server cupsd.
To delete the print job on the server, use a command such as lpstat -h
cups.example.com -o to determine the job number on the server, provided the
server has not already completed the print job (that is, sent it completely to the printer).
Using this job number, the print job on the server can be deleted:
cancel -h cups.example.com queue-jobnnumber
7.8.8 Defective Print Jobs and Data Transfer

Errors
Print jobs remain in the queues and printing resumes if you switch the printer off and
on or shut down and reboot the computer during the printing process. Defective print
jobs must be removed from the queue with cancel.
If a print job is defective or an error occurs in the communication between the host and
the printer, the printer prints numerous sheets of paper with unintelligible characters,
because it is unable to process the data correctly. To deal with this, follow these steps:
1 To stop printing, remove all paper from ink jet printers or open the paper trays
of laser printers. High-quality printers have a button for canceling the current
printout.
2 The print job may still be in the queue, because jobs are only removed after they
are sent completely to the printer. Use lpstat -o or lpstat -h
cups.example.com -o to check which queue is currently printing. Delete
the print job with cancel queue-jobnumber or cancel -h
cups.example.com queue-jobnumber.
3 Some data may still be transferred to the printer even though the print job has
been deleted from the queue. Check if a CUPS back-end process is still running
for the respective queue and terminate it. For example, for a printer connected
to the parallel port, the command fuser -k /dev/lp0 can be used to terminate all processes that are still accessing the printer (more precisely: the parallel
port).
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Reference
4 Reset the printer completely by switching it off for some time. Then insert the
paper and turn on the printer.
7.8.9 Debugging the CUPS Print System

Use the following generic procedure to locate problems in the CUPS print system:
1 Set LogLevel debug in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.
2 Stop cupsd.
3 Remove /var/log/cups/error_log* to avoid having to search through
very large log files.
4 Start cupsd.
5 Repeat the action that led to the problem.
6 Check the messages in /var/log/cups/error_log* to identify the cause
of the problem.

Solutions to many specific problems are presented in the SUSE Support Database
(http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:SDB). Locate the relevant articles with a text
search for SDB:CUPS.
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The X Window System

The X Window System (X11) is the de facto standard for graphical user interfaces in
UNIX. X is network-based, enabling applications started on one host to be displayed
on another host connected over any kind of network (LAN or Internet). This chapter
describes the setup and optimization of the X Window System environment, and provides
background information about the use of fonts in openSUSE.
8.1 Manually Configuring the X

Window System
By default, the X Window System is configured with the SaX2 interface, described in
Section Setting Up Graphics Card and Monitor (Chapter 2, Setting Up Hardware
Components with YaST, Start-Up). Alternatively it can be configured manually by
editing the its configuration files.
WARNING: Faulty X Configurations can Damage Your Hardware
Be very careful when configuring your X Window System. Never start the X
Window System until the configuration is finished. A misconfigured system can
cause irreparable damage to your hardware (this applies especially to fixedfrequency monitors). The creators of this book and openSUSE cannot be held
responsible for any resulting damage. This information has been carefully researched, but this does not guarantee that all methods presented here are
correct and cannot damage your hardware.
The X Window System
117
The command sax2 creates the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. This is the primary
configuration file of the X Window System. Find all the settings here concerning your
graphics card, mouse, and monitor.
The following sections describe the structure of the configuration file /etc/X11/
xorg.conf. It consists of several sections, each one dealing with a certain aspect of
the configuration. Each section starts with the keyword Section <designation>
and ends with EndSection. The following convention applies to all sections:
Section "designation"
entry 1
entry 2
entry n
EndSection
The section types available are listed in Table 8.1, Sections in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(page 118).
Table 8.1
118
Sections in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Type
Meaning
Files
The paths used for fonts and the RGB color table.
ServerFlags
General switches for the server behavior.
Module
A list of modules the server should load
InputDevice
Input devices, like keyboards and special input devices (touchpads, joysticks, etc.), are configured in this section. Important
parameters in this section are Driver and the options defining
the Protocol and Device. You normally have one
InputDevice section per device attached to the computer.
Monitor
The monitor used. Important elements of this section are the

Identifier, which is referred to later in the Screen definition, the refresh rate VertRefresh, and the synchronization
frequency limits (HorizSync and VertRefresh). Settings
are given in MHz, kHz, and Hz. Normally, the server refuses
any modeline that does not correspond with the specification of
Reference
Type
Meaning
the monitor. This prevents too high frequencies from being sent
to the monitor by accident.
Modes
The modeline parameters for the specific screen resolutions.

These parameters can be calculated by SaX2 on the basis of the
values given by the user and normally do not need to be changed.
Intervene manually at this point if, for example, you want to
connect a fixed frequency monitor. Find details of the meaning
of individual number values in the HOWTO files in /usr/
share/doc/howto/en/html/
XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO (available in the
howtoenh package).
Device
A specific graphics card. It is referenced by its descriptive name.
Screen
Combines a Monitor and a Device to form all the necessary

settings for X.Org. In the Display subsection, specify the size
of the virtual screen (Virtual), the ViewPort, and the
Modes used with this screen.
ServerLayout The layout of a single or multihead configuration. This section

binds the input devices InputDevice and the display devices
Screen.
DRI
Provides information for the Direct Rendering Infrastructure

(DRI).
Monitor, Device, and Screen are explained in more detail. Further information
about the other sections can be found in the manual pages of X.Org and xorg.conf.
There can be several different Monitor and Device sections in xorg.conf. Even
multiple Screen sections are possible. The ServerLayout section determines
which of these sections is used.
The X Window System
119
8.1.1 Screen Section

The screen section combines a monitor with a device section and determines the resolution and color depth to use. A screen section might resemble Example 8.1, Screen
Section of the File /etc/X11/xorg.conf (page 120).
Example 8.1 Screen Section of the File /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth
16
Modes
"1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
Virtual
1152x864
EndSubSection
Depth
24
Modes
"1280x1024"
EndSubSection
Depth
32
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
Depth
8
Modes
"1280x1024"
EndSubSection
Device
"Device[0]"
Identifier
"Screen[0]"
Monitor
"Monitor[0]"
EndSection
120
Section determines the section type, in this case Screen.
DefaultDepth determines the color depth to use by default unless another

color depth is explicitly specified.
For each color depth, different Display subsections are specified.
Depth determines the color depth to be used with this set of Display settings.
Possible values are 8, 15, 16, 24, and 32, though not all of these might be supported by all X server modules or resolutions.
The Modes section comprises a list of possible screen resolutions. The list is
checked by the X server from left to right. For each resolution, the X server
searches for a suitable Modeline in the Modes section. The Modeline depends
Reference
on the capability of both the monitor and the graphics card. The Monitor settings
determine the resulting Modeline.
The first resolution found is the Default mode. With Ctrl + Alt + + (on the
number pad), switch to the next resolution in the list to the right. With Ctrl + Alt
+ (on the number pad), switch to the previous. This enables you to vary the
resolution while X is running.
The last line of the Display subsection with Depth 16 refers to the size of
the virtual screen. The maximum possible size of a virtual screen depends on the
amount of memory installed on the graphics card and the desired color depth, not
on the maximum resolution of the monitor. If you omit this line, the virtual resolution is just the physical resolution. Because modern graphics cards have a large
amount of video memory, you can create very large virtual desktops. However,
you may no longer be able to use 3D functionality if you fill most of the video
memory with a virtual desktop. If, for example, the card has 16 MB of video
RAM, the virtual screen can take up to 4096x4096 pixels in size at 8-bit color
depth. Especially for accelerated cards, however, it is not recommended to use
all your memory for the virtual screen, because the card's memory is also used
for several font and graphics caches.
The Identifier line (here Screen[0]) gives this section a defined name
with which it can be uniquely referenced in the following ServerLayout section. The lines Device and Monitor specify the graphics card and the monitor
that belong to this definition. These are just links to the Device and Monitor
sections with their corresponding names or identifiers. These sections are discussed
in detail below.
8.1.2 Device Section

A device section describes a specific graphics card. You can have as many device entries
in xorg.conf as you like, provided their names are differentiated using the keyword
Identifier. If you have more than one graphics card installed, the sections are
simply numbered in order. The first one is called Device[0], the second one
Device[1], and so on. The following file shows an excerpt from the Device section
of a computer with a Matrox Millennium PCI graphics card (as configured by SaX2):
Section "Device"
BoardName
"MGA2064W"
BusID
"0:19:0"
Driver
"mga"
The X Window System
121
Identifier
VendorName
Option
EndSection
"Device[0]"
"Matrox"
"sw_cursor"
The BusID refers to the PCI or AGP slot in which the graphics card is installed.
This matches the ID displayed by the command lspci. The X server needs details
in decimal form, but lspci displays these in hexadecimal form. The value of
BusID is automatically detected by SaX2.
The value of Driver is automatically set by SaX2 and specifies which driver to
use for your graphics card. If the card is a Matrox Millennium, the driver module
is called mga. The X server then searches through the ModulePath defined in
the Files section in the drivers subdirectory. In a standard installation, this
is the /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers directory. _drv.o is added to
the name, so, in the case of the mga driver, the driver file mga_drv.o is loaded.
The behavior of the X server or of the driver can also be influenced through additional
options. An example of this is the option sw_cursor, which is set in the device section.
This deactivates the hardware mouse cursor and depicts the mouse cursor using software.
Depending on the driver module, there are various options available, which can be
found in the description files of the driver modules in the directory /usr/share/
doc/package_name. Generally valid options can also be found in the manual pages
(man xorg.conf, man X.Org, and man 4 chips).
If the graphics card has multiple video connectors, it is possible to configure the different
devices of this single card as one single view. Use SaX2 to set up your graphics interface
this way.
8.1.3 Monitor and Modes Section

Like the Device sections, the Monitor and Modes sections describe one monitor
each. The configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf can contain as many Monitor
sections as desired. Each Monitor section references a Modes section with the line
UseModes if available. If no Modes section is available for the Monitor section,
the X server calculates appropriate values from the general synchronization values. The
server layout section specifies which Monitor section is relevant.
Monitor definitions should only be set by experienced users. The modelines are an
important part of the Monitor sections. Modelines set horizontal and vertical timings
122
Reference
for the respective resolution. The monitor properties, especially the allowed frequencies,
are stored in the Monitor section.
WARNING
Unless you have in-depth knowledge of monitor and graphics card functions,
do not change the modelines, because this could severely damage your monitor.
Those who try to develop their own monitor descriptions should be very familiar with
the documentation in /usr/share/X11/doc.
Manual specification of modelines is rarely required today. If you are using a modern
multisync monitor, the allowed frequencies and optimal resolutions can, as a rule, be
read directly from the monitor by the X server via DDC, as described in the SaX2
configuration section. If this is not possible for some reason, use one of the VESA
modes included in the X server. This will work with almost all graphics card and
monitor combinations.
8.2 Installing and Configuring Fonts

The installation of additional fonts in openSUSE is very easy. Simply copy the fonts
to any directory located in the X11 font path (see Section 8.2.1, X11 Core Fonts
(page 124)). To the enable use of the fonts, the installation directory should be a subdirectory of the directories configured in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf (see Section 8.2.2,
Xft (page 125)) or included into this file with /etc/fonts/suse-font-dirs
.conf.
The following is an excerpt from /etc/fonts/suse-font-dirs.conf. This
file is included into the configuration, because it is linked into the directory /etc/
fonts/conf.d which is included by /etc/fonts/fonts.conf. In this directory,
all files or symbolic links starting with a two digit number are loaded by fontconfig.
For a more detailed explanation of this functionality, have a look at /etc/fonts/
conf.d/README.

<dir>/usr/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
<dir>/opt/kde3/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/local/share/fonts</dir>
The X Window System
123
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>
<include ignore_missing="yes">conf.d</include>
/etc/fonts/suse-font-dirs.conf is automatically generated to pull in fonts

that ship with (mostly third party) applications like OpenOffice.org, Java or Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Some typical entries of /etc/fonts/suse-font-dirs.conf
would look like the following:
<dir>/usr/lib64/ooo-2.0/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/lib/jvm/java-1_4_2-sun-1.4.2.11/jre/lib/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/lib64/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0_07/jre/lib/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Resource/Font</dir>
<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/Acrobat7/Resource/Font/PFM</dir>
To install additional fonts systemwide, manually copy the font files to a suitable directory (as root), such as /usr/share/fonts/truetype. Alternatively, the task
can be performed with the KDE font installer in the KDE Control Center. The result is
the same.
Instead of copying the actual fonts, you can also create symbolic links. For example,
you may want to do this if you have licensed fonts on a mounted Windows partition
and want to use them. Subsequently, run SuSEconfig --module fonts .
SuSEconfig --module fonts executes the script /usr/sbin/
fonts-config, which handles the font configuration. For more information on this
script, refer to its manual page (man fonts-config ).
The procedure is the same for bitmap fonts, TrueType and OpenType fonts, and Type1
(PostScript) fonts. All these font types can be installed into any directory.
X.Org contains two completely different font systems: the old X11 core font system
and the newly designed Xft and fontconfig system. The following sections briefly describe these two systems.
8.2.1 X11 Core Fonts

Today, the X11 core font system supports not only bitmap fonts but also scalable fonts,
like Type1 fonts, TrueType, and OpenType fonts. Scalable fonts are only supported
without antialiasing and subpixel rendering and the loading of large scalable fonts with
glyphs for many languages may take a long time. Unicode fonts are also supported, but
their use may be slow and require more memory.
124
Reference
The X11 core font system has a few inherent weaknesses. It is outdated and can no
longer be extended in a meaningful way. Although it must be retained for reasons of
backward compatibility, the more modern Xft and fontconfig system should be used if
at all possible.
For its operation, the X server needs to know which fonts are available and where in
the system it can find them. This is handled by a FontPath variable, which contains
the path to all valid system font directories. In each of these directories, a file named
fonts.dir lists the available fonts in this directory. The FontPath is generated
by the X server at start-up. It searches for a valid fonts.dir file in each of the
FontPath entries in the configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. These entries
are found in the Files section. Display the actual FontPath with xset q. This
path may also be changed at runtime with xset. To add an additional path, use
xset +fp <path>. To remove an unwanted path, use xset -fp <path>.
If the X server is already active, newly installed fonts in mounted directories can be
made available with the command xset fp rehash. This command is executed by
SuSEconfig --module fonts. Because the command xset needs access to the
running X server, this only works if SuSEconfig --module fonts is started from
a shell that has access to the running X server. The easiest way to achieve this is to assume root permissions by entering su and the root password. su transfers the access
permissions of the user who started the X server to the root shell. To check if the
fonts were installed correctly and are available by way of the X11 core font system,
use the command xlsfonts to list all available fonts.
By default, openSUSE uses UTF-8 locales. Therefore, Unicode fonts should be preferred
(font names ending with iso10646-1 in xlsfonts output). All available Unicode
fonts can be listed with xlsfonts | grep iso10646-1. Nearly all Unicode fonts
available in openSUSE contain at least the glyphs needed for European languages
(formerly encoded as iso-8859-*).
8.2.2 Xft
From the outset, the programmers of Xft made sure that scalable fonts including antialiasing are supported well. If Xft is used, the fonts are rendered by the application
using the fonts, not by the X server as in the X11 core font system. In this way, the respective application has access to the actual font files and full control of how the glyphs
are rendered. This constitutes the basis for the correct display of text in a number of
The X Window System
125
languages. Direct access to the font files is very useful for embedding fonts for printing
to make sure that the printout looks the same as the screen output.
In openSUSE, the two desktop environments KDE and GNOME, Mozilla, and many
other applications already use Xft by default. Xft is already used by more applications
than the old X11 core font system.
Xft uses the fontconfig library for finding fonts and influencing how they are rendered.
The properties of fontconfig are controlled by the global configuration file /etc/
fonts/fonts.conf and the user-specific configuration file ~/.fonts.conf.
Each of these fontconfig configuration files must begin with
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
and end with

</fontconfig>
To add directories to search for fonts, append lines such as the following:
<dir>/usr/local/share/fonts/</dir>
However, this is usually not necessary. By default, the user-specific directory ~/.fonts
is already entered in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf. Accordingly, all you need to do
to install additional fonts is to copy them to ~/.fonts.
You can also insert rules that influence the appearance of the fonts. For example, enter
<match target="font">
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
to disable antialiasing for all fonts or

<match target="font">
<test name="family">
<string>Luxi Mono</string>
<string>Luxi Sans</string>
</test>
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
126
Reference
to disable antialiasing for specific fonts.

By default, most applications use the font names sans-serif (or the equivalent
sans), serif, or monospace. These are not real fonts but only aliases that are resolved to a suitable font, depending on the language setting.
Users can easily add rules to ~/.fonts.conf to resolve these aliases to their favorite
fonts:
<alias>
<family>sans-serif</family>
<prefer>
<family>FreeSans</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
<family>serif</family>
<prefer>
<family>FreeSerif</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
<family>monospace</family>
<prefer>
<family>FreeMono</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
Because nearly all applications use these aliases by default, this affects almost the entire
system. Thus, you can easily use your favorite fonts almost everywhere without having
to modify the font settings in the individual applications.
Use the command fc-list to find out which fonts are installed and available for use.
For instance, the command fc-list returns a list of all fonts. To find out which of
the available scalable fonts (:scalable=true) contain all glyphs required for Hebrew
(:lang=he), their font names (family), their style (style), their weight (weight),
and the name of the files containing the fonts, enter the following command:
fc-list ":lang=he:scalable=true" family style weight
The output of this command could look like the following:

FreeSansBold.ttf: FreeSans:style=Bold:weight=200
FreeMonoBoldOblique.ttf: FreeMono:style=BoldOblique:weight=200
FreeSerif.ttf: FreeSerif:style=Medium:weight=80
FreeSerifBoldItalic.ttf: FreeSerif:style=BoldItalic:weight=200
FreeSansOblique.ttf: FreeSans:style=Oblique:weight=80
FreeSerifItalic.ttf: FreeSerif:style=Italic:weight=80
The X Window System
127
FreeMonoOblique.ttf: FreeMono:style=Oblique:weight=80
FreeMono.ttf: FreeMono:style=Medium:weight=80
FreeSans.ttf: FreeSans:style=Medium:weight=80
FreeSerifBold.ttf: FreeSerif:style=Bold:weight=200
FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf: FreeSans:style=BoldOblique:weight=200
FreeMonoBold.ttf: FreeMono:style=Bold:weight=200
Important parameters that can be queried with fc-list:

Table 8.2
128
Parameters of fc-list
Parameter
Meaning and Possible Values
family
Name of the font family, for example, FreeSans.
foundry
The manufacturer of the font, for example, urw.
style
The font style, such as Medium, Regular, Bold,

Italic, or Heavy.
lang
The language that the font supports, for example, de for

German, ja for Japanese, zh-TW for traditional Chinese,
or zh-CN for simplified Chinese.
weight
The font weight, such as 80 for regular or 200 for bold.
slant
The slant, usually 0 for none and 100 for italic.
file
The name of the file containing the font.
outline
true for outline fonts or false for other fonts.
scalable
true for scalable fonts or false for other fonts.
bitmap
true for bitmap fonts or false for other fonts.
pixelsize
Font size in pixels. In connection with fc-list, this option

only makes sense for bitmap fonts.
Reference
8.3 For More Information

Install the packages xorg-x11-doc and howtoenh to get more in-depth information
on X11. More information on the X11 development can be found on the project's home
page at http://www.x.org.
The X Window System
129
Xen Virtualization
This chapter describes and explains the components and technologies you need to understand to set up and manage a Xen-based virtualization environment. It contains the
following sections:
For the latest Novell virtualization documentation, see http://www.novell.com/
documentation/vmserver/.
9.1 Basic Components

The basic components of a Xen-based virtualization environment are the Xen hypervisor,
the host desktop environment, any number of other Xen-based virtual machines, and
the tools, commands, and configuration files that let you manage virtualization. Collectively, the physical computer running all these components is referred to as a virtual
machine host because together these components form a platform for hosting virtual
machines.
The Xen Hypervisor

The Xen hypervisor, sometimes referred to generically as a virtual machine monitor,
is a program that coordinates the low-level interaction between virtual machines and
physical hardware.
Xen Virtualization
131
The Host Desktop Environment

The virtual machine hosts desktop environment, also referred to as domain 0, is comprised of several components, such as:
openSUSE, which gives the administrator a graphical desktop and command line
environment to manage the virtual machine host components and its virtual machines.
NOTE
The term host desktop is used to refer to the domain 0 management
environment, even though openSUSE might be running in command line
interface mode with no graphical desktop.
The xend daemon (xend), which stores configuration information about each virtual
machine and controls how virtual machines are created and managed.
A modified version of QEMU, which is a program that emulates a full computer
system, including a processor and various peripherals. It provides the ability to host
operating systems in full virtualization mode.
Xen-Based Virtual Machines

A Xen-based virtual machine, also referred to as a domain, consists of the following
components:
At least one virtual disk that contains a bootable operating system. The virtual disk
can be based on a file, partition, volume, or other type of block device.
Virtual machine configuration information, which can be modified by exporting a
text-based configuration file from xend or through Virtual Machine Manager.
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Reference
Management Tools, Commands, and

Configuration Files
There are a combination of GUI tools, commands, and configuration files to help you
manage and customize your virtualization environment.
9.1.1 Understanding Virtualization Modes

Guest operating systems are hosted on virtual machines in either full virtualization
mode or paravirtual mode. Each virtualization mode has advantages and disadvantages.
Full virtualization mode lets virtual machines run unmodified operating systems,
such as Windows* Server 2003 and Windows XP, but requires the computer running
as the virtual machine host to support hardware-assisted virtualization technology,
such as AMD* Virtualization or Intel* Virtualization Technology.
Some guest operating systems hosted in full virtualization mode, can be configured
to run openSUSE Virtual Machine Drivers instead of operating-system-specific
drivers. Running virtual machine drivers improves performance dramatically in
guest operating systems, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. For more
information, see Virtual Machine Driver Pack for Windows [http://www
.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/susedriversforwindows/
data/b7cf074.html#b7cf074] .
Paravirtual mode does not require the host computer to support hardware-assisted
virtualization technology but does require its operating system to be modified for
the virtualization environment. Typically, operating systems running in paravirtual
mode enjoy better performance than those requiring full virtualization mode.
9.1.2 Xen Virtualization Architecture

The following graphic depicts a virtual machine host with three virtual machines. The
Xen hypervisor is shown as running directly on the physical hardware platform.
Above the Xen hypervisor layer, there are four virtual machines.
Xen Virtualization
133
Figure 9.1 Virtualization Architecture
On the left, the virtual machine hosts desktop (domain 0) is shown running a SUSE
Linux operating system. The two virtual machines in the middle are shown running
paravirtualized openSUSE systems. The virtual machine on the right shows a fully
virtual machine running an unmodified operating system, such as Windows Server
2003 or Windows XP.
9.1.3 About the Virtual Machine Host

After you install the virtualization components and reboot the computer, the GRUB
menu should display a Xen menu option. Selecting the Xen menu option loads the virtualization components and starts the host desktop domain 0 running openSUSE.
Running on domain 0, openSUSE displays the installed text console or desktop environment, such as GNOME or KDE. When opened, each virtual machine is displayed
in its own window.
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Reference
9.2 Setting Up a Virtual Machine Host

This section documents how to set up and use openSUSE as a virtual machine host.
For the latest Novell virtualization documentation, see http://www.novell.com/
documentation/vmserver/.
9.2.1 Virtual Machine Host Requirements

The following sections list the system and software requirements for running virtualization.
Hardware Requirements
In most cases, the hardware requirements for the virtual machine host are the same as
those for the openSUSE system, but additional CPU, disk, memory, and network resources should be added to accommodate the resource demands of all planned virtual
machines.
TIP
Remember that virtual machines, just like a physical machines, perform better
when they run on faster processors and have access to more system memory.
The following table lists the minimum hardware requirements for running openSUSE
with a Linux virtual machine.
Table 9.1
Hardware Requirements
System Component
Minimum Requirements
Recommended Requirements
Computer
Server-class computer with

Pentium* II or AMD* K7 450
MHz processor
Server-class computer with

Pentium III, Pentium III
Xeon*, Pentium 4, Intel Xeon
700 MHz, AMD K8 CPUs
(Athlon* 64 and Opteron*),
Xen Virtualization
135
System Component
Intel EM64T or higher processor.
Memory
512 MB of RAM for the host
512 MB
512 MB of RAM for each Lin- 1 GB of RAM

ux virtual machine
Free Disk Space
7 GB of available, unpartitioned disk space for the host.
7 GB or more of available,
unpartitioned disk space for
the host.
3.7 GB of available, unpartitioned disk space for each Lin- 10 GB or more of available,
ux virtual machine
unpartitioned disk space. Additional disk space might be required depending on which
components are selected and
how they are used.
CD-ROM Drive
4X CD-ROM drive
Hard Drive
20 GB
Network Board
Ethernet 100 Mbps
IP Address
48X CD-ROM drive
One IP address on a subnet

for the host
One IP address on a subnet
for each virtual machine
Subnet mask
Default gateway
Mouse
136
Reference
N/A
USB or PS/2
System Component
Server Computer
BIOS
If you are doing a CD-ROM

installation, prepare the BIOS
on your server computer so that
it boots from the CD-ROM
drive first.
Software Requirements
The virtual machine host requires the following software packages and their dependencies to be installed:
kernel-xen
xen
xen-tools
xen-tools-ioemu (required for full-virtualization mode)
kernel-xenpae (used instead of kernel-xen, this package is required to enable a 32bit virtual machine host to access memory over 3 GB)
yast2-vm
Updates are available through your update channel. Make sure to update to the most
recent packages available.
9.2.2 Installing the Xen Virtual Machine

Host Software
The Xen virtualization software can be installed during the initial installation of openSUSE or added to a computer already running an operating system.
Remember, for best performance, only those applications and processes required for
virtualization should be installed on the virtual machine host.
Xen Virtualization
137
Installing Virtualization During the Initial Setup of

openSUSE
1 During installation of openSUSE, select the software pattern Xen Virtual Machine
Host Server.
2 Select or remove additional software to meet your specific configuration requirements.
It is recommended that you select only the software and system tasks required
for the virtualization environment. Running additional services, such as Web
servers, mail servers, or print servers directly in the management domain (domain
0) affects the performance of all hosted virtual machines.
For best performance, deselect all but the following items:
Server Base System
GNOME or KDE Desktop Environment
X Window System (required for graphical user interface)
Xen Virtual Machine Host Server
3 Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation program.
The Xen software is now installed on the computer. Continue to Section 9.2.3, Starting
the Virtual Machine Host (page 139).
Adding Virtualization to openSUSE

If you are already running openSUSE, use one of the following methods from the
desktop or command line interface to install the virtualization software.
From the desktop, run YaST > Virtualization > Install Hypervisor and Tools.
Complete the on-screen instructions and restart the computer.
From a command line interface, enter yast2 xen. Complete the on-screen instructions and restart the computer.
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Reference
9.2.3 Starting the Virtual Machine Host

If virtualization software is correctly installed, the computer boots to display the GRUB
boot loader with a Xen option on the menu. Select this option to start the virtual machine
host.
You can manually edit the boot loader to select the Xen option by default.
1 Log in as the root user.
2 In YaST, click System > Boot Loader.
3 Change the default boot to the Xen label, then click Set as Default.
4 Click Finish.
5 Reboot the system by clicking Computer > Log out > Log out. Then click Reboot
and enter the root password.
If the GRUB boot loader does not display or the Xen option is not on the menu, review
the steps for installation and verify that the GRUB boot loader has been updated.
After booting, the management virtual machine starts and displays its graphical desktop
environment. If you did not install a graphical desktop, the command line environment
appears.
For more information about managing virtual machines, see Section 9.4, Managing a
Virtualization Environment (page 146).
9.3 Setting Up Virtual Machines

A virtual machine is comprised of data and operating system files that define the virtual
environment. Virtual machines are hosted and controlled by the virtual machine host.
This section provides generalized instructions for installing virtual machines. See the
Novell Virtualization Technology: Guest Operating System Guide [http://www
.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/guest_os_sp1/data/
Xen Virtualization
139
bookinfo.html#bookinfo] for detailed information regarding installation and

management issues for the OS you are installing.
9.3.1 System Requirements

Virtual machines have few if any requirements above those required to run the operating
system. If the operating system has not been optimized for the virtual machine host
environment, the unmodified OS can run only on hardware-assisted virtualization
computer hardware, in full virtualization mode, and requires specific device drivers to
be loaded.
You should be aware of any licensing issues related to running a single licensed copy
of an operating system on multiple virtual machines. Consult the operating system license
agreement for more information.
9.3.2 Virtual Machine System Architectures

The virtual machine host can emulate x86-32 bit and x86-64 bit architectures only. It
does not emulate other system architectures such as Itanium*, or IBM* POWER (formerly IBM iSeries and IBM pSeries systems).
9.3.3 Prerequisites
Before creating a virtual machine, you need the following:
If you want to use an automated installation file (AutoYaST, in openSUSE), you
should create and download it to a directory on the host machine server or make it
available on the network.
If you are installing openSUSE, you need a network installation source. For procedures to create the installation sources, see Section 1.2, Setting Up the Server
Holding the Installation Sources (page 12).
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Reference
9.3.4 Creating a Virtual Machine

The Create Virtual Machine Wizard helps you through the steps required to create a
virtual machine and install its operating system. The information that follows is generalized for installing any operating system. In addition to these instructions, you should
consult the Novell Virtualization Technology: Guest Operating System Guide [http://
www.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/guest_os_sp1/data/
bookinfo.html#bookinfo] for information specific to the operating system you
are installing.
Launch the Create Virtual Machine Wizard by using one of the following methods:
From the virtualization host server desktop, click YaST > Virtualization > Create
Virtual Machine.
If YaST doesnt appear in your list of applications, you can run it by logging in as
root and entering yast2 at a terminal.
From within Virtual Machine Manager, click New.
At the command line, enter vm-install.
If the wizard does not appear or the vm-install command does not work, review
the process of installing and starting the virtualization host server. The virtualization
software might not be installed properly.
Installing an Operating System

You can choose to run an installation program or choose a disk or disk image that already
has an installed and bootable operating system.
If you choose to run an installation program, you are presented with a list of operating
systems. Select the one you want to install.
Summary
On the summary page you can click on any of the headings to edit the information. As
you edit the information in the Summary, consult the Novell Virtualization Technology:
Guest Operating System Guide [http://www.novell.com/documentation/
Xen Virtualization
141
vmserver/guest_os_sp1/data/bookinfo.html#bookinfo] for instructions specific to the operating system you are installing.
Virtualization Method
The Virtualization Method page allows you to select the type of virtualization you want
to implement.
If your computer supports hardware-assisted virtualization, you can create a virtual
machine that runs in fully virtual mode. If you are installing an operating system that
is modified for virtualization, you can create a virtual machine that runs in paravirtual
mode. For more information about virtualization modes, see Section 9.1.1, Understanding Virtualization Modes (page 133).
Name of Virtual Machine

Each virtual machine must have a unique name. The name entered on this page is used
to create and name the virtual machines configuration file. The configuration file
contains parameters that define the virtual machine and is saved to the /etc/xen/
vm/ directory.
Hardware
The Hardware page allows you to specify the amount of memory and number of virtual
processors for your virtual machine.
Initial Memory:
The amount of memory initially allocated to the virtual machine (specified in
megabytes).
Maximum Memory:
The largest amount of memory the VM will ever need.
Virtual Processors:
If desired, you can specify that the virtual machine has more virtual CPUs than the
number of physical CPUs. You can specify up to 32 virtual CPUs: however, for
best performance, the number of virtual processors should be less than or equal to
the number of physical processors.
142
Reference
Graphics
No Graphics Support
The virtual machine operates like a server without a monitor. You can access the
operating system through operating system supported services, such as SSH or
VNC.
Paravirtualized Graphics Adapter
Requires that an appropriate graphics driver is installed in the operating system.
Disks
A virtual machine must have at least one virtual disk. Virtual disks can be:
File backed, which means that the virtual disk is a single image file on a larger
physical disk.
A sparse image file, which means that the virtual disk is a single image file, but
the space is not pre-allocated.
Configured from a block device, such as an entire disk, partition, or volume.
For best performance, create each virtual disk from an entire disk or a partition. For the
next best performance, create an image file but do not create it as a sparse image file.
A virtual disk based on a sparse image file delivers the most disk-space flexibility but
the slowest installation and disk access speeds.
By default, a single, file-backed 4 GB virtual disk is created as a sparse image file in
/var/lib/xen/images/ vm_namewhere vm_name is the name of the virtual
machine. You can change this configuration to meet your specific requirements.
Editing the Properties of a Virtual Disk

When creating the virtual disk, you can click Edit to edit its properties to meet your
specific configuration requirements.
Type:
Virtual disks have drive designations that use Linux device naming conventions,
such as hda. The designation dictates how the virtual disk appears to the virtual
machine. For example, a virtual drive designated as hda appears to the virtual ma-
Xen Virtualization
143
chine as the first disk device. Paravirtual disks appear as generic disks (not IDE,
SCSI, etc.). Fully virtualized disks appear to the guest as IDE. In all cases, naming
is left up to the guest OS.
Source
Depending on your specific requirements, you might need to change the location
where the disk image file is created and stored, or specify which disk, partition, or
volume to use.
Sparse Image File
A virtual disk based on a sparse image file does not consume the entire amount of
disk space specified but uses disk space only as needed. This is a good option for
quickly creating virtual disks, but for best performance, you might want to preallocate the disk space by deselecting Create Sparse Image File.
Read-Only Access
A virtual disk can be safely shared among multiple virtual machines only if every
use of the virtual disk is marked as Read Only.
Additional Virtual Disks

A virtual machine can have more than one virtual disk. When creating a virtual machine,
you can create additional virtual disks based on files or specify existing disk images or
block devices as additional virtual disks.
Network Adapters
By default, a single virtual network card is created for the virtual machine. It has a
randomly generated MAC address that you can change to fit your desired configuration.
You can also create additional virtual network cards. In paravirtual machines, virtual
network cards communicate by using a generic network card driver compatible with
Xen.
Operating System Installation

The operating system can be installed from a CD/DVD device or an ISO image file. In
addition, if you are installing a openSUSE system, you can install the operating system
from a network installation source.
144
Reference
If you are installing a paravirtual machine's operating system from CD, you should remove the virtual CD reader from the virtual machine after completing the installation
because the virtual machine assumes that the original CD is still in the CD reader, even
if it is ejected. If it is ejected, the virtual machine cannot access the CD (or any other
newly inserted CD) and receives I/O errors.
For instructions on removing the virtual CD reader, see Virtual CD Readers [http://
www.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/config_options/data/
b9rtimf.html#b9rtimf] in Configuration Options and Settings [http://www
.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/config_options/data/
bookinfo.html#bookinfo] for more information.
If the installation program is capable of recognizing an installation profile, response
file, or script, you can automate the installation settings by specifying the location of
the profile, response file, or script you want to use. For example, openSUSE uses an
AutoYaST profile.
You can also pass instructions to the kernel at install time by entering parameters for
the Additional Arguments field.
For example, on openSUSE, if you wanted to specify the parameters for an IP address
of 192.35.1.10, a netmask of 255.255.255.0, a gateway of 192.35.1.254
for the virtual server, and use SSH to access installation, you could enter the following
parameters in the Additional Argument field:
hostip=192.35.1.10 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.35.1.254 \
usessh=1 sshpassword=<password>
When you have finished entering all the information in the Operating System Installation
page, click Apply to return to the Summary page.
Continuing the Installation

If all the information on the Summary page is correct, click OK to create the virtual
machine. A TightVNC screen appears and at this point you begin the installation of
your OS. From this point on, follow the regular installation instructions for installing
your OS and consult the Novell Virtualization Technology: Guest Operating System
Guide [http://www.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/guest_os
_sp1/data/bookinfo.html#bookinfo] for any instructions that might be
different for installing your OS in a virtualized environment.
Xen Virtualization
145
9.4 Managing a Virtualization

Environment
Graphical utilities, text-based commands, and modified configuration files are methods
you can choose from to manage your virtualization environment.Virtual Machine
Manager is a graphical utility available in YaST that can be launched from the virtual
machine host desktop.
From a command line interface on the virtual machine host, you can use the vm-install
program and xm commands to create and manage virtual machines. You can also edit
configuration files to change the settings of the virtual machine host or a virtual machine.
9.4.1 Virtual Machine Manager

From the desktop of the management virtual machine, the YaST Virtual Machine
Manager provides a graphical user interface you can use to create and manage virtual
machines.
Figure 9.2 Virtual Machine Manager Main Console
Selecting a virtual machine and clicking Open displays the virtual machine window
showing the virtual machines current state.
146
Reference
Clicking Run on the virtual machine window boots the virtual machine and displays
the user interface or text console running on the virtual machine.
Selecting a virtual machine and clicking Details lets you view performance and
configure hardware details associated with the virtual machine.
Clicking New in Virtual Machine Manager launches the Create Virtual Machine
Wizard, which walks you through the steps required to set up a virtual machine.
The wizard guides you through the process of defining the virtual machine settings and
installing the operating system.
Figure 9.3 Virtual Machine Summary Screen
After specifying the settings on the Summary screen, the wizard starts the virtual machine
and launches the operating system installation program, which guides you through the
process of installation.
9.4.2 The vm-install Command

In an environment without a graphical user interface, you can launch and run a text
version of the Create Virtual Machine Wizard by entering vm-install at the command line. The text version guides you through the same process presented in the GUI
version.
Xen Virtualization
147
9.4.3 Controlling the Host by Modifying

xend Settings
An important component of the virtual machine host software is the xend daemon. It
controls how the virtual machine host performs management functions and stores settings
that relate to virtual machines. By modifying the xend configuration file, you can customize the host to meet your specific virtualization requirements.
To modify the xend configuration file, use a text editor to edit the /etc/xen/
xend-config.sxp file from the management virtual machines desktop.
After making changes, xend must be restarted for the changes to take effect on the virtual machine host. To restart the xend daemon, enter service xend restart
You might also find the following commands useful.
To check the status of the xend daemon, enter service xend status
To start the xend daemon, enter service xend start
To stop the xend daemon, enter service xend stop
9.4.4 Configuring a Virtual Machine by

Modifying its xend Settings
You can modify a virtual machines settings by modifying its xend configuration information. A virtual machines configuration information is stored in the xend database
and can be exported to a file, modified to meet your specific virtualization requirements,
and then re-imported back into the xend database.
1 In a terminal on the management virtual machine desktop, enter xm list -l
name > filename to export a virtual machines settings from xend to a
file.
name is the virtual machine name
filename is the name you specify as the filename
148
Reference
2 Use a text editor to make and save any desired changes.

3 At the command line, enter xm new -F filename
tings into the xend database.
to import the new set-
4 Enter xm start vm_name to start the virtual machine with the new settings.
NOTE
It is no longer recommended that you edit the initial creation files stored in
etc/xen/vm, which are used only during the creation of a new virtual machine.
9.4.5 The xm Command

The xm command lets you manage and view the status of virtual machines. For example,
the xm list command displays the status of all virtual machines.
Other useful xm commands include:
xm start starts a virtual machine
xm reboot reboots a virtual machine
xm destroy immediately terminates a virtual machine
xm block-list displays all virtual block devices attached to a virtual machine
For a complete list of xm command parameters, enter xm help at the command line.
Xen Virtualization
149
System Monitoring Utilities
10
A number of programs and mechanisms, some of which are presented here, can be used
to examine the status of your system. Also described are some utilities that are useful
for routine work, along with their most important parameters.
For each of the commands introduced, examples of the relevant outputs are presented.
In these examples, the first line is the command itself (after the > or # sign prompt).
Omissions are indicated with square brackets ([...]) and long lines are wrapped
where necessary. Line breaks for long lines are indicated by a backslash (\).
# command -x -y
output line 1
output line 2
output line 3 is annoyingly long, so long that \
we have to break it
output line 3
[...]
output line 98
output line 99
The descriptions have been kept short to allow as many utilities as possible to be mentioned. Further information for all the commands can be found in the man pages. Most
of the commands also understand the parameter --help, which produces a brief list
of the possible parameters.
151
10.1 Debugging
10.1.1 Specifying the Required Library: ldd
Use the command ldd to find out which libraries would load the dynamic executable
specified as argument.
tux@mercury:~> ldd /bin/ls
linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0xb7f97000)
libacl.so.1 => /lib/libacl.so.1 (0xb7f91000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb7e79000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7e67000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7fb6000)
libattr.so.1 => /lib/libattr.so.1 (0xb7e63000)
Static binaries do not need any dynamic libraries.

tux@mercury:~> ldd /bin/sash
not a dynamic executable
tux@mercury:~> file /bin/sash
/bin/sash: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for
GNU/Linux 2.6.4, statically linked, for GNU/Linux 2.6.4, stripped
10.1.2 Library Calls of a Program Run:

ltrace
The command ltrace enables you to trace the library calls of a process. This command
is used in a similar fashion to strace. The parameter -c outputs the number and duration of the library calls that have occurred:
tux@mercury:~> ltrace -c find ~
% time
seconds usecs/call
calls
------ ----------- ----------- --------34.37
6.758937
245
27554
33.53
6.593562
788
8358
12.67
2.490392
144
17212
11.97
2.353302
239
9845
2.37
0.466754
27
16716
1.17
0.230765
27
8358
[...]
0.00
0.000036
36
1
------ ----------- ----------- --------100.00
19.662715
105717
152
Reference
function
-------------------__errno_location
__fprintf_chk
strlen
readdir64
__ctype_get_mb_cur_max
memcpy
textdomain
-------------------total
10.1.3 System Calls of a Program Run:

strace
The utility strace enables you to trace all the system calls of a process currently
running. Enter the command in the normal way, adding strace at the beginning of
the line:
tux@mercury:~> strace ls
execve("/bin/ls", ["ls"], [/* 61 vars */]) = 0
uname({sys="Linux", node="mercury", ...}) = 0
brk(0)
= 0x805c000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK)
= -1 ENOENT (No such file or \
directory)
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY)
= 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=89696, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 89696, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0xb7ef2000
close(3)
= 0
open("/lib/librt.so.1", O_RDONLY)
= 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0000\36\0"..., 512) \
= 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=36659, ...}) = 0
[...]
stat64(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 0), ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) \
= 0xb7ca7000
write(1, "bin Desktop Documents music\tM"..., 55bin Desktop Documents \
\ music
Music public_html tmp
) = 55
close(1)
= 0
munmap(0xb7ca7000, 4096)
= 0
exit_group(0)
= ?
For example, to trace all attempts to open a particular file, use the following:
tux@mercury:~> strace -e open ls .bashrc
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY)
=
open("/lib/librt.so.1", O_RDONLY)
=
open("/lib/libacl.so.1", O_RDONLY)
=
open("/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY)
=
open("/lib/libpthread.so.0", O_RDONLY) =
open("/lib/libattr.so.1", O_RDONLY)
=
[...]
3
3
3
3
3
3
To trace all the child processes, use the parameter -f. The behavior and output format
of strace can be largely controlled. For information, see man strace.
153
10.2 Files and File Systems

10.2.1 Determine the File Type: file
The command file determines the type of a file or a list of files by checking /etc/
magic.
tux@mercury:~> file /usr/bin/file
/usr/bin/file: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), \
for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped
The parameter -f list specifies a file with a list of filenames to examine. The -z
allows file to look inside compressed files:
tux@mercury:~> file /usr/share/man/man1/file.1.gz
usr/share/man/man1/file.1.gz: gzip compressed data, from Unix, max compression
tux@mercury:~> file -z /usr/share/man/man1/file.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/file.1.gz: ASCII troff or preprocessor input text \
(gzip compressed data, from Unix, max compression)
10.2.2 File Systems and Their Usage: mount,

df, and du
The command mount shows which file system (device and type) is mounted at which
mount point:
tux@mercury:~> mount
/dev/sda3 on / type reiserfs (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/dev/sda4 on /local type reiserfs (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/dev/fd0 on /media/floppy type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,fs=floppyfss,p
154
Reference
Obtain information about total usage of the file systems with the command df. The
parameter -h (or --human-readable) transforms the output into a form understandable for common users.
tux@mercury:~> df -h
Filesystem
/dev/sda3
udev
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda4
Size
11G
252M
16M
27G
Used Avail Use% Mounted on

3.2G 6.9G 32% /
104K 252M
1% /dev
6.6M 7.8M 46% /boot
34M
27G
1% /local
Display the total size of all the files in a given directory and its subdirectories with the
command du. The parameter -s suppresses the output of detailed information. -h
again transforms the data into a human-readable form:
tux@mercury:~> du -sh /local
1.7M
/local
10.2.3 Additional Information about ELF

Binaries
Read the content of binaries with the readelf utility. This even works with ELF files
that were built for other hardware architectures:
tux@mercury:~> readelf --file-header /bin/ls
ELF Header:
Magic:
7f 45 4c 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Class:
ELF32
Data:
2's complement, little endian
Version:
1 (current)
OS/ABI:
UNIX - System V
ABI Version:
0
Type:
EXEC (Executable file)
Machine:
Intel 80386
Version:
0x1
Entry point address:
0x8049b60
Start of program headers:
52 (bytes into file)
Start of section headers:
81112 (bytes into file)
Flags:
0x0
Size of this header:
52 (bytes)
Size of program headers:
32 (bytes)
Number of program headers:
9
Size of section headers:
40 (bytes)
Number of section headers:
30
Section header string table index: 29
155
10.2.4 File Properties: stat

The command stat displays file properties:
tux@mercury:~> stat /etc/profile
File: `/etc/profile'
Size: 8080
Blocks: 16
IO Block: 4096
Device: 806h/2054d
Inode: 64942
Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: (
0/
root)
Gid: (
Access: 2007-07-16 23:28:18.000000000 +0200
Modify: 2006-09-19 14:45:01.000000000 +0200
Change: 2006-12-05 14:54:55.000000000 +0100
regular file
0/
root)
The parameter --filesystem produces details of the properties of the file system
in which the specified file is located:
tux@mercury:~> stat /etc/profile --filesystem
File: "/etc/profile"
ID: 0
Namelen: 255
Type: reiserfs
Block size: 4096
Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 2622526
Free: 1809771
Available: 1809771
Inodes: Total: 0
Free: 0
10.3 Hardware Information

10.3.1 PCI Resources: lspci
The command lspci lists the PCI resources:
mercury:~ # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE \
DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE \
Host-to-AGP Bridge (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM \
(ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM \
(ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) \
LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE \
156
Reference
Controller (rev 01)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) \
SMBus Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM \
(ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. G400/G450 (rev 85)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (LOM) \
Ethernet Controller (rev 81)
Using -v results in a more detailed listing:

mercury:~ # lspci
[...]
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (LOM)\
Ethernet Controller (rev 81)
Subsystem: Fujitsu Siemens Computer GmbH: Unknown device 1001
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 11
Memory at d1000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at 3000 [size=64]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
Information about device name resolution is obtained from the file /usr/share/
pci.ids. PCI IDs not listed in this file are marked Unknown device.
The parameter -vv produces all the information that could be queried by the program.
To view the pure numeric values, use the parameter -n.
10.3.2 USB Devices: lsusb

The command lsusb lists all USB devices. With the option -v, print a more detailed
list. The detailed information is read from the directory /proc/bus/usb/. The following is the output of lsusb with these USB devices attached: hub, memory stick,
hard disk, and mouse.
mercury:/ # lsusb
Bus 004 Device 007: ID 0ea0:2168
2.0 / Astone USB Drive
Bus 004 Device 006: ID 04b4:6830
Adapter
Bus 004 Device 005: ID 05e3:0605
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 046d:c012
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Ours Technology, Inc. Transcend JetFlash \

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. USB-2.0 IDE \
Genesys Logic, Inc.
Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse
157
10.3.3 Information about a SCSI Device:

scsiinfo
The command scsiinfo lists information about a SCSI device. With the option -l,
list all SCSI devices known to the system (similar information is obtained via the
command lsscsi). The following is the output of scsiinfo -i /dev/sda,
which gives information about a hard disk. The option -a gives even more information.
mercury:/ # scsiinfo -i /dev/sda
Inquiry command
--------------Relative Address
0
Wide bus 32
0
Wide bus 16
1
Synchronous neg.
1
Linked Commands
1
Command Queueing
1
SftRe
0
Device Type
0
Peripheral Qualifier
0
Removable?
0
Device Type Modifier
0
ISO Version
0
ECMA Version
0
ANSI Version
3
AENC
0
TrmIOP
0
Response Data Format
2
Vendor:
FUJITSU
Product:
MAS3367NP
Revision level:
0104A0K7P43002BE
The option -d puts out a defects list with two tables of bad blocks of a hard disk: first
the one supplied by the vendor (manufacturer table) and second the list of bad blocks
that appeared in operation (grown table). If the number of entries in the grown table
increases, it might be a good idea to replace the hard disk.
158
Reference
10.4 Networking
10.4.1 Show the Network Status: netstat
netstat shows network connections, routing tables (-r), interfaces (-i), masquerade
connections (-M), multicast memberships (-g), and statistics (-s).
tux@mercury:~> netstat -r
Kernel IP routing table
Destination
Gateway
192.168.2.0
*
link-local
*
loopback
*
default
192.168.2.254
Genmask
255.255.254.0
255.255.0.0
255.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
tux@mercury:~> netstat -i
Kernel Interface table
Iface
MTU Met
RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR
eth0
1500
0 1624507 129056
0
0
lo
16436
0
23728
0
0
0
Flags
U
U
U
UG
MSS
0
0
0
0
Window
0
0
0
0
irtt
0
0
0
0
Iface
eth0
eth0
lo
eth0
TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg

7055
0
0
0 BMNRU
23728
0
0
0 LRU
When displaying network connections or statistics, you can specify the socket type to
display: TCP (-t), UDP (-u), or raw (-r). The -p option shows the PID and name
of the program to which each socket belongs.
The following example lists all TCP connections and the programs using these connections.
mercury:~ # netstat -t -p
Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address
State
tcp
0
tcp
0
19422/s
tcp
0
ESTABLISHED -
0 mercury:33513
352 mercury:ssh
0 localhost:ssh
PID/Pro
www.novell.com:www-http ESTABLISHED 6862/fi

mercury2.:trc-netpoll
ESTABLISHED
localhost:17828
In the following, statistics for the TCP protocol are displayed:

tux@mercury:~> netstat -s -t
Tcp:
2427 active connections openings
2374 passive connection openings
0 failed connection attempts
0 connection resets received
1 connections established
27476 segments received
159
26786 segments send out

54 segments retransmited
0 bad segments received.
6 resets sent
[...]
TCPAbortOnLinger: 0
TCPAbortFailed: 0
TCPMemoryPressures: 0
10.5 The /proc File System

The /proc file system is a pseudo file system in which the kernel reserves important
information in the form of virtual files. For example, display the CPU type with this
command:
tux@mercury:~> cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor
: 0
vendor_id
: AuthenticAMD
cpu family
: 6
model
: 8
model name
: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2400+
stepping
: 1
cpu MHz
: 2009.343
cache size
: 256 KB
fdiv_bug
: no
[...]
Query the allocation and use of interrupts with the following command:
tux@mercury:~> cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0:
3577519
XT-PIC timer
1:
130
XT-PIC i8042
2:
0
XT-PIC cascade
5:
564535
XT-PIC Intel 82801DB-ICH4
7:
1
XT-PIC parport0
8:
2
XT-PIC rtc
9:
1
XT-PIC acpi, uhci_hcd:usb1, ehci_hcd:usb4
10:
0
XT-PIC uhci_hcd:usb3
11:
71772
XT-PIC uhci_hcd:usb2, eth0
12:
101150
XT-PIC i8042
14:
33146
XT-PIC ide0
15:
149202
XT-PIC ide1
NMI:
0
LOC:
0
ERR:
0
MIS:
0
160
Reference
Some of the important files and their contents are:

/proc/devices
Available devices
/proc/modules
Kernel modules loaded
/proc/cmdline
Kernel command line
/proc/meminfo
Detailed information about memory usage
/proc/config.gz
gzip-compressed configuration file of the kernel currently running
Further information is available in the text file /usr/src/linux/
Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt. Find information about processes
currently running in the /proc/NNN directories, where NNN is the process ID (PID)
of the relevant process. Every process can find its own characteristics in /proc/self/
:
tux@mercury:~> ls -l /proc/self
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 64 2007-07-16 13:03 /proc/self -> 5356
tux@mercury:~> ls -l /proc/self/
total 0
dr-xr-xr-x 2 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 attr
-r-------- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 auxv
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 cmdline
lrwxrwxrwx 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 cwd -> /home/tux
-r-------- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 environ
lrwxrwxrwx 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 exe -> /bin/ls
dr-x------ 2 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 fd
-rw-r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 loginuid
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 maps
-rw------- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 mem
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 mounts
-rw-r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 oom_adj
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 oom_score
lrwxrwxrwx 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 root -> /
-rw------- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 seccomp
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 smaps
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 stat
[...]
dr-xr-xr-x 3 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 task
-r--r--r-- 1 tux users 0 2007-07-16 17:04 wchan
161
The address assignment of executables and libraries is contained in the maps file:
tux@mercury:~> cat /proc/self/maps
08048000-0804c000 r-xp 00000000 03:03
0804c000-0804d000 rw-p 00004000 03:03
0804d000-0806e000 rw-p 0804d000 00:00
b7d27000-b7d5a000 r--p 00000000 03:03
b7d5a000-b7e32000 r--p 00000000 03:03
b7e32000-b7e33000 rw-p b7e32000 00:00
b7e33000-b7f45000 r-xp 00000000 03:03
b7f45000-b7f46000 r--p 00112000 03:03
b7f46000-b7f48000 rw-p 00113000 03:03
b7f48000-b7f4c000 rw-p b7f48000 00:00
b7f52000-b7f53000 r--p 00000000 03:03
[...]
b7f5b000-b7f61000 r--s 00000000 03:03
b7f61000-b7f62000 r--p 00000000 03:03
b7f62000-b7f76000 r-xp 00000000 03:03
b7f76000-b7f78000 rw-p 00013000 03:03
bfd61000-bfd76000 rw-p bfd61000 00:00
ffffe000-fffff000 ---p 00000000 00:00
17753
17753
0
11867
11868
0
8837
8837
8837
0
11842
/bin/cat
/bin/cat
[heap]
/usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/
9109
9720
8828
8828
0
0
/usr/lib/gconv/gconv-module
/lib/ld-2.3.6.so
/lib/ld-2.3.6.so
[stack]
[vdso]
/lib/libc-2.3.6.so
/lib/libc-2.3.6.so
/lib/libc-2.3.6.so
10.5.1 procinfo
Important information from the /proc file system is summarized by the command
procinfo:
tux@mercury:~> procinfo
Linux 2.6.18.8-0.5-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc 4.1.2 20061115) #1 2CPU
Memory:
Mem:
Swap:
Total
2060604
2104472
Used
2011264
112
Free
49340
2104360
Bootup: Tue Jul 10 10:29:15 2007

user :
nice :
system:
IOwait:
hw irq:
sw irq:
idle :
uptime:
irq
irq
irq
irq
irq
162
Reference
2:43:13.78
1d 22:21:27.87
13:39:57.57
18:02:18.59
0:03:39.44
1:15:35.25
9d 16:07:56.79
6d 13:07:11.14
0.8%
14.7%
4.3%
5.7%
0.0%
0.4%
73.8%
0: 141399308 timer
1:
73784 i8042
4:
2
6:
5 floppy [2]
7:
2
Shared
0
Buffers
200664
Load average: 0.86 1.10 1.11 3/118 21547

page in :
71099181
page out: 690734737
page act: 138388345
page dea:
29639529
page flt: 9539791626
swap in :
69
swap out:
209
context : 542720687
irq
irq
irq
irq
irq
14:
50:
58:
66:
74:
5074312
1938076
0
872711
15
disk 1:
2827023r 968
ide0
uhci_hcd:usb1, ehci_
uhci_hcd:usb2
uhci_hcd:usb3, HDA I
uhci_hcd:usb4
irq 8:
irq 9:
irq 12:
0 rtc
0 acpi
3
irq 82: 178717720 0

irq169: 44352794 nvidia
irq233:
8209068 0
PCI-MSI
PCI-MSI
To see all the information, use the parameter -a. The parameter -nN produces updates
of the information every N seconds. In this case, terminate the program by pressing Q.
By default, the cumulative values are displayed. The parameter -d produces the differential values. procinfo -dn5 displays the values that have changed in the last five
seconds:
10.6 Processes
10.6.1 Interprocess Communication: ipcs
The command ipcs produces a list of the IPC resources currently in use:
------ Shared Memory Segments -------key
shmid
owner
perms
0x00000000 58261504
tux
600
0x00000000 58294273
tux
600
0x00000000 83886083
tux
666
0x00000000 83951622
tux
666
0x00000000 83984391
tux
666
0x00000000 84738056
root
644
bytes
393216
196608
43264
192000
282464
151552
------ Semaphore Arrays -------key

semid
owner
perms
0x4d038abf 0
tux
600
------ Message Queues -------key

msqid
owner
perms
nattch
2
2
2
2
2
status
dest
dest
dest
nsems
used-bytes
messages
10.6.2 Process List: ps

The command ps produces a list of processes. Most parameters must be written without
a minus sign. Refer to ps --help for a brief help or to the man page for extensive
help.
163
To list all processes with user and command line information, use ps axu:
tux@mercury:~> ps axu
USER
PID %CPU %MEM
VSZ
RSS TTY
root
1 0.0 0.0
696
272 ?
root
2 0.0 0.0
0
0 ?
root
3 0.0 0.0
0
0 ?
[...]
tux
4047 0.0 6.0 158548 31400 ?
tux
4057 0.0 0.7
9036 3684 ?
tux
4067 0.0 0.1
2204
636 ?
tux
4072 0.0 1.0 15996 5160 ?
tux
4114 0.0 3.7 130988 19172 ?
tux
4818 0.0 0.3
4192 1812 pts/0
tux
4959 0.0 0.1
2324
816 pts/0
STAT
S
SN
S<
Ssl
Sl
S
Ss
SLl
Ss
R+
START
12:59
12:59
12:59
13:02
13:02
13:02
13:02
13:06
15:59
16:17
TIME
0:01
0:00
0:00
0:06
0:00
0:00
0:00
0:04
0:00
0:00
COMMAND
init [5]
[ksoftirqd
[events
mono-best
/opt/gnome
/opt/gnome
gnome-scre
sound-juic
-bash
ps axu
To check how many sshd processes are running, use the option -p together with the
command pidof, which lists the process IDs of the given processes.
tux@mercury:~>
PID TTY
3524 ?
4813 ?
4817 ?
ps -p `pidof sshd`
STAT
TIME COMMAND
Ss
0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd -o PidFile=/var/run/sshd.init.pid
Ss
0:00 sshd: tux [priv]
R
0:00 sshd: tux@pts/0
The process list can be formatted according to your needs. The option -L returns a list
of all keywords. Enter the following command to issue a list of all processes sorted by
memory usage:
tux@mercury:~> ps ax --format pid,rss,cmd --sort rss
PID
RSS CMD
2
0 [ksoftirqd/0]
3
0 [events/0]
4
0 [khelper]
5
0 [kthread]
11
0 [kblockd/0]
12
0 [kacpid]
472
0 [pdflush]
473
0 [pdflush]
[...]
4028 17556 nautilus --no-default-window --sm-client-id default2
4118 17800 ksnapshot
4114 19172 sound-juicer
4023 25144 gnome-panel --sm-client-id default1
4047 31400 mono-best --debug /usr/lib/beagle/Best.exe --autostarted
3973 31520 mono-beagled --debug /usr/lib/beagle/BeagleDaemon.exe --bg --aut
164
Reference
10.6.3 Process Tree: pstree

The command pstree produces a list of processes in the form of a tree:
tux@mercury:~> pstree
init-+-NetworkManagerD
|-acpid
|-3*[automount]
|-cron
|-cupsd
|-2*[dbus-daemon]
|-dbus-launch
|-dcopserver
|-dhcpcd
|-events/0
|-gpg-agent
|-hald-+-hald-addon-acpi
|
`-hald-addon-stor
|-kded
|-kdeinit-+-kdesu---su---kdesu_stub---yast2---y2controlcenter
|
|-kio_file
|
|-klauncher
|
|-konqueror
|
|-konsole-+-bash---su---bash
|
|
`-bash
|
`-kwin
|-kdesktop---kdesktop_lock---xmatrix
|-kdesud
|-kdm-+-X
|
`-kdm---startkde---kwrapper
[...]
The parameter -p adds the process ID to a given name. To have the command lines
displayed as well, use the -a parameter:
10.6.4 Processes: top

The command top, which stands for "table of processes," displays a list of processes
that is refreshed every two seconds. To terminate the program, press Q. The parameter
-n 1 terminates the program after a single display of the process list. The following
is an example output of the command top -n 1:
165
tux@mercury:~> top -n 1
top - 17:06:28 up 2:10, 5 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 85 total,
1 running, 83 sleeping,
1 stopped,
0 zombie
Cpu(s): 5.5% us, 0.8% sy, 0.8% ni, 91.9% id, 1.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem:
515584k total,
506468k used,
9116k free,
66324k buffers
Swap:
658656k total,
0k used,
658656k free,
353328k cached
PID
1
2
3
4
5
11
12
472
473
475
474
681
839
923
1343
1587
1746
1752
2151
2165
2166
2171
2235
2289
2403
2709
2714
USER
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
messageb
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
PR
16
34
10
10
10
10
20
20
15
11
15
10
10
13
10
20
15
15
16
16
15
16
15
16
23
19
16
NI
0
19
-5
-5
-5
-5
-5
0
0
-5
0
-5
-5
-4
-5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM

700 272 236 S 0.0 0.1
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
1712 552 344 S 0.0 0.1
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
0
0
0 S 0.0 0.0
1464 496 416 S 0.0 0.1
3340 1048 792 S 0.0 0.2
1840 752 556 S 0.0 0.1
1600 516 320 S 0.0 0.1
1736 800 652 S 0.0 0.2
4192 2852 1444 S 0.0 0.6
1756 600 524 S 0.0 0.1
2668 1076 944 S 0.0 0.2
1756 648 564 S 0.0 0.1
TIME+
0:01.33
0:00.00
0:00.27
0:00.01
0:00.00
0:00.05
0:00.00
0:00.00
0:00.06
0:00.00
0:00.07
0:00.01
0:00.02
0:00.67
0:00.00
0:00.00
0:00.00
0:00.00
0:00.00
0:00.64
0:00.01
0:00.00
0:00.10
0:02.05
0:00.00
0:00.00
0:00.56
COMMAND
init
ksoftirqd/0
events/0
khelper
kthread
kblockd/0
kacpid
pdflush
pdflush
aio/0
kswapd0
kseriod
reiserfs/0
udevd
khubd
shpchpd_event
w1_control
w1_bus_master1
acpid
dbus-daemon
syslog-ng
klogd
resmgrd
hald
hald-addon-acpi
NetworkManagerD
hald-addon-stor
If you press F while top is running, a menu opens with which to make extensive changes
to the format of the output.
The parameter -U UID monitors only the processes associated with a particular user.
Replace UID with the user ID of the user. top -U `id -u` returns the UID of the
user on the basis of the username and displays his processes.
166
Reference
10.7 System Information

10.7.1 System Activity Information: sar
To use sar, sadc (system activity data collector) needs to be running. Check its status
or start it with rcsysstat {start|status}.
sar can generate extensive reports on almost all important system activities, among
them CPU, memory, IRQ usage, IO, or networking. With its many options, it is too
complex to explain further here. Refer to the man page for extensive documentation
with examples.
10.7.2 Memory Usage: free

The utility free examines RAM usage. Details of both free and used memory and
swap areas are shown:
tux@mercury:~> free
total
Mem:
515584
-/+ buffers/cache:
Swap:
658656
used
501704
94072
0
free
13880
421512
658656
shared
0
buffers
73040
cached
334592
The options -b,-k,-m,-g show output in bytes, KB, MB, or GB, respectively. The
parameter -d delay ensures that the display is refreshed every delay seconds. For
example, free -d 1.5 produces an update every 1.5 seconds.
10.7.3 User Accessing Files: fuser

It can be useful to determine what processes or users are currently accessing certain
files. Suppose, for example, you want to unmount a file system mounted at /mnt.
umount returns "device is busy." The command fuser can then be used to determine
what processes are accessing the device:
tux@mercury:~> fuser -v /mnt/*
/mnt/notes.txt
USER
tux
PID ACCESS COMMAND

26597 f.... less
167
Following termination of the less process, which was running on another terminal,
the file system can successfully be unmounted.
10.7.4 Kernel Ring Buffer: dmesg

The Linux kernel keeps certain messages in a ring buffer. To view these messages,
enter the command dmesg:
$ dmesg
[...]
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
subfs: unsuccessful attempt to mount media (256)
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, half-duplex
NET: Registered protocol family 17
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <[email protected]>
microcode: CPU0 updated from revision 0xe to 0x2e, date = 08112004
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver v1.14 unregistered
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c0326ea0(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
powernow: This module only works with AMD K7 CPUs
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
Older events are logged in the files /var/log/messages and /var/log/warn.
10.7.5 List of Open Files: lsof

To view a list of all the files open for the process with process ID PID, use -p. For
example, to view all the files used by the current shell, enter:
tux@mercury:~> lsof -p $$
COMMAND PID
USER
FD
TYPE
bash
5552 tux cwd
DIR
bash
5552 tux rtd
DIR
bash
5552 tux txt
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
bash
5552 tux mem
REG
168
Reference
DEVICE
SIZE
NODE NAME
3,3
1512 117619 /home/tux
3,3
584
2 /
3,3 498816 13047 /bin/bash
0,0
0 [heap] (stat: No such
3,3 217016 115687 /var/run/nscd/passwd
3,3 208464 11867 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
3,3 882134 11868 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
3,3 1386997
8837 /lib/libc-2.3.6.so
3,3
13836
8843 /lib/libdl-2.3.6.so
3,3 290856 12204 /lib/libncurses.so.5.5
3,3
26936 13004 /lib/libhistory.so.5.1
3,3 190200 13006 /lib/libreadline.so.5.
3,3
54 11842 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
bash
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
5552
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
tux
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
mem
0u
1u
2u
255u
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
REG
CHR
CHR
CHR
CHR
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
3,3
136,5
136,5
136,5
136,5
2375
290
52
34
62
127
56
23
21544
366
97165
11663
11736
11831
11862
11839
11664
11735
11866
9109
9720
8828
7
7
7
7
/usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
/usr/lib/gconv/gconv-m
/lib/ld-2.3.6.so
/dev/pts/5
/dev/pts/5
/dev/pts/5
/dev/pts/5
The special shell variable $$, whose value is the process ID of the shell, has been used.
The command lsof lists all the files currently open when used without any parameters.
Because there are often thousands of open files, listing all of them is rarely useful.
However, the list of all files can be combined with search functions to generate useful
lists. For example, list all used character devices:
tux@mercury:~> lsof | grep CHR
bash
3838
tux
0u
bash
3838
tux
1u
bash
3838
tux
2u
bash
3838
tux 255u
bash
5552
tux
0u
bash
5552
tux
1u
bash
5552
tux
2u
bash
5552
tux 255u
X
5646
root mem
lsof
5673
tux
0u
lsof
5673
tux
2u
grep
5674
tux
1u
grep
5674
tux
2u
CHR
CHR
CHR
CHR
CHR
CHR
CHR
CHR
136,0
136,0
136,0
136,0
136,5
136,5
136,5
136,5
CHR
1,1
CHR 136,5
CHR 136,5
CHR 136,5
CHR 136,5
2 /dev/pts/0
2 /dev/pts/0
2 /dev/pts/0
2 /dev/pts/0
7 /dev/pts/5
7 /dev/pts/5
7 /dev/pts/5
7 /dev/pts/5
1006 /dev/mem
7 /dev/pts/5
7 /dev/pts/5
7 /dev/pts/5
7 /dev/pts/5
10.7.6 Kernel and udev Event Sequence

Viewer: udevmonitor
udevmonitor listens to the kernel uevents and events sent out by a udev rule and
prints the device path (DEVPATH) of the event to the console. This is a sequence of
events while connecting a USB memory stick:
169
UEVENT[1138806687]
UEVENT[1138806687]
UEVENT[1138806687]
UEVENT[1138806687]
UDEV [1138806687]
UDEV [1138806687]
UDEV [1138806687]
UDEV [1138806687]
UEVENT[1138806692]
UEVENT[1138806692]
UEVENT[1138806692]
UEVENT[1138806692]
UDEV [1138806693]
UDEV [1138806693]
UDEV [1138806693]
UDEV [1138806693]
UEVENT[1138806694]
UDEV [1138806694]
UEVENT[1138806694]
UEVENT[1138806697]
add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2
add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2/4-2.2
add@/class/scsi_host/host4
add@/class/usb_device/usbdev4.10
add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2
add@/class/scsi_host/host4
add@/class/usb_device/usbdev4.10
add@/block/sdb
add@/class/scsi_generic/sg1
add@/class/scsi_device/4:0:0:0
add@/class/scsi_generic/sg1
add@/class/scsi_device/4:0:0:0
add@/block/sdb
add@/block/sdb/sdb1
add@/block/sdb/sdb1
mount@/block/sdb/sdb1
umount@/block/sdb/sdb1
10.7.7 Server Resources Used by X11 Clients:

xrestop
xrestop provides statistics for each connected X11 client's server-side resource. The
output is very similar to Section 10.6.4, Processes: top (page 165).
170
xrestop - Display: localhost:0

Monitoring 40 clients. XErrors: 0
Pixmaps:
42013K total, Other:
206K total, All:
res-base Wins
3e00000
385
4600000
391
1600000
35
3400000
52
2c00000
50
2e00000
50
2600000
37
4800000
37
2a00000
209
1800000
182
1400000
157
3c00000
175
3a00000
326
0a00000
85
4e00000
25
2400000
11
0e00000
20
Other
13K
33K
4K
4K
3K
3K
3K
3K
12K
12K
18K
9K
20K
9K
3K
1K
3K
Reference
GCs Fnts Pxms Misc

36
1 751 107
122
1 1182 889
11
0
76 142
31
1
69
74
25
1
43
50
10
1
36
42
24
1
34
50
24
1
34
49
33
1 323 238
32
1 302 285
121
1 231 477
36
1 248 168
42
1 579 444
38
1 317 224
17
1
60
66
10
0
56
51
12
1
50
92
Pxm mem
18161K
4566K
3811K
2816K
2374K
2341K
1772K
1772K
1111K
1039K
777K
510K
486K
102K
63K
53K
50K
42219K total
Total
PID Identifier
18175K
?
NOVELL: SU
4600K
?
amaroK - S
3816K
?
KDE Deskto
2820K
?
Linux Shel
2378K
?
Linux Shel
2344K
?
Linux Shel
1775K
?
Root - Kon
1775K
?
Root - Kon
1123K
?
Trekstor25
1052K
?
kicker
796K
?
kwin
520K
?
de.comp.la
506K
?
[opensuse111K
?
Kopete
66K
?
YaST Contr
55K 22061 suseplugge
54K 22016 kded
3200000
2200000
4400000
1a00000
3800000
1e00000
3600000
2000000
3000000
6
54
2
255
2
10
106
10
21
41
9
11
7
14
7
6
5
7
5
1
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
72
30
30
42
34
42
30
21
11
84
31
34
11
37
9
9
34
9
40K
42K
34K
19K
21K
15K
7K
9K
7K
8K
3K
2K
6K
2K
624B
3K
1K
888B
48K
?
EMACS
45K
?
SUSEWatche
36K 16489 kdesu
26K
?
KMix
24K 22242 knotify
15K
?
KPowersave
11K 22236 konqueror
10K
?
klipper
8K
?
KDE Wallet
10.8 User Information

10.8.1 Who Is Doing What: w
With the command w, find out who is logged onto the system and what each user is
doing. For example:
tux@mercury:~> w
16:33:03 up 3:33, 2 users, load average: 0.14, 0.06, 0.02
USER
TTY
LOGIN@
IDLE
JCPU
PCPU WHAT
tux
:0
16:33
?xdm?
9.42s 0.15s /bin/sh /opt/kde3/bin/startk
tux
pts/0
15:59
0.00s 0.19s 0.00s w
If any users of other systems have logged in remotely, the parameter -f shows the
computers from which they have established the connection.
10.9 Time and Date

10.9.1 Time Measurement with time
Determine the time spent by commands with the time utility. This utility is available
in two versions: as a shell built-in and as a program (/usr/bin/time).
tux@mercury:~> time find . > /dev/null
real
user
sys
0m4.051s
0m0.042s
0m0.205s
171
Part III. System
32-Bit and 64-Bit Applications

in a 64-Bit System
Environment
11
openSUSE is available for 64-bit platforms. This does not necessarily mean that all
the applications included have already been ported to 64-bit platforms. openSUSE
supports the use of 32-bit applications in a 64-bit system environment. This chapter
offers a brief overview of how this support is implemented on 64-bit openSUSE platforms. It explains how 32-bit applications are executed (runtime support) and how 32bit applications should be compiled to enable them to run both in 32-bit and 64-bit
system environments. Additionally, find information about the kernel API and an explanation of how 32-bit applications can run under a 64-bit kernel.
openSUSE for the 64-bit platforms amd64 and Intel 64 is designed so that existing 32bit applications run in the 64-bit environment out-of-the-box. This support means
that you can continue to use your preferred 32-bit applications without waiting for a
corresponding 64-bit port to become available.
11.1 Runtime Support

IMPORTANT: Conflicts between Application Versions
If an application is available both for 32-bit and 64-bit environments, parallel
installation of both versions is bound to lead to problems. In such cases, decide
on one of the two versions and install and use this.
32-Bit and 64-Bit Applications in a 64-Bit System Environment
175
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 in another way.
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 32bit 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. This scheme conforms to LSB (Linux Standards Base) and
FHS (File System Hierarchy Standard).
11.2 Software Development

A biarch development tool chain allows generation of 32-bit and 64-bit objects. The
default is to compile 64-bit objects. It is possible to generate 32-bit objects by using
special flags. For GCC, this special flag is -m32.
All header files must be written in an architecture-independent form. The installed 32bit 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. In the case of manually updated libraries, resolve these issues
yourself.
11.3 Software Compilation on Biarch

Platforms
To develop binaries for the other architecture on a biarch architecture, the respective
libraries for the second architecture must additionally be installed. These packages are
called rpmname-32bit. You also need the respective headers and libraries from the
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Reference
rpmname-devel packages and the development libraries for the second architecture
from rpmname-devel-32bit.
Most open source programs use an autoconf-based program configuration. To use
autoconf for configuring a program for the second architecture, overwrite the normal
compiler and linker settings of autoconf by running the configure script with
additional environment variables.
The following example refers to an x86_64 system with x86 as the second architecture.
1 Use the 32-bit compiler:
CC="gcc -m32"
2 Instruct the linker to process 32-bit objects (always use gcc as the linker frontend):
LD="gcc -m32"
3 Set the assembler to generate 32-bit objects:

AS="gcc -c -m32"
4 Determine that the libraries for libtool and so on come from /usr/lib:
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib"
5 Determine that the libraries are stored in the lib subdirectory:

--libdir=/usr/lib
6 Determine that the 32-bit X libraries are used:

--x-libraries=/usr/lib/xorg
Not all of these variables are needed for every program. Adapt them to the respective
program.
CC="gcc -m32"
\
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib;" \
.configure
\
--prefix=/usr \
--libdir=/usr/lib
make
make install
32-Bit and 64-Bit Applications in a 64-Bit System Environment
177
11.4 Kernel Specifications

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.
TIP
Some applications require separate kernel-loadable modules. If you intend to
use such a 32-bit application in a 64-bit system environment, contact the
provider of this application and Novell to make sure that the 64-bit version of
the kernel-loadable module and the 32-bit compiled version of the kernel API
are available for this module.
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Reference
Booting and Configuring a

Linux System
12
Booting a Linux system involves various different components. The hardware itself is
initialized by the BIOS, which starts the kernel by means of a boot loader. After this
point, the boot process with init and the runlevels is completely controlled by the operating system. The runlevel concept enables you to maintain setups for everyday usage
as well as to perform maintenance tasks on the system.
12.1 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.
1. BIOS After the computer has been turned on, the BIOS initializes the screen
and keyboard and tests the main memory. Up to this stage, the machine does not
access any mass storage media. Subsequently, the information about the current
date, time, and the most important peripherals are loaded from the CMOS values.
When the first hard disk and its geometry are recognized, the system control
passes from the BIOS to the boot loader.
2. Boot Loader The first physical 512-byte data sector of the first hard disk is
loaded into the main memory and the boot loader that resides at the beginning of
this sector takes over. The commands executed by the boot loader determine the
remaining part of the boot process. Therefore, the first 512 bytes on the first hard
disk are referred to as the Master Boot Record (MBR). The boot loader then
passes control to the actual operating system, in this case, the Linux kernel. More
Booting and Configuring a Linux System
179
information about GRUB, the Linux boot loader, can be found in Chapter 13, The
Boot Loader (page 195).
3. Kernel and initramfs To pass system control, the boot loader loads both the
kernel and an initial RAMbased file system (initramfs) into memory. The contents
of the initramfs can be used by the kernel directly. initramfs contains a small executable called init that handles the mounting of the real root file system. In former
versions of SUSE Linux, these tasks were handled by initrd and linuxrc, respectively. For more information about initramfs, refer to Section 12.1.1, initramfs
(page 180).
4. init on initramfs This program performs all actions needed to mount the
proper root file system, like providing kernel functionality for the needed file
system and device drivers for mass storage controllers with udev. After the root
file system has been found, it is checked for errors and mounted. If this has been
successful, the initramfs is cleaned and the init program on the root file system is
executed. For more information about init, refer to Section 12.1.2, init on
initramfs (page 181). Find more information about udev in Chapter 15, Dynamic
Kernel Device Management with udev (page 227).
5. init init handles the actual booting of the system through several different levels
providing different functionality. init is described in Section 12.2, The init Process
(page 183).
12.1.1 initramfs
initramfs is a small cpio archive that the kernel can load to a RAM disk. It provides a
minimal Linux environment that enables the execution of programs before the actual
root file system is mounted. This minimal Linux environment is loaded into memory
by BIOS routines and does not have specific hardware requirements other than sufficient
memory. initramfs must always provide an executable named init that should execute
the actual init program on the root file system for the boot process to proceed.
Before the root file system can be mounted and the operating system can be started,
the kernel needs the corresponding drivers to access the device on which the root file
system is located. These drivers may include special drivers for certain kinds of hard
drives or even network drivers to access a network file system. The needed modules
for the root file system may be loaded by init on initramfs. After the modules are loaded,
udev provides the initramfs with the needed devices. Later in the boot process, after
180
Reference
changing the root file system, it is necessary to regenerate the devices. This is done by
boot.udev with the command udevtrigger.
If you need to change hardware (e.g. hard disks) in an installed system and this hardware
requires different drivers to be present in the kernel at boot time, you must update
initramfs. This is done in the same way as with its predecessor, initrdby calling
mkinitrd. Calling mkinitrd without any argument creates an initramfs. Calling
mkinitrd -R creates an initrd. In openSUSE, the modules to load are specified
by the variable INITRD_MODULES in /etc/sysconfig/kernel. After installation, this variable is automatically set to the correct value. The modules are loaded in
exactly the order in which they appear in INITRD_MODULES. This is only important
if you rely on the correct setting of the device files /dev/sd?. However, in current
systems you also may use the device files below /dev/disk/ that are sorted in several subdirectories, named by-id, by-path and by-uuid, and always represent
the same disk. This is also possible at install time by specifying the respective mount
option.
IMPORTANT: Updating initramfs or initrd
The boot loader loads initramfs or initrd in the same way as the kernel. It is
not necessary to reinstall GRUB after updating initramfs or initrd, because GRUB
searches the directory for the right file when booting.
12.1.2 init on initramfs

The main purpose of init on initramfs is to prepare the mounting of and access to the
real root file system. Depending on your system configuration, init is responsible for
the following tasks.
Loading Kernel Modules
Depending on your hardware configuration, special drivers may be needed to access
the hardware components of your computer (the most important component being
your hard drive). To access the final root file system, the kernel needs to load the
proper file system drivers.
Providing Device Special Files
For each loaded module, the kernel generates device events. udev handles these
events and generates the required device special files on a RAM file system in
181
/dev. Without those special files, the file system and other devices would not be
accessible.
Managing RAID and LVM Setups
If you configured your system to hold the root file system under RAID or LVM,
init sets up LVM or RAID to enable access to the root file system later. Find information about RAID in Section 2.3, Soft RAID Configuration (page 55). Find
information about LVM in Section 2.2, LVM Configuration (page 49).
Managing Network Configuration
If you configured your system to use a network-mounted root file system (mounted
via NFS), init must make sure that the proper network drivers are loaded and that
they are set up to allow access to the root file system.
When init is called during the initial boot as part of the installation process, its tasks
differ from those mentioned earlier:
Finding the Installation Medium
As you start the installation process, your machine loads an installation kernel and
a special initrd with the YaST installer from the installation medium. The YaST
installer, which is run in a RAM file system, needs to have information about the
location of the installation medium to access it and install the operating system.
Initiating Hardware Recognition and Loading Appropriate Kernel Modules
As mentioned in Section 12.1.1, initramfs (page 180), the boot process starts with
a minimum set of drivers that can be used with most hardware configurations. init
starts an initial hardware scanning process that determines the set of drivers suitable
for your hardware configuration. The names of the modules needed for the boot
process are written to INITRD_MODULES in /etc/sysconfig/kernel.
These names are used to generate a custom initramfs that is needed to boot the
system. If the modules are not needed for boot but for coldplug, the modules are
written to /etc/sysconfig/hardware/hwconfig-*. All devices that are
described with configuration files in this directory are initialized in the boot process.
Loading the Installation System or Rescue System
As soon as the hardware has been properly recognized, the appropriate drivers have
been loaded, and udev has created the device special files, init starts the installation
system, which contains the actual YaST installer, or the rescue system.
Starting YaST
Finally, init starts YaST, which starts package installation and system configuration.
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Reference
12.2 The init Process

The program init is the process with process ID 1. It is responsible for initializing the
system in the required way. init is started directly by the kernel and resists signal 9,
which normally kills processes. All other programs are either started directly by init or
by one of its child processes.
init is centrally configured in the /etc/inittab file where the runlevels are defined
(see Section 12.2.1, Runlevels (page 183)). The file also specifies which services and
daemons are available in each of the runlevels. Depending on the entries in /etc/
inittab, several scripts are run by init. By default, the first script that is started after
booting is /etc/init.d/boot. Once the system initialization phase is finished, the
system changes the runlevel to its default runlevel with the /etc/init.d/rc script.
For reasons of clarity, these scripts, called init scripts, all reside in the directory /etc/
init.d (see Section 12.2.2, Init Scripts (page 186)).
The entire process of starting the system and shutting it down is maintained by init.
From this point of view, the kernel can be considered a background process whose task
is to maintain all other processes and adjust CPU time and hardware access according
to requests from other programs.
12.2.1 Runlevels
In Linux, runlevels define how the system is started and what services are available in
the running system. After booting, the system starts as defined in /etc/inittab in
the line initdefault. Usually this is 3 or 5. See Table 12.1, Available Runlevels
(page 183). As an alternative, the runlevel can be specified at boot time (at the boot
prompt, for instance). Any parameters that are not directly evaluated by the kernel itself
are passed to init. To boot into runlevel 3, just add a the single number 3 to the boot
prompt.
Table 12.1
Available Runlevels
Runlevel
Description
System halt
S or 1
Single user mode
183
Runlevel
Description
Local multiuser mode without remote network (NFS, etc.)
Full multiuser mode with network
Not used
Full multiuser mode with network and X display managerKDM, GDM, or XDM
System reboot
IMPORTANT: Avoid Runlevel 2 with a Partition Mounted via NFS

You should not use runlevel 2 if your system mounts a partition like /usr via
NFS. The system might behave unexpectedly if program files or libraries are
missing because the NFS service is not available in runlevel 2 (local multiuser
mode without remote network).
To change runlevels while the system is running, enter telinit and the corresponding
number as an argument. Only the system administrator is allowed to do this. The following list summarizes the most important commands in the runlevel area.
telinit 1 or shutdown now
The system changes to single user mode. This mode is used for system maintenance
and administration tasks.
telinit 3
All essential programs and services (including network) are started and regular
users are allowed to log in and work with the system without a graphical environment.
telinit 5
The graphical environment is enabled. Usually a display manager like XDM, GDM,
or KDM is started. If autologin is enabled, the local user is logged in to the preselected window manager (GNOME or KDE or any other window manager).
184
Reference
telinit 0 or shutdown -h now

The system halts.
telinit 6 or shutdown -r now
The system halts then reboots.
Runlevel 5 is the default runlevel in all openSUSE standard installations. Users are
prompted for login with a graphical interface or the default user is logged in automatically. If the default runlevel is 3, the X Window System must be configured properly,
as described in Chapter 8, The X Window System (page 117), before the runlevel can be
switched to 5. If this is done, check whether the system works in the desired way by
entering telinit 5. If everything turns out as expected, you can use YaST to set
the default runlevel to 5.
WARNING: Errors in /etc/inittab May Result in a Faulty System Boot
If /etc/inittab is damaged, the system might not boot properly. Therefore,
be extremely careful while editing /etc/inittab. Always let init reread
/etc/inittab with the command telinit q before rebooting the machine.
Generally, two things happen when you change runlevels. First, stop scripts of the
current runlevel are launched, closing down some programs essential for the current
runlevel. Then start scripts of the new runlevel are started. Here, in most cases, a number
of programs are started. For example, the following occurs when changing from runlevel
3 to 5:
1. The administrator (root) requests init to change to a different runlevel by entering
telinit 5.
2. init consults its configuration file (/etc/inittab) and determines it should
start /etc/init.d/rc with the new runlevel as a parameter.
3. Now rc calls the stop scripts of the current runlevel for which there is no start
script in the new runlevel. In this example, these are all the scripts that reside in
/etc/init.d/rc3.d (old runlevel was 3) and start with a K. The number
following K specifies the order to start, because there are some dependencies to
consider.
185
4. The last things to start are the start scripts of the new runlevel. These are, in this
example, in /etc/init.d/rc5.d and begin with an S. The same procedure
regarding the order in which they are started is applied here.
When changing into the same runlevel as the current runlevel, init only checks /etc/
inittab for changes and starts the appropriate steps, for example, for starting a
getty on another interface. The same functionality may be achieved with the command
telinit q.
12.2.2 Init Scripts

There are two types of scripts in /etc/init.d:
Scripts Executed Directly by init
This is the case only during the boot process or if an immediate system shutdown
is initiated (power failure or a user pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del). The execution of
these scripts is defined in /etc/inittab.
Scripts Executed Indirectly by init
These are run when changing the runlevel and always call the master script
/etc/init.d/rc, which guarantees the correct order of the relevant scripts.
All scripts are located in /etc/init.d. Scripts that are run at boot time are called
through symbolic links from /etc/init.d/boot.d. Scripts for changing the runlevel are called through symbolic links from one of the subdirectories (/etc/init
.d/rc0.d to /etc/init.d/rc6.d). This is just for clarity reasons and avoids
duplicate scripts if they are used in several runlevels. Because every script can be executed as both a start and a stop script, these scripts must understand the parameters
start and stop. The scripts also understand the restart, reload,
force-reload, and status options. These different options are explained in Table 12.2, Possible init Script Options (page 186). Scripts that are run directly by init
do not have these links. They are run independently from the runlevel when needed.
Table 12.2
186
Possible init Script Options
Option
Description
start
Start service.
Reference
Option
Description
stop
Stop service.
restart
If the service is running, stop it then restart it. If it is not

running, start it.
reload
Reload the configuration without stopping and restarting

the service.
force-reload
Reload the configuration if the service supports this.

Otherwise, do the same as if restart had been given.
status
Show the current status of service.
Links in each runlevel-specific subdirectory make it possible to associate scripts with

different runlevels. When installing or uninstalling packages, these links are added and
removed with the help of the program insserv (or using /usr/lib/lsb/install
_initd, which is a script calling this program). See the insserv(8) man page for details.
All of these settings may also be changed with the help of the YaST module. If you
need to check the status on the command line, use the tool chkconfig, described in the
chkconfig(8) man page.
A short introduction to the boot and stop scripts launched first or last, respectively,
follows as well as an explanation of the maintaining script.
boot
Executed while starting the system directly using init. It is independent of the
chosen runlevel and is only executed once. Here, the /proc and /dev/pts file
systems are mounted and blogd (boot logging daemon) is activated. If the system
is booted for the first time after an update or an installation, the initial system configuration is started.
The blogd daemon is a service started by boot and rc before any other one. It is
stopped after the actions triggered by these scripts (running a number of subscripts,
for example) are completed. blogd writes any screen output to the log file /var/
log/boot.msg, but only if and when /var is mounted read-write. Otherwise,
187
blogd buffers all screen data until /var becomes available. Get further information
about blogd on the blogd(8) man page.
The script boot is also responsible for starting all the scripts in /etc/init.d/
boot.d with a name that starts with S. There, the file systems are checked and
loop devices are configured if needed. The system time is also set. If an error occurs
while automatically checking and repairing the file system, the system administrator
can intervene after first entering the root password. Last executed is the script
boot.local.
boot.local
Here, enter additional commands to execute at boot before changing into a runlevel.
It can be compared to AUTOEXEC.BAT on DOS systems.
boot.setup
This script is executed when changing from single user mode to any other runlevel
and is responsible for a number of basic settings, such as the keyboard layout and
initialization of the virtual consoles.
halt
This script is only executed while changing into runlevel 0 or 6. Here, it is executed
either as halt or as reboot. Whether the system shuts down or reboots depends
on how halt is called.
rc
This script calls the appropriate stop scripts of the current runlevel and the start
scripts of the newly selected runlevel.
You can create your own scripts and easily integrate them into the scheme described
above. For instructions about formatting, naming, and organizing custom scripts, refer
to the specifications of the LSB and to the man pages of init, init.d, chkconfig,
and insserv. Additionally consult the man pages of startproc and killproc.
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Reference
WARNING: Faulty init Scripts May Halt Your System

Faulty init scripts may hang your machine. Edit such scripts with great care and,
if possible, subject them to heavy testing in the multiuser environment. Find
some useful information about init scripts in Section 12.2.1, Runlevels
(page 183).
To create a custom init script for a given program or service, use the file /etc/init
.d/skeleton as a template. Save a copy of this file under the new name and edit
the relevant program and filenames, paths, and other details as needed. You may also
need to enhance the script with your own parts, so the correct actions are triggered by
the init procedure.
The INIT INFO block at the top is a required part of the script and must be edited.
See Example 12.1, A Minimal INIT INFO Block (page 189).
Example 12.1 A Minimal INIT INFO Block
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:
# Required-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start:
# Default-Stop:
# Description:
### END INIT INFO
FOO
$syslog $remote_fs
$syslog $remote_fs
3 5
0 1 2 6
Start FOO to allow XY and provide YZ
In the first line of the INFO block, after Provides:, specify the name of the program
or service controlled by this init script. In the Required-Start: and
Required-Stop: lines, specify all services that need to be started or stopped before
the service itself is started or stopped. This information is used later to generate the
numbering of script names, as found in the runlevel directories. After
Default-Start: and Default-Stop:, specify the runlevels in which the service
should automatically be started or stopped. Finally, for Description:, provide a
short description of the service in question.
To create the links from the runlevel directories (/etc/init.d/rc?.d/) to the
corresponding scripts in /etc/init.d/, enter the command insserv
new-script-name. The insserv program evaluates the INIT INFO header to create
the necessary links for start and stop scripts in the runlevel directories (/etc/init
.d/rc?.d/). The program also takes care of the correct start and stop order for each
runlevel by including the necessary numbers in the names of these links. If you prefer
189
a graphical tool to create such links, use the runlevel editor provided by YaST, as described in Section 12.2.3, Configuring System Services (Runlevel) with YaST
(page 190).
If a script already present in /etc/init.d/ should be integrated into the existing
runlevel scheme, create the links in the runlevel directories right away with insserv or
by enabling the corresponding service in the runlevel editor of YaST. Your changes
are applied during the next rebootthe new service is started automatically.
Do not set these links manually. If something is wrong in the INFO block, problems
will arise when insserv is run later for some other service. The manually-added
service will be removed with the next run of insserv for this script.
12.2.3 Configuring System Services

(Runlevel) with YaST
After starting this YaST module with YaST > System > System Services (Runlevel), it
displays an overview listing all the available services and the current status of each
service (disabled or enabled). Decide whether to use the module in Simple Mode or in
Expert Mode. The default Simple Mode should be sufficient for most purposes. The left
column shows the name of the service, the center column indicates its current status,
and the right column gives a short description. For the selected service, a more detailed
description is provided in the lower part of the window. To enable a service, select it
in the table then select Enable. The same steps apply to disable a service.
For detailed control over the runlevels in which a service is started or stopped or to
change the default runlevel, first select Expert Mode. The current default runlevel or
initdefault (the runlevel into which the system boots by default) is displayed at the
top. Normally, the default runlevel of a openSUSE system is runlevel 5 (full multiuser
mode with network and X). A suitable alternative might be runlevel 3 (full multiuser
mode with network).
This YaST dialog allows the selection of one of the runlevels (as listed in Table 12.1,
Available Runlevels (page 183)) as the new default. Additionally use the table in this
window to enable or disable individual services and daemons. The table lists the services
and daemons available, shows whether they are currently enabled on your system, and,
if so, for which runlevels. After selecting one of the rows with the mouse, click the
check boxes representing the runlevels (B, 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and S) to define the runlevels
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in which the selected service or daemon should be running. Runlevel 4 is undefined to

allow creation of a custom runlevel. A brief description of the currently selected service
or daemon is provided below the table overview.
Figure 12.1 System Services (Runlevel)
With Start, Stop, or Refresh, decide whether a service should be activated. Refresh
status checks the current status. Set or Reset lets you select whether to apply your
changes to the system or to restore the settings that existed before starting the runlevel
editor. Selecting Finish saves the changed settings to disk.
WARNING: Faulty Runlevel Settings May Damage Your System
Faulty runlevel settings may render a system unusable. Before applying your
changes, make absolutely sure that you know their consequences.
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12.3 System Configuration via

/etc/sysconfig
The main configuration of openSUSE is controlled by the configuration files in /etc/
sysconfig. The individual files in /etc/sysconfig are only read by the scripts
to which they are relevant. This ensures that network settings, for example, only need
to be parsed by network-related scripts.
There are two ways to edit the system configuration. Either use the YaST sysconfig
Editor or edit the configuration files manually.
12.3.1 Changing the System Configuration

Using the YaST sysconfig Editor
The YaST sysconfig editor provides an easy-to-use front-end to system configuration.
Without any knowledge of the actual location of the configuration variable you need
to change, you can just use the built-in search function of this module, change the value
of the configuration variable as needed, and let YaST take care of applying these
changes, updating configurations that depend on the values set in sysconfig and
restarting services.
WARNING: Modifying /etc/sysconfig/* Files Can Damage Your
Installation
Do not modify the /etc/sysconfig files if you lack previous experience
and knowledge. It could do considerable damage to your system. The files in
/etc/sysconfig include a short comment for each variable to explain what
effect they actually have.
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Figure 12.2 System Configuration Using the sysconfig Editor
The YaST sysconfig dialog is split into three parts. The left part of the dialog shows a
tree view of all configurable variables. When you select a variable, the right part displays
both the current selection and the current setting of this variable. Below, a third window
displays a short description of the variable's purpose, possible values, the default value,
and the actual configuration file from which this variable originates. The dialog also
provides information about which configuration script is executed after changing the
variable and which new service is started as a result of the change. YaST prompts you
to confirm your changes and informs you which scripts will be executed after you leave
the dialog by selecting Finish. Also select the services and scripts to skip for now, so
they are started later. YaST applies all changes automatically and restarts any services
involved for your changes to take an effect.
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12.3.2 Changing the System Configuration

Manually
To manually change the system configuration, proceed as follows
1 Become root.
2 Bring the system into single user mode (runlevel 1) with telinit 1.
3 Change the configuration files as needed with an editor of your choice.
If you do not use YaST to change the configuration files in /etc/sysconfig,
make sure that empty variable values are represented by two quotation marks
(KEYTABLE="") and that values with blanks in them are enclosed in quotation
marks. Values consisting of one word only do not need to be quoted.
4 Execute SuSEconfig to make sure that the changes take effect.
5 Bring your system back to the previous runlevel with a command like telinit
default_runlevel. Replace default_runlevel with the default runlevel of the system. Choose 5 if you want to return to full multiuser with network
and X or choose 3 if you prefer to work in full multiuser with network.
This procedure is mainly relevant when changing systemwide settings, such as the
network configuration. Small changes should not require going into single user mode,
but you may still do so to make absolutely sure that all the programs concerned are
correctly restarted.
TIP: Configuring Automated System Configuration
To disable the automated system configuration by SuSEconfig, set the variable
ENABLE_SUSECONFIG in /etc/sysconfig/suseconfig to no. Do not
disable SuSEconfig if you want to use the SUSE installation support. It is also
possible to disable the autoconfiguration partially.
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13
The Boot Loader

This chapter describes how to configure GRUB, the boot loader used in openSUSE.
A special YaST module is available for performing all settings. If you are not familiar
with the subject of booting in Linux, read the following sections to acquire some
background information. This chapter also describes some of the problems frequently
encountered when booting with GRUB and their solutions.
This chapter focuses on boot management and the configuration of the boot loader
GRUB. The boot procedure as a whole is outlined in Chapter 12, Booting and Configuring a Linux System (page 179). A boot loader represents the interface between machine
(BIOS) and the operating system (openSUSE). The configuration of the boot loader
directly impacts the start of the operating system.
The following terms appear frequently in this chapter and might need some explanation:
Master Boot Record
The structure of the MBR is defined by an operating systemindependent convention. The first 446 bytes are reserved for the program code. They typically hold
part of a boot loader program or an operating system selector. The next 64 bytes
provide space for a partition table of up to four entries (see Section 2.1.1, Partition
Types (page 42)). The partition table contains information about the partitioning
of the hard disk and the file system types. The operating system needs this table
for handling the hard disk. With conventional generic code in the MBR, exactly
one partition must be marked active. The last two bytes of the MBR must contain
a static magic number (AA55). An MBR containing a different value is regarded
as invalid by some BIOSs, so is not considered for booting.
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195
Boot Sectors
Boot sectors are the first sectors of hard disk partitions with the exception of the
extended partition, which merely serves as a container for other partitions. These
boot sectors have 512 bytes of space for code used to boot an operating system installed in the respective partition. This applies to boot sectors of formatted DOS,
Windows, and OS/2 partitions, which also contain some important basic data of
the file system. In contrast, the boot sectors of Linux partitions are initially empty
after setting up a file system other than XFS. Therefore, a Linux partition is not
bootable by itself, even if it contains a kernel and a valid root file system. A boot
sector with valid code for booting the system has the same magic number as the
MBR in its last two bytes (AA55).
13.1 Selecting a Boot Loader

By default, the boot loader GRUB is used in openSUSE. However, in some cases and
for special hardware and software constellations, LILO may be necessary. If you update
from an older openSUSE version that uses LILO, LILO is installed.
Information about the installation and configuration of LILO is available in the Support
Database under the keyword LILO and in /usr/share/doc/packages/lilo.
13.2 Booting with GRUB

GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) comprises two stages. stage1 consists of 512 bytes
and its only task is to load the second stage of the boot loader. Subsequently, stage2 is
loaded. This stage contains the main part of the boot loader.
In some configurations, an intermediate stage 1.5 can be used, which locates and loads
stage 2 from an appropriate file system. If possible, this method is chosen by default
on installation or when initially setting up GRUB with YaST.
stage2 is able to access many file systems. Currently, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, Minix, and
the DOS FAT file system used by Windows are supported. To a certain extent, XFS,
and UFS and FFS used by BSD systems are also supported. Since version 0.95, GRUB
is also able to boot from a CD or DVD containing an ISO 9660 standard file system
pursuant to the El Torito specification. Even before the system is booted, GRUB can
access file systems of supported BIOS disk devices (floppy disks or hard disks, CD
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drives, and DVD drives detected by the BIOS). Therefore, changes to the GRUB configuration file (menu.lst) do not require a reinstallation of the boot manager. When
the system is booted, GRUB reloads the menu file with the valid paths and partition
data of the kernel or the initial RAM disk (initrd) and locates these files.
The actual configuration of GRUB is based on three files that are described below:
/boot/grub/menu.lst
This file contains all information about partitions or operating systems that can be
booted with GRUB. Without this information, the GRUB command line prompts
the user for how to proceed (see Section Editing Menu Entries during the Boot
Procedure (page 201) for details).
/boot/grub/device.map
This file translates device names from the GRUB and BIOS notation to Linux device
names.
/etc/grub.conf
This file contains the commands, parameters, and options the GRUB shell needs
for installing the boot loader correctly.
GRUB can be controlled in various ways. Boot entries from an existing configuration
can be selected from the graphical menu (splash screen). The configuration is loaded
from the file menu.lst.
In GRUB, all boot parameters can be changed prior to booting. For example, errors
made when editing the menu file can be corrected in this way. Boot commands can also
be entered interactively at a kind of input prompt (see Section Editing Menu Entries
during the Boot Procedure (page 201)). GRUB offers the possibility of determining
the location of the kernel and the initrd prior to booting. In this way, you can even
boot an installed operating system for which no entry exists in the boot loader configuration.
GRUB actually exists in two versions: as a boot loader and as a normal Linux program
in /usr/sbin/grub. This program is referred to as the GRUB shell. It provides an
emulation of GRUB in the installed system and can be used to install GRUB or test
new settings before applying them. The functionality to install GRUB as the boot
loader on a hard disk or floppy disk is integrated in GRUB in the form of the commands
install and setup. This is available in the GRUB shell when Linux is loaded.
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197
13.2.1 The GRUB Boot Menu

The graphical splash screen with the boot menu is based on the GRUB configuration
file /boot/grub/menu.lst, which contains all information about all partitions or
operating systems that can be booted by the menu.
Every time the system is booted, GRUB loads the menu file from the file system. For
this reason, GRUB does not need to be reinstalled after every change to the file. Use
the YaST boot loader to modify the GRUB configuration as described in Section 13.3,
Configuring the Boot Loader with YaST (page 205).
The menu file contains commands. The syntax is very simple. Every line contains a
command followed by optional parameters separated by spaces like in the shell. For
historical reasons, some commands permit an = in front of the first parameter. Comments
are introduced by a hash (#).
To identify the menu items in the menu overview, set a title for every entry. The
text (including any spaces) following the keyword title is displayed as a selectable
option in the menu. All commands up to the next title are executed when this menu
item is selected.
The simplest case is the redirection to boot loaders of other operating systems. The
command is chainloader and the argument is usually the boot block of another
partition, in GRUB block notation. For example:
chainloader (hd0,3)+1
The device names in GRUB are explained in Section Naming Conventions for Hard
Disks and Partitions (page 199). This example specifies the first block of the fourth
partition of the first hard disk.
Use the command kernel to specify a kernel image. The first argument is the path to
the kernel image in a partition. The other arguments are passed to the kernel on its
command line.
If the kernel does not have built-in drivers for access to the root partition or a recent
Linux system with advanced hotplug features is used, initrd must be specified with
a separate GRUB command whose only argument is the path to the initrd file. Because the loading address of the initrd is written into the loaded kernel image, the
command initrd must follow after the kernel command.
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The command root simplifies the specification of kernel and initrd files. The only
argument of root is a device or a partition. This device is used for all kernel, initrd,
or other file paths for which no device is explicitly specified until the next root command.
The boot command is implied at the end of every menu entry, so it does not need to
be written into the menu file. However, if you use GRUB interactively for booting, you
must enter the boot command at the end. The command itself has no arguments. It
merely boots the loaded kernel image or the specified chain loader.
After writing all menu entries, define one of them as the default entry. Otherwise,
the first one (entry 0) is used. You can also specify a time-out in seconds after which
the default entry should boot. timeout and default usually precede the menu entries.
An example file is described in Section An Example Menu File (page 200).
Naming Conventions for Hard Disks and Partitions

The naming conventions GRUB uses for hard disks and partitions differ from those
used for normal Linux devices. It more closely resembles the simple disk enumeration
the BIOS does and the syntax is similar to that used in some BSD derivatives. In GRUB,
the numbering of the partitions starts with zero. This means that (hd0,0) is the first
partition of the first hard disk. On a common desktop machine with a hard disk connected
as primary master, the corresponding Linux device name is /dev/sda1.
The four possible primary partitions are assigned the partition numbers 0 to 3. The
logical partitions are numbered from 4:
(hd0,0)
(hd0,1)
(hd0,2)
(hd0,3)
(hd0,4)
(hd0,5)
first primary partition of the first hard disk

second primary partition
third primary partition
fourth primary partition (usually an extended partition)
first logical partition
second logical partition
Being dependent on BIOS devices, GRUB does not distinguish between IDE, SATA,
SCSI, and hardware RAID devices. All hard disks recognized by the BIOS or other
controllers are numbered according to the boot sequence preset in the BIOS.
Unfortunately, it is often not possible to map the Linux device names to BIOS device
names exactly. It generates this mapping with the help of an algorithm and saves it to
the file device.map, which can be edited if necessary. Information about the file
device.map is available in Section 13.2.2, The File device.map (page 202).
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199
A complete GRUB path consists of a device name written in parentheses and the path
to the file in the file system in the specified partition. The path begins with a slash. For
example, the bootable kernel could be specified as follows on a system with a single
IDE hard disk containing Linux in its first partition:
(hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz
An Example Menu File

The following example shows the structure of a GRUB menu file. The example installation has a Linux boot partition under /dev/sda5, a root partition under /dev/
sda7, and a Windows installation under /dev/sda1.
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 vga=791
initrd (hd0,4)/initrd
title windows
chainloader(hd0,0)+1
title floppy
chainloader(fd0)+1
title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/sda7 ide=nodma \
apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 3
initrd (hd0,4)/initrd.shipped
The first block defines the configuration of the splash screen:

The background image message is located in the top directory of the /dev/
sda5 partition.
Color scheme: white (foreground), blue (background), black (selection), and light
gray (background of the selection). The color scheme has no effect on the splash
screen, only on the customizable GRUB menu that you can access by exiting the
splash screen with Esc.
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default 0
The first menu entry title linux is the one to boot by default.
timeout 8
After eight seconds without any user input, GRUB automatically boots the default
entry. To deactivate automatic boot, delete the timeout line. If you set timeout
0, GRUB boots the default entry immediately.
The second and largest block lists the various bootable operating systems. The sections
for the individual operating systems are introduced by title.
The first entry (title linux) is responsible for booting openSUSE. The kernel
(vmlinuz) is located in the first logical partition (the boot partition) of the first
hard disk. Kernel parameters, such as the root partition and VGA mode, are appended here. The root partition is specified according to the Linux naming convention
(/dev/sda7/), because this information is read by the kernel and has nothing to
do with GRUB. The initrd is also located in the first logical partition of the first
hard disk.
The second entry is responsible for loading Windows. Windows is booted from the
first partition of the first hard disk (hd0,0). The command chainloader +1
causes GRUB to read and execute the first sector of the specified partition.
The next entry enables booting from floppy disk without modifying the BIOS settings.
The boot option failsafe starts Linux with a selection of kernel parameters that
enables Linux to boot even on problematic systems.
The menu file can be changed whenever necessary. GRUB then uses the modified settings during the next boot. Edit the file permanently using YaST or an editor of your
choice. Alternatively, make temporary changes interactively using the edit function of
GRUB. See Section Editing Menu Entries during the Boot Procedure (page 201).
Editing Menu Entries during the Boot Procedure

In the graphical boot menu, select the operating system to boot with the arrow keys. If
you select a Linux system, you can enter additional boot parameters at the boot prompt.
To edit individual menu entries directly, press Esc to exit the splash screen and get to
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201
the GRUB text-based menu then press E. Changes made in this way only apply to the
current boot and are not adopted permanently.
IMPORTANT: Keyboard Layout during the Boot Procedure
The US keyboard layout is the only one available when booting. See Figure US
Keyboard Layout (Start-Up) for a figure.
Editing menu entries facilitates the repair of a defective system that can no longer be
booted, because the faulty configuration file of the boot loader can be circumvented by
manually entering parameters. Manually entering parameters during the boot procedure
is also useful for testing new settings without impairing the native system.
After activating the editing mode, use the arrow keys to select the menu entry of the
configuration to edit. To make the configuration editable, press E again. In this way,
edit incorrect partitions or path specifications before they have a negative effect on the
boot process. Press Enter to exit the editing mode and return to the menu. Then press
B to boot this entry. Further possible actions are displayed in the help text at the bottom.
To enter changed boot options permanently and pass them to the kernel, open the file
menu.lst as the user root and append the respective kernel parameters to the existing
line, separated by spaces:
title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 additional parameter
GRUB automatically adopts the new parameters the next time the system is booted.
Alternatively, this change can also be made with the YaST boot loader module. Append
the new parameters to the existing line, separated by spaces.
13.2.2 The File device.map

The file device.map maps GRUB and BIOS device names to Linux device names.
In a mixed system containing IDE and SCSI hard disks, GRUB must try to determine
the boot sequence by a special procedure, because GRUB may not have access to the
BIOS information on the boot sequence. GRUB saves the result of this analysis in the
file /boot/grub/device.map. For a system on which the boot sequence in the
BIOS is set to IDE before SCSI, the file device.map could appear as follows:
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(fd0)
(hd0)
(hd1)
/dev/fd0
/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
Because the order of IDE, SCSI, and other hard disks depends on various factors and
Linux is not able to identify the mapping, the sequence in the file device.map can
be set manually. If you encounter problems when booting, check if the sequence in this
file corresponds to the sequence in the BIOS and use the GRUB prompt to modify it
temporarily if necessary. After the Linux system has booted, the file device.map
can be edited permanently with the YaST boot loader module or an editor of your
choice.
After manually changing device.map, execute the following command to reinstall
GRUB. This command causes the file device.map to be reloaded and the commands
listed in grub.conf to be executed:
grub --batch < /etc/grub.conf
13.2.3 The File /etc/grub.conf

The third most important GRUB configuration file after menu.lst and device.map
is /etc/grub.conf. This file contains the commands, parameters, and options the
GRUB shell needs for installing the boot loader correctly:
root (hd0,4)
install /grub/stage1 (hd0,3) /grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,4)/grub/menu.lst
quit
Meaning of the individual entries:

root (hd0,4)
This command tells GRUB to apply the following commands to the first logical
partition of the first hard disk (the location of the boot files).
install parameter
The command grub should be run with the parameter install. stage1 of the
boot loader should be installed in the the extended partition container
(/grub/stage1 (hd0,3)). This is a slightly esoteric configuration, but it is
known to work in many cases. stage2 should be loaded to the memory address
0x8000 (/grub/stage2 0x8000). The last entry
((hd0,4)/grub/menu.lst) tells GRUB where to look for the menu file.
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13.2.4 Setting a Boot Password

Even before the operating system is booted, GRUB enables access to file systems. Users
without root permissions can access files in your Linux system to which they have no
access once the system is booted. To block this kind of access or prevent users from
booting certain operating systems, set a boot password.
IMPORTANT: Boot Password and Splash Screen
If you use a boot password for GRUB, the usual splash screen is not displayed.
As the user root, proceed as follows to set a boot password:
1 At the root prompt, encrypt the password using grub-md5-crypt:
# grub-md5-crypt
Password: ****
Retype password: ****
Encrypted: $1$lS2dv/$JOYcdxIn7CJk9xShzzJVw/
2 Paste the encrypted string into the global section of the file menu.lst:
default 0
timeout 8
password --md5 $1$lS2dv/$JOYcdxIn7CJk9xShzzJVw/
Now GRUB commands can only be executed at the boot prompt after pressing
P and entering the password. However, users can still boot all operating systems
from the boot menu.
3 To prevent one or several operating systems from being booted from the boot
menu, add the entry lock to every section in menu.lst that should not be
bootable without entering a password. For example:
title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 vga=791
lock
After rebooting the system and selecting the Linux entry from the boot menu,
the following error message is displayed:
Error 32: Must be authenticated
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Press Enter to enter the menu. Then press P to get a password prompt. After entering the password and pressing Enter, the selected operating system (Linux in
this case) should boot.
13.3 Configuring the Boot Loader with

YaST
The easiest way to configure the boot loader in your openSUSE system is to use the
YaST module. In the YaST Control Center, select System > Boot Loader. As in Figure 13.1, Boot Loader Settings (page 205), this shows the current boot loader configuration of your system and allows you to make changes.
Figure 13.1 Boot Loader Settings
Use the Section Management tab to edit, change, and delete boot loader sections for
the individual operating systems. To add an option, click Add. To change the value of
an existing option, select it with the mouse and click Edit. To remove an existing entry,
select it and click Delete. If you are not familiar with boot loader options, read Section 13.2, Booting with GRUB (page 196) first.
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205
Use the Boot Loader Installation tab to view and change settings related to type, location,
and advanced loader settings.
Access advanced configuration options from the drop-down menu that opens after you
click on Other. The build-in editor lets you change the GRUB configuration files (see
Section 13.2, Booting with GRUB (page 196) for details). You can also delete the
existing configuration and Start from Scratch or let YaST Propose a New Configuration.
It is also possible to write the configuration to disk or reread the configuration from the
disk. To restore the original Master Boot Record that was saved during the installation,
choose Restore MBR of Hard Disk.
13.3.1 Boot Loader Type

Set the boot loader type in Boot Loader Installation. The default boot loader in openSUSE is GRUB. To use LILO, proceed as follows:
Procedure 13.1 Changing the Boot Loader Type
1 Select the Boot Loader Installation tab.
2 For Boot Loader, select LILO.
3 In the dialog box that opens, select one of the following actions:
Propose New Configuration
Have YaST propose a new configuration.
Convert Current Configuration
Have YaST convert the current configuration. When converting the configuration, some settings may be lost.
Start New Configuration from Scratch
Write a custom configuration. This action is not available during the installation of openSUSE.
Read Configuration Saved on Disk
Load your own /etc/lilo.conf. This action is not available during the
installation of openSUSE.
4 Click OK to save the changes
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Reference
5 Click Finish in the main dialog to apply the changes.

During the conversion, the old GRUB configuration is saved to disk. To use it, simply
change the boot loader type back to GRUB and choose Restore Configuration Saved
before Conversion. This action is available only on an installed system.
NOTE: Custom Boot Loader
To use a boot loader other than GRUB or LILO, select Do Not Install Any Boot
Loader. Read the documentation of your boot loader carefully before choosing
this option.
13.3.2 Boot Loader Location

To change the location of the boot loader, follow these steps:
Procedure 13.2 Changing the Boot Loader Location
1 Select the Boot Loader Installation tab then select one of the following options
for Boot Loader Location:
Boot from Boot Partition
The boot sector of the /boot partition.
Boot from Extended Partition
This installs the boot loader in the extended partition container.
Boot from Master Boot Record
This installs the boot loader in the MBR of the first disk (according to the
boot sequence preset in the BIOS).
Boot from Root Partition
This installs the boot loader in the boot sector of the / partition.
Custom Boot Partition
Use this option to specify the location of the boot loader manually.
2 Click Finish to apply your changes.
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207
13.3.3 Default System

To change the system that is booted by default, proceed as follows:
Procedure 13.3 Setting the Default System
1 Open the Section Management tab.
2 Select the desired entry from the list.
3 Click Set as Default.
4 Click Finish to activate these changes.
13.3.4 Boot Loader Time-Out

The boot loader does not boot the default system immediately. During the time-out,
you can select the system to boot or write some kernel parameters. To set the boot
loader time-out, proceed as follows:
Procedure 13.4 Changing the Boot Loader Time-Out
1 Open the Boot Loader Installation tab.
2 Click Boot Loader Options.
3 Change the value of Timeout in Seconds by typing in a new value, clicking the
appropriate arrow key with your mouse, or by using the arrow keys on the keyboard.
4 Click OK.
5 Click Finish to save the changes.
13.3.5 Security Settings

Using this YaST module, you can also set a password to protect booting. This gives
you an additional level of security.
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Reference
Procedure 13.5 Setting a Boot Loader Password

1 Open the Boot Loader Installation tab.
2 Click Boot Loader Options.
3 Set your password in Password for the Menu Interface.
4 Click OK.
5 Click Finish to save the changes.
13.4 Uninstalling the Linux Boot

Loader
YaST can be used to uninstall the Linux boot loader and restore the MBR to the state
it had prior to the installation of Linux. During the installation, YaST automatically
creates a backup copy of the original MBR and restores it on request.
To uninstall GRUB, start the YaST boot loader module (System > Boot Loader). Select
Other > Restore MBR of Hard Disk and confirm with Yes, Rewrite.
13.5 Creating Boot CDs

If problems occur booting your system using a boot manager or if the boot manager
cannot be installed on the MBR of your hard disk or a floppy disk, it is also possible
to create a bootable CD with all the necessary start-up files for Linux. This requires a
CD writer installed in your system.
Creating a bootable CD-ROM with GRUB merely requires a special form of stage2
called stage2_eltorito and, optionally, a customized menu.lst. The classic
files stage1 and stage2 are not required.
Procedure 13.6 Creating Boot CDs
1 Change into a directory in which to create the ISO image, for example: cd /tmp
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209
2 Create a subdirectory for GRUB:

mkdir -p iso/boot/grub
3 Copy the kernel, the files stage2_eltorito, initrd, menu.lst, and

message to iso/boot/:
cp
cp
cp
cp
cp
/boot/vmlinuz iso/boot/
/boot/initrd iso/boot/
/boot/message iso/boot/
/usr/lib/grub/stage2_eltorito iso/boot/grub
/boot/grub/menu.lst iso/boot/grub
4 Adjust the path entries in iso/boot/grub/menu.lst to make them point

to a CD-ROM device. Do this by replacing the device name of the hard disks,
listed in the format (sd*), in the pathnames with the device name of the CDROM drive, which is (cd):
timeout 8
default 0
gfxmenu (cd)/boot/message
title Linux
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 vga=794 resume=/dev/sda1 \
splash=verbose showopts
initrd /boot/initrd
Use splash=silent instead of splash=verbose to prevent the boot

messages from appearing during the boot procedure.
5 Create the ISO image with the following command:
mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot \
-boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o grub.iso /tmp/iso
6 Write the resulting file grub.iso to a CD using your preferred utility. Do not
burn the ISO image as data file, but use the option for burning a CD image in
your burning utility.
13.6 The Graphical SUSE Screen

Since SUSE Linux 7.2, the graphical SUSE screen is displayed on the first console if
the option vga=value is used as a kernel parameter. If you install using YaST, this
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Reference
option is automatically activated in accordance with the selected resolution and the
graphics card. There are three ways to disable the SUSE screen, if desired:
Disabling the SUSE Screen When Necessary
Enter the command echo 0 >/proc/splash on the command line to disable
the graphical screen. To activate it again, enter echo 1 >/proc/splash.
Disabling the SUSE screen by default.
Add the kernel parameter splash=0 to your boot loader configuration. Chapter 13,
The Boot Loader (page 195) provides more information about this. However, if you
prefer the text mode, which was the default in earlier versions, set vga=normal.
Completely Disabling the SUSE Screen
Compile a new kernel and disable the option Use splash screen instead of boot logo
in framebuffer support.
TIP
Disabling framebuffer support in the kernel automatically disables the
splash screen as well. SUSE cannot provide any support for your system if
you run it with a custom kernel.
13.7 Troubleshooting
This section lists some of the problems frequently encountered when booting with
GRUB and a short description of possible solutions. Some of the problems are covered
in articles in the Support Database at http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:SDB. Use
the search dialog to search for keywords like GRUB, boot, and boot loader.
GRUB and XFS
XFS leaves no room for stage1 in the partition boot block. Therefore, do not
specify an XFS partition as the location of the boot loader. This problem can be
solved by creating a separate boot partition that is not formatted with XFS.
GRUB Reports GRUB Geom Error
GRUB checks the geometry of connected hard disks when the system is booted.
Sometimes, the BIOS returns inconsistent information and GRUB reports a GRUB
Geom Error. If this is the case, use LILO or update the BIOS. Detailed information
The Boot Loader
211
about the installation, configuration, and maintenance of LILO is available in the

Support Database under the keyword LILO.
GRUB also returns this error message if Linux was installed on an additional hard
disk that is not registered in the BIOS. stage1 of the boot loader is found and
loaded correctly, but stage2 is not found. This problem can be remedied by registering the new hard disk in the BIOS.
System Containing IDE and SCSI Hard Disks Does Not Boot
During the installation, YaST may have incorrectly determined the boot sequence
of the hard disks. For example, GRUB may regard the IDE disk as hd0 and the
SCSI disk as hd1, although the boot sequence in the BIOS is reversed (SCSI before
IDE).
In this case, correct the hard disks during the boot process with the help of the
GRUB command line. After the system has booted, edit device.map to apply
the new mapping permanently. Then check the GRUB device names in the files
/boot/grub/menu.lst and /boot/grub/device.map and reinstall the
boot loader with the following command:
grub --batch < /etc/grub.conf
Booting Windows from the Second Hard Disk

Some operating systems, such as Windows, can only boot from the first hard disk.
If such an operating system is installed on a hard disk other than the first hard disk,
you can effect a logical change for the respective menu entry.
...
title windows
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader(hd1,0)+1
...
In this example, Windows is started from the second hard disk. For this purpose,
the logical order of the hard disks is changed with map. This change does not affect
the logic within the GRUB menu file. Therefore, the second hard disk must be
specified for chainloader.
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Reference

Extensive information about GRUB is available at http://www.gnu.org/
software/grub/. Also refer to the grub info page. You can also search for the
keyword SDB:GRUB in the Support Database at http://www.opensuse.org/
to get information about special issues.
The Boot Loader
213
14
Special System Features
This chapter starts with information about various software packages, the virtual consoles, and the keyboard layout. We talk about software components like bash, cron,
and logrotate, because they were changed or enhanced during the last release cycles.
Even if they are small or considered of minor importance, users may want to change
their default behavior, because these components are often closely coupled with the
system. The chapter is finished by a section about language and country-specific settings
(I18N and L10N).
14.1 Information about Special

Software Packages
The programs bash, cron, logrotate, locate, ulimit, and free, and the file
resolv.conf are very important for system administrators and many users. Man
pages and info pages are two useful sources of information about commands, but both
are not always available. GNU Emacs is a popular and very configurable text editor.
14.1.1 The bash Package and /etc/profile

Bash is the default system shell. When used as a login shell, it reads several initialization
files. Bash processes them in the order they appear in this list:
215
1. /etc/profile
2. ~/.profile
3. /etc/bash.bashrc
4. ~/.bashrc
Make custom settings in ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc. To ensure the correct processing of these files, it is necessary to copy the basic settings from /etc/skel/
.profile or /etc/skel/.bashrc into the home directory of the user. It is recommended to copy the settings from /etc/skel after an update. Execute the following
shell commands to prevent the loss of personal adjustments:
mv
cp
mv
cp
~/.bashrc ~/.bashrc.old
/etc/skel/.bashrc ~/.bashrc
~/.profile ~/.profile.old
/etc/skel/.profile ~/.profile
Copy personal adjustments back from the *.old files.
14.1.2 The cron Package

If you want to run commands regularly and automatically in the background at predefined
times, cron is the tool to use. cron is driven by specially formatted time tables. Some
of of them come with the system and users can write their own tables if needed.
The cron tables are located in /var/spool/cron/tabs. /etc/crontab serves
as a systemwide cron table. Enter the username to run the command directly after the
time table and before the command. In Example 14.1, Entry in /etc/crontab (page 216),
root is entered. Package-specific tables, located in /etc/cron.d, have the same
format. See the cron man page (man cron).
Example 14.1 Entry in /etc/crontab
1-59/5 * * * *
root
test -x /usr/sbin/atrun && /usr/sbin/atrun
You cannot edit /etc/crontab by calling the command crontab -e. This file
must be loaded directly into an editor, modified, then saved.
A number of packages install shell scripts to the directories /etc/cron.hourly,
/etc/cron.daily, /etc/cron.weekly, and /etc/cron.monthly, whose
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Reference
execution is controlled by /usr/lib/cron/run-crons. /usr/lib/cron/

run-crons is run every 15 minutes from the main table (/etc/crontab). This
guarantees that processes that may have been neglected can be run at the proper time.
To run the hourly, daily, or other periodic maintenance scripts at custom times,
remove the time stamp files regularly using /etc/crontab entries (see Example 14.2,
/etc/crontab: Remove Time Stamp Files (page 217), which removes the hourly one
before every full hour, the daily one once a day at 2:14 a.m., etc.).
Example 14.2 /etc/crontab: Remove Time Stamp Files
59
14
29
44
*
2
2
2
*
*
*
1
*
*
*
*
*
*
6
*
root
root
root
root
rm
rm
rm
rm
-f
-f
-f
-f
/var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly
/var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily
/var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly
/var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly
Alternatively, set DAILY_TIME in /etc/sysconfig/cron to the time at which

cron.daily should start. The setting of MAX_NOT_RUN ensures that the daily jobs
get triggered to run, even if the user did not turn on the computer at the specified
DAILY_TIME for a longer period of time. The maximum value of MAX_NOT_RUN is
14 days.
The daily system maintenance jobs are distributed to various scripts for reasons of
clarity. They are contained in the package aaa_base. /etc/cron.daily contains,
for example, the components suse.de-backup-rpmdb, suse.de-clean-tmp,
or suse.de-cron-local.
14.1.3 Log Files: Package logrotate

There are a number of system services (daemons) that, along with the kernel itself,
regularly record the system status and specific events to log files. This way, the administrator can regularly check the status of the system at a certain point in time, recognize
errors or faulty functions, and troubleshoot them with pinpoint precision. These log
files are normally stored in /var/log as specified by FHS and grow on a daily basis.
The logrotate package helps control the growth of these files.
Configure logrotate with the file /etc/logrotate.conf. In particular, the
include specification primarily configures the additional files to read. Programs that
produce log files install individual configuration files in /etc/logrotate.d. For
217
example, such files ship with the packages, e.g. apache2 (/etc/logrotate.d/
apache2) and syslogd (/etc/logrotate.d/syslog).
Example 14.3 Example for /etc/logrotate.conf
# see "man logrotate" for details
# rotate log files weekly
weekly
# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
rotate 4
# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create
# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
#compress
# RPM packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d
# no packages own lastlog or wtmp - we'll rotate them here
#/var/log/wtmp {
#
monthly
#
create 0664 root utmp
#
rotate 1
#}
# system-specific logs may be also be configured here.
logrotate is controlled through cron and is called daily by /etc/cron.daily/

logrotate.
IMPORTANT
The create option reads all settings made by the administrator in /etc/
permissions*. Ensure that no conflicts arise from any personal modifications.
14.1.4 The locate Command

locate, a command for quickly finding files, is not included in the standard scope of
installed software. If desired, install the package findutils-locate. The updatedb
process is started automatically every night or about 15 minutes after booting the system.
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Reference
14.1.5 The ulimit Command

With the ulimit (user limits) command, it is possible to set limits for the use of system
resources and to have these displayed. ulimit is especially useful for limiting the
memory available for applications. With this, an application can be prevented from
using too much memory on its own, which could bring the system to a standstill.
ulimit can be used with various options. To limit memory usage, use the options
listed in Table 14.1, ulimit: Setting Resources for the User (page 219).
Table 14.1
ulimit: Setting Resources for the User
-m
Maximum size of physical memory
-v
Maximum size of virtual memory
-s
Maximum size of the stack
-c
Maximum size of the core files
-a
Display of limits set
Systemwide entries can be made in /etc/profile. There, enable creation of core

files, needed by programmers for debugging. A normal user cannot increase the values
specified in /etc/profile by the system administrator, but can make special entries
in ~/.bashrc.
Example 14.4 ulimit: Settings in ~/.bashrc
# Limits of physical memory:
ulimit -m 98304
# Limits of virtual memory:
ulimit -v 98304
Memory amounts must be specified in KB. For more detailed information, see man
bash.
219
14.1.6 The free Command

The free command is somewhat misleading if your goal is to find out how much
RAM is currently being used. That information can be found in /proc/meminfo.
These days, users with access to a modern operating system, such as Linux, should not
really need to worry much about memory. The concept of available RAM dates back
to before the days of unified memory management. The slogan free memory is bad
memory applies well to Linux. As a result, Linux has always made the effort to balance
out caches without actually allowing free or unused memory.
Basically, the kernel does not have direct knowledge of any applications or user data.
Instead, it manages applications and user data in a page cache. If memory runs short,
parts of it are written to the swap partition or to files, from which they can initially be
read with the help of the mmap command (see man mmap).
The kernel also contains other caches, such as the slab cache, where the caches used
for network access are stored. This may explain differences between the counters in
/proc/meminfo. Most, but not all of them, can be accessed via /proc/slabinfo.
14.1.7 The /etc/resolv.conf File

Domain name resolution is handled through the file /etc/resolv.conf. Refer to
Chapter 22, The Domain Name System (page 353).
This file is updated by the script /sbin/modify_resolvconf exclusively, with
no other program having permission to modify /etc/resolv.conf directly. Enforcing this rule is the only way to guarantee that the system's network configuration and
the relevant files are kept in a consistent state.
14.1.8 Man Pages and Info Pages

For some GNU applications (such as tar), the man pages are no longer maintained. For
these commands, use the --help option to get a quick overview of the info pages,
which provide more in-depth instructions. info is GNU's hypertext system. Read an
introduction to this system by entering info info. Info pages can be viewed with
Emacs by entering emacs -f info or directly in a console with info. You can
also use tkinfo, xinfo, or the help system to view info pages.
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Reference
14.1.9 Settings for GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is a complex work environment. The following sections cover the configuration files processed when GNU Emacs is started. More information is available at
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/.
On start-up, Emacs reads several files containing the settings of the user, system administrator, and distributor for customization or preconfiguration. The initialization file ~/
.emacs is installed to the home directories of the individual users from /etc/skel.
.emacs, in turn, reads the file /etc/skel/.gnu-emacs. To customize the program,
copy .gnu-emacs to the home directory (with cp /etc/skel/.gnu-emacs
~/.gnu-emacs) and make the desired settings there.
.gnu-emacs defines the file ~/.gnu-emacs-custom as custom-file. If users
make settings with the customize options in Emacs, the settings are saved to ~/
.gnu-emacs-custom.
With openSUSE, the emacs package installs the file site-start.el in the directory /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp. The file site-start.el is loaded before
the initialization file ~/.emacs. Among other things, site-start.el ensures that
special configuration files distributed with Emacs add-on packages, such as psgml,
are loaded automatically. Configuration files of this type are located in /usr/share/
emacs/site-lisp, too, and always begin with suse-start-. The local system
administrator can specify systemwide settings in default.el.
More information about these files is available in the Emacs info file under Init File:
info:/emacs/InitFile. Information about how to disable loading these files (if
necessary) is also provided at this location.
The components of Emacs are divided into several packages:
The base package emacs.
emacs-x11 (usually installed): the program with X11 support.
emacs-nox: the program without X11 support.
emacs-info: online documentation in info format.
221
emacs-el: the uncompiled library files in Emacs Lisp. These are not required at
runtime.
Numerous add-on packages can be installed if needed: emacs-auctex (for LaTeX), psgml (for SGML and XML), gnuserv (for client and server operation),
and others.
14.2 Virtual Consoles

Linux is a multiuser and multitasking system. The advantages of these features can be
appreciated even on a stand-alone PC system. In text mode, there are six virtual consoles
available. Switch between them using Alt + F1 to Alt + F6. The seventh console is reserved for X and the tenth console shows kernel messages. More or fewer consoles can
be assigned by modifying the file /etc/inittab.
To switch to a console from X without shutting it down, use Ctrl + Alt + F1 to Ctrl +
Alt + F6. To return to X, press Alt + F7.
14.3 Keyboard Mapping

To standardize the keyboard mapping of programs, changes were made to the following
files:
/etc/inputrc
/etc/X11/Xmodmap
/etc/skel/.Xmodmap
/etc/skel/.exrc
/etc/skel/.less
/etc/skel/.lesskey
/etc/csh.cshrc
/etc/termcap
/usr/lib/terminfo/x/xterm
/usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XTerm
/usr/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp/term/*.el
These changes only affect applications that use terminfo entries or whose configuration files are changed directly (vi, less, etc.). Applications not shipped with the
system should be adapted to these defaults.
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Reference
Under X, the compose key (multikey) can be accessed using Ctrl + Shift (right). Also
see the corresponding entry in /etc/X11/Xmodmap.
Further settings are possible using the X Keyboard Extension (XKB). This extension
is also used by the desktop environments GNOME (gswitchit) and KDE (kxkb).
TIP: For More Information
Information about XKB is available in /etc/X11/xkb/README and the documents listed there.
Detailed information about the input of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK)
is available at Mike Fabian's page: http://www.suse.de/~mfabian/
suse-cjk/input.html.
14.4 Language and Country-Specific

Settings
The system is, to a very large extent, internationalized and can be modified for local
needs in a flexible manner. In other words, internationalization (I18N) allows specific
localizations (L10N). The abbreviations I18N and L10N are derived from the first and
last letters of the words and, in between, the number of letters omitted.
Settings are made with LC_ variables defined in the file /etc/sysconfig/
language. This refers not only to native language support, but also to the categories
Messages (Language), Character Set, Sort Order, Time and Date, Numbers, and Money.
Each of these categories can be defined directly with its own variable or indirectly with
a master variable in the file language (see the locale man page).
RC_LC_MESSAGES, RC_LC_CTYPE, RC_LC_COLLATE, RC_LC_TIME,
RC_LC_NUMERIC, RC_LC_MONETARY
These variables are passed to the shell without the RC_ prefix and represent the
listed categories. The shell profiles concerned are listed below. The current setting
can be shown with the command locale.
RC_LC_ALL
This variable, if set, overwrites the values of the variables already mentioned.
223
RC_LANG
If none of the previous variables are set, this is the fallback. By default, only
RC_LANG is set. This makes it easier for users to enter their own values.
ROOT_USES_LANG
A yes or no variable. If it is set to no, root always works in the POSIX environment.
The variables can be set with the YaST sysconfig editor (see Section 12.3.1, Changing
the System Configuration Using the YaST sysconfig Editor (page 192)). The value of
such a variable contains the language code, country code, encoding, and modifier. The
individual components are connected by special characters:
LANG=<language>[[_<COUNTRY>].<Encoding>[@<Modifier>]]
14.4.1 Some Examples

You should always set the language and country codes together. Language settings
follow the standard ISO 639 available at http://www.evertype.com/
standards/iso639/iso639-en.html and http://www.loc.gov/
standards/iso639-2/. Country codes are listed in ISO 3166 available at http://
www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/codlstp1/en_listp1
.html.
It only makes sense to set values for which usable description files can be found in
/usr/lib/locale. Additional description files can be created from the files in
/usr/share/i18n using the command localedef. The description files are part
of the glibc-i18ndata package. A description file for en_US.UTF-8 (for English
and United States) can be created with:
localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
This is the default setting if American English is selected during installation. If you
selected another language, that language is enabled but still with UTF-8 as the
character encoding.
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Reference
LANG=en_US.ISO-8859-1
This sets the language to English, country to United States, and the character set
to ISO-8859-1. This character set does not support the Euro sign, but it can be
useful sometimes for programs that have not been updated to support UTF-8. The
string defining the charset (ISO-8859-1 in this case) is then evaluated by programs like Emacs.
LANG=en_IE@euro
The above example explicitly includes the Euro sign in a language setting. Strictly
speaking, this setting is obsolete now, because UTF-8 also covers the Euro symbol.
It is only useful if an application does not support UTF-8, but ISO-8859-15.
SuSEconfig reads the variables in /etc/sysconfig/language and writes the
necessary changes to /etc/SuSEconfig/profile and /etc/SuSEconfig/
csh.cshrc. /etc/SuSEconfig/profile is read or sourced by /etc/
profile. /etc/SuSEconfig/csh.cshrc is sourced by /etc/csh.cshrc.
This makes the settings available systemwide.
Users can override the system defaults by editing their ~/.bashrc accordingly. For
instance, if you do not want to use the systemwide en_US for program messages, include
LC_MESSAGES=es_ES so messages are displayed in Spanish instead.
14.4.2 Locale Settings in ~/.i18n

If you are not satisfied with locale system defaults, change the settings in ~/.i18n
according to the Bash scripting syntax. Entries in ~/.i18n override system defaults
from /etc/sysconfig/language. Use the same variable names but without the
RC_ namespace prefixes, for example, use LANG instead of RC_LANG:
LANG=cs_CZ.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C
14.4.3 Settings for Language Support

Files in the category Messages are, as a rule, only stored in the corresponding language
directory (like en) to have a fallback. If you set LANG to en_US and the message file
in /usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES does not exist, it falls back to
/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES.
225
A fallback chain can also be defined, for example, for Breton to French or for Galician
to Spanish to Portuguese:
LANGUAGE="br_FR:fr_FR"
LANGUAGE="gl_ES:es_ES:pt_PT"
If desired, use the Norwegian variants Nynorsk and Bokml instead (with additional
fallback to no):
LANG="nn_NO"
LANGUAGE="nn_NO:nb_NO:no"
or
LANG="nb_NO"
LANGUAGE="nb_NO:nn_NO:no"
Note that in Norwegian, LC_TIME is also treated differently.
One problem that can arise is a separator used to delimit groups of digits not being
recognized properly. This occurs if LANG is set to only a two-letter language code like
de, but the definition file glibc uses is located in /usr/share/lib/de_DE/LC
_NUMERIC. Thus LC_NUMERIC must be set to de_DE to make the separator definition
visible to the system.

The GNU C Library Reference Manual, Chapter Locales and Internationalization.
It is included in glibc-info.
Markus Kuhn, UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ for Unix/Linux, currently at http://
www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html.
Unicode-Howto, by Bruno Haible: /usr/share/doc/howto/en/html/
Unicode-HOWTO.html.
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Reference
Dynamic Kernel Device

Management with udev
15
The kernel can add or remove almost any device in the running system. Changes in
device state (whether a device is plugged in or removed) need to be propagated to
userspace. Devices need to be configured as soon as they are plugged in and discovered.
Users of a certain device need to be informed about any state changes of this device.
udev provides the needed infrastructure to dynamically maintain the device node files
and symbolic links in the /dev directory. udev rules provide a way to plug external
tools into the kernel device event processing. This enables you to customize udev device
handling, for example, by adding certain scripts to execute as part of kernel device
handling, or request and import additional data to evaluate during device handling.
15.1 The /dev Directory

The device nodes in the /dev directory provide access to the corresponding kernel
devices. With udev, the /dev directory reflects the current state of the kernel. Every
kernel device has one corresponding device file. If a device is disconnected from the
system, the device node is removed.
The content of the /dev directory is kept on a temporary file system and all files are
created from scratch at every system start-up. Manually created or changed files intentionally do not survive a reboot. Static files and directories that should always be present
in the /dev directory regardless of the state of the corresponding kernel device can be
placed in the /lib/udev/devices directory. At system start-up, the contents of
that directory is copied to the /dev directory with the same ownership and permissions
as the files in /lib/udev/devices.
Dynamic Kernel Device Management with udev
227
15.2 Kernel uevents and udev

The required device information is exported by the sysfs file system. For every device
the kernel has detected and initialized, a directory with the device name is created. It
contains attribute files with device-specific properties.
Every time a device is added or removed, the kernel sends a uevent to notify udev of
the change. The udev daemon reads and parses all provided rules from the /etc/
udev/rules.d/*.rules files once at start-up and keeps them in memory. If rules
files are changed, added, or removed, the daemon receives an event and updates the inmemory representation of the rules. For more details on udev rules and their syntax,
refer to Section 15.6, Influencing Kernel Device Event Handling with udev Rules
(page 231).
Every received event is matched against the set of provides rules. The rules can add or
change event environment keys, request a specific name for the device node to create,
add symlinks pointing to the node, or add programs to run after the device node is created. The driver core uevents are received from a kernel netlink socket.
15.3 Drivers, Kernel Modules, and

Devices
The kernel bus drivers probe for devices. For every detected device, the kernel creates
an internal device structure and the driver core sends a uevent to the udev daemon. Bus
devices identify themselves by a specially-formatted ID, which tells what kind of device
it is. Usually these IDs consist of vendor and product ID and other subsystem-specific
values. Every bus has its own scheme for these IDs, called MODALIAS. The kernel
takes the device information, composes a MODALIAS ID string from it, and sends that
string along with the event. For a USB mouse, it looks like this:
MODALIAS=usb:v046DpC03Ed2000dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc01ip02
Every device driver carries a list of known aliases for devices it can handle. The list is
contained in the kernel module file itself. The program depmod reads the ID lists and
creates the file modules.alias in the kernel's /lib/modules directory for all
currently available modules. With this infrastructure, module loading is as easy as
calling modprobe for every event that carries a MODALIAS key. If modprobe
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Reference
$MODALIAS is called, it matches the device alias composed for the device with the
aliases provided by the modules. If a matching entry is found, that module is loaded.
All this is triggered by udev and happens automatically.
15.4 Booting and Initial Device Setup

All device events happening during the boot process before the udev daemon is running
are lost, because the infrastructure to handle these events lives on the root file system
and is not available at that time. To cover that loss, the kernel provides a uevent file
located in the device directory of every device in the sysfs file system. By writing add
to that file, the kernel resends the same event as the one lost during boot. A simple loop
over all uevent files in /sys triggers all events again to create the device nodes and
perform device setup.
As an example, a USB mouse present during boot may not be initialized by the early
boot logic, because the driver is not available at that time. The event for the device
discovery was lost and failed to find a kernel module for the device. Instead of manually
searching for possibly connected devices, udev just requests all device events from the
kernel after the root file system is available, so the event for the USB mouse device
just runs again. Now it finds the kernel module on the mounted root file system and the
USB mouse can be initialized.
From userspace, there is no visible difference between a device coldplug sequence and
a device discovery during runtime. In both cases, the same rules are used to match and
the same configured programs are run.
15.5 Monitoring the Running udev

Daemon
The program udevmonitor can be used to visualize the driver core events and the
timing of the udev event processes.
UEVENT[1185238505.276660] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1 (usb)
UDEV [1185238505.279198] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1 (usb)
UEVENT[1185238505.279527] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0 (usb)
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UDEV [1185238505.285573] add

/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0 (usb)
UEVENT[1185238505.298878] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10 (input)
UDEV [1185238505.305026] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10 (input)
UEVENT[1185238505.305442] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10/mouse2 (input)
UEVENT[1185238505.306440] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10/event4 (input)
UDEV [1185238505.325384] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10/event4 (input)
UDEV [1185238505.342257] add
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10/mouse2 (input)
The UEVENT lines show the events the kernel has sent over netlink. The UDEV lines
show the finished udev event handlers. The timing is printed in microseconds. The time
between UEVENT and UDEV is the time udev took to process this event or the udev
daemon has delayed its execution to synchronize this event with related and already
running events. For example, events for hard disk partitions always wait for the main
disk device event to finish, because the partition events may rely on the data the main
disk event has queried from the hardware.
udevmonitor --env shows the complete event environment:
ACTION=add
DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/input/input10
SUBSYSTEM=input
SEQNUM=1181
NAME="Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse"
PHYS="usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input0"
UNIQ=""
EV=7
KEY=70000 0 0 0 0
REL=103
MODALIAS=input:b0003v046DpC03Ee0110-e0,1,2,k110,111,112,r0,1,8,amlsfw
udev also sends messages to syslog. The default syslog priority that controls which
messages are sent to syslog is specified in the udev configuration file /etc/udev/
udev.conf. The log priority of the running daemon can be changed with
udevcontrol log_priority=level/number.
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Reference
15.6 Influencing Kernel Device Event

Handling with udev Rules
A udev rule can match any property the kernel adds to the event itself or any information
that the kernel exports to sysfs. The rule can also request additional information from
external programs. Every event is matched against all provided rules. All rules are located in the /etc/udev/rules.d directory.
Every line in the rules file contains at least one key value pair. There are two kinds of
keys, match and assignment keys. If all match keys match their values, the rule is applied
and the assignment keys are assigned the specified value. A matching rule may specify
the name of the device node, add symlinks pointing to the node, or run a specified
program as part of the event handling. If no matching rule is found, the default device
node name is used to create the device node. Detailed information about the rule syntax
and the provided keys to match or import data are described in the udev man page. The
following example rules provide a basic introduction to udev rule syntax. The example
rules are all taken from the udev default rule set that is located under /etc/udev/
rules.d/50-udev-default.rules.
Example 15.1 Example udev Rules
# console
KERNEL=="console", MODE="0600", OPTIONS="last_rule"
# serial devices
KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", ATTRS{product}=="[Pp]alm*Handheld*", SYMLINK+="pilot"
# printer
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", KERNEL=="lp*", NAME="usb/%k", SYMLINK+="usb%k", GROUP="lp"
# kernel firmware loader
SUBSYSTEM=="firmware", ACTION=="add", RUN+="firmware.sh"
The console rule consist of three keys. One match key (KERNEL), and two assign
keys (MODE, OPTIONS). The KERNEL match rule searches the device list for any items
of the type console. Only exact matches are valid and trigger this rule to be executed.
The MODE key assigns special permissions to the device node, in this case, read and
write permissions to the owner of this device and none else. The OPTIONS key makes
this rule the last rule to be applied to any device of this type. Any later rule matching
this particular device type does not have any effect.
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The serial devices rule consists of two match keys (KERNEL and ATTRS) and
one assign key (SYMLINK). The KERNEL key searches for all devices of the ttyUSB
type. Using the * wild card, this key matches several of these devices. The second
match key, ATTRS, checks whether the product attribute file in sysfs for any
ttyUSB device contains a certain string. The assign key (SYMLINK) triggers the addition of a symbolic link to this device under /dev/pilot. The operator used in this
key (+=) tells udev to additionally perform this action, even if previous or later rules
add other symbolic links. As this rule contains two match keys, it is only applied if both
conditions are met.
The printer rule deals with USB printers and contains two match keys which must
both apply to get the entire rule applied (SUBSYSTEM and KERNEL). Three assign
keys deal with the naming for this device type (NAME), the creation of symbolic device
links (SYMLINK), and the group membership for this device type (GROUP). Using the
* wild card in the KERNEL key makes it match several lp printer devices. Substitutions
are used in both the NAME and the SYMLINK keys to extend these strings by the internal
device name. For example, the symlink to the first lp USB printer would read /dev/
usblp0.
The kernel firmware loader rule makes udev load additional firmware by an
external helper script during runtime. The SUBSYSTEM match key searches for the
firmware subsystem. The ACTION key checks whether any device belonging to the
firmware subsystem has been added. The RUN+= key triggers the execution of the
firmware.sh script to locate the firmware that is to be loaded.
Some general characteristics are common to all rules:
Each rule consists of one or more key value pairs separated by a comma.
A key's operation is determined by the operator. udev rules support several different
operators.
Each given value must be enclosed by quotation marks.
Each line of the rules file represents one rule. If a rule is longer than just one line,
use \ to join the different lines just as you would do in shell syntax.
udev rules support a shell-style pattern matching for the *, ?, and [] patterns.
udev rules support substitutions.
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Reference
15.6.1 Using Operators in udev Rules

Creating keys you can choose from several different operators, depending on the type
of key you want to create. Match keys will normally just be used to find a value that
either matches or explicitly mismatches the search value. Match keys contain either of
the following operators:
==
Compare for equality. If the key contains a search pattern, then all results matching
this pattern are valid.
!=
Compare for non-equality. If the key contains a search pattern, then all results
matching this pattern are valid.
Any of the following operators can be used with assign keys:
=
Assign a value to a key. If the key previously consisted of a list of values, the key
resets and only the single value is assigned.
+=
Add a value to a key that contains a list of entries.
:=
Assign a final value. Disallow any later change (by later rules).
15.6.2 Using Substitutions in udev Rules

udev rules support the use of placeholders and substitutions. Use them in a similar
fashion as you would do in any other scripts. The following substitutions can be used
with udev rules:
%r, $root
The device directory, /dev by default
%p, $devpath
The value of DEVPATH
233
%k, $kernel
The value of KERNEL or the internal device name
%n, $number
The device number
%N, $tempnode
The temporary name of the device file
%M, $major
The major number of the device
%m, $minor
The minor number of the device
%s{attribute}, $attr{attribute}
The value of a sysfs attribute (specified by attribute)
%E{variable}, $attr{variable}
The value of an environment variable (specified by variable)
%c, $result
The output of PROGRAM
%%
The % character
$$
The $ character
15.6.3 Using udev Match Keys

Match keys describe conditions that must be met before a udev rule can be applied.
The following match keys are available:
ACTION
The name of the event action, e.g. add or remove for a device add or remove
action.
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Reference
DEVPATH
The device path of the event device, e.g.
DEVPATH=/bus/pci/drivers/ipw3945 to search for all events related to
the ipw3945 driver.
KERNEL
The internal (kernel) name of the event device.
SUBSYSTEM
The subsystem of the event device, e.g. SUBSYSTEM=usb for all events related
to USB devices.
ATTR{filename}
sysfs attributes of the event device. To match a string contained in the vendor
attribute file name, you could use ATTR{vendor}=="On[sS]tream", for
example.
KERNELS
Let udev search the device path upwards for a matching device name.
SUBSYSTEMS
Let udev search the device path upwards for a matching device subsystem name.
DRIVERS
Let udev search the device path upwards for a matching device driver name.
ATTRS{filename}
Let udev search the device path upwards for a device with matching sysfs attribute
values.
ENV{key}
The value of an environment variable, e.g. ENV{ID_BUS}="ieee1394 to search
for all events related to the FireWire bus ID.
PROGRAM
Let udev execute an external program. For this key to be true, the program must
return without exit code zero. The program's output is printed to stdout and available
to the RESULT key.
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RESULT
Match the return value/string of the last PROGRAM call. Either include this key in
the same rule as the PROGRAM key or in a later one.
15.6.4 Using udev Assign Keys

In contrast to the match keys described above, assign keys do not describe conditions
that must be met, but assign values, names and actions to the device nodes maintained
by udev.
NAME
The name of the device node to be created. Once a rule has set a node name, all
other rules with a NAME key for this node are ignored.
SYMLINK
The name of a symlink related to the node to be created. Multiple matching rules
can add symlinks to be created with the device node. You can also specify multiple
symlinks for one node in one rule using the space character to separate the symlink
names.
OWNER, GROUP, MODE
The permissions for the new device node. Values specified here overwrite anything
that has been compiled in.
ATTR{key}
Specify a value to be written to a sysfs attribute of the event device. If the == operator is used, this key is also used to match against the value of a sysfs attribute.
ENV{key}
Tell udev to export a variable to the environment. If the == operator is used, this
key is also used to match against an environment variable.
RUN
Tell udev to add a program to the list of programs to be executed for this device.
Mind to restrict this to very short tasks to avoid blocking further events for this
device.
LABEL
Add a label where a GOTO can jump to.
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Reference
GOTO
Tell udev to skip a number of rules and continue with the one that carries the label
referenced by the GOTO key.
IMPORT{type}
Load variables into the event environment such as the output of an external program.
udev imports variables of several different types. If no type is specified, udev tries
to determine the type itself based on the executable bit of the file permissions.
program tells udev to execute an external program and import its output.
file tells udev to import a text file.
parent tells udev to import the stored keys from the parent device.
WAIT_FOR_SYSFS
Tells udev to wait for the specified sysfs file to be created for a certain device, e.g.
WAIT_FOR_SYSFS="ioerr_cnt" informs udev to wait until the ioerr_cnt
file has been created.
OPTIONS
There are several possible values to the OPTION key:
last_rule tells udev to ignore all later rules.
ignore_device tells udev to ignore this event completely.
ignore_remove tells udev to ignore all later remove event the device.
all_partitions tells udev to create device nodes for all available partitions
on a block device.
15.7 Persistent Device Naming

The dynamic device directory and the udev rules infrastructure make it possible to
provide stable names for all disk devicesregardless of their order of recognition or
the connection used for the device. Every appropriate block device the kernel creates
is examined by tools with special knowledge about certain buses, drive types, or file
237
systems. Along with the dynamic kernel-provided device node name, udev maintains
classes of persistent symbolic links pointing to the device:
/dev/disk
|-- by-id
|
|-- scsi-SATA_HTS726060M9AT00_MRH453M4HWHG7B -> ../../sda
|
|-- scsi-SATA_HTS726060M9AT00_MRH453M4HWHG7B-part1 -> ../../sda1
|
|
|
|-- usb-Generic_STORAGE_DEVICE_02773 -> ../../sdd
|
`-- usb-Generic_STORAGE_DEVICE_02773-part1 -> ../../sdd1
|-- by-label
|
|-- Photos -> ../../sdd1
|
|-- SUSE10 -> ../../sda7
|
`-- devel -> ../../sda6
|-- by-path
|
|-- pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-0:0:0:0 -> ../../sda
|
|-- pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1 -> ../../sda1
|
|
|
|-- pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-1:0:0:0 -> ../../sr0
|
|-- usb-02773:0:0:2 -> ../../sdd
|
|-- usb-02773:0:0:2-part1 -> ../../sdd1
`-- by-uuid
|-- 159a47a4-e6e6-40be-a757-a629991479ae -> ../../sda7
|-- 3e999973-00c9-4917-9442-b7633bd95b9e -> ../../sda6
`-- 4210-8F8C -> ../../sdd1
15.8 Files used by udev

/sys/*
Virtual file system provided by the Linux kernel, exporting all currently known
devices. This information is used by udev to create device nodes in /dev
/dev/*
Dynamically created device nodes and static content copied at bootup from /lib/
udev/devices/*
The following files and directories contain the crucial elements of the udev infrastructure:
/etc/udev/udev.conf
Main udev configuration file
/etc/udev/rules.d/*
udev event matching rules
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Reference
/lib/udev/devices/*
Static /dev content
/lib/udev/*
Helper programs called from udev rules

For more information about the udev infrastructure, refer to the following man pages:
udev
General information about udev, keys, rules, and other important configuration issues.
udevinfo
udevinfo can be used to query device information from the udev database.
udevd
Information about the udev event managing daemon.
udevmonitor
udevmonitor prints the kernel and udev event sequence to the console. This tool is
mainly used for debugging purposes.
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16
File Systems in Linux

openSUSE ships with a number of different file systems, including ReiserFS, Ext2,
Ext3, and XFS, from which to choose at installation time. Each file system has its own
advantages and disadvantages that can make it more suited to a scenario. Professional
high-performance setups may require a different choice of file system than a home user's
setup.
16.1 Terminology
metadata
A file systeminternal data structure that assures all the data on disk is properly
organized and accessible. Essentially, it is data about the data. Almost every file
system has its own structure of metadata, which is part of why the file systems
show different performance characteristics. It is extremely important to maintain
metadata intact, because otherwise all data on the file system could become inaccessible.
inode
Inodes contain various information about a file, including size, number of links,
pointers to the disk blocks where the file contents are actually stored, and date and
time of creation, modification, and access.
journal
In the context of a file system, a journal is an on-disk structure containing a kind
of log in which the file system stores what it is about to change in the file system's
metadata. Journaling greatly reduces the recovery time of a Linux system because
241
it obsoletes the lengthy search process that checks the entire file system at system
start-up. Instead, only the journal is replayed.
16.2 Major File Systems in Linux

Unlike two or three years ago, choosing a file system for a Linux system is no longer
a matter of a few seconds (Ext2 or ReiserFS?). Kernels starting from 2.4 offer a variety
of file systems from which to choose. The following is an overview of how these file
systems basically work and which advantages they offer.
It is very important to bear in mind that there may be no file system that best suits all
kinds of applications. Each file system has its particular strengths and weaknesses,
which must be taken into account. Even the most sophisticated file system cannot replace
a reasonable backup strategy, however.
The terms data integrity and data consistency, when used in this chapter, do not refer
to the consistency of the user space data (the data your application writes to its files).
Whether this data is consistent must be controlled by the application itself.
IMPORTANT: Setting Up File Systems
Unless stated otherwise in this chapter, all the steps required to set up or
change partitions and file systems can be performed using YaST.
16.2.1 ReiserFS
Officially one of the key features of the 2.4 kernel release, ReiserFS has been available
as a kernel patch for 2.2.x SUSE kernels since version 6.4. ReiserFS was designed by
Hans Reiser and the Namesys development team. It has proven itself to be a powerful
alternative to Ext2. Its key assets are better disk space utilization, better disk access
performance, and faster crash recovery.
ReiserFS's strengths, in more detail, are:
Better Disk Space Utilization
In ReiserFS, all data is organized in a structure called B*-balanced tree. The tree
structure contributes to better disk space utilization because small files can be stored
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Reference
directly in the B* tree leaf nodes instead of being stored elsewhere and just maintaining a pointer to the actual disk location. In addition to that, storage is not allocated in chunks of 1 or 4 KB, but in portions of the exact size needed. Another
benefit lies in the dynamic allocation of inodes. This keeps the file system more
flexible than traditional file systems, like Ext2, where the inode density must be
specified at file system creation time.
Better Disk Access Performance
For small files, file data and stat_data (inode) information are often stored next
to each other. They can be read with a single disk I/O operation, meaning that only
one access to disk is required to retrieve all the information needed.
Fast Crash Recovery
Using a journal to keep track of recent metadata changes makes a file system check
a matter of seconds, even for huge file systems.
Reliability through Data Journaling
ReiserFS also supports data journaling and ordered data modes similar to the concepts outlined in the Ext3 section, Section 16.2.3, Ext3 (page 244). The default
mode is data=ordered, which ensures both data and metadata integrity, but
uses journaling only for metadata.
16.2.2 Ext2
The origins of Ext2 go back to the early days of Linux history. Its predecessor, the
Extended File System, was implemented in April 1992 and integrated in Linux 0.96c.
The Extended File System underwent a number of modifications and, as Ext2, became
the most popular Linux file system for years. With the creation of journaling file systems
and their astonishingly short recovery times, Ext2 became less important.
A brief summary of Ext2's strengths might help understand why it wasand in some
areas still isthe favorite Linux file system of many Linux users.
Solidity
Being quite an old-timer, Ext2 underwent many improvements and was heavily
tested. This may be the reason why people often refer to it as rock-solid. After a
system outage when the file system could not be cleanly unmounted, e2fsck starts
to analyze the file system data. Metadata is brought into a consistent state and
pending files or data blocks are written to a designated directory (called lost
243
+found). In contrast to journaling file systems, e2fsck analyzes the entire file
system and not just the recently modified bits of metadata. This takes significantly
longer than checking the log data of a journaling file system. Depending on file
system size, this procedure can take half an hour or more. Therefore, it is not desirable to choose Ext2 for any server that needs high availability. However, because
Ext2 does not maintain a journal and uses significantly less memory, it is sometimes
faster than other file systems.
Easy Upgradability
The code for Ext2 is the strong foundation on which Ext3 could become a highlyacclaimed next-generation file system. Its reliability and solidity were elegantly
combined with the advantages of a journaling file system.
16.2.3 Ext3
Ext3 was designed by Stephen Tweedie. Unlike all other next-generation file systems,
Ext3 does not follow a completely new design principle. It is based on Ext2. These two
file systems are very closely related to each other. An Ext3 file system can be easily
built on top of an Ext2 file system. The most important difference between Ext2 and
Ext3 is that Ext3 supports journaling. In summary, Ext3 has three major advantages to
offer:
Easy and Highly Reliable Upgrades from Ext2
Because Ext3 is based on the Ext2 code and shares its on-disk format as well as its
metadata format, upgrades from Ext2 to Ext3 are incredibly easy. Unlike transitions
to other journaling file systems, such as ReiserFS or XFS, which can be quite tedious
(making backups of the entire file system and recreating it from scratch), a transition
to Ext3 is a matter of minutes. It is also very safe, because recreating an entire file
system from scratch might not work flawlessly. Considering the number of existing
Ext2 systems that await an upgrade to a journaling file system, you can easily figure
out why Ext3 might be of some importance to many system administrators.
Downgrading from Ext3 to Ext2 is as easy as the upgrade. Just perform a clean
unmount of the Ext3 file system and remount it as an Ext2 file system.
Reliability and Performance
Some other journaling file systems follow the metadata-only journaling approach.
This means your metadata is always kept in a consistent state, but the same cannot
be automatically guaranteed for the file system data itself. Ext3 is designed to take
care of both metadata and data. The degree of care can be customized. Enabling
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Reference
Ext3 in the data=journal mode offers maximum security (data integrity), but
can slow down the system because both metadata and data are journaled. A relatively new approach is to use the data=ordered mode, which ensures both data
and metadata integrity, but uses journaling only for metadata. The file system
driver collects all data blocks that correspond to one metadata update. These data
blocks are written to disk before the metadata is updated. As a result, consistency
is achieved for metadata and data without sacrificing performance. A third option
to use is data=writeback, which allows data to be written into the main file
system after its metadata has been committed to the journal. This option is often
considered the best in performance. It can, however, allow old data to reappear in
files after crash and recovery while internal file system integrity is maintained.
Unless you specify something else, Ext3 is run with the data=ordered default.
16.2.4 Converting an Ext2 File System into

Ext3
To convert an Ext2 file system to Ext3, proceed as follows:
1 Create an Ext3 journal by running tune2fs -j as root. This creates an Ext3
journal with the default parameters.
To decide yourself how large the journal should be and on which device it should
reside, run tune2fs -J instead together with the desired journal options
size= and device=. More information about the tune2fs program is available
in the tune2fs manual page.
2 To ensure that the Ext3 file system is recognized as such, edit the file /etc/
fstab as root, changing the file system type specified for the corresponding
partition from ext2 to ext3. The change takes effect after the next reboot.
3 To boot a root file system set up as an Ext3 partition, include the modules ext3
and jbd in the initrd. To do this, edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel as
root, adding ext3 and jbd to the INITRD_MODULES variable. After saving
the changes, run the mkinitrd command. This builds a new initrd and prepares
it for use.
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16.2.5 XFS
Originally intended as the file system for their IRIX OS, SGI started XFS development
in the early 1990s. The idea behind XFS was to create a high-performance 64-bit journaling file system to meet the extreme computing challenges of today. XFS is very
good at manipulating large files and performs well on high-end hardware. However,
even XFS has a drawback. Like ReiserFS, XFS takes great care of metadata integrity,
but less of data integrity.
A quick review of XFS's key features explains why it may prove a strong competitor
for other journaling file systems in high-end computing.
High Scalability through the Use of Allocation Groups
At the creation time of an XFS file system, the block device underlying the file
system is divided into eight or more linear regions of equal size. Those are referred
to as allocation groups. Each allocation group manages its own inodes and free
disk space. Practically, allocation groups can be seen as file systems in a file system.
Because allocation groups are rather independent of each other, more than one of
them can be addressed by the kernel simultaneously. This feature is the key to
XFS's great scalability. Naturally, the concept of independent allocation groups
suits the needs of multiprocessor systems.
High Performance through Efficient Management of Disk Space
Free space and inodes are handled by B+ trees inside the allocation groups. The
use of B+ trees greatly contributes to XFS's performance and scalability. XFS uses
delayed allocation. It handles allocation by breaking the process into two pieces.
A pending transaction is stored in RAM and the appropriate amount of space is
reserved. XFS still does not decide where exactly (speaking of file system blocks)
the data should be stored. This decision is delayed until the last possible moment.
Some short-lived temporary data may never make its way to disk, because it may
be obsolete by the time XFS decides where actually to save it. Thus XFS increases
write performance and reduces file system fragmentation. Because delayed allocation
results in less frequent write events than in other file systems, it is likely that data
loss after a crash during a write is more severe.
Preallocation to Avoid File System Fragmentation
Before writing the data to the file system, XFS reserves (preallocates) the free space
needed for a file. Thus, file system fragmentation is greatly reduced. Performance
is increased because the contents of a file are not distributed all over the file system.
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Reference
16.3 Some Other Supported File

Systems
Table 16.1, File System Types in Linux (page 247) summarizes some other file systems
supported by Linux. They are supported mainly to ensure compatibility and interchange
of data with different kinds of media or foreign operating systems.
Table 16.1
File System Types in Linux
cramfs
Compressed ROM file system: A compressed read-only file system for ROMs.
hpfs
High Performance File System: The IBM OS/2 standard file

systemonly supported in read-only mode.
iso9660
Standard file system on CD-ROMs.
minix
This file system originated from academic projects on operating

systems and was the first file system used in Linux. Today, it is
used as a file system for floppy disks.
msdos
fat, the file system originally used by DOS, is today used by

various operating systems.
ncpfs
File system for mounting Novell volumes over networks.
nfs
Network File System: Here, data can be stored on any machine

in a network and access may be granted via a network.
smbfs
Server Message Block is used by products such as Windows to

enable file access over a network.
sysv
Used on SCO UNIX, Xenix, and Coherent (commercial UNIX

systems for PCs).
ufs
Used by BSD, SunOS, and NeXTSTEP. Only supported in readonly mode.
247
umsdos
UNIX on MSDOS: Applied on top of a normal fat file system,

achieves UNIX functionality (permissions, links, long filenames)
by creating special files.
vfat
Virtual FAT: Extension of the fat file system (supports long

filenames).
ntfs
Windows NT file system, read-only.
16.4 Large File Support in Linux

Originally, Linux supported a maximum file size of 2 GB. This was enough before the
explosion of multimedia and as long as no one tried to manipulate huge databases on
Linux. Becoming more and more important for server computing, the kernel and C library were modified to support file sizes larger than 2 GB when using a new set of interfaces that applications must use. Today, almost all major file systems offer LFS
support, allowing you to perform high-end computing. Table 16.2, Maximum Sizes
of File Systems (On-Disk Format) (page 248) offers an overview of the current limitations of Linux files and file systems.
Table 16.2
248
Maximum Sizes of File Systems (On-Disk Format)
File System
File Size (Bytes)
File System Size (Bytes)
Ext2 or Ext3 (1 KB block size)
234 (16 GB)
241 (2 TB)
238 (256 GB)
243 (8 TB)
241 (2 TB)
243 4096 (16 TB

4096 Bytes)

(systems with 8 KB pages, like
Alpha)
246 (64 TB)
245 (32 TB)
ReiserFS v3
246 (64 TB)
245 (32 TB)
Reference
File System
File Size (Bytes)
File System Size (Bytes)
XFS
263 (8 EB)
263 (8 EB)
NFSv2 (client side)
231 (2 GB)
263 (8 EB)
NFSv3 (client side)
263 (8 EB)
263 (8 EB)
IMPORTANT: Linux Kernel Limits

Table 16.2, Maximum Sizes of File Systems (On-Disk Format) (page 248) describes the limitations regarding the on-disk format. The 2.6 kernel imposes its
own limits on the size of files and file systems handled by it. These are as follows:
File Size
41
On 32-bit systems, files may not exceed the size of 2 TB (2 bytes).
File System Size
73
File systems may be up to 2 bytes in size. However, this limit is still out
of reach for the currently available hardware.

Each of the file system projects described above maintains its own home page on which
to find mailing list information, further documentation, and FAQs.
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~akpm/linux/ext3/
http://www.namesys.com/
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/
http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/
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A comprehensive multipart tutorial about Linux file systems can be found at IBM developerWorks: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/
l-fs.html. A very in-depth comparison of file systems (not only Linux file systems)
is available from the Wikipedia project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Comparison_of_file_systems#Comparison.
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Reference
Access Control Lists in Linux
17
POSIX ACLs (access control lists) can be used as an expansion of the traditional permission concept for file system objects. With ACLs, permissions can be defined more
flexibly than the traditional permission concept allows.
The term POSIX ACL suggests that this is a true POSIX (portable operating system
interface) standard. The respective draft standards POSIX 1003.1e and POSIX 1003.2c
have been withdrawn for several reasons. Nevertheless, ACLs as found on many systems
belonging to the UNIX family are based on these drafts and the implementation of file
system ACLs as described in this chapter follows these two standards as well. They
can be viewed at http://wt.xpilot.org/publications/posix.1e/.
17.1 Traditional File Permissions

The basics of traditional Linux file permissions are explained in Section 19.2, Users
and Access Permissions (page 277). More advanced features are the setuid, setgid, and
sticky bit.
17.1.1 The setuid Bit

In certain situations, the access permissions may be too restrictive. Therefore, Linux
has additional settings that enable the temporary change of the current user and group
identity for a specific action. For example, the passwd program normally requires
root permissions to access /etc/passwd. This file contains some important information, like the home directories of users and user and group IDs. Thus, a normal user
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would not be able to change passwd, because it would be too dangerous to grant all
users direct access to this file. A possible solution to this problem is the setuid mechanism. setuid (set user ID) is a special file attribute that instructs the system to execute
programs marked accordingly under a specific user ID. Consider the passwd command:
-rwsr-xr-x
1 root shadow 80036 2004-10-02 11:08 /usr/bin/passwd
You can see the s that denotes that the setuid bit is set for the user permission. By
means of the setuid bit, all users starting the passwd command execute it as root.
17.1.2 The setgid Bit

The setuid bit applies to users. However, there is also an equivalent property for groups:
the setgid bit. A program for which this bit was set runs under the group ID under which
it was saved, no matter which user starts it. Therefore, in a directory with the setgid bit,
all newly created files and subdirectories are assigned to the group to which the directory belongs. Consider the following example directory:
drwxrws--- 2 tux archive 48 Nov 19 17:12
backup
You can see the s that denotes that the setgid bit is set for the group permission. The
owner of the directory and members of the group archive may access this directory.
Users that are not members of this group are mapped to the respective group. The
effective group ID of all written files will be archive. For example, a backup program
that runs with the group ID archive is able to access this directory even without root
privileges.
17.1.3 The Sticky Bit

There is also the sticky bit. It makes a difference whether it belongs to an executable
program or a directory. If it belongs to a program, a file marked in this way is loaded
to RAM to avoid needing to get it from the hard disk each time it is used. This attribute
is used rarely, because modern hard disks are fast enough. If this bit is assigned to a
directory, it prevents users from deleting each other's files. Typical examples include
the /tmp and /var/tmp directories:
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 1160 2002-11-19 17:15 /tmp
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17.2 Advantages of ACLs

Traditionally, three permission sets are defined for each file object on a Linux system.
These sets include the read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions for each of three
types of usersthe file owner, the group, and other users. In addition to that, it is possible to set the set user id, the set group id, and the sticky bit. This lean concept is fully
adequate for most practical cases. However, for more complex scenarios or advanced
applications, system administrators formerly had to use a number of tricks to circumvent
the limitations of the traditional permission concept.
ACLs can be used as an extension of the traditional file permission concept. They allow
assignment of permissions to individual users or groups even if these do not correspond
to the original owner or the owning group. Access control lists are a feature of the
Linux kernel and are currently supported by ReiserFS, Ext2, Ext3, JFS, and XFS. Using
ACLs, complex scenarios can be realized without implementing complex permission
models on the application level.
The advantages of ACLs are evident if you want to replace a Windows server with a
Linux server. Some of the connected workstations may continue to run under Windows
even after the migration. The Linux system offers file and print services to the Windows
clients with Samba. With Samba supporting access control lists, user permissions can
be configured both on the Linux server and in Windows with a graphical user interface
(only Windows NT and later). With winbindd, part of the samba suite, it is even
possible to assign permissions to users only existing in the Windows domain without
any account on the Linux server.
17.3 Definitions
user class
The conventional POSIX permission concept uses three classes of users for assigning permissions in the file system: the owner, the owning group, and other users.
Three permission bits can be set for each user class, giving permission to read (r),
write (w), and execute (x).
access ACL
The user and group access permissions for all kinds of file system objects (files
and directories) are determined by means of access ACLs.
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default ACL
Default ACLs can only be applied to directories. They determine the permissions
a file system object inherits from its parent directory when it is created.
ACL entry
Each ACL consists of a set of ACL entries. An ACL entry contains a type, a qualifier for the user or group to which the entry refers, and a set of permissions. For
some entry types, the qualifier for the group or users is undefined.
17.4 Handling ACLs

Table 17.1, ACL Entry Types (page 255) summarizes the six possible types of ACL
entries, each defining permissions for a user or a group of users. The owner entry defines
the permissions of the user owning the file or directory. The owning group entry defines
the permissions of the file's owning group. The superuser can change the owner or
owning group with chown or chgrp, in which case the owner and owning group entries
refer to the new owner and owning group. Each named user entry defines the permissions
of the user specified in the entry's qualifier field. Each named group entry defines the
permissions of the group specified in the entry's qualifier field. Only the named user
and named group entries have a qualifier field that is not empty. The other entry defines
the permissions of all other users.
The mask entry further limits the permissions granted by named user, named group,
and owning group entries by defining which of the permissions in those entries are effective and which are masked. If permissions exist in one of the mentioned entries as
well as in the mask, they are effective. Permissions contained only in the mask or only
in the actual entry are not effectivemeaning the permissions are not granted. All
permissions defined in the owner and owning group entries are always effective. The
example in Table 17.2, Masking Access Permissions (page 255) demonstrates this
mechanism.
There are two basic classes of ACLs: A minimum ACL contains only the entries for
the types owner, owning group, and other, which correspond to the conventional permission bits for files and directories. An extended ACL goes beyond this. It must contain
a mask entry and may contain several entries of the named user and named group types.
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Reference
Table 17.1
ACL Entry Types
Type
Text Form
owner
user::rwx
named user
user:name:rwx
owning group
group::rwx
named group
group:name:rwx
mask
mask::rwx
other
other::rwx
Table 17.2
Masking Access Permissions
Entry Type
Text Form
Permissions
named user
user:geeko:r-x
r-x
mask
mask::rw-
rw-
effective permissions:
r--
17.4.1 ACL Entries and File Mode Permission

Bits
Figure 17.1, Minimum ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits (page 256)
and Figure 17.2, Extended ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits (page 256)
illustrate the two cases of a minimum ACL and an extended ACL. The figures are
structured in three blocksthe left block shows the type specifications of the ACL
entries, the center block displays an example ACL, and the right block shows the respective permission bits according to the conventional permission concept, for example,
as displayed by ls -l. In both cases, the owner class permissions are mapped to the
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ACL entry owner. Other class permissions are mapped to the respective ACL entry.
However, the mapping of the group class permissions is different in the two cases.
Figure 17.1 Minimum ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits
In the case of a minimum ACLwithout maskthe group class permissions are mapped
to the ACL entry owning group. This is shown in Figure 17.1, Minimum ACL: ACL
Entries Compared to Permission Bits (page 256). In the case of an extended ACLwith
maskthe group class permissions are mapped to the mask entry. This is shown in
Figure 17.2, Extended ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits (page 256).
Figure 17.2 Extended ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits
This mapping approach ensures the smooth interaction of applications, regardless of

whether they have ACL support. The access permissions that were assigned by means
of the permission bits represent the upper limit for all other fine adjustments made
with an ACL. Changes made to the permission bits are reflected by the ACL and vice
versa.
17.4.2 A Directory with an Access ACL

With getfacl and setfacl on the command line, you can access ACLs. The usage
of these commands is demonstrated in the following example.
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Before creating the directory, use the umask command to define which access permissions should be masked each time a file object is created. The command umask 027
sets the default permissions by giving the owner the full range of permissions (0),
denying the group write access (2), and giving other users no permissions at all (7).
umask actually masks the corresponding permission bits or turns them off. For details,
consult the umask man page.
mkdir mydir creates the mydir directory with the default permissions as set by
umask. Use ls -dl mydir to check whether all permissions were assigned correctly.
The output for this example is:
drwxr-x--- ... tux project3 ... mydir
With getfacl mydir, check the initial state of the ACL. This gives information
like:
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::---
The first three output lines display the name, owner, and owning group of the directory.
The next three lines contain the three ACL entries owner, owning group, and other. In
fact, in the case of this minimum ACL, the getfacl command does not produce any
information you could not have obtained with ls.
Modify the ACL to assign read, write, and execute permissions to an additional user
geeko and an additional group mascots with:
setfacl -m user:geeko:rwx,group:mascots:rwx mydir
The option -m prompts setfacl to modify the existing ACL. The following argument
indicates the ACL entries to modify (multiple entries are separated by commas). The
final part specifies the name of the directory to which these modifications should be
applied. Use the getfacl command to take a look at the resulting ACL.
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
user:geeko:rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:rwx
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mask::rwx
other::---
In addition to the entries initiated for the user geeko and the group mascots, a mask
entry has been generated. This mask entry is set automatically so that all permissions
are effective. setfacl automatically adapts existing mask entries to the settings
modified, unless you deactivate this feature with -n. mask defines the maximum effective access permissions for all entries in the group class. This includes named user,
named group, and owning group. The group class permission bits displayed by ls -dl
mydir now correspond to the mask entry.
drwxrwx---+ ... tux project3 ... mydir
The first column of the output contains an additional + to indicate that there is an extended ACL for this item.
According to the output of the ls command, the permissions for the mask entry include
write access. Traditionally, such permission bits would mean that the owning group
(here project3) also has write access to the directory mydir. However, the effective
access permissions for the owning group correspond to the overlapping portion of the
permissions defined for the owning group and for the maskwhich is r-x in our example (see Table 17.2, Masking Access Permissions (page 255)). As far as the effective
permissions of the owning group in this example are concerned, nothing has changed
even after the addition of the ACL entries.
Edit the mask entry with setfacl or chmod. For example, use chmod g-w mydir.
ls -dl mydir then shows:
drwxr-x---+ ... tux project3 ... mydir
getfacl mydir provides the following output:

# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
user:geeko:rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:rwx
mask::r-x
other::---
# effective: r-x
# effective: r-x
After executing the chmod command to remove the write permission from the group
class bits, the output of the ls command is sufficient to see that the mask bits must
have changed accordingly: write permission is again limited to the owner of mydir.
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The output of the getfacl confirms this. This output includes a comment for all those
entries in which the effective permission bits do not correspond to the original permissions, because they are filtered according to the mask entry. The original permissions
can be restored at any time with chmod g+w mydir.
17.4.3 A Directory with a Default ACL

Directories can have a default ACL, which is a special kind of ACL defining the access
permissions that objects in the directory inherit when they are created. A default ACL
affects both subdirectories and files.
Effects of a Default ACL

There are two ways in which the permissions of a directory's default ACL are passed
to the files and subdirectories:
A subdirectory inherits the default ACL of the parent directory both as its default
ACL and as an access ACL.
A file inherits the default ACL as its access ACL.
All system calls that create file system objects use a mode parameter that defines the
access permissions for the newly created file system object. If the parent directory does
not have a default ACL, the permission bits as defined by the umask are subtracted
from the permissions as passed by the mode parameter, with the result being assigned
to the new object. If a default ACL exists for the parent directory, the permission bits
assigned to the new object correspond to the overlapping portion of the permissions of
the mode parameter and those that are defined in the default ACL. The umask is disregarded in this case.
Application of Default ACLs

The following three examples show the main operations for directories and default
ACLs:
1. Add a default ACL to the existing directory mydir with:
setfacl -d -m group:mascots:r-x mydir
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The option -d of the setfacl command prompts setfacl to perform the following modifications (option -m) in the default ACL.
Take a closer look at the result of this command:
getfacl mydir
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
user:geeko:rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:rwx
mask::rwx
other::--default:user::rwx
default:group::r-x
default:group:mascots:r-x
default:mask::r-x
default:other::---
getfacl returns both the access ACL and the default ACL. The default ACL is
formed by all lines that start with default. Although you merely executed the
setfacl command with an entry for the mascots group for the default ACL,
setfacl automatically copied all other entries from the access ACL to create a
valid default ACL. Default ACLs do not have an immediate effect on access permissions. They only come into play when file system objects are created. These
new objects inherit permissions only from the default ACL of their parent directory.
2. In the next example, use mkdir to create a subdirectory in mydir, which inherits
the default ACL.
mkdir mydir/mysubdir
getfacl mydir/mysubdir
# file: mydir/mysubdir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:r-x
mask::r-x
other::--default:user::rwx
default:group::r-x
default:group:mascots:r-x
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default:mask::r-x
default:other::---
As expected, the newly-created subdirectory mysubdir has the permissions from

the default ACL of the parent directory. The access ACL of mysubdir is an exact
reflection of the default ACL of mydir. The default ACL that this directory will
hand down to its subordinate objects is also the same.
3. Use touch to create a file in the mydir directory, for example, touch
mydir/myfile. ls -l mydir/myfile then shows:
-rw-r-----+ ... tux project3 ... mydir/myfile
The output of getfacl mydir/myfile is:

# file: mydir/myfile
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwgroup::r-x
# effective:r-group:mascots:r-x
# effective:r-mask::r-other::---
touch uses a mode with the value 0666 when creating new files, which means
that the files are created with read and write permissions for all user classes, provided no other restrictions exist in umask or in the default ACL (see Section
Effects of a Default ACL (page 259)). In effect, this means that all access permissions not contained in the mode value are removed from the respective ACL entries.
Although no permissions were removed from the ACL entry of the group class,
the mask entry was modified to mask permissions not set in mode.
This approach ensures the smooth interaction of applications, such as compilers,
with ACLs. You can create files with restricted access permissions and subsequently
mark them as executable. The mask mechanism guarantees that the right users
and groups can execute them as desired.
17.4.4 The ACL Check Algorithm

A check algorithm is applied before any process or application is granted access to an
ACL-protected file system object. As a basic rule, the ACL entries are examined in the
following sequence: owner, named user, owning group or named group, and other. The
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access is handled in accordance with the entry that best suits the process. Permissions
do not accumulate.
Things are more complicated if a process belongs to more than one group and would
potentially suit several group entries. An entry is randomly selected from the suitable
entries with the required permissions. It is irrelevant which of the entries triggers the
final result access granted. Likewise, if none of the suitable group entries contains
the required permissions, a randomly selected entry triggers the final result access
denied.
17.5 ACL Support in Applications

ACLs can be used to implement very complex permission scenarios that meet the requirements of modern applications. The traditional permission concept and ACLs can
be combined in a smart manner. The basic file commands (cp, mv, ls, etc.) support
ACLs, as do Samba and Konqueror.
Unfortunately, many editors and file managers still lack ACL support. When copying
files with Emacs, for instance, the ACLs of these files are lost. When modifying files
with an editor, the ACLs of files are sometimes preserved and sometimes not, depending
on the backup mode of the editor used. If the editor writes the changes to the original
file, the access ACL is preserved. If the editor saves the updated contents to a new file
that is subsequently renamed to the old filename, the ACLs may be lost, unless the editor supports ACLs. Except for the star archiver, there are currently no backup applications that preserve ACLs.

Detailed information about ACLs is available at http://acl.bestbits.at/.
Also see the man pages for getfacl(1), acl(5), and setfacl(1).
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18
Authentication with PAM
Linux uses PAM (pluggable authentication modules) in the authentication process as

a layer that mediates between user and application. PAM modules are available on a
systemwide basis, so they can be requested by any application. This chapter describes
how the modular authentication mechanism works and how it is configured.
System administrators and programmers often want to restrict access to certain parts
of the system or to limit the use of certain functions of an application. Without PAM,
applications must be adapted every time a new authentication mechanism, such as
LDAP, Samba or Kerberos, is introduced. This process, however, is rather time-consuming and error-prone. One way to avoid these drawbacks is to separate applications
from the authentication mechanism and delegate authentication to centrally managed
modules. Whenever a newly required authentication scheme is needed, it is sufficient
to adapt or write a suitable PAM module for use by the program in question.
Every program that relies on the PAM mechanism has its own configuration file in the
directory /etc/pam.d/programname. These files define the PAM modules used
for authentication. In addition, there are global configuration files for PAM modules
under /etc/security, which define the exact behavior of these modules (examples
include pam_env.conf, and time.conf). Every application that uses a PAM
module actually calls a set of PAM functions, which then process the information in
the various configuration files and return the result to the calling application.
To facilitate the creation and maintenance of PAM modules, common default configuration files for the auth, account, password, and session modules have been
introduced. These are pulled in from every application's PAM configuration. Updates
to the global PAM configuration modules in common-* are thus propagated across
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all PAM configuration files without requiring the administrator to update every single
PAM configuration file.
The global common PAM configuration files are maintained using the pam-config tool.
This tool automatically adds new modules to the configuration, changes the configuration
of existing ones or deletes modules or options from the configurations. Manual intervention in maintaining PAM configurations is minimized or no longer required.
18.1 Structure of a PAM

Configuration File
Each line in a PAM configuration file contains a maximum of four columns:
<Type of module> <Control flag> <Module path> <Options>
PAM modules are processed as stacks. Different types of modules have different purposes, for example, one module checks the password, another one verifies the location
from which the system is accessed, and yet another one reads user-specific settings.
PAM knows about four different types of modules:
auth
The purpose of this type of module is to check the user's authenticity. This is traditionally done by querying a password, but it can also be achieved with the help of
a chip card or through biometrics (fingerprints or iris scan).
account
Modules of this type check whether the user has general permission to use the requested service. As an example, such a check should be performed to ensure that
no one can log in under the username of an expired account.
password
The purpose of this type of module is to enable the change of an authentication
token. In most cases, this is a password.
session
Modules of this type are responsible for managing and configuring user sessions.
They are started before and after authentication to register login attempts in system
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logs and configure the user's specific environment (mail accounts, home directory,
system limits, etc.).
The second column contains control flags to influence the behavior of the modules
started:
required
A module with this flag must be successfully processed before the authentication
may proceed. After the failure of a module with the required flag, all other
modules with the same flag are processed before the user receives a message about
the failure of the authentication attempt.
requisite
Modules having this flag must also be processed successfully, in much the same
way as a module with the required flag. However, in case of failure a module
with this flag gives immediate feedback to the user and no further modules are
processed. In case of success, other modules are subsequently processed, just like
any modules with the required flag. The requisite flag can be used as a
basic filter checking for the existence of certain conditions that are essential for a
correct authentication.
sufficient
After a module with this flag has been successfully processed, the calling application
receives an immediate message about the success and no further modules are processed, provided there was no preceding failure of a module with the required
flag. The failure of a module with the sufficient flag has no direct consequences, in the sense that any subsequent modules are processed in their respective
order.
optional
The failure or success of a module with this flag does not have any direct consequences. This can be useful for modules that are only intended to display a message
(for example, to tell the user that mail has arrived) without taking any further action.
include
If this flag is given, the file specified as argument is inserted at this place.
The module path does not need to be specified explicitly, as long as the module is located in the default directory /lib/security (for all 64-bit platforms supported by
openSUSE, the directory is /lib64/security). The fourth column may contain
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an option for the given module, such as debug (enables debugging) or nullok (allows
the use of empty passwords).
18.2 The PAM Configuration of sshd

To show how the theory behind PAM works, consider the PAM configuration of sshd
as a practical example:
Example 18.1 PAM Configuration for sshd
#%PAM-1.0
auth
include
common-auth
auth
required
pam_nologin.so
account include
common-account
password include
common-password
session include
common-session
# Enable the following line to get resmgr support for
# ssh sessions (see /usr/share/doc/packages/resmgr/README.SuSE)
#session optional
pam_resmgr.so fake_ttyname
The typical PAM configuration of an application (sshd, in this case) contains four include
statements referring to the configuration files of four module types: common-auth,
common-account, common-password, and common-session. These four
files hold the default configuration for each module type. By including them instead of
calling each module separately for each PAM application, automatically get an updated
PAM configuration if the administrator changes the defaults. In former times, you had
to adjust all configuration files manually for all applications when changes to PAM
occurred or a new application was installed. Now the PAM configuration is made with
central configuration files and all changes are automatically inherited by the PAM
configuration of each service.
The first include file (common-auth) calls two modules of the auth type: pam_env
and pam_unix2. See Example 18.2, Default Configuration for the auth Section
(page 266).
Example 18.2 Default Configuration for the auth Section
auth
auth
required
required
pam_env.so
pam_unix2.so
The first one, pam_env, loads the file /etc/security/pam_env.conf to set

the environment variables as specified in this file. This can be used to set the DISPLAY
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Reference
variable to the correct value, because the pam_env module knows about the location
from which the login is taking place. The second one, pam_unix2, checks the user's
login and password against /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.
After the modules specified in common-auth have been successfully called, a third
module called pam_nologin checks whether the file /etc/nologin exists. If it
does, no user other than root may log in. The whole stack of auth modules is processed before sshd gets any feedback about whether the login has succeeded. Given
that all modules of the stack have the required control flag, they must all be processed
successfully before sshd receives a message about the positive result. If one of the
modules is not successful, the entire module stack is still processed and only then is
sshd notified about the negative result.
As soon as all modules of the auth type have been successfully processed, another
include statement is processed, in this case, that in Example 18.3, Default Configuration
for the account Section (page 267). common-account contains just one module,
pam_unix2. If pam_unix2 returns the result that the user exists, sshd receives a
message announcing this success and the next stack of modules (password) is processed, shown in Example 18.4, Default Configuration for the password Section
(page 267).
Example 18.3 Default Configuration for the account Section
account required
pam_unix2.so
Example 18.4 Default Configuration for the password Section

password required
password required
#password required
pam_pwcheck.so
pam_unix2.so
pam_make.so
nullok cracklib
nullok use_authtok
/var/yp
Again, the PAM configuration of sshd involves just an include statement referring to
the default configuration for password modules located in common-password.
These modules must successfully be completed (control flag required) whenever
the application requests the change of an authentication token. Changing a password
or another authentication token requires a security check. This is achieved with the pam
_pwcheck module. The pam_unix2 module used afterwards carries over any old
and new passwords from pam_pwcheck, so the user does not need to authenticate
again. This also makes it impossible to circumvent the checks carried out by pam
_pwcheck. The modules of the password type should be used wherever the preceding
modules of the account or the auth type are configured to complain about an expired
password.
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Example 18.5 Default Configuration for the session Section

session required
session required
session optional
pam_limits.so
pam_unix2.so
pam_umask.so
As the final step, the modules of the session type, bundled in the common-session
file are called to configure the session according to the settings for the user in question.
The pam_limits module loads the file /etc/security/limits.conf, which
may define limits on the use of certain system resources. The pam_unix2 module is
processed again. The pam_umask module can be used to set the file mode creation
mask. Since this module carries the optional flag, a failure of this module would
not affect the successful completion of the entire session module stack. The session
modules are called a second time when the user logs out.
18.3 Configuring PAM Using

pam-config
The pam-config tool helps you configure the global PAM configuration files under
/etc/pam.d/common-*-pc. Use the pam-config command to maintain your
PAM configuration files. Add new modules to your PAM configurations, delete other
modules or modify options to these modules. As these changes concern only the global
PAM configuration files, no manual tweaking of the PAM setup for individual applications is required.
A simple real-world use case for pam-config would involve the following:
1 Auto-generate a fresh Unix-style PAM configuration. Let pam-config create
the simplest possible setup which you can extend later on. The pam-config
--create command creates a simple UNIX authentication configuration. Preexisting configuration files not maintained by pam-config are overwritten, but
backup copies are kept as *.pam-config-backup.
2 Add a new authentication method. Adding a new authentication method
(e.g. LDAP) to your stack of PAM modules comes down to a simple
pam-config --add --ldap command. LDAP is added wherever appropriate across all common-*-pc PAM configuration files.
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3 Add debugging for test purposes. To make sure the new authentication procedure works as planned, turn on debugging for all PAM-related operations. The
pam-config --add --ldap-debug turns on debugging for LDAP-related
PAM operations. Find the debugging output in /var/log/messages.
4 Query your setup. Before you finally apply your new PAM setup, check
whether it contains all the options you planned to add. The pam-config
--query --module lists both the type and the options for the queried PAM
module.
5 Remove the debug options. Finally, remove the debug option from your setup
when you are entirely satisfied with the performance of it. The pam-config
--delete --ldap-debug turns of debugging for LDAP authentication. In
case you had debugging options added for other modules, use similar commands
to turn these off.
When you create your PAM configuration files from scratch using the pam-config
--create command, it creates symbolic links from the common-* to the
common-*-pc files. pam-config only modifies the common-*-pc configuration
files. Removing these symbolic links effectively disable pam-config, because pamconfig only operates on the common-*-pc files and these files are not put into effect
without the symbolic links.
For more information on the pam-config command and the options available, refer
to the manual page of pam-config, pam-config(8).

In the directory /usr/share/doc/packages/pam of your installed system, find
the following additional documentation:
READMEs
In the top level of this directory, there are some general README files. The subdirectory modules holds README files about the available PAM modules.
The Linux-PAM System Administrators' Guide
This document includes everything that a system administrator should know about
PAM. It discusses a range of topics, from the syntax of configuration files to the
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security aspects of PAM. The document is available as a PDF file, in HTML format,
and as plain text.
The Linux-PAM Module Writers' Manual
This document summarizes the topic from the developer's point of view, with information about how to write standard-compliant PAM modules. It is available as
a PDF file, in HTML format, and as plain text.
The Linux-PAM Application Developers' Guide
This document includes everything needed by an application developer who wants
to use the PAM libraries. It is available as a PDF file, in HTML format, and as
plain text.
The PAM Manual Pages
PAM in general as well as the individual modules come with manual pages that
provide a good overview of the functionality provided by the respective component.
Thorsten Kukuk has developed a number of PAM modules and made some information
available about them at http://www.suse.de/~kukuk/pam/.
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Working with the Shell
19
Although graphical user interfaces have become very important and user-friendly, using
them is not the only way to communicate with your system. A command line interpreter,
in Unix/Linux called a shell, provides a highly flexible and efficient means for textoriented communication with your system.
In administration, shell-based applications are especially important for controlling
computers over slow network links or if you want to perform tasks as administrator on
the command line.
This chapter deals with a couple of basics you need to know for making efficient use
of the command line: the directory structure of Linux, the user and permission concept
of Linux, an overview of important shell commands, and a short introduction to the vi
editor, which is a default editor always available in Unix and Linux systems.
19.1 Using the Bash Shell

For UNIX or Linux several shells are available which differ slightly in behavior and
in the commands they accept. The default shell in openSUSE is Bash (GNU BourneAgain Shell).
If you are logged in to a graphical user interface, you can start a (login) shell parallel
to the user interface or in a terminal window within the graphical user interface. Press
Ctrl + Alt + F2 to leave the graphical user interface and access a login shell. After login,
the prompt shows your login name followed by @ and the hostname of your computer.
The hostname is followed by a colon and the path to the current directory. If you have
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logged in as system administrator, root, Bash indicates this with a hash symbol, #.
Directly after login, the current directory is usually the home directory of the user account
with which you have logged in, indicated by the tilde symbol, ~. When you are logged
in on a remote computer the information provided by the prompt always shows you
which system you are currently working on. You can now enter commands and execute
tasks. To log out from the shell, enter exit and press Alt + F7 to switch back to the
graphical user interface. You will find your desktop and the applications running on it
unchanged.
To start a terminal window within the graphical user interface in KDE or GNOME press
Alt + F2 and enter xterm (or click the Konsole or GNOME terminal icon in the panel).
This opens a terminal window on your desktop. As you are already logged in to your
desktop the prompt shows the usual login and path information. You can now enter
commands and execute tasks just like in any shell which runs parallel to your desktop.
To close the terminal window press Alt + F4 .
The Konsole or the GNOME Terminal window appears, displaying the prompt at the
first line, see Figure 19.1, Example of a Bash Terminal Window (page 272). The
prompt usually shows your login name (in this example, tux), the hostname of your
computer (here, knox), and the current path (in this case, your home directory, indicated
by the tilde symbol, ~). When you are logged in on a remote computer this information
always shows you which system you are currently working on. When the cursor placed
behind this prompt, you can send commands directly to your computer system.
Figure 19.1 Example of a Bash Terminal Window
Because the shell does not offer a graphical overview of directories and files like the
tree view in a file manager, it is useful to have some basic knowledge of the default
directory structure in Linux.
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19.1.1 The Directory Structure

The following table provides a short overview of the most important higher-level directories you find on a Linux system. Find more detailed information about the directories
and important subdirectories in the following list.
Table 19.1
Overview of a Standard Directory Tree
Directory
Contents
Root directorythe starting point of the directory tree.
/bin
Essential binary files, such as commands that are needed

by both the system administrator and normal users. Usually
also contains the shells, such as Bash.
/boot
Static files of the boot loader.
/dev
Files needed to access host-specific devices.
/etc
Host-specific system configuration files.
/home
Holds the home directories of all users who have an account

on the system. Only root's home directory is not located
in /home but in /root.
/lib
Essential shared libraries and kernel modules.
/media
Mount points for removable media.
/mnt
Mount point for temporarily mounting a file system.
/opt
Add-on application software packages.
/root
Home directory for the superuser root.
/sbin
Essential system binaries.
/srv
Data for services provided by the system.
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Directory
Contents
/tmp
Temporary files.
/usr
Secondary hierarchy with read-only data.
/var
Variable data such as log files
/windows
Only available if you have both Microsoft Windows* and

Linux installed on your system. Contains the Windows data.
The following list provides more detailed information and gives some examples which
files and subdirectories can be found in the directories:
/bin
Contains the basic shell commands that may be used both by root and by other
users. These commands include ls, mkdir, cp, mv, rm, and rmdir. /bin also
contains Bash, the default shell in openSUSE.
/boot
Contains data required for booting, such as the boot loader, the kernel, and other
data that is used before the kernel begins executing user mode programs.
/dev
Holds device files that represent hardware components.
/etc
Contains local configuration files that control the operation of programs like the
X Window System. The /etc/init.d subdirectory contains scripts that are
executed during the boot process.
/home/username
Holds the private data of every user who has an account on the system. The files
located here can only be modified by their owner or by the system administrator.
By default, your e-mail directory and personal desktop configuration are located
here in form of hidden files and directories. KDE users find the personal configuration data for their desktop in .kde, GNOME users find it in .gconf. For information about hidden files, refer to Section Key Features (Chapter 7, Basic Concepts, Start-Up).
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NOTE: Home Directory in a Network Environment

If you are working in a network environment, your home directory may be
mapped to a directory in the file system other than /home.
/lib
Contains essential shared libraries needed to boot the system and to run the commands in the root file system. The Windows equivalent for shared libraries are
DLL files.
/media
Contains mount points for removable media, such as CD-ROMs, USB sticks, and
digital cameras (if they use USB). /media generally holds any type of drive except
the hard drive of your system. As soon as your removable medium has been inserted
or connected to the system and has been mounted, you can access it from here.
/mnt
This directory provides a mount point for a temporarily mounted file system. root
may mount file systems here.
/opt
Reserved for the installation of additional software. Optional software and larger
add-on program packages can be found there. KDE3 is located there, whereas
KDE4 and GNOME have moved to /usr now.
/root
Home directory for the root user. Personal data of root is located here.
/sbin
As the s indicates, this directory holds utilities for the superuser. /sbin contains
binaries essential for booting, restoring, and recovering the system in addition to
the binaries in /bin.
/srv
Holds data for services provided by the system, such as FTP and HTTP.
/tmp
This directory is used by programs that require temporary storage of files.
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/usr
/usr has nothing to do with users, but is the acronym for UNIX system resources.
The data in /usr is static, read-only data that can be shared among various hosts
compliant to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). This directory contains all
application programs and establishes a secondary hierarchy in the file system. /usr
holds a number of subdirectories, such as /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /usr/
local, and /usr/share/doc.
/usr/bin
Contains generally accessible programs.
/usr/sbin
Contains programs reserved for the system administrator, such as repair functions.
/usr/local
In this directory, the system administrator can install local, distribution-independent
extensions.
/usr/share/doc
Holds various documentation files and the release notes for your system. In the
manual subdirectory, find an online version of this manual. If more than one
language is installed, this directory may contain versions of the manuals for different
languages.
Under packages, find the documentation included in the software packages installed on your system. For every package, a subdirectory /usr/share/doc/
packages/packagename is created that often holds README files for the
package and sometimes examples, configuration files, or additional scripts.
If HOWTOs are installed on your system /usr/share/doc also holds the
howto subdirectory in which to find additional documentation on many tasks relating to the setup and operation of Linux software.
/var
Whereas /usr holds static, read-only data, /var is for data which is written during
system operation and thus is variable data, such as log files or spooling data. For
example, the log files of your system are in /var/log/messages (only accessible for root).
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/windows
Only available if you have both Microsoft Windows and Linux installed on your
system. Contains the Windows data available on the Windows partition of your
system. Whether you can edit the data in this directory depends on the file system
your Windows partition uses. If it is FAT32, you can open and edit the files in this
directory. For an NTFS file system, however, you can only read your Windows
files from Linux, but not modify them. Learn more in Section Accessing Files on
Different OS on the Same Computer (Chapter 11, Copying and Sharing Files,
Start-Up).
19.2 Users and Access Permissions

Since its inception in the early 1990s, Linux has been developed as a multiuser system.
Any number of users can work on it simultaneously. Users need to log in to the system
before starting a session at their workstations. Each user has a username with a corresponding password. This differentiation of users guarantees that unauthorized users
cannot see files for which they do not have permission. Larger changes to the system,
such as installing new programs, are also usually impossible or restricted for normal
users. Only the root user, or super user, has the unrestricted capacity to make changes
to the system and unlimited access to all files. Those who use this concept wisely, only
logging in with full root access when necessary, can cut back the risk of unintentional
loss of data. Because under normal circumstances only root can delete system files or
format hard disks, the threat from the Trojan horse effect or from accidentally entering
destructive commands can be significantly reduced.
19.2.1 File System Permissions

Basically, every file in a Linux file system belongs to a user and a group. Both of these
proprietary groups and all others can be authorized to write, read, or execute these files.
A group, in this case, can be defined as a set of connected users with certain collective
rights. For example, call a group working on a certain project project3. Every user
in a Linux system is a member of at least one proprietary group, normally users.
There can be as many groups in a system as needed, but only root is able to add
groups. Every user can find out, with the command groups, of which groups he is a
member.
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File Access
The organization of permissions in the file system differs for files and directories.
File permission information can be displayed with the command ls -l. The
output could appear as in Example 19.1, Sample Output Showing File Permissions
(page 278).
Example 19.1 Sample Output Showing File Permissions
-rw-r----- 1 tux project3 14197 Jun 21
15:03 Roadmap
As shown in the third column, this file belongs to user tux. It is assigned to the
group project3. To discover the user permissions of the Roadmap file, the first
column must be examined more closely.
-
rw-
r--
---
Type
Users Permissions
Group Permissions Permissions for Other

Users
This column consists of one leading character followed by nine characters grouped
in threes. The first of the ten letters stands for the type of file system component.
The hyphen () shows that this is a file. A directory (d), a link (l), a block device
(b), or a character device could also be indicated.
The next three blocks follow a standard pattern. The first three characters refer to
whether the file is readable (r) or not (). A w in the middle portion symbolizes
that the corresponding object can be edited and a hyphen () means it is not possible
to write to the file. An x in the third position denotes that the object can be executed.
Because the file in this example is a text file and not one that is executable, executable access for this particular file is not needed.
In this example, tux has, as owner of the file Roadmap, read (r) and write access
(w) to it, but cannot execute it (x). The members of the group project3 can read
the file, but they cannot modify it or execute it. Other users do not have any access
to this file. Other permissions can be assigned by means of ACLs (access control
lists).
Directory Permissions
Access permissions for directories have the type d. For directories, the individual
permissions have a slightly different meaning.
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Example 19.2 Sample Output Showing Directory Permissions

drwxrwxr-x 1 tux project3 35 Jun 21 15:15
ProjectData
In Example 19.2, Sample Output Showing Directory Permissions (page 279), the
owner (tux) and the owning group (project3) of the directory ProjectData
are easy to recognize. In contrast to the file access permissions from File Access
(page 278), the set reading permission (r) means that the contents of the directory
can be shown. The write permission (w) means that new files can be created. The
executable permission (x) means that the user can change to this directory. In the
above example, the user tux as well as the members of the group project3 can
change to the ProjectData directory (x), view the contents (r), and add or
delete files (w). The rest of the users, on the other hand, are given less access. They
may enter the directory (x) and browse through it (r), but not insert any new files
(w).
19.2.2 Modifying File Permissions

Changing Access Permissions
The access permissions of a file or directory can be changed by the owner and, of
course, by root with the command chmod followed by the parameters changing
the permissions and one or more filenames. The parameters form different categories:
1. Users concerned
u (user)owner of the file
g (group)group that owns the file
o (others)additional users (if no parameter is given, the changes apply to all
categories)
2. A character for deletion (), setting (=), or insertion (+)
3. The abbreviations
rread
wwrite
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xexecute
4. Filename or filenames separated by spaces
If, for example, the user tux in Example 19.2, Sample Output Showing Directory
Permissions (page 279) also wants to grant other users write (w) access to the directory ProjectData, he can do this using the command chmod o+w
ProjectData.
If, however, he wants to deny all users other than himself write permissions, he
can do this by entering the command chmod go-w ProjectData. To prohibit
all users from adding a new file to the folder ProjectData, enter chmod -w
ProjectData. Now, not even the owner can create a new file in the directory
without first reestablishing write permissions.
Changing Ownership Permissions
Other important commands to control the ownership and permissions of the file
system components are chown (change owner) and chgrp (change group). The
command chown can be used to transfer ownership of a file to another user.
However, only root is permitted to perform this change.
Suppose the file Roadmap from Example 19.2, Sample Output Showing Directory
Permissions (page 279) should no longer belong to tux, but to the user geeko.
root should then enter chown geeko Roadmap.
chgrp changes the group ownership of the file. However, the owner of the file
must be a member of the new group. In this way, the user tux from Example 19.1,
Sample Output Showing File Permissions (page 278) can switch the group owning
the file ProjectData to project4 with the command chgrp project4
ProjectData, as long as he is a member of this new group.
19.3 Important Linux Commands

This section gives insight into the most important commands. There are many more
commands than listed in this chapter. Along with the individual commands, parameters
are listed and, where appropriate, a typical sample application is introduced. To learn
more about the various commands, use the manual pages, accessed with man followed
by the name of the command, for example, man ls.
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In the man pages, move up and down with PgUp and PgDn. Move between the beginning
and the end of a document with Home and End. End this viewing mode by pressing Q.
Learn more about the man command itself with man man.
In the following overview, the individual command elements are written in different
typefaces. The actual command and its mandatory options are always printed as
command option. Specifications or parameters that are not required are placed in
[square brackets].
Adjust the settings to your needs. It makes no sense to write ls file if no file named
file actually exists. You can usually combine several parameters, for example, by
writing ls -la instead of ls -l -a.
19.3.1 File Commands

The following section lists the most important commands for file management. It covers
anything from general file administration to manipulation of file system ACLs.
File Administration
ls [options] [files]
If you run ls without any additional parameters, the program lists the contents of
the current directory in short form.
-l
Detailed list
-a
Displays hidden files
cp [options] source target
Copies source to target.
-i
Waits for confirmation, if necessary, before an existing target is overwritten
-r
Copies recursively (includes subdirectories)
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mv [options] source target

Copies source to target then deletes the original source.
-b
Creates a backup copy of the source before moving
-i
Waits for confirmation, if necessary, before an existing targetfile is
overwritten
rm [options] files
Removes the specified files from the file system. Directories are not removed by
rm unless the option -r is used.
-r
Deletes any existing subdirectories
-i
Waits for confirmation before deleting each file
ln [options] source target
Creates an internal link from source to target. Normally, such a link points
directly to source on the same file system. However, if ln is executed with the
-s option, it creates a symbolic link that only points to the directory in which
source is located, enabling linking across file systems.
-s
Creates a symbolic link
cd [options] [directory]
Changes the current directory. cd without any parameters changes to the user's
home directory.
mkdir [options] directory
Creates a new directory.
rmdir [options] directory
Deletes the specified directory if it is already empty.
chown [options] username[:[group]] files
Transfers ownership of a file to the user with the specified username.
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-R
Changes files and directories in all subdirectories
chgrp [options] groupname files
Transfers the group ownership of a given file to the group with the specified
group name. The file owner can only change group ownership if a member of both
the current and the new group.
chmod [options] mode files
Changes the access permissions.
The mode parameter has three parts: group, access, and access type.
group accepts the following characters:
u
User
g
Group
o
Others
For access, grant access with + and deny it with -.
The access type is controlled by the following options:
r
Read
w
Write
x
Executeexecuting files or changing to the directory
s
Setuid bitthe application or program is started as if it were started by the
owner of the file
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As an alternative, a numeric code can be used. The four digits of this code are
composed of the sum of the values 4, 2, and 1the decimal result of a binary mask.
The first digit sets the set user ID (SUID) (4), the set group ID (2), and the sticky
(1) bits. The second digit defines the permissions of the owner of the file. The third
digit defines the permissions of the group members and the last digit sets the permissions for all other users. The read permission is set with 4, the write permission
with 2, and the permission for executing a file is set with 1. The owner of a file
would usually receive a 6 or a 7 for executable files.
gzip [parameters] files
This program compresses the contents of files using complex mathematical algorithms. Files compressed in this way are given the extension .gz and need to be
uncompressed before they can be used. To compress several files or even entire
directories, use the tar command.
-d
Decompresses the packed gzip files so they return to their original size and
can be processed normally (like the command gunzip)
tar options archive files
tar puts one or more files into an archive. Compression is optional. tar is a quite
complex command with a number of options available. The most frequently used
options are:
-f
Writes the output to a file and not to the screen as is usually the case
-c
Creates a new tar archive
-r
Adds files to an existing archive
-t
Outputs the contents of an archive
-u
Adds files, but only if they are newer than the files already contained in the
archive
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-x
Unpacks files from an archive (extraction)
-z
Packs the resulting archive with gzip
-j
Compresses the resulting archive with bzip2
-v
Lists files processed
The archive files created by tar end with .tar. If the tar archive was also compressed using gzip, the ending is .tgz or .tar.gz. If it was compressed using
bzip2, the ending is .tar.bz2.
locate patterns
This command is only available if you have installed the findutils-locate
package. The locate command can find in which directory a specified file is located. If desired, use wild cards to specify filenames. The program is very speedy,
because it uses a database specifically created for the purpose (rather than searching
through the entire file system). This very fact, however, also results in a major
drawback: locate is unable to find any files created after the latest update of its
database. The database can be generated by root with updatedb.
updatedb [options]
This command performs an update of the database used by locate. To include
files in all existing directories, run the program as root. It also makes sense to
place it in the background by appending an ampersand (&), so you can immediately
continue working on the same command line (updatedb &). This command
usually runs as a daily cron job (see cron.daily).
find [options]
With find, search for a file in a given directory. The first argument specifies the
directory in which to start the search. The option -name must be followed by a
search string, which may also include wild cards. Unlike locate, which uses a
database, find scans the actual directory.
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Commands to Access File Contents

file [options] [files]
With file, detect the contents of the specified files.
-z
Tries to look inside compressed files
cat [options] files
The cat command displays the contents of a file, printing the entire contents to
the screen without interruption.
-n
Numbers the output on the left margin
less [options] files
This command can be used to browse the contents of the specified file. Scroll half
a screen page up or down with PgUp and PgDn or a full screen page down with
Space. Jump to the beginning or end of a file using Home and End. Press Q to exit
the program.
grep [options] searchstring files
The grep command finds a specific search string in the specified files. If the search
string is found, the command displays the line in which searchstring was
found along with the filename.
-i
Ignores case
-H
Only displays the names of the respective files, but not the text lines
-n
Additionally displays the numbers of the lines in which it found a hit
-l
Only lists the files in which searchstring does not occur
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diff [options] file1 file2

The diff command compares the contents of any two files. The output produced
by the program lists all lines that do not match. This is frequently used by programmers who need only send their program alterations and not the entire source code.
-q
Only reports whether the two files differ
-u
Produces a unified diff, which makes the output more readable
File Systems
mount [options] [device] mountpoint
This command can be used to mount any data media, such as hard disks, CD-ROM
drives, and other drives, to a directory of the Linux file system.
-r
Mount read-only
-t filesystem
Specify the file system, commonly ext2 for Linux hard disks, msdos for
MS-DOS media, vfat for the Windows file system, and iso9660 for CDs
For hard disks not defined in the file /etc/fstab, the device type must also be
specified. In this case, only root can mount it. If the file system should also be
mounted by other users, enter the option user in the appropriate line in the /etc/
fstab file (separated by commas) and save this change. Further information is
available in the mount(1) man page.
umount [options] mountpoint
This command unmounts a mounted drive from the file system. To prevent data
loss, run this command before taking a removable data medium from its drive.
Normally, only root is allowed to run the commands mount and umount. To
enable other users to run these commands, edit the /etc/fstab file to specify
the option user for the respective drive.
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19.3.2 System Commands

The following section lists a few of the most important commands needed for retrieving
system information and controlling processes and the network.
System Information
df [options] [directory]
The df (disk free) command, when used without any options, displays information
about the total disk space, the disk space currently in use, and the free space on all
the mounted drives. If a directory is specified, the information is limited to the
drive on which that directory is located.
-h
Shows the number of occupied blocks in gigabytes, megabytes, or kilobytesin
human-readable format
-T
Type of file system (ext2, nfs, etc.)
du [options] [path]
This command, when executed without any parameters, shows the total disk space
occupied by files and subdirectories in the current directory.
-a
Displays the size of each individual file
-h
Output in human-readable form
-s
Displays only the calculated total size
free [options]
The command free displays information about RAM and swap space usage,
showing the total and the used amount in both categories. See Section 14.1.6, The
free Command (page 220) for more information.
-b
Output in bytes
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-k
Output in kilobytes
-m
Output in megabytes
date [options]
This simple program displays the current system time. If run as root, it can also
be used to change the system time. Details about the program are available in the
date(1) man page.
Processes
top [options]
top provides a quick overview of the currently running processes. Press H to access
a page that briefly explains the main options for customizing the program.
ps [options] [process ID]
If run without any options, this command displays a table of all your own programs
or processesthose you started. The options for this command are not preceded
by hyphen.
aux
Displays a detailed list of all processes, independent of the owner
kill [options] process ID
Unfortunately, sometimes a program cannot be terminated in the normal way. In
most cases, you should still be able to stop such a runaway program by executing
the kill command, specifying the respective process ID (see top and ps). kill
sends a TERM signal that instructs the program to shut itself down. If this does not
help, the following parameter can be used:
-9
Sends a KILL signal instead of a TERM signal, bringing the specified process
to an end in almost all cases
killall [options] processname
This command is similar to kill, but uses the process name (instead of the process
ID) as an argument, killing all processes with that name.
289
Network
ping [options] hostname or IP address
The ping command is the standard tool for testing the basic functionality of TCP/IP
networks. It sends a small data packet to the destination host, requesting an immediate reply. If this works, ping displays a message to that effect, which indicates
that the network link is basically functioning.
-c number
Determines the total number of packages to send and ends after they have been
dispatched (by default, there is no limitation set)
-f
flood ping: sends as many data packages as possible; a popular means, reserved
for root, to test networks
-i value
Specifies the interval between two data packages in seconds (default: one
second)
nslookup
The domain name system resolves domain names to IP addresses. With this tool,
send queries to name servers (DNS servers).
telnet [options] hostname or IP address [port]
Telnet is actually an Internet protocol that enables you to work on remote hosts
across a network. telnet is also the name of a Linux program that uses this protocol
to enable operations on remote computers.
WARNING
Do not use telnet over a network on which third parties can eavesdrop.
Particularly on the Internet, use encrypted transfer methods, such as ssh,
to avoid the risk of malicious misuse of a password (see the man page for
ssh).
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Reference
Miscellaneous
passwd [options] [username]
Users may change their own passwords at any time using this command. The administrator root can use the command to change the password of any user on the
system.
su [options] [username]
The su command makes it possible to log in under a different username from a
running session. Specify a username and the corresponding password. The password
is not required from root, because root is authorized to assume the identity of
any user. When using the command without specifying a username, you are
prompted for the root password and change to the superuser (root). Use su to start a login shell for a different user.
halt [options]
To avoid loss of data, you should always use this program to shut down your system.
reboot [options]
Does the same as halt except the system performs an immediate reboot.
clear
This command cleans up the visible area of the console. It has no options.

There are many more commands than listed in this chapter. For information about
other commands or more detailed information, the O'Reilly publication Linux in a
Nutshell is recommended.
19.4 The vi Editor

Text editors are still used for many system administration tasks as well as for programming. In the world of Unix, vi stands out as an editor that offers comfortable editing
functions and is more ergonomic than many editors with mouse support.
291
19.4.1 Operating Modes

NOTE: Display of Keys
In the following, find several commands that you can enter in vi by just pressing
keys. These appear in uppercase as on a keyboard. If you need to enter a key
in uppercase, this is stated explicitly by showing a key combination including
the Shift key.
Basically, vi makes use of three operating modes: insert mode, command mode, and
extended mode. The keys have different functions depending on the mode. On start-up,
vi is normally set to the command mode. The first thing to learn is how to switch between
the modes:
Command Mode to Insert Mode
There are many possibilities, including A for append, I for insert, or O for a new
line under the current line.
Insert Mode to Command Mode
Press Esc to exit the insert mode. vi cannot be terminated in insert mode, so it is
important to get used to pressing Esc.
Command Mode to Extended Mode
The extended mode of vi can be activated by entering a colon (:). The extended or
ex mode is similar to an independent line-oriented editor that can be used for various
simple and more complex tasks.
Extended Mode to Command Mode
After executing a command in extended mode, the editor automatically returns to
command mode. If you decide not to execute any command in extended mode,
delete the colon with <. The editor returns to command mode.
It is not possible to switch directly from insert mode to extended mode without first
switching to command mode.
vi, like other editors, has its own procedure for terminating the program. You cannot
terminate vi while in insert mode. First, exit insert mode by pressing Esc. Subsequently,
you have two options:
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Reference
1. Exit without saving: To terminate the editor without saving the changes, enter :
Q ! in command mode. The exclamation mark (!) causes vi to ignore any changes.
2. Save and exit: There are several possibilities to save your changes and terminate
the editor. In command mode, use Shift + Z Shift + Z. To exit the program saving
all changes using the extended mode, enter : W Q. In extended mode, w stands
for write and q for quit.
19.4.2 vi in Action
vi can be used as a normal editor. In insert mode, enter text and delete text with the <
and Del keys. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor.
However, these control keys often cause problems, because there are many terminal
types that use special key codes. This is where the command mode comes into play.
Press Esc to switch from insert mode to command mode. In command mode, move the
cursor with H, J, K, and L. The keys have the following functions:
H
Move one character to the left

J
Move one line down

K
Move one line up

L
Move one character to the right

The commands in command mode allow diverse variations. To execute a command
several times, simply enter the number of repetitions before entering the actual command.
For example, enter 5 L to move the cursor five characters to the right.
A selection of important commands is shown in Table 19.2, Simple Commands of the
vi Editor (page 294) This list is far from complete. More complete lists are available
in the documentation found in Section 19.4.3, For More Information (page 295)
293
Table 19.2
294
Simple Commands of the vi Editor
Esc
Change to command mode
Change to insert mode (characters appear at the current cursor

position)
Change to insert mode (characters are inserted after the current

cursor position)
Shift + A
Change to insert mode (characters are added at the end of the

line)
Shift + R
Change to replace mode (overwrite the old text)
Replace the character under the cursor
Change to insert mode (a new line is inserted after the current

one)
Shift + O
Change to insert mode (a new line is inserted before the current one)
Delete the current character
DD
Delete the current line
DW
Delete up to the end of the current word
CW
Change to insert mode (the rest of the current word is overwritten by the next entries you make)
Undo the last command
Ctrl + R
Redo the change that was undone
Shift + J
Join the following line with the current one
Repeat the last command
Reference

vi supports a wide range of commands. It enables the use of macros, shortcuts, named
buffers, and many other useful features. A detailed description of the various options
would exceed the scope of this manual. openSUSE comes with vim (vi improved), an
improved version of vi. There are numerous information sources for this application:
vimtutor is an interactive tutor for vim.
In vim, enter the command :help to get help for many subjects.
A book about vim is available online at http://www.truth.sk/vim/
vimbook-OPL.pdf.
The Web pages of the vim project at http://www.vim.org feature all kinds
of news, mailing lists, and other documentation.
A number of vim sources are available on the Internet: http://www.selflinux
.org/selflinux/html/vim.html, and http://www.apmaths.uwo
.ca/~xli/vim/vim_tutorial.html. See http://linux-universe
.com/HOWTO/Vim-HOWTO/vim-tutorial.html for further links to tutorials.
IMPORTANT: The VIM License
vim is charityware, which means that the authors do not charge any money
for the software but encourage you to support a nonprofit project with a
monetary contribution. This project solicits help for poor children in Uganda.
More information is available online at http://iccf-holland.org/index
.html, http://www.vim.org/iccf/, and http://www.iccf.nl/.
295
Part IV. Services
Basic Networking
20
Linux offers the necessary networking tools and features for integration into all types
of network structures. The customary Linux protocol, TCP/IP, has various services and
special features, which are discussed here. Network access using a network card, modem,
or other device can be configured with YaST. Manual configuration is also possible.
Only the fundamental mechanisms and the relevant network configuration files are
discussed in this chapter.
Linux and other Unix operating systems use the TCP/IP protocol. It is not a single
network protocol, but a family of network protocols that offer various services. The
protocols listed in Table 20.1, Several Protocols in the TCP/IP Protocol Family
(page 300) are provided for the purpose of exchanging data between two machines via
TCP/IP. Networks combined by TCP/IP, comprising a worldwide network are also referred to, in their entirety, as the Internet.
RFC stands for Request for Comments. RFCs are documents that describe various Internet protocols and implementation procedures for the operating system and its applications. The RFC documents describe the setup of Internet protocols. To expand your
knowledge about any of the protocols, refer to the appropriate RFC documents. They
are available online at http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html.
Basic Networking
299
Table 20.1
Several Protocols in the TCP/IP Protocol Family
Protocol
Description
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol: A connection-oriented secure protocol.

The data to transmit is first sent by the application as a stream of data
then converted by the operating system to the appropriate format. The
data arrives at the respective application on the destination host in the
original data stream format in which it was initially sent. TCP determines whether any data has been lost during the transmission and that
there is no mix-up. TCP is implemented wherever the data sequence
matters.
UDP
User Datagram Protocol: A connectionless, insecure protocol. The data

to transmit is sent in the form of packets generated by the application.
The order in which the data arrives at the recipient is not guaranteed
and data loss is a possibility. UDP is suitable for record-oriented applications. It features a smaller latency period than TCP.
ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol: Essentially, this is not a protocol

for the end user, but a special control protocol that issues error reports
and can control the behavior of machines participating in TCP/IP data
transfer. In addition, it provides a special echo mode that can be viewed
using the program ping.
IGMP
Internet Group Management Protocol: This protocol controls machine

behavior when implementing IP multicast.
As shown in Figure 20.1, Simplified Layer Model for TCP/IP (page 301), data exchange takes place in different layers. The actual network layer is the insecure data
transfer via IP (Internet protocol). On top of IP, TCP (transmission control protocol)
guarantees, to a certain extent, security of the data transfer. The IP layer is supported
by the underlying hardware-dependent protocol, such as ethernet.
300
Reference
Figure 20.1 Simplified Layer Model for TCP/IP

Host sun
Host earth
Application Layer
Applications
Application Layer
Transport Layer
TCP, UDP
Transport Layer
Network Layer
IP
Network Layer
Data Link Layer
Ethernet, FDDI, ISDN
Data Link Layer
Physical Layer
Cable, Fiberglass
Physical Layer
Data Transfer
The diagram provides one or two examples for each layer. The layers are ordered according to abstraction levels. The lowest layer is very close to the hardware. The uppermost layer, however, is almost a complete abstraction from the hardware. Every layer
has its own special function. The special functions of each layer are mostly implicit in
their description. The data link and physical layers represent the physical network used,
such as ethernet.
Almost all hardware protocols work on a packet-oriented basis. The data to transmit is
packaged in packets, because it cannot be sent all at once. The maximum size of a
TCP/IP packet is approximately 64 KB. Packets are normally quite a bit smaller, because
the network hardware can be a limiting factor. The maximum size of a data packet on
an ethernet is about fifteen hundred bytes. The size of a TCP/IP packet is limited to this
amount when the data is sent over an ethernet. If more data is transferred, more data
packets need to be sent by the operating system.
For the layers to serve their designated functions, additional information regarding each
layer must be saved in the data packet. This takes place in the header of the packet.
Every layer attaches a small block of data, called the protocol header, to the front of
each emerging packet. A sample TCP/IP data packet traveling over an ethernet cable
is illustrated in Figure 20.2, TCP/IP Ethernet Packet (page 302). The proof sum is
Basic Networking
301
located at the end of the packet, not at the beginning. This simplifies things for the
network hardware.
Figure 20.2 TCP/IP Ethernet Packet
Usage Data (maximum 1460 bytes)
TCP (Layer 4) Protocol Header (approx. 20 bytes)
IP (Layer 3) Protocol Header (approx. 20 bytes)
Ethernet (Layer 2) Protocol Header (approx. 14 bytes) + Checksum (2 bytes)
When an application sends data over the network, the data passes through each layer,
all implemented in the Linux kernel except the physical layer. Each layer is responsible
for preparing the data so it can be passed to the next layer. The lowest layer is ultimately
responsible for sending the data. The entire procedure is reversed when data is received.
Like the layers of an onion, in each layer the protocol headers are removed from the
transported data. Finally, the transport layer is responsible for making the data available
for use by the applications at the destination. In this manner, one layer only communicates with the layer directly above or below it. For applications, it is irrelevant whether
data is transmitted via a 100 Mbit/s FDDI network or via a 56-Kbit/s modem line.
Likewise, it is irrelevant for the data line which kind of data is transmitted, as long as
packets are in the correct format.
20.1 IP Addresses and Routing

The discussion in this section is limited to IPv4 networks. For information about IPv6
protocol, the successor to IPv4, refer to Section 20.2, IPv6The Next Generation
Internet (page 305).
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Reference
20.1.1 IP Addresses
Every computer on the Internet has a unique 32-bit address. These 32 bits (or 4 bytes)
are normally written as illustrated in the second row in Example 20.1, Writing IP
Addresses (page 303).
Example 20.1 Writing IP Addresses
IP Address (binary): 11000000 10101000 00000000 00010100
IP Address (decimal):
192.
168.
0.
20
In decimal form, the four bytes are written in the decimal number system, separated by
periods. The IP address is assigned to a host or a network interface. It cannot be used
anywhere else in the world. There are exceptions to this rule, but these are not relevant
in the following passages.
The points in IP addresses indicate the hierarchical system. Until the 1990s, IP addresses
were strictly categorized in classes. However, this system has proven too inflexible and
was discontinued. Now, classless routing (CIDR, classless interdomain routing) is used.
20.1.2 Netmasks and Routing

Netmasks are used to define the address range of a subnetwork. If two hosts are in the
same subnetwork, they can reach each other directly, if they are not in the same subnetwork, they need the address of a gateway that handles all the traffic between the subnetwork and the rest of the world. To check if two IP addresses are in the same subnet,
simply AND both addresses with the netmask. If the result is identical, both IP addresses are in the same local network. If there are differences, the remote IP address,
and thus the remote interface, can only be reached over a gateway.
To understand how the netmask works, look at Example 20.2, Linking IP Addresses
to the Netmask (page 304). The netmask consists of 32 bits that identify how much of
an IP address belongs to the network. All those bits that are 1 mark the corresponding
bit in the IP address as belonging to the network. All bits that are 0 mark bits inside
the subnetwork. This means that the more bits are 1, the smaller the subnetwork is.
Because the netmask always consists of several successive 1 bits, it is also possible to
just count the number of bits in the netmask. In Example 20.2, Linking IP Addresses
to the Netmask (page 304) the first net with 24 bits could also be written as
192.168.0.0/24.
Basic Networking
303
Example 20.2 Linking IP Addresses to the Netmask

IP address (192.168.0.20): 11000000 10101000 00000000 00010100
Netmask
(255.255.255.0): 11111111 11111111 11111111 00000000
--------------------------------------------------------------Result of the link:
11000000 10101000 00000000 00000000
In the decimal system:
192.
168.
0.
0
IP address (213.95.15.200): 11010101 10111111 00001111 11001000
Netmask
(255.255.255.0): 11111111 11111111 11111111 00000000
--------------------------------------------------------------Result of the link:
11010101 10111111 00001111 00000000
In the decimal system:
213.
95.
15.
0
To give another example: all machines connected with the same ethernet cable are
usually located in the same subnetwork and are directly accessible. Even when the
subnet is physically divided by switches or bridges, these hosts can still be reached directly.
IP addresses outside the local subnet can only be reached if a gateway is configured
for the target network. In the most common case, there is only one gateway that handles
all traffic that is external. However, it is also possible to configure several gateways
for different subnets.
If a gateway has been configured, all external IP packets are sent to the appropriate
gateway. This gateway then attempts to forward the packets in the same mannerfrom
host to hostuntil it reaches the destination host or the packet's TTL (time to live) expires.
Table 20.2
304
Specific Addresses
Address Type
Description
Base Network Address
This is the netmask AND any address in the network, as shown

in Example 20.2, Linking IP Addresses to the Netmask
(page 304) under Result. This address cannot be assigned to
any hosts.
Broadcast Address
This basically says, Access all hosts in this subnetwork. To

generate this, the netmask is inverted in binary form and linked
to the base network address with a logical OR. The above example therefore results in 192.168.0.255. This address cannot
be assigned to any hosts.
Reference
Address Type
Description
Local Host
The address 127.0.0.1 is assigned to the loopback device

on each host. A connection can be set up to your own machine
with this address.
Because IP addresses must be unique all over the world, you cannot just select random
addresses. There are three address domains to use if you want to set up a private IPbased network. These cannot get any connection from the rest of the Internet, because
they cannot be transmitted over the Internet. These address domains are specified in
RFC 1597 and listed in Table 20.3, Private IP Address Domains (page 305).
Table 20.3
Private IP Address Domains
Network/Netmask
Domain
10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0
10.x.x.x
172.16.0.0/255.240.0.0
172.16.x.x 172.31.x.x
192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0
192.168.x.x
20.2 IPv6The Next Generation

Internet
Due to the emergence of the WWW (World Wide Web), the Internet has experienced
explosive growth with an increasing number of computers communicating via TCP/IP
in the past fifteen years. Since Tim Berners-Lee at CERN (http://public.web
.cern.ch) invented the WWW in 1990, the number of Internet hosts has grown from
a few thousand to about a hundred million.
As mentioned, an IPv4 address consists of only 32 bits. Also, quite a few IP addresses
are lostthey cannot be used due to the way in which networks are organized. The
number of addresses available in your subnet is two to the power of the number of bits,
minus two. A subnetwork has, for example, 2, 6, or 14 addresses available. To connect
128 hosts to the Internet, for example, you need a subnetwork with 256 IP addresses,
Basic Networking
305
from which only 254 are usable, because two IP addresses are needed for the structure
of the subnetwork itself: the broadcast and the base network address.
Under the current IPv4 protocol, DHCP or NAT (network address translation) are the
typical mechanisms used to circumvent the potential address shortage. Combined with
the convention to keep private and public address spaces separate, these methods can
certainly mitigate the shortage. The problem with them lies in their configuration, which
is a chore to set up and a burden to maintain. To set up a host in an IPv4 network, you
need a number of address items, such as the host's own IP address, the subnetmask, the
gateway address, and maybe a name server address. All these items need to be known
and cannot be derived from somewhere else.
With IPv6, both the address shortage and the complicated configuration should be a
thing of the past. The following sections tell more about the improvements and benefits
brought by IPv6 and about the transition from the old protocol to the new one.
20.2.1 Advantages
The most important and most visible improvement brought by the new protocol is the
enormous expansion of the available address space. An IPv6 address is made up of 128
bit values instead of the traditional 32 bits. This provides for as many as several
quadrillion IP addresses.
However, IPv6 addresses are not only different from their predecessors with regard to
their length. They also have a different internal structure that may contain more specific
information about the systems and the networks to which they belong. More details
about this are found in Section 20.2.2, Address Types and Structure (page 308).
The following is a list of some other advantages of the new protocol:
Autoconfiguration
IPv6 makes the network plug and play capable, which means that a newly set up
system integrates into the (local) network without any manual configuration. The
new host uses its automatic configuration mechanism to derive its own address
from the information made available by the neighboring routers, relying on a protocol called the neighbor discovery (ND) protocol. This method does not require
any intervention on the administrator's part and there is no need to maintain a central
server for address allocationan additional advantage over IPv4, where automatic
address allocation requires a DHCP server.
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Reference
Mobility
IPv6 makes it possible to assign several addresses to one network interface at the
same time. This allows users to access several networks easily, something that
could be compared with the international roaming services offered by mobile phone
companies: when you take your mobile phone abroad, the phone automatically
logs in to a foreign service as soon as it enters the corresponding area, so you can
be reached under the same number everywhere and are able to place an outgoing
call just like in your home area.
Secure Communication
With IPv4, network security is an add-on function. IPv6 includes IPsec as one of
its core features, allowing systems to communicate over a secure tunnel to avoid
eavesdropping by outsiders on the Internet.
Backward Compatibility
Realistically, it would be impossible to switch the entire Internet from IPv4 to IPv6
at one time. Therefore, it is crucial that both protocols are able to coexist not only
on the Internet, but also on one system. This is ensured by compatible addresses
(IPv4 addresses can easily be translated into IPv6 addresses) and through the use
of a number of tunnels. See Section 20.2.3, Coexistence of IPv4 and IPv6
(page 312). Also, systems can rely on a dual stack IP technique to support both
protocols at the same time, meaning that they have two network stacks that are
completely separate, such that there is no interference between the two protocol
versions.
Custom Tailored Services through Multicasting
With IPv4, some services, such as SMB, need to broadcast their packets to all hosts
in the local network. IPv6 allows a much more fine-grained approach by enabling
servers to address hosts through multicastingby addressing a number of hosts as
parts of a group (which is different from addressing all hosts through broadcasting
or each host individually through unicasting). Which hosts are addressed as a group
may depend on the concrete application. There are some predefined groups to address all name servers (the all name servers multicast group), for example, or all
routers (the all routers multicast group).
Basic Networking
307
20.2.2 Address Types and Structure

As mentioned, the current IP protocol is lacking in two important aspects: there is an
increasing shortage of IP addresses and configuring the network and maintaining the
routing tables is becoming a more complex and burdensome task. IPv6 solves the first
problem by expanding the address space to 128 bits. The second one is countered by
introducing a hierarchical address structure, combined with sophisticated techniques
to allocate network addresses, as well as multihoming (the ability to assign several addresses to one device, giving access to several networks).
When dealing with IPv6, it is useful to know about three different types of addresses:
Unicast
Addresses of this type are associated with exactly one network interface. Packets
with such an address are delivered to only one destination. Accordingly, unicast
addresses are used to transfer packets to individual hosts on the local network or
the Internet.
Multicast
Addresses of this type relate to a group of network interfaces. Packets with such
an address are delivered to all destinations that belong to the group. Multicast addresses are mainly used by certain network services to communicate with certain
groups of hosts in a well-directed manner.
Anycast
Addresses of this type are related to a group of interfaces. Packets with such an
address are delivered to the member of the group that is closest to the sender, according to the principles of the underlying routing protocol. Anycast addresses are
used to make it easier for hosts to find out about servers offering certain services
in the given network area. All servers of the same type have the same anycast address. Whenever a host requests a service, it receives a reply from the server with
the closest location, as determined by the routing protocol. If this server should fail
for some reason, the protocol automatically selects the second closest server, then
the third one, and so forth.
An IPv6 address is made up of eight four-digit fields, each representing 16 bits, written
in hexadecimal notation. They are also separated by colons (:). Any leading zero bytes
within a given field may be dropped, but zeros within the field or at its end may not.
Another convention is that more than four consecutive zero bytes may be collapsed
into a double colon. However, only one such :: is allowed per address. This kind of
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Reference
shorthand notation is shown in Example 20.3, Sample IPv6 Address (page 309), where
all three lines represent the same address.
Example 20.3 Sample IPv6 Address
fe80 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 10 : 1000 : 1a4
fe80 :
0 :
0 :
0 :
0 : 10 : 1000 : 1a4
fe80 :
: 10 : 1000 : 1a4
Each part of an IPv6 address has a defined function. The first bytes form the prefix and
specify the type of address. The center part is the network portion of the address, but
it may be unused. The end of the address forms the host part. With IPv6, the netmask
is defined by indicating the length of the prefix after a slash at the end of the address.
An address, as shown in Example 20.4, IPv6 Address Specifying the Prefix Length
(page 309), contains the information that the first 64 bits form the network part of the
address and the last 64 form its host part. In other words, the 64 means that the netmask
is filled with 64 1-bit values from the left. Just like with IPv4, the IP address is combined
with AND with the values from the netmask to determine whether the host is located
in the same subnetwork or in another one.
Example 20.4 IPv6 Address Specifying the Prefix Length
fe80::10:1000:1a4/64
IPv6 knows about several predefined types of prefixes. Some of these are shown in
Table 20.4, Various IPv6 Prefixes (page 309).
Table 20.4
Various IPv6 Prefixes
Prefix (hex)
Definition
00
IPv4 addresses and IPv4 over IPv6 compatibility addresses. These

are used to maintain compatibility with IPv4. Their use still requires a router able to translate IPv6 packets into IPv4 packets.
Several special addresses, such as the one for the loopback device,
have this prefix as well.
2 or 3 as the first
digit
Aggregatable global unicast addresses. As is the case with IPv4,

an interface can be assigned to form part of a certain subnetwork.
Currently, there are the following address spaces: 2001::/16
(production quality address space) and 2002::/16 (6to4 address
space).
Basic Networking
309
Prefix (hex)
Definition
fe80::/10
Link-local addresses. Addresses with this prefix should not be

routed and should therefore only be reachable from within the
same subnetwork.
fec0::/10
Site-local addresses. These may be routed, but only within the

network of the organization to which they belong. In effect, they
are the IPv6 equivalent of the current private network address
space, such as 10.x.x.x.
ff
These are multicast addresses.
A unicast address consists of three basic components:

Public Topology
The first part (which also contains one of the prefixes mentioned above) is used to
route packets through the public Internet. It includes information about the company
or institution that provides the Internet access.
Site Topology
The second part contains routing information about the subnetwork to which to
deliver the packet.
Interface ID
The third part identifies the interface to which to deliver the packet. This also allows
for the MAC to form part of the address. Given that the MAC is a globally unique,
fixed identifier coded into the device by the hardware maker, the configuration
procedure is substantially simplified. In fact, the first 64 address bits are consolidated to form the EUI-64 token, with the last 48 bits taken from the MAC, and
the remaining 24 bits containing special information about the token type. This also
makes it possible to assign an EUI-64 token to interfaces that do not have a MAC,
such as those based on PPP or ISDN.
On top of this basic structure, IPv6 distinguishes between five different types of unicast
addresses:
:: (unspecified)
This address is used by the host as its source address when the interface is initialized
for the first timewhen the address cannot yet be determined by other means.
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Reference
::1 (loopback)
The address of the loopback device.
IPv4 Compatible Addresses
The IPv6 address is formed by the IPv4 address and a prefix consisting of 96 zero
bits. This type of compatibility address is used for tunneling (see Section 20.2.3,
Coexistence of IPv4 and IPv6 (page 312)) to allow IPv4 and IPv6 hosts to communicate with others operating in a pure IPv4 environment.
IPv4 Addresses Mapped to IPv6
This type of address specifies a pure IPv4 address in IPv6 notation.
Local Addresses
There are two address types for local use:
link-local
This type of address can only be used in the local subnetwork. Packets with a
source or target address of this type should not be routed to the Internet or
other subnetworks. These addresses contain a special prefix (fe80::/10)
and the interface ID of the network card, with the middle part consisting of
zero bytes. Addresses of this type are used during automatic configuration to
communicate with other hosts belonging to the same subnetwork.
site-local
Packets with this type of address may be routed to other subnetworks, but not
to the wider Internetthey must remain inside the organization's own network.
Such addresses are used for intranets and are an equivalent of the private address
space defined by IPv4. They contain a special prefix (fec0::/10), the interface ID, and a 16 bit field specifying the subnetwork ID. Again, the rest is
filled with zero bytes.
As a completely new feature introduced with IPv6, each network interface normally
gets several IP addresses, with the advantage that several networks can be accessed
through the same interface. One of these networks can be configured completely automatically using the MAC and a known prefix with the result that all hosts on the local
network can be reached as soon as IPv6 is enabled (using the link-local address). With
the MAC forming part of it, any IP address used in the world is unique. The only variable
parts of the address are those specifying the site topology and the public topology, depending on the actual network in which the host is currently operating.
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For a host to go back and forth between different networks, it needs at least two addresses. One of them, the home address, not only contains the interface ID but also an identifier of the home network to which it normally belongs (and the corresponding prefix).
The home address is a static address and, as such, it does not normally change. Still,
all packets destined to the mobile host can be delivered to it, regardless of whether it
operates in the home network or somewhere outside. This is made possible by the
completely new features introduced with IPv6, such as stateless autoconfiguration and
neighbor discovery. In addition to its home address, a mobile host gets one or more
additional addresses that belong to the foreign networks where it is roaming. These are
called care-of addresses. The home network has a facility that forwards any packets
destined to the host when it is roaming outside. In an IPv6 environment, this task is
performed by the home agent, which takes all packets destined to the home address and
relays them through a tunnel. On the other hand, those packets destined to the care-of
address are directly transferred to the mobile host without any special detours.
20.2.3 Coexistence of IPv4 and IPv6

The migration of all hosts connected to the Internet from IPv4 to IPv6 is a gradual
process. Both protocols will coexist for some time to come. The coexistence on one
system is guaranteed where there is a dual stack implementation of both protocols. That
still leaves the question of how an IPv6 enabled host should communicate with an IPv4
host and how IPv6 packets should be transported by the current networks, which are
predominantly IPv4 based. The best solutions offer tunneling and compatibility addresses
(see Section 20.2.2, Address Types and Structure (page 308)).
IPv6 hosts that are more or less isolated in the (worldwide) IPv4 network can communicate through tunnels: IPv6 packets are encapsulated as IPv4 packets to move them
across an IPv4 network. Such a connection between two IPv4 hosts is called a tunnel.
To achieve this, packets must include the IPv6 destination address (or the corresponding
prefix) as well as the IPv4 address of the remote host at the receiving end of the tunnel.
A basic tunnel can be configured manually according to an agreement between the
hosts' administrators. This is also called static tunneling.
However, the configuration and maintenance of static tunnels is often too labor-intensive
to use them for daily communication needs. Therefore, IPv6 provides for three different
methods of dynamic tunneling:
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6over4
IPv6 packets are automatically encapsulated as IPv4 packets and sent over an IPv4
network capable of multicasting. IPv6 is tricked into seeing the whole network
(Internet) as a huge local area network (LAN). This makes it possible to determine
the receiving end of the IPv4 tunnel automatically. However, this method does not
scale very well and is also hampered by the fact that IP multicasting is far from
widespread on the Internet. Therefore, it only provides a solution for smaller corporate or institutional networks where multicasting can be enabled. The specifications for this method are laid down in RFC 2529.
6to4
With this method, IPv4 addresses are automatically generated from IPv6 addresses,
enabling isolated IPv6 hosts to communicate over an IPv4 network. However, a
number of problems have been reported regarding the communication between
those isolated IPv6 hosts and the Internet. The method is described in RFC 3056.
IPv6 Tunnel Broker
This method relies on special servers that provide dedicated tunnels for IPv6 hosts.
It is described in RFC 3053.
20.2.4 Configuring IPv6

To configure IPv6, you normally do not need to make any changes on the individual
workstations. IPv6 is enabled by default. You can disable it during the installation in
the network configuration step described in Section Network (Chapter 1, Installation
with YaST, Start-Up). To disable or enable IPv6 on an installed system, start YaST,
open the Network Devices > Network Card dialog and in the Global Options tab, check
or uncheck Enable IPv6. To enable IPv6 manually, enter modprobe ipv6 as root.
Because of the autoconfiguration concept of IPv6, the network card is assigned an address in the link-local network. Normally, no routing table management takes place on
a workstation. The network routers can be queried by the workstation, using the router
advertisement protocol, for what prefix and gateways should be implemented. The
radvd program can be used to set up an IPv6 router. This program informs the workstations which prefix to use for the IPv6 addresses and which routers. Alternatively, use
zebra for automatic configuration of both addresses and routing.
Consult the ifup(8) man page to get information about how to set up various types of
tunnels using the /etc/sysconfig/network files.
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The above overview does not cover the topic of IPv6 comprehensively. For a more indepth look at the new protocol, refer to the following online documentation and books:
http://www.ipv6.org/
The starting point for everything about IPv6.
http://www.ipv6day.org
All information needed to start your own IPv6 network.
http://www.ipv6-to-standard.org/
The list of IPv6-enabled products.
http://www.bieringer.de/linux/IPv6/
Here, find the Linux IPv6-HOWTO and many links related to the topic.
RFC 2640
The fundamental RFC about IPv6.
IPv6 Essentials
A book describing all the important aspects of the topic is IPv6 Essentials by Silvia
Hagen (ISBN 0-596-00125-8).
20.3 Name Resolution

DNS assists in assigning an IP address to one or more names and assigning a name to
an IP address. In Linux, this conversion is usually carried out by a special type of software known as bind. The machine that takes care of this conversion is called a name
server. The names make up a hierarchical system in which each name component is
separated by dots. The name hierarchy is, however, independent of the IP address hierarchy described above.
Consider a complete name, such as earth.example.com, written in the format
hostname.domain. A full name, referred to as a fully qualified domain name
(FQDN), consists of a hostname and a domain name (example.com). The latter also
includes the top level domain or TLD (com).
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TLD assignment has become quite confusing for historical reasons. Traditionally, threeletter domain names are used in the USA. In the rest of the world, the two-letter ISO
national codes are the standard. In addition to that, longer TLDs were introduced in
2000 that represent certain spheres of activity (for example, .info, .name, .museum).
In the early days of the Internet (before 1990), the file /etc/hosts was used to store
the names of all the machines represented over the Internet. This quickly proved to be
impractical in the face of the rapidly growing number of computers connected to the
Internet. For this reason, a decentralized database was developed to store the hostnames
in a widely distributed manner. This database, similar to the name server, does not have
the data pertaining to all hosts in the Internet readily available, but can dispatch requests
to other name servers.
The top of the hierarchy is occupied by root name servers. These root name servers
manage the top level domains and are run by the Network Information Center (NIC).
Each root name server knows about the name servers responsible for a given top level
domain. Information about top level domain NICs is available at http://www
.internic.net.
DNS can do more than just resolve hostnames. The name server also knows which host
is receiving e-mails for an entire domainthe mail exchanger (MX).
For your machine to resolve an IP address, it must know about at least one name server
and its IP address. Easily specify such a name server with the help of YaST. If you have
a modem dial-up connection, you may not need to configure a name server manually
at all. The dial-up protocol provides the name server address as the connection is made.
The configuration of name server access with openSUSE is described in Chapter 22,
The Domain Name System (page 353).
The protocol whois is closely related to DNS. With this program, quickly find out
who is responsible for any given domain.
20.4 Configuring a Network

Connection with YaST
There are many supported networking types on Linux. Most of them use different device
names and the configuration files are spread over several locations in the file system.
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For a detailed overview of the aspects of manual network configuration, see Section 20.5,
Configuring a Network Connection Manually (page 332).
During installation, YaST can be used to configure automatically all interfaces that
have been detected. Additional hardware can be configured any time after installation
in the installed system. The following sections describe the network configuration for
all types of network connections supported by openSUSE.
20.4.1 Configuring the Network Card with

YaST
To configure your wired or wireless network card in YaST, select Network Devices >
Network Card. After starting the module, YaST displays the Network Settings dialog
with four tabs: Global Options, Overview, Hostname/DNS, and Routing.
The Overview tab contains information about installed network cards. Any properly
detected network card is listed with its name. You can manually add new cards, remove
them or change their configuration in this dialog. If you want to manually add and
configure a card that was not automatically detected, read Section Configuring an
Undetected Network Card (page 323).
The Global Options tab allows to set important global networking options. In the Network Setup Method choose the way network connections are managed. If you want a
NetworkManager desktop applet to manage connections for all interfaces, choose User
Controlled with NetworkManager. This option is well suited for switching between
multiple wired and wireless networks. If you do not run a desktop environment (GNOME
or KDE) or if you need to use multiple interfaces at once, use the Traditional Method
with ifup. For more information on NetworkManager, see Chapter 10, Managing Network
Connections with NetworkManager (Start-Up).
In the IPv6 Protocol Settings choose whether you want to use IPv6 protocol. It is possible to use IPv6 together with IPv4. By default, IPv6 is activated. However, in networks
not using IPv6 protocol, response times can be faster with IPv6 protocol disabled. If
you want to disable IPv6, uncheck the Enable IPv6 option. This disables autoload of
the kernel module for IPv6. The change will be applied after reboot.
In the DHCP Client Options configure options for the DHCP client. If you want the
DHCP client to ask the server to always broadcast its responses, check Request
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Broadcast Response. It may be needed if your machine is moving between different

networks.
DHCP Client Identifier must be different for each DHCP client on a single network. If
left empty, it defaults to the hardware address of the network interface. However, if
you are running several virtual machines using the same network interface and therefore
the same hardware address, specify a unique free-form identifier here.
The Hostname to Send specifies a string used for the hostname option field when dhcpcd
sends messages to DHCP server. Some DHCP servers update name server zones (forward
and reverse records) according to this hostname (dynamic DNS). Also, some DHCP
servers require the Hostname to Send option field to contain a specific string in the
DHCP messages from clients. Leave AUTO to send the current hostname (i.e. the one
defined in /etc/HOSTNAME). Leave the option field empty for not sending a hostname.
Figure 20.3 Configuring Network Settings
The Hostname/DNS tab allows to set the hostname of the computer and name servers
to be used. For more information about these options see Section Configuring Hostname
and DNS (page 319). In the Routing tab, you can set the default gateway and routing
details. See Section Configuring Routing (page 320) for more information.
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Changing the Configuration of a Network Card

To change the configuration of a network card, select a card from the list of the detected
cards in the Overview tab of the YaST network card configuration module and click
Configure. The Network Card dialog appears in which to adjust the card configuration
using the General, Address, and Hardware tabs. For information about wireless card
configuration, see Section 33.1.3, Configuration with YaST (page 548).
Configuring IP Addresses
If possible, wired network cards that are available during the installation are automatically configured to use automatic address setup, DHCP.
DHCP should also be used if you are using a DSL line but with no static IP assigned
by the ISP (Internet Service Provider). If you decide to use DHCP, configure the details
in DHCP Client Options on Global Options tab of the Network Settings dialog of the
YaST network card configuration module. Specify whether the DHCP client should
ask the server to always broadcast its responses in Request Broadcast response. This
option may be needed if your machine is a mobile client moving between networks. If
you have a virtual host setup where different hosts communicate through the same interface, an DHCP Client Identifier is necessary to distinguish them.
DHCP is a good choice for client configuration but it is not ideal for server configuration.
To set a static IP address, proceed as follows:
1 Select a card from the list of detected cards in the Overview tab of the YaST
network card configuration module and click Configure.
2 In the Address tab, choose Statically assigned IP adress.
3 Enter IP Address and Subnet Mask.
4 Click Next.
5 To activate the configuration, click Finish.
If you use the static address, the name servers and default gateway are not configured
automatically. To configure name servers, proceed as described in Section Configuring
Hostname and DNS (page 319). To configure a gateway, proceed as described in Section
Configuring Routing (page 320).
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Configuring Aliases
One network device can have multiple IP addresses, called aliases. To set an alias for
your network card, proceed as follows:
1 Select a card from the list of detected cards in the Overview tab of the YaST
network card configuration module and click Configure.
2 In the Additional Addresses part of the Address tab, click Add.
3 Enter Alias Name, IP Address, and Netmask. Do not include the interface name
in the alias name.
4 Click OK.
5 Click Next.
Configuring Hostname and DNS

If you did not change the network configuration during installation and the wired card
was available, a hostname was automatically generated for your computer and DHCP
was activated. The same applies to the name service information your host needs to
integrate into a network environment. If DHCP is used for network address setup, the
list of domain name servers is automatically filled with the appropriate data. If a static
setup is preferred, set these values manually.
To change the name of your computer and adjust the name server search list, proceed
as follows:
1 Go to the Hostname/DNS tab of the YaST network card configuration.
2 Enter Hostname and, if needed, the Domain Name. Note that the hostname is
global and applies to all set network interfaces.
If you are using DHCP to get an IP adress, the hostname of your computer will
be automatically set by the DHCP. You may want to disable this behavior by
unchecking Change Hostname via DHCP if you connect to different networks
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which may assign different hostnames, because changing the hostname at runtime
may confuse the graphical desktop.
If you are using DHCP to get an IP address, your hostname will be written to
/etc/hosts by default and be resolvable as a 127.0.0.2 IP address. If you
want to disable this, uncheck Write Hostname to /etc/hosts but note, that your
hostname will not be resolvable without an active network.
3 Enter the name servers and domain search list.
Configuring Routing
To make your machine communicate with other machines and other networks, routing
information must be given to make network traffic take the correct path. If DHCP is
used, this information is automatically provided. If a static setup is used, this data must
be added manually.
1 Go to the Routing tab of the YaST network card configuration module.
2 Enter the IP of the Default Gateway. The default gateway matches every possible
destination, but poorly. If any other entry exists that matches the required address,
it is used instead of the default route.
3 If you need to add more entries into the Routing Table, check Expert Configuration. Then add an entry with Add. Enter Destination, Netmask and optionally
select the Device to be used.
4 If the system is a router, enable the IP Forwarding option.
Changing Hardware Options

It is possible to change the device name of the network card when it is used if you need
to. It is also possible to switch to a different driver. To set these options with YaST,
proceed as follows:
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1 Select a card from the list of detected cards in the YaST network card configuration module and click Configure.
2 Go to the Hardware tab. The Matching rule under Udev rules is not editable. It
is the hardware address (MAC) or bus ID udev uses to identify the network card.
You can, however, change the device name of this card by editing it in Device
Name.
3 In Driver name you can set the driver to be used for the network card.
4 Click Next.
5 To activate configuration, click Finish.
Starting the Device

If you use the traditional method with ifup, you can configure your device to start during
boot, on cable connection, on card detection, manually, or never. To change device
start-up, proceed as follows:
2 In the General tab, select the desired entry from Device Activation.
Choose At Boot Time to start the device during the system boot. With On Cable
Connection, the interface is watched for any existing physical connection. With
On Hotplug, the interface is set as soon as available. Choose Manually to control
the interface manually with ifup. Choose Never to not start the device at all.
The On NFSroot is similar to At Boot Time, but the interface is never shut down
with the command rcnetwork stop. Use this if you use a nfs or iscsi root
filesystem.
3 Click Next.
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Configuring the Firewall

Without having to enter the detailed firewall setup as described in Section 35.4.1,
Configuring the Firewall with YaST (page 583), you can determine the basic firewall
setup for your device as part of the device setup. Proceed as follows:
2 Enter the General tab of the network configuration dialog.
3 Determine the firewall zone to which your interface should be assigned. The
following options are available:
Firewall Disabled
The firewall does not run at all. Only use this option if your machine is part
of a greater network that is protected by an outer firewall.
Internal Zone (Unprotected)
The firewall is running, but does not enforce any rules to protect this interface.
Only use this option, if your machine part is part of a greater network that
is protected by an outer firewall.
Demilitarized Zone
A demilitarized zone is an additional line of defense in front of an internal
network and the (hostile) Internet. Hosts assigned to this zone can be reached
from the internal network and from the Internet, but cannot access the internal
network.
External Zone
The firewall is running on this interface and fully protects it against other
(presumably hostile) network traffic. This is the default option.
4 Click Next.
5 Activate the configuration by clicking Finish.
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Configuring an Undetected Network Card

Your card may not be detected correctly. In this case, the card is not included in the list
of the detected cards. If you are sure that your system includes a driver for your card,
you can configure it manually. To configure an undetected network card, proceed as
follows:
1 In the Overview tab of the YaST Network Card module click Add.
2 In the Hardware dialog, set the Device Type of the interface from the available
options and Configuration Name. If the network card is a PCMCIA or USB device, activate the respective check box and exit this dialog with Next. Otherwise,
select your network card model from Select from List. YaST then automatically
selects the appropriate kernel module for the card. If your card is not in the list,
select the Module Name manually.
3 Click Next.
4 In the Address tab, set the device type of the interface, the configuration name,
and IP address. To use a static address, choose Statically assigned IP Address
then complete IP Address and Subnet Mask. Here, you can also select to configure
the hostname and aditional addresses of the interface (see Section Configuring
Aliases (page 319)).
If you selected Wireless as the device type of the interface, configure the wireless
connection in the next dialog. Detailed information about wireless device configuration is available in Section 33.1, Wireless LAN (page 543).
5 In the General tab, set the Firewall Zone and Device Activation. With Enable
Device Control for Non-root User via KInternet, grant connection control to ordinary users.
6 Click Next.
7 To activate the new network configuration, click Finish.
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20.4.2 Modem
In the YaST Control Center, access the modem configuration under Network Devices
> Modem. If your modem was not automatically detected, open the dialog for manual
configuration by clicking Add. Enter the interface to which the modem is connected
under Modem Device.
TIP: CDMA and GPRS Modems
Configure supported CDMA and GPRS modems with the YaST modem module
just as you would configure regular modems.
Figure 20.4 Modem Configuration
If you are behind a private branch exchange (PBX), you may need to enter a dial prefix.
This is often a zero. Consult the instructions that came with the PBX to find out. Also
select whether to use tone or pulse dialing, whether the speaker should be on, and
whether the modem should wait until it detects a dial tone. The last option should not
be enabled if the modem is connected to an exchange.
Under Details, set the baud rate and the modem initialization strings. Only change these
settings if your modem was not detected automatically or if it requires special settings
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for data transmission to work. This is mainly the case with ISDN terminal adapters.
Leave this dialog by clicking OK. To delegate control over the modem to the normal
user without root permissions, activate Enable Device Control for Non-root User via
Kinternet. In this way, a user without administrator permissions can activate or deactivate
an interface. Under Dial Prefix Regular Expression, specify a regular expression. The
Dial Prefix in KInternet, which can be modified by the normal user, must match this
regular expression. If this field is left empty, the user cannot set a different Dial Prefix
without administrator permissions.
In the next dialog, select the ISP. To choose from a predefined list of ISPs operating
in your country, select Country. Alternatively, click New to open a dialog in which to
provide the data for your ISP. This includes a name for the dial-up connection and ISP
as well as the login and password provided by your ISP. Enable Always Ask for Password
to be prompted for the password each time you connect.
In the last dialog, specify additional connection options:
Dial on Demand
If you enable dial on demand, set at least one name server. Use this feature only if
your Internet connection is inexpensive, because there are programs that periodically
request data from the Internet.
Modify DNS when Connected
This option is enabled by default, with the effect that the name server address is
updated each time you connect to the Internet.
Automatically Retrieve DNS
If the provider does not transmit its domain name server after connecting, disable
this option and enter the DNS data manually.
Automatically Reconnect
If this options is enabled, the connection is automatically reestablished after failure.
Ignore prompts
This option disables the detection of any prompts from the dial-up server. If the
connection build-up is slow or does not work at all, try this option.
External Firewall Interface
Selecting this option activates the SUSEfirewall2 and sets the interface as external.
This way, you are protected from outside attacks for the duration of your Internet
connection.
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Idle Time-Out (seconds)

With this option, specify a period of network inactivity after which the modem
disconnects automatically.
IP Details
This opens the address configuration dialog. If your ISP does not assign a dynamic
IP address to your host, disable Dynamic IP Address then enter your host's local
IP address and the remote IP address. Ask your ISP for this information. Leave
Default Route enabled and close the dialog by selecting OK.
Selecting Next returns to the original dialog, which displays a summary of the modem
configuration. Close this dialog with Finish.
20.4.3 ISDN
Use this module to configure one or several ISDN cards for your system. If YaST did
not detect your ISDN card, click on Add in the ISDN Devices tab and manually select
your card. Multiple interfaces are possible, but several ISPs can be configured for one
interface. In the subsequent dialogs, set the ISDN options necessary for the proper
functioning of the card.
Figure 20.5 ISDN Configuration
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In the next dialog, shown in Figure 20.5, ISDN Configuration (page 326), select the
protocol to use. The default is Euro-ISDN (EDSS1), but for older or larger exchanges,
select 1TR6. If you are in the US, select NI1. Select your country in the relevant field.
The corresponding country code then appears in the field next to it. Finally, provide
your Area Code and the Dial Prefix if necessary.
Activate device defines how the ISDN interface should be started: At Boot Time causes
the ISDN driver to be initialized each time the system boots. Manually requires you to
load the ISDN driver as root with the command rcisdn start. On Hotplug, used
for PCMCIA or USB devices, loads the driver after the device is plugged in. When
finished with these settings, select OK.
In the next dialog, specify the interface type for your ISDN card and add ISPs to an
existing interface. Interfaces may be either the SyncPPP or the RawIP type, but most
ISPs operate in the SyncPPP mode, which is described below.
Figure 20.6 ISDN Interface Configuration
The number to enter for My Phone Number depends on your particular setup:
ISDN Card Directly Connected to Phone Outlet
A standard ISDN line provides three phone numbers (called multiple subscriber
numbers, or MSNs). If the subscriber asked for more, there may be up to 10. One
of these MSNs must be entered here, but without your area code. If you enter the
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wrong number, your phone operator automatically falls back to the first MSN assigned to your ISDN line.
ISDN Card Connected to a Private Branch Exchange
Again, the configuration may vary depending on the equipment installed:
1. Smaller private branch exchanges (PBX) built for home purposes mostly use
the Euro-ISDN (EDSS1) protocol for internal calls. These exchanges have an
internal S0 bus and use internal numbers for the equipment connected to them.
Use one of the internal numbers as your MSN. You should be able to use at least
one of the exchange's MSNs that have been enabled for direct outward dialing.
If this does not work, try a single zero. For further information, consult the
documentation delivered with your phone exchange.
2. Larger phone exchanges designed for businesses normally use the 1TR6 protocol
for internal calls. Their MSN is called EAZ and usually corresponds to the directdial number. For the configuration under Linux, it should be sufficient to enter
the last digit of the EAZ. As a last resort, try each of the digits from 1 to 9.
For the connection to be terminated just before the next charge unit is due, enable
ChargeHUP. However, remember that may not work with every ISP. You can also
enable channel bundling (multilink PPP) by selecting the corresponding option. Finally,
you can enable SuSEfirewall2 for your link by selecting External Firewall Interface
and Restart Firewall. To enable the normal user without administrator permissions to
activate or deactivate the interface, select the Enable Device Control for Non-root user
via KInternet.
Details opens a dialog in which to implement more complex connection schemes, which
are not relevant for normal home users. Leave the Details dialog by selecting OK.
In the next dialog, make IP address settings. If you have not been given a static IP by
your provider, select Dynamic IP Address. Otherwise, use the fields provided to enter
your host's local IP address and the remote IP address according to the specifications
of your ISP. If the interface should be the default route to the Internet, select Default
Route. Each host can only have one interface configured as the default route. Leave
this dialog by selecting Next.
The following dialog allows you to set your country and select an ISP. The ISPs included
in the list are call-by-call providers only. If your ISP is not in the list, select New. This
opens the Provider Parameters dialog in which to enter all the details for your ISP.
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When entering the phone number, do not include any blanks or commas among the
digits. Finally, enter your login and the password as provided by the ISP. When finished,
select Next.
To use Dial on Demand on a stand-alone workstation, also specify the name server
(DNS server). Most ISPs support dynamic DNS, which means the IP address of a name
server is sent by the ISP each time you connect. For a single workstation, however, you
still need to provide a placeholder address like 192.168.22.99. If your ISP does
not support dynamic DNS, specify the name server IP addresses of the ISP. If desired,
specify a time-out for the connectionthe period of network inactivity (in seconds)
after which the connection should be automatically terminated. Confirm your settings
with Next. YaST displays a summary of the configured interfaces. To activate these
settings, select Finish.
20.4.4 Cable Modem

In some countries it is quite common to access the Internet through the TV cable network. The TV cable subscriber usually gets a modem that is connected to the TV cable
outlet on one side and to a computer network card on the other (using a 10Base-TG
twisted pair cable). The cable modem then provides a dedicated Internet connection
with a fixed IP address.
Depending on the instructions provided by your ISP, when configuring the network
card either select Dynamic Address or Statically assigned IP address. Most providers
today use DHCP. A static IP address often comes as part of a special business account.
For further information about the configuration of cable modems, read the Support
Database article on the topic, which is available online at http://en.opensuse
.org/SDB:Setting_Up_an_Internet_Connection_via_Cable_Modem
_with_SuSE_Linux_8.0_or_Higher.
20.4.5 DSL
To configure your DSL device, select the DSL module from the YaST Network Devices
section. This YaST module consists of several dialogs in which to set the parameters
of DSL links based on one of the following protocols:
PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE)
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PPP over ATM (PPPoATM)

CAPI for ADSL (Fritz Cards)
Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)Austria
In the DSL Devices tab of the DSL Configuration dialog, you will find a list of installed
DSL devices. To change the configuration of a DSL device, select it in the list and click
Edit. If you click Add, you can manually configure a new DSL device.
The configuration of a DSL connection based on PPPoE or PPTP requires that the
corresponding network card has already been set up in the correct way. If you have not
done so yet, first configure the card by selecting Configure Network Cards (see Section 20.4.1, Configuring the Network Card with YaST (page 316)). In the case of a
DSL link, addresses may be assigned automatically but not via DHCP, which is why
you should not enable the option Dynamic Address. Instead, enter a static dummy address
for the interface, such as 192.168.22.1. In Subnet Mask, enter 255.255.255.0.
If you are configuring a stand-alone workstation, leave Default Gateway empty.
TIP
Values in IP Address and Subnet Mask are only placeholders. They are only
needed to initialize the network card and do not represent the DSL link as such.
In the first DSL configuration dialog (see Figure 20.7, DSL Configuration (page 331)),
select the PPP Mode and the Ethernet Card to which the DSL modem is connected (in
most cases, this is eth0). Then use Activate Device to specify whether the DSL link
should be established during the boot process. Click Enable Device Control for Nonroot User via KInternet to authorize the normal user without root permissions to activate
or deactivate the interface with KInternet.
In the next dialog you are able to select your country as well, and choose from a number
of ISPs operating in it. The details of any subsequent dialogs of the DSL configuration
depend on the options set so far, which is why they are only briefly mentioned in the
following paragraphs. For details on the available options, read the detailed help
available from the dialogs.
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Reference
Figure 20.7 DSL Configuration
To use Dial on Demand on a stand-alone workstation, also specify the name server
(DNS server). Most ISPs support dynamic DNSthe IP address of a name server is
sent by the ISP each time you connect. For a single workstation, however, provide a
placeholder address like 192.168.22.99. If your ISP does not support dynamic
DNS, enter the name server IP address provided by your ISP.
Idle Time-Out (seconds) defines a period of network inactivity after which to terminate
the connection automatically. A reasonable time-out value is between 60 and 300 seconds. If Dial on Demand is disabled, it may be useful to set the time-out to zero to
prevent automatic hang-up.
The configuration of T-DSL is very similar to the DSL setup. Just select T-Online as
your provider and YaST opens the T-DSL configuration dialog. In this dialog, provide
some additional information required for T-DSLthe line ID, the T-Online number,
the user code, and your password. All of these should be included in the information
you received after subscribing to T-DSL.
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20.5 Configuring a Network

Connection Manually
Manual configuration of the network software should always be the last alternative.
Using YaST is recommended. However, this background information about the network
configuration can also assist your work with YaST.
When the kernel detects a network card and creates a corresponding network interface,
it assigns the device a name depending on the order of device discovery, or order of
the loading of the kernel modules. The default kernel device names are only predictable
in very simple or tightly controlled hardware environments. Systems which allow adding
or removing hardware during runtime, or support automatic configuration of devices
cannot expect stable network device names assigned by the kernel across reboots.
However, all system configuration tools rely on persistent interface names. The problem
is solved by udev. udev maintains a database of known network interfaces and renames
interfaces from their kernel assigned names to persistent names stored in the database.
The udev database of network interfaces is stored in the file /etc/udev/rules.d/
70-persistent-net.rules. Every line in the file describes one network interface
and specifies its persistent name. System administrators can change the assigned names
by editing the NAME="" entries. After the network device has been renamed to the
configured name by udev, the ifup command applies the system configuration to the
interface.
Table 20.5, Manual Network Configuration Scripts (page 332) summarizes the most
important scripts involved in the network configuration.
Table 20.5
Manual Network Configuration Scripts
Command
Function
if{up,down,status} The if* scripts start existing network interfaces or

return the status of the specified interface. More information is available in the manual page of ifup.
rcnetwork
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Reference
The rcnetwork script can be used to start, stop, or

restart all network interfaces or just a specified one.
Use rcnetwork stop to stop network interfaces,
Command
Function
rcnetwork start to start network interfaces, and
rcnetwork restart to restart them. If you want
to stop, start or restart just one interface, use the command followed by the interface name, for example
rcnetwork restart eth0. If no interface is
specified, the firewall is stopped, started, or restarted
along with the network interfaces. The rcnetwork
status command displays the state of the interfaces,
their IP addresses, and whether an DHCP client is running. With rcnetwork
stop-all-dhcp-clients and rcnetwork
restart-all-dhcp-clients you can stop or
restart DHCP clients running on network interfaces.
More information about udev and persistent device names is available in Chapter 15,
Dynamic Kernel Device Management with udev (page 227).
20.5.1 Configuration Files

This section provides an overview of the network configuration files and explains their
purpose and the format used.
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-*
These files contain the configurations for network interfaces. They include information
such as the start mode and the IP address. Possible parameters are described in the
manual page of ifup. Additionally, all variables from the files dhcp, wireless,
and config can be used in the ifcfg-* files if a general setting should be used for
only one interface.
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/etc/sysconfig/network/config, dhcp,
wireless
The file config contains general settings for the behavior of ifup, ifdown, and
ifstatus. dhcp contains settings for DHCP and wireless for wireless LAN
cards. The variables in all three configuration files are commented and can also be used
in ifcfg-* files, where they are treated with higher priority.
/etc/sysconfig/network/routes,ifroute-*
The static routing of TCP/IP packets is determined here. All the static routes required
by the various system tasks can be entered in the /etc/sysconfig/network/
routes file: routes to a host, routes to a host via a gateway, and routes to a network.
For each interface that needs individual routing, define an additional configuration file:
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifroute-*. Replace * with the name of the interface. The entries in the routing configuration files look like this:
# Destination
#
127.0.0.0
204.127.235.0
default
207.68.156.51
192.168.0.0
Dummy/Gateway
Netmask
Device
0.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
204.127.235.41
207.68.145.45
207.68.156.51
255.255.255.0
255.255.255.0
0.0.0.0
255.255.255.255
255.255.0.0
lo
eth0
eth0
eth1
eth1
The route's destination is in the first column. This column may contain the IP address
of a network or host or, in the case of reachable name servers, the fully qualified network
or hostname.
The second column contains the default gateway or a gateway through which a host or
network can be accessed. The third column contains the netmask for networks or hosts
behind a gateway. For example, the mask is 255.255.255.255 for a host behind a
gateway.
The fourth column is only relevant for networks connected to the local host such as
loopback, Ethernet, ISDN, PPP, and dummy device. The device name must be entered
here.
An (optional) fifth column can be used to specify the type of a route. Columns that are
not needed should contain a minus sign - to ensure that the parser correctly interprets
the command. For details, refer to the routes(5) man page.
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Reference
/etc/resolv.conf
The domain to which the host belongs is specified in this file (keyword search). Also
listed is the status of the name server address to access (keyword nameserver).
Multiple domain names can be specified. When resolving a name that is not fully
qualified, an attempt is made to generate one by attaching the individual search entries.
Use multiple name servers by entering several lines, each beginning with nameserver.
Precede comments with # signs. YaST enters the specified name server in this file.
Example 20.5, /etc/resolv.conf (page 335) shows what /etc/resolv.conf
could look like.
Example 20.5 /etc/resolv.conf
# Our domain
search example.com
#
# We use sun (192.168.0.20) as nameserver
nameserver 192.168.0.20
Some services, like pppd (wvdial), ipppd (isdn), dhcp (dhcpcd and
dhclient), and pcmcia modify the file /etc/resolv.conf by means of the
script modify_resolvconf. If the file /etc/resolv.conf has been temporarily modified by this script, it contains a predefined comment giving information about
the service that modified it, the location where the original file has been backed up, and
how to turn off the automatic modification mechanism. If /etc/resolv.conf is
modified several times, the file includes modifications in a nested form. These can be
reverted in a clean way even if this reversal takes place in an order different from the
order in which modifications were introduced. Services that may need this flexibility
include isdn and pcmcia.
If a service was not terminated in a normal, clean way, modify_resolvconf can
be used to restore the original file. Also, on system boot, a check is performed to see
whether there is an uncleaned, modified resolv.conf, for example, after a system
crash, in which case the original (unmodified) resolv.conf is restored.
YaST uses the command modify_resolvconf check to find out whether resolv
.conf has been modified and subsequently warns the user that changes will be lost
after restoring the file. Apart from this, YaST does not rely on modify_resolvconf,
which means that the impact of changing resolv.conf through YaST is the same
as that of any manual change. In both cases, changes have a permanent effect. Modifications requested by the mentioned services are only temporary.
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/etc/hosts
In this file, shown in Example 20.6, /etc/hosts (page 336), IP addresses are assigned to hostnames. If no name server is implemented, all hosts to which an IP connection will be set up must be listed here. For each host, enter a line consisting of the IP
address, the fully qualified hostname, and the hostname into the file. The IP address
must be at the beginning of the line and the entries separated by blanks and tabs.
Comments are always preceded by the # sign.
Example 20.6 /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.20 sun.example.com sun
192.168.0.1 earth.example.com earth
/etc/networks
Here, network names are converted to network addresses. The format is similar to that
of the hosts file, except the network names precede the addresses. See Example 20.7,
/etc/networks (page 336).
Example 20.7 /etc/networks
loopback
localnet
127.0.0.0
192.168.0.0
/etc/host.conf
Name resolutionthe translation of host and network names via the resolver libraryis
controlled by this file. This file is only used for programs linked to libc4 or libc5. For
current glibc programs, refer to the settings in /etc/nsswitch.conf. A parameter
must always stand alone in its own line. Comments are preceded by a # sign. Table 20.6,
Parameters for /etc/host.conf (page 336) shows the parameters available. A sample
/etc/host.conf is shown in Example 20.8, /etc/host.conf (page 337).
Table 20.6
Parameters for /etc/host.conf
order hosts, bind
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Reference
Specifies in which order the services are accessed for the name
resolution. Available arguments are (separated by blank spaces
or commas):
hosts: Searches the /etc/hosts file

bind: Accesses a name server
nis: Uses NIS
multi on/off
Defines if a host entered in /etc/hosts can have multiple

IP addresses.
nospoof on
spoofalert on/off
These parameters influence the name server spoofing, but,

apart from that, do not exert any influence on the network
configuration.
trim domainname
The specified domain name is separated from the hostname

after hostname resolution (as long as the hostname includes
the domain name). This option is useful if only names from
the local domain are in the /etc/hosts file, but should still
be recognized with the attached domain names.
Example 20.8 /etc/host.conf

# We have named running
order hosts bind
# Allow multiple address
multi on
/etc/nsswitch.conf
The introduction of the GNU C Library 2.0 was accompanied by the introduction of
the Name Service Switch (NSS). Refer to the nsswitch.conf(5) man page and
The GNU C Library Reference Manual for details.
The order for queries is defined in the file /etc/nsswitch.conf. A sample
nsswitch.conf is shown in Example 20.9, /etc/nsswitch.conf (page 338).
Comments are introduced by # signs. In this example, the entry under the hosts
database means that a request is sent to /etc/hosts (files) via DNS.
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Example 20.9 /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd:
group:
compat
compat
hosts:
networks:
files dns
files dns
services:
protocols:
db files
db files
netgroup:
automount:
files
files nis
The databases available over NSS are listed in Table 20.7, Databases Available via
/etc/nsswitch.conf (page 338). In addition, automount, bootparams, netmasks,
and publickey are expected in the near future. The configuration options for NSS
databases are listed in Table 20.8, Configuration Options for NSS Databases
(page 339).
Table 20.7
338
Databases Available via /etc/nsswitch.conf
aliases
Mail aliases implemented by sendmail; see man 5

aliases.
ethers
Ethernet addresses.
group
For user groups, used by getgrent. See also the man page
for group.
hosts
For hostnames and IP addresses, used by gethostbyname

and similar functions.
netgroup
Valid host and user lists in the network for the purpose of
controlling access permissions; see the netgroup(5) man
page.
networks
Network names and addresses, used by getnetent.
passwd
User passwords, used by getpwent; see the passwd(5)

man page.
Reference
protocols
Network protocols, used by getprotoent; see the

protocols(5) man page.
rpc
Remote procedure call names and addresses, used by

getrpcbyname and similar functions.
services
Network services, used by getservent.
shadow
Shadow passwords of users, used by getspnam; see the

shadow(5) man page.
Table 20.8
Configuration Options for NSS Databases
files
directly access files, for example, /etc/aliases
db
access via a database
nis, nisplus
NIS, see also Chapter 25, Using NIS (page 401)
dns
can only be used as an extension for hosts and

networks
compat
can only be used as an extension for passwd, shadow,

and group
/etc/nscd.conf
This file is used to configure nscd (name service cache daemon). See the nscd(8)
and nscd.conf(5) man pages. By default, the system entries of passwd and
groups are cached by nscd. This is important for the performance of directory services,
like NIS and LDAP, because otherwise the network connection needs to be used for
every access to names or groups. hosts is not cached by default, because the mechanism in nscd to cache hosts makes the local system unable to trust forward and reverse
lookup checks. Instead of asking nscd to cache names, set up a caching DNS server.
If the caching for passwd is activated, it usually takes about fifteen seconds until a
newly added local user is recognized. Reduce this waiting time by restarting nscd with
the command rcnscd restart.
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/etc/HOSTNAME
This contains the hostname without the domain name attached. This file is read by
several scripts while the machine is booting. It may only contain one line in which the
hostname is set.
20.5.2 Testing the Configuration

Before you write your configuration to the configuration files, you can test it. To set
up a test configuration, use the ip command. To test the connection, use the ping
command. Older configuration tools, ifconfig and route, are also available.
The commands ip, ifconfig, and route change the network configuration directly
without saving it in the configuration file. Unless you enter your configuration in the
correct configuration files, the changed network configuration is lost on reboot.
Configuring a Network Interface with ip

ip is a tool to show and configure routing, network devices, policy routing, and tunnels.
It was designed as a replacement for the older tools ifconfig and route.
ip is very complex tool. Its common syntax is ip options object command.
You can work with the following objects:
link
This object represents a network device.
address
This object represents the IP address of device.
neighbour
This object represents a ARP or NDISC cache entry.
route
This object represents the routing table entry.
rule
This object represents a rule in the routing policy database.
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Reference
maddress
This object represents a multicast address.
mroute
This object represents a multicast routing cache entry.
tunnel
This object represents a tunnel over IP.
If no command is given, the default command is used, usually list.
Change the state of a device with the command ip link
set device_name command. For example, to deactivate device eth0, enter ip
link seteth0 down. To activate it again, use ip link seteth0 up.
After activating a device, you can configure it. To set the IP address, use ip addr
add ip_address + dev device_name. For example, to set the address of the
interface eth0 to 192.168.12.154/30 with standard broadcast (option brd), enter ip
addr add 192.168.12.154/30 brd + dev eth0.
To have a working connection, you must also configure the default gateway. To set a
gateway for your system, enter ip route add gateway_ip_address. To
translate one IP address to another, use nat: ip route add
nat ip_address via other_ip_address.
To display all devices, use ip link ls. To display the running interfaces only, use
ip link ls up. To print interface statistics for a device, enter ip -s link
ls device_name. To view addresses of your devices, enter ip addr. In the output
of the ip addr, also find information about MAC addresses of your devices. To show
all routes, use ip route show.
For more information about using ip, enter ip help or see the ip(8) man page. The
help option is also available for all ip objects. If, for example, you want to read help
for ip addr, enter ip addr help. Find the ip manual in /usr/share/doc/
packages/iproute2/ip-cref.pdf.
Testing a Connection with ping

The ping command is the standard tool for testing whether a TCP/IP connection works.
It uses the ICMP protocol to send a small data packet, ECHO_REQUEST datagram,
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to the destination host, requesting an immediate reply. If this works, ping displays a
message to that effect, which indicates that the network link is basically functioning.
ping does more than test only the function of the connection between two computers:
it also provides some basic information about the quality of the connection. In Example 20.10, Output of the Command ping (page 342), you can see an example of the
ping output. The second-to-last line contains information about number of transmitted
packets, packet loss, and total time of ping running.
As the destination, you can use a hostname or IP address, for example,
ping venus.example.com or ping 192.168.2.101. The program sends
packets until you press Ctrl + C.
If you only need to check the functionality of the connection, you can limit the number
of the packets with the -c option. For example to limit ping to three packets, enter
ping -c 3 192.168.2.101.
Example 20.10 Output of the Command ping
ping -c 3 venus.example.com
PING venus.example.com (192.168.2.101) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from venus.example.com (192.168.2.101): icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=188
ms
ms
ms
--- venus.example.com ping statistics --3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2007ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 183.417/185.447/188.259/2.052 ms
The default interval between two packets is one second. To change the interval, ping
provides option -i. For example to increase ping interval to ten seconds, enter ping -i
10 192.168.2.101.
In a system with multiple network devices, it is sometimes useful to send the ping
through a specific interface address. To do so, use the -I option with the name of the
selected device, for example, ping -I wlan1 192.168.2.101.
For more options and information about using ping, enter ping -h or see the ping
(8) man page.
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Reference
Configuring the Network with ifconfig

ifconfig is a traditional network configuration tool. In contrast to ip, you can use it
only for interface configuration. If you want to configure routing, use route.
NOTE: ifconfig and ip
The program ifconfig is obsolete. Use ip instead.
Without arguments, ifconfig displays the status of the currently active interfaces. As
you can see in Example 20.11, Output of the ifconfig Command (page 343), ifconfig
has very well-arranged and detailed output. The output also contains information about
the MAC address of your device, the value of HWaddr, in the first line.
Example 20.11 Output of the ifconfig Command
eth0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:74:98:ED:51

inet6 addr: fe80::208:74ff:fe98:ed51/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:634735 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:4 frame:0
TX packets:154779 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:1
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:162531992 (155.0 Mb) TX bytes:49575995 (47.2 Mb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xec80
lo
Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX bytes:533234 (520.7 Kb) TX bytes:533234 (520.7 Kb)
wlan1
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:2E:52:3B:1D

inet addr:192.168.2.4 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20e:2eff:fe52:3b1d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX bytes:45978185 (43.8 Mb) TX bytes:7526693 (7.1 Mb)
For more options and information about using ifconfig, enter ifconfig -h or see
the ifconfig (8) man page.
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Configuring Routing with route

route is a program for manipulating the IP routing table. You can use it to view your
routing configuration and add or remove of routes.
NOTE: route and ip
The program route is obsolete. Use ip instead.
route is especially useful if you need quick and comprehensible information about your
routing configuration to determine problems with routing. To view your current routing
configuration, enter route -n as root.
Example 20.12 Output of the route -n Command
route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination
Gateway
10.20.0.0
*
link-local
*
loopback
*
default
styx.exam.com
Genmask
255.255.248.0
255.255.0.0
255.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
Flags
U
U
U
UG
MSS
0
0
0
0
Window
0
0
0
0
irtt
0
0
0
0
Iface
eth0
eth0
lo
eth0
For more options and information about using route, enter route -h or see the route
(8) man page.
20.5.3 Start-Up Scripts

Apart from the configuration files described above, there are also various scripts that
load the network programs while the machine is booting. These are started as soon as
the system is switched to one of the multiuser runlevels. Some of these scripts are described in Table 20.9, Some Start-Up Scripts for Network Programs (page 344).
Table 20.9
Some Start-Up Scripts for Network Programs
/etc/init.d/network
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Reference
This script handles the configuration of the network

interfaces. If the network service was not started,
no network interfaces are implemented.
/etc/init.d/xinetd
Starts xinetd. xinetd can be used to make server

services available on the system. For example, it
can start vsftpd whenever an FTP connection is
initiated.
/etc/init.d/portmap
Starts the portmapper needed for the RPC server,

such as an NFS server.
/etc/init.d/nfsserver Starts the NFS server.

/etc/init.d/postfix
Controls the postfix process.
/etc/init.d/ypserv
Starts the NIS server.
/etc/init.d/ypbind
Starts the NIS client.
20.6 smpppd as Dial-up Assistant

Some home users do not have a dedicated line connecting them to the Internet. Instead,
they use dial-up connections. Depending on the dial-up method (ISDN or DSL), the
connection is controlled by ipppd or pppd. Basically, all that needs to be done to go
online is to start these programs correctly.
If you have a flat-rate connection that does not generate any additional costs for the
dial-up connection, simply start the respective daemon. Control the dial-up connection
with a KDE applet or a command-line interface. If the Internet gateway is not the host
you are using, you might want to control the dial-up connection by way of a network
host.
This is where smpppd is involved. It provides a uniform interface for auxiliary programs
and acts in two directions. First, it programs the required pppd or ipppd and controls
its dial-up properties. Second, it makes various providers available to the user programs
and transmits information about the current status of the connection. As smpppd can
also be controlled by way of the network, it is suitable for controlling dial-up connections
to the Internet from a workstation in a private subnetwork.
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20.6.1 Configuring smpppd

The connections provided by smpppd are automatically configured by YaST. The actual
dial-up programs KInternet and cinternet are also preconfigured. Manual settings are
only required to configure additional features of smpppd, such as remote control.
The configuration file of smpppd is /etc/smpppd.conf. By default, it does not
enable remote control. The most important options of this configuration file are:
open-inet-socket = yes|no
To control smpppd via the network, this option must be set to yes. The port on
which smpppd listens is 3185. If this parameter is set to yes, the parameters
bind-address, host-range, and password should also be set accordingly.
bind-address = ip address
If a host has several IP addresses, use this parameter to determine at which IP address smpppd should accept connections. The default is to listen at all addresses.
host-range = min ip max ip
The parameter host-range defines a network range. Hosts whose IP addresses
are within this range are granted access to smpppd. All hosts not within this range
are denied access.
password = password
By assigning a password, limit the clients to authorized hosts. As this is a plaintext password, you should not overrate the security it provides. If no password is
assigned, all clients are permitted to access smpppd.
slp-register = yes|no
With this parameter, the smpppd service can be announced in the network via SLP.
More information about smpppd is available in the smpppd(8) and
smpppd.conf(5) man pages.
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Reference
20.6.2 Configuring KInternet, cinternet, and

qinternet for Remote Use
KInternet, cinternet, and qinternet can be used to control a local or remote smpppd.
cinternet is the command-line counterpart of the graphical KInternet. qinternet is basically the same as KInternet, but does not use the KDE libraries, so it can be used without
KDE and must be installed separately. To prepare these utilities for use with a remote
smpppd, edit the configuration file /etc/smpppd-c.conf manually or using KInternet. This file only uses three options:
sites = list of sites
Here, tell the front-ends where to search for smpppd. The front-ends test the options
in the order specified here. The local option orders the establishment of a connection to the local smpppd. gateway points to an smpppd on the gateway. The
connection should be established as specified under server in config-file.
slp orders the front-ends to connect to an smpppd found via SLP.
server = server
Here, specify the host on which smpppd runs.
password = password
Insert the password selected for smpppd.
If smpppd is active, you can now try to access it, for example, with cinternet
--verbose --interface-list. If you experience difficulties at this point, refer
to the smpppd-c.conf(5) and cinternet(8) man pages.
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SLP Services in the Network
21
The service location protocol (SLP) was developed to simplify the configuration of
networked clients within a local network. To configure a network client, including all
required services, the administrator traditionally needs detailed knowledge of the servers
available in the network. SLP makes the availability of selected services known to all
clients in the local network. Applications that support SLP can use the information
distributed and be configured automatically.
openSUSE supports installation using installation sources provided with SLP and
contains many system services with integrated support for SLP. YaST and Konqueror
both have appropriate front-ends for SLP. You can use SLP to provide networked clients
with central functions, such as an installation server, file server, or print server on your
system.
IMPORTANT: SLP Support in openSUSE
Services that offer SLP support include cupsd, rsyncd, ypserv, openldap2,
openwbem (CIM), ksysguardd, saned, kdm vnc login, smpppd, rpasswd, postfix,
and sshd (via fish).
21.1 Installation
Only an SLP client and slptools are installed by default. If you want to provide services
via SLP, install the package openslp-server. To install the package, start YaST
and select Software > Software Management. Now choose Filter > Patterns and click
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Misc. Server. Select openslp-server. Confirm the installation of the required

packages to finish the installation process.
21.2 Activating SLP

slpd must run on your system to offer services with SLP. It is not necessary to start this
daemon simply to make service inquiries. Like most system services in openSUSE, the
slpd daemon is controlled by means of a separate init script. The daemon is inactive
by default. To activate it for the duration of a session, run rcslpd start as root
to start it and rcslpd stop to stop it. Perform a restart or status check with restart
or status. If slpd should be active by default, enable slpd in YaST System > System
Services (Runlevel) or run the insserv slpd command once as root. This automatically includes slpd in the set of services to start when the system boots.
21.3 SLP Front-Ends in openSUSE

To find services provided via SLP in your network, use an SLP front-end. openSUSE
contains several front-ends:
slptool
slptool is a simple command line program that can be used to announce SLP inquiries in the network or announce proprietary services. slptool --help lists
all available options and functions. slptool can also be called from scripts that
process SLP information.
Konqueror
When used as a network browser, Konqueror can display all SLP services available
in the local network at slp:/. Click the icons in the main window to obtain more
detailed information about the relevant service. If you use Konqueror with
service:/, click the relevant icon once in the browser window to set up a connection with the selected service.
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Reference
21.4 Installation over SLP

If you offer an installation server with openSUSE installation media within your network,
this can be registered with SLP. For details, see Section 1.2.1, Setting Up an Installation
Server Using YaST (page 12). If SLP installation is selected, linuxrc starts an SLP
inquiry after the system has booted from the selected boot medium and displays the
sources found.
21.5 Providing Services via SLP

Many applications in openSUSE already have integrated SLP support through the use
of the libslp library. If a service has not been compiled with SLP support, use one
of the following methods to make it available via SLP:
Static Registration with /etc/slp.reg.d
Create a separate registration file for each new service. The following is an example
of a file for registering a scanner service:
## Register a saned service on this system
## en means english language
## 65535 disables the timeout, so the service registration does
## not need refreshes
service:scanner.sane://$HOSTNAME:6566,en,65535
watch-port-tcp=6566
description=SANE scanner daemon
The most important line in this file is the service URL, which begins with
service:. This contains the service type (scanner.sane) and the address
under which the service is available on the server. $HOSTNAME is automatically
replaced with the full hostname. The name of the TCP port on which the relevant
service can be found follows, separated by a colon. Then enter the language in
which the service should appear and the duration of registration in seconds. These
should be separated from the service URL by commas. Set the value for the duration
of registration between 0 and 65535. 0 prevents registration. 65535 removes all
restrictions.
The registration file also contains the two variables watch-port-tcp and
description. watch-port-tcp links the SLP service announcement to
whether the relevant service is active by having slpd check the status of the service.
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The second variable contains a more precise description of the service that is displayed in suitable browsers.
Static Registration with /etc/slp.reg
The only difference from the procedure with /etc/slp.reg.d is the grouping
of all services within a central file.
Dynamic Registration with slptool
If a service should be registered for SLP from proprietary scripts, use the slptool
command line front-end.

The following sources provide further information about SLP:
RFC 2608, 2609, 2610
RFC 2608 generally deals with the definition of SLP. RFC 2609 deals with the
syntax of the service URLs used in greater detail and RFC 2610 deals with DHCP
via SLP.
http://www.openslp.org/
The home page of the OpenSLP project.
/usr/share/doc/packages/openslp
This directory contains all available documentation for SLP, including a README
.SuSE containing the openSUSE details, the RFCs, and two introductory HTML
documents. Programmers who want to use the SLP functions should install the
openslp-devel package to consult its supplied Programmers Guide.
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Reference
The Domain Name System
22
DNS (domain name system) is needed to resolve the domain names and hostnames into
IP addresses. In this way, the IP address 192.168.2.100 is assigned to the hostname
jupiter, for example. Before setting up your own name server, read the general information about DNS in Section 20.3, Name Resolution (page 314). The following
configuration examples refer to BIND.
22.1 DNS Terminology

Zone
The domain namespace is divided into regions called zones. For instance, if you
have example.com, you have the example section, or zone, of the com domain.
DNS server
The DNS server is a server that maintains the name and IP information for a domain.
You can have a primary DNS server for master zone, a secondary server for slave
zone, or a slave server without any zones for caching.
Master zone DNS server
The master zone includes all hosts from your network and a DNS server master
zone stores up-to-date records for all the hosts in your domain.
Slave zone DNS server
A slave zone is a copy of the master zone. The slave zone DNS server obtains
its zone data with zone transfer operations from its master server. The slave
zone DNS server responds authoritatively for the zone as long as it has valid
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(not expired) zone data. If the slave cannot obtain a new copy of the zone data,
it stops responding for the zone.
Forwarder
Forwarders are DNS servers to which your DNS server should send queries it
cannot answer.
Record
The record is information about name and IP address. Supported records and their
syntax are described in BIND documentation. Some special records are:
NS record
An NS record tells name servers which machines are in charge of a given domain zone.
MX record
The MX (mail exchange) records describe the machines to contact for directing
mail across the Internet.
SOA record
SOA (Start of Authority) record is the first record in a zone file. The SOA
record is used when using DNS to synchronize data between multiple computers.
22.2 Installation
To install a DNS server, start YaST and select Software > Software Management.
Choose Filter > Patterns and select DHCP and DNS Server. Confirm the installation
of the dependent packages to finish the installation process.
22.3 Configuration with YaST

You can use the DNS module of YaST to configure a DNS server for your local network.
When starting the module for the first time, a wizard starts, prompting you to make just
a few basic decisions concerning administration of the server. Completing this initial
setup produces a very basic server configuration that should be functioning in its essential
aspects. The expert mode can be used to deal with more advanced configuration tasks.
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Reference
22.3.1 Wizard Configuration

The wizard consists of three steps or dialogs. At the appropriate places in the dialogs,
you are given the opportunity to enter the expert configuration mode.
1 When starting the module for the first time, the Forwarder Settings dialog, shown
in Figure 22.1, DNS Server Installation: Forwarder Settings (page 355), opens.
In it, decide whether the PPP daemon should provide a list of forwarders on dialup via DSL or ISDN (PPP Daemon Sets Forwarders) or whether you want to
supply your own list (Set Forwarders Manually).
Figure 22.1 DNS Server Installation: Forwarder Settings
2 The DNS Zones dialog consists of several parts and is responsible for the management of zone files, described in Section 22.6, Zone Files (page 367). For a
new zone, provide a name for it in Zone Name. To add a reverse zone, the name
must end in .in-addr.arpa. Finally, select the Zone Type (master or slave).
See Figure 22.2, DNS Server Installation: DNS Zones (page 356). Click Edit
Zone to configure other settings of an existing zone. To remove a zone, click
Delete Zone.
355
Figure 22.2 DNS Server Installation: DNS Zones
3 In the final dialog, you can open the ports for the DNS service in the firewall
that is activated during the installation and decide whether DNS should be started.
The expert configuration can also be accessed from this dialog. See Figure 22.3,
DNS Server Installation: Finish Wizard (page 356).
Figure 22.3 DNS Server Installation: Finish Wizard
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Reference
22.3.2 Expert Configuration

After starting the module, YaST opens a window displaying several configuration options. Completing it results in a DNS server configuration with the basic functions in
place:
Starting the DNS Server

Under Service Start, define whether the DNS server should be started when the system
boots (during booting the system) or manually. To start the DNS server immediately,
select Start DNS Server Now. To stop the DNS server, select Stop DNS Server Now.
To save the current settings, select Save Settings and Restart DNS Server Now. You
can open the DNS port in the firewall with Open Port in Firewall and modify the firewall
settings with Firewall Details.
Logging
To set what the DNS server should log and how, select Logging. Under Log Type,
specify where the DNS server should write the log data. Use the systemwide log file
/var/log/messages by selecting System Log or specify a different file by selecting
File. In the latter case, additionally specify a name, the maximum file size in megabytes
and the number of versions of log files to store.
Further options are available under Additional Logging. Enabling Log All DNS Queries
causes every query to be logged, in which case the log file could grow extremely large.
For this reason, it is not a good idea to enable this option for other than debugging
purposes. To log the data traffic during zone updates between DHCP and DNS server,
enable Log Zone Updates. To log the data traffic during a zone transfer from master to
slave, enable Log Zone Transfer. See Figure 22.4, DNS Server: Logging (page 358).
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Figure 22.4 DNS Server: Logging
Adding a Slave Zone

To add a slave zone, select DNS Zones, choose the zone type Slave, write the name of
the new zone, and click Add.
In the Zone Editor under Master DNS Server IP, specify the master from which the
slave should fetch its data. To limit access to the server, select one of the ACLs from
the list. See Figure 22.5, DNS Server: Slave Zone Editor (page 359).
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Reference
Figure 22.5 DNS Server: Slave Zone Editor
Adding a Master Zone

To add a master zone, select DNS Zones, choose the zone type Master, write the name
of the new zone, and click Add.
Editing a Master Zone

To edit a master zone, select DNS Zones, select the master zone from the table, and
click Edit. The dialog consists of several pages: Basics (the one opened first), NS
Records, MX Records, SOA, and Records.
Zone Editor (NS Records)
This dialog allows you to define alternative name servers for the zones specified.
Make sure that your own name server is included in the list. To add a record, enter
its name under Name Server to Add then confirm with Add. See Figure 22.6, DNS
Server: Zone Editor (NS Records) (page 360).
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Figure 22.6 DNS Server: Zone Editor (NS Records)
Zone Editor (MX Records)

To add a mail server for the current zone to the existing list, enter the corresponding
address and priority value. After doing so, confirm by selecting Add. See Figure 22.7, DNS Server: Zone Editor (MX Records) (page 360).
Figure 22.7 DNS Server: Zone Editor (MX Records)
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Reference
Zone Editor (SOA)

This page allows you to create SOA (start of authority) records. For an explanation
of the individual options, refer to Example 22.6, File /var/lib/named/example.com.zone (page 368).
Figure 22.8 DNS Server: Zone Editor (SOA)
Zone Editor (Records)

This dialog manages name resolution. In Record Key, enter the hostname then select
its type. A-Record represents the main entry. The value for this should be an IP
address. CNAME is an alias. Use the types NS and MX for detailed or partial records
that expand on the information provided in the NS Records and MX Records tabs.
These three types resolve to an existing A record. PTR is for reverse zones. It is
the opposite of an A record.
22.4 Starting the Name Server BIND

On an openSUSE system, the name server BIND (Berkeley Internet name domain)
comes preconfigured so it can be started right after installation without any problem.
If you already have a functioning Internet connection and have entered 127.0.0.1
as the name server address for localhost in /etc/resolv.conf, you normally
already have a working name resolution without needing to know the DNS of the
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provider. BIND carries out name resolution via the root name server, a notably slower
process. Normally, the DNS of the provider should be entered with its IP address in the
configuration file /etc/named.conf under forwarders to ensure effective and
secure name resolution. If this works so far, the name server runs as a pure cachingonly name server. Only when you configure its own zones will it become a proper DNS.
A simple example of this is included in the documentation in /usr/share/doc/
packages/bind/config.
TIP: Automatic Adaptation of the Name Server Information
Depending on the type of Internet connection or the network connection, the
name server information can automatically be adapted to the current conditions.
To do this, set the variable MODIFY_NAMED_CONF_DYNAMICALLY in the file
/etc/sysconfig/network/config to yes.
However, do not set up any official domains until assigned one by the responsible institution. Even if you have your own domain and it is managed by the provider, you are
better off not using it, because BIND would otherwise not forward requests for this
domain. The Web server at the provider, for example, would not be accessible for this
domain.
To start the name server, enter the command rcnamed start as root. If done
appears to the right in green, named, as the name server process is called, has been
started successfully. Test the name server immediately on the local system with the
host or dig programs, which should return localhost as the default server with
the address 127.0.0.1. If this is not the case, /etc/resolv.conf probably
contains an incorrect name server entry or the file does not exist at all. For the first test,
enter host 127.0.0.1, which should always work. If you get an error message, use
rcnamed status to see whether the server is actually running. If the name server
does not start or behaves unexpectedly, you can usually find the cause in the log file
/var/log/messages.
To use the name server of the provider or one already running on your network as the
forwarder, enter the corresponding IP address or addresses in the options section
under forwarders. The addresses included in Example 22.1, Forwarding Options
in named.conf (page 363) are just examples. Adjust these entries to your own setup.
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Reference
Example 22.1 Forwarding Options in named.conf

options {
directory "/var/lib/named";
forwarders { 10.11.12.13; 10.11.12.14; };
listen-on { 127.0.0.1; 192.168.1.116; };
allow-query { 127/8; 192.168/16 };
notify no;
};
The options entry is followed by entries for the zone, localhost, and
0.0.127.in-addr.arpa. The type hint entry under . should always be
present. The corresponding files do not need to be modified and should work as they
are. Also make sure that each entry is closed with a ; and that the curly braces are in
the correct places. After changing the configuration file /etc/named.conf or the
zone files, tell BIND to reread them with rcnamed reload. Achieve the same by
stopping and restarting the name server with rcnamed restart. Stop the server at
any time by entering rcnamed stop.
22.5 The Configuration File

/etc/named.conf
All the settings for the BIND name server itself are stored in the file /etc/named
.conf. However, the zone data for the domains to handle, consisting of the hostnames,
IP addresses, and so on, are stored in separate files in the /var/lib/named directory.
The details of this are described later.
/etc/named.conf is roughly divided into two areas. One is the options section
for general settings and the other consists of zone entries for the individual domains.
A logging section and acl (access control list) entries are optional. Comment lines
begin with a # sign or //. A minimal /etc/named.conf is shown in Example 22.2,
A Basic /etc/named.conf (page 364).
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Example 22.2 A Basic /etc/named.conf

options {
directory "/var/lib/named";
forwarders { 10.0.0.1; };
notify no;
};
zone "localhost" in {
type master;
file "localhost.zone";
};
zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" in {
type master;
file "127.0.0.zone";
};
zone "." in {
type hint;
file "root.hint";
};
22.5.1 Important Configuration Options

directory "filename";
Specifies the directory in which BIND can find the files containing the zone data.
Usually, this is /var/lib/named.
forwarders { ip-address; };
Specifies the name servers (mostly of the provider) to which DNS requests should
be forwarded if they cannot be resolved directly. Replace ip-address with an
IP address like 10.0.0.1.
forward first;
Causes DNS requests to be forwarded before an attempt is made to resolve them
via the root name servers. Instead of forward first, forward only can
be written to have all requests forwarded and none sent to the root name servers.
This makes sense for firewall configurations.
listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; ip-address; };
Tells BIND on which network interfaces and port to accept client queries. port
53 does not need to be specified explicitly, because 53 is the default port. Enter
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Reference
127.0.0.1 to permit requests from the local host. If you omit this entry entirely,
all interfaces are used by default.
listen-on-v6 port 53 {any; };
Tells BIND on which port it should listen for IPv6 client requests. The only alternative to any is none. As far as IPv6 is concerned, the server only accepts a wild
card address.
query-source address * port 53;
This entry is necessary if a firewall is blocking outgoing DNS requests. This tells
BIND to post requests externally from port 53 and not from any of the high ports
above 1024.
query-source-v6 address * port 53;
Tells BIND which port to use for IPv6 queries.
allow-query { 127.0.0.1; net; };
Defines the networks from which clients can post DNS requests. Replace net with
address information like 192.168/16. The /16 at the end is an abbreviated expression for the netmask, in this case, 255.255.0.0.
allow-transfer ! *;;
Controls which hosts can request zone transfers. In the example, such requests are
completely denied with ! *. Without this entry, zone transfers can be requested
from anywhere without restrictions.
statistics-interval 0;
In the absence of this entry, BIND generates several lines of statistical information
per hour in /var/log/messages. Set it to 0 to suppress these statistics completely or set an interval in minutes.
cleaning-interval 720;
This option defines at which time intervals BIND clears its cache. This triggers an
entry in /var/log/messages each time it occurs. The time specification is in
minutes. The default is 60 minutes.
interface-interval 0;
BIND regularly searches the network interfaces for new or nonexistent interfaces.
If this value is set to 0, this is not done and BIND only listens at the interfaces detected at start-up. Otherwise, the interval can be defined in minutes. The default is
sixty minutes.
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notify no;
no prevents other name servers from being informed when changes are made to
the zone data or when the name server is restarted.
22.5.2 Logging
What, how, and where logging takes place can be extensively configured in BIND.
Normally, the default settings should be sufficient. Example 22.3, Entry to Disable
Logging (page 366) shows the simplest form of such an entry and completely suppresses
any logging.
Example 22.3 Entry to Disable Logging
logging {
category default { null; };
};
22.5.3 Zone Entries

Example 22.4 Zone Entry for example.com
zone "example.com" in {
type master;
file "example.com.zone";
notify no;
};
After zone, specify the name of the domain to administer (example.com) followed
by in and a block of relevant options enclosed in curly braces, as shown in Example 22.4, Zone Entry for example.com (page 366). To define a slave zone, switch the
type to slave and specify a name server that administers this zone as master
(which, in turn, may be a slave of another master), as shown in Example 22.5, Zone
Entry for example.net (page 366).
Example 22.5 Zone Entry for example.net
zone "example.net" in {
type slave;
file "slave/example.net.zone";
masters { 10.0.0.1; };
};
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Reference
The zone options:

type master;
By specifying master, tell BIND that the zone is handled by the local name
server. This assumes that a zone file has been created in the correct format.
type slave;
This zone is transferred from another name server. It must be used together with
masters.
type hint;
The zone . of the hint type is used to set the root name servers. This zone definition can be left as is.
file example.com.zone or file slave/example.net.zone;
This entry specifies the file where zone data for the domain is located. This file is
not required for a slave, because this data is fetched from another name server. To
differentiate master and slave files, use the directory slave for the slave files.
masters { server-ip-address; };
This entry is only needed for slave zones. It specifies from which name server the
zone file should be transferred.
allow-update {! *; };
This option controls external write access, which would allow clients to make a
DNS entrysomething not normally desirable for security reasons. Without this
entry, zone updates are not allowed at all. The above entry achieves the same because ! * effectively bans any such activity.
22.6 Zone Files

Two types of zone files are needed. One assigns IP addresses to hostnames and the
other does the reverse: it supplies a hostname for an IP address.
367
TIP: Using the Dot in Zone Files

The . has an important meaning in the zone files. If hostnames are given
without a final ., the zone is appended. Complete hostnames specified with a
full domain name must end with a . to avoid having the domain added to it
again. A missing or wrongly placed dot is probably the most frequent cause of
name server configuration errors.
The first case to consider is the zone file example.com.zone, responsible for the
domain example.com, shown in Example 22.6, File /var/lib/named/example.com.zone (page 368).
Example 22.6 File /var/lib/named/example.com.zone
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
$TTL 2D
example.com. IN SOA
2003072441
1D
2H
1W
2D )
gate
dns
mail
jupiter
venus
saturn
mercury
ntp
dns root.example.com. (
; serial
; refresh
; retry
; expiry
; minimum
IN NS
IN MX
dns
10 mail
IN
IN
IN
IN
IN
IN
IN
IN
IN
192.168.5.1
10.0.0.1
192.168.1.116
192.168.3.108
192.168.2.100
192.168.2.101
192.168.2.102
192.168.2.103
dns
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
CNAME
Line 1:
$TTL defines the default time to live that should apply to all the entries in this file.
In this example, entries are valid for a period of two days (2 D).
Line 2:
This is where the SOA (start of authority) control record begins:
The name of the domain to administer is example.com in the first position.
This ends with ., because otherwise the zone would be appended a second time.
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Reference
Alternatively, @ can be entered here, in which case the zone would be extracted
from the corresponding entry in /etc/named.conf.
After IN SOA is the name of the name server in charge as master for this zone.
The name is expanded from dns to dns.example.com, because it does not
end with a ..
An e-mail address of the person in charge of this name server follows. Because
the @ sign already has a special meaning, . is entered here instead. For
[email protected] the entry must read root.example.com.. The .
must be included at the end to prevent the zone from being added.
The ( includes all lines up to ) into the SOA record.
Line 3:
The serial number is an arbitrary number that is increased each time this file
is changed. It is needed to inform the secondary name servers (slave servers) of
changes. For this, a 10 digit number of the date and run number, written as
YYYYMMDDNN, has become the customary format.
Line 4:
The refresh rate specifies the time interval at which the secondary name
servers verify the zone serial number. In this case, one day.
Line 5:
The retry rate specifies the time interval at which a secondary name server,
in case of error, attempts to contact the primary server again. Here, two hours.
Line 6:
The expiration time specifies the time frame after which a secondary name
server discards the cached data if it has not regained contact to the primary server.
Here, it is a week.
Line 7:
The last entry in the SOA record specifies the negative caching TTLthe
time for which results of unresolved DNS queries from other servers may be cached.
Line 9:
The IN NS specifies the name server responsible for this domain. dns is extended
to dns.example.com because it does not end with a .. There can be several
lines like thisone for the primary and one for each secondary name server. If
369
notify is not set to no in /etc/named.conf, all the name servers listed here
are informed of the changes made to the zone data.
Line 10:
The MX record specifies the mail server that accepts, processes, and forwards emails for the domain example.com. In this example, this is the host
mail.example.com. The number in front of the hostname is the preference
value. If there are multiple MX entries, the mail server with the smallest value is
taken first and, if mail delivery to this server fails, an attempt is made with the next
higher value.
Lines 1219:
These are the actual address records where one or more IP addresses are assigned
to hostnames. The names are listed here without a . because they do not include
their domain, so example.com is added to all of them. Two IP addresses are assigned to the host gate, because it has two network cards. Wherever the host address is a traditional one (IPv4), the record is marked with AAAA. If the address is
an IPv6 address, the entry is marked with AAAA 0. The previous token for IPv6
addresses was only AAAA, which is now obsolete.
NOTE: IPv6 Syntax
The IPv6 record has a slightly different syntax than IPv4. Because of the
fragmentation possibility, it is necessary to provide information about
missed bits before the address. You must provide this information even if
you want to use a completely unfragmented address. For the IPv4 record
with the syntax
pluto IN
pluto IN
AAAA 2345:00C1:CA11:0001:1234:5678:9ABC:DEF0
AAAA 2345:00D2:DA11:0001:1234:5678:9ABC:DEF0
You need to add information about missing bits in IPv6 format. Because
the example above is complete (does not miss any bits), the IPv6 format
of this record is:
pluto
pluto
IN
IN
AAAA 0 2345:00C1:CA11:0001:1234:5678:9ABC:DEF0
AAAA 0 2345:00D2:DA11:0001:1234:5678:9ABC:DEF0
Do not use IPv4 addresses with IPv6 mapping.

Line 20:
The alias ntp can be used to address dns (CNAME means canonical name).
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Reference
The pseudodomain in-addr.arpa is used for the reverse lookup of IP addresses

into hostnames. It is appended to the network part of the address in reverse notation.
So 192.168 is resolved into 168.192.in-addr.arpa. See Example 22.7, Reverse Lookup (page 371).
Example 22.7 Reverse Lookup
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
$TTL 2D
168.192.in-addr.arpa.
1.5
100.3
253.2
IN SOA dns.example.com. root.example.com. (

2003072441
; serial
1D
; refresh
2H
; retry
1W
; expiry
2D )
; minimum
IN NS
dns.example.com.
IN PTR
IN PTR
IN PTR
gate.example.com.
www.example.com.
cups.example.com.
Line 1:
$TTL defines the standard TTL that applies to all entries here.
Line 2:
The configuration file should activate reverse lookup for the network 192.168.
Given that the zone is called 168.192.in-addr.arpa, should not be added
to the hostnames. Therefore, all hostnames are entered in their complete formwith
their domain and with a . at the end. The remaining entries correspond to those
described for the previous example.com example.
Lines 37:
See the previous example for example.com.
Line 9:
Again this line specifies the name server responsible for this zone. This time,
however, the name is entered in its complete form with the domain and a . at the
end.
Lines 1113:
These are the pointer records hinting at the IP addresses on the respective hosts.
Only the last part of the IP address is entered at the beginning of the line, without
the . at the end. Appending the zone to this (without the .in-addr.arpa) results
in the complete IP address in reverse order.
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Normally, zone transfers between different versions of BIND should be possible without
any problem.
22.7 Dynamic Update of Zone Data

The term dynamic update refers to operations by which entries in the zone files of a
master server are added, changed, or deleted. This mechanism is described in RFC 2136.
Dynamic update is configured individually for each zone entry by adding an optional
allow-update or update-policy rule. Zones to update dynamically should not
be edited by hand.
Transmit the entries to update to the server with the command nsupdate. For the
exact syntax of this command, check the manual page for nsupdate (man 8 nsupdate).
For security reasons, any such update should be performed using TSIG keys as described
in Section 22.8, Secure Transactions (page 372).
22.8 Secure Transactions

Secure transactions can be made with the help of transaction signatures (TSIGs) based
on shared secret keys (also called TSIG keys). This section describes how to generate
and use such keys.
Secure transactions are needed for communication between different servers and for
the dynamic update of zone data. Making the access control dependent on keys is much
more secure than merely relying on IP addresses.
Generate a TSIG key with the following command (for details, see
man dnssec-keygen):
dnssec-keygen -a hmac-md5 -b 128 -n HOST host1-host2
This creates two files with names similar to these:

Khost1-host2.+157+34265.private Khost1-host2.+157+34265.key
The key itself (a string like ejIkuCyyGJwwuN3xAteKgg==) is found in both files.

To use it for transactions, the second file (Khost1-host2.+157+34265.key)
must be transferred to the remote host, preferably in a secure way (using scp, for exam-
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ple). On the remote server, the key must be included in the file /etc/named.conf
to enable a secure communication between host1 and host2:
key host1-host2. {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret ";ejIkuCyyGJwwuN3xAteKgg==;
};
WARNING: File Permissions of /etc/named.conf

Make sure that the permissions of /etc/named.conf are properly restricted.
The default for this file is 0640, with the owner being root and the group
named. As an alternative, move the keys to an extra file with specially limited
permissions, which is then included from /etc/named.conf. To include an
external file, use:
include
"filename"
Replace filename with an absolute path to your file with keys.

To enable the server host1 to use the key for host2 (which has the address
10.1.2.3 in this example), the server's /etc/named.conf must include the following rule:
server 10.1.2.3 {
keys { host1-host2. ;};
};
Analogous entries must be included in the configuration files of host2.

Add TSIG keys for any ACLs (access control lists, not to be confused with file system
ACLs) that are defined for IP addresses and address ranges to enable transaction security. The corresponding entry could look like this:
allow-update { key host1-host2. ;};
This topic is discussed in more detail in the BIND Administrator Reference Manual
under update-policy.
22.9 DNS Security

DNSSEC, or DNS security, is described in RFC 2535. The tools available for DNSSEC
are discussed in the BIND Manual.
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A zone considered secure must have one or several zone keys associated with it. These
are generated with dnssec-keygen, just like the host keys. The DSA encryption
algorithm is currently used to generate these keys. The public keys generated should
be included in the corresponding zone file with an $INCLUDE rule.
With the command dnssec-makekeyset, all keys generated are packaged into one
set, which must then be transferred to the parent zone in a secure manner. On the parent,
the set is signed with dnssec-signkey. The files generated by this command are
then used to sign the zones with dnssec-signzone, which in turn generates the
files to include for each zone in /etc/named.conf.

For additional information, refer to the BIND Administrator Reference Manual from
package bind-doc, which is installed under /usr/share/doc/packages/
bind/. Consider additionally consulting the RFCs referenced by the manual and the
manual pages included with BIND. /usr/share/doc/packages/bind/README
.SuSE contains up-to-date information about BIND in openSUSE.
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Reference
23
DHCP
The purpose of the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) is to assign network
settings centrally from a server rather than configuring them locally on each and every
workstation. A host configured to use DHCP does not have control over its own static
address. It is enabled to configure itself completely and automatically according to directions from the server. If you use the NetworkManager on the client side, you do not
need to configure the client at all. This is useful if you have changing environments
and only one interface active at a time. Never use NetworkManager on a machine that
runs a DHCP server.
One way to configure a DHCP server is to identify each client using the hardware address
of its network card (which should be fixed), then supply that client with identical settings
each time it connects to the server. DHCP can also be configured to assign addresses
to each interested client dynamically from an address pool set up for that purpose. In
the latter case, the DHCP server tries to assign the same address to the client each time
it receives a request, even over longer periods. This works only if the network does not
have more clients than addresses.
DHCP makes life easier for system administrators. Any changes, even bigger ones, related to addresses and the network configuration in general can be implemented centrally
by editing the server's configuration file. This is much more convenient than reconfiguring numerous workstations. Also it is much easier to integrate machines, particularly
new machines, into the network, because they can be given an IP address from the pool.
Retrieving the appropriate network settings from a DHCP server is especially useful
in the case of laptops regularly used in different networks.
In this chapter, the DHCP server will run in the same subnet as the workstations,
192.168.2.0/24 with 192.168.2.1 as gateway. It has the fixed IP address 192.168.2.254
DHCP
375
and serves two address ranges, 192.168.2.10 to 192.168.2.20 and 192.168.2.100

192.168.2.200;.
A DHCP server supplies not only the IP address and the netmask, but also the hostname,
domain name, gateway, and name server addresses for the client to use. In addition to
that, DHCP allows a number of other parameters to be configured in a centralized way,
for example, a time server from which clients may poll the current time or even a print
server.
23.1 Configuring a DHCP Server with

YaST
In this version of openSUSE, the YaST DHCP module can be set up to store the server
configuration locally (on the host that runs the DHCP server) or to have its configuration
data managed by an LDAP server. If you want to use LDAP, setup your LDAP environment before configuring the DHCP server.
The YaST DHCP module allows you to set up your own DHCP server for the local
network. The module can run in simple mode or expert mode.
23.1.1 Initial Configuration (Wizard)

When the module is started for the first time, a wizard starts, prompting you to make
a few basic decision concerning server administration. Completing this initial setup
produces a very basic server configuration that should function in essential aspects.
The expert mode can be used to deal with more advanced configuration tasks.
Card Selection
In the first step, YaST looks for the network interfaces available on your system
then displays them in a list. From the list, select the interface on which the DHCP
server should listen and click Add. After this, select Open Firewall for Selected
Interfaces to open the firewall for this interface. See Figure 23.1, DHCP Server:
Card Selection (page 377).
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Figure 23.1 DHCP Server: Card Selection
Global Settings
Use the check box to determine whether your DHCP settings should be automatically stored by an LDAP server. In the entry fields, provide the network specifics
for all clients the DHCP server should manage. These specifics are the domain
name, address of a time server, addresses of the primary and secondary name
server, addresses of a print and a WINS server (for a mixed network with both
Windows and Linux clients), gateway address, and lease time. See Figure 23.2,
DHCP Server: Global Settings (page 378).
DHCP
377
Figure 23.2 DHCP Server: Global Settings
Dynamic DHCP
In this step, configure how dynamic IP addresses should be assigned to clients. To
do so, specify an IP range from which the server can assign addresses to DHCP
clients. All these addresses must be covered by the same netmask. Also specify the
lease time during which a client may keep its IP address without needing to request
an extension of the lease. Optionally, specify the maximum lease timethe period
during which the server reserves an IP address for a particular client. See Figure 23.3, DHCP Server: Dynamic DHCP (page 379).
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Figure 23.3 DHCP Server: Dynamic DHCP
Finishing the Configuration and Setting the Start Mode

After the third part of the configuration wizard, a last dialog is shown in which you
can define how the DHCP server should be started. Here, specify whether to start
the DHCP server automatically when the system is booted or manually when
needed (for example, for test purposes). Click Finish to complete the configuration
of the server. See Figure 23.4, DHCP Server: Start-Up (page 380). Alternatively,
you can select Host Management from the tree structure on the left to configure
special host management features in addition to the basic configuration (see Figure 23.5, DHCP Server: Host Management (page 381)).
DHCP
379
Figure 23.4 DHCP Server: Start-Up
Host Management
Instead of using dynamic DHCP in the way described in the preceding sections,
you can also configure the server to assign addresses in quasi-static fashion. To do
so, use the entry fields provided in the lower part to specify a list of the clients to
manage in this way. Specifically, provide the Name and the IP Address to give to
such a client, the Hardware Address, and the Network Type (token ring or ethernet).
Modify the list of clients, which is shown in the upper part, with Add, Edit, and
Delete from List. See Figure 23.5, DHCP Server: Host Management (page 381).
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Figure 23.5 DHCP Server: Host Management
23.1.2 Expert Configuration

In addition to the configuration method discussed earlier, there is also an expert configuration mode that allows you to tweak the DHCP server setup in every detail. Start
the expert configuration by selecting Expert Settings in the tree view in the left part of
the dialog.
Chroot Environment and Declarations
In this first dialog, make the existing configuration editable by selecting Start
DHCP Server. An important feature of the behavior of the DHCP server is its
ability to run in a chroot environment, or chroot jail, to secure the server host. If
the DHCP server should ever be compromised by an outside attack, the attacker
will still be behind bars in the chroot jail, which prevents him from touching the
rest of the system. The lower part of the dialog displays a tree view with the declarations that have already been defined. Modify these with Add, Delete, and Edit.
Selecting Advanced takes you to additional expert dialogs. See Figure 23.6, DHCP
Server: Chroot Jail and Declarations (page 382). After selecting Add, define the
type of declaration to add. With Advanced, view the log file of the server, configure
TSIG key management, and adjust the configuration of the firewall according to
the setup of the DHCP server.
DHCP
381
Figure 23.6 DHCP Server: Chroot Jail and Declarations
Selecting the Declaration Type

The Global Options of the DHCP server are made up of a number of declarations.
This dialog lets you set the declaration types Subnet, Host, Shared Network, Group,
Pool of Addresses, and Class. This example shows the selection of a new subnetwork
(see Figure 23.7, DHCP Server: Selecting a Declaration Type (page 383)).
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Figure 23.7 DHCP Server: Selecting a Declaration Type
Subnet Configuration
This dialog allows you specify a new subnet with its IP address and netmask. In
the middle part of the dialog, modify the DHCP server start options for the selected
subnet using Add, Edit, and Delete. To set up dynamic DNS for the subnet, select
Dynamic DNS.
DHCP
383
Figure 23.8 DHCP Server: Configuring Subnets
TSIG Key Management

If you chose to configure dynamic DNS in the previous dialog, you can now configure the key management for a secure zone transfer. Selecting OK takes you to
another dialog in which to configure the interface for dynamic DNS (see Figure 23.10, DHCP Server: Interface Configuration for Dynamic DNS (page 386)).
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Reference
Figure 23.9 DHCP Server: TSIG Configuration
Dynamic DNS: Interface Configuration

You can now activate dynamic DNS for the subnet by selecting Enable Dynamic
DNS for This Subnet. After doing so, use the drop-down list to choose the TSIG
keys for forward and reverse zones, making sure that keys are the same for the
DNS and the DHCP server. With Update Global Dynamic DNS Settings, enable
the automatic update and adjustment of the global DHCP server settings according
to the dynamic DNS environment. Finally, define which forward and reverse zones
should be updated per dynamic DNS, specifying the name of the primary name
server for each of the two zones. If the name server runs on the same host as the
DHCP server, you can leave these fields blank. Selecting Ok returns to the subnet
configuration dialog (see Figure 23.8, DHCP Server: Configuring Subnets
(page 384)). Selecting Ok again returns to the original expert configuration dialog.
DHCP
385
Figure 23.10 DHCP Server: Interface Configuration for Dynamic DNS
Network Interface Configuration

To define the interfaces where the DHCP server should listen and to adjust the
firewall configuration, select Advanced > Interface Configuration from the expert
configuration dialog. From the list of interfaces displayed, select one or more that
should be attended by the the DHCP server. If clients in all of the subnets should
be able to communicate with the server and the server host also runs a firewall,
adjust the firewall accordingly. To do so, select Adapt Firewall Settings. YaST
then adjusts the rules of SuSEfirewall2 to the new conditions (see Figure 23.11,
DHCP Server: Network Interface and Firewall (page 387)), after which you can
return to the original dialog by selecting Ok.
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Reference
Figure 23.11 DHCP Server: Network Interface and Firewall
After completing all configuration steps, close the dialog with Ok. Now the server is
started with its new configuration. configuration.
23.2 DHCP Software Packages

Both a DHCP server and DHCP clients are available for openSUSE. The DHCP server
available is dhcpd (published by the Internet Systems Consortium). On the client side,
choose between two different DHCP client programs: dhcp-client (also from ISC)
and the DHCP client daemon in the dhcpcd package.
openSUSE installs dhcpcd by default. The program is very easy to handle and is launched
automatically on each system boot to watch for a DHCP server. It does not need a
configuration file to do its job and works out of the box in most standard setups. For
more complex situations, use the ISC dhcp-client, which is controlled by means of the
configuration file /etc/dhclient.conf.
DHCP
387
23.3 The DHCP Server dhcpd

The core of any DHCP system is the dynamic host configuration protocol daemon. This
server leases addresses and watches how they are used, according to the settings defined
in the configuration file /etc/dhcpd.conf. By changing the parameters and values
in this file, a system administrator can influence the program's behavior in numerous
ways. Look at the basic sample /etc/dhcpd.conf file in Example 23.1, The
Configuration File /etc/dhcpd.conf (page 388).
Example 23.1 The Configuration File /etc/dhcpd.conf
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
option
option
option
option
option
# 10 minutes
# 2 hours
domain-name "example.com";
domain-name-servers 192.168.1.116;
broadcast-address 192.168.2.255;
routers 192.168.2.1;
subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0

{
range 192.168.2.10 192.168.2.20;
range 192.168.2.100 192.168.2.200;
}
This simple configuration file should be sufficient to get the DHCP server to assign IP
addresses in the network. Make sure that a semicolon is inserted at the end of each line,
because otherwise dhcpd is not started.
The sample file can be divided into three sections. The first one defines how many
seconds an IP address is leased to a requesting client by default
(default-lease-time) before it should apply for renewal. The section also includes
a statement of the maximum period for which a machine may keep an IP address assigned
by the DHCP server without applying for renewal (max-lease-time).
In the second part, some basic network parameters are defined on a global level:
The line option domain-name defines the default domain of your network.
With the entry option domain-name-servers, specify up to three values
for the DNS servers used to resolve IP addresses into hostnames and vice versa.
Ideally, configure a name server on your machine or somewhere else in your network
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before setting up DHCP. That name server should also define a hostname for each
dynamic address and vice versa. To learn how to configure your own name server,
read Chapter 22, The Domain Name System (page 353).
The line option broadcast-address defines the broadcast address the requesting client should use.
With option routers, set where the server should send data packets that
cannot be delivered to a host on the local network (according to the source and
target host address and the subnet mask provided). In most cases, especially in
smaller networks, this router is identical to the Internet gateway.
With option subnet-mask, specify the netmask assigned to clients.
The last section of the file defines a network, including a subnet mask. To finish,
specify the address range that the DHCP daemon should use to assign IP addresses to
interested clients. In Example 23.1, The Configuration File /etc/dhcpd.conf (page 388),
clients may be given any address between 192.168.2.10 and 192.168.2.20 as
well as 192.168.2.100 and 192.168.2.200.
After editing these few lines, you should be able to activate the DHCP daemon with
the command rcdhcpd start. It will be ready for use immediately. Use the command
rcdhcpd check-syntax to perform a brief syntax check. If you encounter any
unexpected problems with your configurationthe server aborts with an error or does
not return done on startyou should be able to find out what has gone wrong by
looking for information either in the main system log /var/log/messages or on
console 10 (Ctrl + Alt + F10).
On a default openSUSE system, the DHCP daemon is started in a chroot environment
for security reasons. The configuration files must be copied to the chroot environment
so the daemon can find them. Normally, there is no need to worry about this because
the command rcdhcpd start automatically copies the files.
23.3.1 Clients with Fixed IP Addresses

DHCP can also be used to assign a predefined, static address to a specific client. Addresses assigned explicitly always take priority over dynamic addresses from the pool.
A static address never expires in the way a dynamic address would, for example, if
DHCP
389
there were not enough addresses available and the server needed to redistribute them
among clients.
To identify a client configured with a static address, dhcpd uses the hardware address,
which is a globally unique, fixed numerical code consisting of six octet pairs for the
identification of all network devices (for example, 00:30:6E:08:EC:80). If the
respective lines, like the ones in Example 23.2, Additions to the Configuration File
(page 390), are added to the configuration file of Example 23.1, The Configuration
File /etc/dhcpd.conf (page 388), the DHCP daemon always assigns the same set of
data to the corresponding client.
Example 23.2 Additions to the Configuration File
host jupiter {
hardware ethernet 00:30:6E:08:EC:80;
fixed-address 192.168.2.100;
}
The name of the respective client (host hostname, here jupiter) is entered in
the first line and the MAC address in the second line. On Linux hosts, find the MAC
address with the command ip link show followed by the network device (for example, eth0). The output should contain something like
link/ether 00:30:6E:08:EC:80
In the preceding example, a client with a network card having the MAC address
00:30:6E:08:EC:80 is assigned the IP address 192.168.2.100 and the hostname
jupiter automatically. The type of hardware to enter is ethernet in nearly all
cases, although token-ring, which is often found on IBM systems, is also supported.
23.3.2 The openSUSE Version

To improve security, the openSUSE version of the ISC's DHCP server comes with the
non-root/chroot patch by Ari Edelkind applied. This enables dhcpd to run with the user
ID nobody and run in a chroot environment (/var/lib/dhcp). To make this possible, the configuration file dhcpd.conf must be located in /var/lib/dhcp/
etc. The init script automatically copies the file to this directory when starting.
Control the server's behavior regarding this feature by means of entries in the file /etc/
sysconfig/dhcpd. To run dhcpd without the chroot environment, set the variable
DHCPD_RUN_CHROOTED in /etc/sysconfig/dhcpd to no.
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To enable dhcpd to resolve hostnames even from within the chroot environment, some
other configuration files must be copied as well:
/etc/localtime
/etc/host.conf
/etc/hosts
/etc/resolv.conf
These files are copied to /var/lib/dhcp/etc/ when starting the init script. Take
these copies into account for any changes that they require if they are dynamically
modified by scripts like /etc/ppp/ip-up. However, there should be no need to
worry about this if the configuration file only specifies IP addresses (instead of hostnames).
If your configuration includes additional files that should be copied into the chroot environment, set these under the variable DHCPD_CONF_INCLUDE_FILES in the file
/etc/sysconfig/dhcpd. To ensure that the DHCP logging facility keeps working
even after a restart of the syslog-ng daemon, there is an additional entry
SYSLOGD_ADDITIONAL_SOCKET_DHCP in the file /etc/sysconfig/syslog.

More information about DHCP is available at the Web site of the Internet Systems
Consortium (http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP/). Information is also
available in the dhcpd, dhcpd.conf, dhcpd.leases, and dhcp-options man
pages.
DHCP
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Time Synchronization with

NTP
24
The NTP (network time protocol) mechanism is a protocol for synchronizing the system
time over the network. First, a machine can obtain the time from a server that is a reliable
time source. Second, a machine can itself act as a time source for other computers in
the network. The goal is twofoldmaintaining the absolute time and synchronizing
the system time of all machines within a network.
Maintaining an exact system time is important in many situations. The built-in hardware
(BIOS) clock does often not meet the requirements of applications like databases.
Manual correction of the system time would lead to severe problems because, for example, a backward leap can cause malfunction of critical applications. Within a network,
it is usually necessary to synchronize the system time of all machines, but manual time
adjustment is a bad approach. xntp provides a mechanism to solve these problems. It
continuously adjusts the system time with the help of reliable time servers in the network.
It further enables the management of local reference clocks, such as radio-controlled
clocks.
24.1 Configuring an NTP Client with

YaST
xntp is preset to use the local computer clock as a time reference. Using the (BIOS)
clock, however, only serves as a fallback for the case that no time source of greater
precision is available. YaST facilitates the configuration of an NTP client. For a system
that is not running a firewall, use either the quick or advanced configuration. For a
Time Synchronization with NTP
393
firewall-protected system, the advanced configuration can open the required ports in
SuSEfirewall2.
24.1.1 Quick NTP Client Configuration

The quick NTP client configuration (Network Services > NTP Configuration) consists
of two dialogs. Set the start mode of xntpd and the server to query in the first dialog.
To start xntpd automatically when the system is booted, click During Boot. Then
specify the NTP Server Configuration. Either click Use Random Servers from
pool.ntp.org if you cannot use a local time server or click Select to access a second dialog in which to select a suitable time server for your network.
Figure 24.1 YaST: Configuring an NTP Client
In the detailed server selection dialog, determine whether to implement time synchronization using a time server from your local network (Local NTP Server) or an Internetbased time server that takes care of your time zone (Public NTP Server). For a local
time server, click Lookup to start an SLP query for available time servers in your network. Select the most suitable time server from the list of search results and exit the
dialog with OK. For a public time server, select your country (time zone) and a suitable
server from the list under Public NTP Server then exit the dialog with OK. In the main
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dialog, test the availability of the selected server with Test and quit the dialog with
Finish.
24.1.2 Advanced NTP Client Configuration

The advanced configuration of an NTP client can be accessed under Advanced Configuration from the main dialog of the NTP Configuration module, shown in Figure 24.1,
YaST: Configuring an NTP Client (page 394), after selecting the start-up mode as
described in the quick configuration.
Figure 24.2 Advanced NTP Client Configuration: General Settings
On the General Settings tab, configure the mode of operation of xntpd. Configure NTP
Daemon via DHCP sets up the NTP client to get a list of the NTP servers available in
your network via DHCP.
The servers and other time sources for the client to query are listed in the lower part.
Modify this list as needed with Add, Edit, and Delete. Display Log provides the possibility to view the log files of your client.
395
Click Add to add a new source of time information. In the following dialog, select the
type of source with which the time synchronization should be made. The following
options are available:
Server
Another dialog enables you to select an NTP server (as described in Section 24.1.1,
Quick NTP Client Configuration (page 394)). Activate Use for Initial Synchronization to trigger the synchronization of the time information between the server
and the client when the system is booted. Options allows you to specify additional
options for xntpd.
Using Access Control Options, you can restrict the actions that the remote computer
can perform with the daemon running on your computer. This field is enabled only
after checking Restrict NTP Service to Configured Servers Only on the Security
Settings tab. The options correspond to the restrict clauses in /etc/ntp
.conf. For example, nomodify notrap noquery disallows the server to
modify NTP settings of your computer and to use the trap facility (a remote event
logging feature) of your NTP daemon. Using these restrictions is recommended
for servers out of your control (e.g., on the Internet).
Refer to /usr/share/doc/packages/xntp-doc (part of the xntp-doc
package) for detailed information.
Peer
A peer is a machine to which a symmetric relationship is established: it acts both
as a time server and as a client. To use a peer in the same network instead of a
server, enter the address of the system. The rest of the dialog is identical to the
Server dialog.
Radio Clock
To use a radio clock in your system for the time synchronization, enter the clock
type, unit number, device name, and other options in this dialog. Click Driver
Calibration to fine-tune the driver. Detailed information about the operation of a
local radio clock is available in /usr/share/doc/packages/xntp-doc/
refclock.html.
Outgoing Broadcast
Time information and queries can also be transmitted by broadcast in the network.
In this dialog, enter the address to which such broadcasts should be sent. Do not
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Reference
activate broadcasting unless you have a reliable time source like a radio controlled
clock.
Incoming Broadcast
If you want your client to receive its information via broadcast, enter the address
from which the respective packets should be accepted in this fields.
Figure 24.3 Advanced NTP Client Configuration: Security Settings
On the Security Settings tab, determine whether xntpd should be started in a chroot jail.
By default, Run NTP Daemon in Chroot Jail is activated. This increases the security
in the event of an attack over xntpd, because it prevents the attacker from compromising
the entire system.
Restrict NTP Service to Configured Servers Only increases the security of your system
by disallowing remote computers to view and modify NTP settings of your computer
and to use the trap facility for remote event logging. Once enabled, these restrictions
apply to all remote computers, unless you override the access control options for individual computers in the list of time sources on the General Settings tab. For all other
remote computers, only querying for local time is allowed.
Enable Open Port in Firewall if SuSEfirewall2 is active, which it is by default. If you
leave the port closed, it is not possible to establish a connection to the time server.
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24.2 Configuring xntp in the Network

The easiest way to use a time server in the network is to set server parameters. For example, if a time server called ntp.example.com is reachable from the network, add
its name to the file /etc/ntp.conf by adding the following line:
server ntp.example.com
To add more time servers, insert additional lines with the keyword server. After
initializing xntpd with the command rcntpd start, it takes about one hour until
the time is stabilized and the drift file for correcting the local computer clock is created.
With the drift file, the systematic error of the hardware clock can be computed as soon
as the computer is powered on. The correction is used immediately, resulting in a
higher stability of the system time.
There are two possible ways to use the NTP mechanism as a client: First, the client can
query the time from a known server in regular intervals. With many clients, this approach
can cause a high load on the server. Second, the client can wait for NTP broadcasts sent
out by broadcast time servers in the network. This approach has the disadvantage that
the quality of the server is unknown and a server sending out wrong information can
cause severe problems.
If the time is obtained via broadcast, you do not need the server name. In this case, enter
the line broadcastclient in the configuration file /etc/ntp.conf. To use one
or more known time servers exclusively, enter their names in the line starting with
servers.
24.3 Setting Up a Local Reference

Clock
The software package xntp contains drivers for connecting local reference clocks. A
list of supported clocks is available in the xntp-doc package in the file /usr/
share/doc/packages/xntp-doc/refclock.html. Every driver is associated
with a number. In xntp, the actual configuration takes place by means of pseudo IP
addresses. The clocks are entered in the file /etc/ntp.conf as though they existed
in the network. For this purpose, they are assigned special IP addresses in the form
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127.127.t.u. Here, t stands for the type of the clock and determines which driver
is used and u for the unit, which determines the interface used.
Normally, the individual drivers have special parameters that describe configuration
details. The file /usr/share/doc/packages/xntp-doc/drivers/driverNN
.html (where NN is the number of the driver) provides information about the particular
type of clock. For example, the type 8 clock (radio clock over serial interface) requires
an additional mode that specifies the clock more precisely. The Conrad DCF77 receiver
module, for example, has mode 5. To use this clock as a preferred reference, specify
the keyword prefer. The complete server line for a Conrad DCF77 receiver
module would be:
server 127.127.8.0 mode 5 prefer
Other clocks follow the same pattern. Following the installation of the xntp-doc
package, the documentation for xntp is available in the directory /usr/share/doc/
packages/xntp-doc. The file /usr/share/doc/packages/xntp-doc/
refclock.html provides links to the driver pages describing the driver parameters.
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25
Using NIS
As soon as multiple UNIX systems in a network want to access common resources, it

becomes important that all user and group identities are the same for all machines in
that network. The network should be transparent to users: whatever machines they use,
they always find themselves in exactly the same environment. This can be done by
means of NIS and NFS services. NFS distributes file systems over a network and is
discussed in Chapter 28, Sharing File Systems with NFS (page 455).
NIS (Network Information Service) can be described as a database-like service that
provides access to the contents of /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group
across networks. NIS can also be used for other purposes (making the contents of files
like /etc/hosts or /etc/services available, for example), but this is beyond
the scope of this introduction. People often refer to NIS as YP, because it works like
the network's yellow pages.
25.1 Configuring NIS Servers

To distribute NIS information across networks, you can either have one single server
(a master) that serves all clients or you can have NIS slave servers requesting this information from the master and relaying it to their respective clients.
To configure just one NIS server for your network, proceed with Section 25.1.1,
Configuring a NIS Master Server (page 402).
If your NIS master server should export its data to slave servers, set up the master
server as described in Section 25.1.1, Configuring a NIS Master Server (page 402)
Using NIS
401
and set up slave servers in the subnets as described in Section 25.1.2, Configuring
a NIS Slave Server (page 406).
25.1.1 Configuring a NIS Master Server

To configure a NIS master server for your network, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST > Network Services > NIS Server.
2 If you need just one NIS server in your network or if this server is to act as the
master for further NIS slave servers, select Install and set up NIS Master Server.
YaST installs the required packages.
TIP
If NIS server software is already installed on your machine, initiate the
creation of a NIS master server by clicking Create NIS Master Server.
Figure 25.1 NIS Server Setup
3 Determine basic NIS setup options:
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3a Enter the NIS domain name.

3b Define whether the host should also be a NIS client, enabling users to log in
and access data from the NIS server, by selecting This host is also a NIS
client.
Select Changing of passwords to allow users in your network (both local
users and those managed through the NIS server) to change their passwords
on the NIS server (with the command yppasswd).
This makes the options Allow Changes to GECOS Field and Allow Changes
to Login Shell available. GECOS means that the users can also change
their names and address settings with the command ypchfn. SHELL allows users to change their default shell with the command ypchsh, for example, to switch from bash to sh. The new shell must be one of the predefined
entries in /etc/shells.
3c If your NIS server should act as a master server to NIS slave servers in other
subnets, select Active Slave NIS Server exists.
3d Select Open Ports in Firewall to have YaST adapt the firewall settings for
the NIS server.
Figure 25.2 Master Server Setup
Using NIS
403
3e Leave this dialog with Next or click Other global settings to make additional
settings. Other global settings include changing the source directory of the
NIS server (/etc by default). In addition, passwords can be merged here.
The setting should be Yes so the files (/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow,
and /etc/group) are used to build the user database. Also determine the
smallest user and group ID that should be offered by NIS. Click OK to confirm your settings and return to the previous screen.
Figure 25.3 Changing the Directory and Synchronizing Files for a NIS Server
4 If you previously enabled Active Slave NIS Server Exists, enter the hostnames
used as slaves and click Next.
5 If you do not use slave servers, the slave configuration is skipped and you continue directly to the dialog for the database configuration. Here, specify the maps,
the partial databases to transfer from the NIS server to the client. The default
settings are usually adequate. Leave this dialog with Next.
6 Check which maps should be available and click Next to continue.
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Figure 25.4 NIS Server Maps Setup
7 Enter the hosts that are allowed to query the NIS server. You can add, edit, or
delete hosts by clicking the appropriate button. Specify from which networks
requests can be sent to the NIS server. Normally, this is your internal network.
In this case, there should be the following two entries:
255.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
127.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
The first entry enables connections from your own host, which is the NIS server.
The second one allows all hosts to send requests to the server.
Using NIS
405
Figure 25.5 Setting Request Permissions for a NIS Server
8 Click Finish to save changes and exit the setup.
25.1.2 Configuring a NIS Slave Server

To configure additional NIS slave servers in your network, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST > Network Services > NIS Server.
2 Select Install and set up NIS Slave Server and click Next.
TIP
If NIS server software is already installed on your machine, initiate the
creation of a NIS slave server by clicking Create NIS Slave Server.
3 Complete the basic setup of your NIS slave server:
3a Enter the NIS domain.
3b Enter hostname or IP address of the master server.
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3c Set This host is also a NIS client if you want to enable user logins on this
server.
3d Adapt the firewall settings with Open Ports in Firewall.
3e Click Next.
4 Enter the hosts that are allowed to query the NIS server. You can add, edit, or
delete hosts by clicking the appropriate button. Specify from which networks
requests can be sent to the NIS server. Normally, this is all hosts. In this case,
there should be the following two entries:
255.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
127.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
The first entry enables connections from your own host, which is the NIS server.
The second one allows all hosts with access to the same network to send requests
to the server.
5 Click Finish to save changes and exit the setup.
25.2 Configuring NIS Clients

Use the YaST module NIS Client to configure a workstation to use NIS. Select whether
the host has a static IP address or receives one issued by DHCP. DHCP can also provide
the NIS domain and the NIS server. For information about DHCP, see Chapter 23,
DHCP (page 375). If a static IP address is used, specify the NIS domain and the NIS
server manually. See Figure 25.6, Setting Domain and Address of a NIS Server
(page 408). Find makes YaST search for an active NIS server in your whole network.
Depending on the size of your local network, this may be a time-consuming process.
Broadcast asks for a NIS server in the local network after the specified servers fail to
respond.
You can also specify multiple servers by entering their addresses in Addresses of NIS
servers and separating them by spaces.
Depending on your local installation, you may also want to activate the automounter.
This option also installs additional software if required.
Using NIS
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In the expert settings, disable Answer Remote Hosts if you do not want other hosts to
be able to query which server your client is using. By checking Broken Server, the client
is enabled to receive replies from a server communicating through an unprivileged port.
For further information, see man ypbind.
After you have made your settings, click Finish to save them and return to the YaST
control center.
Figure 25.6 Setting Domain and Address of a NIS Server
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LDAPA Directory Service
26
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a set of protocols designed to

access and maintain information directories. LDAP can be used for numerous purposes,
such as user and group management, system configuration management, or address
management. This chapter provides a basic understanding of how OpenLDAP works
and how to manage LDAP data with YaST. While there are several implementations
of the LDAP protocol, this chapter focuses entirely on the OpenLDAP implementation.
It is crucial within a networked environment to keep important information structured
and quickly available. This can be done with a directory service that, like the common
yellow pages, keeps information available in a well-structured, quickly searchable form.
In the ideal case, a central server keeps the data in a directory and distributes it to all
clients using a certain protocol. The data is structured in a way that allows a wide range
of applications to access it. That way, it is not necessary for every single calendar tool
and e-mail client to keep its own databasea central repository can be accessed instead.
This notably reduces the administration effort for the information. The use of an open
and standardized protocol like LDAP ensures that as many different client applications
as possible can access such information.
A directory in this context is a type of database optimized for quick and effective
reading and searching:
To make numerous concurrent reading accesses possible, write access is limited
to a small number of updates by the administrator. Conventional databases are optimized for accepting the largest possible data volume in a short time.
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Because write accesses can only be executed in a restricted fashion, a directory

service is used to administer mostly unchanging, static information. Data in a conventional database typically changes very often (dynamic data). Phone numbers in
a company directory do not change nearly as often as, for example, the figures administered in accounting.
When static data is administered, updates of the existing data sets are very rare.
When working with dynamic data, especially when data sets like bank accounts or
accounting are concerned, the consistency of the data is of primary importance. If
an amount should be subtracted from one place to be added to another, both operations must happen concurrently, within a transaction, to ensure balance over the
data stock. Databases support such transactions. Directories do not. Short-term inconsistencies of the data are quite acceptable in directories.
The design of a directory service like LDAP is not laid out to support complex update
or query mechanisms. All applications accessing this service should gain access
quickly and easily.
26.1 LDAP versus NIS

The Unix system administrator traditionally uses the NIS service for name resolution
and data distribution in a network. The configuration data contained in the files in /etc
and the directories group, hosts, mail, netgroup, networks, passwd,
printcap, protocols, rpc, and services are distributed by clients all over the
network. These files can be maintained without major effort because they are simple
text files. The handling of larger amounts of data, however, becomes increasingly difficult due to nonexistent structuring. NIS is only designed for Unix platforms. This
means it is not suitable as a centralized data administration tool in heterogeneous networks.
Unlike NIS, the LDAP service is not restricted to pure Unix networks. Windows servers
(from 2000) support LDAP as a directory service. Application tasks mentioned above
are additionally supported in non-Unix systems.
The LDAP principle can be applied to any data structure that should be centrally administered. A few application examples are:
Employment as a replacement for the NIS service
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Mail routing (postfix, sendmail)

Address books for mail clients, like Mozilla, Evolution, and Outlook
Administration of zone descriptions for a BIND9 name server
User authentication with Samba in heterogeneous networks
This list can be extended because LDAP is extensible, unlike NIS. The clearly-defined
hierarchical structure of the data eases the administration of large amounts of data, because it can be searched more easily.
26.2 Structure of an LDAP Directory

Tree
To get a deep background knowledge on how a LDAP server works and how the data
are stored, it is vital to understand the way the data are organized on the server and how
this structure enables LDAP to provide fast access to the data you need. To successfully
operate an LDAP setup, you also need to be familiar with some basic LDAP terminology. This section introduces the basic layout of an LDAP directory tree and provides
the basic terminology used in an LDAP context. Skip this introductory section, if you
already have some LDAP background knowledge and just want to learn how to set up
an LDAP environment in openSUSE. Read on at Section 26.3, Configuring an LDAP
Server with YaST (page 414) or Section 26.7, Manually Configuring an LDAP Server
(page 429), respectively.
An LDAP directory has a tree structure. All entries (called objects) of the directory
have a defined position within this hierarchy. This hierarchy is called the directory information tree (DIT). The complete path to the desired entry, which unambiguously
identifies it, is called distinguished name or DN. A single node along the path to this
entry is called relative distinguished name or RDN. Objects can generally be assigned
to one of two possible types:
container
These objects can themselves contain other objects. Such object classes are root
(the root element of the directory tree, which does not really exist), c (country),
ou (organizational unit), and dc (domain component). This model is comparable
to the directories (folders) in a file system.
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leaf
These objects sit at the end of a branch and have no subordinate objects. Examples
are person, InetOrgPerson, or groupofNames.
The top of the directory hierarchy has a root element root. This can contain c (country),
dc (domain component), or o (organization) as subordinate elements. The relations
within an LDAP directory tree become more evident in the following example, shown
in Figure 26.1, Structure of an LDAP Directory (page 412).
Figure 26.1 Structure of an LDAP Directory
dc=example,dc=com
ou=devel
ou=doc
cn=Tux Linux
ou=it
cn=Geeko Linux
The complete diagram is a fictional directory information tree. The entries on three
levels are depicted. Each entry corresponds to one box in the picture. The complete,
valid distinguished name for the fictional employee Geeko Linux, in this case, is
cn=Geeko Linux,ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com. It is composed by adding
the RDN cn=Geeko Linux to the DN of the preceding entry
ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com.
The types of objects that should be stored in the DIT are globally determined following
a scheme. The type of an object is determined by the object class. The object class determines what attributes the concerned object must or can be assigned. A scheme,
therefore, must contain definitions of all object classes and attributes used in the desired
application scenario. There are a few common schemes (see RFC 2252 and 2256). It
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is, however, possible to create custom schemes or to use multiple schemes complementing each other if this is required by the environment in which the LDAP server should
operate.
Table 26.1, Commonly Used Object Classes and Attributes (page 413) offers a small
overview of the object classes from core.schema and inetorgperson.schema
used in the example, including required attributes and valid attribute values.
Table 26.1
Commonly Used Object Classes and Attributes
Object Class
Meaning
Example Entry
Required Attributes
dcObject
domainComponent (name
components of the domain)
example
dc
organizationalUnit
organizationalUnit (organizational unit)
doc
ou
inetOrgPerson
inetOrgPerson (person-related Geeko Linux

data for the intranet or Internet)
sn and cn
Example 26.1, Excerpt from schema.core (page 413) shows an excerpt from a scheme
directive with explanations (line numbering for explanatory reasons).
Example 26.1 Excerpt from schema.core
#1 attributetype (2.5.4.11 NAME ( 'ou' 'organizationalUnitName')
#2
DESC 'RFC2256: organizational unit this object belongs to'
#3
SUP name )
...
#4 objectclass ( 2.5.6.5 NAME 'organizationalUnit'
#5
DESC 'RFC2256: an organizational unit'
#6
SUP top STRUCTURAL
#7
MUST ou
#8 MAY (userPassword $ searchGuide $ seeAlso $ businessCategory
$ x121Address $ registeredAddress $ destinationIndicator
$ preferredDeliveryMethod $ telexNumber
$ teletexTerminalIdentifier $ telephoneNumber
$ internationaliSDNNumber $ facsimileTelephoneNumber
$ street $ postOfficeBox $ postalCode $ postalAddress
$ physicalDeliveryOfficeName
$ st $ l $ description) )
...
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The attribute type organizationalUnitName and the corresponding object class

organizationalUnit serve as an example here. Line 1 features the name of the
attribute, its unique OID (object identifier) (numerical), and the abbreviation of the attribute.
Line 2 gives a brief description of the attribute with DESC. The corresponding RFC on
which the definition is based is also mentioned here. SUP in line 3 indicates a superordinate attribute type to which this attribute belongs.
The definition of the object class organizationalUnit begins in line 4, like in
the definition of the attribute, with an OID and the name of the object class. Line 5
features a brief description of the object class. Line 6, with its entry SUP top, indicates
that this object class is not subordinate to another object class. Line 7, starting with
MUST, lists all attribute types that must be used in conjunction with an object of the
type organizationalUnit. Line 8, starting with MAY, lists all attribute types that
are permitted in conjunction with this object class.
A very good introduction to the use of schemes can be found in the documentation of
OpenLDAP. When installed, find it in /usr/share/doc/packages/openldap2/
admin-guide/index.html.
26.3 Configuring an LDAP Server with

YaST
Use YaST to set up an LDAP server. Typical use cases for LDAP servers include the
management of user account data and the configuration of mail, DNS, and DHCP
servers.
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Figure 26.2 YaST LDAP Server Configuration
To set up an LDAP server for user account data, proceed as follows:

1 Log in as root.
2 Start YaST and select Network Services > LDAP Server.
3 Set LDAP to be started at system boot.
4 If the LDAP server should announce its services via SLP, check Register at an
SLP Daemon.
5 Select Configure to configure General Settings and Databases.
To configure the Global Settings of your LDAP server, proceed as follows:
1 Accept or modify the schema files included in the server's configuration by selecting Schema Files in the left part of the dialog. The default selection of schema
files applies to the server providing a source of YaST user account data.
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2 With Log Level Settings, configure the degree of logging activity (verbosity) of
the LDAP server. From the predefined list, select or deselect the logging options
according to your needs. The more options are enabled, the larger your log files
grow.
3 Determine the connection types the LDAP server should allow. Choose from:
bind_v2
This option enables connection requests (bind requests) from clients using
the previous version of the protocol (LDAPv2).
bind_anon_cred
Normally the LDAP server denies any authentication attempts with empty
credentials (DN or password). Enabling this option, however, makes it possible to connect with a password and no DN to establish an anonymous
connection.
bind_anon_dn
Enabling this option makes it possible to connect without authentication
(anonymously) using a DN but no password.
update_anon
Enabling this option allows non-authenticated (anonymous) update operations.
Access is restricted according to ACLs and other rules (see Section 26.7.1,
Global Directives in slapd.conf (page 430)).
4 To configure secure communication between client and server, proceed with TLS
Settings:
4a Set TLS Active to Yes to enable TLS and SSL encryption of the client/server
communication.
4b Click Select Certificate and determine how to obtain a valid certificate.
Choose Import Certificate (import certificate from external source) or Use
Common Server Certificate (use the certificate created during installation).
If you opted for importing a certificate, YaST prompts you to specify
the exact path to its location.
If you opted for using the common server certificate and it has not been
created during installation, it is subsequently created.
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To configure the databases managed by your LDAP server, proceed as follows:

1 Select the Databases item in the left part of the dialog.
2 Click Add Database to add the new database.
3 Enter the requested data:
Base DN
Enter the base DN of your LDAP server.
Root DN
Enter the DN of the administrator in charge of the server. If you check Append
Base DN, only provide the cn of the administrator and the system fills in
the rest automatically.
LDAP Password
Enter the password for the database administrator.
Encryption
Determine the encryption algorithm to use to secure the password of Root
DN. Choose crypt, smd5, ssha, or sha. The dialog also includes a plain option
to enable the use of plain text passwords, but enabling this is not recommended for security reasons. To confirm your settings and return to the previous
dialog, select OK.
4 Enable enforcement of password policies to provide extra security to your LDAP
server:
4a Select Password Policy Settings to be able to specify a password policy.
4b Activate Hash Clear Text Passwords to have clear text passwords be hashed
before they are written to the database whenever they are added or modified.
4c Disclose Account Locked Status provides a meaningful error message to bind
requests to locked accounts.
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WARNING: Locked Accounts in Security Sensitive Environments

Do not use the Disclose Account Locked Status option if your environment is sensitive to security issues, because the Locked Account
error message provides security sensitive information that can be
exploited by a potential attacker.
4d Enter the DN of the default policy object. To use a DN other than the one
suggested by YaST, enter your choice. Otherwise accept the default setting.
5 Complete the database configuration by clicking Finish.
If you have not opted for password policies, your server is ready to run at this point. If
you chose to enable password policies, proceed with the configuration of the password
policy in detail. If you chose a password policy object that does not yet exist, YaST
creates one:
1 Enter the LDAP server password.
2 Configure the password change policies:
2a Determine the number of passwords stored in the password history. Saved
passwords may not be reused by the user.
2b Determine whether users can change their password and whether they need
to change their password after a reset by the administrator. Optionally require
the old password for password changes.
2c Determine whether and to what extent passwords should be subject to quality checking. Set a minimum password length that must be met before a
password is valid. If you select Accept Uncheckable Passwords, users are
allowed to use encrypted passwords although the quality checks cannot be
performed. If you opt for Only Accept Checked Passwords only those passwords that pass the quality tests are accepted as valid.
3 Configure the password aging policies:
3a Determine the minimum password age (the time that needs to pass between
two valid password changes) and the maximum password age.
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3b Determine the time between a password expiration warning and the actual
password expiration.
3c Set the number of postponement uses of an expired password before the
password expires entirely.
4 Configure the lockout policies:
4a Enable password locking.
4b Determine the number of bind failures that trigger a password lock.
4c Determine the duration of the password lock.
4d Determine for how long password failures are kept in the cache before they
are purged.
5 Apply your password policy settings with Accept.
To edit a previously created database, select its base DN in the tree to the left. In the
right part of the window, YaST displays a dialog similar to the one used for the creation
of a new databasewith the main difference that the base DN entry is grayed out and
cannot be changed.
After leaving the LDAP server configuration by selecting Finish, you are ready to go
with a basic working configuration for your LDAP server. To fine-tune this setup, edit
the file /etc/openldap/slapd.conf accordingly then restart the server.
26.4 Configuring an LDAP Client with

YaST
YaST includes a module to set up LDAP-based user management. If you did not enable
this feature during the installation, start the module by selecting Network Services >
LDAP Client. YaST automatically enables any PAM and NSS related changes as required
by LDAP and installs the necessary files. Simply connect your client to the server and
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let YaST manage users over LDAP. This basic setup is described in Section 26.4.1,
Configuring Basic Settings (page 420).
Use the YaST LDAP client to further configure the YaST group and user configuration
modules. This includes manipulating the default settings for new users and groups and
the number and nature of the attributes assigned to a user or a group. LDAP user management allows you to assign far more and different attributes to users and groups than
traditional user or group management solutions. This is described in Section 26.4.2,
Configuring the YaST Group and User Administration Modules (page 423).
26.4.1 Configuring Basic Settings

The basic LDAP client configuration dialog (Figure 26.3, YaST: Configuration of the
LDAP Client (page 420)) opens during installation if you choose LDAP user management or when you select Network Services > LDAP Client in the YaST Control Center
in the installed system.
Figure 26.3 YaST: Configuration of the LDAP Client
To authenticate users of your machine against an OpenLDAP server and enable user
management via OpenLDAP, proceed as follows:
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1 Click Use LDAP to enable the use of LDAP. Select Use LDAP but Disable Logins
instead if you want to use LDAP for authentication, but do not want other users
to log in to this client.
2 Enter the IP address of the LDAP server to use.
3 Enter the LDAP base DN to select the search base on the LDAP server. To retrieve
the base DN automatically, click Fetch DN. YaST then checks for any LDAP
database on the server address specified above. Choose the appropriate base DN
from the search results given by YaST.
4 If TLS or SSL protected communication with the server is required, select LDAP
TLS/SSL.
5 If the LDAP server still uses LDAPv2, explicitly enable the use of this protocol
version by selecting LDAP Version 2.
6 Select Start Automounter to mount remote directories on your client, such as a
remotely managed /home.
7 Select Create Home Directory on Login to have a user's home automatically
created on the first user login.
8 Click Finish to apply your settings.
To modify data on the server as administrator, click Advanced Configuration. The following dialog is split in two tabs. See Figure 26.4, YaST: Advanced Configuration
(page 422).
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Figure 26.4 YaST: Advanced Configuration
1 In the Client Settings tab, adjust the following settings to your needs:
1a If the search base for users, passwords, and groups differs from the global
search base specified the LDAP base DN, enter these different naming contexts in User Map, Password Map, and Group Map.
1b Specify the password change protocol. The standard method to use whenever
a password is changed is crypt, meaning that password hashes generated
by crypt are used. For details on this and other options, refer to the
pam_ldap man page.
1c Specify the LDAP group to use with Group Member Attribute. The default
value for this is member.
2 In Administration Settings, adjust the following settings:
2a Set the base for storing your user management data via Configuration Base
DN.
2b Enter the appropriate value for Administrator DN. This DN must be identical
with the rootdn value specified in /etc/openldap/slapd.conf to
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enable this particular user to manipulate data stored on the LDAP server.
Enter the full DN (such as cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com)
or activate Append Base DN to have the base DN added automatically when
you enter cn=Administrator.
2c Check Create Default Configuration Objects to create the basic configuration
objects on the server to enable user management via LDAP.
2d If your client machine should act as a file server for home directories across
your network, check Home Directories on This Machine.
2e Use the Password Policy section to select, add, delete, or modify the password
policy settings to use. The configuration of password policies with YaST is
part of the LDAP server setup.
2f Click Accept to leave the Advanced Configuration then Finish to apply your
settings.
Use Configure User Management Settings to edit entries on the LDAP server. Access
to the configuration modules on the server is then granted according to the ACLs and
ACIs stored on the server. Follow the procedures outlined in Section 26.4.2, Configuring the YaST Group and User Administration Modules (page 423).
26.4.2 Configuring the YaST Group and User

Administration Modules
Use the YaST LDAP client to adapt the YaST modules for user and group administration
and to extend them as needed. Define templates with default values for the individual
attributes to simplify the data registration. The presets created here are stored as LDAP
objects in the LDAP directory. The registration of user data is still done with the regular
YaST modules for user and group management. The registered data is stored as LDAP
objects on the server.
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Figure 26.5 YaST: Module Configuration
The dialog for module configuration (Figure 26.5, YaST: Module Configuration
(page 424)) allows the creation of new modules, selection and modification of existing
configuration modules, and design and modification of templates for such modules.
To create a new configuration module, proceed as follows:
1 Click New and select the type of module to create. For a user configuration
module, select suseuserconfiguration and for a group configuration
choose susegroupconfiguration.
2 Choose a name for the new template. The content view then features a table
listing all attributes allowed in this module with their assigned values. Apart from
all set attributes, the list also contains all other attributes allowed by the current
schema but currently not used.
3 Accept the preset values or adjust the defaults to use in group and user configuration by selecting the respective attribute, pressing Edit, and entering the new
value. Rename a module by simply changing the cn attribute of the module.
Clicking Delete deletes the currently selected module.
4 After you click Accept, the new module is added to the selection menu.
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The YaST modules for group and user administration embed templates with sensible
standard values. To edit a template associated with a configuration module, proceed
as follows:
1 In the Module Configuration dialog, click Configure Template.
2 Determine the values of the general attributes assigned to this template according
to your needs or leave some of them empty. Empty attributes are deleted on the
LDAP server.
3 Modify, delete, or add new default values for new objects (user or group configuration objects in the LDAP tree).
Figure 26.6 YaST: Configuration of an Object Template
Connect the template to its module by setting the susedefaulttemplate attribute

value of the module to the DN of the adapted template.
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TIP
The default values for an attribute can be created from other attributes by
using a variable instead of an absolute value. For example, when creating a
new user, cn=%sn %givenName is created automatically from the attribute
values for sn and givenName.
Once all modules and templates are configured correctly and ready to run, new groups
and users can be registered in the usual way with YaST.
26.5 Configuring LDAP Users and

Groups in YaST
The actual registration of user and group data differs only slightly from the procedure
when not using LDAP. The following brief instructions relate to the administration of
users. The procedure for administering groups is analogous.
1 Access the YaST user administration with Security & Users > User Administration.
2 Use Set Filter to limit the view of users to the LDAP users and enter the password
for Root DN.
3 Click Add and enter the configuration of a new user. A dialog with four tabs
opens:
3a Specify username, login, and password in the User Data tab.
3b Check the Details tab for the group membership, login shell, and home directory of the new user. If necessary, change the default to values that better
suit your needs. The default values as well as those of the password settings
can be defined with the procedure described in Section 26.4.2, Configuring
the YaST Group and User Administration Modules (page 423).
3c Modify or accept the default Password Settings.
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Reference
3d Enter the Plug-Ins tab, select the LDAP plug-in, and click Launch to configure additional LDAP attributes assigned to the new user (see Figure 26.7,
YaST: Additional LDAP Settings (page 427)).
4 Click Accept to apply your settings and leave the user configuration.
Figure 26.7 YaST: Additional LDAP Settings
The initial input form of user administration offers LDAP Options. This gives the possibility to apply LDAP search filters to the set of available users or go to the module
for the configuration of LDAP users and groups by selecting LDAP User and Group
Configuration.
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26.6 Browsing the LDAP Directory

Tree
To browse the LDAP directory tree and all its entries conveniently, use the YaST LDAP
Browser:
1 Log in as root.
2 Start YaST > Network Services > LDAP Browser.
3 Enter the address of the LDAP server, the AdministratorDN, and the password
for the RootDN of this server if you need both to read and write the data stored
on the server.
Alternatively, choose Anonymous Access and do not provide the password to
gain read access to the directory.
The LDAP Tree tab displays the content of the LDAP directory to which your
machine connected. Click items to unfold their subitems.
Figure 26.8 Browsing the LDAP Directory Tree
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Reference
4 To view any of the entries in detail, select it in the LDAP Tree view and open
the Entry Data tab.
All attributes and values associated with this entry are displayed.
Figure 26.9 Browsing the Entry Data
5 To change the value of any of these attributes, select the attribute, click Edit,
enter the new value, click Save, and provide the RootDN password when
prompted.
6 Leave the LDAP browser with Close.
26.7 Manually Configuring an LDAP

Server
Your installed system contains a complete configuration file for your LDAP server at
/etc/openldap/slapd.conf. The single entries are briefly described here and
necessary adjustments are explained. Entries prefixed with a hash (#) are inactive. This
comment character must be removed to activate them.
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26.7.1 Global Directives in slapd.conf

Example 26.2 slapd.conf: Include Directive for Schemes
include
include
include
include
include
/etc/openldap/schema/core.schema
/etc/openldap/schema/cosine.schema
/etc/openldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
/etc/openldap/schema/rfc2307bis.schema
/etc/openldap/schema/yast.schema
This first directive in slapd.conf, shown in Example 26.2, slapd.conf: Include

Directive for Schemes (page 430), specifies the scheme by which the LDAP directory
is organized. The entry core.schema is required. Additionally required schemes are
appended to this directive. Find information in the included OpenLDAP documentation.
Example 26.3 slapd.conf: pidfile and argsfile
pidfile /var/run/slapd/slapd.pid
argsfile /var/run/slapd/slapd.args
These two files contain the PID (process ID) and some of the arguments the slapd
process is started with. There is no need for modifications here.
Example 26.4 slapd.conf: Access Control
# Sample Access Control
#
Allow read access of root DSE
# Allow self write access
#
Allow authenticated users read access
#
Allow anonymous users to authenticate
# access to dn="" by * read
access to * by self write
by users read
by anonymous auth
#
# if no access controls are present, the default is:
#
Allow read by all
#
# rootdn can always write!
Example 26.4, slapd.conf: Access Control (page 430) is the excerpt from slapd
.conf that regulates the access permissions for the LDAP directory on the server. The
settings made here in the global section of slapd.conf are valid as long as no custom
access rules are declared in the database-specific section. These would overwrite the
global declarations. As presented here, all users have read access to the directory, but
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Reference
only the administrator (rootdn) can write to this directory. Access control regulation
in LDAP is a highly complex process. The following tips can help:
Every access rule has the following structure:
access to <what> by <who> <access>
what is a placeholder for the object or attribute to which access is granted. Individual directory branches can be protected explicitly with separate rules. It is also
possible to process regions of the directory tree with one rule by using regular expressions. slapd evaluates all rules in the order in which they are listed in the
configuration file. More general rules should be listed after more specific onesthe
first rule slapd regards as valid is evaluated and all following entries are ignored.
who determines who should be granted access to the areas determined with what.
Regular expressions may be used. slapd again aborts the evaluation of who after
the first match, so more specific rules should be listed before the more general ones.
The entries shown in Table 26.2, User Groups and Their Access Grants (page 431)
are possible.
Table 26.2
User Groups and Their Access Grants
Tag
Scope
All users without exception
anonymous
Not authenticated (anonymous) users
users
Authenticated users
self
Users connected with the target object
dn.regex=<regex>
All users matching the regular expression
access specifies the type of access. Use the options listed in Table 26.3, Types
of Access (page 432).
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Table 26.3
Types of Access
Tag
Scope of Access
none
No access
auth
For contacting the server
compare
To objects for comparison access
search
For the employment of search filters
read
Read access
write
Write access
slapd compares the access right requested by the client with those granted in
slapd.conf. The client is granted access if the rules allow a higher or equal
right than the requested one. If the client requests higher rights than those declared
in the rules, it is denied access.
Example 26.5, slapd.conf: Example for Access Control (page 432) shows an example
of a simple access control that can be arbitrarily developed using regular expressions.
Example 26.5 slapd.conf: Example for Access Control
access to dn.regex="ou=([^,]+),dc=example,dc=com"
by dn.regex="cn=Administrator,ou=$1,dc=example,dc=com" write
by user read
by * none
This rule declares that only its respective administrator has write access to an individual
ou entry. All other authenticated users have read access and the rest of the world has
no access.
TIP: Establishing Access Rules
If there is no access to rule or no matching by directive, access is denied.
Only explicitly declared access rights are granted. If no rules are declared at
all, the default principle is write access for the administrator and read access
for the rest of the world.
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Reference
Find detailed information and an example configuration for LDAP access rights in the
online documentation of the installed openldap2 package.
Apart from the possibility to administer access permissions with the central server
configuration file (slapd.conf), there is access control information (ACI). ACI allows
storage of the access information for individual objects within the LDAP tree. This type
of access control is not yet common and is still considered experimental by the developers. Refer to http://www.openldap.org/faq/data/cache/758.html
for information.
26.7.2 Database-Specific Directives in

slapd.conf
Example 26.6 slapd.conf: Database-Specific Directives
database bdb
suffix "dc=example,dc=com"
checkpoint
1024
5
cachesize
10000
rootdn "cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com"
# Cleartext passwords, especially for the rootdn, should
# be avoided. See slappasswd(8) and slapd.conf(5) for details.
# Use of strong authentication encouraged.
rootpw secret
# The database directory MUST exist prior to running slapd AND
# should only be accessible by the slapd/tools. Mode 700 recommended.
directory /var/lib/ldap
# Indices to maintain
index
objectClass
eq
overlay ppolicy
ppolicy_default "cn=Default Password Policy,dc=example,dc=com"
ppolicy_hash_cleartext
ppolicy_use_lockout
The type of database, a Berkeley database in this case, is set in the first line of
this section (see Example 26.6, slapd.conf: Database-Specific Directives
(page 433)).
suffix determines for which portion of the LDAP tree this server should be
responsible.
checkpoint determines the amount of data (in KB) that is kept in the transaction
log before it is written to the actual database and the time (in minutes) between
two write actions.
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cachesize sets the number of objects kept in the database's cache.
rootdn determines who owns administrator rights to this server. The user declared
here does not need to have an LDAP entry or exist as regular user.
rootpw sets the administrator password. Instead of using secret here, it is

possible to enter the hash of the administrator password created by slappasswd.
The directory directive indicates the directory in the file system where the
database directories are stored on the server.
The last directive, index objectClass eq, results in the maintenance of

an index of all object classes. Attributes for which users search most often can be
added here according to experience.
overlay ppolicy adds a layer of password control mechanisms.

ppolicy_default specifies the DN of the pwdPolicy object to use when no
specific policy is set on a given user's entry. If there is no specific policy for an
entry and no default is given, no policies are enforced.
ppolicy_hash_cleartext specifies that clear text passwords present in
add and modify requests are hashed before being stored in the database. When
this option is used, it is recommended to deny compare, search, and read access
to the userPassword attribute for all directory users, because
ppolicy_hash_cleartext violates the X.500/LDAP information model.
ppolicy_use_lockout sends a specific error code when a client tries to
connect to a locked account. When your site is sensitive to security issues, disable
this option as the error code provides useful information to attackers.
Custom Access rules defined here for the database are used instead of the global
Access rules.
26.7.3 Starting and Stopping the Servers

Once the LDAP server is fully configured and all desired entries have been made according to the pattern described in Section 26.8, Manually Administering LDAP Data
(page 435), start the LDAP server as root by entering rcldap start. To stop the
server manually, enter the command rcldap stop. Request the status of the running
LDAP server with rcldap status.
The YaST runlevel editor, described in Section 12.2.3, Configuring System Services
(Runlevel) with YaST (page 190), can be used to have the server started and stopped
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Reference
automatically on boot and halt of the system. It is also possible to create the corresponding links to the start and stop scripts with the insserv command from a command
prompt as described in Section 12.2.2, Init Scripts (page 186).
26.8 Manually Administering LDAP

Data
OpenLDAP offers a series of tools for the administration of data in the LDAP directory.
The four most important tools for adding to, deleting from, searching through and
modifying the data stock are explained below.
26.8.1 Inserting Data into an LDAP Directory

Once the configuration of your LDAP server in /etc/openldap/slapd.conf is
correct and ready to go (it features appropriate entries for suffix, directory,
rootdn, rootpw and index), proceed to entering records. OpenLDAP offers the
ldapadd command for this task. If possible, add the objects to the database in bundles
for practical reasons. LDAP is able to process the LDIF format (LDAP data interchange
format) for this. An LDIF file is a simple text file that can contain an arbitrary number
of attribute and value pairs. Refer to the schema files declared in slapd.conf for
the available object classes and attributes. The LDIF file for creating a rough framework
for the example in Figure 26.1, Structure of an LDAP Directory (page 412) would
look like that in Example 26.7, Example for an LDIF File (page 436).
IMPORTANT: Encoding of LDIF Files
LDAP works with UTF-8 (Unicode). Umlauts must be encoded correctly. Use
an editor that supports UTF-8, such as Kate or recent versions of Emacs. Otherwise, avoid umlauts and other special characters or use recode to recode the
input to UTF-8.
435
Example 26.7 Example for an LDIF File

# The Organization
dn: dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: Example dc: example
# The organizational unit development (devel)
dn: ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: devel
# The organizational unit documentation (doc)
dn: ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com
ou: doc
# The organizational unit internal IT (it)
dn: ou=it,dc=example,dc=com
ou: it
Save the file with the .ldif suffix then pass it to the server with the following command:
ldapadd -x -D <dn of the administrator> -W -f <file>.ldif
-x switches off the authentication with SASL in this case. -D declares the user that
calls the operation. The valid DN of the administrator is entered here just like it has
been configured in slapd.conf. In the current example, this is
cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com. -W circumvents entering the password on the command line (in clear text) and activates a separate password prompt.
This password was previously determined in slapd.conf with rootpw. The -f
option passes the filename. See the details of running ldapadd in Example 26.8,
ldapadd with example.ldif (page 436).
Example 26.8 ldapadd with example.ldif
ldapadd -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W -f example.ldif
Enter LDAP
adding new
adding new
adding new
adding new
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Reference
password:
entry "dc=example,dc=com"
entry "ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com"
entry "ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com"
entry "ou=it,dc=example,dc=com"
The user data of individuals can be prepared in separate LDIF files. Example 26.9,
LDIF Data for Tux (page 437) adds Tux to the new LDAP directory.
Example 26.9 LDIF Data for Tux
# coworker Tux
dn: cn=Tux Linux,ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
cn: Tux Linux
givenName: Tux
sn: Linux
mail: [email protected]
uid: tux
telephoneNumber: +49 1234 567-8
An LDIF file can contain an arbitrary number of objects. It is possible to pass entire
directory branches to the server at once or only parts of it as shown in the example of
individual objects. If it is necessary to modify some data relatively often, a fine subdivision of single objects is recommended.
26.8.2 Modifying Data in the LDAP Directory

The tool ldapmodify is provided for modifying the data stock. The easiest way to
do this is to modify the corresponding LDIF file then pass this modified file to the
LDAP server. To change the telephone number of colleague Tux from +49 1234
567-8 to +49 1234 567-10, edit the LDIF file like in Example 26.10, Modified
LDIF File tux.ldif (page 437).
Example 26.10 Modified LDIF File tux.ldif
# coworker Tux
changetype: modify
replace: telephoneNumber
Import the modified file into the LDAP directory with the following command:
ldapmodify -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W -f tux.ldif
Alternatively, pass the attributes to change directly to ldapmodify. The procedure

for this is described below:
1 Start ldapmodify and enter your password:
437
ldapmodify -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W
Enter LDAP password:
2 Enter the changes while carefully complying with the syntax in the order presented
below:
changetype: modify
replace: telephoneNumber
Find detailed information about ldapmodify and its syntax in the ldapmodify
man page.
26.8.3 Searching or Reading Data from an

LDAP Directory
OpenLDAP provides, with ldapsearch, a command line tool for searching data
within an LDAP directory and reading data from it. A simple query would have the
following syntax:
ldapsearch -x -b dc=example,dc=com "(objectClass=*)"
The -b option determines the search basethe section of the tree within which the
search should be performed. In the current case, this is dc=example,dc=com. To
perform a more finely-grained search in specific subsections of the LDAP directory
(for example, only within the devel department), pass this section to ldapsearch
with -b. -x requests activation of simple authentication. (objectClass=*) declares
that all objects contained in the directory should be read. This command option can be
used after the creation of a new directory tree to verify that all entries have been
recorded correctly and the server responds as desired. Find more information about the
use of ldapsearch in the corresponding man page (ldapsearch(1)).
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Reference
26.8.4 Deleting Data from an LDAP

Directory
Delete unwanted entries with ldapdelete. The syntax is similar to that of the other
commands. To delete, for example, the complete entry for Tux Linux, issue the following command:
ldapdelete -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W cn=Tux \
Linux,ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com

More complex subjects, like SASL configuration or establishment of a replicating
LDAP server that distributes the workload among multiple slaves, were intentionally
not included in this chapter. Detailed information about both subjects can be found in
the OpenLDAP 2.2 Administrator's Guide.
The Web site of the OpenLDAP project offers exhaustive documentation for beginning
and advanced LDAP users:
OpenLDAP Faq-O-Matic
A very rich question and answer collection concerning installation, configuration,
and use of OpenLDAP. Find it at http://www.openldap.org/faq/data/
cache/1.html.
Quick Start Guide
Brief step-by-step instructions for installing your first LDAP server. Find it at
http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin22/quickstart.html or on
an installed system in /usr/share/doc/packages/openldap2/
admin-guide/quickstart.html.
OpenLDAP 2.2 Administrator's Guide
A detailed introduction to all important aspects of LDAP configuration, including
access controls and encryption. See http://www.openldap.org/doc/
admin22/ or, on an installed system, /usr/share/doc/packages/
openldap2/admin-guide/index.html.
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Understanding LDAP
A detailed general introduction to the basic principles of LDAP: http://www
.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg244986.pdf.
Printed literature about LDAP:
LDAP System Administration by Gerald Carter (ISBN 1-56592-491-6)
Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services by Howes, Smith, and
Good (ISBN 0-672-32316-8)
The ultimate reference material for the subject of LDAP is the corresponding RFCs
(request for comments), 2251 to 2256.
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Reference
27
Active Directory Support
Active Directory* (AD) is a directory service based on LDAP, Kerberos, and other
services that is used by Microsoft Windows to manage resources, services, and people.
In an MS Windows network, AD provides information about these objects, restricts
access to any of them, and enforces policies. openSUSE lets you join existing AD
domains and integrate your Linux machine into a Windows environment.
27.1 Integrating Linux and AD

Environments
With a Linux client configured as an Active Directory client that is joined to an existing
Active Directory domain, benefit from various features not available on a pure openSUSE Linux client:
Browsing Shared Files and Folders with SMB
Both Nautilus, the GNOME file manager, and Konqueror, its KDE counterpart,
support browsing shared resources through SMB.
Sharing Files and Folders with SMB
Both Nautilus, the GNOME file manager, and Konqueror, its KDE counterpart,
support sharing folders and files as in Windows.
441
Accessing and Manipulating User Data on the Windows Server

Through Nautilus and Konqueror, users are able to access their Windows user data
and can edit, create, and delete files and folders on the Windows server. Users can
access their data without having to enter their password again and again.
Offline Authentication
Users are able to log in and access their local data on the Linux machine even if
they are offline (for example, using a laptop) or the AD server is unavailable for
other reasons.
Windows Password Change
This port of AD support in Linux enforces corporate password policies stored in
Active Directory. The display managers and console support password change
messages and accept your input. You can even use the Linux passwd command
to set Windows passwords.
Single-Sign-On through Kerberized Applications
Many applications of both desktops are Kerberos-enabled (kerberized), which
means they can transparently handle authentication for the user without the need
for password reentry at Web servers, proxies, groupware applications, or other locations.
A brief technical background for most of these features is given in the following section.
For directions for file and printer sharing, refer to GNOME User Guide and KDE User
Guide, where you can learn more about AD enablement in the GNOME and KDE application worlds.
27.2 Background Information for

Linux AD Support
Many system components need to interact flawlessly to integrate a Linux client into an
existing Windows Active Directory domain. Figure 27.1, Active Directory Authentication Schema (page 443) highlights the most prominent ones. The following sections
focus on the underlying processes of the key events in AD server and client interaction.
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Reference
Figure 27.1 Active Directory Authentication Schema

PAM aware applications
kerberized
apps
(gdm, kdm, login)
NSS
PAM
Kerberos
Credential
pam_winbind
Cache
nscd
pam_unix2
nss_compat
nss_winbind
pam_mkhomedir
Kerberos
and various MS protocols
winbindd
LDAP, Kerberos
Offline Cache
Windows DC
(Active Directory)
To communicate with the directory service, the client needs to share at least two protocols with the server:
LDAP
LDAP is a protocol optimized for managing directory information. A Windows
domain controller with AD can use the LDAP protocol to exchange directory information with the clients. To learn more about LDAP in general and about the open
source port of it, OpenLDAP, refer to Chapter 26, LDAPA Directory Service
(page 409).
443
Kerberos
Kerberos is a third-party trusted authentication service. All its clients trust Kerberos's
judgment of another client's identity, enabling kerberized single-sign-on (SSO)
solutions. Windows supports a Kerberos implementation, making Kerberos SSO
possible even with Linux clients.
The following client components process account and authentication data:
Winbind
The most central part of this solution is the winbind daemon that is a part of the
Samba project and handles all communication with the AD server.
NSS (Name Service Switch)
NSS routines provide name service information. Naming service for both users
and groups is provided by nss_winbind. This module directly interacts with
the winbind daemon.
PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)
User authentication for AD users is done by the pam_winbind module. The
creation of user homes for the AD users on the Linux client is handled by pam
_mkhomedir. The pam_winbind module directly interacts with winbindd. To
learn more about PAM in general, refer to Chapter 18, Authentication with PAM
(page 263).
Applications that are PAM-aware, like the login routines and the GNOME and KDE
display managers, interact with the PAM and NSS layer to authenticate against the
Windows server. Applications supporting Kerberos authentication, such as file managers,
Web browsers, or e-mail clients, use the Kerberos credential cache to access user's
Kerberos tickets, making them part of the SSO framework.
27.2.1 Domain Join

During domain join, the server and the client establish a secure relation. On the client,
the following tasks need to be performed to join the existing LDAP and Kerberos SSO
environment provided by the Window domain controller. The entire join process is
handled by the YaST Domain Membership module that can be run during installation
or in the installed system:
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Reference
1 The Windows domain controller providing both LDAP and KDC (Key Distribution Center) services is located.
2 A machine account for the joining client is created in the directory service.
3 An initial ticket granting ticket (TGT) is obtained for the client and stored in its
local Kerberos credential cache. The client needs this TGT to get further tickets
allowing it to contact other services, like contacting the directory server for LDAP
queries.
4 NSS and PAM configurations are adjusted to enable the client to authenticate
against the domain controller.
During client boot, the winbind daemon is started and retrieves the initial Kerberos
ticket for the machine account. winbindd automatically refreshes the machine's ticket
to keep it valid. To keep track of the current account policies, winbindd periodically
queries the domain controller.
27.2.2 Domain Login and User Homes

The login managers of GNOME and KDE (GDM and KDM) have been extended to
allow the handling of AD domain login. Users can choose to log in to the primary domain
the machine has joined or to one of the trusted domains with which the domain controller
of the primary domain has established a trust relationship.
User authentication is mediated by a number of PAM modules as described in Section 27.2, Background Information for Linux AD Support (page 442). The pam
_winbind module used to authenticate clients against Active Directory or NT4 domains
is fully aware of Windows error conditions that might prohibit a user's login. The
Windows error codes are translated into appropriate user-readable error messages that
PAM gives at login through any of the supported methods (GDM, KDM, console, and
SSH):
Password has expired
The user sees a message stating that the password has expired and needs to be
changed. The system prompts directly for a new password and informs the user if
the new password does not comply with corporate password policies, for example,
the password is too short, too simple, or already in the history. If a user's password
change fails, the reason is shown and a new password prompt is given.
445
Account disabled
The user sees an error message stating that his account has been disabled and that
he should contact the system administrator.
Account locked out
The user sees an error message stating that his account has been locked and that
he should contact the system administrator.
Password has to be changed
The user can log in but receives a warning that the password needs to be changed
soon. This warning is sent three days before that password expires. After expiration,
the user cannot login again.
Invalid workstation
When a user is just allowed to log in from specific workstations and the current
openSUSE machine is not in that list, a message appears that this user cannot log
in from this workstation.
Invalid logon hours
When a user is only allowed to log in during working hours and tries to log in
outside working hours, a message shows that login is not possible at this point in
time.
Account expired
An administrator can set an expiration time for a specific user account. If that user
tries to log in after that time has passed, the user gets a message that the account
has expired and cannot be used to log in.
During a successful authentication, pam_winbind acquires a ticket granting ticket
(TGT) from the Kerberos server of Active Directory and stores it in the user's credential
cache. It also takes care of renewing the TGT in the background, not requiring any user
interaction.
openSUSE supports local home directories for AD users. If configured through YaST
as described in Section 27.3, Configuring a Linux Client for Active Directory
(page 447), user homes are created at the first login of a Windows (AD) user into the
Linux client. These home directories look and feel entirely the same as standard Linux
user home directories and work independently of the AD domain controller. Using a
local user home, it is possible to access a user's data on this machine, even when the
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AD server is disconnected, if the Linux client has been configured to perform offline
authentication.
27.2.3 Offline Service and Policy Support

Users in a corporate environment must have the ability to become roaming users, for
example, to switch networks or even work disconnected for some time. To enable users
to log in to a disconnected machine, extensive caching was integrated into the winbind
daemon. The winbind daemon enforces password policies even in the offline state. It
tracks the number of failed login attempts and reacts according to the policies configured
in Active Directory. Offline support is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled
in the YaST Domain Membership module.
As in Windows, when the domain controller has become unavailable, the user can still
access network resources (other than the AD server itself) with valid Kerberos tickets
that have been acquired before losing the connection. Password changes cannot be
processed unless the domain controller is online. While disconnected from the AD
server, a user cannot access any data stored on this server. When a workstation has become disconnected from the network entirely and attaches to the corporate network
again later, openSUSE acquires a new Kerberos ticket as soon as the user has locked
and unlocked the desktop (for example, using a desktop screen saver).
27.3 Configuring a Linux Client for

Active Directory
Before your client can join an AD domain, some adjustments must be made to your
network setup to ensure a flawless interaction of client and server.
DNS
Configure your client machine to use a DNS server that can forward DNS requests
to the AD DNS server. Alternatively, configure your machine to use the AD DNS
server as the name service data source.
NTP
To succeed with Kerberos authentication, the client must have have its time set
accurately. It is highly encouraged to use a central NTP time server for this purpose
(this can be also the NTP server running on your Active Directory domain conActive Directory Support
447
troller). If the clockskew between your Linux host and the domain controller exceeds
a certain limit, Kerberos authentication fails and the client is logged in only using
the weaker NTLM (NT LAN Manager) authentication.
DHCP
If your client uses dynamic network configuration with DHCP, configure DHCP
to provide the same IP and hostname to the client. If possible, use static IP addresses
to be on the safe side.
Firewall
To browse your network neighborhood, either disable the firewall entirely or mark
the interface used for browsing as part of the internal zone.
To change the firewall settings on your client, log in as root and start the YaST
firewall module. Select Interfaces. Select your network interface from the list of
interfaces and click Change. Select Internal Zone and apply your settings with OK.
Leave the firewall settings with Next > Accept. To disable the firewall, just set
Service Start to Manually and leave the firewall module with Next > Accept.
AD Account
You cannot log in to an AD domain unless the AD administrator has provided you
with a valid user account for this domain. Use the AD username and password to
log in to the AD domain from your Linux client.
Join an existing AD domain during installation or by later activating SMB user authentication with YaST in the installed system.
NOTE
Currently only a domain administrator account, such as Administrator, can
join openSUSE into Active Directory.
To join an AD domain in a running system, proceed as follows:
1 Log in as root and start YaST.
2 Start Network Services > Windows Domain Membership.
3 Enter the domain to join at Domain or Workgroup in the Windows Domain
Membership screen (see Figure 27.2, Determining Windows Domain Mem-
448
Reference
bership (page 449)). If the DNS settings on your host are properly integrated
with the Windows DNS server, enter the AD domain name in its DNS format
(mydomain.mycompany.com). If you enter the short name of your domain
(also known as the preWindows 2000 domain name), YaST must rely on
NetBIOS name resolution instead of DNS to find the correct domain controller.
To select from a list of available domains instead, use Browse to list the NetBIOS domains then select the desired domain.
Figure 27.2 Determining Windows Domain Membership
4 Check Also Use SMB Information for Linux Authentication to use the SMB
source for Linux authentication.
5 Check Create Home Directory on Login to automatically create a local home
directory for your AD user on the Linux machine.
6 Check Offline Authentication to allow your domain users to log in even if the
AD server is temporarily unavailable or you do not have a network connection.
7 Select Expert Settings, if you want to change the UID and GID ranges for the
Samba users and groups. Let DHCP retrieve the WINS server (default setting).
8 Configure NTP time synchronization for your AD environment by selecting
NTP Configuration and entering an appropriate server name or IP address.
449
This step is obsolete if you have already entered the appropriate settings in
the standalone YaST NTP configuration module.
9 Click Finish and confirm the domain join when prompted for it.
10 Provide the password for the Windows administrator on the AD server and
click OK (see Figure 27.3, Providing Administrator Credentials (page 450)).
Figure 27.3 Providing Administrator Credentials
After you have joined the AD domain, you can log in to it from your workstation using
the display manager of your desktop or the console.
27.4 Logging In to an AD Domain

Provided your machine has been configured to authenticate against Active Directory
and you have a valid Windows user identity, you can log in to your machine using the
AD credentials. Login is supported for both desktop environments (GNOME and KDE),
the console, SSH, and any other PAM-aware application.
IMPORTANT: Offline Authentication
openSUSE supports offline authentication, allowing you to remain logged in to
your client machine even if the client machine is disconnected from the network.
This enables you to maintain a mobile style of working, for example, it allows
you to continue to work even if you are on an airplane and do not have a
network connection.
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Reference
27.4.1 GDM and KDM

To authenticate a GNOME client machine against an AD server, proceed as follows:
1 Select the domain.
2 Enter your Windows username and press Enter.
3 Enter your Windows password and press Enter.
To authenticate a KDE client machine against an AD server, proceed as follows:
1 Select the domain.
2 Enter your Windows username.
3 Enter your Windows password and press Enter.
If configured to do so, openSUSE creates a user home directory on the local machine
on the first login of each AD authenticated user. This allows you to benefit from the
AD support of openSUSE while still having a completely capable Linux machine at
your disposal.
27.4.2 Console Login

As well as logging in to the AD client machine using a graphical front-end, you can
log in using the text-based console login or even remotely using SSH.
To log in to your AD client from a console, enter DOMAIN\user at the login:
prompt and provide the password.
To remotely log in to your AD client machine using SSH, proceed as follows:
1 At the login prompt, enter:
ssh DOMAIN\\user@hostname
The \ domain and login delimiter is escaped with another \ sign.

2 Provide the user's password.
451
27.5 Changing Passwords

openSUSE has the ability to help a user choose a suitable new password that meets the
corporate security policy. The underlying PAM module retrieves the current password
policy settings from the domain controller. It informs about the specific password
quality requirements a user account typically has by means of a message at login time.
Like the Windows counterpart, openSUSE presents a message describing:
Password history settings
Minimum password length requirements
Minimum password age
Password complexity
The password change process cannot succeed unless all possible requirements have
been successfully satisfied. Feedback about the password status is given both through
the display managers and the console.
GDM and KDM provide feedback about password expiration and prompt for new
passwords in an interactive mode. To change passwords in the display managers, just
provide the password information when prompted to do so.
To change your Windows password, you can use the standard Linux utility, passwd,
instead of having to manipulate this data on the server. To change your Windows
password, proceed as follows:
1 Log in at the console.
2 Enter passwd.
3 Enter your current password when prompted to do so.
4 Enter the new password.
5 Reenter the new password for confirmation. If your new password does not
comply with the policies on the Windows server, this feedback is given to you
and you are prompted for another password.
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Reference
To change your Windows password from the GNOME desktop, proceed as follows:
1 Click the Computer icon on the left edge of the panel.
2 Select Control Center.
3 From the Personal section, select Change Password.
4 Enter your old password.
5 Enter and confirm the new password.
6 Leave the dialog with Close to apply your settings.
To change your Windows password from the KDE desktop, proceed as follows:
1 Select Personal Settings from the main menu.
2 Select Security & Privacy.
3 Click Password & User Account.
4 Click Change Password.
5 Enter your current password.
6 Enter and confirm the new password and apply your settings with OK.
7 Leave the Personal Settings with File > Quit.
453
Sharing File Systems with NFS
28
One of the possibilities to distribute files over the network is NFS (Network File System).
NFS works together with network information services like NIS (see also Chapter 25,
Using NIS (page 401) or a directory service like LDAP (see also Chapter 26, LDAPA
Directory Service (page 409) to handle the information about how to use the available
services. To prevent unauthorized access, NFSv4 also makes it possible to use authentication with Kerberos (see also Chapter 39, Installing and Administering Kerberos
(page 621). When configured correctly, it does not matter at which terminal users are
logged in, they always find themselves in the same environment.
Like NIS, NFS is a client/server system. A machine can be bothit can supply file
systems over the network (export) and mount file systems from other hosts (import).
In principle, all exports can be made using IP addresses only. To avoid time-outs,
however, you should have a working DNS system. This is necessary at least for logging
purposes, because the mounted daemon does reverse lookups.
All networked services heavily rely on a correct system time. If you intend to setup
such services, one of the first things that should be configured is the time synchronization
as described in Chapter 24, Time Synchronization with NTP (page 393).
28.1 NFS Client Configuration

To configure your host as an NFS client, you do not need to install additional software.
All packages needed to configure an NFS client are installed by default.
455
28.1.1 Importing File Systems with YaST

Users authorized to do so can mount NFS directories from an NFS server into their
own file trees. This can be achieved most easily using the YaST module NFS Client.
Just enter the hostname of the NFS server, the directory to import, and the mount point
at which to mount this directory locally. All this is done after Add is clicked in the first
dialog. Activate Open Port in Firewall to open the firewall to allow access to the service
from remote computers. The firewall status is displayed next to the check box. Press
Finish to saves your changes. See Figure 28.1, NFS Client Configuration with YaST
(page 456).
This saves the changes to /etc/fstab and imports the specified file systems. When
you start the client at a later point in time, it reads the information from this file.
Currently, it is not possible to import NFSv4 file systems with YaST. NFSv4 file systems
can be imported manually or with the automounter. This is explained in Section 28.1.3,
Importing NFSv4 File Systems Manually (page 457) and Section 28.1.4, Using the
Automount Service (page 458).
Figure 28.1 NFS Client Configuration with YaST
456
Reference
28.1.2 Importing NFSv3 File Systems

Manually
The only prerequisite to mount NFSv3 file systems is a running RPC port mapper. Start
this service by entering rcportmap start as root. Once this prerequisite is met,
remote exported file systems can be mounted in the file system just like local hard disks
using the mount command in the following manner:
mount host:remote-path local-path
If the /home directory from the machine nfs.example.com, should be imported, first
create a local directory /home and then use the following command:
mount nfs.example.com:/home /home
28.1.3 Importing NFSv4 File Systems

Manually
The idmapd service must be up and running on the client to do an NFSv4 import. Start
the idmapd service from the command prompt with rpc.idmapd. Use the command
ps x | grep rpc.idmapd to check the status of idmapd.
The idmapd services get their configuration parameters from the file /etc/idmapd
.conf. The value of the Domain parameter must be the same as on all NFSv4 servers
and clients of this domain. For example, this may be localdomain . Ensure that the
value specified is the same for both the NFS client and NFS server.
Make NFSv4 imports by giving a command from the shell prompt. To import NFSv4
remote file systems, use the following command:
mount -t nfs4 host:/ local-path
Replace host with the NFS server that hosts one or more NFSv4 exports and
local-path with the directory location in the client machine where this should be
mounted. For example, to import /home exported with NFSv4 on nfs.example.com to
/local/home, use the following command:
mount -t nfs4 nfs.example.com:/ /local
457
Note, that the remote file system path that follows the server name and a colon is always
a slash /. This is unlike the way it is specified for v3 imports, where the exact path
of the remote file system is given. This is a concept called pseudo file system, which is
explained in Section 28.2, Exporting File Systems over NFS (page 459).
28.1.4 Using the Automount Service

As well as the regular local device mounts, the autofs daemon can be used to mount
remote file systems automatically too. To do this, add the following entry in the your
/etc/auto.master file:
/nfsmounts /etc/auto.nfs
Now the /nfsmounts directory acts as a root for all the NFS mounts on the client if
the auto.nfs file is completed appropriately. The name auto.nfs is chosen for
sake of convenienceyou can choose any name. In the selected file (create it if it does
not exist), add entries for all the NFS mounts as in the following example:
localdata -fstype=nfs server1:/data
nfs4mount -fstype=nfs4 server2:/
Make sure that auto.nfs is executable with the command chmod 755 auto.nfs.
Then activate the settings with rcautofs start. For this example, /nfsmounts/
localdata, the /data directory of server1, is then mounted with NFS and
/nfsmounts/nfs4mount from server2 is mounted with NFSv4.
If the /etc/auto.master file is edited while the service autofs is running, the automounter must be restarted for the changes to take effect. Do this with rcautofs
restart.
28.1.5 Manually Editing /etc/fstab

A typical NFSv3 mount entry in /etc/fstab looks like this:
nfs.example.com:/data /local/path nfs rw,noauto 0 0
NFSv4 mounts may also be added to the /etc/fstab file manually. For these mounts,
use nfs4 instead of nfs in the third column and make sure that the remote file system
is given as / after the nfs.example.com: in the first column. A sample line for an
NFSv4 mount in /etc/fstab looks like this:
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Reference
nfs.example.com:/ /local/pathv4 nfs4 rw,noauto 0 0
The noauto option prevents the file system from being mounted automatically at start
up. If you want to mount the respective file system manually, it is possible to shorten
the command for mounting and it is only needed to provide the mount point as in:
mount /local/path
Note, that if you do not enter the noauto option, the initialization scripts of the system
will handle the mount of those file systems at start up.
28.2 Exporting File Systems over NFS

With YaST, turn a host in your network into an NFS servera server that exports directories and files to all hosts granted access to it. This could be done to provide applications to all members of a group without installing them locally on each and every
host. To install such a server, start YaST and select Network Services > NFS Server. A
dialog like that in Figure 28.2, NFS Server Configuration Tool (page 459) opens.
Figure 28.2 NFS Server Configuration Tool
459
Next, activate NFS Server: Start. If you intend to use NFSv4, activate Enable NFSv4
and enter the NFSv4 domain name. The NFSv4 domain name must be identical with
the one used on all clients that should connect to the server.
Click Enable GSS Security if you need secure access to the server. A prerequisite for
this is to have Kerberos installed in your domain and both the server and the clients are
kerberized. Click Next.
In the upper text field, enter the directories to export. Below, enter the hosts that should
have access to the respective directory. This dialog is shown in Figure 28.3, Configuring
an NFS Server with YaST (page 461). The figure shows the scenario where NFSv4 is
enabled in the previous dialog.
For a fixed set of clients, there are two types of directories that can be exporteddirectories that act as pseudo root file systems and those that are bound to some subdirectory
of the pseudo file system. This pseudo file system acts as a base point under which all
file systems exported for the same client set take their place. For a client or set of clients,
only one directory on the server can be configured as pseudo root for export. For this
same client, export multiple directories by binding them to some existing subdirectory
in the pseudo root.
After adding a directory in the upper half, another dialog for entering the client and
option information pops up automatically. Later on, to add a new client (client set),
click Add Host.
In the small dialog that opens, enter the host wild card. There are four possible types
of host wild cards that can be set for each host: a single host (name or IP address), netgroups, wild cards (such as * indicating all machines can access the server), and IP
networks. Then, in Options, include fsid=0 in the comma-separated list of options
to configure the directory as pseudo root. If this directory should be bound to another
directory under an already configured pseudo root, make sure that a target bind path is
given in the option list with bind=/target/path.
For example, suppose that the directory /exports is chosen as the pseudo root directory for all the clients that can access the server. Then add this in the upper half and
make sure that the options entered for this directory include fsid=0. If there is another
directory, /data, that also needs to be NFSv4 exported, add this directory to the upper
half. While entering options for this, make sure that bind=/exports/data is in
the list and that /exports/data is an already existing subdirectory of /exports.
Any change in the option bind=/target/path, whether addition, deletion, or
460
Reference
change in value, is reflected in Bindmount Targets. This column is not directly editable,
instead it contains summarizing directories and their nature. After the information is
complete, click Finish to complete the configuration or Start to restart the service.
For more information about options available regarding the directory export, refer to
the manual page of Export. Click Finish to complete the configuration.
Figure 28.3 Configuring an NFS Server with YaST
IMPORTANT: Automatic Firewall Configuration

If a firewall is active on your system (SuSEfirewall2), YaST adapts its configuration
for the NFS server by enabling the nfs service when Open Ports in Firewall is
selected.
28.2.1 NFSv3 and NFSv2 Exports

Make sure that Enable NFSv4 is not checked in the initial dialog before clicking Next.
The next dialog has two parts. In the upper text field, enter the directories to export.
Below, enter the hosts that should have access to them. There are four types of host
461
wild cards that can be set for each host: a single host (name or IP address), netgroups,
wild cards (such as * indicating all machines can access the server), and IP networks.
This dialog is shown in Figure 28.4, Exporting Directories with NFSv2 and v3
(page 462). Find a more thorough explanation of these options in man exports. Click
Finish to complete the configuration.
Figure 28.4 Exporting Directories with NFSv2 and v3
28.2.2 Coexisting v3 and v4 Exports

Both NFSv3 and NFSv4 exports can coexist on a server. After enabling the support for
NFSv4 in the initial configuration dialog, those exports for which fsid=0 and
bind=/target/path are not included in the option list are considered v3 exports.
Consider the example in Figure 28.3, Configuring an NFS Server with YaST
(page 461). If you add another directory, such as /data2, using Add Directory then in
the corresponding options list do not mention either fsid=0 or
bind=/target/path, this export acts as a v3 export.
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Reference
IMPORTANT
Automatic Firewall Configuration
If SuSEfirewall2 is active on your system, YaST adapts its configuration for the
NFS server by enabling service when Open Ports in Firewall is selected.
28.3 Exporting File Systems Manually

The configuration files for the NFS export service are /etc/exports and /etc/
sysconfig/nfs. In addition to these files, /etc/idmapd.conf is needed for
the NFSv4 server configuration. To start or restart the services, run the commands
rcnfsserver restart. This also starts the rpc.idmapd if NFSv4 configured
in /etc/sysconfig/nfs. The NFS server depends on a running RPC portmapper.
Therefore, also start or restart the portmapper service with rcportmap restart.
28.3.1 Exporting File Systems with NFSv4

There are some special configurations to accomplish when exporting file systems with
NFSv4. The following sections handle these in more detail.
The /etc/exports File

This file contains a list of entries. Each entry indicates a directory that is shared and
how it is shared. A typical entry in /etc/exports consists of:
/shared/directory host(option_list)
For example:
/export 192.168.1.2(rw,fsid=0,sync)
/data 192.168.1.2(rw,bind=/export/data,sync)
Those directories for which fsid=0 is specified in the option list are called pseudo
root file systems. Here, the IP address 192.168.1.2 is used. You can use the name
of the host, a wild card indicating a set of hosts (*.abc.com, *, etc.), or netgroups.
463
For a fixed set of clients, there are only two types of directories that can be NFSv4 exported:
A single directory that is chosen as the pseudo root file system. In this example,
/export is the pseudo root directory because fsid=0 is specified in the option
list for this entry.
Directories that are chosen to be bound to some an existing subdirectory of the
pseudo file system. In the example entries above, /data is such a directory that
binds to an existing subdirectory (/export/data) of the pseudo file system
/export.
The pseudo file system is the top level directory under which all file systems that need
to be NFSv4 exported take their places. For a client or set of clients, there can only be
one directory on the server configured as the pseudo root for export. For this same client
or client set, multiple other directories can be exported by binding them to some existing
subdirectory in the pseudo root.
/etc/sysconfig/nfs
This file contains a few parameters that determine NFSv4 server daemon behavior.
Importantly, the parameter NFSv4_SUPPORT must be set to yes. This parameter determines whether the NFS server supports NFSv4 exports and clients.
/etc/idmapd.conf
Every user on a Linux machine has a name and ID. idmapd does the name-to-ID mapping
for NFSv4 requests to the server and replies to the client. This must be running on both
server and client for NFSv4, because NFSv4 uses only names in its communication.
Make sure that there is a uniform way in which usernames and IDs (uid) are assigned
to users across machines that might probably be sharing file systems using NFS. This
can be achieved by using NIS, LDAP, or any uniform domain authentication mechanism
in your domain.
For proper function, the parameter Domain must be set the same for both client and
server in this file. If you are not sure, leave the domain as localdomain in both
server and client files. A sample configuration file looks like the following:
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[General]
Verbosity = 0
Pipefs-Directory = /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs
Domain = localdomain
[Mapping]
Nobody-User = nobody
Nobody-Group = nobody
Do not change these parameters unless you are sure of what you are doing. For further
reference, read the man page of idmapd and idmapd.conf; man idmapd, man
idmapd.conf .
Starting and Stopping Services

After changing /etc/exports or /etc/sysconfig/nfs, start or restart the nfs
server service with rcnfsserver restart. After changing /etc/idmapd.conf,
start or restart the idmapd service with rcidmapd restart. Make sure that both
services are running.
If this service should start at boot time, run the command chkconfig nfsserver
on.
28.3.2 Exporting File Systems with NFSv2

and NFSv3
This is specific to NFSv3 and NFSv2 exports. Refer to Section 28.3.1, Exporting File
Systems with NFSv4 (page 463) for exporting with NFSv4.
Exporting file systems with NFS involves two configuration files: /etc/exports
and /etc/sysconfig/nfs. A typical /etc/exports file entry is in the format:
/shared/directory host(list_of_options)
For example:
/export 192.168.1.2(rw,sync)
465
Here, the directory /export is shared with the host 192.168.1.2 with the option list
rw,sync. This IP address can be replaced with a client name or set of clients using a
wild card (such as *.abc.com) or even netgroups.
For a detailed explanation of all options and their meanings, refer to the man page of
exports (man exports).
After changing /etc/exports or /etc/sysconfig/nfs, start or restart the
NFS server using the command rcnfsserver restart.
28.4 NFS with Kerberos

To use Kerberos authentication for NFS, GSS security must be enabled. To do so, select
Enable GSS Security in the initial YaST dialog. Note, that you must have a working
Kerberos server to install this feature. YaST does not set up the server but only uses
the provided functionality. If you want to use Kerberos authentication, in addition to
the YaST configuration, complete at least the following steps before running the NFS
configuration:
Make sure that both the server and the client are in the same Kerberos domain. This
means that they access the same KDC (Key Distribution Center) server and share
their krb5.keytab file (the default location on any machine is /etc/krb5
.keytab).
Start the gssd service on the client with rcgssd start.
Start the svcgssd service on the server with rcsvcgssd start.
For further information about configuring kerberized NFS, refer to the links in Section 28.5, For More Information (page 466).

As well as the man pages of exports, nfs, and mount, information about configuring
an NFS server and client is available in /usr/share/doc/packages/nfs-tils/
README. Online documentation can be found at the following Web documents:
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Reference
Find the detailed technical documentation online at SourceForge [http://nfs

.sourceforge.net/].
For instructions for setting up kerberized NFS, refer to NFS Version 4 Open Source
Reference Implementation [http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/
nfsv4/linux/krb5-setup.html].
If you have any questions on NFSv4, refer to the Linux NFSv4 Frequently Asked
Questions [http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/nfsv4/linux/
faq/] FAQ.
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29
Samba
Using Samba, a Unix machine can be configured as a file and print server for DOS,
Windows, and OS/2 machines. Samba has developed into a fully-fledged and rather
complex product. Configure Samba with YaST, SWAT (a Web interface), or the configuration file.
29.1 Terminology
The following are some terms used in Samba documentation and in the YaST module.
SMB protocol
Samba uses the SMB (server message block) protocol that is based on the NetBIOS
services. Due to pressure from IBM, Microsoft released the protocol so other software manufacturers could establish connections to a Microsoft domain network.
With Samba, the SMB protocol works on top of the TCP/IP protocol, so the TCP/IP
protocol must be installed on all clients.
CIFS protocol
CIFS (common Internet file system) protocol is another protocol supported by
Samba. CIFS defines a standard remote file system access protocol for use over
the network, enabling groups of users to work together and share documents across
the network.
NetBIOS
NetBIOS is a software interface (API) designed for communication between machines. Here, a name service is provided. It enables machines connected to the
Samba
469
network to reserve names for themselves. After reservation, these machines can be
addressed by name. There is no central process that checks names. Any machine
on the network can reserve as many names as it wants as long as the names are not
already in use. The NetBIOS interface can now be implemented for different network architectures. An implementation that works relatively closely with network
hardware is called NetBEUI, but this is often referred to as NetBIOS. Network
protocols implemented with NetBIOS are IPX from Novell (NetBIOS via TCP/IP)
and TCP/IP.
The NetBIOS names sent via TCP/IP have nothing in common with the names
used in /etc/hosts or those defined by DNS. NetBIOS uses its own, completely
independent naming convention. However, it is recommended to use names that
correspond to DNS hostnames to make administration easier. This is the default
used by Samba.
Samba server
Samba server is a server that provides SMB/CIFS services and NetBIOS over IP
naming services to clients. For Linux, there are two daemons for Samba server:
smnd for SMB/CIFS services and nmbd for naming services.
Samba client
Samba client is a system that uses Samba services from a Samba server over the
SMB protocol. All common operating systems, such as Mac OS X, Windows, and
OS/2, support the SMB protocol. The TCP/IP protocol must be installed on all
computers. Samba provides a client for the different UNIX flavors. For Linux,
there is a kernel module for SMB that allows the integration of SMB resources on
the Linux system level. You do not need run any daemon for Samba client.
Shares
SMB servers provide hardware space to their clients by means of shares. Shares
are printers and directories with their subdirectories on the server. It is exported
by means of a name and can be accessed by its name. The share name can be set
to any nameit does not have to be the name of the export directory. A printer is
also assigned a name. Clients can access the printer by its name.
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29.2 Installing a Samba Server

To install a Samba server, start YaST and select Software > Software Management.
Choose Filter > Patterns and select File Server. Confirm the installation of the required
packages to finish the installation process.
29.3 Starting and Stopping Samba

You can start or stop the Samba server automatically during boot or manually. Starting
and stopping policy is a part of the YaST Samba server configuration described in
Section 29.4.1, Configuring a Samba Server with YaST (page 471).
To stop or start running Samba services with YaST, use System > System Services
(Runlevel). From a command line, stop services required for Samba with rcsmb stop
&& rcnmb stop and start them with rcnmb start && rcsmb start.
29.4 Configuring a Samba Server

A Samba server in openSUSE can be configured in two different ways: with YaST
or manually. Manual configuration offers a higher level of detail, but lacks the convenience of the YaST GUI.
29.4.1 Configuring a Samba Server with

YaST
To configure a Samba server, start YaST and select Network Services > Samba Server.
When starting the module for the first time, the Samba Server Installation dialog starts,
prompting you to make just a few basic decisions concerning administration of the
server then at the end of the configuration prompts for the password of Samba root. For
later starts, the Samba Server Configuration dialog appears.
Samba
471
The Samba Server Installation dialog consists of two steps:

Workgroup or Domain Name
Select an existing name from Workgroup or Domain Name or enter a new one and
click Next.
Samba Server Type
In the next step, specify whether your server should act as PDC and click Next.
You can change all settings from Samba Server Installation later in the Samba Server
Configuration dialog with the Identity tab.
Advanced Samba Configuration with YaST

During first start of Samba server module the Samba Server Configuration dialog appears
directly after Samba Server Installation dialog. Use it to adjust your Samba server
configuration.
After editing your configuration, click Finish to close the configuration.
Starting the Server

In the Start Up tab, configure the start of the Samba server. To start the service every
time your system boots, select During Boot. To activate manual start, choose Manually.
More information about starting a Samba server is provided in Section 29.3, Starting
and Stopping Samba (page 471).
In this tab, you can also open ports in your firewall. To do so, select Open Port in
Firewall. If you have multiple network interfaces, select the network interface for
Samba services by clicking Firewall Details, selecting the interfaces, and clicking OK.
Shares
In the Shares tab, determine the Samba shares to activate. There are some predefined
shares, like homes and printers. Use Toggle Status to switch between Active and Inactive.
Click Add to add new shares and Delete to delete the selected share.
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Identity
In the Identity tab, you can determine the domain with which the host is associated
(Base Settings) and whether to use an alternative hostname in the network (NetBIOS
Host Name). To set expert global settings or set user authentication, click Advanced
Settings.
29.4.2 Web Administration with SWAT

An alternative tool for Samba server administration is SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool). It provides a simple Web interface with which to configure the Samba
server. To use SWAT, open http://localhost:901 in a Web browser and log
in as user root. If you do not have a special Samba root account, use the system root
account.
NOTE: Activating SWAT
After Samba server installation, SWAT is not activated. To activate it, open
Network Services > Network Services (xinetd) in YaST, enable the network services
configuration, select swat from the table, and click Toggle Status (On or Off).
29.4.3 Configuring the Server Manually

If you intend to use Samba as a server, install samba. The main configuration file of
Samba is /etc/samba/smb.conf. This file can be divided into two logical parts.
The [global] section contains the central and global settings. The [share] sections
contain the individual file and printer shares. By means of this approach, details regarding
the shares can be set differently or globally in the [global] section, which enhances
the structural transparency of the configuration file.
The global Section

The following parameters of the [global] section need some adjustment to match
the requirements of your network setup so other machines can access your Samba
server via SMB in a Windows environment.
Samba
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workgroup = TUX-NET
This line assigns the Samba server to a workgroup. Replace TUX-NET with an
appropriate workgroup of your networking environment. Your Samba server appears
under its DNS name unless this name has been assigned to any other machine in
the network. If the DNS name is not available, set the server name using
netbiosname=MYNAME. See mansmb.conf for more details about this parameter.
os level = 2
This parameter triggers whether your Samba server tries to become LMB (local
master browser) for its workgroup. Choose a very low value to spare the existing
Windows network from any disturbances caused by a misconfigured Samba server.
More information about this important topic can be found in the files
BROWSING.txt and BROWSING-Config.txt under the textdocs subdirectory of the package documentation.
If no other SMB server is present in your network (such as a Windows NT or 2000
server) and you want the Samba server to keep a list of all systems present in the
local environment, set the os level to a higher value (for example, 65). Your
Samba server is then chosen as LMB for your local network.
When changing this setting, consider carefully how this could affect an existing
Windows network environment. First test the changes in an isolated network or at
a noncritical time of day.
wins support and wins server
To integrate your Samba server into an existing Windows network with an active
WINS server, enable the wins server option and set its value to the IP address
of that WINS server.
If your Windows machines are connected to separate subnets and should still be
aware of each other, you need to set up a WINS server. To turn a Samba server
into such a WINS server, set the option wins support = Yes. Make sure that
only one Samba server of the network has this setting enabled. The options wins
server and wins support must never be enabled at the same time in your
smb.conf file.
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Shares
The following examples illustrate how a CD-ROM drive and the user directories
(homes) are made available to the SMB clients.
[cdrom]
To avoid having the CD-ROM drive accidentally made available, these lines are
deactivated with comment marks (semicolons in this case). Remove the semicolons
in the first column to share the CD-ROM drive with Samba.
Example 29.1 A CD-ROM Share (deactivated)
;[cdrom]
;
comment = Linux CD-ROM
;
path = /media/cdrom
;
locking = No
[cdrom] and comment

The entry [cdrom] is the name of the share that can be seen by all SMB
clients on the network. An additional comment can be added to further describe
the share.
path = /media/cdrom
path exports the directory /media/cdrom.
By means of a very restrictive default configuration, this kind of share is only made
available to the users present on this system. If this share should be made available
to everybody, add a line guest ok = yes to the configuration. This setting
gives read permissions to anyone on the network. It is recommended to handle this
parameter with great care. This applies even more to the use of this parameter in
the [global] section.
[homes]
The [home] share is of special importance here. If the user has a valid account
and password for the Linux file server and his own home directory, he can be
connected to it.
Samba
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Example 29.2 homes Share

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
valid users = %S
browseable = No
read only = No
create mask = 0640
directory mask = 0750
[homes]
As long as there is no other share using the share name of the user connecting
to the SMB server, a share is dynamically generated using the [homes] share
directives. The resulting name of the share is the username.
valid users = %S
%S is replaced with the concrete name of the share as soon as a connection has
been successfully established. For a [homes] share, this is always the username. As a consequence, access rights to a user's share are restricted exclusively
to the user.
browseable = No
This setting makes the share invisible in the network environment.
read only = No
By default, Samba prohibits write access to any exported share by means of
the read only = Yes parameter. To make a share writable, set the value
read only = No, which is synonymous with writable = Yes.
create mask = 0640
Systems that are not based on MS Windows NT do not understand the concept
of UNIX permissions, so they cannot assign permissions when creating a file.
The parameter create mask defines the access permissions assigned to
newly created files. This only applies to writable shares. In effect, this setting
means the owner has read and write permissions and the members of the
owner's primary group have read permissions. valid users = %S prevents
read access even if the group has read permissions. For the group to have read
or write access, deactivate the line valid users = %S.
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Security Levels
To improve security, each share access can be protected with a password. SMB has
three possible ways of checking the permissions:
Share Level Security (security = share)
A password is firmly assigned to a share. Everyone who knows this password has
access to that share.
User Level Security (security = user)
This variation introduces the concept of the user to SMB. Each user must register
with the server with his own password. After registration, the server can grant access
to individual exported shares dependent on usernames.
Server Level Security (security = server):
To its clients, Samba pretends to be working in user level mode. However, it
passes all password queries to another user level mode server, which takes care of
authentication. This setting expects an additional parameter (password server).
The selection of share, user, or server level security applies to the entire server. It is
not possible to offer individual shares of a server configuration with share level security
and others with user level security. However, you can run a separate Samba server for
each configured IP address on a system.
More information about this subject can be found in the Samba HOWTO Collection.
For multiple servers on one system, pay attention to the options interfaces and
bind interfaces only.
29.5 Configuring Clients

Clients can only access the Samba server via TCP/IP. NetBEUI and NetBIOS via IPX
cannot be used with Samba.
29.5.1 Configuring a Samba Client with YaST

Configure a Samba client to access resources (files or printers) on the Samba server.
Enter the domain or workgroup in the dialog Network Services > Windows Domain
Membership. Click Browse to display all available groups and domains, which can be
Samba
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selected with the mouse. If you activate Also Use SMB Information for Linux Authentication, the user authentication runs over the Samba server. After completing all settings,
click Finish to finish the configuration.
29.5.2 Windows 9x and ME

Windows 9x and ME already have built-in support for TCP/IP. However, this is not
installed as the default. To add TCP/IP, go to Control Panel > System and choose Add
> Protocols > TCP/IP from Microsoft. After rebooting your Windows machine, find
the Samba server by double-clicking the desktop icon for the network environment.
TIP
To use a printer on the Samba server, install the standard or Apple-PostScript
printer driver from the corresponding Windows version. It is best to link this
to the Linux printer queue, which accepts Postscript as an input format.
29.6 Samba as Login Server

In networks where predominantly Windows clients are found, it is often preferable that
users may only register with a valid account and password. In a Windows-based network,
this task is handled by a primary domain controller (PDC). You can use a Windows
NT server configured as PDC, but this task can also be done with the help of a Samba
server. The entries that must be made in the [global] section of smb.conf are
shown in Example 29.3, Global Section in smb.conf (page 478).
Example 29.3 Global Section in smb.conf
[global]
workgroup = TUX-NET
domain logons = Yes
domain master = Yes
If encrypted passwords are used for verification purposesthis is the default setting
with well-maintained MS Windows 9x installations, MS Windows NT 4.0 from service
pack 3, and all later productsthe Samba server must be able to handle these. The entry
encrypt passwords = yes in the [global] section enables this (with Samba
version 3, this is now the default). In addition, it is necessary to prepare user accounts
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and passwords in an encryption format that conforms with Windows. Do this with the
command smbpasswd -a name. Create the domain account for the computers, required by the Windows NT domain concept, with the following commands:
Example 29.4 Setting Up a Machine Account
useradd hostname\$
smbpasswd -a -m hostname
With the useradd command, a dollar sign is added. The command smbpasswd inserts
this automatically when the parameter -m is used. The commented configuration example
(/usr/share/doc/packages/Samba/examples/smb.conf.SuSE) contains
settings that automate this task.
Example 29.5 Automated Setup of a Machine Account
add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g nogroup -c "NT Machine Account" \
-s /bin/false %m\$
To make sure that Samba can execute this script correctly, choose a Samba user with
the required administrator permissions. To do so, select one user and add it to the
ntadmin group. After that, all users belonging to this Linux group can be assigned
Domain Admin status with the command:
net groupmap add ntgroup="Domain Admins" unixgroup=ntadmin
More information about this topic is provided in Chapter 12 of the Samba HOWTO
Collection, found in /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/
Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf.

Detailed Samba information is available in the digital documentation. Enter apropos
samba at the command line to display some manual pages or just browse the /usr/
share/doc/packages/samba directory if Samba documentation is installed for
more online documentation and examples. Find a commented example configuration
(smb.conf.SuSE) in the examples subdirectory.
Samba
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The Samba HOWTO Collection provided by the Samba team includes a section about
troubleshooting. In addition to that, Part V of the document provides a step-by-step
guide to checking your configuration. You can find Samba HOWTO Collection in
/usr/share/doc/packages/samba/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf
after installing the package samba-doc.
Find detailed information about LDAP and migration from Windows NT or 2000 in
/usr/share/doc/packages/samba/examples/LDAP/
smbldap-tools-*/doc, where * is your smbldap-tools version.
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30
The Apache HTTP Server
With a share of more than 70%, the Apache HTTP Server (Apache) is the world's most
widely-used Web server according to the Survey from http://www.netcraft
.com/. Apache, developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www
.apache.org/), is available for most operating systems. openSUSE includes
Apache version 2.2. In this chapter, learn how to install, configure and set up a Web
server; how to use SSL, CGI, and additional modules; and how to troubleshoot Apache.
30.1 Quick Start

With the help of this section, quickly set up and start Apache. time. You must be root
to install and configure Apache.
30.1.1 Requirements
Make sure that the following requirements are met before trying to set up the Apache
Web server:
1. The machine's network is configured properly. For more information about this
topic, refer to Chapter 20, Basic Networking (page 299).
2. The machine's exact system time is maintained by synchronizing with a time
server. This is necessary because parts of the HTTP protocol depend on the correct
time. See Chapter 24, Time Synchronization with NTP (page 393) to learn more
about this topic.
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3. The latest security updates are installed. If in doubt, run a YaST Online Update.
4. The default Web server port (port 80) is opened in the firewall. For this, configure
the SUSEFirewall2 to allow the service HTTP Server in the external zone. This
can be done using YaST. Section 35.4.1, Configuring the Firewall with YaST
(page 583) gives details.
30.1.2 Installation
Apache on openSUSE is not installed by default. To install it, start YaST and select
Software > Software Management. Now choose Filter > Patterns and select Web and
LAMP Server under Server Functions. Confirm the installation of the dependent packages
to finish the installation process.
Apache is installed with a standard, predefined configuration that runs out of the box.
The installation includes the multiprocessing module apache2-prefork as well
the PHP5 module. Refer to Section 30.4, Installing, Activating, and Configuring
Modules (page 499) for more information about modules.
30.1.3 Start
To start Apache and make sure that it is automatically started during boot, start YaST
and select System > System Services (Runlevel). Search for apache2 and Enable the
service. The Web server starts immediately. By saving your changes with Finish, the
system is configured to automatically start Apache in runlevels 3 and 5 during boot.
For more information about the runlevels in openSUSE and a description of the YaST
runlevel editor, refer to Section 12.2.3, Configuring System Services (Runlevel) with
YaST (page 190).
To start Apache using the shell, run rcapache2 start. To make sure that Apache
is automatically started during boot in runlevels 3 and 5, use chkconfig -a
apache2.
If you have not received error messages when starting Apache, the Web server should
be running now. Start a browser and open http://localhost/. You should see
an Apache test page starting with If you can see this, it means that the installation of
the Apache Web server software on this system was successful. If you do not see this
page, refer to Section 30.8, Troubleshooting (page 517).
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Now that the Web server is running, you can add your own documents, adjust the configuration according to your needs, or add functionality by installing modules.
30.2 Configuring Apache

Apache in openSUSE can be configured in two different ways: with YaST or manually.
Manual configuration offers a higher level of detail, but lacks the convenience of the
YaST GUI.
IMPORTANT: Configuration Changes
Changes to most configuration values for Apache only take effect after Apache
is restarted or reloaded. This happens automatically when using YaST and finishing the configuration with Enabled checked for the HTTP Service. Manual
restart is described in Section 30.3, Starting and Stopping Apache (page 497).
Most configuration changes only require a reload with rcapache2 reload.
30.2.1 Configuring Apache Manually

Configuring Apache manually involves editing the plain text configuration files as the
user root.
Configuration Files
Apache configuration files can be found in two different locations:
/etc/sysconfig/apache2
/etc/apache2/
/etc/sysconfig/apache2
/etc/sysconfig/apache2 controls some global settings of Apache, like modules
to load, additional configuration files to include, flags with which the server should be
started, and flags that should be added to the command line. Every configuration option
in this file is extensively documented and therefore not mentioned here. For a general-
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purpose Web server, the settings in /etc/sysconfig/apache2 should be sufficient

for any configuration needs.
/etc/apache2/
/etc/apache2/ hosts all configuration files for Apache. In the following, the purpose
of each file is explained. Each file includes several configuration options (also referred
to as directives). Every configuration option in these files is extensively documented
and therefore not mentioned here.
The Apache configuration files are organized as follows:
/etc/apache2/
|
|- charset.conv
|- conf.d/
|
|
|
|- *.conf
|
|- default-server.conf
|- errors.conf
|- httpd.conf
|- listen.conf
|- magic
|- mime.types
|- mod_*.conf
|- server-tuning.conf
|- ssl.*
|- ssl-global.conf
|- sysconfig.d
|
|
|
|- global.conf
|
|- include.conf
|
|- loadmodule.conf . .
|
|- uid.conf
|- vhosts.d
|
|- *.conf
Apache Configuration Files in /etc/apache2/

charset.conv
Specifies which character sets to use for different languages. Do not edit.
conf.d/*.conf
Configuration files added by other modules. These configuration files can be included into your virtual host configuration where needed. See vhosts.d/vhost
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.template for examples. By doing so, you can provide different module sets
for different virtual hosts.
default-server.conf
Global configuration for all virtual hosts with reasonable defaults. Instead of
changing the values, overwrite them with a virtual host configuration.
errors.conf
Defines how Apache responds to errors. To customize these messages for all virtual
hosts, edit this file. Otherwise overwrite these directives in your virtual host configurations.
httpd.conf
The main Apache server configuration file. Avoid changing this file. It mainly
contains include statements and global settings. Overwrite global settings in the
respective configuration files listed here. Change host-specific settings (such as
document root) in your virtual host configuration.
listen.conf
Binds Apache to specific IP addresses and ports. Name-based virtual hosting (see
Section Name-Based Virtual Hosts (page 487) is also configured here.
magic
Data for the mime_magic module that helps Apache automatically determine the
MIME type of an unknown file. Do not change.
mime.types
MIME types known by the system (this actually is a link to /etc/mime.types).
Do not edit. If you need to add MIME types not listed here, add them to mod
_mime-defaults.conf.
mod_*.conf
Configuration files for the modules that are installed by default. Refer to Section 30.4, Installing, Activating, and Configuring Modules (page 499) for details.
Note that configuration files for optional modules reside in the directory conf.d.
server-tuning.conf
Contains configuration directives for the different MPMs (see Section 30.4.4,
Multiprocessing Modules (page 503)) as well as general configuration options
that control Apache's performance. Properly test your Web server when making
changes here.
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ssl-global.conf and ssl.*

Global SSL configuration and SSL certificate data. Refer to Section 30.6, Setting
Up a Secure Web Server with SSL (page 509) for details.
sysconfig.d/*.conf
Configuration files automatically generated from /etc/sysconfig/apache2.
Do not change any of these filesedit /etc/sysconfig/apache2 instead.
Put no other configuration files in this directory.
uid.conf
Specifies under which user and group ID Apache runs. Do not change.
vhosts.d/*.conf
Your virtual host configuration should go here.The directory contains template
files for virtual hosts with and without SSL. Every file in this directory ending in
.conf is automatically included in the Apache configuration. Refer to Section
Virtual Host Configuration (page 486) for details.
Virtual Host Configuration

The term virtual host refers to Apache's ability to serve multiple URIs (universal resource
identifiers) from the same physical machine. This means that several domains, such as
www.example.com and www.example.net, are run by a single Web server on one
physical machine.
It is common practice to use virtual hosts to save administrative effort (only a single
Web server needs to be maintained) and hardware expenses (each domain does not require a dedicated server). Virtual hosts can be name based, IP based, or port based.
Virtual hosts can be configured via YaST (see Section Virtual Hosts (page 493)) or
by manually editing a configuration file. By default, Apache in openSUSE is prepared
for one configuration file per virtual host in /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/. All files
in this directory with the extension .conf are automatically included to the configuration. A basic template for a virtual host is provided in this directory (vhost.template
or vhost-ssl.template for a virtual host with SSL support).
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TIP: Always Create a Virtual Host Configuration

It is recommended to always create a virtual host configuration file, even if
your Web server only hosts one domain. In doing so, you not only have the
domain-specific configuration in one file, but you can always fall back to a
working basic configuration by simply moving, deleting, or renaming the configuration file for the virtual host. For the same reason, you should also create
separate configuration files for each virtual host.
The <VirtualHost></VirtualHost> block holds the information that applies
to a particular domain. When Apache receives a client request for a defined virtual host,
it uses the directives enclosed in this section. Almost all directives can be used in a
virtual host context. See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/
quickreference.html for further information about Apache's configuration directives.
Name-Based Virtual Hosts

With name-based virtual hosts, more than one Web site is served per IP address. Apache
uses the host field in the HTTP header sent by the client to connect the request to a
matching ServerName entry of one of the virtual host declarations. If no matching
ServerName is found, the first specified virtual host is used as a default.
The directive NameVirtualHost tells Apache on which IP address and, optionally,
which port to listen for requests by clients containing the domain name in the HTTP
header. This option is configured in the configuration file /etc/apache2/listen
.conf.
The first argument can be a fully qualified domain name, but it is recommended to use
the IP address. The second argument is the port and is optional. By default, port 80 is
used and is configured via the Listen directive.
The wild card * can be used for both the IP address and the port number to receive requests on all interfaces. IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets.
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Example 30.1 Variations of Name-Based VirtualHost Entries

# NameVirtualHost IP-address[:Port]
NameVirtualHost 192.168.3.100:80
NameVirtualHost 192.168.3.100
NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost *
NameVirtualHost [2002:c0a8:364::]:80
The opening VirtualHost tag takes the IP address (or fully qualified domain name)
previously declared with the NameVirtualHost as an argument in a name-based
virtual host configuration. A port number previously declared with the
NameVirtualHost directive is optional.
The wild card * is also allowed as a substitute for the IP address. This syntax is only
valid in combination with the wild card usage in NameVirtualHost * . When using
IPv6 addresses, the address must be included in square brackets.
Example 30.2 Name-Based VirtualHost Directives
<VirtualHost 192.168.3.100:80>
...
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost 192.168.3.100>
...
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
...
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *>
...
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost [2002:c0a8:364::]>
...
</VirtualHost>
IP-Based Virtual Hosts

This alternative virtual host configuration requires the setup of multiple IPs for a machine. One instance of Apache hosts several domains, each of which is assigned a different IP.
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Reference
The physical server must have one IP address for each IP-based virtual host. If the
machine does not have multiple network cards, virtual network interfaces (IP aliasing)
can also be used.
The following example shows Apache running on a machine with the IP
192.168.3.100, hosting two domains on the additional IPs 192.168.3.101 and
192.168.3.102. A separate VirtualHost block is needed for every virtual
server.
Example 30.3 IP-Based VirtualHost Directives
...
</VirtualHost>
...
</VirtualHost>
Here, VirtualHost directives are only specified for interfaces other than
192.168.3.100. When a Listen directive is also configured for
192.168.3.100, a separate IP-based virtual host must be created to answer HTTP
requests to that interfaceotherwise the directives found in the default server configuration (/etc/apache2/default-server.conf) are applied.
Basic Virtual Host Configuration

At least the following directives should be present in each virtual host configuration in
order to set up a virtual host. See /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/vhost.template
for more options.
ServerName
The fully qualified domain name under which the host should be addressed.
DocumentRoot
Path to the directory from which Apache should serve files for this host. For security reasons, access to the entire file system is forbidden by default, so you must
explicitly unlock this directory within a Directory container.
ServerAdmin
E-mail address of the server administrator. This address is, for example, shown on
error pages Apache creates.
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ErrorLog
The error log file for this virtual host. Although it is not necessary to create separate
error log files for each virtual host, it is common practice to do so, because it makes
debugging of errors much easier. /var/log/apache2/ is the default directory
where Apache's log files should be kept.
CustomLog
The access log file for this virtual host. Although it is not necessary to create separate
access log files for each virtual host, it is common practice to do so, because it allows
separate analysis of access statistics for each host. /var/log/apache2/ is the
default directory where Apache's log files should be kept.
As mentioned above, access to the whole file system is forbidden by default for security
reasons. Therefore, explicitly unlock the directories in which you have placed the files
Apache should servefor example the DocumentRoot:
<Directory "/srv/www/www.example.com/htdocs">
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
The complete configuration file looks like this:

Example 30.4 Basic VirtualHost Configuration
ServerName www.example.com;
DocumentRoot /srv/www/www.example.com/htdocs
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/www.example.com_log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/www.example.com-access_log common
<Directory "/srv/www/www.example.com/htdocs">
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
30.2.2 Configuring Apache with YaST

To configure your Web server with YaST, start YaST and select Network Services >
HTTP Server. When starting the module for the first time, the HTTP Server Wizard
starts, prompting you to make just a few basic decisions concerning administration of
the server. After having finished the wizard, the dialog in Section HTTP Server Configuration (page 495) starts every time you call the HTTP Server module.
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Reference
HTTP Server Wizard

The HTTP Server Wizard consists of five steps. In the last step of the dialog, you are
given the opportunity to enter the expert configuration mode to make even more specific
settings.
Network Device Selection

Here, specify the network interfaces and ports Apache uses to listen for incoming requests. You can select any combination of existing network interfaces and their respective IP addresses. Ports from all three ranges (well-known ports, registered ports, and
dynamic or private ports) that are not reserved by other services can be used. The default
setting is to listen on all network interfaces (IP addresses) on port 80.
Check Open Firewall for Selected Ports to open the ports in the firewall that the Web
server listens on. This is necessary to make the Web server available on the network,
which can be a LAN, WAN, or the public Internet. Keeping the port closed is only
useful in test situations where no external access to the Web server is necessary.
Click Next to continue with configuration.
Modules
The Modules configuration option allows for the activation or deactivation of the script
languages, the web server should support. For the activation or deactivation of other
modules, refer to Section Server Modules (page 496). Click Next to advance to the
next dialog.
Default Host
This option pertains to the default Web server. As explained in Section Virtual Host
Configuration (page 486), Apache can serve multiple virtual hosts from a single physical machine. The first declared virtual host in the configuration file is commonly referred
to as the default host. Each virtual host inherits the default host's configuration.
To edit the host settings (also called directives), choose the appropriate entry in the table
then click Edit. To add new directives, click Add. To delete a directive, select it and
click Delete.
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Figure 30.1 HTTP Server Wizard: Default Host
Here is list of the default settings of the server:

Document Root
Path to the directory from which Apache serves files for this host. /srv/www/
htdocs is the default location.
Alias
With the help of Alias directives, URLs can be mapped to physical file system
locations. This means that a certain path even outside the Document Root in
the file system can be accessed via a URL aliasing that path.
The default openSUSE Alias /icons points to /usr/share/apache2/
icons for the Apache icons displayed in the directory index view.
ScriptAlias
Similar to the Alias directive, the ScriptAlias directive maps a URL to a
file system location. The difference is that ScriptAlias designates the target
directory as a CGI location, meaning that CGI scripts should be executed in that
location.
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Directory
With the Directory setting, you can enclose a group of configuration options
that will only apply to the specified directory.
Access and display options for the directories /usr/share/apache2/icons
and /srv/www/cgi-bin are configured here. It should not be necessary to
change the defaults.
Include
With include, additional configuration files can be specified. Two Include directives are already preconfigured: /etc/apache2/conf.d/ is the directory
containing the configuration files that come with external modules. With this directive, all files in this directory ending in .conf are included. With the second directive, /etc/apache2/conf.d/apache2-manual?conf, the
apache2-manual configuration file is included.
Server Name
This specifies the default URL used by clients to contact the Web server. Use a
fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to reach the Web server at http://FQDN/
or its IP address. You cannot choose an arbitrary name herethe server must be
known under this name.
Server Administrator E-Mail
E-mail address of the server administrator. This address is, for example, shown on
error pages Apache creates.
After finishing with the Default Host step, click Next to continue with the configuration.
Virtual Hosts
In this step, the wizard displays a list of already configured virtual hosts (see Section
Virtual Host Configuration (page 486)). If you have not made manual changes prior
to starting the YaST HTTP wizard, no virtual host is present.
To add a host, click Add to open a dialog in which to enter basic information about the
host. Server Identification includes the server name, server contents root
(DocumentRoot), and administrator e-mail. Server Resolution is used to determine
how a host is identified (name based or IP based). Specify the name or IP address with
Change Virtual Host ID
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Clicking Next advances to the second part of the virtual host configuration dialog.
In part two of the virtual host configuration you can specify whether to enable CGI
scripts and which directory to use for these scripts. It is also possible to enable SSL. If
you do so, you must specify the path to the certificate as well. See Section 30.6.2,
Configuring Apache with SSL (page 514) for details on SSL and certificates. With
the Directory Index option, you can specify which file to display when the client requests
a directory (by default, index.html). Add one or more filenames (space-separated) if
you want to change this. With Enable Public HTML, the content of the users public
directories (~user/public_html/) is made available on the server under
http://www.example.com/~user.
IMPORTANT: Creating Virtual Hosts
It is not possible to add virtual hosts at will. If using name-based virtual hosts,
each hostname must be resolved on the network. If using IP-based virtual hosts,
you can assign only one host to each IP address available.
Summary
This is the final step of the wizard. Here, determine how and when the Apache server
is started: when booting or manually. Also see a short summary of the configuration
made so far. If you are satisfied with your settings, click Finish to complete configuration. If you want to change something, click Back until you have reached the desired
dialog. Clicking HTTP Server Expert Configuration opens the dialog described in
Section HTTP Server Configuration (page 495).
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Figure 30.2 HTTP Server Wizard: Summary
HTTP Server Configuration

The HTTP Server Configuration dialog also lets you make even more adjustments to
the configuration than the wizard (which only runs if you configure your Web server
for the first time). It consists of four tabs described in the following. No configuration
option you change here is effective immediatelyyou always must confirm your
changes with Finish to make them effective. Clicking Cancel leaves the configuration
module and discards your changes.
Listen Ports and Addresses

In HTTP Service, select whether Apache should be running (Enabled) or stopped
(Disabled). In Listen on Ports, Add, Edit, or Delete addresses and ports on which the
server should be available. The default is to listen on all interfaces on port 80. You
should always check Open Firewall on Selected Ports, because otherwise the Web
server is not reachable from the outside. Keeping the port closed is only useful in test
situations where no external access to the Web server is necessary.
With Log Files, watch either the access log or the error log. This is useful if you want
to test your configuration. The log file opens in a separate window from which you can
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also restart or reload the Web server (see Section 30.3, Starting and Stopping Apache
(page 497) for details). These commands are effective immediately.
Figure 30.3 HTTP Server Configuration: Listen Ports and Addresses
Server Modules
You can change the status (enabled or disabled) of Apache2 modules by clicking Toggle
Status. Click Add Module to add a new module that is already installed but not yet
listed. Learn more about modules in Section 30.4, Installing, Activating, and Configuring Modules (page 499).
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Figure 30.4 HTTP Server Configuration: Server Modules
Main Host or Hosts

These dialogs are identical to the ones already described. Refer to Section Default
Host (page 491) and Section Virtual Hosts (page 493).
30.3 Starting and Stopping Apache

If configured with YaST (see Section 30.2.2, Configuring Apache with YaST
(page 490)), Apache is started at boot time in runlevels 3 and 5 and stopped in runlevels
0, 1, 2, and 6. You can change this behavior using YaST's runlevel editor or the command
line tool chkconfig.
To start, stop, or manipulate Apache on a running system, use the init script
/usr/sbin/rcapache2 (refer to Section 12.2.2, Init Scripts (page 186) for a
general information about init scripts.). The rcapache2 command takes the following
parameters:
start
Starts Apache if it is not already running.
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startssl
Starts Apache with SSL support if it is not already running. For more information
about SSL support, refer to Section 30.6, Setting Up a Secure Web Server with
SSL (page 509).
stop
Stops Apache by terminating the parent process.
restart
Stops then restarts Apache. Starts the Web server if it was not running before.
try-restart
Stops then restarts Apache only if it has been running before.
reload or graceful
Stops the Web server by advising all forked Apache processes to first finish their
requests before shutting down. As each process dies, it is replaced by a newly
started one, resulting in complete restart of Apache.
TIP
rcapache2 reload is the preferred method of restarting Apache in
production environments, for example, to activate a change in the configuration, because it allows all clients to be served without causing connection
break-offs.
configtest
Checks the syntax of the configuration files without affecting a running Web
server. Because this check is forced every time the server is started, reloaded, or
restarted, it is usually not necessary to run the test explicitly (if a configuration error
is found, the Web server is not started, reloaded, or restarted).
probe
Probes for the necessity of a reload (checks whether the configuration has changed)
and suggests the required arguments for the rcapache2 command.
server-status and full-server-status
Dumps a short or full status screen, respectively. Requires either lynx or w3m installed as well as the module mod_status enabled. In addition to that, status must
be added to APACHE_SERVER_FLAGS in the file /etc/sysconfig/apache2.
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TIP: Additional Flags

If you specify additional flags to the rcapache2, these are passed through to
the Web server.
30.4 Installing, Activating, and

Configuring Modules
The Apache software is built in a modular fashion: all functionality except some core
tasks is handled by modules. This has progressed so far that even HTTP is processed
by a module (http_core).
Apache modules can be compiled into the Apache binary at build time or dynamically
loaded at runtime. Refer to Section 30.4.2, Activation and Deactivation (page 500)
for details of how to load modules dynamically.
Apache modules can be divided into four different categories:
Base Modules
Base modules are compiled into Apache by default. Apache in SUSE Linux has
only mod_so (needed to load other modules) and http_core compiled in. All others
are available as shared objects: rather than being included in the server binary itself,
they can be included at runtime.
Extension Modules
In general, modules labeled as extensions are included in the Apache software
package, but are usually not compiled into the server statically. In openSUSE, they
are available as shared objects that can be loaded into Apache at runtime.
External Modules
Modules labeled external are not included in the official Apache distribution.
openSUSE provides several of them readily available for use.
Multiprocessing Modules
MPMs are responsible for accepting and handling requests to the Web server, representing the core of the Web server software.
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30.4.1 Module Installation

If you have followed the default way of installing Apache (described in Section 30.1.2,
Installation (page 482)), it is installed with all base and extension modules, the multiprocessing module Prefork MPM, and the external modules mod_php5 and mod_python.
You can install additional external modules by starting YaST and choosing Software
> Software Management. Now choose Filter > Search and search for apache. Among
other packages, the result list contains all available external Apache modules.
30.4.2 Activation and Deactivation

Using YaST, you can activate or deactivate the script language modules (PHP5, Perl,
Python, and Ruby) with the module configuration described in Section HTTP Server
Wizard (page 491). All other modules can be enabled or disabled as described in Section
Server Modules (page 496).
If you prefer to activate or deactivate the modules manually, use the commands
a2enmod mod_foo or a2dismod mod_foo, respectively. a2enmod -l outputs
a list of all currently active modules.
IMPORTANT: Including Configuration Files for External Modules
If you have activated external modules manually, make sure to load their configuration files in all virtual host configurations. Configuration files for external
modules are located under /etc/apache2/conf.d/ and are not loaded by
default. If you need the same modules on each virtual host, you can include *
.conf from this directory. Otherwise include individual files. See /etc/
apache2/vhost.d/vhost.template for examples.
30.4.3 Base and Extension Modules

All base and extension modules are described in detail in the Apache documentation.
Only a brief description of the most important modules is available here. Refer to
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/ to learn details about each
module.
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mod_actions
Provides methods to execute a script whenever a certain MIME type (such as
application/pdf), a file with a specific extension (like .rpm), or a certain
request method (such as GET) is requested. This module is enabled by default.
mod_alias
Provides Alias and Redirect directives with which you can map a URl to a
specific directory (Alias) or redirect a requested URL to another location. This
module is enabled by default.
mod_auth*
The authentication modules provide different authentication methods: basic authentication with mod_auth_basic or digest authentication with mod_auth_digest. Digest
authentication in Apache 2.2 is considered experimental.
mod_auth_basic and mod_auth_digest must be combined with an authentication
provider module, mod_authn_* (for example, mod_authn_file for text filebased
authentication) and with an authorization module mod_authz_* (for example,
mod_authz_user for user authorization).
More information about this topic is available in the Authentication HOWTO at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/auth.html
mod_autoindex
Autoindex generates directory listings when no index file (for example, index
.html) is present. The look and feel of these indexes is configurable. This module
is enabled by default. However, directory listings are disabled by default via the
Options directiveoverwrite this setting in your virtual host configuration. The
default configuration file for this module is located at /etc/apache2/mod
_autoindex-defaults.conf.
mod_cgi
mod_cgi is needed to execute CGI scripts. This module is enabled by default.
mod_deflate
Using this module, Apache can be configured to compress given file types on the
fly before delivering them.
mod_dir
mod_dir provides the DirectoryIndex directive with which you can configure
which files are automatically delivered when a directory is requested (index
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.html by default). It also provides an automatic redirect to the correct URl when
a directory request does not contain a trailing slash. This module is enabled by default.
mod_env
Controls the environment that is passed to CGI scripts or SSI pages. Environment
variables can be set or unset or passed from the shell that invoked the httpd process.
This module is enabled by default.
mod_expires
With mod_expires, you can control how often proxy and browser caches refresh
your documents by sending an Expires header. This module is enabled by default.
mod_include
mod_include lets you use Server Side Includes (SSI), which provide a basic functionality to generate HTML pages dynamically. This module is enabled by default.
mod_info
Provides a comprehensive overview of the server configuration under http://localhost/server-info/. For security reasons, you should always limit access to this URL.
By default only localhost is allowed to access this URL. mod_info is configured
at /etc/apache2/mod_info.conf
mod_log_config
With this module, you can configure the looks of the Apache log files. This module
is enabled by default.
mod_mime
The mime module takes care that a file is delivered with the correct MIME header
based on the filename's extension (for example text/html for HTML documents).
This module is enabled by default.
mod_negotiation
Necessary for content negotiation. See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/
2.2/content-negotiation.html for more information. This module is
enabled by default.
mod_rewrite
Provides the functionality of mod_alias, but offers more features and flexibility.
With mod_rewrite, you can redirect URLs based on multiple rules, request headers,
and more.
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mod_setenvif
Sets environment variables based on details of the client's request, such as the
browser string the client sends, or the client's IP address. This module is enabled
by default.
mod_speling
mod_speling attempts to automatically correct typographical errors in URLs, such
as capitalization errors.
mod_ssl
Enables encrypted connections between Web server and clients. See Section 30.6,
Setting Up a Secure Web Server with SSL (page 509) for details. This module is
enabled by default.
mod_status
Provides information on server activity and performance under http://localhost/server-status/. For security reasons, you should always limit access to this URL. By
default, only localhost is allowed to access this URl. mod_status is configured
at /etc/apache2/mod_status.conf
mod_suexec
mod_suexec lets you run CGI scripts under a different user and group. This module
is enabled by default.
mod_userdir
Enables user-specific directories available under ~user/. The UserDir directive
must be specified in the configuration. This module is enabled by default.
30.4.4 Multiprocessing Modules

openSUSE provides two different multiprocessing modules (MPMs) for use with
Apache.
Prefork MPM
The prefork MPM implements a nonthreaded, preforking Web server. It makes the Web
server behave similarly to Apache version 1.x in that it isolates each request and handles
it by forking a separate child process. Thus problematic requests cannot affect others,
avoiding a lockup of the Web server.
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While providing stability with this process-based approach, the prefork MPM consumes
more system resources than its counterpart, the worker MPM. The prefork MPM is
considered the default MPM for Unix-based operating systems.
IMPORTANT: MPMs in This Document
This document assumes Apache is used with the prefork MPM.
Worker MPM
The worker MPM provides a multithreaded Web server. A thread is a lighter form
of a process. The advantage of a thread over a process is its lower resource consumption.
Instead of only forking child processes, the worker MPM serves requests by using
threads with server processes. The preforked child processes are multithreaded. This
approach makes Apache perform better by consuming fewer system resources than the
prefork MPM.
One major disadvantage is the stability of the worker MPM: if a thread becomes corrupt,
all threads of a process can be affected. In the worst case, this may result in a server
crash. Especially when using the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) with Apache under
heavy load, internal server errors might occur due to threads unable to communicate
with system resources. Another argument against using the worker MPM with Apache
is that not all available Apache modules are thread-safe and thus cannot be used in
conjunction with the worker MPM.
WARNING: Using PHP Modules with MPMs
Not all available PHP modules are thread-safe. Using the worker MPM with
mod_php is strongly discouraged.
30.4.5 External Modules

Find a list of all external modules shipped with openSUSE here. Find the module's
documentation in the listed directory.
mod-apparmor
Adds support to Apache to provide Novell AppArmor confinement to individual
CGI scripts handled by modules like mod_php5 and mod_perl.
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Package Name: apache2-mod_apparmor

More Information: Novell AppArmor Administration Guide (Novell AppArmor
Administration Guide)
mod_fcgid
mod_fcgid is a binary-compatible alternative to mod_fastcgi. It is a language-independent, scalable, and open extension to CGI that provides high performance
without the limitations of server-specific APIs. mod_fcgid applications are very
fast because they are persistent. There is no per-request start-up and initialization
overhead.
Package Name: apache2-mod_fcgid
Configuration File: /etc/apache2/conf.d/mod_fcgid.conf
More Information: /usr/share/doc/packages/apache2-mod_fastcgi
mod_perl
mod_perl enables you to run Perl scripts in an embedded interpreter. The persistent
interpreter embedded in the server avoids the overhead of starting an external interpreter and the penalty of Perl start-up time.
Package Name: apache2-mod_perl
Configuration File: /etc/apache2/conf.d/mod_perl.conf
More Information: /usr/share/doc/packages/apache2-mod_perl
mod_php5
PHP is a server-side, cross-platform HTML embedded scripting language.
Package Name: apache2-mod_php5
Configuration File: /etc/apache2/conf.d/php5.conf
More Information: /usr/share/doc/packages/apache2-mod_php5
mod_python
mod_python allows embedding Python within the Apache HTTP server for a considerable boost in performance and added flexibility in designing Web-based applications.
Package Name: apache2-mod_python
More Information: /usr/share/doc/packages/apache2-mod_python
mod_jk-ap20
This module provides connectors between Apache and a Tomcat Servlet Container.
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Package Name: mod_jk-ap20

More Information: /usr/share/doc/packages/mod_jk-ap20
30.4.6 Compilation
Apache can be extended by advanced users by writing custom modules. To develop
modules for Apache or compile third-party modules, the package apache2-devel
is required along with the corresponding development tools. apache2-devel also
contains the apxs2 tools, which are necessary for compiling additional modules for
Apache.
apxs2 enables the compilation and installation of modules from source code (including
the required changes to the configuration files), which creates dynamic shared objects
(DSOs) that can be loaded into Apache at runtime.
The apxs2 binaries are located under /usr/sbin:
/usr/sbin/apxs2suitable for building an extension module that works with
any MPM. The installation location is /usr/lib/apache2.
/usr/sbin/apxs2-preforksuitable for prefork MPM modules. The installation location is /usr/lib/apache2-prefork.
/usr/sbin/apxs2-workersuitable for worker MPM modules.
apxs2 installs modules so they can be used for all MPMs. The other two programs
install modules so they can only be used for the respective MPMs. apxs2 installs
modules in /usr/lib/apache2, apxs2-prefork and apxs2-worker installs
modules in /usr/lib/apache2-prefork or /usr/lib/apache2-worker.
Install and activate a module from source code with the commands cd
/path/to/module/source; apxs2 -cia mod_foo.c (-c compiles the
module, -i installs it, and -a activates it). Other options of apxs2 are described in
the apxs2(1) man page.
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30.5 Getting CGI Scripts to Work

Apache's Common Gateway Interface (CGI) lets you create dynamic content with
programs or scripts usually referred to as CGI scripts. CGI scripts can be written in any
programming language. Usually, script languages such as Perl or PHP are used.
To enable Apache to deliver content created by CGI scripts, mod_cgi needs to be activated. mod_alias is also needed. Both modules are enabled by default. Refer to Section 30.4.2, Activation and Deactivation (page 500) for details on activating modules.
WARNING: CGI Security
Allowing the server to execute CGI scripts is a potential security hole. Refer to
Section 30.7, Avoiding Security Problems (page 515) for additional information.
30.5.1 Apache Configuration

In openSUSE, the execution of CGI scripts is only allowed in the directory /srv/
www/cgi-bin/. This location is already configured to execute CGI scripts. If you
have created a virtual host configuration (see Section Virtual Host Configuration
(page 486)) and want to place your scripts in a host-specific directory, you must unlock
and configure this directory.
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Example 30.5 VirtualHost CGI Configuration

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/srv/www/www.example.com/cgi-bin/"
<Directory "/srv/www/www.example.com/cgi-bin/">
Options +ExecCGI
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Tells Apache to handle all files within this directory as CGI scripts.
Enables CGI script execution
Tells the server to treat files with the extensions .pl and .cgi as CGI scripts. Adjust
according to your needs.
The Order and Allow directives control the default access state and the order
in which Allow and Deny directives are evaluated. In this case deny statements
are evaluated before allow statements and access from everywhere is enabled.
30.5.2 Running an Example Script

CGI programming differs from "regular" programming in that the CGI programs and
scripts must be preceded by a MIME-Type header such as Content-type:
text/html. This header is sent to the client, so it understands what kind of content
it receives. Secondly, the script's output must be something the client, usually a Web
browser, understandsHTML in most cases or plain text or images, for example.
A simple test script available under /usr/share/doc/packages/apache2/
test-cgi is part of the Apache package. It outputs the content of some environment
variables as plain text. Copy this script to either /srv/www/cgi-bin/ or the script
directory of your virtual host (/srv/www/www.example.com/cgi-bin/) and
name it test.cgi.
Files accessible by the Web server should be owned by to the user root (see Section 30.7, Avoiding Security Problems (page 515) for additional information). Because
the Web server runs with a different user, the CGI scripts must be world-executable
and world-readable. Change into the CGI directory and use the command chmod 755
test.cgi to apply the proper permissions.
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Now call http://localhost/cgi-bin/test.cgi or

http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/test.cgi. You should see the CGI/1.0
test script report.
If you do not see the output of the test program but an error message instead, check the
following:
CGI Troubleshooting
Have you reloaded the server after having changed the configuration? Check with
rcapache2 probe.
If you have configured your custom CGI directory, is it configured properly? If in
doubt, try the script within the default CGI directory /srv/www/cgi-bin/ and
call it with http://localhost/cgi-bin/test.cgi.
Are the file permissions correct? Change into the CGI directory and execute the
ls -l test.cgi. Its output should start with
-rwxr-xr-x
1 root root
Make sure that the script does not contain programming errors. If you have not
changed test.cgi, this should not be the case, but if you are using your own programs,
always make sure that they do not contain programming errors.
30.6 Setting Up a Secure Web Server

with SSL
Whenever sensitive data, such as credit card information, is transferred between Web
server and client, it would be desirable to have a secure, encrypted connection with
authentication. mod_ssl provides strong encryption using the secure sockets layer (SSL)
and transport layer security (TLS) protocols for HTTP communication between a client
and the Web server. Using SSL/TSL, a private connection between Web server and
client is established. Data integrity is ensured and client and server are able to authenticate each other.
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For this purpose, the server sends an SSL certificate that holds information proving the
server's valid identity before any request to a URL is answered. In turn, this guarantees
that the server is the uniquely correct end point for the communication. Additionally,
the certificate generates an encrypted connection between client and server that can
transport information without the risk of exposing sensitive, plain-text content.
mod_ssl does not implement the SSL/TSL protocols itself, but acts as an interface between Apache and an SSL library. In openSUSE, the OpenSSL library is used. OpenSSL
is automatically installed with Apache.
The most visible effect of using mod_ssl with Apache is that URLs are prefixed with
https:// instead of http://.
30.6.1 Creating an SSL Certificate

In order to use SSL/TSL with the Web server, you need to create an SSL certificate.
This certificate is needed for the authorization between Web server and client, so that
each party can clearly identify the other party. To ensure the integrity of the certificate,
it must be signed by a party every user trusts.
There are three types of certificates you can create: a dummy certificate for testing
purposes only, a self-signed certificate for a defined circle of users that trust you, and
a certificate signed by an independent, publicly-known certificate authority (CA).
Creating a certificate is basically a two step process. First, a private key for the certificate
authority is generated then the server certificate is signed with this key.
To learn more about concepts and definitions of SSL/TSL, refer to http://
httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/ssl/ssl_intro.html.
Creating a Dummy Certificate

Generating a dummy certificate is simple. Just call the script
/usr/bin/gensslcert. It creates or overwrites the following files:
/etc/apache2/ssl.crt/ca.crt
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/etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server.crt
/etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key
/etc/apache2/ssl.csr/server.csr
A copy of ca.crt is also placed at /srv/www/htdocs/CA.crt for download.
IMPORTANT
A dummy certificate should never be used on a production system. Only use
it for testing purposes.
Creating a Self-Signed Certificate

If you are setting up a secure Web server for an Intranet or for a defined circle of users,
it might be sufficient if you sign a certificate with your own certificate authority (CA).
Creating a self-signed certificate is an interactive nine-step process. Change into the
directory /usr/share/doc/packages/apache2 and run the following command:
./mkcert.sh make --no-print-directory /usr/bin/openssl
/usr/sbin/ custom. Do not attempt to run this command from outside this directory. The program provides a series of prompts, some of which require user input.
Procedure 30.1 Creating a Self-Signed Certificate with mkcert.sh
1 Decide the signature algorithm used for certificates
Choose RSA (R, the default), because some older browsers have problems with
DSA.
2 Generating RSA private key for CA (1024 bit)
No interaction needed.
3 Generating X.509 certificate signing request for CA
Create the CA's distinguished name here. This requires you to answer a few
questions, such as country name or organization name. Enter valid data, because
everything you enter here later shows up in the certificate. You do not need to
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answer every question. If one does not apply to you or you want to leave it blank,
use .. Common name is the name of the CA itselfchoose a significant name,
such as My company CA.
4 Generating X.509 certificate for CA signed by itself
Choose certificate version 3 (the default).
5 Generating RSA private key for SERVER (1024 bit)
No interaction needed.
6 Generating X.509 certificate signing request for SERVER
Create the distinguished name for the server key here. Questions are almost
identical to the ones already answered for the CA's distinguished name. The data
entered here applies to the Web server and does not necessarily need to be identical to the CA's data (for example, if the server is located elsewhere).
IMPORTANT: Selecting a Common Name
The common name you enter here must be the fully qualified hostname
of your secure server (for example, www.example.com). Otherwise the
browser issues a warning that the certificate does not match the server
when accessing the Web server.
7 Generating X.509 certificate signed by own CA
Choose certificate version 3 (the default).
8 Encrypting RSA private key of CA with a pass phrase
for security
It is strongly recommended to encrypt the private key of the CA with a password,
so choose Y and enter a password.
9 Encrypting RSA private key of SERVER with a pass phrase
for security
Encrypting the server key with a password requires you to enter this password
every time you start the Web server. This makes it difficult to automatically start
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the server on boot or to restart the Web server. Therefore, it is common sense to
say N to this question. Keep in mind that your key is unprotected when not encrypted with a password and make sure that only authorized persons have access
to the key.
IMPORTANT: Encrypting the Server Key
If you choose to encrypt the server key with a password, increase the
value for APACHE_TIMEOUT in /etc/sysconfig/apache2. Otherwise
you do not have enough time to enter the passphrase before the attempt
to start the server is stopped unsuccessfully.
The script's result page presents a list of certificates and keys it has generated. Contrary
to what the script outputs, the files have not been generated in the local directory conf,
but to the correct locations under /etc/apache2/.
The last step is to copy the CA certificate file from /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/ca
.crt to a location where your users can access it in order to incorporate it into the list
of known and trusted CAs in their Web browsers. Otherwise a browser complains that
the certificate was issued by an unknown authority. The certificate is valid for one year.
IMPORTANT: Self-Signed Certificates
Only use a self-signed certificate on a Web server that is accessed by people
who know and trust you as a certificate authority. It is not recommended to
use such a certificate on a public shop, for example.
Getting an Officially Signed Certificate

There are a number of official certificate authorities that sign your certificates. The
certificate is signed by a trustworthy third party, so can be fully trusted. Publicly operating secure Web servers usually have got an officially signed certificate.
The best-known official CAs are Thawte (http://www.thawte.com/) or Verisign
(http://www.verisign.com). These and other CAs are already compiled into
all browsers, so certificates signed by these certificate authorities are automatically accepted by the browser.
513
When requesting an officially signed certificate, you do not send a certificate to the
CA. Instead, issue a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). To create a CSR, call the script
/usr/share/ssl/misc/CA.sh -newreq.
First the script asks for a password with which the CSR should be encrypted. Then you
are asked to enter a distinguished name. This requires you to answer a few questions,
such as country name or organization name. Enter valid dataeverything you enter
here later shows up in the certificate and is checked. You do not need to answer every
question. If one does not apply to you or you want to leave it blank, use .. Common
name is the name of the CA itselfchoose a significant name, such as My company
CA. Last, a challenge password and an alternative company name must be entered.
Find the CSR in the directory from which you called the script. The file is named
newreq.pem.
30.6.2 Configuring Apache with SSL

The default port for SSL and TLS requests on the Web server side is 443. There is no
conflict between a regular Apache listening on port 80 and an SSL/TLS-enabled
Apache listening on port 443. In fact, HTTP and HTTPS can be run with the same
Apache instance. Usually separate virtual hosts are used to dispatch requests to port 80
and port 443 to separate virtual servers.
IMPORTANT: Firewall Configuration
Do not forget to open the firewall for SSL-enabled Apache on port 443. This
can be done with YaST as described in Section 35.4.1, Configuring the Firewall
with YaST (page 583).
To use SSL, it must be activated in the global server configuration. Open /etc/
sysconfig/apache2 in an editor and search for APACHE_MODULES. Add ssl
to the list of modules if it is not already present (mod_ssl is activated by default). Next,
search for APACHE_SERVER_FLAGS and add SSL. If you have chosen to encrypt
your server certificate with a password, you should also increase the value for
APACHE_TIMEOUT, so you have enough time to enter the passphrase when Apache
starts. Restart the server to make these changes active. A reload is not sufficient.
The virtual host configuration directory contains a template /etc/apache2/vhosts
.d/vhost-ssl.template with SSL-specific directives that are extensively docu514
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mented. Refer to Section Virtual Host Configuration (page 486) for the general virtual
host configuration.
To get started, it should be sufficient to adjust the values for the following directives:
DocumentRoot
ServerName
ServerAdmin
ErrorLog
TransferLog
IMPORTANT: Name-Based Virtual Hosts and SSL
It is not possible to run multiple SSL-enabled virtual hosts on a server with
only one IP address. Users connecting to such a setup receive a warning message
stating that the certificate does not match the server name every time they
visit the URL. A separate IP address or port is necessary for every SSL-enabled
domain to achieve communication based on a valid SSL certificate.
30.7 Avoiding Security Problems

A Web server exposed to the public Internet requires an ongoing administrative effort.
It is inevitable that security issues appear, both related to the software and to accidental
misconfiguration. Here are some tips for how to deal with them.
30.7.1 Up-to-Date Software

If there are vulnerabilities found in the Apache software, a security advisory will be
issued by SUSE. It contains instructions for fixing the vulnerabilities, which in turn
should be applied soon as possible. The SUSE security announcements are available
from the following locations:
Web Page
http://www.novell.com/linux/security/
securitysupport.html
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Mailing List http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate

#Mailinglists
RSS Feed http://www.novell.com/linux/security/suse
_security.xml
30.7.2 DocumentRoot Permissions

By default in openSUSE, the DocumentRoot directory /srv/www/htdocs and
the CGI directory /srv/www/cgi-bin belong to the user and group root. You
should not change these permissions. If the directories were writable for all, any user
could place files into them. These files might then be executed by Apache with the
permissions of wwwrun, which may give the user unintended access to file system resources. Use subdirectories of /srv/www to place the DocumentRoot and CGI directories for your virtual hosts and make sure that directories and files belong to user
and group root.
30.7.3 File System Access

By default, access to the whole file system is denied in /etc/apache2/httpd
.conf. You should never overwrite these directives, but specifically enable access to
all directories Apache should be able to read (see Section Basic Virtual Host Configuration (page 489) for details). In doing so, ensure that no critical files, such as password
or system configuration files, can be read from the outside.
30.7.4 CGI Scripts

Interactive scripts in Perl, PHP, SSI, or any other programming language can essentially
run arbitrary commands and therefore present a general security issue. Scripts that will
be executed from the server should only be installed from sources the server administrator trustsallowing users to run their own scripts is generally not a good idea. It is
also recommended to do security audits for all scripts.
To make the administration of scripts as easy as possible, it is common practice to
limit the execution of CGI scripts to specific directories instead of globally allowing
them. The directives ScriptAlias and Option ExecCGI are used for configura-
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tion. The openSUSE default configuration does not allow execution of CGI scripts from
everywhere.
All CGI scripts run as the same user, so different scripts can potentially conflict with
each other. The module suEXEC lets you run CGI scripts under a different user and
group.
30.7.5 User Directories

When enabling user directories (with mod_userdir or mod_rewrite) you should
strongly consider not allowing .htaccess files, which would allow users to overwrite
security settings. At least you should limit the user's engagement by using the directive
AllowOverRide. In openSUSE, .htaccess files are enabled by default, but the
user is not allowed to overwrite any Option directives when using mod_userdir (see
the /etc/apache2/mod_userdir.conf configuration file).
If Apache does not start, the Web page is not accessible, or users cannot connect to the
Web server, it is important to find the cause of the problem. Here are some typical
places to look for error explanations and important things to check.
First, rcapache2 (described in Section 30.3, Starting and Stopping Apache
(page 497)) is verbose about errors, so can be quite helpful if it is actually used for operating Apache. Sometimes it is tempting to use the binary /usr/sbin/httpd2 for
starting or stopping the Web server. Avoid doing this and use the rcapache2 script
instead. rcapache2 even provides tips and hints for solving configuration errors.
Second, the importance of log files cannot be overemphasized. In case of both fatal and
nonfatal errors, the Apache log files, mainly the error log file, are the places to look for
causes. Additionally, you can control the verbosity of the logged messages with the
LogLevel directive if more detail is needed in the log files. By default, the error log
file is located at /var/log/apache2/error_log.
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TIP: A Simple Test

Watch the Apache log messages with the command tail -F
/var/log/apache2/my_error_log. Then run rcapache2 restart.
Now, try to connect with a browser and check the output.
A common mistake is not to open the ports for Apache in the firewall configuration of
the server. If you configure Apache with YaST, there is a separate option available to
take care of this specific issue (see Section 30.2.2, Configuring Apache with YaST
(page 490)). If you are configuring Apache manually, open firewall ports for HTTP and
HTTPS via YaST's firewall module.
If the error cannot be tracked down with the help of any these, check the online Apache
bug database at http://httpd.apache.org/bug_report.html. Additionally,
the Apache user community can be reached via a mailing list available at http://
httpd.apache.org/userslist.html. A recommended newsgroup is comp
.infosystems.www.servers.unix.

The package apache2-doc contains the complete Apache manual in various localizations for local installation and reference. It is not installed by defaultthe quickest
way to install it is to use the command yast -i apache2-doc. Once installed,
the Apache manual is available at http://localhost/manual/. You may also
access it on the Web at http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/. SUSE-specific configuration hints are available in the directory /usr/share/doc/packages/
apache2/README.*.
30.9.1 Apache 2.2

For a list of new features in Apache 2.2, refer to http://httpd.apache.org/
docs/2.2/new_features_2_2.html. Information about upgrading from version
2.0 to 2.2 is available at http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/upgrading
.html.
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30.9.2 Apache Modules

More information about external Apache modules from Section 30.4.5, External
Modules (page 504) is available at the following locations:
mod-apparmor
http://en.opensuse.org/AppArmor
mod_fcgid
http://fastcgi.coremail.cn/
mod_perl
http://perl.apache.org/
mod_php5
http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.unix.apache2.php
mod_python
http://www.modpython.org/
30.9.3 Development
More information about developing Apache modules or about getting involved in the
Apache Web server project are available at the following locations:
Apache Developer Information
http://httpd.apache.org/dev/
Apache Developer Documentation
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/developer/
Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C
http://www.modperl.com/
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30.9.4 Miscellaneous Sources

If you experience difficulties specific to Apache in openSUSE, take a look at the
openSUSE wiki at http://http://en.opensuse.org/Apache. The history
of Apache is provided at http://httpd.apache.org/ABOUT_APACHE.html.
This page also explains why the server is called Apache.
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Setting up a FTP server with

YaST
31
Using the YaST FTP Server module, you can configure your machine to function as a
FTP server. Anonymous and/or authenticated users can connect to your machine and
download and, depending on the configuration, upload files using the FTP protocol.
YaST provides a unified configuration interface for various FTP server daemons installed
on your system.
The YaST FTP Server configuration module can be used to configure two different
FTP server daemons: vsftpd (Very Secure FTP Daemon) and pure-ftpd. Only installed
servers can be configured. Standard openSUSE media does not contain the pure-ftpd
package. However, if the pure-ftpd package is installed from another repository, it can
be configured using the YaST module.
vsftpd and pure-ftpd have slightly different configuration options, especially in the
Experts Settings dialog. This chapter describes the settings of the vsftpd for being the
default server for openSUSE.
To configure the FTP server with run YaST and choose Network Services > FTP
Server. If no FTP server is installed, you will be asked which server should be installed.
Choose a server and confirm the dialog.
31.1 Starting the FTP server

In the Service Start frame of the Start-Up dialog you are able to set the way the FTP
server is started up. You can choose between starting the server automatically during
Setting up a FTP server with YaST
521
the system boot and starting it manually. If the FTP server should be started only after
FTP connection request, choose Via xinetd.
The current status of the FTP server is shown in the Switch On and Off frame. Start the
FTP server by pressing Start FTP Now. To stop the server, press Stop FTP Now. After
having changed the settings of the server press Save Settings and Restart FTP Now.
Your configurations will be saved by leaving the configuration module with Accept as
well.
The Select Service frame of the FTP Start-Up dialog shows which FTP server is used.
Either vsftpd (Very Secure FTP Daemon) or pure-ftpd can be used. If both servers are
installed, you can choose between them. The pure-ftpd package is not included in the
standard openSUSE media so you have to install it from a different installation source
if you want to use it.
Figure 31.1 FTP Server Configuration Start-Up
31.2 FTP General Settings

In the General Settings frame of the FTP General Settings dialog you can set the Welcome message which is shown after connecting to the FTP server.
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If you check the Chroot Everyone option, all local users will be placed in a chroot jail
in their home directory after login. This option has security implications, especially if
the users have upload permission or shell access, so be careful enabling this option.
If you check the Verbose Logging option, all FTP requests and responses are logged.
In the Umask for Anonymous and Umask for Authenticated Users set the file creation
mask for anonymous and authorized users respectively.
In the FTP Directories frame set the directories used for anonymous and authorized
users. The default FTP directory for anonymous users is /srv/ftp. Note that vsftpd
does not allow this directory to be writable for all users. The subdirectory upload
with write permissions for anonymous users is created instead.
NOTE
pure-ftpd allows the FTP directory for anonymous users to be writable. Make
sure you removed the write permissions in the directory that was used with
pure-ftpd before switching back to the vsftpd server.
31.3 FTP Performance Settings

In the FTP Performance Settings set the parameters which affect the loading of the FTP
server. Max Idle Time is the maximum time (in minutes) the remote client may spend
between FTP commands. In case of longer inactivity, the remote client is disconnected.
Max Clients for One IP determines the maximum number of clients which can be connected from a single IP address. Max Clients determines the maximum number of clients
which may be connected. Any additional clients will get an error message.
The maximum data transfer rate (in KB/s) is set in Local Max Rate for local authenticated users, and in Anonymous Max Rate for anonymous clients respectively. The default
value for the rate settings is 0, which means unlimited data transfer rate.
31.4 Authentication
In the Enable/Disable Anonymous and Local Users frame of the Authentication dialog,
you are able to set which users are allowed to access your FTP server. You can grant
Setting up a FTP server with YaST
523
access only for anonymous users, only for authenticated users with accounts on the
system or for both types of users.
If you want to allow users to upload files to the FTP server, check Enable Upload in
the Uploading frame of the Authentication dialog. Here you are able to allow uploading
or creating directories even for anonymous users by checking the respective box.
NOTE
If a vsftpd server is used and you want anonymous users to be able to upload
files or create directories, a subdirectory with writing permissions for all users
has to be created in this directory.
31.5 Expert Settings

A FTP server can run in active or in passive mode. By default the server runs in passive
mode. To switch into the active mode, just uncheck Passive Mode option in Expert
Settings dialog. You can also change the range of ports on the server used for the data
stream by tweaking the Min Port for Pas. Mode and Max Port for Pas Mode options.
If you want encrypted communication between clients and the server, you can use the
FTPS protocol (FTP/SSH). However note that FTPS is different from the much more
common SFTP (SSH File Transport Protocol) protocol. If you want to use the FTPS,
you can set options in the Expert Settings dialog.
If your system is protected by a firewall, check Open Port in Firewall to enable a connection to the FTP server.
31.6 For more information

For more information about the vsftpd server read the manual pages of vsftpd and
vsftpd.conf.
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Part V. Mobility
32
Power Management
Power management is especially important on laptop computers, but is also useful on

other systems. ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface) is available on all
modern computers (laptops, desktops, and servers). Power management technologies
require suitable hardware and BIOS routines. Most laptops and many modern desktops
and servers meet these requirements. It is also possible to control CPU frequency scaling
to save power or decrease noise.
32.1 Power Saving Functions

Power saving functions are not only significant for the mobile use of laptops, but also
for desktop systems. The main functions and their use in ACPI are:
Standby
This operating mode turns off the display. On some computers, the processor performance is throttled. This function corresponds to the ACPI state S1 or S2.
Suspend (to memory)
This mode writes the entire system state to the RAM. Subsequently, the entire
system except the RAM is put to sleep. In this state, the computer consumes very
little power. The advantage of this state is the possibility of resuming work at the
same point within a few seconds without having to boot and restart applications.
This function corresponds to the ACPI state S3. The support of this state is still
under development and therefore largely depends on the hardware.
Power Management
527
Hibernation (suspend to disk)

In this operating mode, the entire system state is written to the hard disk and the
system is powered off. There must be a swap partition at least as big as the RAM
to write all the active data. Reactivation from this state takes about 30 to 90 seconds.
The state prior to the suspend is restored. Some manufacturers offer useful hybrid
variants of this mode, such as RediSafe in IBM Thinkpads. The corresponding
ACPI state is S4. In Linux, suspend to disk is performed by kernel routines that
are independent from ACPI.
Battery Monitor
ACPI checks the battery charge status and provides information about it. Additionally, it coordinates actions to perform when a critical charge status is reached.
Automatic Power-Off
Following a shutdown, the computer is powered off. This is especially important
when an automatic shutdown is performed shortly before the battery is empty.
Shutdown of System Components
Switching off the hard disk is the greatest single aspect of the power saving potential
of the overall system. Depending on the reliability of the overall system, the hard
disk can be put to sleep for some time. However, the risk of losing data increases
with the duration of the sleep periods. Other components, like PCI devices that can
be put into a special power saving mode, can be deactivated with ACPI (at least
theoretically) or permanently disabled in the BIOS setup.
Processor Speed Control
In connection with the CPU, energy can be saved in three different ways: frequency
and voltage scaling (also known as PowerNow! or Speedstep), throttling, and
putting the processor to sleep (C states). Depending on the operating mode of the
computer, these methods can also be combined.
32.2 ACPI
ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface) was designed to enable the operating
system to set up and control the individual hardware components. ACPI supersedes
both PnP and APM. It delivers information about the battery, AC adapter, temperature,
fan, and system events, like close lid or battery low.
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The BIOS provides tables containing information about the individual components and
hardware access methods. The operating system uses this information for tasks like
assigning interrupts or activating and deactivating components. Because the operating
system executes commands stored in the BIOS, the functionality depends on the BIOS
implementation. The tables ACPI can detect and load are reported in /var/log/boot
.msg. See Section 32.2.4, Troubleshooting (page 534) for more information about
troubleshooting ACPI problems.
32.2.1 ACPI in Action

If the kernel detects an ACPI BIOS when the system is booted, ACPI is activated automatically. The boot parameter acpi=force may be necessary for some older machines.
The computer must support ACPI 2.0 or later. Check the kernel boot messages in /var/
log/boot.msg to see if ACPI was activated.
Subsequently, a number of modules must be loaded. This is done by the start script of
acpid. If any of these modules cause problems, the respective module can be excluded
from loading or unloading in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/common. The system
log (/var/log/messages) contains the messages of the modules, enabling you to
see which components were detected.
/proc/acpi now contains a number of files that provide information about the system
state or can be used to change some of the states. Some features do not work yet because
they are still under development and the support of some functions largely depends on
the implementation of the manufacturer.
All files (except dsdt and fadt) can be read with cat. In some files, settings can be
modified with echo, for example, echo X > file to specify suitable values for
X. One possibility for easy access to those values is the powersave command, which
acts as a front-end for the Powersave daemon. The following describes the most important files:
/proc/acpi/info
General information about ACPI.
/proc/acpi/alarm
Here, specify when the system should wake from a sleep state. Currently, this feature
is not fully supported.
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529
/proc/acpi/sleep
Provides information about possible sleep states.
/proc/acpi/event
All events are reported here and processed by the Powersave daemon
(powersaved). If no daemon accesses this file, events, such as a brief click on
the power button or closing the lid, can be read with cat /proc/acpi/event
(terminate with Ctrl + C).
/proc/acpi/dsdt and /proc/acpi/fadt
These files contain the ACPI tables DSDT (differentiated system description table)
and FADT (fixed ACPI description table). They can be read with acpidmp,
acpidisasm, and dmdecode. These programs and their documentation are located in the package pmtools. For example, acpidmp DSDT | acpidisasm.
/proc/acpi/ac_adapter/AC/state
Shows whether the AC adapter is connected.
/proc/acpi/battery/BAT*/{alarm,info,state}
Detailed information about the battery state. The charge level is read by comparing
the last full capacity from info with the remaining capacity
from state. A more comfortable way to do this is to use one of the special programs introduced in Section 32.2.3, ACPI Tools (page 534). The charge level at
which a battery event (such as warning, low and critical) is triggered can be specified
in alarm.
/proc/acpi/button
This directory contains information about various switches, like the laptop lid and
buttons.
/proc/acpi/fan/FAN/state
Shows if the fan is currently active. Activate or deactivate the fan manually by
writing 0 (on) or 3 (off) into this file. However, both the ACPI code in the kernel
and the hardware (or the BIOS) overwrite this setting when the system gets too
warm.
/proc/acpi/processor/*
A separate subdirectory is kept for each CPU included in your system.
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/proc/acpi/processor/*/info
Information about the energy saving options of the processor.
/proc/acpi/processor/*/power
Information about the current processor state. An asterisk next to C2 indicates that
the processor is idle. This is the most frequent state, as can be seen from the usage
value.
/proc/acpi/processor/*/throttling
Can be used to set the throttling of the processor clock. Usually, throttling is possible
in eight levels. This is independent of the frequency control of the CPU.
/proc/acpi/processor/*/limit
If the performance (outdated) and the throttling are automatically controlled by a
daemon, the maximum limits can be specified here. Some of the limits are determined by the system. Some can be adjusted by the user.
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/
A separate subdirectory exists for every thermal zone. A thermal zone is an area
with similar thermal properties whose number and names are designated by the
hardware manufacturer. However, many of the possibilities offered by ACPI are
rarely implemented. Instead, the temperature control is handled conventionally by
the BIOS. The operating system is not given much opportunity to intervene, because
the life span of the hardware is at stake. Therefore, some of the files only have a
theoretical value.
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temperature
Current temperature of the thermal zone.
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/state
The state indicates if everything is ok or if ACPI applies active or passive
cooling. In the case of ACPI-independent fan control, this state is always ok.
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/cooling_mode
Select the cooling method controlled by ACPI. Choose from passive (less performance, economical) or active cooling mode (full performance, fan noise).
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/trip_points
Enables the determination of temperature limits for triggering specific actions, like
passive or active cooling, suspension (hot), or a shutdown (critical). The
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531
possible actions are defined in the DSDT (device-dependent). The trip points determined in the ACPI specification are critical, hot, passive, active1, and
active2. Even if not all of them are implemented, they must always be entered
in this file in this order. For example, the entry echo 90:0:70:0:0 >
trip_points sets the temperature for critical to 90 and the temperature
for passive to 70 (all temperatures measured in degrees Celsius).
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/polling_frequency
If the value in temperature is not updated automatically when the temperature
changes, toggle the polling mode here. The command echo X >
/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/polling_frequency causes the temperature to be queried every X seconds. Set X=0 to disable polling.
None of these settings, information, and events need to be edited manually. This can
be done with the Powersave daemon (powersaved) and its various front-ends, like
powersave, kpowersave, and wmpowersave. See Section 32.2.3, ACPI Tools
(page 534).
32.2.2 Controlling the CPU Performance

The CPU can save energy in three ways. Depending on the operating mode of the
computer, these methods can be combined. Saving energy also means that the system
heats up less and the fans are activated less frequently.
Frequency and Voltage Scaling
PowerNow! and Speedstep are the designations AMD and Intel use for this technology. However, this technology is also applied in processors of other manufacturers. The clock frequency of the CPU and its core voltage are reduced at the same
time, resulting in more than linear energy savings. This means that when the frequency is halved (half performance), far less than half of the energy is consumed.
This technology is independent from ACPI. There are two main approaches to
performing CPU frequency scalingby the kernel itself or by a userspace application. Therefore, there are different kernel governors that can be set below /sys/
devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/.
userspace governor
If the userspace governor is set, the kernel gives the control of CPU frequency
scaling to a userspace application, usually a daemon. In openSUSE distributions,
this daemon is the powersaved package. When this implementation is used,
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the CPU frequency is adjusted in regard to the current system load. By default,
one of the kernel implementations is used. However, on some hardware or in
regard to specific processors or drivers, the userspace implementation is still
the only working solution.
ondemand governor
This is the kernel implementation of a dynamic CPU frequency policy and
should work on most systems. As soon as there is a high system load, the CPU
frequency is immediately increased. It is lowered on a low system load.
conservative governor
This governor is similar to the on demand implementation, except that a more
conservative policy is used. The load of the system must be high for a specific
amount of time before the CPU frequency is increased.
powersave governor
The cpu frequency is statically set to the lowest possible.
performance governor
The cpu frequency is statically set to the highest possible.
Throttling the Clock Frequency
This technology omits a certain percentage of the clock signal impulses for the
CPU. At 25% throttling, every fourth impulse is omitted. At 87.5%, only every
eighth impulse reaches the processor. However, the energy savings are a little less
than linear. Normally, throttling is only used if frequency scaling is not available
or to maximize power savings. This technology, too, must be controlled by a special
process. The system interface is /proc/acpi/processor/*/throttling.
Putting the Processor to Sleep
The operating system puts the processor to sleep whenever there is nothing to do.
In this case, the operating system sends the CPU a halt command. There are three
states: C1, C2, and C3. In the most economic state, C3, even the synchronization
of the processor cache with the main memory is halted. Therefore, this state can
only be applied if no other device modifies the contents of the main memory via
bus master activity. Some drivers prevent the use of C3. The current state is displayed in /proc/acpi/processor/*/power.
Frequency scaling and throttling are only relevant if the processor is busy, because the
most economic C state is applied anyway when the processor is idle. If the CPU is busy,
frequency scaling is the recommended power saving method. Often the processor only
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533
works with a partial load. In this case, it can be run with a lower frequency. Usually,
dynamic frequency scaling controlled by the kernel on demand governor or a daemon,
such as powersaved, is the best approach. A static setting to a low frequency is useful
for battery operation or if you want the computer to be cool or quiet.
Throttling should be used as the last resort, for example, to extend the battery operation
time despite a high system load. However, some systems do not run smoothly when
they are throttled too much. Moreover, CPU throttling does not make sense if the CPU
has little to do.
In openSUSE these technologies are controlled by the powersave daemon. The configuration is explained in Section 32.4, The powersave Package (page 537).
32.2.3 ACPI Tools

The range of more or less comprehensive ACPI utilities includes tools that merely display
information, like the battery charge level and the temperature (acpi, klaptopdaemon,
wmacpimon, etc.), tools that facilitate the access to the structures in /proc/acpi or
that assist in monitoring changes (akpi, acpiw, gtkacpiw), and tools for editing the ACPI
tables in the BIOS (package pmtools).
There are two different types of problems. On one hand, the ACPI code of the kernel
may contain bugs that were not detected in time. In this case, a solution will be made
available for download. More often, however, the problems are caused by the BIOS.
Sometimes, deviations from the ACPI specification are purposely integrated in the
BIOS to circumvent errors in the ACPI implementation in other widespread operating
systems. Hardware components that have serious errors in the ACPI implementation
are recorded in a blacklist that prevents the Linux kernel from using ACPI for these
components.
The first thing to do when problems are encountered is to update the BIOS. If the
computer does not boot at all, one of the following boot parameters may be helpful:
pci=noacpi
Do not use ACPI for configuring the PCI devices.
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Reference
acpi=ht
Only perform a simple resource configuration. Do not use ACPI for other purposes.
acpi=off
Disable ACPI.
WARNING: Problems Booting without ACPI
Some newer machines (especially SMP systems and AMD64 systems) need ACPI
for configuring the hardware correctly. On these machines, disabling ACPI can
cause problems.
Monitor the boot messages of the system with the command dmesg | grep -2i
acpi (or all messages, because the problem may not be caused by ACPI) after booting.
If an error occurs while parsing an ACPI table, the most important tablethe DSDTcan be replaced with an improved version. In this case, the faulty DSDT of the
BIOS is ignored. The procedure is described in Section 32.4.3, Troubleshooting
(page 541).
In the kernel configuration, there is a switch for activating ACPI debug messages. If a
kernel with ACPI debugging is compiled and installed, experts searching for an error
can be supported with detailed information.
If you experience BIOS or hardware problems, it is always advisable to contact the
manufacturers. Especially if they do not always provide assistance for Linux, they
should be confronted with the problems. Manufacturers will only take the issue seriously
if they realize that an adequate number of their customers use Linux.
For More Information

http://www.cpqlinux.com/acpi-howto.html (detailed ACPI HOWTO,
contains DSDT patches)
http://www.intel.com/technology/iapc/acpi/faq.htm (ACPI
FAQ @Intel)
http://acpi.sourceforge.net/ (the ACPI4Linux project at Sourceforge)
http://www.poupinou.org/acpi/ (DSDT patches by Bruno Ducrot)
Power Management
535
32.3 Rest for the Hard Disk

In Linux, the hard disk can be put to sleep entirely if it is not needed or it can be run in
a more economic or quieter mode. On modern laptops, you do not need to switch off
the hard disks manually, because they automatically enter an economic operating mode
whenever they are not needed. However, if you want to maximize power savings, test
some of the following methods.
The hdparm application can be used to modify various hard disk settings. The option
-y instantly switches the hard disk to the standby mode. -Y puts it to sleep. hdparm
-S x causes the hard disk to be spun down after a certain period of inactivity. Replace
x as follows: 0 disables this mechanism, causing the hard disk to run continuously.
Values from 1 to 240 are multiplied by 5 seconds. Values from 241 to 251 correspond
to 1 to 11 times 30 minutes.
Internal power saving options of the hard disk can be controlled with the option -B.
Select a value from 0 to 255 for maximum saving to maximum throughput. The result
depends on the hard disk used and is difficult to assess. To make a hard disk quieter,
use the option -M. Select a value from 128 to 254 for quiet to fast.
Often, it is not so easy to put the hard disk to sleep. In Linux, numerous processes write
to the hard disk, waking it up repeatedly. Therefore, it is important to understand how
Linux handles data that needs to be written to the hard disk. First, all data is buffered
in the RAM. This buffer is monitored by the kernel update daemon (kupdated). When
the data reaches a certain age limit or when the buffer is filled to a certain degree, the
buffer content is flushed to the hard disk. The buffer size is dynamic and depends on
the size of the memory and the system load. By default, kupdated is set to short intervals
to achieve maximum data integrity. It checks the buffer every 5 seconds and notifies
the bdflush daemon when data is older than 30 seconds or the buffer reaches a fill level
of 30%. The bdflush daemon then writes the data to the hard disk. It also writes independently from kupdated if, for instance, the buffer is full.
WARNING: Impairment of the Data Integrity
Changes to the kernel update daemon settings endanger the data integrity.
Apart from these processes, journaling file systems, like ReiserFS and Ext3, write their
metadata independently from bdflush, which also prevents the hard disk from spinning
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Reference
down. To avoid this, a special kernel extension has been developed for mobile devices.
See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/laptop-mode.txt for details.
Another important factor is the way active programs behave. For example, good editors
regularly write hidden backups of the currently modified file to the hard disk, causing
the disk to wake up. Features like this can be disabled at the expense of data integrity.
In this connection, the mail daemon postfix makes use of the variable
POSTFIX_LAPTOP. If this variable is set to yes, postfix accesses the hard disk far
less frequently. However, this is irrelevant if the interval for kupdated was increased.
32.4 The powersave Package

The powersave package cares about all the previously-mentioned power saving
functions. Due to the increasing demand for lower energy consumption in general, some
of its features are also important on workstations and servers, such as suspend, standby,
or CPU frequency scaling.
This package contains all power management features of your computer. It supports
hardware using ACPI, IDE hard disks, and PowerNow! or SpeedStep technologies.
The functions from the packages apmd, acpid, ospmd, and cpufreqd (now
cpuspeed) have been consolidated in the powersave package. Daemons from these
packages, except acpid that acts as a multiplexer for ACPI events, should not be run
concurrently with the powersave daemon.
Even if your system does not contain all the hardware elements listed above, use the
powersave daemon for controlling the power saving function. Because ACPI and APM
are mutually exclusive, you can only use one of these systems on your computer. The
daemon automatically detects any changes in the hardware configuration.
32.4.1 Configuring the powersave Package

The configuration of powersave is distributed to several files. Every configuration option
listed there contains additional documentation about its functionality.
Power Management
537
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/common
This file contains general settings for the powersave daemon. For example, the
amount of debug messages in /var/log/messages can be increased by increasing the value of the variable DEBUG.
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/events
The powersave daemon needs this file for processing system events. An event can
be assigned external actions or actions performed by the daemon itself. For external
actions, the daemon tries to run an executable file (usually a Bash script) in /usr/
lib/powersave/scripts/. Predefined internal actions are:
ignore
throttle
dethrottle
suspend_to_disk
suspend_to_ram
standby
notify
screen_saver
reread_cpu_capabilities
throttle slows down the processor by the value defined in MAX_THROTTLING.
This value depends on the current scheme. dethrottle sets the processor to full
performance. suspend_to_disk, suspend_to_ram, and standby trigger
the system event for a sleep mode. These three actions are generally responsible
for triggering the sleep mode, but they should always be associated with specific
system events.
The directory /usr/lib/powersave/scripts contains scripts for processing
events:
switch_vt
Useful if the screen is displaced after a suspend or standby.
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Reference
wm_logout
Saves the settings and logs out from GNOME, KDE, or other window managers.
wm_shutdown
Saves the GNOME or KDE settings and shuts down the system.
If, for example, the variable
EVENT_GLOBAL_SUSPEND2DISK="prepare_suspend_to_disk
do_suspend_to_disk" is set, the two scripts or actions are processed in the
specified order as soon as the user gives powersaved the command for the sleep
mode suspend to disk. The daemon runs the external script /usr/lib/
powersave/scripts/prepare_suspend_to_disk. After this script has
been processed successfully, the daemon runs the internal action
do_suspend_to_disk and sets the computer to the sleep mode after the script
has unloaded critical modules and stopped services.
The actions for the event of a sleep button could be modified as in
EVENT_BUTTON_SLEEP="notify suspend_to_disk". In this case, the
user is informed about the suspend by a pop-up window in X or a message on the
console. Subsequently, the event EVENT_GLOBAL_SUSPEND2DISK is generated,
resulting in the execution of the mentioned actions and a secure system suspend
mode. The internal action notify can be customized using the variable
NOTIFY_METHOD in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/common.
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/cpufreq
Contains variables for optimizing the dynamic CPU frequency settings and whether
the user space or the kernel implementation should be used.
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/battery
Contains battery limits and other battery-specific settings.
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/thermal
Activates cooling and thermal control. Details about this subject are available in
the file /usr/share/doc/packages/powersave/README.thermal.
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/scheme_*
These are the various schemes that adapt the power consumption to certain deployment scenarios. A number of schemes are preconfigured and can be used as they
are. Custom schemes can be saved here.
Power Management
539
32.4.2 Additional ACPI Features

If you use ACPI, you can control the response of your system to ACPI buttons (power,
sleep, lid open, and lid closed). Configure execution of the actions in /etc/
sysconfig/powersave/events. Refer to this configuration file for an explanation
of the individual options.
TIP: Configuring ACPI Buttons
The settings in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/event are only taken into
account if no power management applet is run on the user's desktop (i.e.
KPowersave or GNOME Power Manager).
EVENT_BUTTON_POWER="wm_shutdown"
When the power button is pressed, the system responds by shutting down the respective window manager (KDE, GNOME, fvwm, etc.).
EVENT_BUTTON_SLEEP="suspend_to_disk"
When the sleep button is pressed, the system is set to the suspend-to-disk mode.
EVENT_BUTTON_LID_OPEN="ignore"
Nothing happens when the lid is opened.
EVENT_BUTTON_LID_CLOSED="screen_saver"
When the lid is closed, the screen saver is activated.
EVENT_OTHER="ignore"
This event happens if an unknown event is encountered by the daemon. Unknown
events include ACPI hot keys on some machines.
Further throttling of the CPU performance is possible if the CPU load does not exceed
a specified limit for a specified time. Specify the load limit in
PROCESSOR_IDLE_LIMIT and the time-out in CPU_IDLE_TIMEOUT. If the CPU
load stays below the limit longer than the time-out, the event configured in
EVENT_PROCESSOR_IDLE is activated. If the CPU is busy again,
EVENT_PROCESSOR_BUSY is executed.
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Reference
All error messages and alerts are logged in the file /var/log/messages. If you
cannot find the needed information, increase the verbosity of the messages of powersave
using DEBUG in the file /etc/sysconfig/powersave/common. Increase the
value of the variable to 7 or even 15 and restart the daemon. The more detailed error
messages in /var/log/messages should help you to find the error. The following
sections cover the most common problems with powersave and the different sleep
modes.
ACPI Activated with Hardware Support but Functions

Do Not Work
If you experience problems with ACPI, use the command dmesg|grep -i acpi
to search the output of dmesg for ACPI-specific messages. A BIOS update may be
required to resolve the problem. Go to the home page of your laptop manufacturer, look
for an updated BIOS version, and install it. Ask the manufacturer to comply with the
latest ACPI specification. If the errors persist after the BIOS update, proceed as follows
to replace the faulty DSDT table in your BIOS with an updated DSDT:
1 Download the DSDT for your system from http://acpi.sourceforge
.net/dsdt/index.php. Check if the file is decompressed and compiled as
shown by the file extension .aml (ACPI machine language). If this is the case,
continue with step 3.
2 If the file extension of the downloaded table is .asl (ACPI source language),
compile it with iasl (package pmtools). Enter the command iasl -sa
file.asl. The latest version of iasl (Intel ACPI compiler) is available at
http://developer.intel.com/technology/iapc/acpi/
downloads.htm.
3 Copy the file DSDT.aml to any location (/etc/DSDT.aml is recommended).
Edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel and adapt the path to the DSDT file accordingly. Start mkinitrd (package mkinitrd). Whenever you install the kernel
and use mkinitrd to create an initrd, the modified DSDT is integrated and
loaded when the system is booted.
Power Management
541
CPU Frequency Does Not Work

Refer to the kernel sources (kernel-source) to see if your processor is supported.
You may need a special kernel module or module option to activate CPU frequency
control. This information is available in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/
cpu-freq/*.
Suspend and Standby Do Not Work

ACPI systems may have problems with suspend and standby due to a faulty DSDT
implementation (BIOS). If this is the case, update the BIOS.
When the system tries to unload faulty modules, the system is arrested or the suspend
event is not triggered. The same can also happen if you do not unload modules or stop
services that prevent a successful suspend. In both cases, try to identify the faulty
module that prevented the sleep mode. The log file /var/log/pm-suspend.log
contains detailed information about what is going on and where possible errors are.
Modify the SUSPEND_MODULES variable in /usr/lib/pm-utils/defaults
to unload problematic modules prior to a suspend or standby.
Refer to http://www.opensuse.org/Pm-utils and http://www
.opensuse.org/S2ram to get more detailed information on how to modify the
suspend and resume process.

/usr/share/doc/packages/powersaveLocal Powersave daemon
documentation
http://powersave.sourceforge.netMost recent Powersave daemon
documentation
http://www.opensuse.org/Projects_PowersaveProject page in
the openSUSE wiki
http://www.opensuse.org/S2ramHow to get Suspend to RAM working
http://www.opensuse.org/Pm-utilsHow to modify the general suspend framework
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Reference
Wireless Communication
33
There are several possibilities for using your Linux system to communicate with other
computers, cellular phones, or peripheral devices. WLAN (wireless LAN) can be used
to network laptops. Bluetooth can be used to connect individual system components
(mouse, keyboard), peripheral devices, cellular phones, PDAs, and individual computers
with each other. IrDA is mostly used for communication with PDAs or cellular phones.
This chapter introduces all three technologies and their configuration.
33.1 Wireless LAN

Wireless LANs have become an indispensable aspect of mobile computing. Today,
most laptops have built-in WLAN cards. The 802.11 standard for the wireless communication of WLAN cards was prepared by the IEEE organization. Originally, this standard provided for a maximum transmission rate of 2 Mbit/s. Meanwhile, several supplements have been added to increase the data rate. These supplements define details
such as the modulation, transmission output, and transmission rates (see Table 33.1,
Overview of Various WLAN Standards (page 544)).
Additionally, there are proprietary standards, like the 802.11b variation of Texas Instruments with a maximum transmission rate of 22 Mbit/s (sometimes referred to as
802.11b+). However, the popularity of cards using this standard is limited.
543
Table 33.1
Overview of Various WLAN Standards
Name
Band (GHz)
Maximum Trans- Note

mission Rate
(Mbit/s)
802.11
2.4
Outdated; virtually no end

devices available
802.11b
2.4
11
Widespread
802.11a
54
Less common
802.11g
2.4
54
Backward-compatible with
11b
33.1.1 Hardware
802.11 cards are not supported by openSUSE. Most cards using 802.11a, 802.11b,
and 802.11g are supported. New cards usually comply with the 802.11g standard, but
cards using 802.11b are still available. Normally, cards with the following chips are
supported:
ADMTek ADM8211
Aironet 4500, 4800
Atheros 5210, 5211, 5212
Atmel at76c502, at76c503, at76c504, at76c506
Broadcom BCM43xx
Intel PRO/Wireless 2100, 2200BG, 2915ABG, 3945ABG
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965GN
Intersil Prism2/2.5/3
Intersil PrismGT
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Reference
Lucent/Agere Hermes
Ralink RT2400, RT2500, RT2570, RT61, RT73
Realtek RTL8187
Texas Instruments ACX100, ACX111
ZyDAS zd1201
A number of older cards that are rarely used and no longer available are also supported.
An extensive list of WLAN cards and the chips they use is available at the Web site of
AbsoluteValue Systems at http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan
_adapters.html.gz. Find an overview of the various WLAN chips at http://
wiki.uni-konstanz.de/wiki/bin/view/Wireless/ListeChipsatz.
Some cards need a firmware image that must be loaded into the card when the driver
is initialized. This is the case with Intersil PrismGT, Atmel, and TI ACX100 and
ACX111. The firmware can easily be installed with the YaST Online Update. The
firmware for Intel PRO/Wireless cards ships with openSUSE and is automatically installed by YaST as soon as a card of this type is detected. More information about this
subject is available in the installed system in /usr/share/doc/packages/
wireless-tools/README.firmware.
33.1.2 Function
In wireless networking, various techniques and configurations are used to ensure fast,
high-quality, and secure connections. Different operating types suit different setups. It
can be difficult to choose the right authentication method. The available encryption
methods have different advantages and pitfalls.
Operating Mode
Basically, wireless networks can be classified as managed networks and ad-hoc networks.
Managed networks have a managing element: the access point. In this mode (also referred to as infrastructure mode), all connections of the WLAN stations in the network
run over the access point, which may also serve as a connection to an ethernet. Ad-hoc
networks do not have an access point. The stations communicate directly with each
other. The transmission range and number of participating stations are greatly limited
545
in ad-hoc networks. Therefore, an access point is usually more efficient. It is even

possible to use a WLAN card as an access point. Most cards support this functionality.
Because a wireless network is much easier to intercept and compromise than a wired
network, the various standards include authentication and encryption methods. In the
original version of the IEEE 802.11 standard, these are described under the term WEP.
However, because WEP has proven to be insecure (see Section Security (page 552)),
the WLAN industry (joined under the name Wi-Fi Alliance) has defined a new extension
called WPA, which is supposed to eliminate the weaknesses of WEP. The later IEEE
802.11i standard (also referred to as WPA2, because WPA is based on a draft version
802.11i) includes WPA and some other authentication and encryption methods.
Authentication
To make sure that only authorized stations can connect, various authentication mechanisms are used in managed networks:
Open
An open system is a system that does not require authentication. Any station can
join the network. Nevertheless, WEP encryption (see Section Encryption
(page 547)) can be used.
Shared Key (according to IEEE 802.11)
In this procedure, the WEP key is used for the authentication. However, this procedure is not recommended, because it makes the WEP key more susceptible to attacks. All an attacker needs to do is to listen long enough to the communication
between the station and the access point. During the authentication process, both
sides exchange the same information, once in encrypted form and once in unencrypted form. This makes it possible for the key to be reconstructed with suitable
tools. Because this method makes use of the WEP key for the authentication and
for the encryption, it does not enhance the security of the network. A station that
has the correct WEP key can authenticate, encrypt, and decrypt. A station that does
not have the key cannot decrypt received packets. Accordingly, it cannot communicate, regardless of whether it had to authenticate itself.
WPA-PSK (according to IEEE 802.1x)
WPA-PSK (PSK stands for preshared key) works similarly to the Shared Key
procedure. All participating stations as well as the access point need the same key.
The key is 256 bits in length and is usually entered as a passphrase. This system
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Reference
does not need a complex key management like WPA-EAP and is more suitable for
private use. Therefore, WPA-PSK is sometimes referred to as WPA Home.
WPA-EAP (according to IEEE 802.1x)
Actually, WPA-EAP is not an authentication system but a protocol for transporting
authentication information. WPA-EAP is used to protect wireless networks in enterprises. In private networks, it is scarcely used. For this reason, WPA-EAP is
sometimes referred to as WPA Enterprise.
WPA-EAP needs a Radius server to authenticate users. EAP offers three different
methods for connecting and authenticating to the server: TLS (Transport Layer
Security), TTLS (Tunneled Transport Layer Security), and PEAP (Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol). In a nutshell, these options work as follows:
EAP-TLS
TLS authentication relies on the mutual exchange of certificates both for
server and client. First, the server presents its certificate to the client where it
is evaluated. If the certificate is considered valid, the client in turn presents its
certificate to the server. While TLS is secure, it requires a working certification
management infrastructure in your network. This infrastructure is rarely found
in private networks.
EAP-TTLS and PEAP
Both TTLS and PEAP are two-stage protocols. In the first stage, a secure is
established and in the second one the client authentication data is exchanged.
They require far less certification management overhead than TLS, if any.
Encryption
There are various encryption methods to ensure that no unauthorized person can read
the data packets that are exchanged in a wireless network or gain access to the network:
WEP (defined in IEEE 802.11)
This standard makes use of the RC4 encryption algorithm, originally with a key
length of 40 bits, later also with 104 bits. Often, the length is declared as 64 bits
or 128 bits, depending on whether the 24 bits of the initialization vector are included.
However, this standard has some weaknesses. Attacks against the keys generated
by this system may be successful. Nevertheless, it is better to use WEP than not
encrypt the network at all.
547
TKIP (defined in WPA/IEEE 802.11i)

This key management protocol defined in the WPA standard uses the same encryption algorithm as WEP, but eliminates its weakness. Because a new key is generated
for every data packet, attacks against these keys are in vain. TKIP is used together
with WPA-PSK.
CCMP (defined in IEEE 802.11i)
CCMP describes the key management. Usually, it is used in connection with WPAEAP, but it can also be used with WPA-PSK. The encryption takes place according
to AES and is stronger than the RC4 encryption of the WEP standard.
33.1.3 Configuration with YaST

To configure your wireless network card, start the YaST Network Card module. Here
you can also choose whether to use YaST or NetworkManager for managing your network card. If you select YaST, select the device type Wireless in Network Address
Setup and click Next. In Wireless Network Card Configuration, shown in Figure 33.1,
YaST: Configuring the Wireless Network Card (page 548), make the basic settings
for the WLAN operation:
Figure 33.1 YaST: Configuring the Wireless Network Card
548
Reference
Operating Mode
A station can be integrated in a WLAN in three different modes. The suitable mode
depends on the network in which to communicate: Ad-hoc (peer-to-peer network
without access point), Managed (network is managed by an access point), or
Master (your network card should be used as the access point). To use any of the
WPA-PSK or WPA-EAP modes, the operating mode must be set to managed.
Network Name (ESSID)
All stations in a wireless network need the same ESSID for communicating with
each other. If nothing is specified, the card automatically selects an access point,
which may not be the one you intended to use.
Authentication Mode
Select a suitable authentication method for your network: Open, Shared Key, WPAPSK, or WPA-EAP. If you select WPA authentication, a network name must be
set.
Expert Settings
This button opens a dialog for the detailed configuration of your WLAN connection.
A detailed description of this dialog is provided later.
After completing the basic settings, your station is ready for deployment in the WLAN.
IMPORTANT: Security in Wireless Networks
Be sure to use one of the supported authentication and encryption methods
to protect your network traffic. Unencrypted WLAN connections allow third
parties to intercept all network data. Even a weak encryption (WEP) is better
than none at all. Refer to Section Encryption (page 547) and Section Security
(page 552) for information.
Depending on the selected authentication method, YaST prompts you to fine-tune the
settings in another dialog. For Open, there is nothing to configure, because this setting
implements unencrypted operation without authentication.
Shared Key
Set a key input type. Choose from Passphrase, ASCII, or Hexadecimal. You may
keep up to four different keys to encrypt the transmitted data. Click WEP Keys to
enter the key configuration dialog. Set the length of the key: 128 bit or 64 bit. The
default setting is 128 bit. In the list area at the bottom of the dialog, up to four dif-
549
ferent keys can be specified for your station to use for the encryption. Press Set as
Default to define one of them as the default key. Unless you change this, YaST
uses the first entered key as the default key. If the standard key is deleted, one of
the other keys must be marked manually as the default key. Click Edit to modify
existing list entries or create new keys. In this case, a pop-up window prompts you
to select an input type (Passphrase, ASCII, or Hexadecimal). If you select
Passphrase, enter a word or a character string from which a key is generated according to the length previously specified. ASCII requests an input of 5 characters
for a 64-bit key and 13 characters for a 128-bit key. For Hexadecimal, enter 10
characters for a 64-bit key or 26 characters for a 128-bit key in hexadecimal notation.
WPA-PSK
To enter a key for WPA-PSK, select the input method Passphrase or Hexadecimal.
In the Passphrase mode, the input must be 8 to 63 characters. In the Hexadecimal
mode, enter 64 characters.
WPA-EAP
Enter the credentials you have been given by your network administrator. For TLS,
provide Identity, Client Certificate, Client Key, and Server Certificate. TTLS and
PEAP require Identity and Password. Server Certificate and Anonymous Identity
are optional. YaST searches for any certificate under /etc/cert, so save the
certificates given to you to this location and restrict access to these files to 0600
(owner read and write).
Click Details to enter the advanced authentication dialog for your WPA-EAP setup.
Select the authentication method for the second stage of EAP-TTLS or EAP-PEAP
communication. If you selected TTLS in the previous dialog, choose any, MD5,
GTC, CHAP, PAP, MSCHAPv1, or MSCHAPv2. If you selected PEAP, choose any,
MD5, GTC, or MSCHAPv2. PEAP version can be used to force the use of a certain
PEAP implementation if the automatically-determined setting does not work for
you.
Click Expert Settings to leave the dialog for the basic configuration of the WLAN
connection and enter the expert configuration. The following options are available in
this dialog:
Channel
The specification of a channel on which the WLAN station should work is only
needed in Ad-hoc and Master modes. In Managed mode, the card automatically
searches the available channels for access points. In Ad-hoc mode, select one of
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Reference
the 12 offered channels for the communication of your station with the other stations.
In Master mode, determine on which channel your card should offer access point
functionality. The default setting for this option is Auto.
Bit Rate
Depending on the performance of your network, you may want to set a certain bit
rate for the transmission from one point to another. In the default setting Auto, the
system tries to use the highest possible data transmission rate. Some WLAN cards
do not support the setting of bit rates.
Access Point
In an environment with several access points, one of them can be preselected by
specifying the MAC address.
Use Power Management
When you are on the road, use power saving technologies to maximize the operating
time of your battery. More information about power management is available in
Chapter 32, Power Management (page 527).
33.1.4 Utilities
hostap (package hostap) is used to run a WLAN card as an access point. More information about this package is available at the project home page (http://hostap
.epitest.fi/).
kismet (package kismet) is a network diagnosis tool with which to listen to the WLAN
packet traffic. In this way, you can also detect any intrusion attempts in your network.
More information is available at http://www.kismetwireless.net/ and in
the manual page.
33.1.5 Tips and Tricks for Setting Up a

WLAN
These tips can help tweak speed and stability as well as security aspects of your WLAN.
551
Stability and Speed

The performance and reliability of a wireless network mainly depend on whether the
participating stations receive a clean signal from the other stations. Obstructions like
walls greatly weaken the signal. The more the signal strength sinks, the more the
transmission slows down. During operation, check the signal strength with the iwconfig
utility on the command line (Link Quality field) or with NetworkManager or
KNetworkManager. If you have problems with the signal quality, try to set up the devices
somewhere else or adjust the position of the antennas of your access points. Auxiliary
antennas that substantially improve the reception are available for a number of PCMCIA
WLAN cards. The rate specified by the manufacturer, such as 54 Mbit/s, is a nominal
value that represents the theoretical maximum. In practice, the maximum data
throughput is no more than half this value.
Security
If you want to set up a wireless network, remember that anybody within the transmission
range can easily access it if no security measures are implemented. Therefore, be sure
to activate an encryption method. All WLAN cards and access points support WEP
encryption. Although this is not entirely safe, it does present an obstacle for a potential
attacker. WEP is usually adequate for private use. WPA-PSK would be even better, but
it is not implemented in older access points or routers with WLAN functionality. On
some devices, WPA can be implemented by means of a firmware update. Furthermore,
Linux does not support WPA on all hardware components. If WPA is not available,
WEP is better than no encryption. In enterprises with advanced security requirements,
wireless networks should only be operated with WPA.
If your WLAN card fails to respond, check if you have downloaded the needed firmware.
Refer to Section 33.1.1, Hardware (page 544). The following paragraphs cover some
known problems.
Multiple Network Devices

Modern laptops usually have a network card and a WLAN card. If you configured both
devices with DHCP (automatic address assignment), you may encounter problems with
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Reference
the name resolution and the default gateway. This is evident from the fact that you can
ping the router but cannot surf the Internet. The Support Database features an article
on this subject at http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Name_Resolution_Does
_Not_Work_with_Several_Concurrent_DHCP_Clients.
Problems with Prism2 Cards

Several drivers are available for devices with Prism2 chips. The various cards work
more or less smoothly with the various drivers. With these cards, WPA is only possible
with the hostap driver. If such a card does not work properly or not at all or you want
to use WPA, read /usr/share/doc/packages/wireless-tools/README
.prism2.

The Internet pages of Jean Tourrilhes, who developed the Wireless Tools for Linux,
present a wealth of useful information about wireless networks. See http://www
.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wireless.html.
33.2 Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a wireless technology for connecting various devices, such as cellular
phones, PDAs, peripheral devices, laptops, or system components like the keyboard or
mouse. The name is derived from the Danish king Harold Bluetooth, who united various
warring factions in Scandinavia. The Bluetooth logo is based on the runes for H (resembles a star) and B.
A number of important aspects distinguish Bluetooth from IrDA. First, the individual
devices do not need to see each other directly and, second, several devices can be
connected in a network. However, the maximum data rate is 2.1 Mbps (in the current
version 2.0). Theoretically, Bluetooth can even communicate through walls. In practice,
however, this depends on the properties of the wall and the device class. There are three
device classes with transmission ranges between 10 and 100 meters.
553
33.2.1 Basics
The following sections outline the basic principles of how Bluetooth works. Learn
which software requirements need to be met, how Bluetooth interacts with your system,
and how Bluetooth profiles work.
Software
To be able to use Bluetooth, you need a Bluetooth adapter (either a built-in adapter or
an external device), drivers, and a Bluetooth protocol stack. The Linux kernel already
contains the basic drivers for using Bluetooth. The Bluez system is used as protocol
stack. To make sure that the applications work with Bluetooth, the base packages
bluez-libs and bluez-utils must be installed. These packages provide a
number of needed services and utilities. Additionally, some adapters, such as Broadcom
or AVM BlueFritz!, require the bluez-firmware package to be installed. The
bluez-cups package enables printing over Bluetooth connections. If you need to
debug problems with Bluetooth connections, install the package bluez-hcidump
and bluez-test.
General Interaction
A Bluetooth system consists of four interlocked layers that provide the desired functionality:
Hardware
The adapter and a suitable driver for support by the Linux kernel.
Configuration Files
Used for controlling the Bluetooth system.
Daemons
Services that are controlled by the configuration files and provide the functionality.
Applications
The applications allow the functionality provided by the daemons to be used and
controlled by the user.
When inserting a Bluetooth adapter, its driver is loaded by the hotplug system. After
the driver is loaded, the system checks the configuration files to see if Bluetooth should
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Reference
be started. If this is the case, it determines the services to start. Based on this information,
the respective daemons are started.
Profiles
In Bluetooth, services are defined by means of profiles, such as the file transfer profile,
the basic printing profile, and the personal area network profile. To enable a device to
use the services of another device, both must understand the same profilea piece of
information that is often missing in the device package and manual. Unfortunately,
some manufacturers do not comply strictly with the definitions of the individual profiles.
Despite this, communication between the devices usually works smoothly.
In the following text, local devices are those physically connected to the computer. All
other devices that can only be accessed over wireless connections are referred to as remote devices.
33.2.2 Configuration
This section introduces Bluetooth configuration. Learn which configuration files are
involved, which tools are needed, and how to configure Bluetooth.
The configuration files for the individual components of the Bluez system are located
in the directory /etc/bluetooth. The only exception is the file /etc/
sysconfig/bluetooth for starting the components.
The configuration files described below can only be modified by the user root. Currently, there is no graphical user interface to change all settings. Most of these settings
are only interesting for experienced users with special use cases. Usually, the default
settings should be adequate.
Various settings, such as the device names and the security mode, can be changed in
the configuration file /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf. Usually, the default settings
should be adequate. The file contains comments describing the options for the various
settings. However, most of the settings included in this file can also be made with
kbluetooth or bluez-gnome.
Two sections in the included file are designated as options and device. The first
contains general information that hcid uses for starting. The latter contains settings for
the individual local Bluetooth devices.
555
One of the most important settings of the options section is security auto;.
If set to auto, hcid tries to use the local PIN for incoming connections. If it fails, it
switches to none and establishes the connection anyway. For increased security, this
default setting should be set to user to make sure that the user is requested to enter a
PIN every time a connection is established.
Set the name under which the computer is displayed on the other side in the device
section. The device class, such as Desktop, Laptop, or Server, is defined in this
section. Authentication and encryption are also enabled or disabled here.
33.2.3 System Components and Utilities

The operability of Bluetooth depends on the interaction of various services. hcid (host
controller interface daemon), serves as an interface for the Bluetooth device and controls
it. hcid also provides the sdpd (service discovery protocol daemon), by means of which
a device can detect the services the host makes available. hcid is activated automatically
when the system is started or when a Bluetooth adapter is plugged in to the system.
Should this not have been the case, start the Bluetooth subsystem manually with
rcbluetooth start. This command must be executed as root.
The following paragraphs briefly describe the most important shell tools that can be
used for working with Bluetooth. Although various graphical components are now
available for controlling Bluetooth, it can be worthwhile to check these programs.
Some of the commands can only be executed as root. This includes the command
l2ping device_address for testing the connection to a remote device.
hcitool
Use hcitool to determine whether local and remote devices are detected. The command
hcitool dev lists the local devices. The output generates a line in the form
interface_name device_address for every detected local device.
Search for remote devices with the command hcitool inq. Three values are returned
for every detected device: the device address, the clock offset, and the device class.
The device address is important, because other commands use it for identifying the
target device. The clock offset mainly serves a technical purpose. The class specifies
the device type and the service type as a hexadecimal value.
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Reference
Use hcitool name device-address to determine the device name of a remote

device. In the case of a remote computer, the class and the device name correspond to
the information in its /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf. Local device addresses
generate an error output.
hciconfig
The command /usr/sbin/hciconfig delivers further information about the local
device. If hciconfig is executed without any arguments, the output shows device
information, such as the device name (hciX), the physical device address (a 12-digit
number in the form 00:12:34:56:78), and information about the amount of transmitted data.
hciconfig hci0 name displays the name that is returned by your computer when
it receives requests from remote devices. As well as querying the settings of the local
device, hciconfig can modify these settings. For example, hciconfig hci0
name TEST sets the name to TEST.
sdptool
Use sdptool to check which services are made available by a specific device. The
command sdptool browse device_address returns all services of a device.
Use sdptool search service_code to search for a specific service. This
command scans all accessible devices for the requested service. If one of the devices
offers the service, the program prints the full service name returned by the device together with a brief description. View a list of all possible service codes by entering
sdptool without any parameters.
33.2.4 Graphical Applications

In Konqueror, enter the URL bluetooth:/ to list local and remote Bluetooth devices.
Double-click a device for an overview of the services provided by the device. If you
move across one of the specified services with the mouse, the browser's status bar shows
which profile is used for the service. If you click a service, a dialog opens, asking
whether to save, use the service (an application must be started to do this), or cancel
the action. Mark a check box if you do not want the dialog to be displayed again but
always want the selected action to be performed. For some services, support is not yet
557
available. Other graphical front-ends to Bluetooth are included in the kbluetooth,

bluez-gnome, and gnome-bluetooth packages.
33.2.5 Example Establishing a Network

Connection via Bluetooth
In this example, a network connection is established between the hosts H1 and H2.
These two hosts have the Bluetooth device addresses baddr1 and baddr2 (determined
on both hosts with the command hcitool dev as described above). The hosts should
be identified with the IP addresses 192.168.1.3 (H1) and 192.168.1.4 (H2).
The Bluetooth connection is established with the help of pand (personal area networking
daemon). The following commands must be executed by the user root. The description
focuses on the Bluetooth-specific actions and does not provide a detailed explanation
of the network command ip.
Enter pand -s to start pand on the host H1. Subsequently, establish a connection on
the host H2 with pand -c baddr1. If you enter ip link show on one of the
hosts to list the available network interfaces, the output should contain an entry like the
following:
bnep0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop qlen 1000
link/ether 00:12:34:56:89:90 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Instead of 00:12:34:56:89:90, the output should contain the local device address
baddr1 or baddr2. Now this interface must be assigned an IP address and activated.
On H1, do this with the following two commands:
ip addr add 192.168.1.3/24 dev bnep0
ip link set bnep0 up
On H2, use the following commands:

ip addr add 192.168.1.4/24 dev bnep0
ip link set bnep0 up
Now H1 can be accessed from H2 at the IP 192.168.1.3. Use the command ssh
192.168.1.4 to access H2 from H1, assuming H2 runs an sshd, which is activated
by default in openSUSE. The command ssh 192.168.1.4 can also be run as a
normal user.
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If you have difficulties establishing a connection, proceed according to the following
list. Remember that the error can be on either side of a connection or even on both sides.
If possible, reconstruct the problem with another Bluetooth device to verify that the
device is not defective.
Is the local device listed in the output of hcitool dev?
If the local device is not listed in this output, hcid is not started or the device is not
recognized as a Bluetooth device. This can have various causes. The device may
be defective or the correct driver may be missing. Laptops with built-in Bluetooth
often have an on and off switch for wireless devices, like WLAN and Bluetooth.
Check the manual of your laptop to see if your device has such a switch. Restart
the Bluetooth system with the command rcbluetooth restart and check
if any errors are reported in /var/log/messages.
Does your Bluetooth adapter need a firmware file?
If it does, install bluez-bluefw and restart the Bluetooth system with
rcbluetooth restart.
Does the output of hcitool inq return other devices?
Test this command more than once. The connection may have interferences, because
the frequency band of Bluetooth is also used by other devices.
Can the remote device see your computer?
Try to establish the connection from the remote device. Check if this device sees
the computer.
Can a network connection be established (see Section 33.2.5, Example Establishing
a Network Connection via Bluetooth (page 558))?
The setup described in Section 33.2.5, Example Establishing a Network Connection via Bluetooth (page 558) may not work for several reasons. For example,
one of the two computers may not support SSH. Try ping 192.168.1.3 or
ping 192.168.1.4. If this works, check if sshd is active. Another problem
could be that one of the two devices already has network settings that conflict with
the address 192.168.1.X in the example. If this is the case, try different addresses, such as 10.123.1.2 and 10.123.1.3.
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If you have installed the bluez-hcidump package, you can use hcidump -X to
check what is sent between the devices. Sometimes the output helps give a hint where
the problem is, but be aware of the fact that it is only partly in clear text.

Some additional (last-minute) documentation can be found in /usr/share/doc/
packages/bluez-utils/ (German and English versions available).
An extensive overview of various instructions for the use and configuration of Bluetooth
is available at http://www.bluez.org/. Other useful information and instructions:
Official HOWTO of the Bluetooth protocol stack integrated in the kernel: http://
bluez.sourceforge.net/howto/index.html
Connection to PalmOS PDA: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/s
.zachariadis/btpalmlinux.html
33.3 Infrared Data Transmission

IrDA (Infrared Data Association) is an industry standard for wireless communication
with infrared light. Many laptops sold today are equipped with an IrDA-compatible
transceiver that enables communication with other devices, such as printers, modems,
LANs, or other laptops. The transfer speed ranges from 2400 bps to 4 Mbps.
There are two IrDA operation modes. The standard mode, SIR, accesses the infrared
port through a serial interface. This mode works on almost all systems and is sufficient
for most requirements. The faster mode, FIR, requires a special driver for the IrDA
chip. Not all chip types are supported in FIR mode because of a lack of appropriate
drivers. Set the desired IrDA mode in the BIOS of your computer. The BIOS also shows
which serial interface is used in SIR mode.
Find information about IrDA in the IrDA how-to by Werner Heuser at http://
tuxmobil.org/Infrared-HOWTO/Infrared-HOWTO.html. Additionally
refer to the Web site of the Linux IrDA Project at http://irda.sourceforge
.net/.
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33.3.1 Software
The necessary kernel modules are included in the kernel package. The package irda
provides the necessary helper applications for supporting the infrared interface. Find
the documentation at /usr/share/doc/packages/irda/README after the installation of the package.
33.3.2 Configuration
The IrDA system service is not started automatically when the system is booted. Use
the YaST IrDA module for activation. Only one setting can be modified in this module:
the serial interface of the infrared device. The test window shows two outputs. One is
the output of irdadump, which logs all sent and received IrDA packets. This output
should contain the name of the computer and the names of all infrared devices in
transmission range. An example for these messages is shown in Section 33.3.4,
Troubleshooting (page 562). All devices to which an IrDA connection exists are listed
in the lower part of the window.
IrDA consumes a considerable amount of battery power, because a discovery packet
is sent every few seconds to detect other peripheral devices. Therefore, IrDA should
only be started when necessary if you depend on battery power. Enter the command
rcirda start to activate it or rcirda stop to deactivate it. All needed kernel
modules are loaded automatically when the interface is activated.
If preferred, configure manually in the file /etc/sysconfig/irda. This file contains only one variable, IRDA_PORT, which determines the interface to use in SIR
mode.
33.3.3 Usage
Data can be sent to the device file /dev/irlpt0 for printing. The device file /dev/
irlpt0 acts just like the normal /dev/lp0 cabled interface, except the printing data
is sent wirelessly with infrared light. For printing, make sure that the printer is in visual
range of the computer's infrared interface and the infrared support is started.
A printer that is operated over the infrared interface can be configured with the YaST
printer module. Because it is not detected automatically, configure it manually by
561
clicking Add > Directly Connected Printers. Select IrDA Printer and click Next to
configure the printer device. Usually, irlpt0 is the right connection. Click Finish to
apply your settings. Details about operating printers in Linux are available in Chapter 7,
Printer Operation (page 97).
Communication with other hosts and with mobile phones or other similar devices is
conducted through the device file /dev/ircomm0. The Siemens S25 and Nokia 6210
mobile phones, for example, can dial and connect to the Internet with the wvdial application using the infrared interface. Synchronizing data with a Palm Pilot is also possible,
provided the device setting of the corresponding application has been set to /dev/
ircomm0.
If you want, you can address only devices that support the printer or IrCOMM protocols.
Devices that support the IROBEX protocol, such as the 3Com Palm Pilot, can be accessed with special applications, like irobexpalm and irobexreceive. Refer to the IRHOWTO (http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Infrared-HOWTO/) for information.
The protocols supported by the device are listed in brackets after the name of the device
in the output of irdadump. IrLAN protocol support is still a work in progress.
If devices connected to the infrared port do not respond, use the command irdadump
(as root) to check if the other device is recognized by the computer. Something similar
to Example 33.1, Output of irdadump (page 562) appears regularly when a Canon
BJC-80 printer is in visible range of the computer:
Example 33.1 Output of irdadump
21:41:38.435239
21:41:38.525167
21:41:38.615159
21:41:38.705178
21:41:38.795198
21:41:38.885163
21:41:38.965133
xid:cmd
xid:cmd
xid:cmd
xid:cmd
xid:cmd
xid:cmd
xid:rsp
5b62bed5 > ffffffff S=6 s=0 (14)

5b62bed5 < 6cac38dc S=6 s=5 BJC-80
hint=8804 [Printer IrCOMM ] (23)
21:41:38.975176 xid:cmd 5b62bed5 > ffffffff S=6 s=* earth
hint=0500 [ PnP Computer ] (21)
Check the configuration of the interface if there is no output or the other device does
not reply. Verify that the correct interface is used. The infrared interface is sometimes
located at /dev/ttyS2 or at /dev/ttyS3 and an interrupt other than IRQ 3 is
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sometimes used. These settings can be checked and modified in the BIOS setup menu
of almost every laptop.
A simple video camera can also help in determining whether the infrared LED lights
up at all. Most video cameras can see infrared light; the human eye cannot.
563
Using Tablet PCs
34
openSUSE comes with support for Tablet PCs with serial Wacom devices (such as
IBM/Lenovo X41, ACER TM C300/C301/C302 series, Fujitsu Lifebook T series
(T3010/T4010), HP Compaq TC4200, Motion M1200), with FinePoint devices (such
as Gateway Tablet PCs), and Fujitsu Siemens Computers P-Series. Learn how to install
and configure your Tablet PC and discover some useful Linux* applications which
accept input from digital pens.
After you have installed the Tablet PC packages and configured your digitizer correctly,
input with the pen, also called a stylus, can be used for the following actions and applications:
Logging in to KDM or GDM
Unlocking your screen on the KDE and GNOME desktops
Actions that can also be triggered by other pointing devices (such as mouse or touch
pad), for example, moving the cursor on the screen, starting applications, closing,
resizing and moving windows, shifting window focus, dragging and dropping objects
Using gesture recognition in applications of the X Window System
Drawing with The GIMP
Taking notes or sketching with applications like Jarnal or Xournal or editing larger
amounts of text with Dasher
Using Tablet PCs
565
NOTE: Keyboard or Mouse Needed for Installation

During installation of openSUSE, the pen cannot be used as an input device. If
your Tablet PC does not feature a built-in keyboard or touch pad, connect an
external keyboard or mouse to your Tablet PC for installation of your system.
34.1 Installing Tablet PC Packages

The packages needed for Tablet PCs are included in the Laptop installation patternif
this is selected during installation, the following packages should already be installed
on your system:
jarnal: a Java-based note taking application
xournal: an application for note taking and sketching
xstroke: a gesture recognition program for the X Window System
xvkbd: a virtual keyboard for the X Window System
x11-input-wacom: the X input module for Wacom tablets
x11-input-wacom-tools: configuration, diagnostics, and libraries for Wacom
tablets
x11-input-fujitsu: the X input module for Fujitsu P-Series tablets
If these packages are not installed, manually install the packages you need from command line or select the Laptop pattern for installation in YaST.
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Reference
34.2 Configuring Your Tablet Device

After the tablet PC packages have been installed, configure the (internal or external)
tablet device with SaX2.
1 Start SaX2 from the command line or by pressing Alt + F2 and entering sax2.
2 If you use a Wacom device, click Tablet to show the Tablet Properties.
If you use the Fujitsu P-Series, click Touchscreen instead.
3 From the list on the right, select the vendor and the name of your tablet and check
Activate This Tablet.
4 Switch to the Electronic Pens tab and make sure the following options are activated: Add Pen and Add Eraser.
5 Click OK to save the changes.
After finishing the X Window System configuration, restart your X server by logging
out. Alternatively, leave the user interface and run init 3 && init 5 in a virtual
console.
After your tablet device has been configured, you can now make use of your pen as
input device.
34.3 Using the Virtual Keyboard

To log in to the KDE or GNOME desktop or to unlock the screen, you can either enter
your username and password as usual or via the virtual keyboard, xvkbd, displayed
below the login field. To configure the keyboard or to access the integrated help, click
the xvkbd field at the left lower corner to open the xvkbd main menu.
Using Tablet PCs
567
Figure 34.1 xvkbd Virtual Keyboard
If you want to use xvkbd after login, start it from the main menu or with xvkbd from
a shell.
34.4 Rotating Your Display

When rotating your Tablet PC monitor, the orientation of your display and of your
graphics tablet is not automatically adjusted. For the KDE desktop, use KRandRTray
to rotate or resize your display manually on the fly. KRandRTray is a KDE applet for
the RANDR extension of the X server.
1 Start KRandRTray from the main menu or with krandrtray from a shell. This
adds the KRandRTray icon to your system tray.
2 To rotate your display, click the icon and select the desired orientation from the
context menu. Your display is immediately tilted to the new direction. The orientation of the graphics tablet changes also so it can still interpret the movement
of the pen correctly.
If you have problems changing the orientation of your desktop, refer to Section 34.7,
Troubleshooting (page 571) for more information.
34.5 Using Gesture Recognition

With xstroke, you can use gestures with your pen or other pointing devices as input for
applications on the X Window System. The xstroke alphabet is a unistroke alphabet
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Reference
that resembles the Graffiti* alphabet. When activated, xstroke sends the input to the
currently focused window.
1 Start xstroke from the main menu or with xstroke from a shell. This adds a
pencil icon to your system tray.
2 Start the application for which you want to create text input with the pen (for
example, a terminal window, a text editor, or an OpenOffice.org Writer).
3 To activate the gesture recognition mode, click the pencil icon once.
4 Perform some gestures on the graphics tablet with the pen or another pointing
device. xstroke captures the gestures and transfers them to text that appears in
the application window that has the focus.
5 To switch focus to a different window, click the desired window with the pen
and hold for a moment (or use the keyboard shortcut defined in your desktop's
control center).
6 To deactivate the gesture recognition mode, click the pencil icon again.
34.6 Taking Notes and Sketching with

the Pen
To create drawings with the pen, you can use a professional graphics editor like The
GIMP or try one of the note taking applications, Xournal or Jarnal. With both Xournal
and Jarnal, you can take notes, create drawings, or comment PDF files with the pen.
As a Java-based application available for several platforms, Jarnal also offers basic
collaboration features. For more information, refer to http://www.dklevine
.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal-net.htm. When saving your
contents, Jarnal stores the data in an archive format (*.jaj) that also contains a file in
SVG format.
Start Jarnal or Xournal from the main menu or by entering jarnal or xournal in a
shell. To comment a PDF file in Xournal, for example, select File > Annotate PDF and
open the PDF file from your file system. Use the pen or another pointing device to annotate the PDF then save your changes with File > Print to PDF.
Using Tablet PCs
569
Figure 34.2 Annotating a PDF with Xournal
Dasher is another useful application. It was designed for situations where keyboard input
is impractical or unavailable. With a bit of training, you can rapidly enter larger amounts
of text using only the pen (or other input devicesit can even be driven with an eye
tracker).
Start Dasher from the main menu or with dasher from a shell. Move your pen in one
direction and the application starts to zoom into the letters on the right side. From the
letters passing the cross hairs in the middle, the text is created or predicted and is
printed to the upper part of the window. To stop or start writing, click the display once
with the pen. Modify the zooming speed at the bottom of the window.
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Reference
Figure 34.3 Editing Texts with Dasher
The Dasher concept works for many languages. For more information, refer to the
Dasher Web site, which offers comprehensive documentation, demonstrations and
training texts. Find it at http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/
Virtual Keyboard Does Not Appear on Login Screen
Occasionally, the virtual keyboard is not displayed on the login screen. To solve
this, restart the X server by pressing Ctrl + Alt + < or press the appropriate key
on your Tablet PC (if you use a slate model without integrated keyboard). If the
virtual keyboard still does not show, connect an external keyboard to your slate
model and log in using the hardware keyboard.
Using Tablet PCs
571
Orientation of the Graphics Tablets Does Not Change in GNOME

With the xrandr command, you can change the orientation of your display from
within a shell. Enter xrandr --help to view the options available. To simultaneously change the orientation of your graphics tablet, the command needs to be
modified as described below:
For normal orientation (0 rotation):
xrandr -o 0 && xsetwacom set "Mouse[7]" Rotate 0
For 90 rotation (clockwise, portrait):

For 180 rotation (landscape):

For 270 rotation (counterclockwise, portrait):

Note that the commands above depend on the contents of your /etc/X11/xorg
.conf configuration file. If you have configured your device with SaX2 as described in Section 34.2, Configuring Your Tablet Device (page 567), the commands
should work as they are written. If you have changed the Identifier of the
tablet stylus input device in xorg.conf manually, replace "Mouse[7]" with
the new Identifier.
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Reference

Some of the applications mentioned here do not offer integrated online help, but you
can find some useful information about usage and configuration in your installed system
in /usr/share/doc/package/packagename or on the Web:
For the Xournal manual, refer to http://xournal.sourceforge.net/
manual.html
The Jarnal documentation is located at http://www.dklevine.com/
general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm#documentation
Find the xstroke man page at http://davesource.com/Projects/
xstroke/xstroke.txt
Find a HOWTO for configuring X on the Linux Wacom Web site: http://
linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/x11
Find a very informative Web site about the Dasher project at http://www
.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/
Using Tablet PCs
573
Part VI. Security
Masquerading and Firewalls
35
Whenever Linux is used in a networked environment, you can use the kernel functions
that allow the manipulation of network packets to maintain a separation between internal
and external network areas. The Linux netfilter framework provides the means to establish an effective firewall that keeps different networks apart. With the help of iptablesa
generic table structure for the definition of rule setsprecisely control the packets allowed to pass a network interface. Such a packet filter can be set up quite easily with
the help of SuSEfirewall2 and the corresponding YaST module.
35.1 Packet Filtering with iptables

The components netfilter and iptables are responsible for the filtering and manipulation
of network packets as well as for network address translation (NAT). The filtering criteria and any actions associated with them are stored in chains, which must be matched
one after another by individual network packets as they arrive. The chains to match are
stored in tables. The iptables command allows you to alter these tables and rule
sets.
The Linux kernel maintains three tables, each for a particular category of functions of
the packet filter:
filter
This table holds the bulk of the filter rules, because it implements the packet filtering
mechanism in the stricter sense, which determines whether packets are let through
(ACCEPT) or discarded (DROP), for example.
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nat
This table defines any changes to the source and target addresses of packets. Using
these functions also allows you to implement masquerading, which is a special
case of NAT used to link a private network with the Internet.
mangle
The rules held in this table make it possible to manipulate values stored in IP
headers (such as the type of service).
These tables contain several predefined chains to match packets:
PREROUTING
This chain is applied to incoming packets.
INPUT
This chain is applied to packets destined for the system's internal processes.
FORWARD
This chain is applied to packets that are only routed through the system.
OUTPUT
This chain is applied to packets originating from the system itself.
POSTROUTING
This chain is applied to all outgoing packets.
Figure 35.1, iptables: A Packet's Possible Paths (page 579) illustrates the paths along
which a network packet may travel on a given system. For the sake of simplicity, the
figure lists tables as parts of chains, but in reality these chains are held within the tables
themselves.
In the simplest of all possible cases, an incoming packet destined for the system itself
arrives at the eth0 interface. The packet is first referred to the PREROUTING chain
of the mangle table then to the PREROUTING chain of the nat table. The following
step, concerning the routing of the packet, determines that the actual target of the
packet is a process of the system itself. After passing the INPUT chains of the mangle
and the filter table, the packet finally reaches its target, provided that the rules of
the filter table are actually matched.
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Figure 35.1 iptables: A Packet's Possible Paths

PREROUTING
incoming packet
mangle
nat
INPUT
mangle
Routing
filter
FORWARD
Processes
mangle
in the local
system
filter
OUTPUT
Routing
mangle
nat
filter
POSTROUTING
mangle
nat
outgoing packet
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35.2 Masquerading Basics

Masquerading is the Linux-specific form of NAT (network address translation). It can
be used to connect a small LAN (where hosts use IP addresses from the private
rangesee Section 20.1.2, Netmasks and Routing (page 303)) with the Internet (where
official IP addresses are used). For the LAN hosts to be able to connect to the Internet,
their private addresses are translated to an official one. This is done on the router, which
acts as the gateway between the LAN and the Internet. The underlying principle is a
simple one: The router has more than one network interface, typically a network card
and a separate interface connecting with the Internet. While the latter links the router
with the outside world, one or several others link it with the LAN hosts. With these
hosts in the local network connected to the network card (such as eth0) of the router,
they can send any packets not destined for the local network to their default gateway
or router.
IMPORTANT: Using the Correct Network Mask
When configuring your network, make sure both the broadcast address and
the netmask are the same for all local hosts. Failing to do so prevents packets
from being routed properly.
As mentioned, whenever one of the LAN hosts sends a packet destined for an Internet
address, it goes to the default router. However, the router must be configured before it
can forward such packets. For security reasons, this is not enabled in a default installation. To enable it, set the variable IP_FORWARD in the file /etc/sysconfig/
sysctl to IP_FORWARD=yes.
The target host of the connection can see your router, but knows nothing about the host
in your internal network where the packets originated. This is why the technique is
called masquerading. Because of the address translation, the router is the first destination
of any reply packets. The router must identify these incoming packets and translate
their target addresses, so packets can be forwarded to the correct host in the local network.
With the routing of inbound traffic depending on the masquerading table, there is no
way to open a connection to an internal host from the outside. For such a connection,
there would be no entry in the table. In addition, any connection already established
has a status entry assigned to it in the table, so the entry cannot be used by another
connection.
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As a consequence of all this, you might experience some problems with a number of
application protocols, such as ICQ, cucme, IRC (DCC, CTCP), and FTP (in PORT
mode). Web browsers, the standard FTP program, and many other programs use the
PASV mode. This passive mode is much less problematic as far as packet filtering and
masquerading are concerned.
35.3 Firewalling Basics

Firewall is probably the term most widely used to describe a mechanism that provides
and manages a link between networks while also controlling the data flow between
them. Strictly speaking, the mechanism described in this section is called a packet filter.
A packet filter regulates the data flow according to certain criteria, such as protocols,
ports, and IP addresses. This allows you to block packets that, according to their addresses, are not supposed to reach your network. To allow public access to your Web
server, for example, explicitly open the corresponding port. However, a packet filter
does not scan the contents of packets with legitimate addresses, such as those directed
to your Web server. For example, if incoming packets were intended to compromise a
CGI program on your Web server, the packet filter would still let them through.
A more effective but more complex mechanism is the combination of several types of
systems, such as a packet filter interacting with an application gateway or proxy. In
this case, the packet filter rejects any packets destined for disabled ports. Only packets
directed to the application gateway are accepted. This gateway or proxy pretends to be
the actual client of the server. In a sense, such a proxy could be considered a masquerading host on the protocol level used by the application. One example for such a proxy
is Squid, an HTTP proxy server. To use Squid, the browser must be configured to
communicate via the proxy. Any HTTP pages requested are served from the proxy
cache and pages not found in the cache are fetched from the Internet by the proxy. As
another example, the SUSE proxy suite (proxy-suite) provides a proxy for the FTP
protocol.
The following section focuses on the packet filter that comes with openSUSE. For
further information about packet filtering and firewalling, read the Firewall HOWTO
included in the howto package. If this package is installed, read the HOWTO with
less /usr/share/doc/howto/en/txt/Firewall-HOWTO.gz.
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35.4 SuSEfirewall2
SuSEfirewall2 is a script that reads the variables set in /etc/sysconfig/
SuSEfirewall2 to generate a set of iptables rules. It defines three security zones,
although only the first and the second one are considered in the following sample configuration:
External Zone
Given that there is no way to control what is happening on the external network,
the host needs to be protected from it. In most cases, the external network is the
Internet, but it could be another insecure network, such as a WLAN.
Internal Zone
This refers to the private network, in most cases the LAN. If the hosts on this network use IP addresses from the private range (see Section 20.1.2, Netmasks and
Routing (page 303)), enable network address translation (NAT), so hosts on the
internal network can access the external one.
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
While hosts located in this zone can be reached both from the external and the internal network, they cannot access the internal network themselves. This setup can
be used to put an additional line of defense in front of the internal network, because
the DMZ systems are isolated from the internal network.
Any kind of network traffic not explicitly allowed by the filtering rule set is suppressed
by iptables. Therefore, each of the interfaces with incoming traffic must be placed into
one of the three zones. For each of the zones, define the services or protocols allowed.
The rule set is only applied to packets originating from remote hosts. Locally generated
packets are not captured by the firewall.
The configuration can be performed with YaST (see Section 35.4.1, Configuring the
Firewall with YaST (page 583)). It can also be made manually in the file /etc/
sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2, which is well commented. Additionally, a number
of example scenarios are available in /usr/share/doc/packages/
SuSEfirewall2/EXAMPLES.
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35.4.1 Configuring the Firewall with YaST

IMPORTANT: Automatic Firewall Configuration
After the installation, YaST automatically starts a firewall on all configured interfaces. If a server is configured and activated on the system, YaST can modify
the automatically-generated firewall configuration with the options Open Ports
on Selected Interface in Firewall or Open Ports on Firewall in the server configuration modules. Some server module dialogs include a Firewall Details button
for activating additional services and ports. The YaST firewall configuration
module can be used to activate, deactivate, or reconfigure the firewall.
The YaST dialogs for the graphical configuration can be accessed from the YaST
Control Center. Select Security and Users > Firewall. The configuration is divided into
seven sections that can be accessed directly from the tree structure on the left side.
Start-Up
Set the start-up behavior in this dialog. In a default installation, SuSEfirewall2 is
started automatically. You can also start and stop the firewall here. To implement
your new settings in a running firewall, use Save Settings and Restart Firewall
Now.
Figure 35.2 The YaST Firewall Configuration
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Interfaces
All known network interfaces are listed here. To remove an interface from a zone,
select the interface, press Change, and choose No Zone Assigned. To add an interface
to a zone, select the interface, press Change and choose any of the available zones.
You may also create a special interface with your own settings by using Custom.
Allowed Services
You need this option to offer services from your system to a zone from which it is
protected. By default, the system is only protected from external zones. Explicitly
allow the services that should be available to external hosts. After selecting the
desired zone in Allowed Services for Selected Zone, activate the services from the
list.
Masquerading
Masquerading hides your internal network from external networks, such as the Internet, while enabling hosts in the internal network to access the external network
transparently. Requests from the external network to the internal one are blocked
and requests from the internal network seem to be issued by the masquerading
server when seen externally. If special services of an internal machine need to be
available to the external network, add special redirect rules for the service.
Broadcast
In this dialog, configure the UDP ports that allow broadcasts. Add the required
port numbers or services to the appropriate zone, separated by spaces. See also the
file /etc/services.
The logging of broadcasts that are not accepted can be enabled here. This may be
problematic, because Windows hosts use broadcasts to know about each other and
so generate many packets that are not accepted.
IPsec Support
Configure whether the IPsec service should be available to the external network in
this dialog. Configure which packets are trusted under Details.
Logging Level
There are two rules for the logging: accepted and not accepted packets. Packets
that are not accepted are DROPPED or REJECTED. Select from Log All, Log
Only Critical, or Do Not Log Any for both of them.
Custom Rules
Here set special firewall rules that allow connections, matching specified citeria.
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When completed with the firewall configuration, exit this dialog with Next. A zoneoriented summary of your firewall configuration then opens. In it, check all settings.
All services, ports, and protocols that have been allowed are listed in this summary. To
modify the configuration, use Back. Press Accept to save your configuration.
35.4.2 Configuring Manually

The following paragraphs provide step-by-step instructions for a successful configuration. Each configuration item is marked as to whether it is relevant to firewalling or
masquerading. Aspects related to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) as mentioned in the
configuration file are not covered here. They are applicable only to a more complex
network infrastructure found in larger organizations (corporate networks), which require
extensive configuration and in-depth knowledge about the subject.
First, use the YaST module System Services (Runlevel) to enable SuSEfirewall2 in
your runlevel (3 or 5 most likely). It sets the symlinks for the SuSEfirewall2_* scripts
in the /etc/init.d/rc?.d/ directories.
FW_DEV_EXT (firewall, masquerading)
The device linked to the Internet. For a modem connection, enter ppp0. For an
ISDN link, use ippp0. DSL connections use dsl0. Specify auto to use the interface that corresponds to the default route.
FW_DEV_INT (firewall, masquerading)
The device linked to the internal, private network (such as eth0). Leave this blank
if there is no internal network and the firewall protects only the host on which it
runs.
FW_ROUTE (firewall, masquerading)
If you need the masquerading function, set this to yes. Your internal hosts will
not be visible to the outside, because their private network addresses (e.g.,
192.168.x.x) are ignored by Internet routers.
For a firewall without masquerading, only set this to yes if you want to allow access
to the internal network. Your internal hosts need to use officially registered IP addresses in this case. Normally, however, you should not allow access to your internal
network from the outside.
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FW_MASQUERADE (masquerading)
Set this to yes if you need the masquerading function. This provides a virtually
direct connection to the Internet for the internal hosts. It is more secure to have a
proxy server between the hosts of the internal network and the Internet. Masquerading is not needed for services a proxy server provides.
FW_MASQ_NETS (masquerading)
Specify the hosts or networks to masquerade, leaving a space between the individual entries. For example:
FW_MASQ_NETS="192.168.0.0/24 192.168.10.1"
FW_PROTECT_FROM_INT (firewall)
Set this to yes to protect your firewall host from attacks originating in your internal
network. Services are only available to the internal network if explicitly enabled.
Also see FW_SERVICES_INT_TCP and FW_SERVICES_INT_UDP.
FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP (firewall)
Enter the TCP ports that should be made available. Leave this blank for a normal
workstation at home that should not offer any services.
FW_SERVICES_EXT_UDP (firewall)
Leave this blank unless you run a UDP service and want to make it available to
the outside. The services that use UDP include include DNS servers, IPsec, TFTP,
DHCP and others. In that case, enter the UDP ports to use.
FW_SERVICES_INT_TCP (firewall)
With this variable, define the services available for the internal network. The notation is the same as for FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP, but the settings are applied to
the internal network. The variable only needs to be set if
FW_PROTECT_FROM_INT is set to yes.
FW_SERVICES_INT_UDP (firewall)
See FW_SERVICES_INT_TCP.
After configuring the firewall, test your setup. The firewall rule sets are created by entering SuSEfirewall2 start as root. Then use telnet, for example, from an
external host to see whether the connection is actually denied. After that, review /var/
log/messages, where you should see something like this:
Mar 15 13:21:38 linux kernel: SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=eth0
OUT= MAC=00:80:c8:94:c3:e7:00:a0:c9:4d:27:56:08:00 SRC=192.168.10.0
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DST=192.168.10.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x10 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=15330 DF PROTO=TCP

SPT=48091 DPT=23 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
OPT (020405B40402080A061AFEBC0000000001030300)
Other packages to test your firewall setup are nmap or nessus. The documentation of
nmap is found at /usr/share/doc/packages/nmap and the documentation of
nessus resides in the directory /usr/share/doc/packages/nessus-core
after installing the respective package.

The most up-to-date information and other documentation about the SuSEfirewall2
package is found in /usr/share/doc/packages/SuSEfirewall2. The home
page of the netfilter and iptables project, http://www.netfilter.org, provides
a large collection of documents in many languages.
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36
SSHSecure Network
Operations
With more and more computers installed in networked environments, it often becomes
necessary to access hosts from a remote location. This normally means that a user sends
login and password strings for authentication purposes. As long as these strings are
transmitted as plain text, they could be intercepted and misused to gain access to that
user account without the authorized user even knowing about it. Apart from the fact
that this would open all the user's files to an attacker, the illegal account could be used
to obtain administrator or root access or to penetrate other systems. In the past, remote
connections were established with telnet, which offers no guards against eavesdropping
in the form of encryption or other security mechanisms. There are other unprotected
communication channels, like the traditional FTP protocol and some remote copying
programs.
The SSH suite provides the necessary protection by encrypting the authentication strings
(usually a login name and a password) and all the other data exchanged between the
hosts. With SSH, the data flow could still be recorded by a third party, but the contents
are encrypted and cannot be reverted to plain text unless the encryption key is known.
So SSH enables secure communication over insecure networks, such as the Internet.
The SSH flavor that comes with openSUSE is OpenSSH.
36.1 The OpenSSH Package

openSUSE installs the package OpenSSH by default. The programs ssh, scp, and sftp
are then available as secure alternatives to telnet, rlogin, rsh, rcp, and ftp. In the default
configuration, system access of a openSUSE system is only possible with the OpenSSH
utilities and only if the firewall permits access.
SSHSecure Network Operations
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36.2 The ssh Program

Using the ssh program, it is possible to log in to remote systems and work interactively.
It replaces both telnet and rlogin. The slogin program is just a symbolic link pointing
to ssh. For example, log in to the host venus with the command ssh venus. The
host then prompts for the password on venus.
After successful authentication, you can work on the remote command line or use interactive applications, such as YaST. If the local username is different from the remote
username, you can log in using a different login name with ssh -l augustine
venus or ssh augustine@venus.
Furthermore, ssh offers the possibility to run commands on remote systems, as known
from rsh. In the following example, run the command uptime on the host venus and
create a directory with the name tmp. The program output is displayed on the local
terminal of the host jupiter.
ssh venus "uptime; mkdir tmp"
Password:
1:21pm up 2:17, 9 users, load average: 0.15, 0.04, 0.02
Quotation marks are necessary here to send both instructions with one command. It is
only by doing this that the second command is executed on venus.
36.3 scpSecure Copy

scp copies files to a remote machine. It is a secure and encrypted substitute for rcp. For
example, scp MyLetter.tex venus: copies the file MyLetter.tex from the
host jupiter to the host venus. If the username on jupiter is different than the
username on venus, specify the latter using the username@host format. Do not
use -l option for specifying username with this command, it has a different meaning.
After the correct password is entered, scp starts the data transfer. The program displays
the estimated time of arrival to the right of the progress bar. Suppress all output by
giving the option -q.
scp also provides a recursive copying feature for entire directories. The command
scp -r src/ venus:backup/ copies the entire contents of the directory src
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including all subdirectories to the backup directory on the host venus. If this subdirectory does not exist yet, it is created automatically.
The option -p tells scp to leave the time stamp of files unchanged. -C compresses the
data transfer. This minimizes the data volume to transfer, but creates a heavier burden
on the processor.
36.4 sftpSecure File Transfer

The sftp program can be used instead of scp for secure file transfer. During an sftp
session, you can use many of the commands known from ftp. The sftp program may
be a better choice than scp, especially when transferring data for which the filenames
are unknown.
36.5 The SSH Daemon

(sshd)Server-Side
To work with the SSH client programs ssh and scp, a server, the SSH daemon, must
be running in the background, listening for connections on TCP/IP port 22. The daemon
generates three key pairs when starting for the first time. Each key pair consists of a
private and a public key. Therefore, this procedure is referred to as public keybased.
To guarantee the security of the communication via SSH, access to the private key files
must be restricted to the system administrator. The file permissions are set accordingly
by the default installation. The private keys are only required locally by the SSH daemon
and must not be given to anyone else. The public key components (recognizable by the
name extension .pub) are sent to the client requesting the connection. They are readable
for all users.
A connection is initiated by the SSH client. The waiting SSH daemon and the requesting
SSH client exchange identification data to compare the protocol and software versions
and to prevent connections through the wrong port. Because a child process of the
original SSH daemon replies to the request, several SSH connections can be made simultaneously.
For the communication between SSH server and SSH client, OpenSSH supports versions 1 and 2 of the SSH protocol. Version 2 of the SSH protocol is used by default.
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Override this to use version 1 of the protocol with the -1 switch. To continue using
version 1 after a system update, follow the instructions in /usr/share/doc/
packages/openssh/README.SuSE. This document also describes how an SSH 1
environment can be transformed into a working SSH 2 environment with just a few
steps.
When using version 1 of SSH, the server sends its public host key and a server key,
which is regenerated by the SSH daemon every hour. Both allow the SSH client to encrypt a freely chosen session key, which is sent to the SSH server. The SSH client also
tells the server which encryption method (cipher) to use.
Version 2 of the SSH protocol does not require a server key. Both sides use an algorithm
according to Diffie-Helman to exchange their keys.
The private host and server keys are absolutely required to decrypt the session key and
cannot be derived from the public parts. Only the SSH daemon contacted can decrypt
the session key using its private keys (see man
/usr/share/doc/packages/openssh/RFC.nroff). This initial connection
phase can be watched closely by turning on the verbose debugging option -v of the
SSH client.
The client stores all public host keys in ~/.ssh/known_hosts after its first contact
with a remote host. This prevents any man-in-the-middle attacksattempts by foreign
SSH servers to use spoofed names and IP addresses. Such attacks are detected either
by a host key that is not included in ~/.ssh/known_hosts or by the server's inability to decrypt the session key in the absence of an appropriate private counterpart.
It is recommended to back up the private and public keys stored in /etc/ssh/ in a
secure, external location. This way, key modifications can be detected and the old ones
can be used again after a reinstallation. This spares users any unsettling warnings. If it
is verified that, despite the warning, it is indeed the correct SSH server, the existing
entry for the system must be removed from ~/.ssh/known_hosts.
36.6 SSH Authentication Mechanisms

Now the actual authentication takes place, which, in its simplest form, consists of entering a password as mentioned above. The goal of SSH was to introduce a secure software
that is also easy to use. Because it is meant to replace rsh and rlogin, SSH must also be
able to provide an authentication method appropriate for daily use. SSH accomplishes
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this by way of another key pair, which is generated by the user. The SSH package
provides a helper program for this: ssh-keygen. After entering ssh-keygen -t rsa
or ssh-keygen -t dsa, the key pair is generated and you are prompted for the base
filename in which to store the keys.
Confirm the default setting and answer the request for a passphrase. Even if the software
suggests an empty passphrase, a text from 10 to 30 characters is recommended for the
procedure described here. Do not use short and simple words or phrases. Confirm by
repeating the passphrase. Subsequently, you will see where the private and public keys
are stored, in this example, the files id_rsa and id_rsa.pub.
Use ssh-keygen -p -t rsa or ssh-keygen -p -t dsa to change your old
passphrase. Copy the public key component (id_rsa.pub in the example) to the remote machine and save it to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. You will be asked to
authenticate yourself with your passphrase the next time you establish a connection. If
this does not occur, verify the location and contents of these files.
In the long run, this procedure is more troublesome than giving your password each
time. Therefore, the SSH package provides another tool, ssh-agent, which retains the
private keys for the duration of an X session. The entire X session is started as a child
process of ssh-agent. The easiest way to do this is to set the variable usessh at the
beginning of the .xsession file to yes and log in via a display manager, such as
KDM or XDM. Alternatively, enter ssh-agent startx.
Now you can use ssh or scp as usual. If you have distributed your public key as described
above, you are no longer prompted for your password. Take care of terminating your
X session or locking it with a password protection application, such as xlock.
All the relevant changes that resulted from the introduction of version 2 of the SSH
protocol are also documented in the file /usr/share/doc/packages/openssh/
README.SuSE.
36.7 X, Authentication, and

Forwarding Mechanisms
Beyond the previously described security-related improvements, SSH also simplifies
the use of remote X applications. If you run ssh with the option -X, the DISPLAY
variable is automatically set on the remote machine and all X output is exported to the
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remote machine over the existing SSH connection. At the same time, X applications
started remotely and locally viewed with this method cannot be intercepted by unauthorized individuals.
By adding the option -A, the ssh-agent authentication mechanism is carried over to the
next machine. This way, you can work from different machines without having to enter
a password, but only if you have distributed your public key to the destination hosts
and properly saved it there.
Both mechanisms are deactivated in the default settings, but can be permanently activated at any time in the systemwide configuration file /etc/ssh/sshd_config
or the user's ~/.ssh/config.
ssh can also be used to redirect TCP/IP connections. In the examples below, SSH is
told to redirect the SMTP and the POP3 port, respectively:
ssh -L 25:mail.example.com:25 jupiter.example.com
With this command, any connection directed to jupiter.example.com port 25

(SMTP) is redirected to the SMTP port on mail.example.com via an encrypted
channel. This is especially useful for those using SMTP servers without SMTP-AUTH
or POP-before-SMTP features. From any arbitrary location connected to a network, email can be transferred to the home mail server for delivery. Similarly, all POP3 requests (port 110) on jupiter.example.com can be forwarded to the POP3 port
of mail.example.com with this command:
ssh -L 110:mail.example.com:110 jupiter.example.com
Both commands must be executed as root, because the connection is made to privileged
local ports. E-mail is sent and retrieved by normal users in an existing SSH connection.
The SMTP and POP3 host must be set to localhost for this to work. Additional information can be found in the manual pages for each of the programs described above
and also in the files under /usr/share/doc/packages/openssh.
36.8 Configuring An SSH Daemon with

YaST
To configure an sshd server with YaST run YaST and choose Network Services > SSHD
Configuration. Then proceed as follows:
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1 Select the ports sshd should listen on in the SSHD TCP Ports table. The default
port number is 22. Multiple ports are allowed. To add a new port, click Add, enter
the port number and click OK. To delete port, select it in the table, click Delete
and confirm.
2 Select the features the sshd daemon should support. To disable TCP forwarding,
uncheck Allow TCP Forwarding. Disabling TCP forwarding does not improve
security unless users are also denied shell access, as they can always install their
own forwarders. See Section 36.7, X, Authentication, and Forwarding Mechanisms (page 593) for more information about TCP forwarding.
To disable X forwarding, uncheck Allow X11 Forwarding. If this option is disabled, any X11 forward requests by the client will return an error. However users
can always install their own forwarders. See Section 36.7, X, Authentication,
and Forwarding Mechanisms (page 593) for more information about X forwarding.
In Allow Compression determine, whether the connection between the server and
clients should be compressed. After setting these options, click Next.
3 In Print Message of the day After Login determine, whether sshd should print
message from /etc/motd when a user logs in interactively. If you want to
disable connection of a user root, uncheck Permit Root Login.
In Maximum Authentication Tries enter the maximum allowed number of authentication attempts per connection. Password Authentication specifies whether
password authentication is allowed. RSA Authentication specifies whether pure
RSA authentication is allowed. This option applies to SSH protocol version 1
only. Public Key Authentication specifies whether public key authentication is
allowed. This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
4 Click Accept to save the configuration.
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Managing X.509 Certification
37
An increasing number of authentication mechanisms are based on cryptographic procedures. Digital certificates that assign cryptographic keys to their owners play an important
role in this context. These certificates are used for communication and can also be
found, for example, on company ID cards. The generation and administration of certificates is mostly handled by official institutions that offer this as a commercial service.
In some cases, however, it may make sense to carry out these tasks yourself, for example,
if a company does not wish to pass personal data to third parties.
YaST provides two modules for certification, which offer basic management functions
for digital X.509 certificates. The following sections explain the basics of digital certification and how to use YaST to create and administer certificates of this type. For more
detailed information, refer to http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/
pkix-charter.html.
37.1 The Principles of Digital

Certification
Digital certification uses cryptographic processes to encrypt data, protecting the data
from access by unauthorized people. The user data is encrypted using a second data
record, or key. The key is applied to the user data in a mathematical process, producing
an altered data record in which the original content can no longer be identified. Asymmetrical encryption is now in general use (public key method). Keys always occur in
pairs:
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Private Key
The private key must be kept safely by the key owner. Accidental publication of
the private key compromises the key pair and renders it useless.
Public Key
The key owner circulates the public key for use by third parties.
37.1.1 Key Authenticity

Because the public key process is in widespread use, there are many public keys in
circulation. Successful use of this system requires that every user be sure that a public
key actually belongs to the assumed owner. The assignment of users to public keys is
confirmed by trustworthy organizations with public key certificates. Such certificates
contain the name of the key owner, the corresponding public key, and the electronic
signature of the person issuing the certificate.
Trustworthy organizations that issue and sign public key certificates are usually part
of a certification infrastructure that is also responsible for the other aspects of certificate
management, such as publication, withdrawal, and renewal of certificates. An infrastructure of this kind is generally referred to as a public key infrastructure or PKI. One
familiar PKI is the OpenPGP standard in which users publish their certificates themselves without central authorization points. These certificates become trustworthy when
signed by other parties in the web of trust.
The X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKIX) is an alternative model defined by the
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) that serves as a model for almost all publiclyused PKIs today. In this model, authentication is made by certificate authorities (CA)
in a hierarchical tree structure. The root of the tree is the root CA, which certifies all
sub-CAs. The lowest level of sub-CAs issue user certificates. The user certificates are
trustworthy by certification that can be traced to the root CA.
The security of such a PKI depends on the trustworthiness of the CA certificates. To
make certification practices clear to PKI customers, the PKI operator defines a certification practice statement (CPS) that defines the procedures for certificate management.
This should ensure that the PKI only issues trustworthy certificates.
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37.1.2 X.509 Certificates

An X.509 certificate is a data structure with several fixed fields and, optionally, additional extensions. The fixed fields mainly contain the name of the key owner, the public
key, and the data relating to the issuing CA (name and signature). For security reasons,
a certificate should only have a limited period of validity, so a field is also provided
for this date. The CA guarantees the validity of the certificate in the specified period.
The CPS usually requires the PKI (the issuing CA) to create and distribute a new certificate before expiration.
The extensions can contain any additional information. An application is only required
to be able to evaluate an extension if it is identified as critical. If an application does
not recognize a critical extension, it must reject the certificate. Some extensions are
only useful for a specific application, such as signature or encryption.
Table 37.1 shows the fields of a basic X.509 certificate in version 3.
Table 37.1
X.509v3 Certificate
Field
Content
Version
The version of the certificate, for example, v3
Serial Number
Unique certificate ID (an integer)
Signature
The ID of the algorithm used to sign the certificate
Issuer
Unique name (DN) of the issuing authority (CA)
Validity
Period of validity
Subject
Unique name (DN) of the owner
Subject Public Key Info
Public key of the owner and the ID of the algorithm
Issuer Unique ID
Unique ID of the issuing CA (optional)
Subject Unique ID
Unique ID of the owner (optional)
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Field
Content
Extensions
Optional additional information, such as KeyUsage

or BasicConstraints
37.1.3 Blocking X.509 Certificates

If a certificate becomes untrustworthy before it has expired, it must be blocked immediately. This can be needed if, for example, the private key has accidentally been made
public. Blocking certificates is especially important if the private key belongs to a CA
rather than a user certificate. In this case, all user certificates issued by the relevant CA
must be blocked immediately. If a certificate is blocked, the PKI (the responsible CA)
must make this information available to all those involved using a certificate revocation
list (CRL).
These lists are supplied by the CA to public CRL distribution points (CDPs) at regular
intervals. The CDP can optionally be named as an extension in the certificate, so a
checker can fetch a current CRL for validation purposes. One way to do this is the online
certificate status protocol (OCSP). The authenticity of the CRLs is ensured with the
signature of the issuing CA. Table 37.2, X.509 Certificate Revocation List (CRL)
(page 600) shows the basic parts of a X.509 CRL.
Table 37.2
600
X.509 Certificate Revocation List (CRL)
Field
Content
Version
The version of the CRL, such as v2
Signature
The ID of the algorithm used to sign the CRL
Issuer
Unique name (DN) of the publisher of the CRL (usually

the issuing CA)
This Update
Time of publication (date, time) of this CRL
Next Update
Time of publication (date, time) of the next CRL
Reference
Field
Content
List of revoked certificates
Every entry contains the serial number of the certificate,

the time of revocation, and optional extensions (CRL
entry extensions)
Extensions
Optional CRL extensions
37.1.4 Repository for Certificates and CRLs

The certificates and CRLs for a CA must be made publicly accessible using a repository.
Because the signature protects the certificates and CRLs from being forged, the repository itself does not need to be secured in a special way. Instead, it tries to grant the
simplest and fastest access possible. For this reason, certificates are often provided on
an LDAP or HTTP server. Find explanations about LDAP in Chapter 26, LDAPA
Directory Service (page 409). Chapter 30, The Apache HTTP Server (page 481) contains
information about the HTTP server.
37.1.5 Proprietary PKI

YaST contains modules for the basic management of X.509 certificates. This mainly
involves the creation of CAs, sub-CAs, and their certificates. The services of a PKI go
far beyond simply creating and distributing certificates and CRLs. The operation of a
PKI requires a well-conceived administrative infrastructure allowing continuous update
of certificates and CRLs. This infrastructure is provided by commercial PKI products
and can also be partly automated. YaST provides tools for creating and distributing
CAs and certificates, but cannot currently offer this background infrastructure. To set
up a small PKI, you can use the available YaST modules. However, you should use
commercial products to set up an official or commercial PKI.
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37.2 YaST Modules for CA

Management
YaST provides two modules for basic CA management. The primary management tasks
with these modules are explained here.
37.2.1 Creating a Root CA

The first step when setting up a PKI is to create a root CA. Do the following:
1 Start YaST and go to Security and Users > CA Management.
2 Click Create Root CA.
3 Enter the basic data for the CA in the first dialog, shown in Figure 37.1, YaST
CA ModuleBasic Data for a Root CA (page 602). The text fields have the
following meanings:
Figure 37.1 YaST CA ModuleBasic Data for a Root CA
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Reference
CA Name
Enter the technical name of the CA. Directory names, among other things,
are derived from this name, which is why only the characters listed in the
help can be used. The technical name is also displayed in the overview when
the module is started.
Common Name
Enter the name to use to refer to the CA.
E-Mail Addresses
Several e-mail addresses can be entered that can be seen by the CA user.
This can be helpful for inquiries.
Country
Select the country where the CA is operated.
Organisation, Organisational Unit, Locality, State
Optional values
4 Click Next.
5 Enter a password in the second dialog. This password is always required when
using the CAwhen creating a sub-CA or generating certificates. The text fields
have the following meaning:
Key Length
Key Length contains a meaningful default and does not generally need to be
changed unless an application cannot deal with this key length.
Valid Period (days)
The Valid Period in the case of a CA defaults to 3650 days (roughly ten
years). This long period makes sense because the replacement of a deleted
CA involves an enormous administrative effort.
Clicking Advanced Options opens a dialog for setting different attributes from
the X.509 extensions (Figure 37.4, YaST CA ModuleExtended Settings
(page 608)). These values have rational default settings and should only be changed
if you are really sure of what you are doing.
6 YaST displays the current settings for confirmation. Click Create. The root CA
is created then appears in the overview.
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TIP
In general, it is best not to allow user certificates to be issued by the root CA.
It is better to create at least one sub-CA and create the user certificates from
there. This has the advantage that the root CA can be kept isolated and secure,
for example, on an isolated computer on secure premises. This makes it very
difficult to attack the root CA.
37.2.2 Creating or Revoking a Sub-CA

A sub-CA is created in exactly the same way as a root CA. Do the following:
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Select the required CA and click Enter CA.
NOTE
The validity period for a sub-CA must be fully within the validity period
of the parent CA. Because a sub-CA is always created after the parent
CA, the default value leads to an error message. To avoid this, enter a
permissible value for the period of validity.
3 Enter the password if you entered a CA the first time. YaST displays the CA key
information in the tab Description (see Figure 37.2 ).
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Reference
Figure 37.2 YaST CA ModuleUsing a CA
4 Click Advanced and select Create SubCA. This opens the same dialog as for
creating a root CA.
5 Proceed as described in Section 37.2.1, Creating a Root CA (page 602).
6 Select the tab Certificates. Reset compromised or otherwise unwanted sub-CAs
here using Revoke. Revocation is not enough to deactivate a sub-CA on its own.
Also publish revoked sub-CAs in a CRL. The creation of CRLs is described in
Section 37.2.5, Creating CRLs (page 609).
7 Finish with Ok
37.2.3 Creating or Revoking User

Certificates
Creating client and server certificates is very similar to the one for creating CAs in
Section 37.2.1, Creating a Root CA (page 602). The same principles apply here. In
certificates intended for e-mail signature, the e-mail address of the sender (the private
key owner) should be contained in the certificate to enable the e-mail program to assign
the correct certificate. For certificate assignment during encryption, it is necessary for
605
the e-mail address of the recipient (the public key owner) to be included in the certificate.
In the case of server and client certificates, the hostname of the server must be entered
in the Common Name field. The default validity period for certificates is 365 days.
To create client and server certificates, do the following:
3 Enter the password if entering a CA for the first time. YaST displays the CA key
information in the Description tab.
4 Click Certificates (see Figure 37.3, Certificates of a CA (page 606)).
Figure 37.3 Certificates of a CA
5 Click Add > Add Server Certificate and create a server certificate.
6 Click Add > Add Client Certificate and create a client certificate. Do not forget
to enter an e-mail address.
7 Finish with Ok
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Reference
To revoke compromised or otherwise unwanted certificates, do the following:

3 Enter the password if entering a CA the first time. YaST displays the CA key
information in the Description tab.
4 Click Certificates (see Section 37.2.2, Creating or Revoking a Sub-CA
(page 604).)
5 Select the certificate to revoke and click Revoke.
6 Choose a reason to revoke this certificate
7 Finish with Ok.
NOTE
Revocation alone is not enough to deactivate a certificate. Also publish revoked
certificates in a CRL. Section 37.2.5, Creating CRLs (page 609) explains how
to create CRLs. Revoked certificates can be completely removed after publication in a CRL with Delete.
37.2.4 Changing Default Values

The previous sections explained how to create sub-CAs, client certificates, and server
certificates. Special settings are used in the extensions of the X.509 certificate. These
settings have been given rational defaults for every certificate type and do not normally
need to be changed. However, it may be that you have special requirements for these
extensions. In this case, it may make sense to adjust the defaults. Otherwise, start from
scratch every time you create a certificate.
2 Enter the required CA, as described in Section 37.2.2, Creating or Revoking a
Sub-CA (page 604).
607
3 Click Advanced > Edit Defaults.

4 Choose the type the settings to change. The dialog for changing the defaults,
shown in Figure 37.4, YaST CA ModuleExtended Settings (page 608), then
opens.
Figure 37.4 YaST CA ModuleExtended Settings
5 Change the associated value on the right side and set or delete the critical setting
with critical.
6 Click Next to see a short summary.
7 Finish your changes with Save.
TIP
All changes to the defaults only affect objects created after this point. Already
existing CAs and certificates remain unchanged.
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Reference
37.2.5 Creating CRLs

If compromised or otherwise unwanted certificates should be excluded from further
use, they must first be revoked. The procedure for this is explained in Section 37.2.2,
Creating or Revoking a Sub-CA (page 604) (for sub-CAs) and Section 37.2.3, Creating
or Revoking User Certificates (page 605) (for user certificates). After this, a CRL must
be created and published with this information.
The system maintains only one CRL for each CA. To create or update this CRL, do the
following:
2 Enter the required CA, as described in Section 37.2.2, Creating or Revoking a
Sub-CA (page 604).
3 Click CRL. The dialog that opens displays a summary of the last CRL of this
CA.
4 Create a new CRL with Generate CRL if you have revoked new sub-CAs or
certificates since its creation.
5 Specify the period of validity for the new CRL (default: 30 days).
6 Click OK to create and display the CRL. Afterwards, you must publish this CRL.
TIP
Applications that evaluate CRLs reject every certificate if CRL is not available
or expired. As a PKI provider, it is your duty always to create and publish a new
CRL before the current CRL expires (period of validity). YaST does not provide
a function for automating this procedure.
37.2.6 Exporting CA Objects to LDAP

The executing computer should be configured with the YaST LDAP client for LDAP
export. This provides LDAP server information at runtime that can be used when
completing dialog fields. Otherwise, although export may be possible, all LDAP data
609
must be entered manually. You must always enter several passwords (see Table 37.3,
Passwords during LDAP Export (page 610)).
Table 37.3
Passwords during LDAP Export
Password
Meaning
LDAP Password
Authorizes the user to make entries in the LDAP tree.
Certificate Password
Authorizes the user to export the certificate.
New Certificate Password
The PKCS12 format is used during LDAP export.

This format forces the assignment of a new password
for the exported certificate.
Certificates, CAs, and CRLs can be exported to LDAP.

Exporting a CA to LDAP
To export a CA, enter the CA as described in Section 37.2.2, Creating or Revoking
a Sub-CA (page 604). Select Extended > Export to LDAP in the subsequent dialog,
which opens the dialog for entering LDAP data. If your system has been configured
with the YaST LDAP client, the fields are already partly completed. Otherwise,
enter all the data manually. Entries are made in LDAP in a separate tree with the
attribute caCertificate.
Exporting a Certificate to LDAP
Enter the CA containing the certificate to export then select Certificates. Select the
required certificate from the certificate list in the upper part of the dialog and select
Export > Export to LDAP. The LDAP data is entered here in the same way as for
CAs. The certificate is saved with the corresponding user object in the LDAP tree
with the attributes userCertificate (PEM format) and userPKCS12 (PKCS12
format).
Exporting a CRL to LDAP
Enter the CA containing the CRL to export and select CRL. If desired, then create
a new CRL and export this with Export > To LDAP. The LDAP data is also entered
here in the same way as with CAs. Entries are then made in the LDAP at the same
point as the associated CA, but using the certificateRevocationList attribute.
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Reference
37.2.7 Exporting CA Objects as a File

If you have set up a repository on the computer for administering CAs, you can use this
option to create the CA objects directly as a file at the correct location. Different output
formats are available, such as PEM, DER, and PKCS12. In the case of PEM, it is also
possible to choose whether a certificate should be exported with or without key and
whether the key should be encrypted. In the case of PKCS12, it is also possible to export
the certification path.
Export a file in the same way for certificates, CAs, and CRLs as with LDAP, described
in Section 37.2.6, Exporting CA Objects to LDAP (page 609), except you should
select Export as File instead of Export to LDAP. This then takes you to a dialog for
selecting the required output format and entering the password and filename. The certificate is stored at the required location after you click OK.
TIP
You can select any storage location in the file system. This option can also be
used to save CA objects on a transport medium, such as a USB stick. The
/media directory generally holds any type of drive except the hard drive of
your system.
37.2.8 Importing Common Server

Certificates
If you have exported a server certificate with YaST to your media on an isolated CA
management computer, you can import this certificate on a server as a common server
certificate. Do this during installation or at a later point with YaST.
NOTE
You need one of the PKCS12 formats to import your certificate successfully.
The general server certificate is stored in /etc/ssl/servercerts and can be used
there by any CA-supported service. When this certificate expires, it can easily be replaced
using the same mechanisms. To get things functioning with the replaced certificate,
restart the participating services.
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TIP
If you select Import here, you can select the source in the file system. This option can also be used to import certificates from a transport medium, such as
a USB stick.
To import a common server certificate, do the following:
1 Start YaST and open Common Server Certificate under Security and Users
2 View the data for the current certificate in the description field after YaST has
been started.
3 Select Import and the certificate file.
4 Enter the password and click Next. The certificate is imported then displayed in
the description field.
5 Close YaST with Finish.
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Network
AuthenticationKerberos
38
An open network provides no means to ensure that a workstation can identify its users
properly except the usual password mechanisms. In common installations, the user
must enter the password each time a service inside the network is accessed. Kerberos
provides an authentication method with which a user registers once then is trusted in
the complete network for the rest of the session. To have a secure network, the following
requirements must be met:
Have all users prove their identity for each desired service and make sure that no
one can take the identity of someone else.
Make sure that each network server also proves its identity. Otherwise an attacker
might be able to impersonate the server and obtain sensitive information transmitted
to the server. This concept is called mutual authentication, because the client authenticates to the server and vice versa.
Kerberos helps you meet these requirements by providing strongly encrypted authentication. The following shows how this is achieved. Only the basic principles of Kerberos
are discussed here. For detailed technical instruction, refer to the documentation provided
with your implementation of Kerberos.
38.1 Kerberos Terminology

The following glossary defines some Kerberos terminology.
Network AuthenticationKerberos
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credential
Users or clients need to present some kind of credentials that authorize them to request services. Kerberos knows two kinds of credentialstickets and authenticators.
ticket
A ticket is a per-server credential used by a client to authenticate at a server from
which it is requesting a service. It contains the name of the server, the client's name,
the client's Internet address, a time stamp, a lifetime, and a random session key.
All this data is encrypted using the server's key.
authenticator
Combined with the ticket, an authenticator is used to prove that the client presenting
a ticket is really the one it claims to be. An authenticator is built of the client's
name, the workstation's IP address, and the current workstation's time all encrypted
with the session key only known to the client and the server from which it is requesting a service. An authenticator can only be used once, unlike a ticket. A client
can build an authenticator itself.
principal
A Kerberos principal is a unique entity (a user or service) to which it can assign a
ticket. A principal consists of the following components:
Primarythe first part of the principal, which can be the same as your username
in the case of a user.
Instancesome optional information characterizing the primary. This string is
separated from the primary by a /.
Realmthis specifies your Kerberos realm. Normally, your realm is your domain
name in uppercase letters.
mutual authentication
Kerberos ensures that both client and server can be sure of each others identity.
They share a session key, which they can use to communicate securely.
session key
Session keys are temporary private keys generated by Kerberos. They are known
to the client and used to encrypt the communication between the client and the
server for which it requested and received a ticket.
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Reference
replay
Almost all messages sent in a network can be eavesdropped, stolen, and resent. In
the Kerberos context, this would be most dangerous if an attacker manages to obtain
your request for a service containing your ticket and authenticator. He could then
try to resend it (replay) to impersonate you. However, Kerberos implements several
mechanisms to deal with that problem.
server or service
Service is used to refer to a specific action to perform. The process behind this action
is referred to as a server.
38.2 How Kerberos Works

Kerberos is often called a third party trusted authentication service, which means all
its clients trust Kerberos's judgment of another client's identity. Kerberos keeps a
database of all its users and their private keys.
To ensure Kerberos is worth all the trust put in it, run both the authentication and ticketgranting server on a dedicated machine. Make sure that only the administrator can access
this machine physically and over the network. Reduce the (networking) services run
on it to the absolute minimumdo not even run sshd.
38.2.1 First Contact

Your first contact with Kerberos is quite similar to any login procedure at a normal
networking system. Enter your username. This piece of information and the name of
the ticket-granting service are sent to the authentication server (Kerberos). If the authentication server knows about your existence, it generates a random session key for further
use between your client and the ticket-granting server. Now the authentication server
prepares a ticket for the ticket-granting server. The ticket contains the following informationall encrypted with a session key only the authentication server and the ticketgranting server know:
The names both of the client and the ticket-granting server
The current time
A lifetime assigned to this ticket
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The client's IP address

The newly-generated session key
This ticket is then sent back to the client together with the session key, again in encrypted
form, but this time the private key of the client is used. This private key is only known
to Kerberos and the client, because it is derived from your user password. Now that the
client has received this response, you are prompted for your password. This password
is converted into the key that can decrypt the package sent by the authentication server.
The package is unwrapped and password and key are erased from the workstation's
memory. As long as the lifetime given to the ticket used to obtain other tickets does
not expire, your workstation can prove your identity.
38.2.2 Requesting a Service

To request a service from any server in the network, the client application needs to
prove its identity to the server. Therefore, the application generates an authenticator.
An authenticator consists of the following components:
The client's principal
The current time
A checksum (chosen by the client)
All this information is encrypted using the session key that the client has already received
for this special server. The authenticator and the ticket for the server are sent to the
server. The server uses its copy of the session key to decrypt the authenticator, which
gives it all information needed about the client requesting its service to compare it to
that contained in the ticket. The server checks if the ticket and the authenticator originate
from the same client.
Without any security measures implemented on the server side, this stage of the process
would be an ideal target for replay attacks. Someone could try to resend a request stolen
off the net some time before. To prevent this, the server does not accept any request
with a time stamp and ticket received previously. In addition to that, a request with a
time stamp differing too much from the time the request is received is ignored.
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Reference
38.2.3 Mutual Authentication

Kerberos authentication can be used in both directions. It is not only a question of the
client being the one it claims to be. The server should also be able to authenticate itself
to the client requesting its service. Therefore, it sends some kind of authenticator itself.
It adds one to the checksum it received in the client's authenticator and encrypts it with
the session key, which is shared between it and the client. The client takes this response
as a proof of the server's authenticity and they both start cooperating.
38.2.4 Ticket GrantingContacting All

Servers
Tickets are designed to be used for one server at a time. This implies that you have to
get a new ticket each time you request another service. Kerberos implements a mechanism to obtain tickets for individual servers. This service is called the ticket-granting
service. The ticket-granting service is a service just like any other service mentioned
before, so uses the same access protocols that have already been outlined. Any time an
application needs a ticket that has not already been requested, it contacts the ticketgranting server. This request consists of the following components:
The requested principal
The ticket-granting ticket
An authenticator
Like any other server, the ticket-granting server now checks the ticket-granting ticket
and the authenticator. If they are considered valid, the ticket-granting server builds a
new session key to be used between the original client and the new server. Then the
ticket for the new server is built, containing the following information:
The client's principal
The server's principal
The current time
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The newly-generated session key

The new ticket is assigned a lifetime, which is the lesser of the remaining lifetime of
the ticket-granting ticket and the default for the service. The client receives this ticket
and the session key, which are sent by the ticket-granting service, but this time the answer
is encrypted with the session key that came with the original ticket-granting ticket. The
client can decrypt the response without requiring the user's password when a new service
is contacted. Kerberos can thus acquire ticket after ticket for the client without bothering
the user more than once at login time.
38.2.5 Compatibility to Windows 2000

Windows 2000 contains a Microsoft implementation of Kerberos 5. Because openSUSE uses the MIT implementation of Kerberos 5, find useful information and
guidance in the MIT documentation. See Section 38.4, For More Information
(page 619).
38.3 Users' View of Kerberos

Ideally, a user's one and only contact with Kerberos happens during login at the workstation. The login process includes obtaining a ticket-granting ticket. At logout, a user's
Kerberos tickets are automatically destroyed, which makes it difficult for anyone else
to impersonate this user. The automatic expiration of tickets can lead to a somewhat
awkward situation when a user's login session lasts longer than the maximum lifespan
given to the ticket-granting ticket (a reasonable setting is 10 hours). However, the user
can get a new ticket-granting ticket by running kinit. Enter the password again and
Kerberos obtains access to desired services without additional authentication. To get a
list of all the tickets silently acquired for you by Kerberos, run klist.
Here is a short list of some applications that use Kerberos authentication. These applications can be found under /usr/lib/mit/bin or /usr/lib/mit/sbin. They
all have the full functionality of their common UNIX and Linux brothers plus the additional bonus of transparent authentication managed by Kerberos:
telnet, telnetd
rlogin
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rsh, rcp, rshd

ftp, ftpd
ksu
You no longer have to enter your password for using these applications because Kerberos
has already proven your identity. ssh, if compiled with Kerberos support, can even
forward all the tickets acquired for one workstation to another one. If you use ssh to
log in to another workstation, ssh makes sure that the encrypted contents of the tickets
are adjusted to the new situation. Simply copying tickets between workstations is not
sufficient because the ticket contains workstation-specific information (the IP address).
XDM, GDM, and KDM offer Kerberos support, too. Read more about the Kerberos
network applications in Kerberos V5 UNIX User's Guide at http://web.mit.edu/
kerberos

The official site of the MIT Kerberos is http://web.mit.edu/kerberos. There,
find links to any other relevant resource concerning Kerberos, including Kerberos installation, user, and administration guides.
The paper at ftp://athena-dist.mit.edu/pub/kerberos/doc/usenix
.PS gives quite an extensive insight to the basic principles of Kerberos without being
too difficult to read. It also provides a lot of opportunities for further investigation and
reading about Kerberos.
The official Kerberos FAQ is available at http://www.nrl.navy.mil/CCS/
people/kenh/kerberos-faq.html. The book KerberosA Network Authentication System by Brian Tung (ISBN 0-201-37924-4) offers extensive information.
619
Installing and Administering

Kerberos
39
A Kerberos environment as described in Chapter 38, Network AuthenticationKerberos

(page 613) consists of several different components. A key distribution center (KDC)
holds the central database with all Kerberos-relevant data. All clients rely on the KDC
for proper authentication across the network. Both the KDC and the clients need to be
configured to match your setup:
General Preparations
Check your network setup and make sure it meets the minimum requirements outlined in Section 39.1, Kerberos Network Topology (page 622). Choose an appropriate realm for your Kerberos setup, see Section 39.2, Choosing the Kerberos
Realms (page 623). Carefully set up the machine that is to serve as the KDC and
apply tight security, see Section 39.3, Setting Up the KDC Hardware (page 624).
Set up a reliable time source in your network to make sure all tickets contain valid
timestamps, see Section 39.4, Configuring Time Synchronization (page 625).
Basic Configuration
Configure the KDC and the clients, see Section 39.5, Configuring the KDC
(page 626) and Section 39.6, Configuring Kerberos Clients (page 628). Enable
remote administration for your Kerberos service, so you do not need physical access
to your KDC machine, see Section 39.7, Configuring Remote Kerberos Administration (page 634). Create service principals for every service in your realm, see
Section 39.8, Creating Kerberos Service Principals (page 636).
Enabling Kerberos Authentication
Various services in your network can make use of Kerberos. To add Kerberos
password-checking to applications using PAM, proceed as outlined in Section 39.9,
Enabling PAM Support for Kerberos (page 637). To configure SSH or LDAP
Installing and Administering Kerberos
621
with Kerberos authentication, proceed as outlined in Section 39.10, Configuring

SSH for Kerberos Authentication (page 638) and Section 39.11, Using LDAP
and Kerberos (page 639).
39.1 Kerberos Network Topology

Any Kerberos environment must meet the following requirements to be fully functional:
Provide a DNS server for name resolution across your network, so clients and
servers can locate each other. Refer to Chapter 22, The Domain Name System
(page 353) for information on DNS setup.
Provide a time server in your network. Using exact time stamps is crucial to a
Kerberos setup, because valid Kerberos tickets must contain correct time stamps.
Refer to Chapter 24, Time Synchronization with NTP (page 393) for information on
NTP setup.
Provide a key distribution center (KDC) as the center piece of the Kerberos architecture. It holds the Kerberos database. Use the tightest possible security policy on
this machine to prevent any attacks on this machine compromising your entire infrastructure.
Configure the client machines to use Kerberos authentication.
The following figure depicts a simple example network with just the minimum components needed to build a Kerberos infrastructure. Depending on the size and topology
of your deployment, you might need to use a different setup.
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Figure 39.1 Kerberos Network Topology
TIP: Configuring Subnet Routing

For a setup similar to the one in Figure 39.1, Kerberos Network Topology
(page 623), configure routing between the two subnets (192.168.1.0/24 and
192.168.2.0/24). Refer to Section Configuring Routing (page 320) for more
information on configuring routing with YaST.
39.2 Choosing the Kerberos Realms

The domain of a Kerberos installation is called a realm and is identified by a name,
such as EXAMPLE.COM or simply ACCOUNTING. Kerberos is case-sensitive, so
example.com is actually a different realm than EXAMPLE.COM. Use the case you
prefer. It is common practice, however, to use uppercase realm names.
It is also a good idea to use your DNS domain name (or a subdomain, such as
ACCOUNTING.EXAMPLE.COM). As shown below, your life as an administrator can
be much easier if you configure your Kerberos clients to locate the KDC and other
623
Kerberos services via DNS. To do so, it is helpful if your realm name is a subdomain
of your DNS domain name.
Unlike the DNS name space, Kerberos is not hierarchical. You cannot set up a realm
named EXAMPLE.COM, have two subrealms named DEVELOPMENT and
ACCOUNTING underneath it, and expect the two subordinate realms to somehow inherit
principals from EXAMPLE.COM. Instead, you would have three separate realms for
which you would have to configure crossrealm authentication for users from one realm
to interact with servers or other users from another realm.
For the sake of simplicity, assume you are setting up just one realm for your entire organization. For the remainder of this section, the realm name EXAMPLE.COM is used
in all examples.
39.3 Setting Up the KDC Hardware

The first thing required to use Kerberos is a machine that acts as the key distribution
center, or KDC for short. This machine holds the entire Kerberos user database with
passwords and all information.
The KDC is the most important part of your security infrastructureif someone breaks
into it, all user accounts and all of your infrastructure protected by Kerberos is compromised. An attacker with access to the Kerberos database can impersonate any principal
in the database. Tighten security for this machine as much as possible:
1 Put the server machine into a physically secured location, such as a locked server
room to which only a very few people have access.
2 Do not run any network applications on it except the KDC. This includes servers
and clientsfor example, the KDC should not import any file systems via NFS
or use DHCP to retrieve its network configuration.
3 Install a minimal system first then check the list of installed packages and remove
any unneeded packages. This includes servers, such as inetd, portmap, and cups,
as well as anything X-based. Even installing an SSH server should be considered
a potential security risk.
4 No graphical login is provided on this machine as an X server is a potential security risk. Kerberos provides its own administration interface.
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5 Configure /etc/nsswitch.conf to use only local files for user and group
lookup. Change the lines for passwd and group to look like this:
passwd:
group:
files
files
Edit the passwd, group, and shadow files in /etc and remove the lines that
start with a + character (these are for NIS lookups).
6 Disable all user accounts except root's account by editing /etc/shadow and
replacing the hashed passwords with * or ! characters.
39.4 Configuring Time

Synchronization
To use Kerberos successfully, make sure that all system clocks within your organization
are synchronized within a certain range. This is important because Kerberos protects
against replayed credentials. An attacker might be able to observe Kerberos credentials
on the network and reuse them to attack the server. Kerberos employs several defenses
to prevent this. One of them is that it puts time stamps into its tickets. A server receiving
a ticket with a time stamp that differs from the current time rejects the ticket.
Kerberos allows a certain leeway when comparing time stamps. However, computer
clocks can be very inaccurate in keeping timeit is not unheard of for PC clocks to
lose or gain half an hour over the course of a week. For this reason, configure all hosts
on the network to synchronize their clocks with a central time source.
A simple way to do so is by installing an NTP time server on one machine and having
all clients synchronize their clocks with this server. Do this either by running an NTP
daemon in client mode on all these machines or by running ntpdate once a day from
all clients (this solution probably works for a small number of clients only). The KDC
itself needs to be synchronized to the common time source as well. Because running
an NTP daemon on this machine would be a security risk, it is probably a good idea to
do this by running ntpdate via a cron entry. To configure your machine as an NTP
client, proceed as outlined in Section 24.1, Configuring an NTP Client with YaST
(page 393).
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It is also possible to adjust the maximum deviation Kerberos allows when checking
time stamps. This value (called clock skew) can be set in the krb5.conf file as described in Section Adjusting the Clock Skew (page 633).
39.5 Configuring the KDC

This section covers the initial configuration and installation of the KDC, including the
creation of an administrative principal. This procedure is consists of several steps:
1 Install the RPMs On a machine designated as the KDC, install special software packages. Use YaST to install the krb5, krb5-server and
krb5-client packages.
2 Adjust the Configuration Files The configuration files /etc/krb5.conf
and /var/lib/kerberos/krb5kdc/kdc.conf must be adjusted for your
scenario. These files contain all information on the KDC.
3 Create the Kerberos Database Kerberos keeps a database of all principal
identifiers and the secret keys of all principals that need to be authenticated. Refer
to Section 39.5.1, Setting Up the Database (page 627) for details.
4 Adjust the ACL Files: Add Administrators The Kerberos database on the
KDC can be managed remotely. To prevent unauthorized principals from tampering with the database, Kerberos uses access control lists. You must explicitly
enable remote access for the administrator principal to enable him to manage the
database. The Kerberos ACL file is located under /var/lib/kerberos/
krb5kdc/kadm5.acl. Refer to Section 39.7, Configuring Remote Kerberos
Administration (page 634) for details.
5 Adjust the Kerberos Database: Add Administrators You need at least one
administrative principal to run and administer Kerberos. This principal must be
added before starting the KDC. Refer to Section 39.5.2, Creating a Principal
(page 628) for details.
6 Start the Kerberos Daemon Once the KDC software is installed and properly
configured, start the Kerberos daemon to provide Kerberos service for your realm.
Refer to Section 39.5.3, Starting the KDC (page 628) for details.
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7 Create a Principal for Yourself You need a principal for yourself. Refer to
Section 39.5.2, Creating a Principal (page 628) for details.
39.5.1 Setting Up the Database

Your next step is to initialize the database where Kerberos keeps all information about
principals. Set up the database master key, which is used to protect the database from
accidental disclosure, in particular when it is backed up to a tape. The master key is
derived from a pass phrase and is stored in a file called the stash file. This is so you do
not need to enter the password every time the KDC is restarted. Make sure that you
choose a good pass phrase, such as a sentence from a book opened to a random page.
When you make tape backups of the Kerberos database (/var/lib/kerberos/
krb5kdc/principal), do not back up the stash file (which is in /var/lib/
kerberos/krb5kdc/.k5.EXAMPLE.COM). Otherwise, everyone able to read the
tape could also decrypt the database. Therefore, it is also a good idea to keep a copy of
the pass phrase in a safe or some other secure location, because you need it to restore
your database from backup tape after a crash.
To create the stash file and the database, run:
$> kdb5_util create -r EXAMPLE.COM -s
Initializing database '/var/lib/kerberos/krb5kdc/principal' for realm
'EXAMPLE.COM',
master key name 'K/[email protected]'
You will be prompted for the database Master Password.
It is important that you NOT FORGET this password.
Enter KDC database master key: <= Type the master password.
Re-enter KDC database master key to verify: <= Type it again.
$>
To verify that it did anything, use the list command:

$>kadmin.local
kadmin> listprincs
K/[email protected]
kadmin/[email protected]
kadmin/[email protected]
krbtgt/[email protected]
This shows that there are now a number of principals in the database. All of these are
for internal use by Kerberos.
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39.5.2 Creating a Principal

Next, create two Kerberos principals for yourself: one normal principal for your everyday
work and one for administrative tasks relating to Kerberos. Assuming your login name
is newbie, proceed as follows:
kadmin.local
kadmin> ank newbie
[email protected]'s Password: <type password here>
Verifying password: <re-type password here>
Next, create another principal named newbie/admin by typing ank newbie/admin

at the kadmin prompt. The admin suffixed to your username is a role. Later, use this
role when administering the Kerberos database. A user can have several roles for different purposes. Roles are basically completely different accounts with similar names.
39.5.3 Starting the KDC

Start the KDC daemon and the kadmin daemon. To start the daemons manually, enter
rckrb5kdc start and rckadmind start. Also make sure that KDC and kadmind are started by default when the server machine is rebooted with the command
insserv krb5kdc and insserv kadmind.
39.6 Configuring Kerberos Clients

Once the supporting infrastructure is in place (DNS, NTP) and the KDC has been
properly configured and started, configure the clients machines. You can either use
YaST to configure a Kerberos client or use one of the two manual approaches described
below.
39.6.1 Configuring a Kerberos Client with

YaST
Rather than manually editing all relevant configuration files when configuring a Kerberos
client, let YaST do the job for you. You can either perform the client configuration
during the installation of your machine or in the installed system:
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1 Log in as root and select Network Services > Kerberos Client.

2 Select Use Kerberos.
3 To configure a DNS-based Kerberos client, proceed as follows:
3a Confirm the Basic Kerberos Settings that are displayed.
3b Click Advanced Settings to configure details on ticket-related issues,
OpenSSH support, and time synchronization.
4 To configure a static Kerberos client, proceed as follows:
4a Set Default Domain, Default Realm, and KDC Server Address to the values
that match your setup.
4b Click Advanced Settings to configure details on ticket-related issues,
OpenSSH support, and time synchronization.
Figure 39.2 YaST: Basic Configuration of a Kerberos Client
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To configure ticket-related options in the Advanced Settings dialog, choose from the
following options:
Specify the Default Ticket Lifetime and the Default Renewable Lifetime in days,
hours, or minutes (using the units of measurement d, h, and m, with no blank space
between the value and the unit).
To forward your complete identity to use your tickets on other hosts, select Forwardable.
Enable the transfer of certain tickets by selecting Proxiable.
Keep tickets available with a PAM module even after a session has ended by enabling Retained.
Enable Kerberos authentication support for your OpenSSH client by selecting the
corresponding check box. The client then uses Kerberos tickets to authenticate with
the SSH server.
Exclude a range of user accounts from using Kerberos authentication by providing
a value for the Minimum UID that a user of this feature must have. For instance,
you may want to exclude the system administrator (root).
Use Clock Skew to set a value for the allowable difference between the time stamps
and your host's system time.
To keep the system time in sync with an NTP server, you can also set up the host
as an NTP client by selecting NTP Configuration, which opens the YaST NTP
client dialog that is described in Section 24.1, Configuring an NTP Client with
YaST (page 393). After finishing the configuration, YaST performs all the necessary
changes and the Kerberos client is ready for use.
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Reference
Figure 39.3 YaST: Advanced Configuration of a Kerberos Client
39.6.2 Manually Configuring Kerberos

Clients
When configuring Kerberos, there are basically two approaches you can takestatic
configuration in the /etc/krb5.conf file or dynamic configuration with DNS.
With DNS configuration, Kerberos applications try to locate the KDC services using
DNS records. With static configuration, add the hostnames of your KDC server to krb5
.conf (and update the file whenever you move the KDC or reconfigure your realm
in other ways).
DNS-based configuration is generally a lot more flexible and the amount of configuration
work per machine is a lot less. However, it requires that your realm name is either the
same as your DNS domain or a subdomain of it. Configuring Kerberos via DNS also
creates a minor security issuean attacker can seriously disrupt your infrastructure
through your DNS (by shooting down the name server, spoofing DNS records, etc.).
However, this amounts to a denial of service at most. A similar scenario applies to the
static configuration case unless you enter IP addresses in krb5.conf instead of
hostnames.
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Static Configuration
One way to configure Kerberos is to edit the configuration file /etc/krb5.conf.
The file installed by default contains various sample entries. Erase all of these entries
before starting. krb5.conf is made up of several sections, each introduced by the
section name included in brackets like [this].
To configure your Kerberos clients, add the following stanza to krb5.conf (where
kdc.example.com is the hostname of the KDC):
[libdefaults]
default_realm = EXAMPLE.COM
[realms]
EXAMPLE.COM = {
kdc = kdc.example.com
admin_server = kdc.example.com
}
The default_realm line sets the default realm for Kerberos applications. If you
have several realms, just add additional statements to the [realms] section.
Also add a statement to this file that tells applications how to map hostnames to a realm.
For example, when connecting to a remote host, the Kerberos library needs to know in
which realm this host is located. This must be configured in the [domain_realms]
section:
[domain_realm]
.example.com = EXAMPLE.COM
www.foobar.com = EXAMPLE.COM
This tells the library that all hosts in the example.com DNS domains are in the
EXAMPLE.COM Kerberos realm. In addition, one external host named www.foobar
.com should also be considered a member of the EXAMPLE.COM realm.
DNS-Based Configuration
DNS-based Kerberos configuration makes heavy use of SRV records. See (RFC2052)
A DNS RR for specifying the location of services at http://www.ietf.org.
These records are not supported in earlier implementations of the BIND name server.
At least BIND version 8 is required for this.
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The name of an SRV record, as far as Kerberos is concerned, is always in the format
_service._proto.realm, where realm is the Kerberos realm. Domain names in
DNS are case insensitive, so case-sensitive Kerberos realms would break when using
this configuration method. _service is a service name (different names are used
when trying to contact the KDC or the password service, for example). _proto can
be either _udp or _tcp, but not all services support both protocols.
The data portion of SRV resource records consists of a priority value, a weight, a port
number, and a hostname. The priority defines the order in which hosts should be tried
(lower values indicate a higher priority). The weight is there to support some sort of
load balancing among servers of equal priority. You probably do not need any of this,
so it is okay to set these to zero.
MIT Kerberos currently looks up the following names when looking for services:
_kerberos
This defines the location of the KDC daemon (the authentication and ticket granting
server). Typical records look like this:
_kerberos._udp.EXAMPLE.COM.
_kerberos._tcp.EXAMPLE.COM.
IN
IN
SRV
SRV
0 0 88 kdc.example.com.
_kerberos-adm
This describes the location of the remote administration service. Typical records
look like this:
_kerberos-adm._tcp.EXAMPLE.COM. IN
SRV
Because kadmind does not support UDP, there should be no _udp record.
As with the static configuration file, there is a mechanism to inform clients that a specific host is in the EXAMPLE.COM realm, even if it is not part of the example.com
DNS domain. This can be done by attaching a TXT record to _keberos.hostname,
as shown here:
_keberos.www.foobar.com.
IN TXT "EXAMPLE.COM"
Adjusting the Clock Skew

The clock skew is the tolerance for accepting tickets with time stamps that do not exactly
match the host's system clock. Usually, the clock skew is set to 300 seconds (five min-
633
utes). This means a ticket can have a time stamp somewhere between five minutes ago
and five minutes in the future from the server's point of view.
When using NTP to synchronize all hosts, you can reduce this value to about one minute.
The clock skew value can be set in /etc/krb5.conf like this:
[libdefaults]
clockskew = 120
39.7 Configuring Remote Kerberos

Administration
To be able to add and remove principals from the Kerberos database without accessing
the KDC's console directly, tell the Kerberos administration server which principals
are allowed to do what. Do this by editing the file /var/lib/kerberos/krb5kdc/
kadm5.acl. The ACL (access control list) file allows you to specify privileges with
a fine degree of control. For details, refer to the manual page with man 8 kadmind.
Right now, just grant yourself the privilege to do anything you want with the database
by putting the following line into the file:
newbie/admin
Replace the username newbie with your own. Restart kadmind for the change to take
effect.
You should now be able to perform Kerberos administration tasks remotely using the
kadmin tool. First, obtain a ticket for your admin role and use that ticket when connecting
to the kadmin server:
kadmin -p newbie/admin
Authenticating as principal newbie/[email protected] with password.
Password for newbie/[email protected]:
kadmin: getprivs
current privileges: GET ADD MODIFY DELETE
kadmin:
Using the getprivs command, verify which privileges you have. The list shown
above is the full set of privileges.
As an example, modify the principal newbie:
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kadmin: getprinc newbie
Principal: [email protected]
Expiration date: [never]
Last password change: Wed Jan 12 17:28:46 CET 2005
Password expiration date: [none]
Maximum ticket life: 0 days 10:00:00
Maximum renewable life: 7 days 00:00:00
Last modified: Wed Jan 12 17:47:17 CET 2005 (admin/[email protected])
Last successful authentication: [never]
Last failed authentication: [never]
Failed password attempts: 0
Number of keys: 2
Key: vno 1, Triple DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1, no salt
Key: vno 1, DES cbc mode with CRC-32, no salt
Attributes:
Policy: [none]
kadmin: modify_principal -maxlife "8 hours" newbie
Principal "[email protected]" modified.
kadmin: getprinc joe
Principal: [email protected]
Expiration date: [never]
Last password change: Wed Jan 12 17:28:46 CET 2005
Password expiration date: [none]
Maximum ticket life: 0 days 08:00:00
Maximum renewable life: 7 days 00:00:00
Last modified: Wed Jan 12 17:59:49 CET 2005 (newbie/[email protected])
Last successful authentication: [never]
Last failed authentication: [never]
Failed password attempts: 0
Number of keys: 2
Key: vno 1, Triple DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1, no salt
Key: vno 1, DES cbc mode with CRC-32, no salt
Attributes:
Policy: [none]
kadmin:
This changes the maximum ticket life time to eight hours. For more information about
the kadmin command and the options available, refer to http://web.mit.edu/
kerberos/www/krb5-1.4/krb5-1.4/doc/krb5-admin.html#Kadmin
%20Options or look at man 8 kadmin.
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39.8 Creating Kerberos Service

Principals
So far, only user credentials have been discussed. However, Kerberos-compatible services usually need to authenticate themselves to the client user, too. Therefore, special
service principals must be present in the Kerberos database for each service offered in
the realm. For example, if ldap.example.com offers an LDAP service, you need a service
principal, ldap/[email protected], to authenticate this service
to all clients.
The naming convention for service principals is service/hostname@REALM, where
hostname is the host's fully qualified hostname.
Valid service descriptors are:
Service Descriptor
Service
host
Telnet, RSH, SSH
nfs
NFSv4 (with Kerberos support)
HTTP
HTTP (with Kerberos authentication)
imap
IMAP
pop
POP3
ldap
LDAP
Service principals are similar to user principals, but have significant differences. The
main difference between a user principal and a service principal is that the key of the
former is protected by a passwordwhen a user obtains a ticket-granting ticket from
the KDC, he needs to type his password so Kerberos can decrypt the ticket. It would
be quite inconvenient for the system administrator if he had to obtain new tickets for
the SSH daemon every eight hours or so.
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Instead, the key required to decrypt the initial ticket for the service principal is extracted
by the administrator from the KDC once and stored in a local file called the keytab.
Services such the SSH daemon read this key and use it to obtain new tickets automatically when needed. The default keytab file resides in /etc/krb5.keytab.
To create a host service principal for jupiter.example.com enter the following
commands during your kadmin session:
kadmin: addprinc -randkey host/jupiter.example.com
WARNING: no policy specified for host/[email protected];
defaulting to no policy
Principal "host/[email protected]" created.
Instead of setting a password for the new principal, the -randkey flag tells kadmin
to generate a random key. This is used here because no user interaction is wanted for
this principal. It is a server account for the machine.
Finally, extract the key and store it in the local keytab file /etc/krb5.keytab.
This file is owned by the superuser, so you must be root to execute the next command
in the kadmin shell:
kadmin: ktadd host/jupiter.example.com
Entry for principal host/jupiter.example.com with kvno 3, encryption type
Triple
DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1 added to keytab WRFILE:/etc/krb5.keytab.
Entry for principal host/jupiter.example.com with kvno 3, encryption type DES
cbc mode with CRC-32 added to keytab WRFILE:/etc/krb5.keytab.
kadmin:
When completed, make sure that you destroy the admin ticket obtained with kinit above
with kdestroy.
39.9 Enabling PAM Support for

Kerberos
openSUSE comes with a PAM module named pam_krb5, which supports Kerberos
login and password update. This module can be used by applications, such as console
login, su, and graphical login applications like KDM, where the user presents a password
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and would like the authenticating application to obtain an initial Kerberos ticket on his
behalf. To configure PAM support for Kerberos, use the following command:
pam-config --add --krb5
The above command adds the pam_krb5 module to the existing PAM configuration
files and makes sure it is called in the right order. To make fine adjustments to the way
in which pam_krb5 is used, edit the file /etc/krb5.conf and add default applications to pam. For details, refer to the manual page with man 5 pam_krb5.
The pam_krb5 module was specifically not designed for network services that accept
Kerberos tickets as part of user authentication. This is an entirely different matter, which
is discussed below.
39.10 Configuring SSH for Kerberos

Authentication
OpenSSH supports Kerberos authentication in both protocol version 1 and 2. In version 1, there are special protocol messages to transmit Kerberos tickets. Version 2 does
not use Kerberos directly anymore, but relies on GSSAPI, the General Security Services
API. This is a programming interface that is not specific to Kerberosit was designed
to hide the peculiarities of the underlying authentication system, be it Kerberos, a publickey authentication system like SPKM, or others. The GSSAPI library included supports
only Kerberos, however.
To use sshd with Kerberos authentication, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set
the following options:
# These are for protocol version 1
#
# KerberosAuthentication yes
# KerberosTicketCleanup yes
# These are for version 2 - better to use this
GSSAPIAuthentication yes
GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes
Then restart your SSH daemon using rcsshd restart.

To use Kerberos authentication with protocol version 2, enable it on the client side as
well. Do this either in the systemwide configuration file /etc/ssh/ssh_config
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or on a per-user level by editing ~/.ssh/config. In both cases, add the option

GSSAPIAuthentication yes.
You should now be able to connect using Kerberos authentication. Use klist to verify that you have a valid ticket then connect to the SSH server. To force SSH protocol
version 1, specify the -1 option on the command line.
TIP: Additional Information
The file /usr/share/doc/packages/openssh/README.kerberos discusses the interaction of OpenSSH and Kerberos in more detail.
39.11 Using LDAP and Kerberos

When using Kerberos, one way to distribute the user information (such as user ID,
groups,and home directory) in your local network is to use LDAP. This requires a strong
authentication mechanism that prevents packet spoofing and other attacks. One solution
is to use Kerberos for LDAP communication, too.
OpenLDAP implements most authentication flavors through SASL, the simple authentication session layer. SASL is basically a network protocol designed for authentication.
The SASL implementation is cyrus-sasl, which supports a number of different authentication flavors. Kerberos authentication is performed through GSSAPI (General Security Services API). By default, the SASL plug-in for GSSAPI is not installed. Install it
manually with rpm -ivh cyrus-sasl-gssapi-*.rpm.
To enable Kerberos to bind to the OpenLDAP server, create a principal
ldap/earth.example.com and add that to the keytab.
By default, the LDAP server slapd runs as user and group ldap, while the keytab file
is readable by root only. Therefore, either change the LDAP configuration so the
server runs as root or make the keytab file readable by the group ldap. The latter is
done automatically by the OpenLDAP start script (/etc/init.d/ldap) if the keytab
file has been specified in the OPENLDAP_KRB5_KEYTAB variable in /etc/
sysconfig/openldap and the OPENLDAP_CHOWN_DIRS variable is set to yes,
which is the default setting. If OPENLDAP_KRB5_KEYTAB is left empty, the default
keytab under /etc/krb5.keytab is used and you must adjust the privileges yourself
as described below.
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To run slapd as root, edit /etc/sysconfig/openldap. Disable the

OPENLDAP_USER and OPENLDAP_GROUP variables by putting a comment character
in front of them.
To make the keytab file readable by group LDAP, execute
chgrp ldap /etc/krb5.keytab
chmod 640 /etc/krb5.keytab
A third, and maybe the best solution, is to tell OpenLDAP to use a special keytab file.
To do this, start kadmin, and enter the following command after you have added the
principal ldap/earth.example.com:
ktadd -k /etc/openldap/ldap.keytab ldap/[email protected]
Then, on the shell, run:

chown ldap.ldap /etc/openldap/ldap.keytab
chmod 600 /etc/openldap/ldap.keytab
To tell OpenLDAP to use a different keytab file, change the following variable in
/etc/sysconfig/openldap:
OPENLDAP_KRB5_KEYTAB="/etc/openldap/ldap.keytab"
Finally, restart the LDAP server using rcldap restart.
39.11.1 Using Kerberos Authentication with

LDAP
You should now be able to use tools, such as ldapsearch, with Kerberos authentication
automatically.
ldapsearch -b ou=people,dc=example,dc=com '(uid=newbie)'
SASL/GSSAPI authentication started
SASL SSF: 56
SASL installing layers
[...]
# newbie, people, example.com
dn: uid=newbie,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
uid: newbie
cn: Olaf Kirch
[...]
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As you can see, ldapsearch prints a message that it started GSSAPI authentication. The
next message is very cryptic, but it shows that the security strength factor (SSF for
short) is 56 (The value 56 is somewhat arbitrary. Most likely it was chosen because
this is the number of bits in a DES encryption key). What this tells you is that GSSAPI
authentication was successful and that encryption is being used to provide integrity
protection and confidentiality for the LDAP connection.
In Kerberos, authentication is always mutual. This means that not only have you authenticated yourself to the LDAP server, but also the LDAP server authenticated itself to
you. In particular, this means communication is with the desired LDAP server, rather
than some bogus service set up by an attacker.
39.11.2 Kerberos Authentication and LDAP

Access Control
Now, allow each user to modify the login shell attribute of their LDAP user record.
Assuming you have a schema where the LDAP entry of user joe is located at uid=
joe,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com, set up the following access controls in
/etc/openldap/slapd.conf:
# This is required for things to work _at all_
access to dn.base="" by * read
# Let each user change their login shell
access to dn="*,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com" attrs=loginShell
by self write
# Every user can read everything
access to *
by users read
The second statement gives authenticated users write access to the loginShell attribute of their own LDAP entry. The third statement gives all authenticated users read
access to the entire LDAP directory.
There is one minor piece of the puzzle missinghow the LDAP server can find out
that the Kerberos user [email protected] corresponds to the LDAP distinguished
name uid=joe,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com. This sort of mapping must
be configured manually using the saslExpr directive. In this example, add the following to slapd.conf:
authz-regexp
uid=(.*),cn=GSSAPI,cn=auth
uid=$1,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
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To understand how this works, you need to know that when SASL authenticates a user,
OpenLDAP forms a distinguished name from the name given to it by SASL (such as
joe) and the name of the SASL flavor (GSSAPI). The result would be
uid=joe,cn=GSSAPI,cn=auth.
If a authz-regexp has been configured, it checks the DN formed from the SASL
information using the first argument as a regular expression. If this regular expression
matches, the name is replaced with the second argument of the authz-regexp
statement. The placeholder $1 is replaced with the substring matched by the (.*)
expression.
More complicated match expressions are possible. If you have a more complicated directory structure or a schema in which the username is not part of the DN, you can even
use search expressions to map the SASL DN to the user DN.
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Encrypting Partitions and Files
40
Every user has some confidential data that third parties should not be able to access.
The more you rely on mobile computing and on working in different environments and
networks, the more carefully you should handle your data. The encryption of files or
entire partitions is recommended if others have network or physical access to your
system. Laptops or removable media, such as external hard disks or USB sticks, are
prone to being lost or stolen. Thus, it is recommended to encrypt the parts of your file
that hold confidential data.
There are several ways to protect your data by means of encryption:
Encrypting a Hard Disk Partition
You can create an encrypted partition with YaST during installation or in an already
installed system. Refer to Section 40.1.1, Creating an Encrypted Partition during
Installation (page 645) and Section 40.1.2, Creating an Encrypted Partition on a
Running System (page 646) for details. This option can also be used for removable
media, such as external hard disks, as described in Section 40.1.4, Encrypting the
Content of Removable Media (page 647).
Creating an Encrypted File as Container
You can create an encrypted file on your hard disk or on a removable medium with
YaST at any time. The encrypted file can then be used to store other files or folders.
For more information, refer to Section 40.1.3, Creating an Encrypted File as a
Container (page 646).
Encrypting Home Directories
With openSUSE, you can also create encrypted home directories for users. When
the user logs in to the system, the encrypted home directory is mounted and the
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contents are made available to the user. Refer to Section 40.2, Using Encrypted
Home Directories (page 647) for more information.
Encrypting Single Files
If you only have a small number of files that hold sensitive or confidential data,
you can encrypt them individually and protect them with a password using the vi
editor. Refer to Section 40.3, Using vi to Encrypt Single Files (page 649) for more
information.
WARNING: Encrypted Media Offers Limited Protection
The methods described in this chapter offer only limited protection. You cannot
protect your running system from being compromised. After the encrypted
medium is successfully mounted, everybody with appropriate permissions has
access to it. However, encrypted media are useful in case of loss or theft of
your computer or to prevent unauthorized individuals from reading your confidential data.
40.1 Setting Up an Encrypted File

System with YaST
Use YaST to encrypt partitions or parts of your file system during installation or in an
already installed system. However, encrypting a partition in an already installed system
is more difficult, because you have to resize and change existing partitions. In such
cases, it may be more convenient to create an encrypted file of a defined size in which
to store other files or parts of your file system. To encrypt an entire partition, dedicate
a partition for encryption in the partition layout. The standard partitioning proposal as
suggested by YaST does not, by default, include an encrypted partition. Add it manually
in the partitioning dialog.
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40.1.1 Creating an Encrypted Partition

during Installation
WARNING: Password Input
Make sure to memorize the password for your encrypted partitions well.
Without that password you cannot access or restore the encrypted data.
The YaST expert dialog for partitioning offers the options needed for creating an encrypted partition. To create a new encrypted partition proceed as follows:
1 Run the YaST Partitioner from the YaST Control Center with System > Partitioner
2 Click Create and select a primary or a logical partition.
3 Select the desired file system, size and mount point of this partition.
4 If the encrypted file system should only be mounted when necessary, enable Do
Not Mount at System Start-up in the Fstab Options.
5 Activate the Encrypt file system checkbox.
6 Click OK. You will be prompted for a password that is used to encrypt this partition. This password is not displayed. To prevent typing errors, enter the password
twice.
7 Complete the process by clicking OK. The new encrypted partition is now created.
Unless Do Not Mount at System Start-up was selected, the operating system requests
the password while booting before mounting the partition. The partition is available to
all users once it has been mounted.
To skip mounting the encrypted partition during start-up, click Enter when prompted
for the password. Then decline the offer to enter the password again. In this case, the
encrypted file system is not mounted and the operating system continues booting,
blocking access to your data.
To access an encrypted partition that is not mounted during boot, mount the partition
manually by entering mount name_of_partition mount_point. Enter the
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password when prompted for it. After you are done with working on this partition, unmount it with umount name_of_partition to protect it from access by other
users.
When you are installing your system on a machine where several partitions already
exist, you can also decide to encrypt an existing partition during installation. In this
case follow the description in Section 40.1.2, Creating an Encrypted Partition on a
Running System (page 646) and be aware that this action destroys all data on the existing
partition to encrypt.
40.1.2 Creating an Encrypted Partition on a

Running System
WARNING: Activating Encryption in a Running System
It is also possible to create encrypted partitions on a running system. However,
encrypting an existing partition destroys all data on it and requires resizing and
restructuring of existing partitions.
On a running system, select System > Partitioning in the YaST Control Center. Click
Yes to proceed. In the Expert Partitioner, select the partition to encrypt and click Edit.
The rest of the procedure is the same as described in Section 40.1.1, Creating an Encrypted Partition during Installation (page 645).
40.1.3 Creating an Encrypted File as a

Container
Instead of using a partition, it is possible to create an encrypted file of a certain size
that can then hold other files or folders containing confidential data. Such container
files are created from the YaST Expert Partitioner dialog. Select Crypt File and enter
the full path to the file and its size. Accept the proposed formatting settings and the file
system type. Specify the mount point and decide whether the encrypted file system
should be mounted at system boot.
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The advantage of encrypted container files over encrypted partitions is that they can be
added without repartitioning the hard disk. They are mounted with the help of a loop
device and behave just like normal partitions.
40.1.4 Encrypting the Content of Removable

Media
YaST treats removable media like external hard disks or USB flash drives the same as
any other hard disk. Container files or partitions on such media can be encrypted as
described above. However, enable Do Not Mount During Booting in the Fstab Options
dialog, because removable media are usually only connected while the system is running.
If you have encrypted your removable device with LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup),
the KDE and GNOME desktops automatically recognize this and prompt for the password when the device is detected. If you have formatted your removable medium with
a FAT file system, the user logged in to the desktop and who enters the decryption
password automatically becomes the owner of the device and can read and write files.
For devices with a file system other than FAT, change the ownership explicitly for
users other than root to enable these users to read or write files on the device.
40.2 Using Encrypted Home

Directories
To protect data in home directories against theft and hard disk removal, use the LUKS
framework to encrypt user home directories. LUKS creates an image and an image key.
The image key is protected with the user's login password. By default, the image and
the image key are located in the respective user's home directory. The key can also be
located anywhere in the file systemfor example, on a removable device that can be
mounted manually.
Use the YaST user management module or the cryptconfig command line tool to
enable encryption of home directories. You can create encrypted home directories for
new or existing users. To encrypt or modify encrypted home directories of already existing users, enter the user's current login password. For information about user management with YaST, refer to Chapter 5, Managing Users with YaST (Start-Up).
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WARNING: Security Restrictions

Encrypting a user's home directory does not provide strong security from other
users. If strong security is required, the system should not be shared physically.
To enhance security, also encrypt the swap partition and the /tmp and /var/
tmp directories, because these may contain temporary images of critical data.
You can encrypt swap, /tmp, and /var/tmp with the YaST partitioner as described
in Section 40.1.1, Creating an Encrypted Partition during Installation (page 645) and
Section 40.1.3, Creating an Encrypted File as a Container (page 646). In addition to
the options YaST, you can use the cryptconfig command line tool for some special
tasks.
For example, you can create and add an additional key to the image.
1 Log in to a shell as root.
2 Run
cryptconfig create-key admin.key
to create a key for administrators.

3 To create an encrypted home directory for user tux and to add the administration
key to it, enter
cryptconfig make-ehd --extra-key-file=admin.key tux 200
This creates a home directory with the initial size of 200 MB.
4 To change the size of the home directory at any time, use
cryptconfig enlarge-size image
size_to_add_in_MB
For more information about the command line tool, run the cryptconfig --help
command.
Internally, the home directory is provided by means of the pam module pam_mount.
If you need to add an additional login method that provides encrypted home directories,
you may have to add this module to the respective configuration file in /etc/pam.d/
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Reference
. For more information see also Chapter 18, Authentication with PAM (page 263) and
the man page of pam_mount.
40.3 Using vi to Encrypt Single Files

The disadvantage of using encrypted partitions is that while the partition is mounted,
at least root can access the data. To prevent this, vi can be used in encrypted mode.
Use vi -x filename to edit a new file. vi prompts you to set a password, after
which it encrypts the content of the file. Whenever you access this file, vi requests the
correct password.
For even more security, you can place the encrypted text file in an encrypted partition.
This is recommended because the encryption used in vi is not very strong.
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Confining Privileges with

AppArmor
41
Many security vulnerabilities result from bugs in trusted programs. A trusted program
runs with privilege that some attacker would like to have. The program fails to keep
that trust if there is a bug in the program that allows the attacker to acquire that privilege.
Novell AppArmor is an application security solution designed specifically to provide
least privilege confinement to suspect programs. AppArmor allows the administrator
to specify the domain of activities the program can perform by developing a security
profile for that applicationa listing of files that the program may access and the operations the program may perform.
Effective hardening of a computer system requires minimizing the number of programs
that mediate privilege then securing the programs as much as possible. With Novell
AppArmor, you only need to profile the programs that are exposed to attack in your
environment, which drastically reduces the amount of work required to harden your
computer. AppArmor profiles enforce policies to make sure that programs do what they
are supposed to do, but nothing else.
Administrators only need to care about the applications that are vulnerable to attacks
and generate profiles for these. Hardening a system thus comes down to building and
maintaining the AppArmor profile set and monitoring any policy violations or exceptions
logged by AppArmor's reporting facility.
Building AppArmor profiles to confine an application is very straightforward and intuitive. AppArmor ships with several tools that assist in profile creation. It does not require
you to do any programming or script handling. The only task that is required from the
administrator is to determine a policy of strictest access and execute permissions for
each application that needs to be hardened.
Confining Privileges with AppArmor
651
Updates or modifications to the application profiles are only required if the software
configuration or the desired range of activities changes. AppArmor offers intuitive tools
to handle profile updates or modifications.
Users should not notice AppArmor at all. It runs behind the scenes and does not require
any user interaction. Performance is not affected noticeably by AppArmor. If some
activity of the application is not covered by an AppArmor profile or if some activity
of the application is prevented by AppArmor, the administrator needs to adjust the
profile of this application to cover this kind of behavior.
This guide outlines the basic tasks that need to be performed with AppArmor to effectively harden a system. For more in-depth information, refer to Novell AppArmor Administration Guide.
41.1 Installing Novell AppArmor

Novell AppArmor is installed and running by default on any installation of openSUSE
regardless of what patterns are installed. The packages listed below are needed for a
fully functional instance of AppArmor
apparmor-parser
libapparmor
apparmor-docs
yast2-apparmor
apparmor-profiles
apparmor-utils
audit
41.2 Enabling and Disabling Novell

AppArmor
Novell AppArmor is configured to run by default on any fresh installation of openSUSE.
There are two ways of toggling the status of AppArmor:
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Using YaST System Services (Runlevel)

Disable or enable AppArmor by removing or adding its boot script to the sequence
of scripts executed on system boot. Status changes are applied at the next system
boot.
Using Novell AppArmor Control Panel
Toggle the status of Novell AppArmor in a running system by switching it off or
on using the YaST Novell AppArmor Control Panel. Changes made here are applied
instantaneously. The Control Panel triggers a stop or start event for AppArmor and
removes or adds its boot script in the system's boot sequence.
To disable AppArmor permanently by removing it from the sequence of scripts executed
on system boot, proceed as follows:
2 Select System > System Services (Runlevel).
3 Select Expert Mode.
4 Select boot.apparmor and click Set/Reset > Disable the service.
5 Exit the YaST Runlevel tool with Finish.
AppArmor will not be initialized on the next system boot and stays inactive until you
explicitly reenable it. Reenabling a service using the YaST Runlevel tool is similar to
disabling it.
Toggle the status of AppArmor in a running system by using the AppArmor Control
Panel. These changes take effect as soon as you apply them and survive a reboot of the
system. To toggle AppArmor's status, proceed as follows:
2 Select Novell AppArmor > AppArmor Control Panel.
3 Select Enable AppArmor. To disable AppArmor, uncheck this option.
4 Exit the AppArmor Control Panel with Done.
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41.3 Getting Started with Profiling

Applications
Prepare a successful deployment of Novell AppArmor on your system by carefully
considering the following items:
1 Determine the applications to profile. Read more on this in Section 41.3.1,
Choosing the Applications to Profile (page 654).
2 Build the needed profiles as roughly outlined in Section 41.3.2, Building and
Modifying Profiles (page 655). Check the results and adjust the profiles when
necessary.
3 Keep track of what is happening on your system by running AppArmor reports
and dealing with security events. Refer to Section 41.3.3, Configuring Novell
AppArmor Event Notification and Reports (page 658).
4 Update your profiles whenever your environment changes or you need to react
to security events logged by AppArmor's reporting tool. Refer to Section 41.3.4,
Updating Your Profiles (page 659).
41.3.1 Choosing the Applications to Profile

You only need to protect the programs that are exposed to attacks in your particular
setup, so only use profiles for those applications you really run. Use the following list
to determine the most likely candidates:
Network Agents
Programs (servers and clients) that have open network ports. User clients, such as
mail clients and Web browsers, mediate privilege. These programs run with the
privilege to write to the user's home directory and they process input from potentially hostile remote sources, such as hostile Web sites and e-mailed malicious
code.
Web Applications
Programs that can be invoked through a Web browser, including CGI Perl scripts,
PHP pages, and more complex Web applications.
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Cron Jobs
Programs that the cron daemon periodically run read input from a variety of sources.
To find out which processes are currently running with open network ports and might
need a profile to confine them, run aa-unconfined as root.
Example 41.1 Output of aa-unconfined
19848
19887
19947
29205
/usr/sbin/cupsd not confined

/usr/sbin/sshd not confined
/usr/lib/postfix/master not confined
/usr/sbin/sshd confined by '/usr/sbin/sshd (enforce)'
Each of the processes in the above example labeled not confined might need a
custom profile to confine it. Those labeled confined by are already protected by
AppArmor.
For more information about choosing the the right applications to profile, refer
to Section Determining Programs to Immunize (Chapter 1, Immunizing Programs, Novell AppArmor Administration Guide).
41.3.2 Building and Modifying Profiles

Novell AppArmor on openSUSE ships with a preconfigured set of profiles for the most
important applications. In addition to that, you can use AppArmor to create your own
profiles for any application you want.
There are two ways of managing profiles. One is to use the graphical front-end provided
by the YaST Novell AppArmor modules and the other is to use the command line tools
provided by the AppArmor suite itself. Both methods basically work the same way.
Running aa-unconfined as described in Section 41.3.1, Choosing the Applications to
Profile (page 654) identifies a list of applications that may need a profile to run in a
safe mode.
For each application, perform the following steps to create a profile:
1 As root, let AppArmor create a rough outline of the application's profile by
running aa-genprof programname
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or
Outline the basic profile by running YaST > Novell AppArmor > Add Profile
Wizard and specifying the complete path of the application to profile.
A basic profile is outlined and AppArmor is put into learning mode, which means
that it logs any activity of the program you are executing but does not yet restrict
it.
2 Run the full range of the application's actions to let AppArmor get a very specific
picture of its activities.
3 Let AppArmor analyze the log files generated in Step 2 (page 656) by running
typing S in aa-genprof.
or
Analyze the logs by clicking Scan system log for AppArmor events in the Add
Profile Wizard and following the instructions given in the wizard until the profile
is completed.
AppArmor scans the logs it recorded during the application's run and asks you
to set the access rights for each event that was logged. Either set them for each
file or use globbing.
4 Depending on the complexity of your application, it might be necessary to repeat
Step 2 (page 656) and Step 3 (page 656). Confine the application, exercise it under
the confined conditions, and process any new log events. To properly confine
the full range of an application's capabilities, you might be required to repeat this
procedure often.
5 Once all access permissions are set, your profile is set to enforce mode. The
profile is applied and AppArmor restricts the application according to the profile
just created.
If you started aa-genprof on an application that had an existing profile that was
in complain mode, this profile remains in learning mode upon exit of this learning
cycle. For more information about changing the mode of a profile, refer to Section
aa-complainEntering Complain or Learning Mode (Chapter 4, Building
Profiles from the Command Line, Novell AppArmor Administration Guide)
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and Section aa-enforceEntering Enforce Mode (Chapter 4, Building Profiles

from the Command Line, Novell AppArmor Administration Guide).
Test your profile settings by performing every task you need with the application you
just confined. Normally, the confined program runs smoothly and you do not notice
AppArmor activities at all. However, if you notice certain misbehavior with your application, check the system logs and see if AppArmor is too tightly confining your application. Depending on the log mechanism used on your system, there are several places
to look for AppArmor log entries:
/var/log/audit/audit.log
If the audit package is installed and auditd is running, AppArmor events are
logged as follows:
type=APPARMOR msg=audit(1140325305.502:1407): REJECTING w access to
/usr/lib/firefox/update.test (firefox-bin(9469) profile
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin active /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin)
/var/log/messages
If auditd is not used, AppArmor events are logged in the standard system log under
/var/log/messages. An example entry would look like the following:
Feb 22 18:29:14 dhcp-81 klogd: audit(1140661749.146:3): REJECTING w access
to /dev/console (mdnsd(3239) profile /usr/sbin/mdnsd active
/usr/sbin/mdnsd)
dmesg
If auditd is not running, AppArmor events can also be checked using the dmesg
command:
audit(1140661749.146:3): REJECTING w access to /dev/console (mdnsd(3239)
profile /usr/sbin/mdnsd active /usr/sbin/mdnsd)
To adjust the profile, analyze the log messages relating to this application again as described in Step 3 (page 656). Determine the access rights or restrictions when prompted.
For more information about profile building and modification, refer to Chapter 2, Profile Components and Syntax (Novell AppArmor Administration Guide),
Chapter 3, Building and Managing Profiles with YaST (Novell AppArmor Administration Guide), and Chapter 4, Building Profiles from the Command Line
(Novell AppArmor Administration Guide).
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41.3.3 Configuring Novell AppArmor Event

Notification and Reports
Set up event notification in Novell AppArmor so you can review security events. Event
Notification is an Novell AppArmor feature that informs a specified e-mail recipient
when systemic Novell AppArmor activity occurs under the chosen severity level. This
feature is currently available in the YaST interface.
To set up event notification in YaST, proceed as follows:
1 Make sure that a mail server is running on your system to deliver the event notifications.
2 Log in as root and start YaST. Then select Novell AppArmor > AppArmor
Control Panel).
3 In Enable Security Event Notification, select Configure.
4 For each record type (Terse, Summary, and Verbose), set a report frequency,
enter the e-mail address that should receive the reports, and determine the
severity of events to log. To include unknown events in the event reports, check
Include Unknown Severity Events.
NOTE: Selecting Events to Log
Unless you are familiar with AppArmor's event categorization, choose to
be notified about events for all security levels.
5 Leave this dialog with OK > Done to apply your settings.
Using Novell AppArmor reports, you can read important Novell AppArmor security
events reported in the log files without manually sifting through the cumbersome messages only useful to the aa-logprof tool. You can decrease the size of the report by filtering by date range or program name.
To configure the AppArmor reports, proceed as follows:
1 Log in as root and start YaST. Select Novell AppArmor > AppArmor Reports.
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Reference
2 Select the type of report to examine or configure from Executive Security Summary, Applications Audit, and Security Incident Report.
3 Edit the report generation frequency, e-mail address, export format, and location
of the reports by selecting Edit and providing the requested data.
4 To run a report of the selected type, click Run Now.
5 Browse through the archived reports of a given type by selecting View Archive
and specifying the report type.
or
Delete unneeded reports or add new ones.
For more information about configuring event notification in Novell AppArmor,
refer to Section Configuring Security Event Notification (Chapter 6, Managing
Profiled Applications, Novell AppArmor Administration Guide). Find more information about report configuration in Section Configuring Reports (Chapter 6, Managing Profiled Applications, Novell AppArmor Administration Guide).
41.3.4 Updating Your Profiles

Software and system configurations change over time. As a result of that, your profile
setup for AppArmor might need some fine-tuning from time to time. AppArmor checks
your system log for policy violations or other AppArmor events and lets you adjust
your profile set accordingly. Any application behavior that is outside of any profile
definition can also be addressed using the Update Profile Wizard.
To update your profile set, proceed as follows:
2 Start Novell AppArmor > Update Profile Wizard.
3 Adjust access or execute rights to any resource or for any executable that has
been logged when prompted.
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4 Leave YaST after you answer all questions. Your changes are applied to the respective profiles.
For more information about updating your profiles from the system logs, refer
to Section Updating Profiles from Log Entries (Chapter 3, Building and Managing Profiles with YaST, Novell AppArmor Administration Guide).
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Security and Confidentiality
42
One of the main characteristics of a Linux or UNIX system is its ability to handle several users at the same time (multiuser) and to allow these users to perform several tasks
(multitasking) on the same computer simultaneously. Moreover, the operating system
is network transparent. The users often do not know whether the data and applications
they are using are provided locally from their machine or made available over the network.
With the multiuser capability, the data of different users must be stored separately. Security and privacy need to be guaranteed. Data security was already an important issue,
even before computers could be linked through networks. Just like today, the most important concern was the ability to keep data available in spite of a lost or otherwise
damaged data medium, a hard disk in most cases.
This section is primarily focused on confidentiality issues and on ways to protect the
privacy of users, but it cannot be stressed enough that a comprehensive security concept
should always include procedures to have a regularly updated, workable, and tested
backup in place. Without this, you could have a very hard time getting your data
backnot only in the case of some hardware defect, but also if the suspicion arises that
someone has gained unauthorized access and tampered with files.
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42.1 Local Security and Network

Security
There are several ways of accessing data:
personal communication with people who have the desired information or access
to the data on a computer
directly from the console of a computer (physical access)
over a serial line
using a network link
In all these cases, a user should be authenticated before accessing the resources or data
in question. A Web server might be less restrictive in this respect, but you still would
not want it to disclose all your personal data to any surfer.
In the list above, the first case is the one where the highest amount of human interaction
is involved, such as when you are contacting a bank employee and are required to prove
that you are the person owning that bank account. Then you are asked to provide a
signature, a PIN, or a password to prove that you are the person you claim to be. In
some cases, it might be possible to elicit some intelligence from an informed person
just by mentioning known bits and pieces to win the confidence of that person by using
clever rhetoric. The victim could be led to reveal gradually more information, maybe
without even becoming aware of it. Among hackers, this is called social engineering.
You can only guard against this by educating people and by dealing with language and
information in a conscious way. Before breaking into computer systems, attackers often
try to target receptionists, service people working with the company, or even family
members. In many cases, such an attack based on social engineering is only discovered
at a much later time.
A person wanting to obtain unauthorized access to your data could also use the traditional way and try to get at your hardware directly. Therefore, the machine should be
protected against any tampering so that no one can remove, replace, or cripple its
components. This also applies to backups and even any network cable or the power
cord. Also secure the boot procedure, because there are some well-known key combinations that might provoke unusual behavior. Protect yourself against this by setting
passwords for the BIOS and the boot loader.
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Serial terminals connected to serial ports are still used in many places. Unlike network
interfaces, they do not rely on a network protocol to communicate with the host. A
simple cable or an infrared port is used to send plain characters back and forth between
the devices. The cable itself is the weakest point of such a system: with an older printer
connected to it, it is easy to record anything that runs over the wires. What can be
achieved with a printer can also be accomplished in other ways, depending on the effort
that goes into the attack.
Reading a file locally on a host requires other access rules than opening a network
connection with a server on a different host. There is a distinction between local security and network security. The line is drawn where data must be put into packets to be
sent somewhere else.
42.1.1 Local Security

Local security starts with the physical environment in the location where the computer
is running. Set up your machine in a place where security is in line with your expectations
and needs. The main goal of local security is to keep users separate from each other,
so no user can assume the permissions or the identity of another. This is a general rule
to be observed, but it is especially true for the user root, who holds the supreme
power on the system. root can take on the identity of any other local user without
being prompted for the password and read any locally stored file.
42.1.2 Passwords
On a Linux system, passwords are not stored as plain text and the text string entered is
not simply matched with the saved pattern. If this were the case, all accounts on your
system would be compromised as soon as someone got access to the corresponding
file. Instead, the stored password is encrypted and, each time it is entered, is encrypted
again and the two encrypted strings are compared. This only provides more security if
the encrypted password cannot be reverse-computed into the original text string.
This is actually achieved by a special kind of algorithm, also called trapdoor algorithm,
because it only works in one direction. An attacker who has obtained the encrypted
string is not able to get your password by simply applying the same algorithm again.
Instead, it would be necessary to test all the possible character combinations until a
combination is found that looks like your password when encrypted. With passwords
eight characters long, there are quite a number of possible combinations to calculate.
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In the seventies, it was argued that this method would be more secure than others due
to the relative slowness of the algorithm used, which took a few seconds to encrypt just
one password. In the meantime, however, PCs have become powerful enough to do
several hundred thousand or even millions of encryptions per second. Because of this,
encrypted passwords should not be visible to regular users (/etc/shadow cannot be
read by normal users). It is even more important that passwords are not easy to guess,
in case the password file becomes visible due to some error. Consequently, it is not really useful to translate a password like tantalize into t@nt@1lz3.
Replacing some letters of a word with similar looking numbers is not safe enough.
Password cracking programs that use dictionaries to guess words also play with substitutions like that. A better way is to make up a word with no common meaning, something
that only makes sense to you personally, like the first letters of the words of a sentence
or the title of a book, such as The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. This would
give the following safe password: TNotRbUE9. In contrast, passwords like beerbuddy or jasmine76 are easily guessed even by someone who has only some casual
knowledge about you.
42.1.3 The Boot Procedure

Configure your system so it cannot be booted from a floppy or from CD, either by removing the drives entirely or by setting a BIOS password and configuring the BIOS to
allow booting from a hard disk only. Normally, a Linux system is started by a boot
loader, allowing you to pass additional options to the booted kernel. Prevent others
from using such parameters during boot by setting an additional password in /boot/
grub/menu.lst (see Chapter 13, The Boot Loader (page 195)). This is crucial to
your system's security. Not only does the kernel itself run with root permissions, but
it is also the first authority to grant root permissions at system start-up.
42.1.4 File Permissions

As a general rule, always work with the most restrictive privileges possible for a given
task. For example, it is definitely not necessary to be root to read or write e-mail. If
the mail program has a bug, this bug could be exploited for an attack that acts with exactly the permissions of the program when it was started. By following the above rule,
minimize the possible damage.
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Reference
The permissions of all files included in the openSUSE distribution are carefully chosen.
A system administrator who installs additional software or other files should take great
care when doing so, especially when setting the permission bits. Experienced and security-conscious system administrators always use the -l option with the command ls
to get an extensive file list, which allows them to detect any incorrect file permissions
immediately. An incorrect file attribute does not only mean that files could be changed
or deleted. These modified files could be executed by root or, in the case of configuration files, programs could use such files with the permissions of root. This significantly increases the possibilities of an attacker. Attacks like this are called cuckoo eggs,
because the program (the egg) is executed (hatched) by a different user (bird), just like
a cuckoo tricks other birds into hatching its eggs.
A openSUSE system includes the files permissions, permissions.easy,
permissions.secure, and permissions.paranoid, all in the directory
/etc. The purpose of these files is to define special permissions, such as world-writable
directories or, for files, the setuser ID bit (programs with the setuser ID bit set do not
run with the permissions of the user that has launched it, but with the permissions of
the file owner, in most cases root). An administrator can use the file /etc/
permissions.local to add his own settings.
To define which of the above files is used by openSUSE's configuration programs to
set permissions accordingly, select Local Security in the Security and Users section of
YaST. To learn more about the topic, read the comments in /etc/permissions or
consult the manual page of chmod (man chmod).
42.1.5 Buffer Overflows and Format String

Bugs
Special care must be taken whenever a program is supposed to process data that can or
could be changed by a user, but this is more of an issue for the programmer of an application than for regular users. The programmer must make sure that his application interprets data in the correct way, without writing it into memory areas that are too small
to hold it. Also, the program should hand over data in a consistent manner, using the
interfaces defined for that purpose.
A buffer overflow can happen if the actual size of a memory buffer is not taken into
account when writing to that buffer. There are cases where this data (as generated by
the user) uses up some more space than what is available in the buffer. As a result, data
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is written beyond the end of that buffer area, which, under certain circumstances, makes
it possible for a program to execute program sequences influenced by the user (and not
by the programmer), rather than just processing user data. A bug of this kind may have
serious consequences, especially if the program is being executed with special privileges
(see Section 42.1.4, File Permissions (page 664)).
Format string bugs work in a slightly different way, but again it is the user input that
could lead the program astray. In most cases, these programming errors are exploited
with programs executed with special permissionssetuid and setgid programswhich
also means that you can protect your data and your system from such bugs by removing
the corresponding execution privileges from programs. Again, the best way is to apply
a policy of using the lowest possible privileges (see Section 42.1.4, File Permissions
(page 664)).
Given that buffer overflows and format string bugs are bugs related to the handling of
user data, they are not only exploitable if access has been given to a local account.
Many of the bugs that have been reported can also be exploited over a network link.
Accordingly, buffer overflows and format string bugs should be classified as being
relevant for both local and network security.
42.1.6 Viruses
Contrary to what some people say, there are viruses that run on Linux. However, the
viruses that are known were released by their authors as a proof of concept to prove
that the technique works as intended. None of these viruses have been spotted in the
wild so far.
Viruses cannot survive and spread without a host on which to live. In this case, the host
would be a program or an important storage area of the system, such as the master boot
record, which needs to be writable for the program code of the virus. Owing to its
multiuser capability, Linux can restrict write access to certain files, especially important
with system files. Therefore, if you did your normal work with root permissions, you
would increase the chance of the system being infected by a virus. In contrast, if you
follow the principle of using the lowest possible privileges as mentioned above, chances
of getting a virus are slim.
Apart from that, you should never rush into executing a program from some Internet
site that you do not really know. openSUSE's RPM packages carry a cryptographic
signature as a digital label that the necessary care was taken to build them. Viruses are
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a typical sign that the administrator or the user lacks the required security awareness,
putting at risk even a system that should be highly secure by its very design.
Viruses should not be confused with worms, which belong to the world of networks
entirely. Worms do not need a host to spread.
42.1.7 Network Security

Network security is important for protecting from an attack that is started outside. The
typical login procedure requiring a username and a password for user authentication is
still a local security issue. In the particular case of logging in over a network, differentiate between the two security aspects. What happens until the actual authentication is
network security and anything that happens afterwards is local security.
42.1.8 X Window System and X

Authentication
As mentioned at the beginning, network transparency is one of the central characteristics
of a UNIX system. X, the windowing system of UNIX operating systems, can make
use of this feature in an impressive way. With X, it is basically no problem to log in at
a remote host and start a graphical program that is then sent over the network to be
displayed on your computer.
When an X client should be displayed remotely using an X server, the latter should
protect the resource managed by it (the display) from unauthorized access. In more
concrete terms, certain permissions must be given to the client program. With the X
Window System, there are two ways to do this, called host-based access control and
cookie-based access control. The former relies on the IP address of the host where the
client should run. The program to control this is xhost. xhost enters the IP address of a
legitimate client into a tiny database belonging to the X server. However, relying on
IP addresses for authentication is not very secure. For example, if there were a second
user working on the host sending the client program, that user would have access to
the X server as welljust like someone stealing the IP address. Because of these
shortcomings, this authentication method is not described in more detail here, but you
can learn about it with man xhost.
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In the case of cookie-based access control, a character string is generated that is only
known to the X server and to the legitimate user, just like an ID card of some kind. This
cookie (the word goes back not to ordinary cookies, but to Chinese fortune cookies,
which contain an epigram) is stored on login in the file .Xauthority in the user's
home directory and is available to any X client wanting to use the X server to display
a window. The file .Xauthority can be examined by the user with the tool xauth.
If you were to rename .Xauthority or if you deleted the file from your home directory by accident, you would not be able to open any new windows or X clients.
SSH (secure shell) can be used to encrypt a network connection completely and forward
it to an X server transparently without the encryption mechanism being perceived by
the user. This is also called X forwarding. X forwarding is achieved by simulating an
X server on the server side and setting a DISPLAY variable for the shell on the remote
host. Further details about SSH can be found in Chapter 36, SSHSecure Network
Operations (page 589).
WARNING
If you do not consider the host where you log in to be a secure host, do not
use X forwarding. With X forwarding enabled, an attacker could authenticate
via your SSH connection to intrude on your X server and sniff your keyboard
input, for instance.
42.1.9 Buffer Overflows and Format String

Bugs
As discussed in Section 42.1.5, Buffer Overflows and Format String Bugs (page 665),
buffer overflows and format string bugs should be classified as issues concerning both
local and network security. As with the local variants of such bugs, buffer overflows
in network programs, when successfully exploited, are mostly used to obtain root
permissions. Even if that is not the case, an attacker could use the bug to gain access
to an unprivileged local account to exploit any other vulnerabilities that might exist on
the system.
Buffer overflows and format string bugs exploitable over a network link are certainly
the most frequent form of remote attacks in general. Exploits for theseprograms to
exploit these newly-found security holesare often posted on the security mailing lists.
They can be used to target the vulnerability without knowing the details of the code.
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Over the years, experience has shown that the availability of exploit codes has contributed to more secure operating systems, obviously due to the fact that operating system
makers were forced to fix the problems in their software. With free software, anyone
has access to the source code (openSUSE comes with all available source codes) and
anyone who finds a vulnerability and its exploit code can submit a patch to fix the
corresponding bug.
42.1.10 Denial of Service

The purpose of a denial of service (DoS) attack is to block a server program or even
an entire system, something that could be achieved by various means: overloading the
server, keeping it busy with garbage packets, or exploiting a remote buffer overflow.
Often a DoS attack is made with the sole purpose of making the service disappear.
However, once a given service has become unavailable, communications could become
vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks (sniffing, TCP connection hijacking, spoofing)
and DNS poisoning.
42.1.11 Man in the Middle: Sniffing,

Hijacking, Spoofing
In general, any remote attack performed by an attacker who puts himself between the
communicating hosts is called a man-in-the-middle attack. What almost all types of
man-in-the-middle attacks have in common is that the victim is usually not aware that
there is something happening. There are many possible variants, for example, the attacker
could pick up a connection request and forward that to the target machine. Now the
victim has unwittingly established a connection with the wrong host, because the other
end is posing as the legitimate destination machine.
The simplest form of a man-in-the-middle attack is called snifferthe attacker is just
listening to the network traffic passing by. As a more complex attack, the man in the
middle could try to take over an already established connection (hijacking). To do so,
the attacker would need to analyze the packets for some time to be able to predict the
TCP sequence numbers belonging to the connection. When the attacker finally seizes
the role of the target host, the victims notice this, because they get an error message
saying the connection was terminated due to a failure. The fact that there are protocols
not secured against hijacking through encryption, which only perform a simple authentication procedure upon establishing the connection, makes it easier for attackers.
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Spoofing is an attack where packets are modified to contain counterfeit source data,
usually the IP address. Most active forms of attack rely on sending out such fake
packetssomething that, on a Linux machine, can only be done by the superuser
(root).
Many of the attacks mentioned are carried out in combination with a DoS. If an attacker
sees an opportunity to bring down a certain host abruptly, even if only for a short time,
it makes it easier for him to push the active attack, because the host will not be able to
interfere with the attack for some time.
42.1.12 DNS Poisoning

DNS poisoning means that the attacker corrupts the cache of a DNS server by replying
to it with spoofed DNS reply packets, trying to get the server to send certain data to a
victim who is requesting information from that server. Many servers maintain a trust
relationship with other hosts, based on IP addresses or hostnames. The attacker needs
a good understanding of the actual structure of the trust relationships among hosts to
disguise itself as one of the trusted hosts. Usually, the attacker analyzes some packets
received from the server to get the necessary information. The attacker often needs to
target a well-timed DoS attack at the name server as well. Protect yourself by using
encrypted connections that are able to verify the identity of the hosts to which to connect.
42.1.13 Worms
Worms are often confused with viruses, but there is a clear difference between the two.
Unlike viruses, worms do not need to infect a host program to live. Instead, they are
specialized to spread as quickly as possible on network structures. The worms that appeared in the past, such as Ramen, Lion, or Adore, make use of well-known security
holes in server programs like bind8 or lprNG. Protection against worms is relatively
easy. Given that some time elapses between the discovery of a security hole and the
moment the worm hits your server, there is a good chance that an updated version of
the affected program is available on time. That is only useful if the administrator actually installs the security updates on the systems in question.
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42.2 Some General Security Tips and

Tricks
To handle security competently, it is important to keep up with new developments and
stay informed about the latest security issues. One very good way to protect your systems
against problems of all kinds is to get and install the updated packages recommended
by security announcements as quickly as possible. SUSE security announcements are
published on the list [email protected]. It is a
first-hand source of information regarding updated packages and includes members of
SUSE's security team among its active contributors. You can subscribe to this list on
page http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate#Mailing_Lists.
The mailing list [email protected] is a good place to discuss
any security issues of interest. Subscribe to it on the same Web page.
[email protected] is one of the best-known security mailing lists
worldwide. Reading this list, which receives between 15 and 20 postings per day, is
recommended. More information can be found at http://www.securityfocus
.com.
The following is a list of rules you may find useful in dealing with basic security concerns:
According to the rule of using the most restrictive set of permissions possible for
every job, avoid doing your regular jobs as root. This reduces the risk of getting
a cuckoo egg or a virus and protects you from your own mistakes.
If possible, always try to use encrypted connections to work on a remote machine.
Using ssh (secure shell) to replace telnet, ftp, rsh, and rlogin should be
standard practice.
Avoid using authentication methods based on IP addresses alone.
Try to keep the most important network-related packages up-to-date and subscribe
to the corresponding mailing lists to receive announcements on new versions of
such programs (bind, postfix, ssh, etc.). The same should apply to software relevant
to local security.
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Change the /etc/permissions file to optimize the permissions of files crucial

to your system's security. If you remove the setuid bit from a program, it might
well be that it cannot do its job anymore in the intended way. On the other hand,
consider that, in most cases, the program will also have ceased to be a potential
security risk. You might take a similar approach with world-writable directories
and files.
Disable any network services you do not absolutely require for your server to work
properly. This makes your system safer. Open ports, with the socket state LISTEN,
can be found with the program netstat. As for the options, it is recommended to
use netstat -ap or netstat -anp. The -p option allows you to see which
process is occupying a port under which name.
Compare the netstat results with those of a thorough port scan done from outside
your host. An excellent program for this job is nmap, which not only checks out
the ports of your machine, but also draws some conclusions as to which services
are waiting behind them. However, port scanning may be interpreted as an aggressive
act, so do not do this on a host without the explicit approval of the administrator.
Finally, remember that it is important not only to scan TCP ports, but also UDP
ports (options -sS and -sU).
To monitor the integrity of the files of your system in a reliable way, use the program
AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment), available on openSUSE. Encrypt the database created by AIDE to prevent someone from tampering with it.
Furthermore, keep a backup of this database available outside your machine, stored
on an external data medium not connected to it by a network link.
Take proper care when installing any third-party software. There have been cases
where a hacker had built a trojan horse into the tar archive of a security software
package, which was fortunately discovered very quickly. If you install a binary
package, have no doubts about the site from which you downloaded it.
SUSE's RPM packages are gpg-signed. The key used by SUSE for signing is:
ID:9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SUSE Package Signing Key <[email protected]>
Key fingerprint = 79C1 79B2 E1C8 20C1 890F 9994 A84E DAE8 9C80 0ACA
The command rpm --checksig package.rpm shows whether the checksum
and the signature of an uninstalled package are correct. Find the key on the first
CD of the distribution and on most key servers worldwide.
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Check your backups of user and system files regularly. Consider that if you do not
test whether the backup works, it might actually be worthless.
Check your log files. Whenever possible, write a small script to search for suspicious
entries. Admittedly, this is not exactly a trivial task. In the end, only you can know
which entries are unusual and which are not.
Use tcp_wrapper to restrict access to the individual services running on your
machine, so you have explicit control over which IP addresses can connect to a
service. For further information regarding tcp_wrapper, consult the manual
pages of tcpd and hosts_access (man 8 tcpd, man hosts_access).
Use SuSEfirewall to enhance the security provided by tcpd (tcp_wrapper).
Design your security measures to be redundant: a message seen twice is much
better than no message at all.
42.3 Using the Central Security

Reporting Address
If you discover a security-related problem (please check the available update packages
first), write an e-mail to [email protected]. Please include a detailed description
of the problem and the version number of the package concerned. SUSE will try to send
a reply as soon as possible. You are encouraged to pgp encrypt your e-mail messages.
SUSE's pgp key is:
ID:3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SUSE Security Team <[email protected]>
Key fingerprint = 73 5F 2E 99 DF DB 94 C4 8F 5A A3 AE AF 22 F2 D5
This key is also available for download from http://www.novell.com/linux/

security/securitysupport.html.
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An Example Network
This example network is used across all network-related chapters of the openSUSE
documentation.
GNU Licenses
This appendix contains the GNU General Public License and the GNU Free Documentation License.
GNU General Public License
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended
to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to
most of the Free Software Foundations software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation
software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom
to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change
the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions
translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must
make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute
and/or modify the software.
Also, for each authors protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the
software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced
by others will not reflect on the original authors reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyones
free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
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holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution
is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and any later
version, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
10.
If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask
for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions
for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing
and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT
PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER
PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE
ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE,
YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
12.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR
ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR
DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR
INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE
OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS),
EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software
which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion
of warranty; and each file should have at least the copyright line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
one line to give the programs name and an idea of what it does. Copyright (C) yyyy name of author
GNU Licenses
679
This program is
modify it under
as published by
of the License,
free software; you can redistribute it and/or

the terms of the GNU General Public License
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author

Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
type `show w. This is free software, and you are welcome
to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c
for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w and `show c should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use
may be called something other than `show w and `show c; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a copyright disclaimer for the program, if necessary.
Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright

interest in the program `Gnomovision
(which makes passes at compilers) written
by James Hacker.
signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989

Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General Public
License [http://www.fsf.org/licenses/lgpl.html] instead of this License.
GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone
the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves
for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of copyleft, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements
the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.
680
Reference
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should
come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any
textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose
is instruction or reference.
APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under
the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated
herein. The Document, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as you. You accept the
license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law.
A Modified Version of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications
and/or translated into another language.
A Secondary Section is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or
authors of the Document to the Documents overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject.
(Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter
of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.
The Invariant Sections are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the
Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant.
The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The Cover Texts are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document
is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.
A Transparent copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public,
that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for
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thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of
text. A copy that is not Transparent is called Opaque.
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML
using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent
image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors,
SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced
by some word processors for output purposes only.
The Title Page means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires
to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, Title Page means the text near the most prominent appearance
of the works title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
A section Entitled XYZ means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text
that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as Acknowledgements, Dedications,
Endorsements, or History.) To Preserve the Title of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a section Entitled
XYZ according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers
are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers
may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.
VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices,
and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to
those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute.
However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions
in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.
COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Documents
license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on
the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The
front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim
copying in other respects.
GNU Licenses
681
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover,
and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy
along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access
to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option,
you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus
accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of
that edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a
chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified
Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the
Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if
there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version
gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together
with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
C.
State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
D.
Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E.
Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this
License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
G.
Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Documents license notice.
H.
Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled History, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the
Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled History in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and
publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
J.
Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network
locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the History section. You may omit a network location
for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled Acknowledgements or Dedications, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance
and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered
part of the section titles.
M.
Delete any section Entitled Endorsements. Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
N.
Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled Endorsements or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
O.
Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the
Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the
Modified Versions license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled Endorsements, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example,
statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of
Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements
made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the
same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher
that added the old one.
682
Reference
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement
of any Modified Version.
COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions,
provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant
Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there
are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in
parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles
in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled History in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled History; likewise
combine any sections Entitled Acknowledgements, and any sections Entitled Dedications. You must delete all sections Entitled Endorsements.
COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License
in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying
of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License
into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution
medium, is called an aggregate if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilations users beyond
what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which
are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate,
the Documents Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the
Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant
Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections
in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document,
and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and
disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will
prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled Acknowledgements, Dedications, or History, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1)
will typically require changing the actual title.
TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy,
modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received
copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will
be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License or
any later version applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has
been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose
any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices
just after the title page:
Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME.
GNU Licenses
683
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document

under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
only as published by the Free Software Foundation;
with the Invariant Section being this copyright notice and license.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU
Free Documentation License.
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the with...Texts. line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software
license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.
684
Reference
Index
Symbols
64-bit Linux, 175
kernel specifications, 178
runtime support, 175
software development, 176
A
access permissions (see permissions)
ACLs, 251-262
access, 253, 256
check algorithm, 261
default, 254, 259
definitions, 253
effects, 259
handling, 254
masks, 258
permission bits, 255
structure, 254
support, 262
add-on medium
language support, 84
Apache, 481-520
CGI scripts, 507
configuring, 483
files, 483
manually, 483-490
virtual host, 486
YaST, 490-497
installing, 482
modules, 499-506
available, 500
building, 506
external, 504
installing, 500
multiprocessing, 503
quick start, 481
security, 515
SSL, 509-515
configure Apache with SSL, 514
creating an SSL certificate, 510
starting, 497
stopping, 497
troubleshooting, 517
authentication
PAM, 263-270
B
Bash
.bashrc, 216
.profile, 216
profile, 215
BIND, 361-372
Bluetooth, 553
hciconfig, 557
hcitool, 556
pand, 558
sdptool, 557
booting, 179
boot sectors, 195, 196
configuring
YaST, 205
graphic, 210
GRUB, 195, 196
initramfs, 181
initrd, 181
C
cards
graphics, 122
network, 315, 316
cat, 286
cd, 282
chgrp, 280, 283
chmod, 279, 283
chown, 280, 282
CJK, 223
clear, 291
commands, 280-291
cat, 286
cd, 282
chgrp, 280, 283
chmod, 279, 283
chown, 280, 282
clear, 291
cp, 281
date, 289
df, 288
diff, 287
du, 288
file, 286
find, 285
fonts-config, 124
free, 220, 288
getfacl, 257
grep, 286
grub, 196
gzip, 284
halt, 291
ifconfig, 343
ip, 340
kadmin, 627
kill, 289
killall, 289
kinit, 634
ktadd, 637
ldapadd, 436
ldapdelete, 439
ldapmodify, 437
ldapsearch, 438, 640
less, 286
ln, 282
locate, 285
lp, 104
ls, 281
man, 280
mkdir, 282
mount, 287
mv, 282
nslookup, 290
passwd, 291
ping, 290, 341
ps, 289
reboot, 291
rm, 282
rmdir, 282
route, 344
rpm, 85
rpmbuild, 85
scp, 590
setfacl, 257
sftp, 591
slptool, 350
smbpasswd, 479
ssh, 590
ssh-agent, 593
ssh-keygen, 592
su, 291
tar, 284
telnet, 290
top, 289
umount, 287
updatedb, 285
configuration files, 333
.bashrc, 216, 219
.emacs, 221
.profile, 216
.xsession, 593
acpi, 529
crontab, 216
csh.cshrc, 225
dhclient.conf, 387
dhcp, 334
dhcpd.conf, 388
fstab, 46, 287
group, 76
grub.conf, 203
host.conf, 336
HOSTNAME, 340
hosts, 315, 336
ifcfg-*, 333
inittab, 183, 185, 222
inputrc, 222
irda, 561
kernel, 181
krb5.conf, 631, 632, 634, 638
krb5.keytab, 637
language, 223, 225
logrotate.conf, 217
menu.lst, 198
named.conf, 362, 363-372
network, 334
networks, 336
nscd.conf, 339
nsswitch.conf, 337
openldap, 640
passwd, 76
permissions, 672
powersave, 529
profile, 215, 219, 225
resolv.conf, 220, 335, 362
routes, 334
samba, 473
services, 473
slapd.conf, 429, 641
smb.conf, 473, 479
smppd.conf, 346
smpppd-c.conf, 347
sshd_config, 594, 638
ssh_config, 639
suseconfig, 194
sysconfig, 192-194
termcap, 222
wireless, 334
xorg.conf, 117
Device, 121
Monitor, 122
Screen, 120
configuring, 192
cable modem, 329
DNS, 353
DSL, 329
FTP server, 521
GRUB, 196, 203
IPv6, 313
IrDA, 561
ISDN, 326
modems, 324
networks, 316
manually, 332-345
routing, 334
Samba, 471-477
clients, 477
SSH, 589
T-DSL, 331
consoles
assigning, 222
graphical, 210
switching, 222
core files, 219
cp, 281
cpuspeed, 537
cron, 216
D
date, 289
deltarpm, 89
df, 288
DHCP, 375-391
configuring with YaST, 376
dhcpd, 388-389
packages, 387
server, 388-389
static address assignment, 389
diff, 287
directories
/, 273
/bin, 273, 274
/boot, 273, 274
/dev, 273, 274
/etc, 273, 274
/home, 273, 274
/lib, 273, 275
/media, 273, 275
/mnt, 273, 275
/opt, 273, 275
/root, 273, 275
/sbin, 273, 275
/srv, 273, 275
/tmp, 274, 275
/usr, 274, 276
/var, 274, 276
/windows, 274, 277
changing, 282
creating, 282
deleting, 282
structure, 273
disks
boot, 209
DNS, 314
BIND, 361-372
configuring, 353
domains, 335
forwarding, 362
logging, 366
mail exchanger, 315
name servers, 335
NIC, 315
options, 364
reverse lookup, 371
security and, 670
starting, 362
terminology, 353
top level domain, 314
zones
files, 367
domain name system (see DNS)
DOS
sharing files, 469
drives
mounting, 287
unmounting, 287
du, 288
E
editors
Emacs, 221-222
vi, 291
Emacs, 221-222
.emacs, 221
default.el, 221
encoding
ISO-8859-1, 225
encrypting, 643-647
creating partitions, 645
files, 646-649
files with vi, 649
partitions, 644-646
removable media, 647
YaST, with, 644
error messages
bad interpreter, 46
permission denied, 46
F
file, 286
file systems, 241-250
ACLs, 251-262
changing, 44
cryptofs, 643
encrypting, 643
Ext2, 243-244
Ext3, 244-245
LFS, 248
limitations, 248
ReiserFS, 242-243
selecting, 242
supported, 247-248
terms, 241
XFS, 246
files
archiving, 284
comparing, 287
compressing, 284
copying, 281
deleting, 282
encrypting, 646
finding, 218
moving, 282
searching contents, 286
searching for, 285
viewing, 286
find, 285
Firefox
URL open command, 81
firewalls, 577
packet filters, 577, 581
SuSEfirewall2, 577, 582
fonts, 124
TrueType, 123
X11 core, 124
Xft, 125
free, 288
FTP server
configuring, 521
G
GNOME
shell, 272
graphics
cards
drivers, 122
grep, 286
GRUB, 195
boot menu, 198
boot password, 204
boot sectors, 196
booting, 196
commands, 196
device names, 199
device.map, 197, 202
GRUB Geom Error, 211
grub.conf, 197, 203
limitations, 196
Master Boot Record (MBR), 195
menu editor, 201
menu.lst, 197, 198
partition names, 199
uninstalling, 209
gzip, 284
H
halt, 291
hardware
ISDN, 326
hciconfig, 557
hcitool, 556
help
info pages, 220
man pages, 220, 280
Novell/SUSE manuals, xiv
X, 123
I
I18N, 223
info pages, 220
init, 183
adding scripts, 188
inittab, 183
scripts, 186-190
installing
GRUB, 196
packages, 86
internationalization, 223
Internet
cinternet, 347
dial-up, 345-347
DSL, 329
ISDN, 326
KInternet, 347
qinternet, 347
smpppd, 345-347
TDSL, 331
IP addresses, 302
classes, 303
dynamic assignment, 375
IPv6, 305
configuring, 313
masquerading, 580
private, 305
IrDA, 560-563
configuring, 561
starting, 561
stopping, 561
K
KDE
shell, 272
Kerberos, 613-619
administering, 621-642
authenticators, 614
clients
configuring, 631-633
clock skew, 633
clock synchronization, 625
configuring
clients, 631-633
credentials, 614
installing, 621-642
KDC, 624-625, 626-628
administering, 634
nsswitch.conf, 625
starting, 628
keytab, 637
LDAP and, 639-642
master key, 627
PAM support, 637-638
principals, 614
creating, 628
host, 636
service, 636
realms, 623
creating, 627
session key, 614
SSH configuration, 638
stash file, 627
ticket-granting service, 617
tickets, 614, 617
kernel
standard kernel, 84
kernels
caches, 220
limits, 249
keyboard
Asian characters, 223
layout, 222
mapping, 222
compose, 222
multikey, 222
X Keyboard Extension, 223
XKB, 223
kill, 289
killall, 289
L
L10N, 223
laptops
IrDA, 560-563
power management, 527-537
LDAP, 409-440
access control, 433
ACLs, 431
adding data, 435
administering groups, 426
administering users, 426
configuring
YaST, 414
deleting data, 439
directory tree, 411
Kerberos and, 639-642
ldapadd, 435
ldapdelete, 439
ldapmodify, 437
ldapsearch, 438
modifying data, 437
searching data, 438
server configuration
manual, 429
YaST, 414
YaST
client, 419
modules, 419
templates, 419
less, 286
LFS, 248
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(see LDAP)
Linux
networks and, 299
sharing files with another OS, 469
uninstalling, 209
ln, 282
localization, 223
locate, 218, 285
log files, 217
boot.msg, 529
messages, 362, 586
Logical Volume Manager (see LVM)

logrotate, 217
ls, 281
LSB
installing packages, 85
LVM
YaST, 49
M
man pages, 220, 280
masquerading, 580
configuring with SuSEfirewall2, 582
Master Boot Record (see MBR)
MBR, 195, 196
memory
RAM, 220
mkdir, 282
modems
cable, 329
YaST, 324
mount, 287
mv, 282
N
name servers (see DNS)
NAT (see masquerading)
NetBIOS, 469
Network File System (see NFS)
Network Information Service (see NIS)
networks, 299
authentication
Kerberos, 613-619
base network address, 304
broadcast address, 304
configuration files, 333-340
configuring, 315-331, 332-345
IPv6, 313
DHCP, 375
DNS, 314
localhost, 305
netmasks, 303
routing, 302, 303
SLP, 349
TCP/IP, 299
YaST, 316
alias, 319
gateway, 320
hostname, 319
IP address, 318
starting, 321
NFS, 455
clients, 456
exporting, 463
importing, 457
mounting, 457
servers, 459
NIS, 401-408
clients, 407
masters, 401-407
slaves, 401-407
Novell/SUSE manuals, xiv
nslookup, 290
NSS, 337
databases, 338
O
OpenLDAP (see LDAP)
OpenSSH (see SSH)
OS/2
sharing files, 469
P
packages
compiling, 93
compiling with build, 95
installing, 86
LSB, 85
package manager, 85
RPMs, 85
uninstalling, 86
verifying, 86
packet filters (see firewalls)
PAM, 263-270
pand, 558
partitions
creating, 41, 43
encrypting, 645
fstab, 46
LVM, 44
parameters, 44
partition table, 195
RAID, 44
reformatting, 44
swap, 44
types, 42
passwd, 291
passwords
changing, 291
PCMCIA
IrDA, 560-563
permissions, 277
ACLs, 251-262
changing, 279, 283
directories, 278
file permissions, 218
file systems, 277
files, 277
viewing, 279
ping, 290, 341
Pluggable Authentication Modules (see
PAM)
ports
53, 364
PostgreSQL
updating, 76
power management, 527-542
ACPI, 527, 528-535
battery monitor, 528
cpufrequency, 537
cpuspeed, 537
hibernation, 528
powersave, 537
standby, 527
suspend, 527
powersave, 537
configuring, 537
printing, 97
command line, 104
CUPS, 103
GDI printers, 108
IrDA, 561
kprinter, 103
network, 110
Samba, 470
troubleshooting
network, 110
xpp, 103
private branch exchange, 328
processes, 289
killing, 289
overview, 289
protocols
CIFS, 469
IPv6, 305
LDAP, 409
SLP, 349
SMB, 469
ps, 289
R
RAID
YaST, 55
reboot, 291
RFCs, 299
rm, 282
rmdir, 282
routing, 302, 334
masquerading, 580
netmasks, 303
routes, 334
static, 334
RPM, 85-96
database
rebuilding, 87, 93
deltarpm, 89
dependencies, 86
patches, 87
queries, 90
rpmnew, 86
rpmorig, 86
rpmsave, 86
security, 672
SRPMS, 93
tools, 96
uninstalling, 87
updating, 86
verify, 92
verifying, 86
rpmbuild, 85
runlevels, 183-186
changing, 185-186
editing in YaST, 190
S
Samba, 469-480
CIFS, 469
clients, 470, 477-478
installing, 471
login, 478
names, 469
permissions, 477
printers, 470
printing, 478
security, 477
server, 470
servers, 471-477
shares, 470, 475
SMB, 469
starting, 471
stopping, 471
swat, 473
TCP/IP and, 469
screen
resolution, 121
scripts
init.d, 183, 186-190, 344
boot, 187
boot.local, 188
boot.setup, 188
halt, 188
network, 344
nfsserver, 345
portmap, 345
postfix, 345
rc, 185, 186, 188
xinetd, 345
ypbind, 345
ypserv, 345
irda, 561
mkinitrd, 181
modify_resolvconf, 220, 335
SuSEconfig, 192-194
disabling, 194
sdptool, 557
security, 661-673
attacks, 669-670
booting, 662, 664
bugs and, 665, 668
DNS, 670
engineering, 662
firewalls, 577
local, 663-667
network, 667-670
passwords, 663-664
permissions, 664-665
reporting problems, 673

RPM signatures, 672
Samba, 477
serial terminals, 662, 663
SSH, 589-595
tcpd, 673
telnet, 589
tips and tricks, 671
viruses, 666
worms, 670
X and, 667
Service Location Protocol (see SLP)
shells, 271-295
Bash, 271
commands, 280-291
SLP, 349
Konqueror, 350
providing services, 351
registering services, 351
slptool, 350
SMB (see Samba)
smbd, 469
soft RAID (see RAID)
software
compiling, 93
source
compiling, 93
spm, 93
SSH, 589-595
authentication mechanisms, 592
daemon, 591
key pairs, 591, 593
scp, 590
sftp, 591
ssh, 590
ssh-agent, 593, 594
ssh-keygen, 593
sshd, 591
X and, 593
su, 291
system
limiting resource use, 219
localizing, 223
rebooting, 291
shutdown, 291
updating, 75-78
T
Tablet PCs, 565-573
configuring, 567
Dasher, 570
installing, 566
Jarnal, 569
KRandRTray, 568
Xournal, 569
xstroke, 568
xvkbd, 567
tar, 284
TCP/IP, 299
ICMP, 300
IGMP, 300
layer model, 300
packets, 301, 302
TCP, 300
UDP, 300
TEI XSL stylesheets
new location, 80
telnet, 290
top, 289
U
ulimit, 219
options, 219
umount, 287
uninstalling
GRUB, 209
Linux, 209
updatedb, 285
updating, 75-78
online, 63
command line, 66
passwd and group, 76
problems, 76
YaST, 76
users
/etc/passwd, 266
V
variables
environment, 223
virtual memory, 44
W
whois, 315
wild cards, 285
Windows
sharing files, 469
wireless connections
Bluetooth, 553
X
X
character sets, 123
drivers, 122
font systems, 124
fonts, 123
help, 123
SaX2, 118
security, 667
SSH and, 593
TrueType fonts, 123
virtual screen, 121
X11 core fonts, 124
xft, 123
Xft, 125
xorg.config, 118
X Keyboard Extension (see keyboard,

XKB)
X Window System (see X)
X.509 certification
certificates, 599
principles, 597
repository, 601
revocation list, 600
YaST, 597
X.Org, 117
Xft, 125
XKB (see keyboard, XKB)
xorg.conf
color depth, 120
Depth, 120
Device, 121
Display, 120
Files, 118
InputDevice, 118
Modeline, 121
modelines, 119
Modes, 119, 121
modules, 118
Monitor, 119, 120
ServerFlags, 118
Y
YaST
boot configuration, 205
default system, 208
security, 208
time-out, 208
boot loader
location, 207
password, 208
type, 206
CA management, 602
cable modem, 329
command line, 72
DHCP, 376
DSL, 329
GRUB, 206
ISDN, 326
LDAP
clients, 419
servers, 414
LILO, 206
LVM, 49
modems, 324
ncurses, 69
network card, 316
NIS clients, 407
online update, 63-65
partitioning, 41
RAID, 55
runlevels, 190
Samba
clients, 477
sysconfig editor, 192
T-DSL, 331
text mode, 69-73
modules, 72
updating, 76
X.509 certification, 597
certificates, 605
changing default values, 607
creating CRLs, 609
exporting CA objects as a file, 611
exporting CA objects to LDAP, 609
importing general server certificates,
611
root CA, 602
sub-CA, 604
YP (see NIS)
Z
zypper, 66-68

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About This Guide

Part I Advanced Deployment Scenarios

Installation Scenarios for Remote Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 Advanced Disk Setup

Using the YaST Partitioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

YaST Online Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 YaST in Text Mode

YaST Command Line Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 Updating the System and System Changes

Updating the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 RPMthe Package Manager

Verifying Package Authenticity . . . . . . . .

The Workflow of the Printing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Manually Configuring the X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 0 System Monitoring Utilities

8 The X Window System

Files and File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Part III System

1 1 32-Bit and 64-Bit Applications in a 64-Bit System Environment

1 2 Booting and Configuring a Linux System

The Linux Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 3 The Boot Loader

Selecting a Boot Loader . . . . . . .

1 4 Special System Features

Information about Special Software Packages

1 5 Dynamic Kernel Device Management with udev

The /dev Directory . . . . . . . . . . .

1 6 File Systems in Linux

1 7 Access Control Lists in Linux

Traditional File Permissions

Structure of a PAM Configuration File .

Using the Bash Shell . . . .

1 9 Working with the Shell

1 8 Authentication with PAM

IP Addresses and Routing . . . . . . . . .

2 1 SLP Services in the Network

2 2 The Domain Name System

Configuring a DHCP Server with

2 4 Time Synchronization with NTP

Configuring an NTP Client with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Configuring NIS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 6 LDAPA Directory Service

LDAP versus NIS . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 7 Active Directory Support

Integrating Linux and AD Environments . . .

NFS Client Configuration . . .

2 8 Sharing File Systems with NFS

3 0 The Apache HTTP Server

3 1 Setting up a FTP server with YaST

Starting the FTP server . .

Power Saving Functions

3 4 Using Tablet PCs

Installing Tablet PC Packages . . . . . .

For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 5 Masquerading and Firewalls

Packet Filtering with iptables .

3 6 SSHSecure Network Operations

The OpenSSH Package . . . . . . . . . .

3 7 Managing X.509 Certification

The Principles of Digital Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 9 Installing and Administering Kerberos

Kerberos Network Topology . . . . . . . .

Creating Kerberos Service Principals . . . .