activating a channel

[Mikus Grinbergs]

I admit I'm flummoxed by GUI facilities.  When I first installed
smart, I found that it would take a lot of typing (into entry
fields) to use the provided GUI panel to set up new channels.
So I instead duplicated files in /etc/smart/channels, then used
a text editor to put in "what's changed" for the new channels.
[When I started smart, it asked for a confirmation, then "copied"
the newly-created entries to its own "cache" (i.e., database).]

Had some trouble with 'smart --gui' being slow/nonresponsive
(which was ultimately caused by the proxy I was using, but I
didn't realize that).  In the course of investigating, I
happened to use the 'Edit Channels' GUI to "Delete" a couple
of channels.  When I corrected the proxy, I wanted to "Add"
those channels back in.  [The appropriate files were STILL in
/etc/smart/channels.]

But trying to add back 'guru' (on SuSE 10.0 with 'smart --gui')
was non-intuitive.  After pressing 'New' on Edit -> Channels :

 -  Method: "Detect channel in local path" gave an error msg
    "Directory not found".  But the file
    /etc/smart/channels/suser-guru-gwdg.channel __was__ there,
    and was listed in the right-hand selection panel.   Bah!

 -  Method: "Read channel description from local path" tried to
    default to "Type: yast2" instead of "Type: apt-rpm", and
    the Type: field COULD NOT BE EDITED.  I don't WANT the yast2
    repository -- I wanted the apt repository.   Bah!

 -  Method: "Provide channel information" worked -- but I had to
    type everything in, WHEN IT WAS ALREADY THERE in the file
    /etc/smart/channels/suser-guru-gwdg.channel.   Bah!


Is there any __simple__ way to "activate" a channel, when the
information "cached" by smart seems inappropriate ??

mikus