Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #174
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 94 06:13:45 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #174, Volume #2               Tue, 11 Oct 94 06:13:45 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Experiences with Archive's Python
  Re: /etc/utmp not writable by xterm's.  Why? (Jim Ockers)
  Re: mpeg_play for linux (Tom Vaughan)
  Re: Please don't post sec (Riku Saikkonen)
  sendmail + _IDA_ ? (Riku Saikkonen)
  Re: Yggdrasil & large SCSI disk??? (Jeff Kesselman)
  Re: what's wrong with my agetty? (Kenneth H. Gantz)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (S L Herbert)
  Re: SCSI vs IDE (Alan Cox)
  Re: SCSI vs IDE (Alan Cox)
  Re: Inn on a Linux box! (Kenneth Tan)
  where does screenlock get passwd from? (Kenneth H. Gantz)
  Re: Problem allowing users to mount floppies (Uwe Bonnes)
  Smail: How to set sender name? (Ted Harding)
  Cron Problems - Script runs from shell but not cron (Ted Harding)
  Re: What's failed after Bogomips (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
  Re: Ftape works...Not yet (Janne Sinkkonen)
  Where to find acct for 1.1.49+? (Andrew PRUSEK)

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

From: <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Experiences with Archive's Python
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 94 10:51:28 CST
Reply-To: <[email-masked]>

On 8 Oct 1994 16:40:06 -0500, 
Louis LaBash  <[email-masked]> wrote:

>Hi,
>I'm soliciting experiences with Archive's "Python" tape drives,
>either 430NT, or 4520 models.
>
>Thanks.
>[email-masked]}
>

Louis,

We use the 430NT. Had some problems with an earlier kernel (.99pl15) and 
the GNU-mt program unable to do "setblk". Upgraded to 1.0.9 and was able to 
use "setblk". The thing works fine.

======================================================================
Robert J Brashear                            [email-masked]
Technical Services Manager                   [email-masked]
The One-Off CD Shop Minneapolis              [email-masked]
                                             612-374-4643 (voice)
                                             612-374-3901 (fax)

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

From: [email-masked] (Jim Ockers)
Subject: Re: /etc/utmp not writable by xterm's.  Why?
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 22:07:25 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Lars Hofhansl ([email-masked]) wrote:

: In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Joel M. Hoffman) writes:
: >
: >The /etc/utmp file doesn't seem to record any logins via xterms ---

: I noticed this behavior too, and I wondered how the good old
: xterm managed writing to utmp. It's quite simple: xterm is setuid root.
: So I set rxvt uid root, and it works.

: So far I could not see any security holes... Is that true?!

As I understand it having suid root xterms is a security hole, although I
can't give a specific example.  It just makes me nervous.  I don't know
what would happen on a suid root xterm if someone were to do something
like xterm -e <command> .

Regardless, the problem seems to be non-init clients (such as xterm or
rxvt) reporting themselves to init as logins.  xdm actually supports this;
look into the sessreg command. I have been unable to get sessreg to work
however because the sysVinit that I have does wierd things with utmp and
wtmp such that sessreg cannot write to them.  I have not seen a drop-in
solution to the sessreg problem and am still waiting to see if one turns
up. 

I have a program that someone wrote which handles the sessreg function but
the author said that it functioned unreliably when he started using a
getty on his modem; then init was messing up the utmp and wtmp files and
his program was unable to write to them correctly.  If you want to see the
program I can mail it to you... 

However if someone telnets in and starts an xterm then sessreg wouldn't
see it and you still wouldn't have a record of the login. 

--
Jim  ([email-masked])                   Ask me about Linux!
PGP public key available upon request, or from my web pages.
GE d? p c++ l++ u++ e++ m++(--) s n-(+) h+ f !g w+ t+ r !y
<a href="http://www.umr.edu/~ockers/">home page</a>

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

From: [email-masked] (Tom Vaughan)
Subject: Re: mpeg_play for linux
Date: 7 Oct 94 15:10:52 GMT

[email-masked] (Klevemann) writes:

>Anyone know where I can get an mpeg_play for linux ?

grep INDEX.whole from sunsite.unc.edu

Thomas

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

Subject: Re: Please don't post sec
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 94 20:17:00 +0200

>>I'm rather unconfortable with the posting of all of these security holes.
>I disagree completely.  This information should be disseminated freely.
>I want to know everything about any real or potential security problems
>with my computer.  The reasons for this should be obvious.  Linux, in

I too am for reporting everything at once. How else will the things get
fixed? And, the truth often is that once someone discovers a security
hole, it soon spreads to the 'crackers'. Isn't it better for every
sysadmin to know and be able to fix the thing than for only a small
group of crackers to know it?

-=- Rjs -=- [email-masked] - IRC: Rjs
"From cavern pale the moist moon eyes / the white mists that from earth
arise / to hide the morrow's sun and drip / all the grey day from each
twig's tip." - J. R. R. Tolkien

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

Subject: sendmail + _IDA_ ?
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 94 20:17:00 +0200

Stupid question, I know...
What is the difference between sendmail and sendmail+IDA?

E-mail, I'll summarise.

-=- Rjs -=- [email-masked] - IRC: Rjs
"From cavern pale the moist moon eyes / the white mists that from earth
arise / to hide the morrow's sun and drip / all the grey day from each
twig's tip." - J. R. R. Tolkien

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman)
Subject: Re: Yggdrasil & large SCSI disk???
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 20:24:43 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,  <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>In article <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]> writes:
>> 
>> I dunno if this will help you any, but what I did with my ncr5380 generic 
>> driver (which can't read geometry either) was to boot up DOS and run my 
>> old DOS format utility (SpeedStor in my case) and it showed me the right 
>> values for the drive, which I then wrote into the front of my linux manual.
>> 
>
>Jeff,
>
>as it turned out, the Summer '94 Yggdrasil has a Rev. B boot diskette
>(available via ftp) which supports the NCR 53C810 SCSI chip. So you can
>install Linux this way. But since the 1.0.19 kernel is not on the CD-ROM,
>it does not get copied to the SCSI disk - and you get an unbootable
>system. 

Is this different from the ncr5380 driver that is on the fall94 cd-rom?  
I'm wondering because I'm currently using that driver with my Trantor 
130B, an if there is a newer more rpeferrabled river I'll switch (I have 
rev b., but I haven't really examined it beyond getting my sony-cd to work.)

>
>This is probably good enough if you have an IDE disk plus a SCSI disk
>hanging off the NCR chip. Then you can install from CD-ROM with the Rev.B
>boot disk and replace the kernel by the one from the boot disk. But it
>doesn't work too well if the SCSI disk is all you have.

I may be dense, but I'm not following this.  Once I found out my disk 
geometry using speedstor, I was able to enter it with linux fdisk and 
parition my drive.  I boot fine at the moment, though not off of my HD 
becuase I haven't installed the cd-rom fix yet (new kernel from rev. b).

As I understand the situation (and I may be wrong...) is that the only 
time Linux actually needs the disk geometry info is during lILO boot (I'm 
pretty sure I read that somewhere.)  There is a table you can hand to 
LILO that will set the gemoetry staticly in cases like mine, which was 
what I was planning on doing some weekend when I had nothing better to do.
(Altough if this new rev b. kernel fixes the problem, I guess Ill just 
finish installing it.)

In any case, my setup at the moment looks like this:
Floppy Drive A: - Boot Disk
/dev/hda        - Small DOS parition and large swap partition
/dev/sda1       - root partition
/dev/sda2       - 'home' partition 

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

From: [email-masked] (Kenneth H. Gantz)
Subject: Re: what's wrong with my agetty?
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 00:02:50 GMT

[email-masked] (Gert Doering) writes:

>[email-masked] (Kenneth H. Gantz) writes:

>>I'm trying to add a dumb terminal to my linux machine.
>>Here's what I've done so far. I've connected an ADDS terminal
>>to my comm 3 port via a null modem cable. I placed the following

>Just a guess: try a full-featured cable, or change your cable to make sure
>that the CTS, DSR and DCD lines are active on the Linux side (wire them to
>DTR). Possibly the kernel flow control gets confused by not connected
>(i.e. floating) control lines.

>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]
Actually, now that I've done some more testing, I think I have a plain
old irq conflict. I have a mouse on com 2, my modem on com 1 and the dumb
terminal on com 3. According to everything I've read com 1 and com 3 share
the same irq as does com 2 with com 4. My BIOS lets me choose different
irq settings from what the defaults are supposed to be but I noticed that
when I boot linux it says that com 1 and 3 are set to irq 4 (even though
my BIOS says com 1 is on 4 and com 3 is on 5). I tried moving the dumb 
terminal to com 4 and it worked fine but, as expected, my mouse died.
So how is one supposed to get the convenience of a mouse and a modem and
still be able to connect an dumb terminal at the same time?
-- 
Ken Gantz
[email-masked]
Work - 502.329.3724         IT IS NOT A PROBLEM OF WHETHER MACHINES THINK,
FAX - 502.329.6199          BUT WHETHER MEN DO. - B.F. Skinner

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

From: [email-masked] (S L Herbert)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 10 Oct 1994 19:15:55 GMT

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.

Go read comp.unix.security, where there's a lot more information on this.
Having the *complete* information on what a fault is can be essential -
if you are running a network which includes machines of different types,
being able to check the bug on all these machines makes a big difference.

Simply knowing there is an unspecified bug for a small list of platforms is
hardly ideal - how do you know that whoever compiled the list bothered to check 
all your platforms?

: 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)

If someone uses this stuff to break your box - that's what the police are
there for.  Just because you give someone a car, it don't mean that they've
the right to run you down.

Stuart
--
Stuart Herbert            Academic Computing Services, University of Sheffield
UNIX Support                  (0114) 282 4254 (External) / Ext 4254 (Internal)

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: SCSI vs IDE
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 18:42:08 GMT

In article <wvi.781342033@bambam> [email-masked] (Wouter Visscher) writes:
>every disk attached to without having to wait  for the disk ( controller )
>to finish, this in contrast with IDE where you wait. For this reason 
>the new ENHANCED IDE has two busses 1 for fast devices and one for slow
>devices, notably cdroms.

Even with SCSI you often have two scsi controllers as CD-ROMS often tie the bus
for ages with their low transfer rate. I'm in the middle of finishing
sorting out our computer society system once we get a bigger case - then it
will be 2 IDE controllers, 3 IDE drives, 2 SCSI drives on a SCSI controller,
4 serial ports, 3 parallel ports, ethernet and floppy on one ISA bus. 

I suspect bus contention becoming a performance issue 8)

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: SCSI vs IDE
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 18:47:55 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Panzer Boy) writes:
>Umm, I have three LED's on my computer, plus a panel for stupid speed.  I 
>have 3 drive controllers hooked up to the "HD, Turbo, and Power" LED's.  
>I don't anyone who uses turbo for more than minor kicks, and if you can't 
>tell you're computer is on, maybe you need your head examined.  Of 
>course, if you only have 1 led, this could be a problem.

Definitely we need more LEDs. I've got the turbo wired to the carrier detect
on the amateur radio PI2 card 8)

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Kenneth Tan)
Subject: Re: Inn on a Linux box!
Date: 8 Oct 1994 01:20:52 GMT

Nathan Stratton ([email-masked]) wrote:
>This is what my syslog look like:
>Oct  2 16:46:23 NovaNet innd: ME bad_newsfeeds no feeding sites

in /usr/lib/news/newsfeeds
make sure you have the entry:

ME\
        :*,!control,!junk::

>Oct  2 16:46:24 NovaNet innd: ME internal no control and/or junk group

You will also have to create (just for the heck of it), two newsgroups,
known specifically as "control" and "junk".  Just put these into the
/usr/lib/news/active file (the hard way).  The proper way is to use
ctlinnd to create the groups for you (dunno how... just do it the hard way:)

Good Luck!

Kenneth "Automan" Tan

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

From: [email-masked] (Kenneth H. Gantz)
Subject: where does screenlock get passwd from?
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 00:12:08 GMT

I sure home someone can help me with this. I just finished
installing util-linux-1.10.bin.gz and I thought I followed the 
instructions and warnings carefully but now I have a problem.
If I lock the screen with xlock it doesn't believe my password
when I try to unlock the screen. I have no trouble logging into
multiple virtual consoles so I know both I and my system know the
correct password. This happens to all user accounts. How do I get
xlock to believe real passwords again?
-- 
Ken Gantz
[email-masked]
Work - 502.329.3724         IT IS NOT A PROBLEM OF WHETHER MACHINES THINK,
FAX - 502.329.6199          BUT WHETHER MEN DO. - B.F. Skinner

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

From: [email-masked] (Uwe Bonnes)
Subject: Re: Problem allowing users to mount floppies
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 09:27:57 GMT

Jonathan Mohr ([email-masked]) wrote:
> 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?

If you have an unpatched 1.1.51 kernel, get 1.1.52. It fixes some
floppy-bugs. Even more recent floppy-developments can be followes on
ftp.imag.fr:pub/Linux/ZLIBC.
-- 
Uwe Bonnes  [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Ted Harding)
Subject: Smail: How to set sender name?
Date: 11 Oct 1994 05:38:17 -0400
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Ted Harding)

I too have got precisely as far as Andy Dickinson (see below) and
encountered exactly the same problems. The only solution I have
been able to implement is to create a user account on my own machine
in the same name ("efh") as on the mail-server wich I connect to,
and to be logged in on my own machine as "efh" for mail purposes,
even though I would like to send mail from "root" or "ted" on my
machine. This is feasible, even though inconvenient, on a Linux
machine because of tghe ease of switching between virtual consoles.
Using "selection" to copy chunks of text between consoles also helps.
My smail is Smail3.1.28.1 #28.1.

*** I would however like to ask for anyone who knows how "smail" ***
*** works to explain why the "sender_env_variable" option in the ***
*** smail config file apparently does not work - or how to get   ***
*** it to work. Alternatively, since there is apparently scope   ***
*** for the config file to do some processing in its programming ***
*** language, is there something one can do on this front? This  ***
*** would enable something else which would be very useful: my   ***
*** wife also uses the machine, so a config which could achieve  ***
*** the following would be very helpful:                         ***
***                                                              ***
*** if $user="ted" or $user="root" then user="efh"               ***
*** else if $user="cigdem" then user="cb"                        ***
***                                                              ***
*** so that mail appears to be sent by either "efh" or "cb" as   ***
*** appropriate. Despite repeated attempts to achieve this by    ***
*** all apparent plausible means, nothing has been achieved.     ***

| I am trying to configure smail to send out mail messages with a sender
| name which is different than my login name.  I need to do this because
| I cannot receive mail on my local machine -- I use a SLIP connection.
| 
| I need to make mail messages appear as though they were sent from the
| machine which actually receives my mail so that people will be able to
| reply to them.
| 
| I've figured out part of this problem -- by setting the "visible_name"
| attribute in the config file I can make messages appear as though they
| were sent from my mail-receiving machine.
| 
| The problem is, however, that the messages are still sent out with my
| local username.  My username on my local machine is different from my
| username on the mail-receiving machine.
| 
| From reading the smail(5) man page, it looks as though I may be able
| to do what I want by setting the sender_env_variable attribute in the
| config file.  This attribute is supposed to let users change the
| sender name used in a mail message by setting an environment variable.
| Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work -- smail doesn't seem to use
| this attribute.
| 
| I've also tried setting the from_field and return_path_field
| attributes to produce the desired username, but messages still arrive
| with the local username instead of the one I specify.
| 
| 
| Can someone tell me how to set the sender name in smail?
| 
| I'm using Smail3.1.28.1 #28.5.
| 

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

From: [email-masked] (Ted Harding)
Subject: Cron Problems - Script runs from shell but not cron
Date: 11 Oct 1994 05:38:17 -0400
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Ted Harding)

Brian Kramer asks:-

| I am having trouble with some scripts running fine from a prompt, but not
| from cron.  Here's one of the scripts.  Anyone else have problems like this?

I notice that this script includes lines like

        backupmenu()
        {
        echo "Usage backup <what>\n"
        echo "<what>:  full (Full backup) ";
        echo "         root (Root partition /) ";
        echo "         news (News Spool partition /usr/spool/news) ";
        echo "         user (User partition /home/home1) ";
        echo "         nn   (NN partition /usr/spool/nndb) ";
        echo "         inn  (Inn partiton /usr/lib/news)\n ";
        }

Now, where are the "echo"s supposed to appear when the script is run by
cron? And what console is the input supposed to come from?
When the script is run from a prompt, stdout (and stderr) will
appear on the screen where the prompt is, which can be found out from
the system admin files (utmp I think). Cron doesn't know what console
the script is supposed to write to. One solution would be to reserve
a particular console (I use /dev/tty1) as "system console", so that
the 1st two lines above, for instance, could be changed to

        echo "Usage backup <what>\n" > /dev/tty1 2>&1
        echo "<what>:  full (Full backup) "; > /dev/tty1 2>&1

My guess is that if all lines of the script which write to stdout were
changed to write >/devtty1 2>&1, and all lines which read from stdin
were changed to read </dev/tty1, then the script would work. Could
be wrong - this suggestion is necessary but may not be sufficient!

Ted.                                     ([email-masked])

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

Date: Sun, 09 Oct 1994 14:30:13 +0100
From: [email-masked] (Eberhard Moenkeberg)
Subject: Re: What's failed after Bogomips

Hello Eduardo Jacob Taquet and all others,

on 30.09.94 Eduardo Jacob Taquet wrote to All in USENET.COMP.OS.LINUX.ADMIN:

EJT> I found that when booting Linux, just after bogomips line, (33.. Ok), i
EJT> get a failed that seems not to be related to anything. Does anybody know
EJT> what is this about?

The Sony CDROM driver is just telling you that you have failed to
build your own kernel. ;-)

Greetings ... Eberhard

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

From: [email-masked] (Janne Sinkkonen)
Subject: Re: Ftape works...Not yet
Date: 11 Oct 1994 00:49:14 +0200

Peter Dalgaard SFE <[email-masked]> wrote:

>GZIP=-1 time nice -n -18 tar cvzlb 58 /
>
>('b 58' == 58 512b blocks == 29k == 1 tape sector, fastest gzip
>option, nice it to very high priority or X context switches get
>in the way, 'l' == don't cross filesystems (in particular not
>/proc !) Someone else said that just using the --block-compress
>option works well too.

I use a backup-1.0x utility from sunsite.unc.edu, that one which uses
afio, a Conner drive, and I have been unable to make any backup with
1.1.52. because of tons of I/O errors.

Anyone have this kind of combination?

--
[email-masked]  <http://avocado.pc.helsinki.fi/~janne/>

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

From: [email-masked] (Andrew PRUSEK)
Subject: Where to find acct for 1.1.49+?
Date: Sun, 09 Oct 1994 10:06:44 +0930

Hello all

Some time ago I had the address for the ftp site that had the process
accounting patch for kernel above 1.1.18.

As you may have guessed I have lost this address and therefore am now
begging for someone to enlighten me as to where I might find this.

I have looked in the regular places but have come up empty handed.

Any pointer???
thanks
Andrew

-- 
Andrew PRUSEK                         Phone: +61 86 40 4590
BHP Information Technology              Fax: +61 86 40 4720
PO Box 21 / Port Augusta Road         Email: [email-masked]
Whyalla SA 5600                 Prefered OS: Linux
Australia                        Disclaimer: My opinions are my own.

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

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The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
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You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.admin) via:

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Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
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End of Linux-Admin Digest
******************************