Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #169
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 94 23:13:47 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #169, Volume #2                Sun, 9 Oct 94 23:13:47 EDT

Contents:
  X for Linux (Dennis Duffner)
  Re: Xterminals with Linux as X server (Mark A. Davis)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! (System Administrator)
  Does shadow-3.3.2 exist? (Delman Lee)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (Panzer Boy)
  Re: dump & restore for ext2 ? (Michael Garvin)
  Re: PCI vs. VLB (Shawn C. Masters)
  Re: Configuring 1.1.8 Kernel error (Thomas Quinot)
  Re: Serious Bug In The Networking Code (Jerry Ablan)
  [NEEDED] Inbound Mail Transator (Jerry Ablan)
  Boot disk (Carlos Irigaray)
  Re: shutdown without root access  --  SUMMARY (Austin Donnelly)
  Re: Ftape works...Not yet (Don Garrett)
  XFree-3.1: 16bpp with S3 card produce strange colors ([email-masked])
  Re: How to get a swapfile going under UMSDOS? Help? (Austin Donnelly)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (Tim Bass (Network Systems Engineer))
  Re: PPP faster then 38.4 (Al Longyear)
  Re: PASSWORD LOCK FILE problem - /etc/ptmp (Rick Daugherty)

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

From: duffy@[email-masked] (Dennis Duffner)
Subject: X for Linux
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 17:07:39 GMT

I've been wanting to have X here, especially since I've seen Mosaic on
Windows and would like to run it here, instead of having to reboot
to the DOS side and fire up Windows, Trumpet, etc, etc.
 
Where is it and, more importantly, how much room will it take up?

Thanks!

--
/-------------------------------------------------\
| Dennis Duffner               "No matter where   |
| [email-masked]        you go, there     |
| [email-masked]       you are."          |
| #include disclaimer.h           Buckaroo Bonzai |
\-------------------------------------------------/

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark A. Davis)
Subject: Re: Xterminals with Linux as X server
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 1994 04:12:57 GMT

[email-masked] () writes:

>Srini Seetharam ([email-masked]) wrote:

>: How do I get the Linux machine to respond to the XDMCP, but let
>: the Xterminals manage their windows ?
>: Is this even possible ?
>: I have seen it work with a SUN running Openlook / SunOS.

>Part of the answer to this lies in the Xtubes.  If the Xterminal doesn't
>have a local(either downloadable or in firmware) window manager the
>answer is you can't.

Are you sure this is what he is asking for?

>  However most of the Xterminals i've worked with do.

That is highly unusual.  Most Xterminals do not run local window managers.
It is almost always an optional add-on, hence additional cost, hence
the vast majority of the ones I have seen do not.

In general, the advantages of a local window manager client usually
do not outweigh the cost of the option (at least, this is what my
research tells me).  Opposing opinions are welcome, any new findings
will be added to the comp.windows.x Xterminal FAQ/Guide.

-- 
  /--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
  | Mark A. Davis     | Lake Taylor Hospital | Norfolk,VA (804)-461-5001x431 |
  | Director/SysAdmin | Information Systems  |    [email-masked]       |
  \--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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

From: [email-masked] (System Administrator)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze!
Date: 7 Oct 1994 21:14:06 GMT

Peter H. Lemieux ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Ralph Sims) says:
: >
: >Other things that run are Sendmail+IDA as a daemon, xntpd, and
: >CERN's web server.  The ftp session definitely takes over the system.
: >

: Remember that FTP is running two simultaneous sessions with the other host, 
: a data channel and a control channel.  With only a standard two-wire modem,
: the line must be repeatedly turned around from TX to RX and back again.
: (Four wire, dedicated-line modems are pricey.)  Services like news and
: the web have little upstream traffic, mostly downstream, since they
: have no control channel.

Pardon, but I don't think this is correct.  Most 2 wire modems multiplex
the bandwidth and *do* allow simultaneous bi-directional data flow.  You
may be thinking of some data protocols that require packets to be
acknowledged by the receiving end before sending additonal ones, but this
has nothing really to do with what is flowing on the line itself.  I
haven't seen real 'line-turn around' modems since dealing with some
ancient Burroughs stuff nearly 20 years ago.  And even then the more
common 300 bps 2 wire modems *most* people were using were bi-directional,
using 4 tones, 1 pair to code 1's and 0's going one way, and the other
pair for data going the other.  

George Nemeyer        ([email-masked])
System Administrator
Tigerden.com

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

From: [email-masked] (Delman Lee)
Subject: Does shadow-3.3.2 exist?
Date: 08 Oct 1994 06:45:53 GMT

The shadow password suite 3.3.2 was referred to in the XFree86 3.1
README. However, I couldn't find it. The latest I found from
comp.sources.misc and Linux archive site is 3.3.1. 

There seems to be some legal issues with it too; I see some GPL shadow
suites around on archives. 

Any ideas?

Thanks, Delman.
--
______________________________________________________________________

  Delman Lee                                 Tel.: +1-215-662-6780
  Medical Image Processing Group,            Fax.: +1-215-898-9145
  University of Pennsylvania,
  4/F Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive,                         
  Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021,
  U.S.A..                            Internet: [email-masked]
______________________________________________________________________

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

From: [email-masked] (Panzer Boy)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 9 Oct 1994 17:09:30 -0400

Steve Kneizys ([email-masked]) wrote:
: If there was a security developers group, then the holes could
: be emailed to them for evaluation so as not to publicize the hole
: long before the fix.  Or make a moderated comp.os.linux.security
: group?
comp.os.linux.security?  Moderated?  Gimme a break.  By not releasing 
information about problems you are just limitting that information to the 
people who "really want it", no matter if they are "bad" or "good".  
If you are running any machine directly attached to the internet and you 
don't expect people to rattle the locks you have, you are extremely 
naive.  If you expect by not posting publically that there are holes in 
systems, and expect that only "good" guys will get that information, then 
you are also extremely naive.  You could wait for the CERT advisory about 
SMAIL, I'm sure one will be out in 4-6 weeks from now...
-- 
 -Matt
 ([email-masked])
 "That which can never be enforced should not be prohibited."

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

From: [email-masked] (Michael Garvin)
Subject: Re: dump & restore for ext2 ?
Date: 7 Oct 1994 17:29:51 GMT

        Same here, thanks!

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Michael Garvin - Systems Programmer                       [email-masked]
Mars Mission Research Center                            (919) 515-5250 [Voice]
North Carolina State University                           (919) 515-7968 [Fax]

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

From: [email-masked] (Shawn C. Masters)
Subject: Re: PCI vs. VLB
Date: 7 Oct 1994 20:53:14 GMT

root ([email-masked]) wrote:
: PCI is faster, current 66 Mhz implementations are about 2x the speed of

        The Spec for PCI reads a clock speed of 33MHz.

: The kernel can't tell the difference, really, between ISA, VLB or PCI.

        Not for Memory access.  Start talking about setting up bus
mastering or DMA transfers, and each bus is different.  Both of these
techniques are required to fully utilize the capacity of your system.

        73,
                Shawn
                KE4GHS

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

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Quinot)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Configuring 1.1.8 Kernel error
Date: 8 Oct 1994 15:13:35 +0100

Le Prostetnic Vogon John Behneman écrit :

> fs/fs.o: Undefined symbol  _ext_read_super referenced from text segment
>                            _ifs_read_super referenced from text segment
> make *** [ tool/zSystem ] Error

Be sure to build your kernel from a clean and well-configured source tree.
In order to do that your best bet is to untar (or copy) a fresh source tree
from your CD. Then run "make config;make dep;make clean;make zImage" in the
top directory and everything should go fine.

For further enlightenment about kernel compiling, you should have a look at
the kernel sources' README.

(please note Followup changed)
-- 
Thomas QUINOT                       |  "Un roi sans divertissement est un
<[email-masked]>      |             homme plein de misère."
Linux - choice of a GNU generation  |                          Jean GIONO

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

From: [email-masked] (Jerry Ablan)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Serious Bug In The Networking Code
Date: 9 Oct 1994 19:51:55 -0500

On 9 Oct 1994 18:33:07 GMT, Ketil Z Malde spake thusly:

: There appears to be a serious bug in some of the networking code
: supplied with linux/slackware, that causes the computer to get
: 'network unreachable' after approximately 3 minutes of perfect
: functioning.  I have no idea what the problem might be, and if
: somebody tell me where to look, I can try to figure out what versions
: my drivers etc. are.  Here are the configurations I ve gotten this
: problem with:

I've noticed that this occurs when you run routed. Do not run routed and see
if it still happens.

-- Jerry

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

From: [email-masked] (Jerry Ablan)
Subject: [NEEDED] Inbound Mail Transator
Date: 9 Oct 1994 19:54:05 -0500

Is there some kind of program that can run when I get mail to an unknown
user on my system? Or one that will translate a [email-masked] into a
user address? I know they exist, but are unsure of the names.

-- Jerry

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

From: [email-masked] (Carlos Irigaray)
Subject: Boot disk
Date: 9 Oct 1994 14:51:41 -0400

Hi, I've have compiled the kernel 1.1.52 and it works. Now, I want to 
install Linux on an IBM PS/2. I couldn't because the kernel that comes with 
the Slackware distribution (1.0.9) doesn't support the MCA architecture. 
But the new kernel does support it!

My question is: Does somebody know how to create a "boot disk" and/or a 
"root disk" as in the Slackware distribution? With that I should be able 
to install everything I want. But I need to have the PS/2 booting from 
the new kernel!

Thanks,

 ____________________________________________________________
|                                                            |
| Carlos Irigaray - [email-masked] - [email-masked] |
|                                                            |
|____________________________________________________________|

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

From: [email-masked] (Austin Donnelly)
Subject: Re: shutdown without root access  --  SUMMARY
Date: 9 Oct 1994 22:34:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Van Zandt <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>Greck Cannon <[email-masked]> suggests:
>> Make a group containing the people you want to be able to shut the
>> machine down.  Then change /sbin/shutdown to suid [change its owner to
>> root,] and change its group to the shutdown people group.  You may also
>> have to suid and chgrp halt and reboot...

This all works in theory, but unfortunately as umount(8) is already
setuid root, it doesn't work in practice. Yes, the computer reboots
fine, but it doesn't unmount the disks, causing an fsck to happen at
the next startup.

This is because umount can be run by ordinary users when (for example)
unmounting a floppy, and it needs to update /etc/mtab. So umount
ignores the EUID of a user (since this is normally root) and only
allows the root filesystem to be unmount by someone with a UID of 0
(ie the superuser).

I don't think there is *any* elegant solution to this umount problem.

Austin

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

From: [email-masked] (Don Garrett)
Subject: Re: Ftape works...Not yet
Date: 6 Oct 1994 23:18:11 GMT

Ike Brenner ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article [email-masked], [email-masked] ( Jonathan Williams ) writes:
: > 
: > 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 

:       I've had almost the exact same problems (sorry no fix yet). I have
:       noticed in the message file (/var/adm/messages) that ftape finally
:       chokes when it gets an error trying to write to the header. I think
:       this is occurring after successfully updating the header numerous
:       times since I have a flood of the same previous "error sector #/
:       reposition") messagesjust before it finally chokes. Anyone got
:       ideas on this?
: Ike

  I've been trying (on and off) to get ftape to work since it was
first introduced. These are almost the exact symptoms I've always had,
and the amount of information written out before errors begin is
always constant. 

  However, when I recently tried to reformat my linux tape under DOS,
the format failed. The tape (which was good before linux use) is no
longer usable by anything.

  I haven't yet tried my only other tape, or ordered any replacement
tapes. I plan to soon though.

--
Don Garrett                                                   Louisiana Tech
[email-masked]                                      University
                  http://info.latech.edu/~dgarrett/

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: XFree-3.1: 16bpp with S3 card produce strange colors
Date: 10 Oct 1994 00:28:20 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem with XFree-3.1 used with an Orchid
Fahrenheit VLB card in 16 bpp mode. X starts up but the colors I get
are not right. For example a light blue color looks greenish. I
suspected this had something to do with the 565 default weight, so I
added the option -weight 555, and the colors were all right again, but
there was one more problem. That made the depth 15, and some programs,
like xv, complained about not knowing how to handle 15-bit displays
and thus did not display anything.

Is there any fix for this problem? I know someone with the exact same
video card who does not have this problem. I'd really appreciate any
help on this.

Thanks a lot.

Following are the Screen and Device sections of my XFconfig file.

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Orchid Fahrenheit VLB"
    VendorName "Orchid"
    BoardName  "Fahrenheit-VLB"
    VideoRam   1024
    Ramdac "att20c490"
    Option "power_saver"
    Option     "nolinear"
    Option     "nomemaccess"
    Membase     0x7c000000
    Clocks 25.20   28.32 40.00  0.00  50.10 77.00 36.10 45.00
    Clocks 130.00 120.20 80.00 31.50 110.30 65.00 75.00 94.60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Driver "accel"
    Device "Orchid Fahrenheit VLB"
    Monitor "Sony Multiscan 17se"
    Subsection "Display"
        Modes "1088x816" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480-1" "640x480-2" "400x300" "1280x960"
        ViewPort 0 0
        Depth 16
    EndSubsection
EndSection
--
=============================================================================
Mohammad A. Al-Ansari                                | [email-masked]
College of Computer Science, Northeastern University | phone: (617) 373-2075
360 Huntington Ave., 45 CN, Boston, MA 02115         |

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

From: [email-masked] (Austin Donnelly)
Subject: Re: How to get a swapfile going under UMSDOS? Help?
Date: 9 Oct 1994 22:47:25 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Rob Hardy <[email-masked]> wrote:
[...]
>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.

Try something like:

======== cut cut cut ================
if [ -f /var/swapfile ]
then
    /sbin/swapon /var/swapfile
else
    echo "Now creating swapfile..."
    /bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/swapfile bs=1024 count=4096
    /bin/sync
    /bin/sync
    /sbin/mkswap /var/swapfile 4096
    /bin/sync
    /bin/sync
    /sbin/swapon /var/swapfile
fi
======== cut cut cut ================

in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local startup file somewhere.

This should start swapping on /var/swapfile if it exists, and if it
doesn't, then it creates a 4megabyte one.

The number 4096 is the size of swapfile it creates if one doesn't
exist: you'll probably need to change it to something more
suitable. It is expressed in kilobytes.

Austin

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

From: [email-masked] (Tim Bass (Network Systems Engineer))
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 9 Oct 1994 23:07:38 GMT

The statement below I disagree with 100 percent and I use linux
very seriously.  One of my clients recently purchased about 50
platforms to put at 25 locations to do DNS and SMTP mail relay(s).

SOAPBOX

In a free and open society, ALL information should be available.
Many governments and orgs withhold information in the interest
of 'security' to the detriment of society as a whole.  All this
done in the name of 'security'

BACK ON THE GROUND

Keep posting holes and we'll keep filling them, I'd say AND
we might all learn something in the process.

Isis Leslie ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I'm rather unconfortable with the posting of all of these security holes.
: For a while I was under the impression that this was a no-no, and that
: while sure, posting a "fix" or "work around will tell those in the know 
: just what the whole is, at least it makes it a little tougher.
:  
: I had the smail hole fixed for a while, but none the less imediately after
: the post to the announce group I had about 15 incidents of people trying to
: mail to /etc/passwd. (Remotely and they were too stupid to not make it
: so I couldn't get their user id's...go figure)

: While nothing happened to my machine, someday I won't be able to check my
: system the same day the initital post is made.

: peace-Isis

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

From: [email-masked] (Al Longyear)
Subject: Re: PPP faster then 38.4
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 17:46:03 GMT

[email-masked] (Steven Kornreich) writes:

>Can you run PPP or slip faster than 38.4? I have a V.34 modem that I use  
>to communicate with my Internet provider that also has a v.34 modem on his  
>side.

PPP uses the standard ioctl operations to initialize the tty driver.

You may run it with any rate that setserial will support. The PPP
driver and daemon does not care. It simply uses the tty driver for its
communication.

It does care that the driver be for an asynchronous link as it does
the Async-HDLC protocol within the ppp.c driver. If anyone is planning
on developing a bit-synchronous serial driver, then I'd be happy to
hear from you to talk about the changes needed to support PPP over a
synchronous link.

(Don't try byte-synchronous. It is not designed for this type of link.)

-- 
Al Longyear           [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Rick Daugherty)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: PASSWORD LOCK FILE problem - /etc/ptmp
Date: 10 Oct 1994 02:36:13 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Jason R. Mastaler) says:
>
>I am having problems with my password lock file.  Lately for some reason,
>users on my linux system are not able to change their passwords or shells.
>
>When issuing the 'passwd' command, and after entering the old pword and
>new pword, the change fails.  The error message is "Can't open /etc/ptmp,
>can't update password".
>
>The other problem is when using 'chsh' to change shells.  As above the
>simple procedure fails with "Can't open /etc/ptmp, can't change shells".
>

Users on my system are also complaining of the same problem. This only
seems to occur on those users on the csh/tcsh shells. Other shells
don't seem to have a problem changing their password. Please post the
answer -- not just e-mail.

Thanks,
Rick

/----------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Rick Daugherty, Information System Manager <[email-masked]>             |
| Waste Policy Institute ******** "Building Environmental Stewardship" |
| 1872 Pratt Drive, Suite 1600,Blacksburg, VA 24060, V:703.231.3324    |
| http://services.wpi.vt.edu/index.html                                |
\----------------------------------------------------------------------/

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

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