7.11 YaST in Text Mode
When YaST is started in text mode, the YaST Control Center appears first.
See Figure 7-7. The main
window consists of three areas. The left frame, which is surrounded by a
thick white border, features the categories to which the various modules
belong. The active category is indicated by a colored background. The right
frame, which is surrounded by a thin white border, provides an overview of
the modules available in the active category. The bottom frame contains the
buttons for and .
When the YaST Control Center is started, the category
is selected automatically. Use
↓ and ↑ to change the category.
To start a module from the selected category, press
→. The module selection now appears with a thick
border. Use ↓ and ↑ to select
the desired module. Keep the arrow keys pressed to scroll through the list
of available modules. When a module is selected, the module title appears
with a colored background and a brief description is displayed in the
bottom frame.
Press Enter to start the desired module. Various buttons or
selection fields in the module contain a letter with a different color
(yellow by default). Use Alt + yellow_letter
to select a button directly instead of navigating there with
Tab. Exit the YaST Control Center by pressing the
button or by selecting in the
category overview and pressing Enter.
7.11.1 Navigation in Modules
The following description of the control elements in the YaST modules
assumes that all function keys and Alt key combinations
work and are not assigned different global functions. Read
Section 7.11.2,
Restriction of Key Combinations for information about
possible exceptions.
- Navigation among Buttons and Selection Lists
-
Use Tab and
Alt
Tab
or
Shift
Tab
to navigate among the buttons and the frames
containing selection lists.
- Navigation in Selection Lists
-
Use the arrow keys (↑ and
↓) to navigate among the
individual elements in an active frame containing
a selection list.
If individual entries within a frame exceed its
width, use Shift
→ or
Shift ←
to scroll horizontally to the right and left.
Alternatively, use
Ctrl + E
or
Ctrl + A
. This combination can also be used if
using → or ←
would result in changing the active frame or the current
selection list, as in the Control Center.
- Buttons, Radio Buttons, and Check Boxes
-
To select buttons with empty square brackets (check boxes) or empty
parentheses (radio buttons), press Space or
Enter. Alternatively, radio buttons and check boxes can
be selected directly with
Alt + yellow_letter. In this
case, you do not need to confirm with Enter. If you
navigate to an item with Tab, press
Enter to execute the selected action or activate the
respective menu item.
- Function Keys
-
The F keys (F1 to F12) enable quick
access to the various buttons. Which function keys are actually mapped to
which buttons depends on the active YaST module, because the different
modules offer different buttons (Details, Info, Add, Delete, etc.). Use
F10 for , ,
and . Press F1 to access the
YaST help, which shows the functions mapped to the individual F
keys.
7.11.2 Restriction of Key Combinations
If your window manager uses global Alt combinations, the
Alt combinations in YaST might not work. Keys like
Alt or Shift can also be occupied by the
settings of the terminal.
- Replacing Alt with Esc
-
Alt shortcuts can be executed with Esc
instead of Alt. For example,
Esc + H replaces
Alt + H.
-
Backward and Forward Navigation with
Ctrl + F and
Ctrl + B
-
If the Alt and Shift
combinations are occupied by the window manager
or the terminal, use the combinations
Ctrl + F
(forward) and
Ctrl + B (backward) instead.
- Restriction of Function Keys
-
The F keys are also used for functions. Certain function keys might be
occupied by the terminal and may not be available for YaST. However,
the Alt key combinations and function keys should always be
fully available on a pure text console.
7.11.3 Starting the Individual Modules
To save time, the individual YaST modules can be started
directly. To start
a module, enter:
yast <module_name>
View a list of all module names available on your system with
yast -l or yast --list.
Start the network module, for example, with yast lan.
