Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #152
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 94 20:13:57 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #152, Volume #2                Thu, 6 Oct 94 20:13:57 EDT

Contents:
  Re: limit memory and add memory file system (Alan Cox)
  [help] user cannot update password (take 2) (Andrew_R._Mitz)
  Re: TACACS server software (David Sisson)
  Re: SCSI vs IDE (George R. Welch)
  Re: help with kernel patch 1.1.44 > 1.1.45 (Sean A. Long)
  Re: Linux as KingGod NFS Server to DOS Slaves (Mark Bolzern)
  RADIUS authentication software (Wieringen van)
  Re: Smail: How to set sender name? (H. Peter Anvin)
  what does a hosts.allow look like? (Rob Newberry)
  Problem allowing users to mount floppies (Jonathan Mohr)
  Re: dip-3.3.7h-uri & ZyXel U1496E (Rob Janssen)
  Re: /etc/issue (Nicolai Langfeldt)
  Promethius Aria16 (Bob Morrill)
  Re: How do you see who logged in? (Heiko Schlittermann)
  Slackware2.0 and formatting ? (Hiren Hindoccha)
  Re: Ftape works...Not yet (David Bonn)
  Problems with 1.1.51 & LMS/Philips CDROM (Paul White)
  I MISSED THE PREVIOUS SECURITY FIX (Bill C. Riemers)
  Re: AGETTY and Modems (Gert Doering)
  Re: PCI vs. VLB (Donald Becker)
  Re: Ethernet Cards (Donald Becker)
  Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far? (Fred Condo)
  Re: Problem allowing users to mount floppies (Morten Steinvik)
  Re: looking for [email-masked] (John Gotts)
  Re: Fast Scsi-2 COMPAQ (Donald Becker)
  Re: Need DL/Time Limiting ideas - Linux BBS ([email-masked])

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development
From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: limit memory and add memory file system
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 15:46:28 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Phil Howard) writes:
>My hardware supports DMA only on the first 16 megabytes of RAM although
>it will support up to 64 megabytes of RAM.  What I want to do is to have
>Linux use only the first 16 megabytes in its usual way much as if the
>machine only had 16 megabytes.  Then I want to use whatever remaining
>memory above the 16 megabyte line I happen to have installed (it is OK
>by me to have to code this somewhere) as a memory file system.  So if
>I install all 64 megabytes of RAM I could have a 48 megabyte memory file
>system.
>
>The basic question is how to do this.  Also, do you know of any particular
>problems one might encounter with this?  Is there some other scheme that
>would let me utilize the extra memory to gain some speed?

Just run Linux as you would at any other time. It'll start using bounce 
buffers for DMA to/from 16Mb+ addresses.

ALan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Andrew_R._Mitz)
Subject: [help] user cannot update password (take 2)
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 14:57:53 GMT

This is a repeat post, the original post was missing a few
introductory sentences, to wit...

We are running linux 1.1.18 loaded with Slackware 2.0.
When root runs the passwd program there is no problem.
However, when another user runs passwd the program
quits after entering the new password (twice) with:

Can't open /etc/ptmp, can't update password.

Running ls -l to see /etc I get:
drwxr-xr-x  10 root root [stuff] etc/

Any suggestions?

-- andy

-- 
============================================================================
Andrew Mitz, Biomedical Eng., National Institutes | Opinions are mine alone 
of Health Animal Center, Poolesville, MD          | [email-masked]       
============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (David Sisson)
Subject: Re: TACACS server software
Date: 6 Oct 1994 19:27:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
root <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Hello all, I'm looking for a bin or src of the terminal 
>server software called "tacacs" that will cmpile/run on
>a Linux server (Slackware 1.03 I think).  I'm planning
>on using a CISCO 2511 rtr/tserver on my system.

    CISCO has their own server code that you should be able to get from
them and use on your Linux box.  Contact them for more information about
their server.

--
    [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (George R. Welch)
Subject: Re: SCSI vs IDE
Date: 5 Oct 1994 16:46:39 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Iain J. Bryson <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Hi.  I am interested in hearing people advocating
>which is better, IDE or SCSI.

        While we are wading through the wave of followups, how about
someone explaining the difference between all the SCSI.  I have heard of
SCSI, SCSI-2, fast SCSI-2, wide SCSI, and AV-SCSI.  What are all these?
Which is best?  Which is worst?  How do you tell which one you have?
Are any of them compatible with the others?  Why is this not addressed
in the SCSI-Howto?

                ---George.  (Gee, I ask a lot of questions.)

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

From: [email-masked] (Sean A. Long)
Subject: Re: help with kernel patch 1.1.44 > 1.1.45
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 17:23:01 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> "Scott P. Daffron" <[email-masked]> writes:

>Help.  I follow all of the normal steps, but when I "make proper", it 
>exits on an error.  I am stuck at this point.  No problems in previous 
>patches.  Help!

I've never heard of "make proper"...

I always use:
make config
make dep ; make clean
make zlilo
rdev -R /vmlinuz 1

The make zlilo can be replaced with "make zImage" (I'm not sure about caps) 
if you don't use lilo...

-=>Sean Long

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Bolzern)
Subject: Re: Linux as KingGod NFS Server to DOS Slaves
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 15:38:59 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
James F. Morris <[email-masked]> wrote:
>In article <[email-masked]>, Mark Bolzern <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>In article <[email-masked]>,
>>
>>Very happy with Century Software's TinyTerm Plus/NFS.  Not too expensive
>>and TCP/IP stack is from wollongong.... uses only 50K of my low ram...
>
>How much is "not too expensive"?  And do you have a telephone number for
>Century Software?  Where can I get more info?
>
>Thanks!

Century is at 801-268-3088
          Fax 801-268-2772

-- 
Mark Bolzern :  [email-masked]    USA Tel: (303) 699-7470  Fax: (303) 699-2793 
WorkGroup Solutions, Inc.    The FlagShip "CA-Clipper and XBase on Unix" People
  FlagShip is a 4GL Database Development System & XBase Porting Tool for Unix
No Runtime Fees   Info at ftp.wgs.com : /pub2/wgs/Filelist OR mail: [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Wieringen van)
Subject: RADIUS authentication software
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 11:26:42 GMT

Hi,

I don't know if the previous posting made it to the net. But I will try again.
Someone mentioned a week ago or so about a authentication package used by
Livingston equipment to do remote authentication from a authentication host.
So I looked it up with archie and got the stuff. So far so good. After some
tweaking with the makefile I now have it gotten to compile. But it doesn't seem
to work quite right. I have done some debugging and it seems that its having
some kind of bytesex problem. It seems its written for a BIG endian machine and
doesn't seem to work quite right on a LITTLE endian machine. Now I probaly can
fix it myself, but probably someone already done it and its just a waste of
time to do it again. If someone has patches to make it work under Linux could
he please send them to me.

Thanks,

Marco 

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Subject: Re: Smail: How to set sender name?
Reply-To: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 10:13:16 GMT

Followup to:  <[email-masked]>
By author:    [email-masked] (Andy Dickinson)
In newsgroup: comp.os.linux.admin
> 
> Can someone tell me how to set the sender name in smail?
> 

/usr/lib/sendmail -f <from-user> <to-user>

You must run this as a "trusted user"; the trusted users are listed in
the smail config file.

        /hpa

-- 
INTERNET: [email-masked]             --- Allah'u'abha ---
IBM MAIL: I0050052 at IBMMAIL     HAM RADIO:   N9ITP or SM4TKN
FIDONET:  1:115/511 or 1:115/512  STORMNET:    181:294/1 or 181:294/101
This article might have been generated by a buggy newsreader.

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Newberry)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: what does a hosts.allow look like?
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 16:41:08

I'm constantly getting "malformed entry" errors with my hosts.allow file.  Can 
someone post one here, or mail me a copy of theirs or a faked one to let me 
know what it needs to look like?

Thanks!

Rob
*******************************************************************
Rob Newberry               Education and Technology Solutions, Inc.
Email: [email-masked]        4303 Parkland Court
Phone: 301 438 3915        Rockville, Maryland 20853
FAX: 301 438 3748

      The secret to happiness is knowing how many
          weekdays you can afford a hangover.

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Jonathan Mohr)
Subject: Problem allowing users to mount floppies
Date: 6 Oct 94 02:08:02 MDT

I added a line to /etc/fstab to try to allow users to mount floppies on /mnt:

  /dev/fd0        /mnt    msdos   user,rw,noauto,sync

However, when trying to mount a floppy as a normal user, I got the error
message:

  can't create lock file /etc/mtab~: Permission denied

To avoid this, should I:

1. Make /etc writable by users? [Seems like overkill]

2. Make 'mount' suid?  [Sounds dangerous]

3. Use the package 'usermount' instead?

        Jonathan Mohr

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: dip-3.3.7h-uri & ZyXel U1496E
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 09:03:03 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Gottfried Hamm) writes:

>In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (jason a duerstock) says:
>>
>>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"?

>I use the ttyS1 port, too and it works fine. I have a Zyxel U1496E + with ROM 6.11 and Linux
>V1.1.48 and there are no problems.

The answer is: it depends on the software, if any, you run to process
incoming calls.  If you run "mgetty+sendfax" or my "ZyXEL" program, you
need to use "ttySx", *not* "cuax".

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Nicolai Langfeldt)
Subject: Re: /etc/issue
Date: 06 Oct 1994 15:50:21 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen) writes:
   >do what /etc/issue is supposed to do (get splatted up on screen
   >BEFORE the login prompt on (at least) remote connections)

   /etc/issue.net is used for remote connections.

Iff you have the right telnetd and rlogind programs.  If /etc/issue.net
is shown you can upgrate your telnet from sunacm.swan.ac.uk, or possebly
sunsite (I use sunacm since I'm in europe.

Nicolai

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

From: [email-masked] (Bob Morrill)
Subject: Promethius Aria16
Date: 6 Oct 1994 19:29:00 GMT

I've been told the Aria16 is soundblaster compatible.  Has anyone
used the Aria16 with Linux?  Promethius says its hardware compatible
with sound blaster.  I dunno, what say anyone?

Many thanks!!

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

From: [email-masked] (Heiko Schlittermann)
Subject: Re: How do you see who logged in?
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 09:30:41 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Serge Solski u <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>       Early this morning, someone dialed into my Linux system and
>logged-in. I know they were on for a while, because I could hear my
>hard-drive thrashing away. I was too ill (some sort of flu thing) to 
>attend to my computer, but I thought I could see how they logged in later. 
>The only thing I could find, was that someone dialed in at 4:30 am. It 
>doesn't say who (I forget which file this was in.) Is there a file 
>somewhere that keeps track of who logs in and when?

Try `who' and `last'.  First uses */utmp, last */wtmp.

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

From: [email-masked] (Hiren Hindoccha)
Subject: Slackware2.0 and formatting ?
Date: 6 Oct 1994 15:30:58 GMT

I have a drive with bad sectors (found out when
formatting with DOS) . I wanted to  install Linux
on it and when I got to the point in Slackware 
installation , I opted for slow format looking for
bad blocks , but the system hangs up every time .

Is the formatting programming not able to handle the
bad sectors / bad blocks ? If so, how do I fix it ?
Do I need to do a low level format , first ?
How do I install Linux on this partition ? (without having
to take out my other partitions and OSes (dos,NT and OS/2)
I'd rather avoid having to do a low level format on the
whole disk and then install all the OSes again. And
not having a tape drive certainly aggravates the situation.

My system is 
486 DX2/66  VLB
16 Meg RAM
Maxtor SCSI 1 GB 
Genoa Windows Accelerated Card 1 Meg DRAM
UltraStor 34f SCSI adapter ( on X 340 as suggested in FAQ)
MV PAS 16 SCSI
Sony CDU 561
14" NI Monitor

Please reply by email, 
Thanks, 
Hiren
========================================================
ASCII to  ASCII, DOS to DOS.
(:-...  heart-broken
<Standard Disclaimer goes here>.sig produced randomly    
Hirendra Hindocha               Cap Gemini America  890-1200 x327 (VM)
[email-masked]    

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

From: [email-masked] (David Bonn)
Subject: Re: Ftape works...Not yet
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 22:13:19 GMT

Jonathan Williams ([email-masked]) wrote:

: ...

: 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 getting exactly this behavior with a Colorado Jumbo 250.  Linux
version is 1.1.51, using ftape-1.13b.

It seems unlikely this is caused by a bad sector on the tape, since
the exact point of failure varied quite a bit.  I've tried several
different tapes, and they all seem to die 15-25Mb into a backup.

This is all very mystifying to me, and I still can't back up my hard
drive. :-(

David Bonn
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Paul White)
Subject: Problems with 1.1.51 & LMS/Philips CDROM
Date: 6 Oct 1994 22:41:30 GMT

I was wondering if anyone else was having problems getting there LMS/Philips
CDROM drive to work with 1.1.51? Or has anyone had problems with
there devices with 1.1.51?  I downloaded the linux-1.1.45.tar.gz
file, tar -zxvof'd it, then downloaded the separate patches: patch46,
patch47, patch48, patch49, patch50, and patch51.  I then d/l'd the file
lmscd0.3c.tar.gz, which is the LMS/Philips CDROM patch.  The lmscd0.3c is
for linux version 1.1.47, so I insalled the patches up to 1.1.47, then
installed my CDROM one, then installed patch 48, 49, 50, and 51.  When I
rebooted, everything worked great, so I thought.  I tried my CDROM,
/dev/lmscd, and it comes up with the normal /dev/lmscd already busy, or /mnt
already mounted, etc.  I then tried to use my modem.  I couldn't.  I tried
to send, and access anything through /dev/cua1, and nothing got to my modem. 
I put the old /vmlinuz file back, for 1.0.9, and everything works great
again.  Does anyone know why this is happening?   A reply in E-mail would be
greatly appreasiated, since I don't normally read this news-group.  

        Thanks in Advance!!!!!!!
                        Paul

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill C. Riemers)
Crossposted-To: comp.mail.smail
Subject: I MISSED THE PREVIOUS SECURITY FIX
Date: 06 Oct 1994 05:46:18 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

For some reason, I thought the previous security fix only applied
to systems that didn't have SETEUID set when compiling smail...
Now that I know it does, the article with the fix has expired here.

What is the fix to keep the following script from working?!?!?!?

---> begin super_copy <---
#!/bin/tcsh -f
#script to copy a file anywhere on the system.
echo $2 > ~/.forward
mail -r root $USER < /dev/null
sleep 10
rm ~/.forward
cp -a $*
---> end super_copy <---

For now I just removed all mail from my system, until I recompile
with the fixes for the three security bugs that have been posted
reciently.  Sorry for posting this, but I've seen simmular type
scripts posted all over the net receintly, with no good suggestions
on how to fix it other than switching to "sendmail"...  Now even
an idiot can hack smail system in less than 15 seconds.

                        Bill

--
<A HREF="    http://physics.purdue.edu/~bcr/homepage.html                  ">
<EM><ADDRESS>  Bill C. Riemers,  [email-masked]   </ADDRESS></EM></A>
<A HREF="           http://www.physics.purdue.edu/                         ">
<EM>          Department of Physics,   Purdue University            </EM></A>

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

From: [email-masked] (Gert Doering)
Subject: Re: AGETTY and Modems
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 19:09:02 GMT

[email-masked] writes:

>I'm trying to allow login to my Linux 1.1.45 system through the modem, but when 
>I start agetty for the modem port, it goes right into the login prompt.  Is 
>there a way to make this work?  My previous experience under SCO Unix was simply 
>to spawn a getty for the modem port during the init phase, and it took care of 
>itself from there.

Well, you have to use /dev/ttyS* for the modem, if you make sure that the
carrier line is only active if a carrier is present, and that the modem
auto-answers (ATS0=1&C1&W). The kernel will make the getty process block.

Better then "agetty", use "getty_ps", it's not that primitive.

The other approach is to use "mgetty+sendfax", whose "*getty" understands
about modems, knows about RING and ATA leading to CONNECT. I naturally
prefer mgetty, but I'm most heavily biased (I wrote it).

gert
-- 
Yield to temptation ... it may not pass your way again!  --  Lazarus Long
                                                            //www.muc.de/~gert
Gert Doering - Munich, Germany                             [email-masked]
fax: +49-89-3243328                         [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Donald Becker)
Subject: Re: PCI vs. VLB
Date: 5 Oct 1994 15:36:11 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, root <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Riku Saikkonen ([email-masked]) wrote:
>: Which system would be better to use for Linux (+X), a VLB motherboard
>: with a VLB display adapter, I/O card, and whatever, or a PCI system?
>
>Go with PCI for as many components as possible. PCI currently appears ot
>be the new PC bus standard. It performs better than VLB, and is prefered
>by manufacturers because it is easier to develop PCI cards than VLB ones.

I agree that PCI is a better standard and will long outlive VLB.  But VLB on
a 486 motherboard is generally somewhat faster than PCI.  Considering that
VLB is almost a direct connection to the 486's pins, it's easy to understand
why.

>: I've heard that PCI would be somewhat faster; how much? Also, I've heard
>: that PCI isn't too stable yet, some cards won't work together; is this
>: right?
>
>PCI is faster, current 66 Mhz implementations are about 2x the speed of
>VLB, and PCI 2.1 will be 3 times the speed, and double the width.
>The PCI standard is pretty much stable, although the PCI and system 
>BIOSes may not be. Card conflicts are not likely, but a conflict between
>card and BIOS may be. Almost all work, though. 

VLB is defined up to 50Mhz, although that's a "zero-slot" speed.

PCI is 33Mhz, not 66Mhz.  That's unlikely to change.
There are defined extensions to 64 bit address and 64 bit data, but no
commonly available hardware implements either.  (Note that running 64 bit
addresses on a 32 bit PCI bus will be slower than a straight 32 bit bus.)

>: Does the kernel support VLB or PCI IDE host adapters? Are they much
>: faster than ISA ones?
>
>The kernel can't tell the difference, really, between ISA, VLB or PCI.
>It currently supports the BusLogic BT946C SCSI host adaptor, and
>AHA27xxx/28xx/29xx support is not far behind. As for video, XFree86 3.1
>(to be released this week, I'm told) supports several PCI video cards.
>I use the Diamond Stealth 64, which is based on the S3 Vision964 chip.

Generally, devices on VLB look the same as their ISA counterpart while
devices on PCI do not.  Two immediate obvious differences are I/O locations
and interrupts.  A VLB card uses jumpered/EEPROM locations, which PCI has
the BIOS decide where to place devices.  VLB uses the edge triggered ISA bus
interrupts (the few ISA contacts you see on VLB cards are for power and
interrupts), while the PCI bus uses level-triggered slot-specific interrupts.

>One gotcha with PCI, DON'T GET THE OPTi CHIPSET! There is a bug with it
>(alas, I have the OPTi, and am trying to get it replaced.) such that
>bus performance will not be optimal.

Alas many of the chipsets have bugs, which are worked around with varying
degrees of success.  I had horrible problems with the NCR53c810 controller
on the ASUS SP3G motherboard until I turned off every feature in the BIOS
setup. 

>: A common PCI display adapter seems to be an 'AvanceLogic' (I don't know
>: of a model) card. Does XFree86 2.1.1 support this? Which chipset does it
>: have? Would I be better off with a Cirrus? (Which is better, a 5428 or a
>: 5434?)
>
>I haven't heard of this. You'll probably be safest with anything based
>on the S3 Vision964 chip. There's quite a list of these.

I've had luck with a generic S3-805 board (almost a year ago -- probably out
of production by now) and ATI Mach32 boards.

>: Does the kernel support the NCR SCSI-2 controller that is integrated in
>: some PCI motherboards? I found some NCR PCI drivers in drivers/scsi; do
>: they work with the integrated chip (unfortunately I've forgotten the
>: chip model number)?
>
>There exists an NCR53c810 driver for Linux, but it is a kernel patch.
>Although more expensive, I suggest the BusLogic card, it gives
>slightly better transfer rates, and is supported in the 1.1.18 kernel.
>(Make sure you recompile your kernel after install with ADAPTEC support
>DISABLED. Otherwise, the Buslogic will emulate the Adaptec, with worse
>performance than native mode.)

The '810 driver is in the most recent development kernels, and it does work
well.  If you have problems it's most likely your hardware not the driver,
despite all symptoms pointing to a flakey driver.

-- 
Donald Becker                                     [email-masked]
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882         http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/people/becker/whoiam.html

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

From: [email-masked] (Donald Becker)
Subject: Re: Ethernet Cards
Date: 5 Oct 1994 15:40:07 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
Channone Arif <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Would the installation of more than one ethernet card offer any benefits as
>opposed to having only one?

Yes, it means that your machine can be multi-homed on different nets.

If you are asking about having multiple cards on the same network, no, there
is no advantage.

-- 
Donald Becker                                     [email-masked]
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882         http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/people/becker/whoiam.html

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

From: [email-masked] (Fred Condo)
Crossposted-To: comp.mail.smail
Subject: Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far?
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 1994 13:47:31 -0800

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] (Stephen David  Wray) wrote:

> > /usr/lib/sendmail is a symbolic link to /usr/bin/smail.
> > 
> > try
> > 
> > /usr/lib/sendmail -d -D/etc/nologin [email-masked]
> > 
> > as a normal user and have fun explaining it to your sysadmin. I was
> > awed when I found out...
> 
> 
> Umm... I have a recentish slackware distribution, and just tried this
> out -- nothing seems to have happened.
> 
> It just sits there, doing nothing...
> 
> What is it supposed to do that is so bad?

It sits there waiting for standard input to close. Press ^D. Then you will
find that /etc/nologin has been created and can have been created by any
user. The patch recently posted makes this file creation happen under the
UID of the calling user rather than as root.
-- 
Fred Condo, + [email-masked] + http://www.lightside.com/~fred/
Lightside, Inc. + Internet access + http://www.lightside.com/
(818) 858-9261 voice, (818) 858-8982 fax

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

From: [email-masked] (Morten Steinvik)
Subject: Re: Problem allowing users to mount floppies
Date: 6 Oct 1994 16:28:02 GMT

Jonathan Mohr ([email-masked]) wrote:
: However, when trying to mount a floppy as a normal user, I got the error
: message:

:   can't create lock file /etc/mtab~: Permission denied
As root - delete the /etc/mtab~ file,
and everything should be dandy again.

: 1. Make /etc writable by users? [Seems like overkill]
Not very smart...

Morten Steinvik
--
             (2b) || (!2b), that is the question...
          Turn your 486 into an XT--just add Windows!
      Morten Steinvik   [email-masked]    Jogger on IRC

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

From: [email-masked] (John Gotts)
Subject: Re: looking for [email-masked]
Date: 6 Oct 1994 15:24:51 GMT

: Stephen Johnson ([email-masked]) wrote:

: : I'm loking for [email-masked] that wrote the 3c509 drivers for Linux.
: : Mail sent to [email-masked] bounces...any ideas.
--

[email-masked]

--
John Gotts ([email-masked])  73 de N8QDW   URL: http://www.umich.edu/~jgotts
GE -d+ H s+: g-- p? !au a-- w+ v C++++ UL++++ P+>++ L++ 3- E--- N+++ K- !W M--
 V-- -po+(---) Y+ t+ 5 j+ R- G? tv b+ D B- e+ u--- h f+ r n- y? <Linux rules!>

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From: [email-masked] (Donald Becker)
Subject: Re: Fast Scsi-2 COMPAQ
Date: 5 Oct 1994 16:05:00 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
Mark Stockton <[email-masked]> wrote:
>: You know that nice 32-bit ethernet Netflex NIC they sell?  Linux doesn't
>: like it or even try to recognize it.
>
>The microcode that the driver must download to the board is licensed
>from Texas Instruments.  You can try purchasing a license for the
>microcode, but I don't think that you'll want to pay their price.  None
>of the existing drivers will work with this board.

I assume a right-to-use microcode license comes with every board Compaq ships.
Given that, where is the obstacle to a Linux driver?

[[ I suspect that driver for this board would need a user-level "helper"
program to download the microcode from the MS-DOS distribution floppy (or
whereever it's keep) to the board, but this is just a pain in the ass, not
a fatal flaw.]]

-- 
Donald Becker                                     [email-masked]
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882         http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/people/becker/whoiam.html

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

From: [email-masked]
Crossposted-To: alt.bbs.unixbbs,alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Need DL/Time Limiting ideas - Linux BBS
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 94 10:48:02 CDT

In article <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]> 
writes:

> One word of advise, find a suitable BBS package, and install it. 
> One which looks like a DOS OS/2 package, and don't tell people 
> it's UNIX till they subscribe, then offer them a shell. :)
> BTW, Karl, mail me, I've found a new package for Linux you might 
> like, better than the other ones I've shown you so far. :)

I'd like to know about all the BBS's for Linux  --  I found EagleBBS
and I've heard about a couple more, xbbs and unixboard, but I don't 
know where to find them.  I'm currently running a DOS based BBS, with
Maximus 2.01/wb and like it a lot.  I'd surely like to find a BBS for
Linux with some/most/all the features of MAX.  

There is a package used by a lot of DOS BBS's called BinkleyTerm that
is also available in a UNIX flavor.  It is used primarily as a mailer
that distinguishes between human and machine callers; it passes human
calls to the BBS and machine calls to the mail handling programs.  One
of it's features is that it passes a parameter showing the baud rate 
of the call, which can be picked up by any interested program for 
determining DL time, etc.

Do you possibly have a list of all the *ix BBS's or know of someone 
who does?  Or can you tell about the features of the ones you are
acquainted with?  I don't want much, do I?  :)

jw

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

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