The Session Manager starts after your username and password are authenticated by the login process. The Session Manager lets you save certain settings for each session. It also lets you save the state of your most recent session and return to that state the next time you log in.

The Session Manager can save and restore the following settings:

For information about configuring session preferences, see KDE Components .

If you installed both the KDE and the GNOME desktops, use the following instructions to switch desktops.

To lock the screen, do either of the following:

For quick access, you can also add the Lock and Logout icons to the panel. To do so, right-click the panel then click Add Applet to Panel. In the following window, select Lock/Logout Buttons and click Add to Panel.

When you lock your screen, the screen saver starts. To unlock the screen, move your mouse to display the locked screen dialog. Enter your username and password then press Enter.

For information about configuring your screen saver, see Procedure 2.2, “Configuring the Screen Saver”.

Open the main menu by clicking the icon to the far left of the panel. Alternatively, press Alt+F1. The main menu is subdivided into these sections: Most Used Applications, All Applications (a menu with all applications sorted according to categories), and Actions. Applications that you start most often appear in the Most Used Applications section.

The function-oriented menu structure makes it easy to find the right application for your purpose even if you do not know the application names yet. If you already know the name of an application (or at least a part of its name) but are not sure how to start it from the main menu, you can use the search function provided in the All Applications section.

Figure 1.4. Main Menu Search Function¶

Just type a part of the application name into the search field without pressing the Enter key afterward. If the application is installed on your system, the menu structure leading to this application is highlighted in the main menu.

The following section provides information about a number of actions that can be triggered from the main menu.

If you insert or connect removable media to your computer (such as CD-ROMs, digital cameras, or USB sticks), these are usually automatically detected. In KDE, a dialog appears, showing the medium type detected and offering several options of what to do with the new medium. The list of options depends on the type of medium inserted.

Figure 1.5. Automatic Detection of a USB Stick in KDE¶

To view the data with a file manager, select Open in New Window and click OK. The Konqueror file manager appears, showing the contents of the removable device.

Figure 1.6. Viewing the Contents of a USB Stick¶

For the same action to be performed every time you insert a removable medium of that type, activate Always do this for this type of media in the detection dialog before clicking OK.

If you insert or connect a removable medium to the system that has been encrypted with LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup), KDE recognizes this and prompts for the password as shown in Figure 1.7, “Automatic Detection of an Encrypted USB Stick”. Enter the password to access the encrypted medium.

Figure 1.7. Automatic Detection of an Encrypted USB Stick¶

For information about encrypting removable media, refer to Section “Encrypting the Content of Removable Media” (Chapter 42, Encrypting Partitions and Files, ↑Deployment Guide).

KDE offers several ways to access removable media at any time. Clicking My Computer on the desktops opens a view as shown in Figure 1.9, “My Computer”.

Figure 1.9. My Computer¶

If you start Konqueror as a file manager (see Section 1.4, “Managing Folders and Files with Konqueror”) and click Storage Media on the start window or enter media:/ in the location bar, Konqueror displays the storage devices as shown in Figure 1.10, “Displaying Media in Konqueror”.

Figure 1.10. Displaying Media in Konqueror¶

You can also name removable devices, such as USB sticks, with Konqueror. Right-click the USB stick in Konqueror and select Properties. On the General tab, enter a name in the input field and click OK. When inserting the stick the next time, Konqueror displays the name of the stick.

A small green arrow indicates that a medium has been mounted (integrated into your file system, which is necessary to access the data on the medium). In SUSE Linux Enterprise, you normally do not have to care about mounting removable devices because this is done automatically by default.

Removing Media Safely

If you want to remove or disconnect a medium from your computer, make sure that the data on the medium is currently not accessed by any application or user. Otherwise risk a loss of data. To safely remove the medium, proceed as follows: Open a view that displays all removable media. Right-click the medium to remove and select Safely Remove or Eject. Safely Remove unmounts the medium after which you can disconnect the medium from your computer. Eject automatically opens the CD or DVD drive of your computer.

The trash bin is a directory for files marked for deletion. Drag icons from the file manager or the desktop to the trash bin icon by keeping the left mouse button pressed. Then release to drop them there. Alternatively, right-click an icon and select Move to Trash from the menu. Click the trash bin icon to view its contents. You can retrieve an item from the trash if desired.

Files removed with Delete are not moved to the trash bin, but deleted completely. To delete the files in the trash bin completely, right-click the trash bin icon then click Empty Trash Bin.

For performing actions like copying, moving, or deleting files, you need appropriate permissions to the folders and files involved in your action. Read more about changing access permissions in Section 1.4.3, “Changing Access Permissions”.

	Selecting Objects in Konqueror
Clicking a file or a folder in Konqueror directly starts an action: a preview of the file is displayed or the folder is opened. To former users of MS Windows, this behavior may be rather unusual. If you just want to select one or several files without any other action, press Ctrl then click the object. Alternatively, alter your mouse settings in the KDE control center (see Peripherals ).

To copy or move a file or folder, proceed as follows:

The quickest way to perform actions like copying or moving objects in Konqueror is the drag-and-drop method. For instance, you can easily move objects from one window to another by simply dragging them. When dropping the objects, you are asked whether the objects should be moved or copied.

To delete a file or folder, proceed as follows:

To create a new folder in Konqueror, proceed as follows:

Because Linux is a multiuser system, every file in a Linux file system belongs to a user and a group. All users, including the superuser, have their own home directories where private data, like documents, bookmarks, or e-mail, are stored. Write access to these home directories is strictly limited to the owner by default. As an owner of a file or directory, you can change the access permissions to your files. For example, you can protect files holding sensitive data against read access by other users and you can authorize other users to write, read, or execute several of your files where appropriate.

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 users—the file owner, the group, and other users. For more information about the user concept of Linux, refer to Section “Users and Access Permissions” (Chapter 15, Working with the Shell, ↑Deployment Guide). Instead of using the “traditional” way to change access permissions in a shell, you can also use the graphical user interface Konqueror provides.

To set permissions for a file, choose from the following options in Konqueror:

To set permissions for a folder, the following options are available in Konqueror:

Apart from this traditional permission concept for file system objects, you can also use access control lists (ACLs) with Konqueror. With ACLs, permissions can be defined more flexibly than the traditional permission concept allows. They allow assigning permissions to individual users or groups even if these do not correspond to the original owner or the owning group. For more in-depth information about ACLs, refer to Chapter Access Control Lists in Linux (↑Deployment Guide).

With Konqueror, you can decide which application should be used to open a file.

Figure 1.12. Configuring File Associations in Konqueror¶

You can temporarily change the view of certain folders by selecting a different View Mode in the View menu. To apply these changes to all folders, you can save your options to a view profile. To do so, change the view according to your wishes and click Settings+Configure View Profiles. Enter a name for the profile to save and click Save. The view is changed for all folders and saved in this profile. You can now load this profile at any time by clicking Settings+Load View Profile. By default, Konqueror contains several view profiles designed for various tasks. You can also take one of these profiles as a draft and modify it according to your needs.

With Konqueror, you can also access your digital camera. Connect your camera to the USB port. A camera icon should appear on the desktop. Click this icon to open the camera in Konqueror. The camera can also be accessed by entering the URL camera:/ in Konqueror. Navigate through the camera's directory structure until the files are shown. Use the usual Konqueror file management features to copy the files as desired.

You can also easily use Konqueror as image viewer. For a quick and comfortable overview of all images in a directory, select the directory and click the Image View icon in the toolbar. Konqueror generates thumbnails and shows them on the left-hand side of the window. Click a thumbnail to see the full-size view of the picture on the right-hand side of the window. A number of additional icons appears in the toolbar for navigating back and forth, zooming or rotating the pictures, or creating a slide show. To toggle to “normal” view again, click Icon View or Tree View in the toolbar.

Apart from this functionality, you can also create image galleries that show your images in an album-like fashion. Open your image directory in Konqueror and click Tools+Create Image Gallery. A dialog opens where you can specify the background and foreground colors, the page title, the location to save the gallery, and other settings. Click OK to start the action. By default, a file called index.html is created. If you click this file in Konqueror, your images are displayed in a miniaturized, organized view. Click an image to access its full-size view.

Figure 1.13. Creating an Image Gallery with Konqueror¶

For viewing your images, you can also use Gwenview. To start Gwenview, press Alt+F2 and enter gwenview. For further information about Gwenview, see the Gwenview online help.

For downloading and editing photographs from digital cameras, you can use DigiKam as described in Chapter 19, Managing Your Digital Image Collection.

For a more detailed search, you can also specify further options, such as a text the file to find must contain:

For detailed information about the search options available, refer to the KFind online help.

For advanced searches, you may want to use search patterns or regular expressions. KRegExpEditor offers search options based on regular expressions. You can install KRegExpEditor with YaST as the package kdeutils3-extra. For more information about search patterns and the use of wild cards or regular expressions, refer to Section “Getting Started with the Bash Shell” (Chapter 15, Working with the Shell, ↑Deployment Guide).

When KWallet starts for the first time (for example, when you access a Web site where you must enter a password to log in), a dialog appears with the welcome screen. Choose between Basic setup (recommended) and Advanced setup. If you choose Basic setup, in the next screen you can choose whether to store personal information. Some KDE applications, such as Konqueror or KMail, can use the wallet system to store Web form data and cookies. Select Yes, I wish to use the KDE wallet to store my personal information to activate KWallet and leave with Finish.

If you choose Advanced setup, you have an additional security level screen. The default settings are generally acceptable for most users, but others may wish to change them. Automatically close idle wallets closes wallets after a period of inactivity. To separate network passwords and local passwords, activate Store network passwords and local passwords in separate wallet files. Close with Finish.

You can alter the settings at any time by right-clicking the KWallet icon in the panel and selecting Configure Wallet. A dialog box opens where you can select several options. By default, all passwords are stored in one wallet, kdewallet, but you can also add new wallets. Once configured, KWallet appears in the panel.

To store data in your wallet or view its contents, click the KWallet icon in the panel. A dialog box opens, showing the wallets that are accessible on your system. Click the wallet to open. A window prompts for your password.

After a successful login, the KWallet Manager window opens. It is divided into four different parts: the top left part displays a summary, the top right part displays subfolders, the lower left part shows a list with folder entries, and the lower right part shows the contents of a selected entry.

In the KWallet Manager, you can change your master password for KWallet at any time with File+Change Password.

Figure 1.16. The KWallet Manager Window¶

You can add or delete folders. Selecting a folder updates the folder entry list and the summary display. Selecting a folder entry updates the entry contents pane and allows you to edit that entry. Entries can also be created or deleted using the context menu for the folder contents.

To insert a new entry, proceed as follows:

For the most part, KWallet resides silently in the panel and is automatically activated if needed. However, you can copy your wallet files to another computer (for example, your laptop). To simplify this task, wallets can be dragged from the manager window to a file browser window. This let you easily package a new wallet for transfer to another environment. For example, a new wallet could be created and copied onto a removable flash memory device. Important passwords could be transferred there, so you have them available in other locations.

Managing packages on a Linux system requires root privileges. The ZEN tools and rug have their own user management system that allows users to install software updates. When a user first invokes an action that requires special privileges in the ZEN tools, a prompt for the root password appears. When the password has been verified, The ZEN tools automatically add the user's account to the user management system with update permissions. To review or change these settings, use the rug user management commands (see Section “rug User Management” (Chapter 8, System Configuration with YaST, ↑Deployment Guide) for information).

Software Updater resides in the notification area (GNOME) or the system tray (KDE) of your panel as an icon depicting a globe. It changes color and appearance depending on the availability of a network link and new updates. Once a day, Software Updater automatically checks whether updates for your system are available (right-click the application icon and choose Refresh to force an immediate check). The Software Updater applet in the panel changes from a globe to an exclamation mark on an orange background when new updates are available.

Error on Accessing the Update Catalog

If you are not able to access the update catalog, this might be due to an expired subscription. Normally, SUSE Linux Enterprise comes with a one or three years subscription, during which you have access to the update catalog. This access will be denied once the subscription ends. In case of an access denial to the update catalog you will see a warning message with a recommendation to visit the Novell Customer Center and check your subscription. The Novell Customer Center is available at http://www.novell.com/center/.

Left-click the panel icon to open the updater window. It displays a list of patches and new package versions available. Each entry has a short description and, if applicable, a category icon: Security patches are marked with a yellow shield. Optional patches are marked with a light blue circle. Recommended patches are not marked with an icon. Security patches are listed first, then recommended patches, optional patches, and finally new package versions. Use the links All, Packages, and Patches to filter the list of packages displayed.

	Packages versus Patches
Officially released updates from Novell show up as Patches. New package versions from other sources show up as Packages.

To get details about a certain entry, mark it with the mouse and click the Details link under the list window. To select an entry for installation, mark the entry's check box. Use the links All and None to select or deselect all patches. Clicking Update installs the selected programs.

Figure 1.20. Selecting the Software Updates

To install software packages, start Install Software from the menu or run zen-installer. The interface is almost identical to Software Updater (see Section 1.16.2, “Obtaining and Installing Software Updates”). The only difference is a search panel you can use to search for packages or to filter the list. Mark the check box of packages that should be installed then press Install to start the package installation. Possible dependencies on other packages are automatically resolved by the installer.

Start Remove Software from the menu or run zen-remover to uninstall software packages. The list of packages can be narrowed with the links Products (uninstalls the complete products), Patterns (see Section “Installing and Removing Patterns” (Chapter 8, System Configuration with YaST, ↑Deployment Guide) for details on patterns), Packages, and Patches. Mark the check box of a list entry that should be removed then press Remove to start the package uninstallation. If other packages depend on the ones marked by you, these are also removed. You must confirm the removal of additional packages. If you click Cancel in the confirmation dialog, no packages are uninstalled.

To configure the ZEN tools, click Configure in the application window. A window with three tabs opens: Services, Catalogs, and Preferences.