Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #140
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 00:13:30 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #140, Volume #2                Tue, 4 Oct 94 00:13:30 EDT

Contents:
  Buslogic and > 1.1.46 kernels Be CAREFUL (John Spade)
  how to enable sulog on linux ? (Jacek A. Ponarski)
  Re: Finger - Is slackware version secure? (Alan Cox)
  Re: Good dirs to move to sep file systems? (Daniel Quinlan)
  Re: FTPs PCTCP and Linux lock. (Matti Aarnio)
  Development Idea: Kernel TOC (zeek)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! (Seppo Kallio)
  Re: dip-3.3.7h-uri & ZyXel U1496E (jason a duerstock)
  Problem with routing table (Hien Pham)
  Re: DEC's screend port? (Alan Cox)
  Re: Keyboard mapping under X (Michael James Porter)
  Ftape works...Not yet ( Jonathan Williams)
  RPC Problems (xmeter too!) (Charles W. Binko)
  Re: PPP vs SLIP? (Peter Mutsaers)
  Re: <Q> Can Linux Mount a Mac Floppy (jason a duerstock)
  [Q] Commercial Software on Linux (Jan Mario Stankovsky)
  Re: Trn and the remote NNTPserver ("S. O'Connor")
  Re: Setting up the BaseAddr for Mitumi (Kees de Bruin)
  Re: Ncurses signals broken? (Mikael Nordqvist)
  Re: SLIP Configuration (Benjamin John Walter)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (John Spade)
Subject: Buslogic and > 1.1.46 kernels Be CAREFUL
Date: 2 Oct 1994 00:03:29 GMT

        Post 1.1.46 kernels seem to override the > 1GB hard drive switch.
If I run fdisk with 1.1.38 and install linux, it won't run after
a few boots of 1.1.51.  And vice versa.  After messing up my linux
boxes' hard drives several times, I traced it down to the changes
around the 1.1.46 kernel. 
        The partition tables seem to be incompatible.  I'm out of my
league as far as the specifics, but I can say that it changes the
cyl/hd/sec specifications.  So don't casually upgrade...  I had to
reformat 2 systems...
        The were good changes though, so I'm not complaining, just
warning people.
--
[email-masked]    "Quality, Service, Price...
[email-masked]                 Pick any two..."

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Jacek A. Ponarski)
Subject: how to enable sulog on linux ?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 03:44:05

hi,
Is there any way to enable sulog on linux?  if i do it from login.defs it does 
not work.  Thanks,

--jacek

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

                       Jacek A. Ponarski
                 The University of Connecticut

tel. (203)427-2854   email: [email-masked]          
     (203)877-8655   [email-masked]  
fax  (203)427-2854

URL:         http://micro5.trincoll.edu/
GOPHER:      mareknt.pc.trincoll.edu
FTP:         mponarsk.pc.trincoll.edu

_______________________________________________

  To be or not to be, what was the question again?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Finger - Is slackware version secure?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 15:39:21 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Brian Kramer) writes:
>I think I may have had a breaking to my system.  Is the finger daemon
>from the slackware distribution secure?  I think this is not the 
>current version, but the prior version of slackware.  How can I tell?

Finger is secure. The very old rlogind/telnetd had a bug as did lpd but
thats currently fixed. Oh and someone has just fixed portmap if you are
doing loopback nfs mounts.

Alan

-- 
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
 // Alan Cox  //  [email-masked]   //  GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU  //
 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Daniel Quinlan)
Subject: Re: Good dirs to move to sep file systems?
Date: 03 Oct 1994 06:43:25 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Timothy Demarest <[email-masked]> writes:

> I just added 2 more drives to our linux system, and am looking to
> split the system among several file systems.  Right now, only swap
> is on its own partition.
>
> What do you recommend for splitting across several file systems?  I
> dont want to move anything that I may need on the root partition in
> an emergency!

If you are using a FSSTND (filesystem standard) compliant (or
reasonably close) distribution, then it is relatively easy to split up
the system.

From my own experience, I might suggest using one or more of the
following directories as mount points for partitions:

        /
        /home           - or the local equivalent(s)
        /usr
        /usr/X11        - or the local equivalent(s)
        /usr/local      - or the local equivalent(s)
        /usr/src
        /var            - or a /var subdirectory if any tend to be large
        swap

I've also found it nice to have a second root partition, but that's
because I'm slightly paranoid and I often test Linux distribution
installation procedures.  (Thus, I don't trash my system every time.)

I prefer to avoid the use of extended partitions for aesthetic
reasons, as many people do.

I'd also advise making certain that the system administrator is able
to work comfortably with a (compact) editor available in the root
partition.  `pico' and `vi' are decent choices.  The first, because it
is very easy to use, and the second, because it is documented in every
Unix book written in the last decade, or so it seems.  (This seems to
be an area that hampers many people in an emergency.)

Also, if root's home directory is situated on a separate /home
partition, make certain that your `login' program will still allow the
root account to login without a home directory.  (This shouldn't be a
problem on most Linux systems.)  Also be wary of where login shells
lie, if root's login shell is in /usr/local/bin, then it might be
awkward when /usr/local crashes.  (I don't think `login' protects
against this, as it does for missing home directories, but I haven't
exactly checked either.)

Don't try to make the root partition too small or you may regret it
later, especially if /tmp is situated on it and not linked to /var or
somewhere else.  The same advice goes for any volatile partition.

Make certain that your root partition, including /boot and the kernel
image, is situated completely below cylinder 1024.  There is a similar
provision that your last partition must begin below 1024, but that may
only apply to IDE drives -- I can't recall for certain.

My last point is that there some reasoning you should do before you
repartition.  If you are only a single user system, do whatever works
for you.  If you are running a large, multiple user system, work to
keep the machine running in a capable state with as little downtime as
possible.

// Dan

-- 
Daniel Quinlan  <[email-masked]>

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Matti Aarnio)
Subject: Re: FTPs PCTCP and Linux lock.
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 17:25:52 GMT

[email-masked] (Brian C. Huffman) writes:
>       I have Slackware's 2.0 distribution of Linux, and I am having a problem
>logging on using FTP Software's PCTCP.  It tends to lock the telnet session
>(not the linux) and I have to quit and start again.  If I log into a unix
>machine first and then telnet to the linux, it works fine.  Anyone have
>any suggestions?
>
>                                       Brian

        Recompile the kernel with:   "PC/TCP compability mode ON"

        Actual problem is closely related, but that (intermediate)
        kludge can help in the mean time.

>-- 
>        +---- Brian C. Huffman --------+------------------------------+
>        |  University of Delaware      |                              |   
>        |   206 New Castle Hall        |   [email-masked]   |
>        |    Newark, DE  19717         |    [email-masked]     |

        /Matti Aarnio   <[email-masked]>

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (zeek)
Subject: Development Idea: Kernel TOC
Date: 3 Oct 1994 17:04:22 GMT

This idea surfaced from my numerous kernel compiles... Please forgive if such a
thing does exist, but wouldn't it be handy to include with the kernel source a
table of contents (TOC) explaining the drivers, file systems, etc.<?>

For example:

Within the General Setup of you kernel configuration, you'll find the following:

CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION 

Selecting this option will include a math-emulator in your kernel.  If you have 
a math coprocessor installed on your computer, you probably don't need this.  
Blah, blah... 

The source for this option is in the directory /usr/src/linux/drivers/FPU-emu

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD 

This option is for something or other.  Which is why I'd like to see a kernel TOC.

I'll be willing to help put one together.  I'll need a fair amount of assistance 
from someone knowledgable with the kernel contents.  

Please forgive my ignorance if such a thing already exists.  If so, where? 

-zeek

=====
ThesearelessonswhichIlearnedinpartwalkingwithmydogsandwonderinghowtheworld
lookswithoutafoveaandveryfewretinalcellsforcolourvisionbutwithahugeneural
processingandsensoryareaforsmellsTheeyesmadeavailableinmoderntechnological
sciencesshatteranyideaofpassivevision -donnaharaway

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Seppo Kallio)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze!
Date: 3 Oct 1994 12:58:40 +0200

Seppo Kallio ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Usually it works nice, but sometimes the whole net software seems to
: do nothing with the new connections.  Login opens the window and
: connects, but no "login:" prompt.  Same problems with smtp
: connections, they jammmm similar way.  I think all telnet connections
: hang somehow or are extremely slow.

I have one more problem: looping in.telnetd.

Just now I had 3 of them. 

Someone did mention that Linux seens to slow down when these net errors 
happen. Have you cheked if it is extra looping in.telnetd ??? Every
extra in.telnetd in cpu loop is rising the load by one. 

Seppo Kallio

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (jason a duerstock)
Subject: Re: dip-3.3.7h-uri & ZyXel U1496E
Date: 2 Oct 1994 15:44:56 GMT

Dirk Hillbrecht ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I cannot make the two ones mentioned in the header work together. ZyXEL has
: ROM 6.12, kernel is 1.1.51, dip is dated 5.9.94. Script's start is as follows:

:   # Set the desired serial port and speed.
:   port ttyS1

Shouldn't this read "port cua1"?

Jason

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Hien Pham)
Subject: Problem with routing table
Date: 3 Oct 1994 08:42:55 GMT

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with networking my Linux box.  I have Yddrasil Summer 94
Linux 1.1.0 #84 with NET-2 running.  I have set up my static route table with
local ip address of 128.178.10.1 and 128.178.10.2 for my Linux boxes with
netmask 255.255.255.0 and broadcast addr 128.178.10.255. The system is
on the same datalink.  My local network is 128.178.10.0.  My first
problem is "arp -a" returns nothing and when I execute "netstat -rn" I got
the error "route: unsupported address family 2560 !".  Any ideas ?  My 
ifconfig shows that my NIC card is running with arp up as configured.
Moreover, my xserver can't seem to run remote x-clients.  I keep getting
the message "can connect to calvin:0.0".  Thanks in advance for any advice.

--
  %  Henry Pham    %%%  Jet Propulsion Laboratory                        %
  % Senior Software%%%  4800 Oak Grove Drive                            %
  %    Engineer    %%%  Pasadena,  CA 91109                              %
  %                %%%  E-Mail: [email-masked]                 %

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: DEC's screend port?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 10:24:53 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Andrew PRUSEK) writes:
>Has anyone had any luck porting the screening router
>screend available from gatekeeper.dec.com?

It has two problems

1.      Its somewhat slow as it switches all the frames in and out of user
mode.

2.      The license is extremely restrictive and requires you give dec any
changes you make etc. That prevents anyone putting it into the Linux kernel
code. There is another as yet more limited but much faster IP firewall
codeset in ALPHA test (ipfirewall-x.y.tar.gz on sunsite). This looks
promising and I sent the authors a long list of suggested changes as in the
end I'd like to put it into the kernel code as yet another config option.

Alan

-- 
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
 // Alan Cox  //  [email-masked]   //  GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU  //
 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Michael James Porter)
Subject: Re: Keyboard mapping under X
Date: 3 Oct 1994 13:00:56 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
Adrian Mancini <[email-masked]> wrote:
=>Recently I attempted to remap my function keys to contain
=>character strings follow by ^M so that I could execute
=>certain shell commands in an xterm by just hitting a function
=>key.

You need to make an 'Xt' translation table.  See the man page on xterm
for more info.  One thing:  The resource that you are going to make is
a single, multi-line resource.  When I tried to make a rather large
table, I ran into a problem with too many lines being concatentated by
cpp.  cpp Seemed to drop off lines past 20 or so (xrdb -merge adds the
resources, and it runs cpp, the C pre-processor).  So, when working
with large tables, use xrdb -query to make sure what is being stored on
the X Server is what is in the file.  I got around the problem by making
very long lines.

On the format for a translation table:  I bought a summary reference
on X that is very valuable for this type of info.  I would write
more, but all my references (and system) are at home.  The title
might be 'X in a Nutshell'?

Mike

------------------------------

Subject: Ftape works...Not yet
From: [email-masked] ( Jonathan Williams )
Date: 3 Oct 94 09:45:16 -0500

Well, I thought I had ftape working, but I guess I was wrong.  I'm running
Linux kernel version 1.0.9 and ftape version 1.13b patched for the conner bug
and compiled with the -DCONNER_BUG flag.

When I finally got done compiling, I used tar to backup my drive.  It went
through several hundred files, and then suddenly stopped with an I/O error
writing to the device.

I'm assuming that its a bad sector on the tape, since I was able to verify
everything up to that point, but how do I confirm this and mark the sector as
bad so I can continue?

Jon Williams
University of Northern Iowa 

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Charles W. Binko)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: RPC Problems (xmeter too!)
Date: 3 Oct 1994 09:01:09 GMT

Hello

        I have compiled xmeter on my system, and it works for the most part (had
to get the librpcsvc.a file, but other than that, compile was easy).  My problem
is that I cannot get xmeter to watch any network stats on my local machine.  I am
runing SLIP (dip) , but I should still be able to watch the packets in and out
(right??!!??) .  I mean, they are still packets, and inetd doesn't care about
what kind of interface it is talking to.

        Xmeter watches the network traffic on all of the other machines I look at
but not mine :(.

        What is wrong?  I have rstatd running, do I need other rpc daemons as
well?  The xmeter man page says it gets its info from rstat...doesn't mention any
others.

        Any Help would be appreciated....

Charles

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Peter Mutsaers)
Subject: Re: PPP vs SLIP?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 11:31:18 GMT

>> On 28 Sep 1994 04:27:20 GMT, [email-masked] said:

  p>    Also I am finding that my current PPP-vendor seems to like
  p> to kill my connection if I don't send anything out over the line for
  p> more than a few minutes.

Maybe he hangs up and expects the other end to be
'dial-on-demand'. Alas the Linux implementation doesn't offer that
(yet). Many PPP implementations hang up after a few minutes silence,
but keep the logical network up; then when you want to send a packet
again they dial and make connection again transparently.

Especially when ISDN is getting through with its very fast dialing and
one second resolution billing dial-on-demand becomes a must for PPP.
--
Peter Mutsaers                  |  AT Computing bv,  P.O. Box 1428,
[email-masked]                    |  6501 BK  Nijmegen, The Netherlands
tel. work: +31 (0)80 527248     |
tel. home: +31 (0)3405 71093    |  "... En..., doet ie het al?"

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (jason a duerstock)
Subject: Re: <Q> Can Linux Mount a Mac Floppy
Date: 2 Oct 1994 22:46:12 GMT

Tim Bass (Network Systems Engineer) ([email-masked]) wrote:

: Got some ASCII text files on my Powerbook... Would like to write them
: to the PB floppy and then mount the floppy on my linux box and
: read the ascii text (and do some other stuff).  I haven't seen this
: in any FAQ or the The Linux Bible.   Any clues for the clueless ;-)

Write it to a DOS floppy with Apple File Exchange + then mount it as an
MSDOS disk on the Linux system.  If there are plans to support the Mac
HFS, I don't know about them.

Jason 

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Jan Mario Stankovsky)
Subject: [Q] Commercial Software on Linux
Date: 3 Oct 1994 12:14:55 GMT

Is there a list of commercial software(i.e. FrameMaker, Smalltalk, a.s.o.)
available for Linux? Does anybody knows any details if commercial SW will be
available for Linux someday ?

thanks

------------------------------

From: "S. O'Connor" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Trn and the remote NNTPserver
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 07:14:49 GMT

On Sun, 2 Oct 1994, Jeremy J Sugerman wrote:

> It's a trick.  trn can use a remote nntp server, but you need to tell your environment.  Bash enjoys tormenting people by not actually announcing environmnet
> variables until you tell it to.  Try either:
> 
> NNTPSERVER="news.myhost.edu"
> export NNTPSERVER
> 
> or
> 
> export NNTPSERVER="news.myhost.edu"
> 
> ingerneal when you change variable besides the prompt you should export them or
> else you should scrutinize the man pages and memorize (yeah right) which bash
> exports auto and which you need to tell it.
> 
> BTW, put either of the above in /etc/profile or /etc/cshrc and it should work.
> 
> Good Luck,
> Jeremy Sugerman
        
        Thank you. The third one worked.

                        Irish

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Kees de Bruin)
Subject: Re: Setting up the BaseAddr for Mitumi
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Kees de Bruin)
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 08:25:14 GMT

Jason Hong writes:

 > I am using Mitsumi CD with base-addr = 0x340 and irq=11.
 > I changed "mcd.h" file from 0x300, 10 to 0x340 and 11.

Connected to a SoundBlaster MCD card perhaps??

 > However, whenever I start Linux, it still try to detect the CD
 > from old address.  I read through CD-ROM HOWTO but I couldn't
 > find any mention on base-address.

Did you do a re-compile of the kernel, and did it actually re-compile
the mcd.c file. If not, touch the mcd.c file and re-compile the kernel
again. With the next reboot, you should be able to use you CD-ROM
player, but be sure to mount any CD's in read-only mode.

 > Also, I am getting an fsck error message after installation.
 > Is there anything I have to do after installation to use Linux?

What message did you receive from the system.

--
Kees de Bruin                                         [email-masked]
Tasking Software B.V.                             Tel. +31-33-55 85 84

Windows NT: From the makers of Windows 3.0!

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Mikael Nordqvist)
Subject: Re: Ncurses signals broken?
Date: 3 Oct 1994 12:45:10 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Patrick J. Volkerding) writes:
>
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Zeyd M. Ben-Halim <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>>It looks like somebody forgot to recompile their code with ncurses 1.8.5.
>
>That was my diagnosis, too.
>
>>The terminfo database format changed (to match that in SVR4) in 1.8.3.
>>I guess slackware is still using the old one.
>
>No, Slackware is using 1.8.5 with the new terminfo database, and has been 
>since version 2.0.0.
>
>>
>>Compile all the programs concerned with ncurses 1.8.5.
>
>Yes, that should fix the problem.

Generally, it does fix the problem. But not for aumix :) Either it
relies on bugs in the (old) version of ncurses that the author of
aumix used, or new bugs ones were introduced in newer versions of
ncurses (I believe the latter). The screen is quite messed up with
1.8.5.

I have had much trouble with colors in ncurses 1.8.5. The only way I
can get reasonably sure not to trigger a bug is to call refresh()
before changing color/attributes (this shouldn't be necessary - one
refresh after all changes ought to be enough). Scrolling regions with
colorized characters is something I never got to work, there was
always some characters that changed colors during the scrolling. I
sent a bugreport (with a short program to show the problem) to Zeyd
about a month ago, but got no reply (the reason could be a faulty
mail-daemon or an overworked Zeyd :-)

Slightly off subject: Does the linux-console have support for turning
the cursor on and off? I am updating the screen often (several
times/second) and it's a bit annoying having the cursor flashing all
over the screen.

/Mikael
-- 
Mikael Nordqvist, student    | [email-masked] | I'm not paraniod, it's just
Lund Institute of Technology | [email-masked]   | that everyone is out to get me

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Benjamin John Walter)
Subject: Re: SLIP Configuration
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 15:00:32 +0000

: Is there any possibility to declare a timeout (hanging up the phone) and
: redial and reinstall if anyone needs a connection (ping,telnet,ftp,etc.) over
: the SLIP ??

I know of a program called slip_idle that will disconnect your SLIP
connection if its been idle for a while.  I don't know about demand
dialling with Linux though, sorry.  I'm happy to mail you the
slip_idle program (its small!)

peace,  Ben

-- 
   __   _                
  / /  (_)__  __ ____  __
 / /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /  . . .  t h e   c h o i c e   o f   a
/____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\              G N U   g e n e r a t i o n . . .

------------------------------

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******************************