Chapter 2. Common Stuff

Table of Contents
2.1. Directory structure
2.2. Update Media name and id (>= SL 9.0)
2.3. Combinations of different Update Media
2.4. Applying Updates

The three different types of Update Media share some settings and structure.

2.1. Directory structure

The base directory structure for all the Update Media is


		 /linux/[distribution]/[architechture]-[version]/
		

This way you can have one Update Medium for multiple distributions, architectures and versions. In theory the Operating System string (linux) is also changeable but the YaST Installer works only under Linux yet.

The [distribution] string is the name of the distributor. For now the only strings that are valid here are suse and UnitedLinux. The range of architectures is rather wide. Up to now the [architechture] string is i386, ia64, ppc, ppc64, s390, s390x sparc or x86_64. The [version] string is either the product version of the distribution, i.e 8.1 or sles7, sles8, slec1, ul1.

Example 2-1. Common directory structure


		linux/
		`-- suse
		 |   `-- i386-8.1
		 |   |   
		 |   `-- ppc-7.3
		 |       
		 --UnitedLinux
		     `-- x86_64-ul1
		     | 
		     `-- ia64-sles8
		

2.1.1. [number] prefix for the directory structure (>= SL 9.0)

Since SuSE Linux 9.0 / UnitedLinux SP3 you can use a decimal number in front of the Operating System string. The [number] part is optional and can be used to easily combine several driver updates into one. Updates from one medium are applied ordered by [number]. If a directory without [number] exists, it is applied first.

Example 2-2. Common directory structure with a [number] prefix


		01/
		`-- linux/
                |	`-- suse
	        |            `-- i386-8.1
                02/
		`-- linux/
                        `-- suse
                             `-- i386-8.1
                

This is extremely helpfull if you have Driver Updates where the kernel modules depend on each other.