1.11.1 Managing Internet Connections

To surf the Internet or send and receive e-mail messages, connect an ISDN or ethernet card or a modem to your machine and configure it. This can be done with the help of the YaST system assistant. You can establish Internet connections with NetworkManager or KInternet. In YaST, select whether to use NetworkManager.

For further details, refer to Network Connectivity Guide. It includes a list of criteria that help you to decide whether to use NetworkManager or other applications and describes the usage of the applications.

1.11.2 Managing Passwords with KWallet Manager

Remembering all the passwords for protected resources to which you need to log in can be problematic. KWallet remembers them for you. It collects all passwords and stores them in an encrypted file. With a single master password, open your wallet to view, search, delete, or create entries. Normally you do not need to insert an entry manually. KDE recognizes if a resource requires authentication and KWallet starts automatically.

The KWallet Manager

To store data in your wallet or view its contents, click the KWallet icon in the panel. A dialog box opens, showing the wallets that are accessible on your system. Click the wallet to open. A window prompts for your password.

After a successful login, the KWallet Manager window opens. It is divided into four different parts: the top left part displays a summary, the top right part displays subfolders, the lower left part shows a list with folder entries, and the lower right part shows the contents of a selected entry.

In the KWallet Manager, you can change your master password for KWallet at any time with File Change Password .

Figure 1-17 The KWallet Manager Window

You can add or delete folders. Selecting a folder updates the folder entry list and the summary display. Selecting a folder entry updates the entry contents pane and allows you to edit that entry. Entries can also be created or deleted using the context menu for the folder contents.

To insert a new entry, proceed as follows:

Inserting New Entries in Your Wallet

1. In the top right part of the window, select the subfolder to which to add an entry.

   The lower left part shows a list of entries belonging to the subfolder. You can add a new entry to Maps or Passwords. Use Maps if you have key and value pairs. Passwords can contain multiline entries.

2. To add a new password, right-click the Passwords entry then select New from the context menu.

3. Specify a name for the new entry then click OK. Your new entry is sorted under your folder entry.

4. Click the new entry to display it on the right side (the folder is initially empty).

5. Click Show Contents to open an input field where you can enter your new password.

6. Type in your password and click Save. KWallet saves your password to the subfolder selected.

1.11.3 Displaying, Decompressing, and Creating Archives

To save space on the hard disk, use a packer that compresses files and directories to a fraction of their original size. The application Ark can be used to manage such archives. It supports common formats, such as zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2, lha, and rar.

Start Ark from the main menu or from the command line with ark. If you already have some compressed files, move these from an open Konqueror window to the Ark window to view the contents of the archive. To view an integrated preview of the archive in Konqueror, right-click the archive in Konqueror and select Preview in Archiver. Alternatively, select File Open in Ark to open the file directly.

Figure 1-18 Ark: File Archive Preview

Once you have opened an archive, perform various actions. Action offers options such as Add File, Add Folder, Delete, Extract, View, Edit With, and Open With.

To create a new archive, select File New . Enter the name of the new archive in the dialog that opens and specify the format using Filter. After confirming with Save or by pressing Enter, Ark opens an empty window. You can drag and drop files and directories from the file manager into this window. As the final step, Ark compresses everything into the previously selected archive format. For more information about Ark, select Help Ark Handbook .

1.11.4 Taking Screen Shots

With KSnapshot, you can create snapshots of your screen or individual application windows. Start the program from the main menu or by pressing Alt F2 and entering ksnapshot. The KSnapshot dialog consists of two parts. The upper area (Current Snapshot) contains a preview of the current screen and three buttons for creating and saving the screen shots. The lower area contains further options for the actual creation of the screen shot.

Figure 1-19 KSnapshot

To take a screen shot, use Snapshot Delay to determine the time (in seconds) to wait between clicking New Snapshot and the actual creation of the screen shot. If Only Grab the Window Containing the Pointer is selected, only the window containing the pointer is saved. To save the screen shot, click Save Snapshot and designate the directory and filename for the image in the subsequent dialog. Click Print Snapshot to print the screen shot.

You can also use The GIMP to take screen shots. To open The GIMP, press Alt F2 and enter gimp. When you run GIMP for the first time, it installs some files in your home directory and displays dialogs that give you the opportunity to adapt it to your environment. For information about using The GIMP, refer to Section 17.0, Manipulating Graphics with The GIMP or see its help. You may need to install the help with YaST (kdeutils3-extra).

1.11.5 Viewing PDF Files with KPDF

PDF is probably one of more important formats. KPDF is a KDE program that can view and print them.

Start KPDF by pressing Alt F2 and entering kpdf. Load a PDF file with File Open . KPDF displays it in its main window. On the left side, there is a sidebar with thumbnails and a contents view. Thumbnails give an overview of the page. The contents view contains bookmarks to navigate in your document. Sometimes it is empty, meaning bookmarks are not supported by this PDF.

To view two pages in the main window, select View Two Pages . The view depends on what last two options you activate in the View menu.

Another nice option is to select the area in which you are interested with the select tool from the toolbar. Draw a rectangle and choose from the pop-up menu whether you need the selected area as text or as a graphic. It is copied to the clipboard. You can even save the area to a file.

1.11.6 Font Administration with KFontinst

By default, SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop provides various fonts commonly available in different file formats (Bitmap, TrueType, etc.). These are known as system fonts. Users can additionally install their own fonts from various collections on CD-ROM. Such user-installed fonts are, however, only visible and available to the corresponding user.

The KDE control center provides a comfortable tool for administering system and user fonts. It is shown in Figure 1-20.

Figure 1-20 Font Administration from the Control Center

To check which fonts are currently available, type the URL fonts:/ into the address field of a Konqueror session. This displays two windows: Personal and System. User-installed fonts are installed to the folder Personal. Only root can install to the System folder.

To install fonts as a user, follow these steps:

To update system fonts, first select Administrator mode and enter your root password. Then proceed as described for user font installation.

1.11.7 Controlling Sound with KMix

YaST identifies and configures the sound cards of your computer automatically. Otherwise, start the YaST Hardware module and configure the sound card manually. When your sound card has been configured, you can control the volume and balance of the sound with a mixer.

By default, clicking the KMix icon in the system tray shows the master controller where you can increase or decrease the overall volume. To switch off the sound, click the green LED, which darkens when it is muted. Toggle this option by clicking the LED again. To fine-tune your sound settings for several channels, right-click the KMix icon and select Show Mixer Window. In the main window, you can configure Output, Input, and Switches. Each of the devices featured there has its own context menu that is opened by right-clicking the device icon. You can mute or hide each one of them separately. For further information about KMix, refer to the online help.

Figure 1-21 The KMix Mixer