root is the name of the superuser, the administrator of the system. Unlike regular users, who may or may not have permission to do certain things on the system, root has unlimited power to do anything: 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. Once entered, this password cannot be retrieved.

When typing passwords, the characters are replaced by dots, so you do not see the string you are typing. If you are unsure whether you typed the correct string, use the Test Keyboard Layout field for testing purposes.

SUSE Linux Enterprise can use the DES, MD5, or Blowfish encryption algorithms for passwords. The default encryption type is Blowfish. To change the encryption type, click Expert Options+Encryption Type and select the new type.

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

The hostname is the computer's name in the network. The domain name is the name of the network. A hostname and domain are proposed by default. If your system is part of a network, the hostname has to be unique in this network whereas the domain name has to be common to all hosts on the network.

In many networks, the system receives its name over DHCP. In this case it is not necessary to modify the hostname and domain name. Select Change Hostname via DHCP instead. To be able to access your system using this hostname, even when it is not connected to the network, select Write Hostname to /etc/hosts. If you often change networks without restarting the desktop environment (e.g. when switching between different WLANs), do not enable this option, because the desktop system may get confused when the hostname in /etc/hosts changes.

To change hostname settings at any time after installation, use YaST Network Devices+Network Card. For more information, see Section 30.4.1, “Configuring the Network Card with YaST”.

By default, User-Controlled Interface with NetworkManager Applet is enabled. NetworkManager is a tool that enables automatic connection with minimal user intervention. It is ideal for mobile computing. If you want to use the traditional method without NetworkManager, click Disable NetworkManager. Find detailed information about NetworkManager in Section 30.5, “Managing Network Connections with NetworkManager”.

This configuration step also lets you configure the network devices of your system and make security settings, for example, for a firewall or proxy. To configure your network connection later, select Skip Configuration and click Next. Network hardware can also be configured after the system installation has been completed. If you skip the network device configuration, your system is left offline and is unable to retrieve any available updates.

Apart from the device configuration, the following network settings can be configured in this step:

	Resetting the Network Configuration to the Defaults
Reset the network settings to the original proposed values by clicking Change+Reset to Defaults. This discards any changes made.

To get technical support and product updates, first register and activate your product. Novell Customer Center Configuration provides assistance for doing so.

If you are offline or want to skip this step, select Configure Later. This also skips SUSE Linux Enterprise online update.

In Include for Convenience, select whether to send unsolicited additional information when registering. This simplifies the registration process. Click on Details to obtain in-depth information about data privacy and the data collected.

Apart from activating and registering your product, this module also adds the official update catalog to your configuration. This catalog provides fixes for known bugs or security issues which can be installed via an online update.

In addition to the update catalog, two more catalogs with official drivers for ATI and NVidia graphics cards are added. SUSE Linux Enterprise ships with open source drivers for these cards, but the official drivers, provided directly by the graphics cards manufacturers, offer additional functionality. In order to add these catalogs, you need to import their public GnuPG keys—these keys are used to ensure the catalog is provided by the owner of the catalog. Click Trust Key and then Import to add the catalog. Click Skip package and then Abort to prevent this specific catalog from being added to your configuration.

To keep your catalogs valid, select Regularly Synchronize with Customer Center. This option checks your catalogs and adds newly available catalogs or removes obsolete ones. It does not touch manually added catalogs.

	Technical Support
Find more information about the technical support at http://www.novell.com/support/products/desktop/.

If the Novell Customer Center Configuration was successful, select whether to perform a YaST online update. If there are any patched packages available on the servers, download and install them now to fix known bugs or security issues. Directives on how to perform an online update in the installed system are available at Section 8.3.5, “YaST Online Update”

	Downloading Software Updates
The download of updates might take quite some time, depending on the bandwidth of the Internet connection and the size of the update files. In case the patch system itself is updated, the online update will restart and download more patches after the restart. If the kernel was updated, the system will reboot before completing the configuration.

If network access was configured successfully during the previous steps of the installation, you can now choose from several user management options. If a network connection has not been configured, create local user accounts. For detailed information about user management, see Section 8.9.1, “User Management”the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server documentation.

	Content of the Authentication Menu
If you use the custom package selection and one or more authentication methods are missing from the menu, the required packages probably are not installed.

Along with the selected user administration method, you can use Kerberos authentication. This is essential for integrating your SUSE Linux Enterprise to an Active Directory domain, which is described in Chapter 12, Active Directory Support. To use Kerberos authentication, select Set Up Kerberos Authentication.

After completing the user authentication setup, YaST displays the release notes. Reading them is recommended, because they contain important up-to-date information which was not available when the manuals were printed. If you tested the Internet connection, read the most recent version of the release notes, as fetched from SUSE Linux Enterprise's servers. Use Miscellaneous+Release Notes to view the release notes after installation.

At the end of the installation, YaST opens a dialog for the configuration of the graphics card and other hardware components connected to the system. Click the individual components to start the hardware configuration. For the most part, YaST detects and configures the devices automatically.

You can skip any peripheral devices and configure them later, as described in Section 8.4, “Hardware” . To skip the configuration, select Skip Configuration and click Next.

However, you should configure the graphics card right away. Although the display settings as configured by YaST should be generally acceptable, most users have very strong preferences as far as resolution, color depth, and other graphics features are concerned. To change these settings, select the respective item and set the values as desired. To test your new configuration, click Test the Configuration.

	Resetting Hardware Configuration to Defaults
You can cancel changes by clicking Change+Reset to Defaults. YaST then shows the original proposal again.

After a successful installation, YaST shows the Installation Completed dialog. In this dialog, select whether to clone your newly installed system forAutoYaST. To do so, select Clone This System for AutoYaST. The profile of the current system is stored in /root/autoyast.xml.

AutoYaST is a system for installing one or more SUSE Linux Enterprise systems automatically without user intervention. AutoYaST installations are performed using a control file with installation and configuration data. Finish the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise with Finish in the final dialog.