Data retrieval from dead laptop
What's the best way to retrieve files from the hard drive of a dead laptop? I have a three-year old Sony VAIO Z505JS laptop that refuses to start. I've been through all the usual troubleshooting steps. It would cost almost $100 just to get a repair quote from Sony's service department, and a minimum of $300 to fix it. It's probably not worth it. However, there are some files on its hard drive that I'd like to retrieve, as it had been a few days since it was backed up. If this were a desktop system I'd just pull the hard drive and plug it into something compatible as a secondary drive. How would you do it with a laptop? Thanks. -- Roger -- Roger H. Goun Brentwood Country Animal Hospital, P.C. Chief Kennel Officer Exeter, New Hampshire, USA pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
They sell adapters that can hook a laptop sized hard drive to the ribbon cable of a PC. Make it a secondary slave disk on a knowm good PC, preferably on a network, boot up the PC, mount the secondary disk under some /tmp mount point, then tar or cp to a backup area. On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Roger H. Goun wrote: What's the best way to retrieve files from the hard drive of a dead laptop? I have a three-year old Sony VAIO Z505JS laptop that refuses to start. I've been through all the usual troubleshooting steps. It would cost almost $100 just to get a repair quote from Sony's service department, and a minimum of $300 to fix it. It's probably not worth it. However, there are some files on its hard drive that I'd like to retrieve, as it had been a few days since it was backed up. If this were a desktop system I'd just pull the hard drive and plug it into something compatible as a secondary drive. How would you do it with a laptop? Thanks. -- Roger ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
RE: Data retrieval from dead laptop
What's the best way to retrieve files from the hard drive of a dead laptop? Depends on how it died. If it was non-hard drive related, the hard drive is IDE and, with a cheap adapter, you can plug it in as a slave drive in any desktop to move data over. If the drive is the cause of the PC dying, you'd either have to send it to a data-recovery company (read: expensive), or hook it up as a slave drive and see if you could get some of the data off. If it was the cause, it probably won't even spin up, so the data-recovery folks may be the only option. Chris Blake ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make
On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, at 5:45pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No. My understanding is that ypbind is only run on NIS clients, no? No. It's run on everything -- the server is, indeed, still a client Okay, I'm definitely confused now. Nothing I've seen anywhere says that NIS servers have to be NIS clients. Indeed, I've generally gotten the impression that, while it is quite possible to do that, it is also quite optional. I didn't say it -had- to be a client; as a matter of fact, further down, I said it didn't have to be. HOWEVER, if you're getting a can't bind to domain, then I'm gonna bet on it. References: The Linux NIS-HOWTO, section 9.1, states If you want to restrict access for users to your NIS server, you'll have to setup the NIS server as a client as well ..., which implies that such a configuration is optional. See above. My copy of Managing NFS and NIS, by Hal Stern, page 23, says that the NIS master should not include the +:: entry in the /etc/passwd file. On page 26, it states that NIS clients must have that entry. Adding the + stuff to the passwd file does not make you a client; executing ypbind (successfully) does. The + stuff makes the client _able_ to append NIS info to the passwd info; you can certainly leave that off for thems who wish to restrict access. I'm not saying you're wrong. It is rather more likely I am misunderstanding something somewhere. But I want to fix my understanding, as well as the computer. :-) NIS is confusing. NIS+ is worse. LDAP is even more fun. My head still aches with LDAP, and I even think I have it mostly under my belt. But, as Paul will attest, I still ask plenty o' newbie-central questions on the OpenLDAP list. Honestly, though: if I were starting from scratch, and had to choose to learn one of the above (NIS, NIS+, LDAP), I'd probably go with LDAP: it's more flexible, and allows for all sorts of password synchronization and the like. Handy. On top of that, its failover (I'm doing it via round-robin DNS) makes NIS' failover look like the joke it is. $.02 + SH, -Ken ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make
This is what I get for playing too much GTA: Vice City instead of reading e-mail. Instead of saying what he said to Ken's responses, here's my thoughts. On Tue, Jun 17, 2003 at 06:03:27PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, at 5:45pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No. My understanding is that ypbind is only run on NIS clients, no? No. It's run on everything -- the server is, indeed, still a client Okay, I'm definitely confused now. Nothing I've seen anywhere says that NIS servers have to be NIS clients. Indeed, I've generally gotten the impression that, while it is quite possible to do that, it is also quite optional. References: The Linux NIS-HOWTO, section 9.1, states If you want to restrict access for users to your NIS server, you'll have to setup the NIS server as a client as well ..., which implies that such a configuration is optional. That should probably be corrected, or have the implication changed. My copy of Managing NFS and NIS, by Hal Stern, page 23, says that the NIS master should not include the +:: entry in the /etc/passwd file. On page 26, it states that NIS clients must have that entry. I have that book. It's actually a pretty poor book (ORA can be hit or miss at times, sad but true). Actually, NIS clients don't really require +:: anymore, or at least not in all cases. More appropriate would be /etc/nsswitch.conf. NIS provides a lot more than just passwd entries, and nsswitch.conf manages where the system looks for that information. I'm not saying you're wrong. It is rather more likely I am misunderstanding something somewhere. But I want to fix my understanding, as well as the computer. :-) Then start ypbind. Even if you're not using it for authentication, you'll want it running. -Mark pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Stupid browser tricks
Michael O'Donnell wrote: Bookmarklets are way cool! Here are some more: http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets And some more by Kevin Smith, who calls them favelets: http://centricle.com/tools/favelets/ Most are oriented toward assisting web developers in plying their craft. Erik ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
RE: ISP TOS violations
When M1/ATT blocked port 80 during code red everybody moaned and bitched.. They eventually lifted the block but one of my friends didn't get lifted, he still had a blocked port 80, so did everybody on his node.. Well, to make a long story short, he called about it and now he forever has port 80 blocked.. Even after he moved they kept the block on his account.. Don't call unless you have to, and even if you have to never EVER say you're running a server. Oh yah, an 99% of the techs out there could give a shit what you have, and if they're contractors even more so since they get paid by visit (at least all the ones I know), not hourly, so they want to be in, out, and on to the next guy. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Andrew W. Gaunt Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 9:17 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: ISP TOS violations I've had adelphia power link for over a year now and their attitude seems to be if you're not a problem they'll happily take your money every month. Why would it be any different than that? Sure, they have policies that say no servers and or modem sharing or whatever, but, if your checks clear and your not a drain on their expenses then who really cares what the policies are? The policies aren't really all tha consistent anyway. For example, when I first signed up, the policy stated that only one computer could be connected to the cable modem yet on the web page there was a Howto like page that explained how to connect more than one computer using a home NAT box like the linksys, dlink etc. I have suffered several major Power Link outages that have affected just my area or just my own home. These outages (which were not my fault) put a drain on Adelphia's resources as technicians drove around in trucks, made repairs the system, checked my drop's power levels, stood around scratching their heads, etc. There were no secrets, they were in my home and saw all the stuff hangiing off the linksys router (A gaggle of PCs, and an Sun Ultra1). Nobody really cared about what I was doing as long as I wasn't a problem. I suppose if I was an arrogant SOB while the troubleshooting was going on instead of trying to work with them then they might have said something, but, I held my tongue and all was cool. -- __ | 0|___||. Andrew Gaunt *nix Sys. Admin,, etc. Lucent Technologies _| _| : : } [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www-cde.mv.lucent.com/~quantum -(O)-==-o\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.gaunt.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, at 5:40pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As for their ToS not allowing servers, well... you'd think if they really cared ... Terms Of Serivce are policy. Filters are enforcement. A current and/or previous lack of enforcement does not cancel policy. Just ask Iraq. :-) Furthermore, if I were you, would not contact Adelphia about this. It could easily backfire. They might not know or care about your existing TOS violations, but complaining that you you are having trouble violating their Terms Of Service might be considered asking for punishment. :-) Like I said the other week, Don't ask, don't tell. If what you're doing doesn't bother them, they won't bother you. But if you start bothering them, the easiest option (for them) might be to turn you off. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
ISP TOS violations (was: web mail)
On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, at 6:41pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just because they told you that they won't let you doesn't make it suck any less that you can't... And just because you or any number of other people think it sucks doesn't mean their TOS don't apply. :-) ...and of course /no one/ ever intentionally does anything their TOS says they can't. I just wanted to make sure everyone involved knew about those restrictions. Otherwise, and again, one might get themselves into trouble, by complaining that they can't do something which isn't supported in the first place. Besides which, this restriction in providers' TOS agreements is an arbitrary limitation which we, as consumers, should not stand for. First: You don't speak for all consumers. Second: The vast majority of consumers have no interest in hosting services, and indeed, probably should *not* be doing so. Code Red, Nimda, Lion, etc., etc. Third, and major: In reality, it is unlikely an ISP (even one as bad as Comcast) will disconnect you *just* for hosting services. Even if you complain about it, you'll likely just be told You're not supposed to be doing that, go back to browsing and they'll leave it at that. Terms Of Service protect both parties involved -- ISP and customer. (Although, of course, the ISP is more concerned about protecting themselves, and that shows.) TOS explain what the ISP is giving you. If their TOS don't meet your needs/wants, then obviously, the service is not right for you. Better people know that up-front, then subscribe and find out after the fact. Example #1: A business subscribes to Comcast, and puts their profit-generating website on the feed. The feed proves to be inadequate for whatever reason, and the business looses money. Without those TOS, the business would have a good case to complain that Comcast is at least partially responsible for that lost profit. Example #2: Somebody is hosting a personal site that gets Slashdotted. Comcast blocks their feed (and the published IP address) because the load exceeds what their network is designed for, and it is disrupting other customers. Without those TOS, the customer would have a case to demand a refund or otherwise cause problems. Finally, I once again point out that Internet feeds exist, and have since the beginning, that allow you all the features you continually demand, Derek. They just cost one heck of a lot more. If you are not willing to pay the price, that's too bad for you. ISPs are in the business to make a profit. They are not interested in unprofitable activities. Once you cross the line into the realm of hosted services, costs (even support costs) go up significantly. Since I know people will bring this up: Yes, there is a lack of competition in the industry, and yes, cable monopolies are unfair, and yes, business class Internet feeds are overpriced. None of that invalidates my points. At most, the ideal situation would bring prices down. Would you be willing to pay even two or three times as much for business class service? Nothing further is said about what constitutes a server. So, then, what IS a server? That is a semantic argument, and one in which I have no interest in participating. Most people know what they mean and have no trouble figuring it out. -- Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do | | not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. | | All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
In a message dated: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 09:10:45 EDT Roger H. Goun said: What's the best way to retrieve files from the hard drive of a dead laptop? I have a three-year old Sony VAIO Z505JS laptop that refuses to start. Will it just not boot? I highly recommend getting a copy of Knoppix on CD and attempting to boot from that. My wife's laptop died not too long ago with a bad hard drive failure. I was able to boot off of CD with Knoppix, which correctly identified all the system hardware, allowed me easily start the network stuff, mount the NTFS file system, and rsync all the directories she needed to my server upstairs, and make it available to her via Samba so she could at least access it from her Windows system :) Using a RH boot disk didn't work, because rsync/ssh weren't included (7.3 IIRC, don't know about 8.0 or 9). HTH, -- Seeya, Paul -- Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853 E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing, but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: ISP TOS violations (was: web mail)
On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 10:14:24AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Since I know people will bring this up: Yes, there is a lack of competition in the industry, and yes, cable monopolies are unfair, and yes, business class Internet feeds are overpriced. None of that invalidates my points. At most, the ideal situation would bring prices down. Would you be willing to pay even two or three times as much for business class service? It's not worth 2-3x. 50% premium to be doing exactly what I'm doing now (light web serving, SSH, SMTP), only not violating the TOS? Sure. Comcast offers Internet Pro for 2x, but gives you 5 static IP addresses, 3.5M/384k, and the ability to use a VPN. Outbound. -Mark pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Will it just not boot? I highly recommend getting a copy of Knoppix on CD and attempting to boot from that. My wife's laptop died not too long ago with a bad hard drive failure. I was able to boot off of CD with Knoppix, which correctly identified all the system hardware, allowed me easily start the network stuff, mount the NTFS file system, and rsync all the directories she needed to my server upstairs, and make it available to her via Samba so she could at least access it from her Windows system :) Man! I wish I'd thought of that a few weeks ago! I was in a similar situation to the OP. I'm going to keep a copy of Knoppix in my car's emergency kit. Erik ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
Thanks for all the cogent responses. The laptop is genuinely dead, not just hosed. (I run Debian unstable. I can tell the difference. :-) No lights, no horrible grinding noises from the hard drive, nothing. I tried two different known-good batteries, with and without the A/C adapter, with and without the additional memory DIMM. I think it's mostly likely a problem with the on switch or the power supply, but it could be a motherboard issue, or the hard drive, for that matter. Once I figure out how to get the hard drive out (I've removed every screw in sight, but still can't get the clamshell apart) so I can verify that it's the standard 44-pin IDE interface, I'll order a 44-pin to 40-pin IDE adapter. A 44-pin IDE to USB adapter would be more convenient, but seems to be a lot more expensive. 44-pin IDE to PCMCIA would be good, too, but I can't find any of those. Thanks again. -- Roger -- Roger H. Goun Brentwood Country Animal Hospital, P.C. Chief Kennel Officer Exeter, New Hampshire, USA pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, ken == [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: + My copy of Managing NFS and NIS, by Hal Stern, page 23, says + that the NIS master should not include the +:: entry in the + /etc/passwd file. On page 26, it states that NIS clients must + have that entry. ken Adding the + stuff to the passwd file does not make you a ken client; executing ypbind (successfully) does. The + stuff ken makes the client _able_ to append NIS info to the passwd info; ken you can certainly leave that off for thems who wish to restrict ken access. The '+' stuff only works if you've set 'passwd', 'shadow', and/or 'groups' to compat in /etc/nsswitch.conf/ YP *Master* servers do not need to be clients, but you must configure it's /etc/nsswitch.conf file appropriately so that it looks in the correct places for things. Actually, now that I think of it, you might need to bind a master to itself so that it can read the 'ypservers' map in order to distribute the NIS maps to the slave servers. Though, for some reason, I thought the NIS makefile took care of that by basically doing a for in `cat ypservers` (It's been a long time since I've set up a yp master server :) ken if I were starting from scratch, and had to choose to learn ken one of the above (NIS, NIS+, LDAP), I'd probably go with LDAP: ken it's more flexible, and allows for all sorts of password ken synchronization and the like. Handy. On top of that, its ken failover (I'm doing it via round-robin DNS) makes NIS' ken failover look like the joke it is. While I agree with this sentiment in general, I think I'd rather use NIS. Despite how insecure and flawed it is, I'm finding LDAP to be a huge beast. LDAP is as flexible as the X Window system is. It is all things to all people at all times under any given condition. As a result, trying to understand how to do one thing with LDAP, is not overly difficult, but trying to do several things with LDAP gets very confusing very quickly. My impression is that if you don't set up LDAP from the very beginning to do everything you want it to, changing it's configuration after the fact is going to be extremely painful. At least with NIS, it's a known quantity, it does one thing and it does it adequately. If you have the luxury of existing in an all UNIX environment, NIS is the way to go if you have to (though, both Derek and I can make a *really* strong case for a distributed, flat-file based environment built upon rsync and ssh to over come the major problems with NIS :) So, Ben, does this philisophical discussion in anyway help you fix your computer ;) -- Seeya, Paul -- Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853 E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing, but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 12:56:01 -0400 Roger H. Goun [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Once I figure out how to get the hard drive out (I've removed every screw in sight, but still can't get the clamshell apart) so I can verify that it's the standard 44-pin IDE interface, I'll order a 44-pin to 40-pin IDE adapter. A 44-pin IDE to USB adapter would be more convenient, but seems to be a lot more expensive. 44-pin IDE to PCMCIA would be good, too, but I can't find any of those. Take a look at OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/specials/maillist.cfm I got the adapter and case from them. If I recall, they had both firewire and USB. This is a Mac place, but after I did my search I checked with them after getting some good reviews by some friends in the Macwoburn group. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Knoppix (was: Data retrieval from dead laptop)
I burned some Knoppix 3.2 CD's recently (2003-06-06 release) and will be bringing them to the meeting on the 25th as giveaways. First dibs accepted from newbies. -dl -- David A. Long JumpShift, LLC [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make
On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, ken == [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: + No. My understanding is that ypbind is only run on NIS clients, + no? ken No. It's run on everything -- the server is, indeed, still a ken client (unless for some bizarre reason it was determined that ken even though it served the data, it didn't need to see it. I've ken seen that once or twice for security reasons.) It should be required that NIS server be a client. In fact, it is usually recommended that you don't run ypbind on the server since, if for some bizarre reason, it binds to a system other than itself, you can have some really serious problems. I've seen this far too often. I'm almost positive that Derek and I did not run ypbind on the NIS master at MCL, based on all the problems we had with our inherited environment when we were back at Bay which did exactly this. -- Seeya, Paul -- Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853 E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing, but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 2) Is it running ypbind? No. My understanding is that ypbind is only run on NIS clients, no? No. It's run on everything -- the server is, indeed, still a client (unless for some bizarre reason it was determined that even though it served the data, it didn't need to see it. I've seen that once or twice for security reasons.) This is almost certainly your issue. I was adminining a site that heavily used NIS. There were 5 slave servers and one master. Like all of the clients, they used NIS heavily as a client. Everything was set up to bind to whatever NIS server responded 1st. Good for clients when a server goes down and it does some load balancing. Ok, one server crashed. A reboot from a clean shutdown takes 30 minutes or so. When it boots, it's usually too busy to serve NIS to itself, so it binds to another server, whichever responds quickest. When NIS rebinds, it's on the order of minutes, an eternity in computer time. While it rebinds, the load goes way up. To 30-100 in uptime. What happened was a domino effect. On server went down. Another server was bound to it and its load went up until it crashed, etc. To fix it, I made all the YP slaves (and the master) bind to themselves. Paul, do you remember that day? ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
Erik Price wrote: Man! I wish I'd thought of that a few weeks ago! I was in a similar situation to the OP. I'm going to keep a copy of Knoppix in my car's emergency kit. A more minimal CD is @Stake's Security Toolkit: http://www.atstake.com/research/tools/pst/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 01:06:14PM -0400, you wrote: On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 12:56:01 -0400 Roger H. Goun [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Once I figure out how to get the hard drive out (I've removed every screw in sight, but still can't get the clamshell apart) so I can verify that it's the standard 44-pin IDE interface, I'll order a 44-pin to 40-pin IDE adapter. A 44-pin IDE to USB adapter would be more convenient, but seems to be a lot more expensive. 44-pin IDE to PCMCIA would be good, too, but I can't find any of those. Take a look at OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/specials/maillist.cfm I got the adapter and case from them. If I recall, they had both firewire and USB. This is a Mac place, but after I did my search I checked with them after getting some good reviews by some friends in the Macwoburn group. This looks like just what I need: http://tinyurl.com/en4m Thanks, Jerry. -- R. -- Roger H. Goun Brentwood Country Animal Hospital, P.C. Chief Kennel Officer Exeter, New Hampshire, USA pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make
In a message dated: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 11:42:32 EDT Tom Buskey said: To fix it, I made all the YP slaves (and the master) bind to themselves. Paul, do you remember that day? No, I've subconsciously blocked it and other atrocities committed at that location from my memory. It's just too painful to think about, even now, almost 10 years later ;) -- Seeya, Paul -- Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853 E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing, but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: comcast and linux
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:13:29 -0400 Chris Brenton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Throw the NIC in a Windows box, register, and move the NIC to your Linux system. I just have a minimal Windows system installed for dual boot. My router and desktop system have the same MAC address. Then you don't need to get into an argument with people who only read recipes. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: comcast and linux
On Wed, 2003-06-18 at 14:13, Chris Brenton wrote: Throw the NIC in a Windows box, register, and move the NIC to your Linux system. Does this mean you can't use routers/NATs like SMC Barricade? -- Jeff Macdonald [EMAIL PROTECTED] Into birding? Check out http://www.migratus.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: comcast and linux
On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 02:23:27PM -0400, Jeff Macdonald wrote: On Wed, 2003-06-18 at 14:13, Chris Brenton wrote: Throw the NIC in a Windows box, register, and move the NIC to your Linux system. Does this mean you can't use routers/NATs like SMC Barricade? My Barricade has a field to enter a MAC address, which then gets sent to the cable modem. -Mark pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Replacing NIS [was:NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make]
On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 01:22:06PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Derek == Derek Martin wrote: Derek Another way is to set up an NIS-like master-slave Derek relationship with the master and one host on each subnet Derek where systems which need the files live. The master pushes Derek the files out to the slaves which in turn push the files Derek out to each of the systems on their subnet. This keeps the Derek vast majority of traffic on local subnets and obviously Derek serializes much of the transfers. [...snip...] Derek Also, since all of this will be scripted, it's easy to Derek determine which hosts did not receive updates, and notify the Derek sysadmin team of problems so they can (hopefully) react and Derek fix it before anyone notices. Also, this could be configured to be a 'pull' system where, when the clients boot, they contact the ypserver and pull the files over. I'm thinking of a 2-way file transmission scenario here where the servers provide both push and pull capability using both rdist and rsync. 2 types of servers: Master - the primary system where all changes are centralized and pushed out from Slaves - one or more per subnet which get changes propagated to them by the master and push the new files out to the clients In addition, both masters and slaves would run an rsync:: server. At boot time, the slaves would attempt to contact the server to pull the latest files over, and only the deltas at that, not the entirety of every file. A normal client works exactly the same as a slave server, with the caveat that if the client fails to contact a local slave, you could opt for it to attempt to contact the master as well. All you've done is reimplement NIS - poorly. It already does everything you describe, and pretty well too. I can add new automounter maps, create accounts, and they get pushed out for me. When I first started working with NIS, we had a Sparc IPX running on a 10-Base2 network (aka coax). That thing would fall over and kill the network if you looked at it. Fast forward to today. I've got an SGI box on a switched 100-BaseT network serving three times as many machines without a burp. The only reason I'm replaing it with a Linux server is (a) it's IRIX and (b) it's not rackable - the box is on the floor. The only problem I run into is a ~5 second delay for ypbind to figure out what's going on. But that's probably the same amount of time as used by rsync to figure out what files need to be pushed. Nor would your solution solve the most serious issue with NIS: the if you have root on one box, you can take over anyone's account vulnerability. On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, mike == mike ledoux wrote: mike how do you handle password changes? I can't think of any mike reasonable way to deal with that short of requiring people to mike log in to the 'master' server to make changes, and that seems mike like a very fragile solution to me (I can easily imagine my mike users 'forgetting' and changing their password on the local mike copy of the file, and not being able to log in tomorrow). mike Maybe I'm just missing something obvious. Well, I think this could be handled pretty easily in a couple of different ways. The first, and rather simplistic method is via a Web interface where the user changes their password, shell, whatever. Upon submission and validation of the form, an rdist is kicked off to the slaves and clients. Already implemented in yppasswd The intersting thing about this idea is that with a combination of good planning, a good client replication/auto-build system such as FAI, System Imager, or maybe even KickStart, you could actually have a web server running on each client system. This would first make changes to the local files, then rsync the changes back up to the local subnet slave. The slave could then both immediately update it's subnet and contact the master, which would kick off an rdist/rsync to all slaves except the one from which it received the latest updates. Sounds like a lot of logic behind it. There are some obvious concerns with this method, namely, do you want to trust propagating changes to an entire network which were received from a possibly compromised host. However, in certain environments, I can see where this risk is really no worse than running NIS in the first place, since an NIS server is rather easy to compromise even without physical access to it. Err? Another more interesting idea would be a network based revision control system with post-commit hooks to distribute the changes.. For instance, assume you have a master server which keeps all these files under revision control. The clients at boot time could simply attempt to update their working copy of these
Re: Data retrieval from dead laptop
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, at 12:56pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Once I figure out how to get the hard drive out (I've removed every screw in sight, but still can't get the clamshell apart) What brand and model? One common thing: On many laptops, you need to remove the keyboard to expose more screws. The keyboard, in turn, is held in by tabs, latches, and/or screws. so I can verify that it's the standard 44-pin IDE interface Good idea, but they almost always are, in any laptop made in the last ten years. A 44-pin IDE to USB adapter would be more convenient, but seems to be a lot more expensive. Yes. The 44-pin IDE interface is just the regular 40-pin IDE interface, in a slightly smaller form factor, and with four new pins for power. The adapters are typically just a PCB with two connectors soldered on to it. USB-to-IDE, on the other hand, will require a USB interface, an IDE interface, a micro-controller to do the conversion, likely some buffer memory, and maybe some other stuff, too. That will raise the price significantly. Still not a lot of money, but when you're talking about something you'll likely only use once, $5 vs $50 is significant. :) For data recovery, I would prefer the plain IDE myself, anyway. USB is often slower, sometimes harder to get working, and always hides certain aspects of the IDE drive. For example, many OEMs provide utilities which can talk to their drives and run proprietary diagnostics; such things won't work with a USB adapter. -- Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do | | not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. | | All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Replacing NIS [was:NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make]
On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 02:28:40PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, mark == Mark Komarinski wrote: mark All you've done is reimplement NIS - poorly. Well, that was basically the gist of the conversation, how to implementt NIS without the flaws of NIS. I don't think I did it poorly, and I readily admitted that there were some inherent flaws in that would need to be worked out. Perhaps what I should say is: Given higher stability of today's OSs and networks, NIS is working pretty well. NIS has flaws, but most of the flaws are due to be fixed by LDAP. Once LDAP authentication gets supported by more OSs, I think it will start to take over. Had the web, ssh, rsync, and rdist been around in 1983 when NIS was released to the wild, I honestly believe they would have done things a lot better and a lot more elegantly this NIS is now. Right, and we'd be talking about a method of just pulling what you need when you need it today because networks are far more reliable today than they were 20 years ago. -Mark pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Admin horror stories (was: Replacing NIS)
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, at 4:05pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Imagine my suprise when I accidentally set a desktop's IP address to be that of the NFS server. You can't be a sysadmin for long without doing something like that. At my first Unix job, I was there about 6 months before rebooting a production server during the month-end busy time... Heh. My best I still can't believe I did that story happened relatively recently. I needed to remove some of the RPM packages installed on a server. In the process of doing so, I had generated a list of every package on the system, and a list of packages I wanted to remove. At the last step, I fed rpm --erase the wrong list of packages, and RPM proceeded to happily remove every package on the system. It actually worked remarkably well -- I only realized what I had done when it suddenly spit out an error trying to run the post-remove script for the rpm package. At that point, I hit [CTRL]+[C], but most of the system was already gone. Thank goodness for backups. :-) Anyone care to top that? (I have no doubt that some could; I'm curious if anyone *will*. GRIN) -- Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do | | not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. | | All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Admin horror stories (was: Replacing NIS)
Anyone care to top that? (I have no doubt that some could; I'm curious if What about an erroneous rsync --delete on the /etc directory? :) -- Morbus Iff ( i put the demon back in codemonkey ) Culture: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.gamegrene.com/ Buy My Book! http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596004605/disobeycom icq: 2927491 / aim: akaMorbus / yahoo: morbus_iff / jabber.org: morbus ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Replacing NIS [was:NIS - Could not read ypservers map during make]
Derek Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I don't even disagree with you. Actually, you and I argued about this a long time ago on this list. But if you don't disagree with me now, that's great. --kevin -- Kevin D. Clark / Cetacean Networks / Portsmouth, N.H. (USA) cetaceannetworks.com!kclark (GnuPG ID: B280F24E) alumni.unh.edu!kdc ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
