YaST can also be controlled by means of a text-based terminal. This is useful in the case of a system that cannot run the X Window System, or where X is not needed, such as a dedicated server or firewall machine. It is also useful for administrators remotely accessing a system.
The main window consists of three areas. The left frame, which is surrounded by a thick white border, features the categories that the various modules belong to. 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 Help and Exit buttons.
When the YaST Control Center is started, the Software category is selected automatically. Use the Up- and Down-arrows to change the category. To start a module from the selected category, press the Right-arrow. The module selection now appears with a thick border. Use the Up- and Down-arrows to select the module you want. 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 a 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 the Tab key. Exit the YaST Control Center by pressing the Exit button or by selecting Exit in the category overview and then pressing Enter.
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. See Restriction of Key Combinations for information about possible exceptions.
Use Tab and Alt+Tab or Shift+Tab to navigate among the buttons and the frames containing selection lists.
Use the Up- and Down-arrow keys to navigate among the individual elements in an active frame containing a selection list (for example, among the individual modules of a module group in the Control Center).
If individual entries within a frame exceed its width, use Shift+Right-arrow or Shift+Left-arrow to scroll horizontally to the right or to the left. You can also use Ctrl+E or Ctrl+A. This combination can also be used if using the Right- and Left-arrow keys would result in changing the active frame or the current selection list, as in the Control Center.
To select buttons with empty square brackets (check boxes) or empty parentheses (radio buttons), press the Space bar or Enter key. 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 the Tab key, press Enter to execute the selected action or activate the respective menu item.
The function 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 OK, Next, and Finish. Press F1 to access the YaST help which shows the functions mapped to the individual F keys.
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.
Alt shortcuts can be executed with Esc instead of Alt. For example, Esc+H can replace Alt+H.
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.
The F keys are also used for functions. Certain function keys might be occupied by the terminal and might not be available for YaST. However, the Alt key combinations and F keys should always be fully available on a pure text console.
To save time, the individual YaST modules can be started directly. To start a module, enter the following:
yast module_name
The network module, for example, is started by entering yast lan.
A list of all module names available on your system can be viewed with the following commands:
yast -l or yast --list