After having selected the installation medium, determine the suitable installation method and boot option that best matches your needs:

The way the system is started for the installation depends on the architecture—system start-up is different for PC (x86_64) or mainframe, for example. If you install SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop as a VM Guest on a KVM or Xen hypervisor, follow the instructions for the x86_64 architecture.

3.2.1 PC (x86_64): System Start-up #

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop supports several different boot options from which you can choose, depending on the hardware available and on the installation scenario you prefer. Booting from the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop media is the most straightforward option, but special requirements might call for special setups:

Table 3.1: Boot Options #

Boot Option	Description
DVD	This is the easiest boot option. This option can be used if the system has a local DVD-ROM drive that is supported by Linux.
USB Mass Storage Device	In case your machine is not equipped with an optical drive, you can boot the installation image from a USB mass storage device such as a flash disk. To create a bootable USB storage device, you need to copy either the DVD or the Mini CD iso image to the device using the dd command (the USB device must not be mounted, all data on the device will be erased): dd if=PATH_TO_ISO_IMAGE of=USB_STORAGE_DEVICE bs=4M Important: Compatibility Note that booting from a USB Mass Storage Device is not supported on UEFI machines (this includes the complete ia64 architecture) and on the ppc64 architecture.
PXE or BOOTP	Booting over the network must be supported by the system's BIOS or firmware, and a boot server must be available in the network. This task can also be handled by another SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop system. Refer to Chapter 11, Remote Installation for more information.
Hard Disk	SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installation can also be booted from the hard disk. To do this, copy the kernel (linux) and the installation system (initrd) from the directory /boot/architecture/ on the installation media to the hard disk and add an appropriate entry to the existing boot loader of a previous SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installation.

Tip: Booting from DVD on UEFI machines

DVD1 can be used as a boot medium for machines equipped with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Refer to your vendor's documentation for specific information. If booting fails, try to enable CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in your firmware.

Note: Add-on Product Installation Media

Media for add-on products (extensions or third-party products) cannot be used as stand-alone installation media. They can either be embedded as additional installation sources during the installation process (see Section 3.7, “Extension Selection”) or be installed from the running system using the YaST Add-on Products module (see Chapter 7, Installing Add-On Products for details).

3.2.1.1 The Boot Screen on Machines Equipped with Traditional BIOS #

The boot screen displays a number of options for the installation procedure. Boot from Hard Disk boots the installed system and is selected by default, because the CD is often left in the drive. Select one of the other options with the arrow keys and press Enter to boot it. The relevant options are:

Installation

The normal installation mode. All modern hardware functions are enabled. In case the installation fails, see F5Kernel for boot options that disable potentially problematic functions.

Upgrade

Perform a system upgrade. For more information refer to Chapter 4, Updating SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Rescue System

Starts a minimal Linux system without a graphical user interface. For more information, see Section “Using the Rescue System”, Chapter 30, Common Problems and Their Solutions, Administration Guide. This option is not available on LiveCDs.

Check Installation Media

This option is only available when you install from media created from downloaded ISOs. In this case it is recommended to check the integrity of the installation medium. This option starts the installation system before automatically checking the media. In case the check was successful, the normal installation routine starts. If a corrupt media is detected, the installation routine aborts.

Warning: Failure of Media Check

If the media check fails, your medium is damaged. Do not continue the installation because installation may fail or you may lose your data. Replace the broken medium and restart the installation process.

Firmware Test

Starts a BIOS checker that validates ACPI and other parts of your BIOS. This option is not available on the LiveCDs.

Memory Test

Tests your system RAM using repeated read and write cycles. Terminate the test by rebooting. For more information, see Section “Fails to Boot”, Chapter 30, Common Problems and Their Solutions, Administration Guide. This option is not available on the LiveCDs.

Figure 3.1: The Boot Screen on Machines with a Traditional BIOS #

Use the function keys indicated in the bar at the bottom of the screen to change the language, screen resolution, installation source or to add an additional driver from your hardware vendor:

F1Help

Get context-sensitive help for the active element of the boot screen. Use the arrow keys to navigate, Enter to follow a link, and Esc to leave the help screen.

F2Language

Select the display language and a corresponding keyboard layout for the installation. The default language is English (US).

F3Video Mode

Select various graphical display modes for the installation. By Default the video resolution is automatically determined using KMS (Kernel Mode Settings). If this setting does not work on your system, choose No KMS and, optionally, specify vga=ask on the boot command line to get prompted for the video resolution. Choose Text Mode if the graphical installation causes problems.

F4Source

Normally, the installation is performed from the inserted installation medium. Here, select other sources, like FTP or NFS servers. If the installation is deployed on a network with an SLP server, select an installation source available on the server with this option. Find information about setting up an installation server with SLP at Section 11.2, “Setting Up the Server Holding the Installation Sources”.

F5Kernel

If you encounter problems with the regular installation, this menu offers to disable a few potentially problematic functions. If your hardware does not support ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface) select No ACPI to install without ACPI support. No local APIC disables support for APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers) which may cause problems with some hardware. Safe Settings boots the system with the DMA mode (for CD/DVD-ROM drives) and power management functions disabled.

If you are not sure, try the following options first: Installation—ACPI Disabled or Installation—Safe Settings. Experts can also use the command line (Boot Options) to enter or change kernel parameters.

F6Driver

Press this key to notify the system that you have an optional driver update for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. With File or URL, load drivers directly before the installation starts. If you select Yes, you are prompted to insert the update disk at the appropriate point in the installation process.

Tip: Getting Driver Update Disks

Driver updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise are provided at http://drivers.suse.com/. These drivers have been created via the SUSE SolidDriver Program.

3.2.1.2 The Boot Screen on Machines Equipped with UEFI #

UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a new industry standard which replaces and extends the traditional BIOS. The latest UEFI implementations contain the “Secure Boot” extension, which prevents booting malicious code by only allowing signed boot loaders to be executed. See Chapter 14, UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), Administration Guide for more information.

The boot manager GRUB 2, used to boot machines with a traditional BIOS, does not support UEFI, therefore GRUB 2 is replaced with ELILO. If Secure Boot is enabled, a GRUB 2 UEFI module is used via an ELILO compatibility layer. From an administrative and user perspective, both boot manager implementations behave the same and are referred to as ELILO in the following.

Tip: UEFI and Secure Boot are Supported by Default

The installation routine of SUSE Linux Enterprise automatically detects if the machine is equipped with UEFI. All installation sources also support Secure Boot. If an EFI system partition already exists on dual boot machines (from a Microsoft Windows 8 installation, for example), it will automatically be detected and used. Partition tables will be written as GPT on UEFI systems.

The boot screen displays a number of options for the installation procedure. Change the selected option with the arrow keys and press Enter to boot it. The relevant options are:

Installation

The normal installation mode.

Upgrade

Perform a system upgrade. For more information refer to Chapter 4, Updating SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Rescue System

Starts a minimal Linux system without a graphical user interface. For more information, see Section “Using the Rescue System”, Chapter 30, Common Problems and Their Solutions, Administration Guide. This option is not available on LiveCDs.

Check Installation Media

This option is only available when you install from media created from downloaded ISOs. In this case it is recommended to check the integrity of the installation medium. This option starts the installation system before automatically checking the media. In case the check was successful, the normal installation routine starts. If a corrupt media is detected, the installation routine aborts.

Figure 3.2: The Boot Screen on Machines with UEFI #

ELILO on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop does not support a boot prompt or function keys for adding boot parameters. By default, the installation will be started with American English and the boot media as the installation source. A DHCP lookup will be performed to configure the network. In order to change these defaults or to add additional boot parameters you need to edit the respective boot entry. Highlight it using the arrow keys and press E. See the on-screen help for editing hints (note that only an English keyboard is available at this time). The Installation entry will look similar to the following:

setparams 'Installation'

    set gfxpayload=keep
    echo 'Loading kernel ...'
    linuxefi /boot/x86_64/loader/linux install=
    echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrdefi /boot/x86_64/loader/initrd

Add space-separated parameters to the end of the line starting with linuxefi. To boot the edited entry, press F10. If you access the machine via serial console, press Esc–0. A complete list of parameters is available at http://en.opensuse.org/Linuxrc. The most important ones are:

Table 3.2: Installation Sources #

CD/DVD (default)	install=cd:/
Hard disk	install=hd:/?device=sda/PATH_TO_ISO
SLP	install=slp:/
FTP	install=ftp://ftp.example.com/PATH_TO_ISO
HTTP	install=http://www.example.com/PATH_TO_ISO
NFS	install=nfs:/PATH_TO_ISO
SMB / CIFS	install=smb://PATH_TO_ISO

Table 3.3: Network Configuration #

DHCP (default)	netsetup=dhcp
Prompt for Parameters	netsetup=hostip,netmask,gateway,name server
Host IP address	hostip=192.168.2.100 hostip=192.168.2.100/24
Netmask	netmask=255.255.255.0
Gateway	gateway=192.168.5.1
Name Server	Nameserver=192.168.1.116 Nameserver=192.168.1.116,192.168.1.118
Domain Search Path	domain=example.com

Table 3.4: Miscellaneous #

Driver Updates: Prompt	dud=1
Driver Updates: URL	dud=ftp://ftp.example.com/PATH_TO_DRIVER dud=http://www.example.com/PATH_TO_DRIVER
Installation Language	Language=LANGUAGE Supported values for LANGUAGE are, among others, cs_CZ, de_DE, es_ES, fr_FR, ja_JP, pt_BR, pt_PT, ru_RU, zh_CN, and zh_TW.
Kernel: No ACPI	acpi=off
Kernel: No Local APIC	noapic
Video: Disable KMS	nomodeset
Video: Start Installer in Text Mode	Textmode=1

3.2.2 Boot Parameters for Advanced Setups #

In case you want to configure access to a local SMT or supportconfig server for the installation, you can specify boot parameters that will be parsed by the installation routine to set up these services. The same is also true if you need IPv6 support during the installation.

3.2.2.1 Providing Data to Access an SMT Server #

By default, updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop are delivered by the SUSE Customer Center. If your network provides a so called SMT server to provide a local update source, you need to equip the client with the server's URL. Client and server communicate solely via HTTPS protocol, therefore you also need to enter a path to the server's certificate if the certificate was not issued by a certificate authority.

Note: Non-Interactive Installation only

Providing parameters for accessing an SMT server is only needed for non-interactive installations. During an interactive installation the data can be provided during the installation (see Section 3.6, “SUSE Customer Center Registration” for details).

regurl

URL of the SMT server. This URL has a fixed format https://FQN/center/regsvc/. FQN needs to be a fully qualified host name of the SMT server. Example:

regurl=https://smt.example.com/center/regsvc/

regcert

Location of the SMT server's certificate. Specify one of the following locations:

URL

Remote location (HTTP, HTTPS or FTP) from which the certificate can be downloaded. Example:

regcert=http://smt.example.com/smt-ca.crt

local path

Absolute path to the certificate on the local machine. Example:

regcert=/data/inst/smt/smt-ca.cert

Interactive

Use ask to open a pop-up menu during the installation where you can specify the path to the certificate. Do not use this option with AutoYaST. Example

regcert=ask

Deactivate certificate installation

Use done if either the certificate will be installed by an add-on product, or if you are using a certificate issued by an official certificate authority. Example:

regcert=done

Warning: Beware of Typing Errors

Make sure the values you enter are correct. If regurl has not been specified correctly, the registration of the update source will fail. If a wrong value for regcert has been entered, you will be prompted for a local path to the certificate.

In case regcert is not specified, it will default to http://FQN/smt.crt with FQN being the name of the SMT server.

3.2.2.2 Configuring an Alternative Data Server for supportconfig #

The data that supportconfig (see Chapter 2, Gathering System Information for Support, Administration Guide for more information) gathers is sent to the SUSE Customer Center by default. It is also possible to set up a local server to collect this data. If such a server is available on your network, you need to set the server's URL on the client. This information needs to be entered at the boot prompt.

supporturl

URL of the server. The URL has the format http://FQN/Path/, FQN needs to be the full qualified host name of the server, Path needs to be replaced with the location on the server. Example:

supporturl=http://support.example.com/supportconfig/data/

3.2.2.3 Using IPv6 during the Installation #

By default you can only assign IPv4 network addresses to your machine. To enable IPv6 during installation, enter one of the following parameters at the bootprompt:

• ipv6=1 (accept IPv4 and IPv6)

• ipv6only=1 (accept IPv6 only).

3.2.2.4 Disabling the Import of SSH Host Keys and Users from a Previous Installation #

If installing on a machine hosting a previous Linux installation, the SSH host keys from that installation will automatically be imported into the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop setup by default. It is also possible to import users from that installation in the Create New User dialog.

To disable these features, specify the ignore_features parameter at the bootprompt. Adding the (optional) ptoptions parameter ensures that the ignore_features parameter is only used for the installation and not appended to the Kernel command line in the installed system:

• ignore_features=import_ssh_keys ptoptions=ignore_features (do not import SSH host keys)

• ignore_features=import_users ptoptions=ignore_features (disable user import dialog)

• ignore_features=import_ssh_keys,import_users ptoptions=ignore_features (disable user import dialog)

The interactive installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop split into several steps is listed below. For a description of how to perform non-interactive, automated installations, refer to Part III, “Automated Installations”.

After starting the installation, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop loads and configures a minimal Linux system to run the installation procedure. To view the boot messages and copyright notices during this process, press Esc. On completion of this process, the YaST installation program starts and displays the graphical installer.

Tip: Installation without a Mouse

If the installer does not detect your mouse correctly, use →| for navigation, arrow keys to scroll, and Enter to confirm a selection. Various buttons or selection fields contain a letter with an underscore. Use Alt–Letter to select a button or a selection directly instead of navigating there with →|.

Start the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop by choosing your language. Changing the language will automatically preselect a corresponding keyboard layout. Override this proposal by selecting a different keyboard layout from the drop-down box. The language selected here is also used to assume a time zone for the system clock. This setting can be modified later in the installed system as described in Chapter 10, Changing Language and Country Settings with YaST.

Read the license agreement that is displayed beneath the language and keyboard selection thoroughly. Use License Translations to access translations. If you agree to the terms, check I Agree to the License Terms and click Next to proceed with the installation. If you do not agree to the license agreement, you cannot install SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop; click Abort to terminate the installation.

Figure 3.3: Language, Keyboard and License Agreement #

After booting into the installation, the installation routine is set up. During this setup, an attempt to configure at least one network interface with DHCP is made. In case this attempt fails, the Network Settings dialog launches. Choose a network interface from the list and click Edit to change its settings. Use the tabs to configure DNS and routing. See Section “Configuring a Network Connection with YaST”, Chapter 20, Basic Networking, Administration Guide for more details. step.

In case DHCP was successfully configured during installation setup, you can also access this dialog by clicking Network Configuration at the SUSE Customer Center Registration step. It lets you change the automatically provided settings.

Figure 3.4: Network Settings #

To get technical support and product updates, you need to register and activate your product with the SUSE Customer Center. Registering SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop at this stage of the installation grants you immediate access to the update repository. This enables you to install the system with the latest updates and patches available. If you are offline or want to skip this step, select Skip Registration. You can register your system at any time later from the installed system.

Note: Network Configuration

After booting into the installation, the installation routine is set up. During this setup, an attempt to configure all network interfaces with DHCP is made. In case DHCP is not available or if you want to modify the network configuration, click Network Configuration in the upper right corner of the SUSE Customer Center Registration screen. The YaST module Network Settings opens. See Section “Configuring a Network Connection with YaST”, Chapter 20, Basic Networking, Administration Guide for details.

Figure 3.5: SUSE Customer Center Registration #

To register your system, provide the E-mail address associated with the SUSE account you or your organization uses to manage subscriptions. In case you do not have a SUSE account yet, go to the SUSE Customer Center home page (https://scc.suse.com/ to create one. Also enter the registration code you received with your copy of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

Proceed with Next to start the registration process. If one or more local registration servers are available on your network, you will be able to choose one of them from a list—by default SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is registered at the SUSE Customer Center. If your local registration server was not discovered automatically, choose Cancel, select Local Registration Server and enter the URl of the server. Restart the registration by choosing Next again.

During the registration the online update channels will be added to your installation setup. When finished, you can choose whether to install the latest available package versions from the update channels. This ensures that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is installed with the latest security updates available. If you choose No, all packages will be installed from the installation media. Proceed with Next.

If you have successfully registered your system in the previous step, a list of available add-on products and extensions based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is shown. Otherwise this configuration step is skipped. It is also possible to configure add-on products from the installed system, see Chapter 7, Installing Add-On Products for details.

The list contains free extensions for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, such as the SUSE Linux Enterprise SDK and add-on products requiring a registration key that is liable to costs. Click an entry to see its description. Select an add-on or extension for installation by activating its check mark. This will add its repository from the SUSE Customer Center server to your installation—no additional installation sources are required. Furthermore the installation pattern for the add-on product or extension is added to the default installation to ensure it gets installed automatically.

The amount of available extensions and modules depends on the registration server. A local registration server may only offer update repositories and no additional extensions at all.

Tip: Modules

Modules are fully supported parts of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop with a different life cycle. They have a clearly defined scope and are delivered via online channel only. Registering at the SUSE Customer Center is a prerequisite for being able to subscribe to these channels.

Tip: SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

As of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is not only available as a separate product, but also as a workstation extension for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. If you register at the SUSE Customer Center, the SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension can be selected for installation. Note that installing it requires a valid registration key.

Figure 3.6: Extension Selection #

Proceed with Next to the Add-on Product dialog, where you can specify sources for additional add-on products not available on the registration server.

If you do not want to install add-ons, proceed with Next. Otherwise activate I would like to install an additional Add-on Product. Specify the Media Type by choosing from CD, DVD, Hard Disk, USB Mass Storage, a Local Directory or a Local ISO Image. In case network access has been configured you can choose from additional remote sources such as HTTP, SLP, FTP, etc. Alternatively you may directly specify a URL. Check Download Repository Description Files to download the files describing the repository now. If deactivated, they will be downloaded after the installation starts. Proceed with Next and insert a CD or DVD if required.

Depending on the add-on's content it may be necessary to accept additional license agreements. If you have chosen an add-on product requiring a registration key, you will be asked to enter it at the Extension and Module Registration Codes page. Proceed with Next.

Figure 3.7: Add-on Product #

Tip: “No Registration Key” Error

In case you have chosen a product in the Extension Selection dialog for which you do not have a valid registration key, choose Back until you see the Extension Selection dialog. Deselect the add-on and proceed with Next. Add-on products can also be installed at any time later from the running system as described in Chapter 7, Installing Add-On Products.

Define a partition setup for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop in this step. The installer creates a proposal for one of the available disks containing a root partition formatted with Btrfs (with snapshots enabled), a swap partition, and a home partition formatted with XFS. On hard disks smaller than 25 GB the proposal does not include a separate home partition. If one or more swap partitions have been detected on the available hard disks, these existing ones will be used (rather than proposing a new swap partition). You have several options to proceed:

Note: Supported Software RAID Volumes

Installing to and booting from existing software RAID volumes is supported for Disk Data Format (DDF) volumes and Intel Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM) volumes. IMSM is also known by the following names:

• Intel Rapid Storage Technology

• Intel Matrix Storage Technology

• Intel Application Accelerator / Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition

Important: Handling of Windows Partitions in Proposals

In case the disk selected for the suggested partitioning proposal contains a large Windows FAT or NTFS partition, it will automatically be resized to make room for the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installation. To avoid data loss it is strongly recommended to

• make sure the partition is not fragmented (run a defragmentation program from Windows prior to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installation)

• double-check the suggested size for the Windows partition is big enough

• back up your data prior to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installation

To adjust the proposed size of the Windows partition, use the Expert Partitioner.

Figure 3.8: Partitioning #

In this dialog, select your region and time zone. Both are pre-selected according to the installation language. To change the preselected values, either use the map or the drop-down boxes for Region and Time Zone. When using the map, point the cursor at the rough direction of your region and left-click to zoom. Now choose your country or region by left-clicking. Right-click to return to the world map.

To set up the clock, choose whether the Hardware Clock is Set to UTC. If you run another operating system on your machine, such as Microsoft Windows, it is likely your system uses local time instead. If you only run Linux on your machine, set the hardware clock to UTC and have the switch from standard time to daylight saving time performed automatically.

Important: Set the Hardware Clock to UTC

The switch from standard time to daylight saving time (and vice versa) can only be performed automatically when the hardware clock (CMOS clock) is set to UTC. This also applies if you use automatic time synchronization with NTP, because automatic synchronization will only be performed if the time difference between the hardware and system clock is less than 15 minutes.

Since a wrong system time can cause severe problems (missed backups, dropped mail messages, mount failures on remote file systems, etc.) it is strongly recommended to always set the hardware clock to UTC.

Figure 3.9: Clock and Time Zone #

If a network is already configured, you can configure time synchronization with an NTP server. Click Other Settings to either alter the NTP settings or to Manually set the time. See for more information on configuring the NTP service. When finished, click Accept to continue the installation.

If running without NTP configured, you consider setting SYSTOHC=no (sysconfig variable) in order to avoid saving unsychronized time into the hardware clock.

Create a local user in this step. In case you do not want to configure any local users, for example when setting up a client on a network with centralized user authentication, skip this step by choosing Next and confirming the warning. Network user authentication can be configured at any time later in the installed system, refer to Chapter 9, Managing Users with YaST for instructions.

After entering the first name and last name, either accept the proposal or specify a new User name that will be used to log in. Only use lowercase letters (a-z), digits (0-9) and the characters . (dot), - (hyphen) and _ (underscore). Special characters as well as umlauts and accented characters are not allowed.

Finally, enter a password for the user. Re-enter it for confirmation (to ensure that you did not type something else by mistake). To provide effective security, a password should be at least six characters long and consist of uppercase and lowercase letters, digits and special characters (7-bit ASCII). Umlauts or accented characters are not allowed. Passwords you enter are checked for weakness. When entering a password that is easy to guess (such as a dictionary word or a name) you will see a warning. It is a good security practice to use strong passwords.

Important: User Name and Password

Remember both your user name and the password because they are needed each time you log in to the system.

Figure 3.10: Create New User #

Three additional options are available:

Warning: Automatic Login

With the automatic login enabled, the system boots straight into your desktop with no authentication at all. If you store sensitive data on your system, you should not enable this option if the computer can also be accessed by others.

If you have not chosen Use this Password for System Administrator in the previous step, you will be prompted to enter a password for the System Administrator root. Otherwise this configuration step is skipped.

root is the name of the superuser, or the administrator of the system. Unlike regular users (who may or may not have permission to access certain areas or execute certain commands on the system), root has unlimited access to change the system configuration, install programs, and set up new hardware. If users forget their passwords or have other problems with the system, root can help. The root account should only be used for system administration, maintenance, and repair. Logging in as root for daily work is rather risky: a single mistake could lead to irretrievable loss of system files.

For verification purposes, the password for root must be entered twice. Do not forget the root password. After having been entered, this password cannot be retrieved.

Figure 3.11: Password for the System Administrator root #

Tip: Passwords and Keyboard Layout

It is recommended to only use characters that are available on an English keyboard. In case of a system error or when you need to start your system in rescue mode a localized keyboard might not be available.

The root password can be changed any time later in the installed system. To do so run YaST and start Security and Users › User and Group Management.

Warning: The root User

The user root has all the permissions needed to make changes to the system. To carry out such tasks, the root password is required. You cannot carry out any administrative tasks without this password.

On the last step before the real installation takes place, you can alter installation settings suggested by the installer. To modify the suggestions, click the respective headline. After having made changes to a particular setting, you are always returned to the Installation Settings window, which is updated accordingly.

The Export Configuration option lets you save the current configuration to an XML file which can be used by AutoYaST for the automated installation of other machines.

Figure 3.12: Installation Settings #

Tip: Existing SSH Host Keys

If you install SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on a machine with one or more existing Linux installations, the installation routine automatically imports the SSH host key with the most recent access time from an existing installation.

3.12.1 Software #

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop contains a number of software patterns for various application purposes. Click Software to open the Software Selection and System Tasks screen where you can modify the pattern selection according to your needs. Select a pattern from the list and see a description in the right-hand part of the window. Each pattern contains a number of software packages needed for specific functions (for example Multimedia or Office software). For a more detailed selection based on software packages to install, select Details to switch to the YaST Software Manager.

You can also install additional software packages or remove software packages from your system at any later time with the YaST Software Manager. For more information, refer to Chapter 6, Installing or Removing Software.

Figure 3.13: Software Selection and System Tasks #

Tip: Adding Secondary Languages

The language you selected with the first step of the installation will be used as the primary (default) language for the system. You can add secondary languages from within the Software dialog by choosing Details › View › Languages.

3.12.3 Firewall and SSH #

By default SuSEFirewall2 is enabled on all configured network interfaces. To globally disable the firewall for this computer, click Disable (not recommended).

To enable remote access via the secure shell (SSH), make sure the SSH service is enabled and the SSH port is open.

Note: Firewall Settings

If the firewall is activated, all interfaces are configured to be in the “External Zone”, where all ports are closed by default, ensuring maximum security. The only port you can open during the installation is port 22 (SSH), to allow remote access. All other services requiring network access (such as FTP, Samba, Web server, etc.) will only work after having adjusted the firewall settings. Refer to Chapter 15, Masquerading and Firewalls, Security Guide for more information.

In case you are performing a remote administration over VNC, you can also configure whether the machine should be accessible via VNC even after the installation. Note that enabling VNC also requires you to set the Default systemd Target to graphical.

After configuring all installation settings, click Install in the Installation Settings window to start the installation. Some software may require a license confirmation. If your software selection includes such software, license confirmation dialogs are displayed. Click Accept to install the software package. When not agreeing to the license, click I Disagree and the software package will not be installed. In the dialog that follows, confirm with Install again.

The installation usually takes between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the system performance and the selected software scope. After having prepared the hard disk and having saved and restored the user settings, the software installation starts. During this procedure a slide show introduces the features of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. Choose Details to switch to the installation log or Release Notes to read important up-to-date information that was not available when the manuals were printed.

After the software installation has completed, the system reboots into the new installation where you can log in. To customize the system configuration or to install additional software packages, start YaST.

Note: The Second Installation Stage is Gone

SUSE Linux Enterprise versions prior to 12 installed the system in two stages: the base system installation was done in stage one, the system configuration in stage two after having rebooted into the newly installed system. Starting with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 the system installation and basic configuration including the network setup is done in a single stage. After having rebooted into the installed system, you can log in and start using the system. To fine-tune the setup, to configure services or to install additional software, start YaST.