Installing or Removing Software

Contents

3.1. Definition of Terms
3.2. Using the Qt Interface
3.3. Using the GTK+ Interface
3.4. Managing Software Repositories and Services

Abstract

In YaST's software management tool search for software components you want to add or remove. YaST resolves all dependencies for you. Add additional software repositories to your setup to install packages not shipped with the installation media and let YaST manage them. Keep your system up-to-date by managing software updates with openSUSE Updater.

Change the software collection of your system using YaST. This YaST module is available in three toolkit flavors: Qt, GTK+, and ncurses; Qt and GTK+ flavors are described here, see Chapter 10, YaST in Text Mode for details on the ncurses YaST.

Changing the toolkit flavor

	Changing the toolkit flavor
By default, YaST is started with the toolkit matching your desktop (GTK+ under GNOME, Qt under KDE). Change the variable `WANTED_GUI` in `/etc/sysconfig/yast2` to either `qt` or `gtk` to alter this default setting system-wide. You may also use the options `--gtk` or `--qt` when starting yast from the command line to overwrite the default settings.

By default, YaST is started with the toolkit matching your desktop (GTK+ under GNOME, Qt under KDE). Change the variable WANTED_GUI in /etc/sysconfig/yast2 to either qt or gtk to alter this default setting system-wide.

You may also use the options --gtk or --qt when starting yast from the command line to overwrite the default settings.

Definition of Terms

Repository: A local or remote directory containing packages, plus additional information about these packages (package meta-data).
(Repository) Alias: A short name for a repository used by various zypper commands. The alias can be chosen by the user when adding a repository and must be unique.
Product: Represents a whole product, for example openSUSE.
Pattern: A pattern is an installable list of packages needed for a special purpose. Examples are Base System, providing the openSUSE basic system, or GNOME Base System, containing all packages needed to run the GNOME Desktop environment.
Package: A package is a compressed file in rpm format that contains the files for a particular program.
Patch: A patch consists of one or more packages—either full packages or patchrpm or deltarpm packages— and may also introduce dependencies to packages that are not installed yet.
Resolvable: An generic term for product, pattern, package or patch. The most commonly used type of resolvable is a package or a patch.
patchrpm: A patchrpm consists only of files that have been updated since it was first released for openSUSE 11.2. Its download size is usually considerably smaller than the size of a package.
deltarpm: A deltarpm consists only of the binary diff between two defined versions of a package, and therefore has the smallest download size. Before being installed, the rpm package must be rebuilt on the local machine.