Open SUSE® 11.0 and SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server Bible

Chapter 14. Working with the System

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Using the rescue and repair systems to recover from problems

• Working with partitions and disk images

• Burning CDs and DVDs

• Using shell aliases

• Automating with shell scripts and scripting languages

In this chapter we look at some of the more useful tools for working with your SUSE Linux system. First, we examine some of the tools that are available to you to deal with emergencies. If your system won't boot or is otherwise seriously damaged, SUSE's Rescue System and YaST System Repair, running from the installation media, can be very useful. We also look at different ways to deal with partitions and disk images and how to create CDs. We also give a (necessarily brief) introduction to shell scripting and scripting languages.

What all these sections have in common is that they all concern tools that give you more power over your system, and working with these tools will add to your understanding.

Tip

You should not be afraid to experiment, even with—indeed particularly with—the more scary and destructive examples given in this chapter. If you can, by all means set up a "sacrificial" system and play with the rescue and repair systems, with the partitioning tools, and so on. The knowledge that you gain may well be useful when (not if) things eventually go wrong.

System Rescue and Repair

You may find occasionally that you have problems you cannot solve from within the system itself. Most commonly, there may be something that is preventing the system ...