Linux-Misc Digest #712, Volume #21 Tue, 7 Sep 99 06:13:09 EDT
Contents:
Wednesday 8 September 1999 Free Software Install Fest at The New School on the
Island of Manhattan ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: *nix vs. MS security ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution (Igor Kovalenko)
Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution ("Uffe Holst")
Re: HTML based Telnet client? ("Jacek M. Holeczek")
Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution ("Inge Vabekk")
Re: Changing RPM target Directory? ("Quiney, Philip (EXCHANGE:HAL02:HM10)")
Re: Maintaining 2 Networks (Tony Green)
Red Hat 6.1 Available (Tony Green)
Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution (Jon Skeet)
Re: fsck after power failure (Ollie)
Re: how to load modules without compiling kernel ("Quiney, Philip
(EXCHANGE:HAL02:HM10)")
Re: General Rant from a Linux Newbie ("[EMAIL PROTECTED]")
after gcc 2.95.1 installation c++ compiler doesn't work (Eli)
Re: bypassing fsck (Villy Kruse)
Re: EZ-BIOS and LILO (Villy Kruse)
Re: Upgrade RH5.2 to RH6.0 from the network without CDROM?? (Adrian Hands)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,nyc.seminars
Subject: Wednesday 8 September 1999 Free Software Install Fest at The New School on
the Island of Manhattan
Date: 7 Sep 1999 08:08:53 GMT
<personal>
Today the process of installing any OS, free or bound, on an IBM style
peecee, or other home computer, is usually monstrously irrationally
difficult. But once your free OS is installed, it will give you years of
trouble free communications and data mangling. And, with a free OS, if
you are curious about the NSAKEY in your security apparatus, well, you can
read the source, and if you need help, you can ask the author. And if you
are still not satisfied, you can comment the NSAKEY code out, and put in
any patch you want, and compile to your heart's content, using a compiler
whose source you can also read. But if your OS is a source secret OS,
well, you are just lucky you heard about the NSAKEY this week. It has
been in there for years. As for the other Trojans, viruses, and
incompetencies of the OS, well some you will find out about, but some you
likely won't.
So if you know any individual or business still running a source secret
OS, I suggest coming to an Install Fest. It is by far the best way to
begin with free software.
</personal>
Below is a lightly edited and de-htmlized version of the official
announcement of the Second Independent New School Free OS Install Fest.
http://pweb.netcom.com/~casandra/alex.html
Jay Sulzberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org
Install Fest
Wednesday 8 September 1999
6 pm to 10 pm
At the New School Computer Instruction Center
68 Fifth Avenue, between 12th and 13th street
http://www.newschool.edu/cic/
GETTING THERE:
Closest intersection is 13 Street and 5th Avenue.
note: street parking tends to become available after 6 pm.
Closest subway stops are all on 14th Street:
B, F trains : 14th Street station (ie. 6th Avenue)
4, 5, 6 trains : Union Square/14th St station
1, 2, 3 trains : 14th Street station
L, N, R trains : Union square/14th St station
Signs leading to the meeting room, starting from the building entrance,
will go up shortly after 5:30 PM.
What we will provide:
Lab room with tables, chairs, power sockets, PC-type monitors. A lounge
at the entrance where one can enjoy food, drinks and chat... (no
eating/drinking in the lab itself - school policy.)
What you should bring:
The laptop or desktop machine you want to install onto.
Any modem, ethernet card, or cd-rom drive that you normally use with this
machine, and all hardware that you will need to complete this
installation.
If you have a distribution that you want to install, bring your copy with
you.
Your equipment checklist. List all components in detail, motherboard,
processor, video card, etc..
A boot-disk floppy that you know works for your machine as it is now.
It may be needed if the install doesn't work.
Bring your enthusiasm, curiosity, and flexibility.
Observer-only participants are welcome.
Prepare ahead:
Take a look at the http://www.installfest.com .
Use the checklist at
http://www.inluc.org/docs/install-fest/pre-installation.html
as a guide to writing one for your own machine.
Read the preparation instructions at
http://www.luv.asn.au/installfestprep.html
as a guide to your own preparations.
Use your checklist to find out if your hardware is compatible with the
Linux distribution you plan to install.
http://www.monash.edu.au/mirror/ldp/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO.html
lists most of the hardware supported by Linux and helps you locate any
necessary drivers. You might want to download the relevant drivers onto
floppy disks, in case they are not already on your installation CD.
Also check the website of the distribution you plan to install. It
probably has an extensive listing of which hardware components it is
compatible with.
Your distribution probably came with a book. If not there is probably an
installation guide on the website.
Read the instructions and use them to write yourself an installation
script to follow during the installation process. This will help you get
back on track after figuring out any problems you run into during the
install process.
WE ALSO NEED YOUR HELP
Volunteer to teach/supervise an installation (distribution of your choice).
Volunteer to bring spare equipment that might be needed.
Volunteer to help clean up after the meeting, and ensure that all borrowed
equipment is returned to its owner before we leave.
If we are good guests we hope the NEW SCHOOL will invite us back to do
more Install Fests.
CONTACTS
Send email to Alex Khalil at [EMAIL PROTECTED] to let him know if you are
going to attend, and what you plan to bring with you. This will help us
plan a good meeting.
Email Alex to VOLUNTEER your skills or loan of equipment for this event.
Please email only about the Install Fest.
You may contact Kamel Merarda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> of The New School, for
information about this event and future activities, and about UNIX/Linux
courses at the New School.
This independent event is endorsed by:
LUNY - Linux Users of New York http://www.luny.org
LXNY - New York's Free Software Organization http://www.lxny.org
NYLUG - New York Linux User's Group http://www.nylug.org
Thanks go to
The New School Computer Center
http://www.newschool.edu/cic/
for making it all possible.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: *nix vs. MS security
Date: 7 Sep 1999 07:25:38 GMT
Richard Steiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Here in comp.os.linux.misc, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian Moore)
> spake unto us, saying:
>>My own observation is that it is the Linux boxes that are being
>>cracked. These observations say nothing about the inherent
>>security of Linux/UNIX vs. MS Windows but it is something that
>>I have observed also.
> Yup. Most Linux distros leave a lot of things running in a default
> installation that the inexperienced user is probably unaware of.
> I wish Linux vendors would leave all services OFF unless explicity
> asked for by the person installing the software. That would force
> folks to learn enough to set things up (or at least toggle them on)
> by themselves.
Redhat has started to move in this direction, presenting a list of services
to be started as part of the install procedure. Unfortunately, it seems
that the average end user a) is too used to the MS [press enter to continue]
X 50 install procedure, and b) is not well enough informed to know what
they will need.
I ended up losing my internet access at work due to a slip up along these
lines by a user who was familiar with redhat.
jeremy
------------------------------
From: Igor Kovalenko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.qnx,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 14:37:47 -0500
With all respect Linus, making such a statement without any proof is
just plain wrong.
If you want to tell us something of that sort:
1) Proof that the way how lmbench makes its test is relevant to QNX. We
saw that 'ballista' story already.
2) Proof that the port itself is correct.
3) Post results, not just rumors.
- igor
Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> Juergen Fischer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >x-no-archive: yes
> >
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Linus Torvalds) wrote:
> >
> >> Sure, teh QNX microkernel is pretty uncrashable. But have you ever asked
> >> yourself why? Maybe because it doesn't do all that much.
> >
> >hello Linus, how much of change would the kernel need to get it
> >sheduling a la QNX and Kickstart ?
>
> And we would like to have that exactly why?
>
> Somebody ported lmbench to QNX, and preliminary results show QNX having
> rather worse scheduling latencies etc than Linux. I don't think you
> realize how many people have NOT used QNX, and as such there's a lot of
> things that people just take for granted rather than actually have any
> proof for.
>
> Linus
------------------------------
From: "Uffe Holst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.qnx,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution
Date: 6 Sep 1999 16:56:55 GMT
In an article of 6 Sep 1999 Guy Macon wrote:
> >> JF> x-no-archive: yes
> >>
> >> Juergen, I don't believe your x-no-archive is making it into
> >> functionality.
> >>
> >> It seems to show up in the message body instead.
> >
> >That's okay - I believe x-no-archive is supposed to be accepted if it's
> >> >either in headers or in the first line of the body.
>
> I think that it's the first N lines. (3? 8?)
>
> This is because some newsreaders don't allow you to put what you choose
> in your headers, and some newsreaders don't allow you to put what you
> choose in the first line or two.
As far as I know the header and the body is separated by an empty line.
Unless your news reader explicitly allows you to add custom headers, it
will always add an empty line between the actual header and what you write.
The first line of your text is in no way considered part of the header.
--
Uffe Holst
------------------------------
From: "Jacek M. Holeczek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: HTML based Telnet client?
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 08:55:48 +0200
> This may be a dumb question, but is there such a thing as a HTML based
> Telnet client?
You might try the following java telnet aplet :
http://www.first.gmd.de/persons/leo/java/Telnet
Hope this helps,
Jacek.
------------------------------
From: "Inge Vabekk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.qnx,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 06:37:58 GMT
Paul E. Bell wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>
>On the PC, there is no mechanism to define a file which happens to have
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>been saved in text mode with the extension .html as being plain text,
>based on the lack of an HTML header in the file. The file will
>automatically be loaded into whatever program is associated with it,
nor
>do I have the choice to override that choice when I right-click on it
>(once associated, Open With disappears from the menu and Open appears).
>I have no choice but to find the program I want to open it and load it
>from that program.
As a matter of fact, there is. Mark a file name, then press a shift key
and right-click, and the drop-down menu appears.
Otherwise, the file extension used as a file identifier is clearly not
adequate. This is valid for *nix systems as well, although the mechanism
is rarely used in an OO way like it's done in Windows.
<digression>
This said, I would add that the whole structure of files in *nix and DOS
oriented systems is not very smart. Some file types would give faster
access, especially random-access files, by being block or record
oriented (fixed record size). There's no builtin security or redundance,
not even a simple and straightforward thing like a checksum, in standard
files. There is, as you say, no additional standard information, neither
to identify the file, nor to protect it from being used in an
unauthorised manner (I'm aware of the u/g/o protection in *nix. No such
thing in DOS/Windows, and NT has its own protection system).
</digression>
>Both systems could benefit from an arrangement where a number of
>programs could be associated with a number of files, and clicking on a
>file brings up a menu of those programs to view/run/edit the file with.
I've really never had any problem with starting a program first, and
then select which file to work with. I've had a hard time understanding
why files should need any "association" at all. All too often it's just
a nuisance (Ever click on a '.reg' file for editing, and got the
registry updated instead? Not a Good Thing if you're running
Windows!! -- Oh, well, using Windows isn't much of a GT
nyway....(+: ).
.
Although under normal circumstances you don't need to know much about
your car's intestines, it sure helps the day it stops executing your
commands in the middle of nowhere. Bill Gates may have had some good
ideas, but encouraging people to *not* worry about the inner workings of
their computer system is certainly not among them; at least when you see
it from the users' standpoint.
Everyone should build their own computer AND install the OS. This would
take care of some of the mystery that some people (understandably)
associate with computers.
---
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (for email reply: x -> e)
------------------------------
From: "Quiney, Philip (EXCHANGE:HAL02:HM10)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Changing RPM target Directory?
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 08:14:12 +0100
Greg F Walz Chojnacki wrote:
>
> I tried to install StarOfice from a CDROM RPM, and learned that my /
> directory didn't have enough space. I'd like to direct the RPM to create a
> /usr/local/opt/Office51 directory, rather than /opt/Office51, which is what
> it apparently wants to do.
>
> Is there a straightforward way to do this?
>
I believe there is an option to rpm to tell it to override the default
installation dir. However there is a caveat that the rpm needs to have
been prepared for this option (--prefix IIRC). The man page calls these
relocatable packages FWIW.
Try a logical link before running rpm
ln -s /usr/local/opt/Office51 /opt/Office51
to see if it fools rpm into using it if already present.
Failing that it is repartition time ;-)
HTH
Regards
Phil Q
--
Phil Quiney Digital PowerLine,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Nortel Networks,
Telephone: +44 (1279) 402363 London Rd, Harlow,
Fax: +44 (1279) 402885 Essex CM17 9NA,
United Kingdom.
"This message may contain information proprietary to Northern
Telecom so any unauthorised disclosure, copying or distribution
of its contents is strictly prohibited."
------------------------------
From: Tony Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.network,comp.os.linux.networking
Subject: Re: Maintaining 2 Networks
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 08:24:47 +0100
I am confused as to what problems you are having. I am using my machine as a IP
masq'ing
gateway - a common use for a linux machine. For this to work you have to have both
ppp and
eth connectivity - otherwise the IP masq'ing is useless.
This is not a new thing - I have been doing it since Slakware 2......
Michael Starkie wrote:
> You mean on a single machine ( your Linux gateway ) you can reach the network
>attached
> to your ethernet device (eth0) and also the network attached to your ppp device
>(ppp0).
> Both at the same time from the same machine? For example you can ping two ip
>addresses
> each on a seperate network?
>
> > I certainly do. I use my linux machine as a Firewall/Gateway for my other machine
>to
> > get onto the internet.
> >
> > Michael Starkie wrote:
> >
> > > Tony Green wrote:
> > >
> > > > Well,
> > > >
> > > > I use a lan connection and ppp at the same time without any problems. As for
> > > > dynamic DNS etc - thats a different problem.
> > > >
> > > > I think you best bet it to right a little script which will allow you to change
> > > > the relevnet files based on information that it gets from /var/log/messages?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Do you use both networks at the same time?
------------------------------
From: Tony Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Red Hat 6.1 Available
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 09:34:18 +0100
All,
Just wanted to let you know that Redhat 6.1 (Lorax) is available for
download.
It's beta code, so beware.
Check out http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html for your nearest
mirror - be warned though; As it's beta code it will not be available
from EVERY site.
Tony
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jon Skeet)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.qnx,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Amiga, QNX, Linux and Revolution
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 09:30:53 +0100
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On the PC, there is no mechanism to define a file which happens to have
> been saved in text mode with the extension .html as being plain text,
<snip>
You keep talking about "the PC" as if there's only one operating system
for it. Sure, Windows only cares about file extensions, but that's not
the only option. I believe that BeOS keeps a mime type associated with
every file, which sounds a pretty good idea to me. Linux will colour
directory listings just based on extension, but most other things don't
rely on extensions at all - not executables, not documents, not config
files, not zip files... xv is quite happy to understand images based on
their magic numbers rather than their extensions...
In short - don't attribute to the PC everything that is wrong with
Windows.
--
Jon Skeet - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet/
------------------------------
From: Ollie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: fsck after power failure
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 17:31:09 GMT
Spike! wrote:
>
> It said do NOT use -a or -p options, IIRC.
You're right I misread that one...
cheers,
Ollie
================== Posted via CNET Linux Help ==================
http://www.searchlinux.com
------------------------------
From: "Quiney, Philip (EXCHANGE:HAL02:HM10)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: how to load modules without compiling kernel
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 08:08:47 +0100
Joseph H Zieniewicz wrote:
>
> I have the cdrom module mcd.o and would like to load the module when
> linux
> boots and would like to load the module without re-compiling the kernel.
>
> Is this possible? What is the procedure if possible?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> jozien
man insmod
Regards
Phil Q
--
Phil Quiney Digital PowerLine,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Nortel Networks,
Telephone: +44 (1279) 402363 London Rd, Harlow,
Fax: +44 (1279) 402885 Essex CM17 9NA,
United Kingdom.
"This message may contain information proprietary to Northern
Telecom so any unauthorised disclosure, copying or distribution
of its contents is strictly prohibited."
------------------------------
From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: General Rant from a Linux Newbie
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 10:16:51 +0100
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lizard wrote:
>
[...]
>
> Now, on to software. First off, has anyone thought of putting in the
> INSTALL text file words to the effect of "you better untar this from /,
> otherwise, you'll end up creating a zillion useless directories where you
> don't want them because there's no way to tell tar to go to the root to
> start?" Apparently not. Do not assume your users intuitively know where
I'm not sure why you think this is necessary.
as root
cd /usr/local/src
tar xf app.tar
cd app-1.0.3
./configure
make
make install
These steps work for probably 100% of the gnu stuff and most other software
you'll find for linux. Don't untar stuff in your home directory or the root
directory. Most application tar files have a directory structure built in.
Use symlinks to get rind of the 'version number in directory' problem.
> software is 'supposed' to go, especially if they've been trained on OSes
> that don't give a damn.
Software for unix is supposed to go in /usr/local/src (or /opt) by
convention. Putting it anywhere else is just stupid, in my opinion. There's
no need to put something in /bin (which I believe should be reserved for
'vendor supplied software') that should be in /usr/local/bin. If you really
want it in /bin make a link.
[...]
> to be untarred from the root directory. Tried to copy it there, found out I
> had to BE root to copy it to \, su'ed to root, tried it again, untarred it,
> tried to run it...got some random 'file not found' error.
Do yourself a favor and don't put stuff under /. Get a copy of Essential
System Administration. Don't run regular apps as root. Make an account for
yourself and su to root if you need to.
> Why the SMEG does X write output to STDOUT when you can't SEE it until you
> leave X? At the very least, the user should have the option of all error
It really doesn't matter. Try
% startx | tee .X.err
vi .X.err
------------------------------
From: Eli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: after gcc 2.95.1 installation c++ compiler doesn't work
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 09:08:28 GMT
Hi all.
I've installed gcc 2.95.1 on my RH Linux 6.0
after the instalation i've removed packages :
egcs-c++-1.1.2-12
egcs-1.1.2-12
libstdc++-2.9.0-12
now when I try to run groff it complaints it cannot find library
libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2
Whei I tried to recompile groff configure script claims that I have no
working c++ compiler
here its output :
loading cache ./config.cache
checking for prefix by ... checking for grops... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether we are using GNU C... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for c++... c++
checking whether we are using GNU C++... yes
checking whether c++ accepts -g... yes
checking whether cross-compiling... no
checking that C++ compiler can compile simple program... no
configure: error: a working C++ compiler is required
Thanks in advance
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Villy Kruse)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: bypassing fsck
Date: 7 Sep 1999 11:42:44 +0200
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> How can I set things up so that certain partitions are never checked at
> boot time? (They are not written to, and several are normally not read
> from either. I just don't want to have to mount them by hand in the rare
> but occuring case that I need something from them, so they are in
> /etc/fstab.
If mounted readonly the file system would never be marked as needing fsck
even on a bad shutdown. If the file system is never written to it should
be mounted read-only.
--
Villy
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Villy Kruse)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: EZ-BIOS and LILO
Date: 7 Sep 1999 11:45:57 +0200
Cameron L. Spitzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>One of the cases in the LILO mini-HOWTO described an install
>without EZ-BIOS/OnTrack, on a drive with more than 1024 cylinders.
>The key was to put the Microsoft product on the first 1023 cylinders,
>and use the rest for Linux. The Lilo-related files are in
>C:\LINUX\LILO in the Microsoft partition. /sbin/lilo complains about
>the cylinder count, but it works anyway.
Make that 1020 for Microsoft and 3 cylinders for the linux /boot partition.
Then you won't have any lilo problems, provided, of course, that the kernel
file is in the /boot file system instead of in the root file system.
--
Villy
------------------------------
From: Adrian Hands <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Re: Upgrade RH5.2 to RH6.0 from the network without CDROM??
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 05:52:57 -0400
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bo Berglund wrote:
(snip)
> 2) Is it possible to install via the network? I mean can I access my
> shared CDROM on my WinNT4 machine during setup and get the files from
> there? I guess that this is a more difficult way but it would save
> disk space. I don't have NFS on the NT machine.
(snip)
With the 6.0 disk, RH supplies two boot floppy images - one for CD
install and the other for network install. I *think* you can do a Samba
install from the network install disk, but I haven't tried that. I have
done an FTP install from the 2nd disk though. I think nt can serve as
an FTP server, right ?
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
******************************
