Linux Solutions

YaST allows you to configure hardware items at installation time as well as in the installed system. Configure additional graphics cards and monitors, adjust mouse and keyboard settings and configure sound hardware. If you need printer or scanner support, use the appropriate YaST modules to configure these hardware items. Learn which hardware components are connected to your computer by using the YaST Hardware Information module.

Probing Your Hardware
Use YaST, if you want to know more about your hardware or if you need to find out details like vendor and model of a certain hardware to be able to properly configure it. Here and in the following sections we assume that you already started YaST (for example, by pressing Alt+F2 and entering yast2 followed by the root password, because YaST needs system administrator permissions to change the system files):
In YaST click Hardware > Hardware Information. Hardware probings starts immediately and it will take some time until you see the hardware information tree in a separate window.
In the hardware information tree recursively click on the plus icons to expand the information about a specific device.
Click Close to leave the hardware information overview.

Setting Up Graphics Card and Monitor
After the installation you can change the configuration of your graphics system (graphics card and monitor) according to your needs. Such a change can be necessary because of accessibility issues or hardware upgrades.
- Changing the resolution
In order to change the resolution, if fonts are too small or if circles appear misshapen, please follow the steps as below:
- In YaST, click Hardware
- now choose Graphics Card and Monitor. SaX2 checks the system resources and displays the Card and Monitor Properties dialog. Make sure the monitor is properly detected. If not, use Change to select the appropriate model from the list.
- now select an appropriate Resolution.

It is a good practice to test the new configuration before it is applied to the system. Click OK > Test and either Cancel or Save the configuration.

Changing Monitor Frequencies
It is important for a user to be very careful when manually changing the allowed monitor frequencies. Incorrect values might destroy the monitor. Always refer to the monitor’s manual before changing frequencies.

Activating a second monitor
I order to activate a second monitor, proceed as follows:
- In YaST, click Hardware
- choose Graphics Card and Monitor.
- SaX2 checks the system resources and displays the Card and Monitor Properties dialog.
- Make sure the monitor is properly detected. If not, use Change to select the appropriate model from the list.
- Now enable Activate Dual Head Mode and click Configure for further tuning.
- Make sure the second monitor is properly detected. If not, use Change to select the appropriate model from the list.
It is your decision whether you want to use the second monitor in Cloned Multihead or in Xinerama Multihead mode and click Ok.
As a good practice, it is recommended to test the new configuration before it is applied to the system. Click OK > Test and either Cancel or Save the configuration.

Restarting the Server
Any changes you make here take effect only after you restart the server. If you want to restart the X server now, log out from the graphical system and log in again.

Setting Up Keyboard and Mouse
A user can easily reconfigure input devices such as the keyboard or the mouse, or add more than one of these devices using the YaST Keyboard and Mouse modules.

Keyboard Layout
If a user you is looking to replace a standard 104-key keyboard with a multimedia keyboard or a use different language or country layout, then proceed as follows:

- In YaST, click Hardware > Keyboard Layout. The SaX2 configuration tool reads the system resources and displays the Keyboard Properties dialog.
- Select your keyboard model from the Type list.
- In Layout, select the country layout. Depending on the country layout, you can choose a certain Variant. The selections are applied immediately for testing.
- As an option you can enable Additional Layouts. Check one or more boxes in the list. This feature is handy if you want to switch between different languages or scripts in the running system without the need for reconfiguration.
- Before saving the configuration, use the Test field at the bottom of the dialog to check if special characters like umlauts and accented characters can be entered and displayed correctly.
- Click OK to leave the configuration dialog and in the following message click Save to apply your changes.

Mouse Model
The mouse is usually detected automatically, but a user can set up his/her mouse model manually if the automatic detection fails. Refer to the documentation of the mouse for a description of the model. Please follow steps as described below ifyou want to modify the mouse configuration:

- In YaST, click Hardware > Mouse Model.
- Click Change and select your mouse model from the list displayed.
- Click OK to leave the configuration dialog and apply your changes with Save.
- In the Options part of the dialog, set various options for operating your mouse.

Activate 3-Button Emulation
If the mouse has only two buttons, a third button is emulated whenever the user click both buttons simultaneously.
Activate Mouse Wheel
Please check this box to use a scroll wheel.
Invert X-Axis / Invert Y-Axis
Check these options if the user wants to change the direction in which the mouse pointer moves.
Activate Left-Hand Button Mapping
Check this box to make the button mapping suitable for left-hand usage.
Emulate Wheel with Mouse Button
If your mouse does not have a scroll wheel but you want to use a similar functionality, you can assign an additional button for this. Select the button to use. While pressing this button, any movement of the mouse is translated into scroll wheel commands.