To install packages, select packages for installation and click Accept. Selected packages should have the Install status icon. The package manager automatically checks the dependencies and selects any other required packages (resolution of dependencies). To view other packages required for installation before clicking Accept, choose Extras+Show Automatic Package Changes from the main menu. After installing packages, continue working with the package manager by clicking Install More or close it by clicking Finish.

The package manager provides preselected groups for installation. You can select an entire group instead of single packages. To view these groups, use Filter in the left frame.

	List of All Available Packages
To display all packages on your installation media, use the filter Package Groups and select zzz All at the bottom of the tree. SUSE Linux Enterprise contains a number of packages and it might take some time to display this long list.

The Patterns filter groups the program packages according to application purpose, such as desktop or office application. The various groups of the Patterns filter are listed with the installed packages preselected.

Click the status box at the beginning of a line to install or uninstall this pattern. Select a status directly by right-clicking the pattern and using the context menu. From the individual package overview to the right, which displays the packages included in the current pattern, select and deselect individual packages.

To find language-specific packages, such as translated texts for the user interface of programs, documentation, and fonts, use the Languages filter. This filter shows a list of all languages supported by SUSE Linux Enterprise. If you select one of these, the right frame shows all packages available for this language. Among these, all packages applying to your current software selection are automatically tagged for installation.

To uninstall a language from your system, select a language from the language list and uncheck the status box at the beginning of a line.

	Note
Because language-specific packages may depend on other packages, the package manager may select additional packages for installation.

If you want to find only packages from the specific source, use the Installation Sources filter. In the default configuration, this filter shows a list of all packages from the selected source. To restrict the list, use a secondary filter.

To view a list of the all installed packages from the selected installation source, select the filter Installation Sources then select Installation Summary from Secondary Filters and deactivate all check boxes except Keep.

The package status in the individual package window can be changed as usual. However, the changed package may no longer meet the search criteria. To remove such packages from the list, update the list with Update List.

A package containing the source files for the program is usually available. The sources are not needed for running the program, but you may want to install the sources to compile a custom version of the program.

To install sources for selected program, mark the check box in the Source column. If you cannot see a check box, your installation sources do not contain the source of the package.

If you want to install the same packages on several computers, you can save your configuration to file and use it for other systems. To save your package selection, choose File+Export from the menu. To import a prepared selection, use File+Import.

	Hardware Compatibility
Because this function saves the exact package list, it is only reliable when the hardware is identical on the source and target systems. For more complicated situations, AutoYaST, described in Chapter 5, Automated Installation, may be a better choice.

To remove packages, assign the correct status to the packages to remove and click Accept. Selected packages should have the Delete status. If a package required by other installed packages is marked for deletion, the package manager issues an alert with detailed information and alternative solutions.

If you find damaged files that belong to package or you want to reinstall the original version of a package from your installation media, reinstall the package. To reinstall packages, select packages for reinstallation and click Accept. Selected packages should have the Update status. If any dependency issues arise with installed packages, the package manager issues an alert with detailed information and alternative solutions.

To find a specific package, use the Search filter. Enter a search string and click Search. By specifying various search criteria, you can restrict the search to display a few or even only one package. You can also define special search patterns using wild cards and regular expressions in Search Mode.

	Quick Search
In addition to the Search filter, all lists of the package manager feature a quick search. Simply enter a letter to move the cursor to the first package in the list whose name begins with this letter. The cursor must be in the list (by clicking the list).

To find a package by name, select Name, enter the name of the package to find in the search field, and click Search. To find a package by text in the description, select Summary and Descriptions, enter a search string, and click Search.

To search for the package that contains a certain file, enter the name of the file, select RPM "Provides", and click Search. To find all packages that depend on a particular package, select RPM "Requires", enter the name of package, and click Search.

If you are familiar with the package structure of SUSE Linux Enterprise, you can use the Package Groups filter to find packages by subject. This filter sorts the program packages by subjects, such as applications, development, and hardware, in a tree structure to the left. The more you expand the branches, the more specific the selection is. This means fewer packages are displayed in the individual package window.

After selecting the packages for installation, update, or deletion, view the installation summary with Installation Summary. It shows how packages will be affected when you click Accept. Use the check boxes to the left to filter the packages to view in the individual package window. For example, to check which packages are already installed, deactivate all check boxes except Keep.

The package status in the individual package window can be changed as usual. However, the respective package may no longer meet the search criteria. To remove such packages from the list, update the list with Update List.

Get information about the selected package with the tabs in the bottom right frame. If another version of the package is available, you get information about both versions.

The Description tab with the description of the selected package is automatically active. To view information about package size, version, installation media, and other technical details, select Technical Data. Information about provided and required files is in Dependencies. To view available versions with their installation sources, click Versions.

During the selection of the software, the resource window at the bottom left of the module displays the prospective disk usage of all mounted file systems. The colored bar graph grows with every selection. As long as it remains green, there is sufficient space. The bar color slowly changes to red as you approach the limit of disk space. If you select too many packages for installation, an alert is displayed.

Some packages depend on other packages. This means that the software of the package only works properly if another package is also installed. There are some packages with identical or similar functionality. If these packages use the same system resource, they should not be installed at the same time (package conflict).

When the package manager starts, it examines the system and displays installed packages. When you select to install and remove packages, the package manager can automatically check the dependencies and select any other required packages (resolution of dependencies). If you select or deselect conflicting packages, the package manager indicates this and submits suggestions for solving the problem (resolution of conflicts).

To activate the automatic dependency check, select Autocheck, located under the information window. With Autocheck activated, any change of a package status triggers an automatic check. This is a useful feature, because the consistency of the package selection is monitored permanently. However, this process consumes resources and can slow down the package manager. For this reason, the automatic check is not activated by default. Regardless of the state of Autocheck, a consistency check is performed when you confirm your selection with Accept.

If you click Check, located under the information window, the package manager checks if the current package selection results in any unresolved package dependencies or conflicts. In the event of unresolved dependencies, the required additional packages are selected automatically. For package conflicts, the package manager opens a dialog that shows the conflict and offers various options for solving the problem.

For example, sendmail and postfix may not be installed concurrently. Figure 8.3, “Conflict Management of the Package Manager” shows the conflict message prompting you to make a decision. postfix is already installed. Accordingly, you can refrain from installing sendmail, remove postfix, or take the risk and ignore the conflict.

	Handling Package Conflicts
Unless you are very experienced, follow the suggestions of YaST when handling package conflicts, because otherwise the stability and functionality of your system could be endangered by the existing conflict.

Figure 8.3. Conflict Management of the Package Manager

The package manager provides functions for quick and easy installation of devel and debug packages. To install all devel packages for your installed system, choose Extras+Install All Matching — -devel Packages. To install all debug packages for your installed system, choose Extras+Install All Matching — -debuginfo Packages.

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 8.4. YaST Online Update

The patch display lists the available patches for SUSE Linux Enterprise. The patches are sorted by security relevance. 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:

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 preset—right-click on a patch and choose an action from the list.

If you install an up-to-date package from a catalog other than the update catalog, the requirements of a patch for this package may be fulfilled with this installation. In this case a check mark is displayed in front of the patch summary. The patch will be visible in the list until you mark it for installation. This will in fact not install the patch (because the package already is up-to-date), but mark the patch as having been installed.

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.

	Disabling deltarpms
Since rebuilding rpm packages from deltarpms is a memory and CPU time consuming task, certain setups or hardware configuration might require to disable the usage of deltarpms for performance sake. To disable the use of deltarpms edit the file /etc/zypp/zypp.conf and set download.use_deltarpm to false.

Another alternative for updating software is the ZENworks updater applet for KDE and GNOME. The ZENworks updater helps monitor new patches. It also provides a quick update function. For more information, refer to Section “Managing Packages with the ZEN Tools” (Chapter 1, Getting Started with the KDE Desktop, ↑KDE User Guide).

Set the update method for your system. Two options are available.

Additionally, you can use Delete Outdated Packages to remove packages that do not exist in the new version. By default, this option is preselected to prevent outdated packages from unnecessarily occupying hard disk space.

Click Packages to start the package manager and select or deselect individual packages for update. Any package conflicts should be resolved with the consistency check. The use of the package manager is covered in detail in Section 8.3.1, “Installing and Removing Software”.

During the update, the configuration files of some packages may be replaced by those of the new version. Because you may have modified some of the files in your current system, the package manager normally makes backup copies of the replaced files. With this dialog, determine the scope of these backups.

	Scope of the Backup
This backup does not include the software. It only contains configuration files.

Primary and other languages currently installed on the system are listed here. Change them by clicking Language in the displayed configuration or with Change+Language. Optionally, adapt the keyboard layout and time zone to the region where the primary language is spoken. Find more about language selection in Section 8.5.13, “Language Selection”.

The system update is a very complex procedure. For each program package, YaST must first check which version is installed on the computer then determine what needs to be done to replace the old version with the new version correctly. YaST also tries to adopt any personal settings of the installed packages.

In most cases, YaST replaces old versions with new ones without problems. A backup of the existing system should be performed prior to updating to ensure that existing configurations are not lost during the update. Conflicts can then be resolved manually after the update has finished.