Linux-Networking Digest #548, Volume #10 Fri, 19 Mar 99 03:15:10 EST
Contents:
Ganymede 0.98 released (Jonathan Abbey)
Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info** (Greg
Gershowitz)
Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info** ("Michael
Barnes")
Re: NFS problems with Linux 2.2.x server, freebsd client (Leslie Mikesell)
Re: What is the best Linux to install? (Greg White)
Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info** ("Brent
Cornwell, Pediatrics Computer Administrator")
Re: For all you Nicrosoft lovers (John Hasler)
PPP Dies with Hangup ("Michael Taylor")
Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info** ("Rufus V.
Smith")
Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info** ("Quantum
Leaper")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jonathan Abbey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Ganymede 0.98 released
Date: 17 Mar 1999 18:01:19 -0600
Ganymede 0.98 is now available for download at
ftp://ftp.arlut.utexas.edu/pub/ganymede/
or via the web at
http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2/
Ganymede is a GPL'ed network directory management system written in
Java, providing support for team management of NIS, DNS, etc.
--
Wow, it's been over a month since 0.97. Lots and lots of things
fixed, tweaked, adjusted, stamped, and improved. A lot of the last
month has gone into gasharl schema fixes and improvements that won't
necessarily be of much benefit to anyone not using GASH, but there
have also been a lot of tweaks and fixes to the server, client, and
admin console.
On the client, there have been lots of GUI fixes and reworkings as
a result of actual user testing. Lots of long-term annoyances have
been fixed.
On the server, there have been a fair number of changes to make the
server ready for production use, including a reworking of the server's
value-checking logic to provide better feedback when a user enters an
invalid value for a field.
I expect that Ganymede 0.99 will primarily feature work on the NIS/DNS
build integration for the gash and gasharl schemas, as well as some
more documentation for these things.
For Ganymede 0.99, I may also re-work the commit-time build logic to
allow people to do multiple database commits during a Ganymede session
without actually issuing an NIS/DNS build each time. This will depend
on how further testing goes with several people running Ganymede
simultaneously.
Documentation is probably still one of the weak points (as well as the
lack of user-contributed schema kits), so please let me know if there
are any aspects of the current documentation that you would
particularly like to see improved.
==================== Changes from 0.97 to 0.98 ===================
RELEASE DATE: March 17, 1999
1. [BUILD] Ganymede build scripts moved out of db/out to db
The Ganymede server now uses a property called
'ganymede.builder.scriptlocation' to locate the builder scripts to be
run by the builder tasks registered in the server.
Previously, the builder tasks ran the build scripts in the out
directory, which wasn't really compatible with the decision in 0.97 to
have the build tasks archive the output files written by the build
tasks. Now the build scripts are expected to be located by default
in the directory about out, which allows the zip archives to be
cleanly made.
There is still some confusion here.. in theory, you can have multiple
build tasks registered in the server, each of which will try to zip up
the out directory. This is not optimal, but what to do about it?
2. [SCHEMA] Added emailListCustom class to gasharl schema kit.
The email list members field is an invid field that can point to
objects of different types. It is used to allow the email list object
to have members that are users, external email listings, or other
email groups. Previously, the email list members field couldn't really
be edited after the bulk loading process was complete.
3. [CLIENT] Made windows for newly created objects non-closeable
The client allows the user to close object windows manually as a
convenience, to avoid cluttering up the client when editing lots of
objects.
Unfortunately, if we allow the user to close a newly created object,
there isn't necessarily a good way of getting that window back if it
turns out that the user left some mandatory field unfilled when they
go to click on 'commit'. Now object creation windows will not be
closeable, so that it's not possible to 'lose' object windows that you
need to do further editing on.
4. [CLIENT] Modified the list editor GUI component
The 'list editor' GUI component used in the client may have a text
field at the bottom to allow the user to simply type in something
to add to the list. Previously, the 'Add' button connected to the
text field was enabled all the time, confusing users manipulating
the component. Now the 'Add' button will only be enabled when the
user has entered something into the text button.
5. [SERVER/CLIENT] Modified removal/inactivation handling
The server now by default refuses to allow objects to be removed
that have an inactivation protocol defined. supergash can go ahead
and remove objects directly, and custom DBEditObject subclasses can
still redefine this behavior by overriding canRemove().
In conjunction with this change, the client has been modified so
that it will always show 'delete' as an option when right-clicking
on an object, even though the object may have an inactivation
protocol defined. This makes things simpler, since it would be
difficult to handle the delete toolbar icon properly if I just
wanted the client to prevent the user from ever trying to delete
an object that can be inactivated. And besides, the user might
be operating with supergash privileges.
6. [SCHEMA] Lots of refinements to gasharl schema
Modified the loader code to use BufferedReader, and to take care
of a few deprecation warnings. Loading files from GASH should
be a good bit faster now.
The GASHARL schema now includes fields in the admin persona and owner
group objects to track information used for more complete GASH
compatibility. New users and groups will be created with their
uid and gid starting in a numeric range compatible with GASH's
permission model if the owner group has a minimum uid/gid set.
The GASHARL schema now includes support for handling ARL contract
information, which will be of no interest to anyone outside the
lab.
7. [CLIENT] Reworked the persona select handling
The client now prompts users with multiple admin personae with a
persona selection dialog on log-in.
8. [SERVER] Fixed the html schema dump code in DBStore.java
Oops. DBStore had my home directory path hard-coded when it
should have been using the ganymede.htmldump property. Fixed.
9. [SERVER] Fixed a bug preventing creating new object types in develop mode
The server's schema editing code had a bug that caused it to reject
the creation of new object types when the server was run with -develop
on the command line, which allowed for the creation of new universal
fields. Not a bug that anyone else should have run into, but some
aspects of this bug had the server doing some unnecessary extra work.
10. [CLIENT] Changed date representation in the query table
The query table will now use 4 digit years when showing dates.
11. [CLIENT] Fixed Calendar GUI
Previously, viewing an object that had date fields in it was not
handled properly.. the date field in most respects did not act
properly (clear button, calendar popped up in edit mode, etc.).
Fixed bug in JPanelCalendar which caused the calendar's year field not
to be refreshed properly upon rejecting a date as out of range.
12. [CLIENT] Fixed stupid lingering 'working guy' window bug
Fixed the problem with the 'working' internal frame not being properly
disposed of, and with it being hidden behind existing windows when
created.
13. [CLIENT] Redesigned query dialog
The querybox has been redesigned for clarity and user-friendliness.
The querybox now allows the ownerlist field to be searched on.
14. [SERVER] Optimized memory handling for strings
All strings loaded into the database are now interned(), trading
database load time for memory/runtime efficiency. Not sure that this
makes a noticeable difference, but it will be of some help.
15. [CLIENT] Fixed dialog placement and sizing errors
The JCenterDialog placement code was broken if the dialog was larger
than the frame parenting it. All Ganymede dialogs should now always
be entirely visible on screen.
The JCenterDialog's pack() method improperly adjusted the size of
centered dialogs, causing the edges of centered dialogs to be too
small. All dialogs should now be properly sized on NT as well as
UNIX.
16. [SERVER] Empty strings are considered undefined in StringDBField
The server's required fields logic wasn't detecting an empty string (a
string equal to "" rather than null) as an undefined field, which it
should do and now does.
17. [SERVER] Improved error reporting paths in server
Changed the verifyNewValue() methods in DBField and DBEditObject
to return a ReturnVal so that those methods can pass back detailed
error dialogs to the user.
18. [SERVER/ADMIN CONSOLE] Added more information to admin console
Added a column to the active user table to show how many objects each
user is actively editing, to help track actual use.
Added a column to the task table to show when each task was last run.
--
===============================================================================
Jonathan Abbey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Applied Research Laboratories The University of Texas at Austin
===============================================================================
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Greg Gershowitz)
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.tcl,comp.mail.sendmail,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info**
Date: 19 Mar 1999 07:32:54 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Someone tell my why this is such a big deal? Every unix box in
existance has a unique ID. It's the hostid. What's it for?
Licensing, mostly. Of course unix licensing is far more mature than
for windows. Heck, even a 486 can be made to cough up a hostid. Of
course, I don't know of any cases where that hostid get transmitted to
a vendor, but what's to stop it from happening?
-Greg G
--
-Greg "TORCHA" Gershowitz
-DG3X's own Extreme Icon
To Reply: See the organization line
Spam sucks. Fuck you spammers. Have a Nice Day.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/5207
------------------------------
From: "Michael Barnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.tcl,comp.mail.sendmail,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info**
Date: 19 Mar 1999 07:37:25 GMT
Every MODEM has a MAC address also...so your friends pc is nicless, but not
macless
As far as I know you cannot network anywhere without a mac address since
IP's map directly to machine addresses at lower levels to identify your
particular machine on any network. So, if your connected to any network via
any hardware device (router, switch, modem, nic) those devices must have mac
addresses.
and modems are easy to replace compared to CPU's also...
Bill Anderson wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Tim Roberts wrote:
>>
>> John Lehmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> >Kano wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Oh come on. Many other standard devices (ethernet cards, for example)
>> >> have their
>> >> own unique serial numbers that software can use at will. Get over it.
>> >>
>> >
>> >Yes - but ethernet mac cards are only broadcast over the lan, not over
>> >the net (except by Office98, of course).
>>
>> The POINT here is that it is exactly as easy to embed my unique MAC
address
>> in an Internet transaction as it is to embed my unique Pentium-III CPU ID
>> in an Internet transaction. Any software which will go to the trouble to
>> fetch the unique CPU identifier and send it over the network to identify
me
>> could just as easily be written TODAY to use a MAC address for exactly
the
>> same purpose. The CPU identifier is not significantly different in
concept
>> from the MAC address, and yet there has not been a hue and cry to boycott
>> NIC manufacturers.
>
>Ho wmany home users ar LAN connected to the internet?
>oh, yeah, that's right, they dial up with a modem; no getting a MAC
>address from a machine that does not have one.
>
>>
>> >And what do you mean get over it??? This kind of personal information
>> >is valuable. Business are willing to pay for it. This kind of
>> >behavior IS DOWNRIGHT THEFT!!!
>>
>> But whatever they could do with a CPU ID, they are probably already doing
>> with a MAC address. It is just as good as a unique identifier. "Get
over
>> it" is exactly the right attitude.
>
>Can you explain how they would be getting a MAC address from my friends'
>NIC-less pc?
>
>A MAC address is not as good, in any event. NICs get changed mor often
>than cpus (in most cases). IIRC MAC addresses can be changed, and there
>have been cases of MAC addresses beinf reused?
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: NFS problems with Linux 2.2.x server, freebsd client
Date: 19 Mar 1999 01:35:55 -0600
In article <7cekkt$6di$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In article <7ccpn2$maq$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell) wrote:
>> Does anyone have NFS working right with a Linux 2.2.x kernel on
>> the server, and freebsd clients? It appears to mount and
>> read operations work. Some writes work but others fail. Things
>> like a 'cp -R' of a directory tree leaves mostly 0-length files.
>> Did I miss something or is this just broken?
>
>I would venture a guess that it's broken, like previous releases have been.
Doesn't anyone else use it in a mixed configuration?
>Any particular reason you're using exactly the _opposite_ configuration than
>what would probably be optimal?
I'm not, yet. I want to move a cvs repository shared by several machines
to a more suitable drive that happens to be on a Linux box.
>FreeBSD is better at heavy-load networking
>than Linux (by far), and would make a *much* faster NFS server. Linux is
>better at running heavy applications (by far), and would (probably -- I
>assume you're using NFS for *something*) make a *much* more useful NFS
>client.
Speed is not a real issue in this instance, but reliability is.
>The fact that you're using FreeBSD clients for NFS makes me worry that those
>client boxes might be web servers. Please, for the love of God, tell me it
>isn't so.
No, I do have some vhosts for test purposes that access parts of the
production server via nfs, but I wouldn't do it where speed matters.
Apache's 'ProxyPass' and mod_rewrite with the [p] directive makes
it easy enough to get things from remote servers transparently and
the performance is great.
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Greg White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.redhat,alt.os.linux.slackware
Subject: Re: What is the best Linux to install?
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 19:14:17 -0800
Jason Rotunno wrote:
>
> when i read "what ditro" threads a lot of the benefits and drawbacks
> discussed have dealt with setup/configuration and x. not taking into
> consideration x, WM's, x apps, etc is there any real difference between
> the major distros aside from setup?
The largest ones I have noticed are:
1. Package management - .deb, .rpm, .tgz, etc.
If you do a lot of system maintenance via packages, this can be really
important. I think this is one of the big reasons that Red Hat is so
popular, is that it's package tool is fairly easy to use and understand
for a newbie, but with enough flexibility for some power users. (Haven't
tried it, can't speak for myself. '.tar.gz' just never bothered me for
some reason.. <g>)
2. Sysinit style
BSD, System V, or mix'n'match. Most people say that Slackware is very
BSDish in sysinit. RedHat is SysV style. Cannot yet speak for other
distros, but will soon. Got 'em all coming from LinuxMall.
------------------------------
From: "Brent Cornwell, Pediatrics Computer Administrator"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.tcl,comp.mail.sendmail,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info**
Date: 19 Mar 1999 07:38:33 GMT
Greg Gershowitz wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Someone tell my why this is such a big deal? Every unix box in
> existance has a unique ID. It's the hostid. What's it for?
> Licensing, mostly. Of course unix licensing is far more mature than
> for windows. Heck, even a 486 can be made to cough up a hostid. Of
> course, I don't know of any cases where that hostid get transmitted to
> a vendor, but what's to stop it from happening?
the problem with Intel's PSN is not the fact that it actually HAS a serial
number, but their REASONING behind putting it in the chip. They said it
would improve e-commerce. HOW exactly would it improve it, other than verify
the identification of the computer (and possibly, but not always, the
user)... The problem comes in when (and i've already heard people wanting to
do this) web admins start to incorporate the processor identification into
their servers, so as to associate a specific serial number (the PSN of the
user's computer), with any and all accounts that user may have at that
website... That alone doesn't garuntee that the person using the computer is
the owner of the account... and also, making scripts with such an
association makes a mess and several arguments between user and webmaster,
when the user tries to access his/her accounts from another computer.
...and who's to say that the original owner of the processor isn't going to
sell it to someone else? and then they'd have "authorization" to access
his/her accounts?????!!!!
...and i'm sure crackers have already designed a worm to go around the web,
extracting serial numbers when it comes across P3 systems....
just a little to think about...
Brent Cornwell, Computer Support Administrator
Pediatrics Dept., LSU Medical
------------------------------
From: John Hasler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: For all you Nicrosoft lovers
Date: 19 Mar 1999 07:42:40 GMT
Rufus V. Smith writes:
>The point is that sometimes innocent people need their privacy.
doole writes:
> From Authorities? Why??
"Authorities" with a capital "A", eh? Who do you think these "Authorities"
are, God? Why should the fact that someone is employed by one of those
organizations that you label an "Authority" give him the right to read my
private files?
--
John Hasler This posting is in the public domain.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Do with it what you will.
Dancing Horse Hill Make money from it if you can; I don't mind.
Elmwood, Wisconsin Do not send email advertisements to this address.
------------------------------
From: "Michael Taylor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: PPP Dies with Hangup
Date: 19 Mar 1999 05:43:27 GMT
HELP!
After much reading and some liberal swearing, I managed to get my modem and
PPP configured. The modem dials out to the isp, and the chat script runs as
well. I even get the "serial communication line established" message, and
then shortly after that I receive a Hangup (SIGHUP) message. Any ideas?
I am currently running RedHat 5.2 on a PII 300, with 128 megs of ram and a
33.6 ISA, Hayes compatible modem.
The pppd and chat scripts are very, very generic, almost straight out of the
book.
Thanks in advance,
Mike Taylor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "Rufus V. Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.tcl,comp.mail.sendmail,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info**
Date: 19 Mar 1999 07:37:48 GMT
All that is needed to get to the dial up user is an address of the service
provider's modem that the user called in on!
This is obviously not unique to an individual.
The IP address he gets when he logs in is also out of a pool of addresses
and is also non-unique.
Michael Barnes wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Every MODEM has a MAC address also...so your friends pc is nicless, but not
>macless
>As far as I know you cannot network anywhere without a mac address since
>IP's map directly to machine addresses at lower levels to identify your
>particular machine on any network. So, if your connected to any network
via
>any hardware device (router, switch, modem, nic) those devices must have
mac
>addresses.
>
>and modems are easy to replace compared to CPU's also...
>
>
>
------------------------------
From: "Quantum Leaper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.python,comp.lang.tcl,comp.mail.sendmail,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: The truth about the Pentium III chip and ID --- **boycott info**
Date: 19 Mar 1999 07:38:19 GMT
Michael Barnes wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Every MODEM has a MAC address also...so your friends pc is nicless, but not
>macless
Interesting is over 15 years of using modems, 300 baud to 56K modems
(hopefully a Cable or DSL modem in about a year or so), I have NEVER heard
that they have a MAC address? So what command or how do you get the MAC
address of a modem? Does this only apply to Mac modems or all modems? One
other question, why would a modem need a MAC address?
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Networking Digest
******************************
