Yast2 on Michael’s Domain

Changing the host name with Yast2 (overriding the DCHP server)

Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I couldn’t figure out how to change the host name. The host name is e.g. displayed by default (Suse 9) in the command prompt and used by several applications. If you move your computer between different networks, this name changes as the default (Suse 9) is, that the host name is assigned by the DHCP server. But you can override these setting using Yast2: Control Center -> Yast2 modules -> Networ Devices -> Network Card -> authenticate! -> Edit already configured network cards -> Host name & Name server -> Uncheck the box “Change hostname via DHCP” and write the desired host name into the box. I presume you have to reboot for the settings to take effect. However, this doesn’t change e.g. the name of your computer that is visible on the windows network. To change this, you have to add an entry to /etc/samba/smb.conf like this: netbios name = “michael-laptop” (Is this correct?: The "" is necessary, otherwise you will only see the first part of the name (that is: michael).) This will change your name as it appears e.g. when you browse the network from a Windows NT computer. However, the samba implementation of MacOS 10.2 will still continue to display some generic name (in my case the name the DHCP server wants to give me: mcblmj-2).

Formating an mounting an external firewire reiserfs disk

Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t know how to format an unformatted drive under Linux. I attached a firewire case with an old 12 GB Macintosh-formatted HD to my computer. In order to format it with reiserfs, I used Yast2. I had to go to expert mode and rewrite the partition table. By this action Yast2 puts an entry into the fstab, that I modified to:/dev/sda1 /media/firewire reiserfs noauto,user 0 0since I don’t want to have it connected every time I boot up. Instead I can now mount it as a regular user manually with:mount /media/tmp/To make the drive writable to normal users (or to whomever you want to grant access) you need to change the ownership and/or permissions of the mountpoint:chmod -R a+rwx /media/firewire

Using multiple mouses/trackpads simultaneously (Suse Linux 9 Yast2/SaX)

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I have a laptop and used Yast2 to configure an external USB mouse. However, the trackpad became inactive. When I now restart without USB mouse I am in trouble. I used for the configuration: Control Center -> Yast2 modules -> Hardware -> Select mouse model If you want to operate both external mouse and trackpad, you need to dig deeper: Control Center -> Yast2 modules -> Hardware -> Graphics Card and Monitor -> Graphical Desktop Environment -> Change -> Component: Input Devices Here you have the possibility to add an indefinte amount of mouses. You should probably test whether you new settings work (with the test button) before you restart. The settings become only active after a restart. Meaning if you want to deactivate your trackpad (because it disturbs you) you need again a restart…

Configuring and starting Apache2 via Yast2

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yast is of of course as unfriendly when it comes to error messages as any other Linux program. I tried to start up Apache2 using Yast2 and there were only 3 fields in the configuration wizard to fill in: server name, administrator e-mail and listening port. I filled in as server name “Suse Linux”. When Yast2 wanted to do the configuration, the error message was: Error: cannot adjust apache2 service Cool. Had I started apache manually (sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start), I had noticed the following line among the error messages: Starting httpd2 (prefork) Syntax error on line 11 of /etc/apache2/sysconfig.d/global.conf: ServerName takes one argument, The hostname and port of the server Obviously “Suse Linux” was taken as two arguments. So I went back to the graphical interface and changed the value to “Suse_Linux” and this time it worked.

Wheel Mouse trouble with Suse Linux 9.2 (SaX2, xorg.conf, explorerps/2, ZAxisMapping)

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I wanted to activate the wheen of my USB mouse, but everytime I went to Yast2 > Hardware > Mouse the X server crashed and threw me into a text console. Also using SaX2 didn’t work (there is a button under Input devices > Properties > Activate mouse wheel). Funnily the wheel usind to work in 9.1. Finally I modified /etc/X11/xorg.conf: diff xorg.conf xorg.old Option "Name" "USB-Mouse;PS/2 on USB" > Option "Protocol" "PS/2" The important line Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" was already present. If isn’t you need to add it to activate the wheel.

Yast hangs during printer installation (Suse Linux 9.1 and 9.2)

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Using Suse Linux 9.1 and 9.2, I had for a long time problems with installing additional printers using Yast2. Since I had free installation support for 9.1 I contacted Suse, but to no avail. Printer installation is not covered by the free installation support. The advice they gave me was trivial and did not work (uninstall CUPS and reinstall it again). Additionally most of the installed printers were stopped (a red cross over the printer icons under Start Menu > Utilities > Printing > Printing Manager) and could not be started again. Now I realized that this condition is network-specific. In my home-network everything works fine, but at work Yast2 > Hardware > Printer hangs during “load current settings”. I only managed to get passed this stage when I restarted with the network unplugged. Then I can install/uninstall printers (but of course I cannot test them during installation), but after another reboot I can print again as usual.