Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #161
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 94 07:13:40 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #161, Volume #2                Sat, 8 Oct 94 07:13:40 EDT

Contents:
  ftape and FC-20 controller (Robert Broughton)
  WUFTPD 2.4    won't compile (Peter Drier)
  Re: ftp freeze problems (Daniel Tran)
  User process accounting for 1.1.51+ (/usr/adm/acct) (Robert Sink)
  Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far? (Ron Atkinson)
  init/pppd (Jeffrey Wescott)
  Re: Assuring that a PPP link stays up... (Vernon Schryver)
  Re: Mystery Chip...AMD (Sam Brown)
  Re: RLOGIN security - more info! (Gregory Trubetskoy)
  Re: PROBLEM: Sun locks up mounting Linux NFS drive (Frank Gehrke)
  Re: booting in single user mode? (Matt Beal)
  Re: Linux NOT logging people out on hangup (Joe Beiter)
  Re: PACKET SNIFFER FOR LINUX (Panzer Boy)
  kernel message in log file - what does it mean (Daniel Tran)
  Re: Ncurses signals broken? (Zeyd M. Ben-Halim)
  Re: [help] user cannot update password (take 2) (Mike Suzio)
  How to get a swapfile going under UMSDOS? Help? (Rob Hardy)
  Re: PACKET SNIFFER FOR LINUX (Roman Gollent)

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert Broughton)
Subject: ftape and FC-20 controller
Date: Mon, 03 Oct 94 22:23:59 -0800

I have a Colorado 250-mb tape drive connected to the floppy controller. It
works fine with MS/DOS. I have v1.1.51 of Linux, and the latest ftape with
all the patches. It won't work. I consider the possibility that it won't
work because there's something weird about my el cheapo floppy controller.
I decide to invest in an FC-10 tape controller, and figure that this is
bound to work. I called up a couple of stores, and learned that the FC-10
is not a current product, and it's been replaced by the FC-20. So, the
question is, will ftape work with the FC-20?
--
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Robert Broughton    [email-masked]

"We calm and reassure. We embrace people with the message that we're
all in it together. That our leaders are infallible and that there is
nothing, absolutely nothing wrong." - Miles Drentell, _thirtysomething_

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Drier)
Subject: WUFTPD 2.4    won't compile
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 19:11:54 GMT

Has anyone been able to compile wuftpd 2.4 on a recent install of slackware.  
Or even an old one.  I had it running 6 months ago, but now I can't get it to 
compile.  It seems to have a problem with a struct statement in one of the 
includes.  I also tried to apply the linux patch but it said it was already 
patched.  

Any thoughts?

Peter Drier.

p.s. e-mail would be best, this group is too busy.

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

From: [email-masked] (Daniel Tran)
Subject: Re: ftp freeze problems
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 20:48:35 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matti Aarnio) writes:

>There is some problem in NCSA-Telnet's FTP with some versions of
>Linux TCP code, thus I would like to know a bit more about these
>troubled DOS machines:

>[email-masked] (Daniel Tran) writes:
>>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (john taylor) writes:
>>>Craig Tavener ([email-masked]) wrote:
>>>I've got linux (Slackware2.0) recently installed on a 468-66.  It has an 
>>>ethernet card and is networked to Novell and and UNIX.  When ftp/telnetting 
>>>from linux to elsewhere things generally work well.  However, when trying to 
>>>ftp into the linux machine (most notably from the novell network) the 
>>>session frequently freezes.  Pressing cntl-C returns the ftp prompt, but the 
>>>last action ends up being truncated.  A good example of this is a file 
>>>transfer.  All packet but the last one get through.  Then it freezes and the 
>>>last packet it lost.
>>>
>>>Does anyone have any idea what is going on here?
>>>
>>>I have the same problem. When I ftp from my novell server to my linux box. 
>>>The entire file will transfer except the last 1 or 2K. How can this be fixed?
>>>
>>>John

>>I do not have that problem at all.  My workstation sits on the Novell network, 
>>I am constantly telneting and ftping to my linux box w/o any problems.
>>I'm running kernel 1.1.35

>>Daniel Tran - [email-masked]

>        What TCP/IP stacks does each of you have/use on their
>        DOS machines ?

I am using Novell Lan WorkPlace version 4.12 TCP/IP stakcs

>        What is your Linux kernel configuration regarding following:
>                PC/TCP compability
>                Disable NAGLE

I don't remember but I'm sure that I did not mess around with these parameters
when I recompiled my kernel for networking support.

Daniel Tran - [email-masked]

>        Some successes have been obtained with:
>                PC/TCP compability      y
>                Disable NAGLE           n
>        (I haven't tested this FTP problem with PC/TCP compab Y, though..)

>        /Matti Aarnio   <[email-masked]>

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert Sink)
Subject: User process accounting for 1.1.51+ (/usr/adm/acct)
Date: 7 Oct 1994 13:39:00 -0400

Does anyone know of a patch that will add user process accounting
for Linux v1.1.51+ ?  All I can seem to locate are patches for 1.1.18 
which do not work beyond that.  Or at least I don't have skill to patch
them by hand.  Any help would greatly be appreciated - please reply
to this message or below email address.

--

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
|:| Robert Sink              | "I don't want  to start  any blasphemous |:|
|:| [email-masked] |  rumors, but I think that GOD has a sick |:|
|:|--------------------------|  sense of humor and when I die  I expect |:|
|:| (c) 1994 Gurkware, Inc.  |  to find him laughing."  -- Depeche Mode |:|
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
         *PGP 2.6 Public Key Available By Fingering This Account*
           *or via the PGP Server: [email-masked]*

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

From: ron@chaos (Ron Atkinson)
Subject: Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far?
Date: 7 Oct 1994 18:09:10 GMT

Michael H Price II ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Of course, dare I say it, everyone could just go ahead and use sendmail
: instead of smail ;-)

Exactly what I just did.  I'm tired of hearing and seeing Smail bugs and
at the moment I can't deal with these security problems anymore.  I
installed sendmail last night and I'm getting others to install it too
until Smail can get fixed.  

I don 't know enought about Smail to fix the problems myself, but if I
did then I would try to fix it.  For now I'll stay with sendmail.

: Michael

Ron

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

From: [email-masked] (Jeffrey Wescott)
Subject: init/pppd
Date: 04 Oct 1994 05:26:17 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

I seem to remember someone posting here about having the init process
respawn pppd whenever the ppp link goes down.  I tried the following
line in my /etc/inittab, but had a few problems:

pp:345:respawn:/usr/local/sbin/pppd &>/dev/null

The problems I had were that sometimes when restarting init with 'init
q', init would complain that it was respawning too fast and disabling
for 5 minutes.  However, if I got a ppp link going, 5 minutes later
the process would be respawned, thus killing the link.  Very
frustrating ...  What process does it check to see if it needs to be
respawned is my question.  Or, how can I change my inittab to make it
work?  Any help is appreciated.

--
Jeffrey Wescott                 <[email-masked]>
                                <http://www.bucknell.edu/~wescott>

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

Crossposted-To: comp.protocols.ppp
From: [email-masked] (Vernon Schryver)
Subject: Re: Assuring that a PPP link stays up...
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 16:11:06 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>Does anybody have a good, well thought-out system of assuring that a PPP
>link between two UNIX boxes stays up, through the use of crontab entries?

> ...
>Presently, I have a crontab entry on the campus machine which is invoked
>every {14,29,44,59} minutes past the hour.  It checks to see if the link
>is up by pinging the remote machine a few times, and grepping for a positive
>responce.  ...

>This mechinism seems somewhat kludgy, and I was wondering if anybody
>has implemented any better way.  (And yes, the PPP link does die every
>now and then due to natural causes, requiring a mechinism.)

Use a PPP implementation that supports "camping," a form of "demand
dialing" where the systems bring the link back up as soon as it goes
down.  I bet that many PPP implementations that support full demand dialing
can have their timeouts adjusted to give the same effect.  Or just
use `ping -q` to keep the link active.

Vernon Schryver    [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Sam Brown)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Mystery Chip...AMD
Date: 6 Oct 1994 05:42:45 -0700

picked up a dx-2-80 amd, works great. $210 was my cost $320 w/green vlb 
motherboard. extremely stable and fast

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

From: [email-masked] (Gregory Trubetskoy)
Subject: Re: RLOGIN security - more info!
Date: 7 Oct 1994 18:39:10 GMT

Another possibilty is something recently posted on
comp.os.linux.announce:

smail -d -D/etc/i_am_broken noon@universe

makes an /etc/i_am_broken file, which can be edited by group "users". It 
wokes very well for .rhosts files too. 

A fix to the .rhosts problem is to add the -l option to rshd and rlogind 
lines in the /etc/inetd.conf file. This option prevents the use of the 
.rhosts files for loging in.

Who knows what the tin security hole is?

Cheers!

P.S. My Linux is getting securer by the second...

--
================================================================
Gregory Trubetskoy                   [email-masked]
================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Frank Gehrke)
Subject: Re: PROBLEM: Sun locks up mounting Linux NFS drive
Date: 7 Oct 1994 18:56:02 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Alan Cox <[email-masked]> wrote:
>rsize=1024,wsize=1024 as options or better still get a 1.1.51 kernel, the 
>floppy disk patch and Florians excellent NFS speedup patch and you'll be
>a much happier man.
>
Have these patches been applied to the 1.1.52 kernel? If not from what
ftp site might they be available? I've experienced the same problems.

thanks

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

From: [email-masked] (Matt Beal)
Subject: Re: booting in single user mode?
Date: 4 Oct 1994 20:30:27 GMT

CVL staff member Nate Sammons ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Can you issue a "boot -s" type command to get into single user mode?

: The problem is, my machine goes to init 6 (xdm) but X is not
: configured properly, so it sits there and flicks in and out of sync
: with the monitor, and I cannot do anything.  I need to be able to go in
: and change the initial init state of the machine, and the easiest
: way I can think of (with other UN*Xs) is to boot it into single user mode.

: Any suggestions?  (not in the FAQ that I could find)

To change the initial startup mode, edit /etc/inittab. Mine has:

# Default runlevel.
id:5:initdefault:

near the top of the file. In this example, I boot up in run level 5.
According to the man page for init, if you do not have this line in
your inittab, you will be asked for a runlevel at the console at boot
time. Best bet though is probably just setting it to 5.

Matt

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

From: [email-masked] (Joe Beiter)
Subject: Re: Linux NOT logging people out on hangup
Date: 3 Oct 1994 23:11:34 -0400

We have a network of 5 linux systems running .47 and .50 with three
being used as dialup systems (with digiboards).

Since each has 8 modems on them we are finding this problem to be both
valid and *very* annoying. Our latest suspect is bash but we're pretty
baffled.

We've even written a program designed to detect and inform us when someone
has dropped carrier and has a run-away process so we can go kill them
off manually.

-- 

-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-=@=-
 [email-masked] -=*=- Cosmic Communications
 My views and my opinions are my views and my opinions.

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

From: [email-masked] (Panzer Boy)
Subject: Re: PACKET SNIFFER FOR LINUX
Date: 4 Oct 1994 17:10:38 -0400

Roman Gollent ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hernan Lobos ([email-masked]) wrote:
: : Where is available???
: Hmm, geee... I wonder why you would want a packet sniffer?? >:)

I wonder why you care....

Packet sniffer make life easy when debugging problems, many people can't 
afford a wonderful little box called a network monitor, or whatever you 
want to call them.  Sniffers also help when trying to determine where 
certain type of electronic attacks are coming from, as opposed to your 
roomate booting up single user and changing roots password.

Security through obscurity, whether by not explaining algorithms, or by 
not distributing tools is not the way to go.

If you want to prevent sniffing, install SKEY.  This provides you with a 
relatively secure one time password system.  Takes couple hours to 
install, and about 15-20 minutes of reading to fully understand.  People 
can sniff all they want on your system, you never use the same password 
to log in from unsecure areas.

-- 
 -Matt
 ([email-masked])
 "That which can never be enforced should not be prohibited."

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

From: [email-masked] (Daniel Tran)
Subject: kernel message in log file - what does it mean
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 16:23:31 GMT

HI,
Twice this morning, my Linux networking component stopped working.  I had
named running so when my station didn't communicate to the outside world, I
thought named has failed.  I killed the named process, restarted but nothing
work.  I then ping'ed some hosts using the real IP address - nothing work.

I shut down the system, brought it back up.  Everything worked again.  
A while later, the same problem re-occurred.

I looked at log files in /usr/adm and found this:
   Oct 7 08:11:13 viper kernel: redirect from 01af6180

01af6180 is the IP hex number of my router (128.97.175.1)

Can someone tell me what the "redirect from 128.97.175.1" means??
This machine has been running solidly for at least 3 months now.

Daniel Tran [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Zeyd M. Ben-Halim)
Subject: Re: Ncurses signals broken?
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 03:47:00 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Mikael Nordqvist <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>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'll take a look at aumix myself (I'm assuming it's on sunsite). My
guess is that the author might have relied on erasing functions taking
the current attribute in account. As pointed out by Eric S. Raymond
this behavior did not conform to SVR4.

>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 :-)

I'm afraid the latter :-( I'm slowly getting back but it is much slower.
I don't know if 1.8.6 fixes your problems but if you want to test it
drop me a line.

>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.

Sure it does! see curs_set() and the cnorm/civis/cvvis capabilities
of terminfo.

Zeyd

-- 
---
Zeyd M. Ben-Halim       [email-masked]
NCURSES is available from ftp.netcom.com:pub/zmbenhal/ncurses
Current version is 1.8.5

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

From: [email-masked] (Mike Suzio)
Subject: Re: [help] user cannot update password (take 2)
Date: 7 Oct 1994 15:39:38 -0400

[email-masked] (Andrew_R._Mitz) writes:

>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/

You need to add the setuid bit on passwd and chsh.  They were accidently
unset-uid when the Slackware distrib was done last time around.  This has
been confirmed by the Slackware compiler.

Once this is done, you should be all set.  You do this by executing:

chmod u+s passwd
chmod u+s chsh

Make sure you are in the directory where these binaries are, of course
(/usr/bin, I think).

                - Mike

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Hardy)
Subject: How to get a swapfile going under UMSDOS? Help?
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 14:12:38 GMT

Hello I have a system partially going with UMSDOS on a dos partition.

I have one partition but the install software didn't succeed in making
a proper bootable partition.

I will describe the problem at the end of the message.

How does one setup a swap FILE under UMSDOS. I have tried setting the
file up when I install from setup. It works for the duration of the
installation but not after that.

/etc/fstab won't take something like /var/swapfile as a swap file as
it doesn't exist. (/var/swapfile I mean)

I tried doing a swapon /var/swapfile 6000 but this didn't work.
How am I goofing?

I understand that UMSDOS is alpha but the installation software
doesn't work very well when it comes to setting up the swap file and
to making the boot disk. I have tried twice to make one and each time
it has be unsuccessful. The second time nothing happened at all! It
reads the disk and that's it... Light goes out, no prompt, no text,
no nothing..

 

--
=======================================================================
Robert Hardy  Voice|Data:(613)226-(2326|8665)  CCS Computer Consultant
  2nd Year Systems Engineering @ Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
     Email: (rhardy@chat|aa617@freenet|robert@aurora)+.carleton.ca
           "Linux the Choice of a GNU Generation!" unknown
=======================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Roman Gollent)
Subject: Re: PACKET SNIFFER FOR LINUX
Date: 4 Oct 1994 20:09:24 GMT

Hernan Lobos ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Where is available???

: Hernan

Hmm, geee... I wonder why you would want a packet sniffer?? >:)

Roman

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

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End of Linux-Admin Digest
******************************