Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #184
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 03:14:09 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #184, Volume #2               Thu, 13 Oct 94 03:14:09 EDT

Contents:
  printcap entry for a hp560 (Brian Clements)
  Re: Broken pipe,x,client error (Jay Lewis)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (James A. Robinson)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (Isis Leslie)
  issue in tcpip login (Champ Clark)
  PCNFS and file locking (Ron Hume)
  Re: Whats wrong with sunsite.unc.edu? (Marcus Bainbridge)
  Telnetd doesn't notice you're gone. (Adrian Miranda)
  Re: [Q] VLB video card (Brian L. Kahn)
  New Adeptec SCSI not detected (Gunter Spranz)
  Re: TERM: a few questions (Patrick Reijnen)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! ("Stephen Davies")
  terminfo vs termcap ("Stephen Davies")
  FTPD and dir/ls ("Stephen Davies")
  Re: LILO & BusLogic 445s (Werner Almesberger)
  Linux on a Laptop using Bootp (Roman Gollent)

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

From: [email-masked] (Brian Clements)
Subject: printcap entry for a hp560
Date: 11 Oct 1994 20:37:53 -0700

Hello,
Can someone help me with a printcap entry.  I have got a HP560 inkjet
printer.  I would like to use it as a simple line printer for printing
text files.  When I try to print to it all I get is garbage.  Will the
HP inkjet printers support good ole text files, or does everything have
to have PCL embedded in it?  Another idea I had was to use ghostscript.
I know ghostscript supports the 500C & 550C printers, but I don't know
about the 560.  Ghostscript sure would be a lot of cycles for just
printing a text file.

Can anyone out there offer me some guidance.  I would really 
appreciate it.

Thanx,
Brian

[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jay Lewis)
Subject: Re: Broken pipe,x,client error
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 15:34:39 GMT

Erich E. Singer ([email-masked]) wrote:
: help :
:
: XIO :fatal IO error(Broken pipe) on X server ":0.0"
: after 386 requests(390 known proceeed) with 0
: events remaning.
: waiting for X server to shutdown
: xinit:Unknown error(error 0):client error.
: .................................................
: did anybody have the same experience?
: pls let me know! many thanks!!!

I get the exact same thing! Any answers out there?

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

From: [email-masked] (James A. Robinson)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 12 Oct 1994 21:51:53 -0400

[ Note the follow up. :) ]

First off, I am not arguing about "security" so much as "privacy"
here.  Keep in mind that I am seeing you as the devil's advocate, so
don't take my arguments as trying to say YOU personally believe x, y,
or z.

In article <[email-masked]>,
>In article <[email-masked]>,
[...]
>>I would like to consider myself to be a hacker.  (Others may disagree -- as
>>the quote below states, it is a title best given, not taken.)  I have never
>>broken into a system.  I do not plan on doing so at any time in the future.
>>The term `hacker' has been perverted by some to refer to criminals who
>>attempt to penetrate security on computer systems.  This was not the
>
>Oh, criminals.  Give me a break.  The criminals are the ones that mess with
>things.  I consider myself a (wannabe, at least) hacker in the original

Would you define "messing with things." for me?  Is strikes me that
you don't consider using CPU cycles as messing with things (as you
state that you use the compiler, and there is "nothing criminal [in
your eyes] about that."  This is where the argument seems to start.
As seen in the later threads, some people consider their systems the
same as their homes (in terms of power/equipment use, I think using
CPU cycles would be the same as flicking the lights on and off really
quickly).  They think that the act of opening the door is a criminal
violation in and of itself.  Do you disagree because you see the
computer as separate from the "physical reality" of the trespassing
laws (i.e., this is different because you do not physically visit the
computer.)?  Your argument implies you disagree, but I am not sure of
the "why" part of it.

>to get someone in legal trouble who has not destroyed something.

Out of curiosity (not as an argument!) do you consider "covering
tracks" destroying something?  We've had hackers (perhaps still have
them) who do neat things like copying over log files in an attempt not
to be tracked.  I am curious about your views...

>(overused cliche word.) fascist.   True, a lot of these system crackers
>are malicious little bastards... I fully understand the worries
>involved here.  But the criminalization of the curious is pathetic and
>computer-bureaucrat-like.  Let's reserve the word 'criminal' for those

I see that you can't fault us for being more then a little paranoid.
I view things like stealing people's passwords as criminal.  I view
these things as personal property.  Obviously many of the cracker
community do not agree with this.

If somebody paid money for a computer system, and paid even more money
to hook it up into the Internet, shouldn't they be able to have the
choice of being left alone?  If somebody were to rattle windows and
doors on my house, I would be pissed off.  You claim that the dwelling
space is not a computer.  Well thanks for that tip. :) Yes it is
obvious that a computer is not a house, apartment, car, pool,
whatever.  The point they are trying to make is that they own the
computer.  That ownership, they believe, gives them the right to say
who can and can not enter it (or try the doors).  For instance, they
can't argue that the Feds can't open it up and look in it if they have
probable cause.  Since they own this equipment, they have (or believe
they have) certain (and I hate this word) "rights" that go along with
it.  For arguments sake, lets also group the admins in as the owners.
They are more then a watchdog and gardener, they are more like
house-sitters with a vested interest in the house.

They view "see prompt, type password, see welcome screen, CLICK" as
"see front door, check doorknob (hey, its open!), open door a bit,
SLAM."  You respond with "Oh, my.  I didn't expect this argument.  I
am suddenly enlightened.  How facile."  I am amused by your words, but
you don't really tell us why it is not an acceptable argument other
then the above paragraph which, while being a fact, says nothing about
the argument that private property is viewed as having certain rights
attached to it.

> Lack of flexibility denotes a weak mind.

Side tracking a bit... No it doesn't.  The *inability* to be flexible
denotes a weak mind, simply deciding *not to be* flexible in case X
does not.  That is what I see here.  Most of the admins don't want to
be flexible because of the paranoia that they must feel when they know
somebody has broken into their systems.

> But it's not a dwelling space, and it can be very easily argued (of course,
> antyhing can be easily argued by most folks)  that infringements on a
> virtual space, a computer system, should not be treated as seriously as
> those on a dwelling space.   It does not need to be argued that these are
> sigificantly different things.
>
> The big one: no physical danger.  This is why humans have and have had such
> a strong reaction to burglars and trespassers in the past.
>
> Also: often no "breaking" occurs in situation 2.  Can you differentiate
> a physical space from a virtual one?  Sometimes I think the GUI is a bad
> thing...
>
> It is entirely possible to want to fight dogmatic views even when one
> is on the same side.  I don't want anybody crawling around inside my system.
> I never said I did.  I merely said that responses to this sort of thing can
> be way off the scale.

What about sensitive data?  Private e-mail between lovers?
Embarrassing porno (you know people have this), any number of
"private" things that people don't want other to know about? They
don't want people to even have the *ability* to get near these things
without their permission. The ability thing is what gets us upset.

Privacy is a thing that, in "real" life, a house protects.  We have
laws that dissuade people from entering them (or even being in
proximity of them) without permission.  Of course computers do not
have this protection. Computers are new, people don't fully understand
them. One person was shocked when I told them that, as the site
administrator, I had the power to read anything on the system.  This
person was very disturbed that I had that power.  In other words, I
was viewed with the same fear that a stranger, or even a guest of the
family whom the individual did not know well, would be viewed in the
person's home.

Jim
-- 
Jim Robinson                    Email:    [email-masked]
84 Alford Road                  Phone:    (413) 528-7371
Great Barrington, MA 01230      Fax:      (413) 528-7380

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

From: [email-masked] (Isis Leslie)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 11 Oct 1994 01:57:46 -0400

I *swear* I didn't know that my post was going to start this....
 
Anyway the fact is that if someone wants just anyone to log on to their
system, they'd create a guest account...
 
Computer systems are private property and on a private system you need
permission to enter.  This would also apply to most corperate systems
as well.  However the grey area would be an instance like an online service.
If it is open to public use, then you have implied permission to be there.
Some people (or more likely a defense lawyer) might insist that since the
mail port is open to the public, that you have no right to complain when
your system is harmed in someway due to someone's activity on the mail port.
Howver then again, a movie theater certainly doesn't expect someone to
throw a grenade into their lobby even though it's a public access space.

Anyway umm...maybe we could get back to the issues of system administration?
 
peace-Isis

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

From: [email-masked] (Champ Clark)
Subject: issue in tcpip login
Date: 12 Oct 1994 10:23:37 GMT

        Question:

I would like a /etc/issue of some type to come up when a person telnets to
my machine.  I am pretty sure I will have to modify login.c or something, whihc
I have no problem with,  but I am having trouble finding this.  Is this
assumption correct?  I am using slackware 2.0.0 ,  if that makes any difference.
Thanks
-- 

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

From: [email-masked]  (Ron Hume)
Subject: PCNFS and file locking
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 18:49:44

Hi,
        I am running FTP software's PCTCP and Interdrive,
to mount some of our unix (Linux) boxes from PC's.
My only problem is that when I PCNFS mount the 
linux drive I get the error message 'No port for remote
lock manager' or something close to that.  I looked
for a lockd but couldn't find one.  

Any suggestions (am I overlooking one that is included).

I am using Slackware 2.0.1.

Ron.

--
Ron Hume
Network Administrator
Cygnus Telcommunications Engineering Labs
CANADA

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

From: [email-masked] (Marcus Bainbridge)
Subject: Re: Whats wrong with sunsite.unc.edu?
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 21:25:47 +0000

Nick Kralevich ([email-masked]) wrote:

> I have been trying to access sunsite for the last several days.
> Sometimes I am able to, but most of the time I get the following
> error message:

> 425 Can't create data socket (198.86.40.81,20): Address already in use.

Does sunsite run a multi-processor Sparcserver?  If it does, then the system
software, Solaris, is buggy.  There, that surprised you, didn't it...?

The European sunsite, src.doc.ic.ac.uk had this problem a few months back. 
Sun got out K&R and re-wrote a bit of code.  Since then, these error
messages have gone.

If sunsite has more than one IP address (src.doc has 6), then try ftping
directly to another IP address.  This was the semi-official work-around
while Sun messed about with src.doc.
-- 
Marcus Bainbridge | [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Adrian Miranda)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Telnetd doesn't notice you're gone.
Date: 8 Oct 1994 00:28:56 GMT
Reply-To: Adrian Miranda <[email-masked]>

I am having an odd problem with Linux and telnet.  If I telnet into a
Linux box from whereever, and my local system is rebooted or goes off
the net, Linux telnetd never seems to notice that I've gone away.  On
most other systems it appears that telnetd periodically checks if it
can reach the remote system, and shuts down the connection if it
can't.  The Linux problem appears with both the telnetd that comes
with slackware 1.2 and the SRA telnetd from net.tamu.edu.

Does anyone have a solution to this?

Adrian

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

From: [email-masked] (Brian L. Kahn)
Subject: Re: [Q] VLB video card
Date: 12 Oct 1994 15:54:35 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (K.B. van Benten) writes:
   How much faster is a VLB video card than my
   8900C /1Mb ?  If it's worth it I might buy 
   a localbus card....

I just upgraded from Trident, and I can tell you that even a semi-fast
card is an astonishing improvement.  I found a generic S3 VLB card at
a show for $65(US) recently, and I find that tests and usage show
something between 10 to 100 times speedup.  I read a bunch of test
results and I'm not convinced that VLB does more than double the
speed, if that - maybe the tests aren't a good measure.  The new
chipsets, however, are a really big change.

Cirrus chips are good and cheap, ATI mach32 and Tseng /32i are very
good and expensive (maybe $200 US for a board?) and the S3 is very
good and shows up on both cheap and expensive boards.

For linux, generic boards may require more work to get running.  I
haven't gotten the server above 800x600 yet.  To keep life simple you
might want to choose from the list for the X version you're using.
The list for X3.1 is long.
-- 
Brian L. Kahn   "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
[email-masked]    In practice, of course, there is."

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

From: [email-masked] (Gunter Spranz)
Subject: New Adeptec SCSI not detected
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 1994 10:15:55 +0200

MC> I can't change it.  I have other hardware that is using that
MC> port address.  My MMU-401 MIDI card is using 330 and IRQ 2. 
MC> All the MIDI software and games using general MIDI all
MC> assume 330.  If I move the MIDI card to some other address
MC> and then move the 1542CF to 330 I'll have MIDI software
MC> sending strange stuff to my SCSI adapter. Some of the MIDI
MC> software can be configured, but much of it just assumes 330,
MC> the factory default for MIDI cards.

334 for your Adaptec should work. The MPU doesn't need more than 4 consecutive
addresses.

Gruss,
           Gunter

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

From: [email-masked] (Patrick Reijnen)
Subject: Re: TERM: a few questions
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 10:54:09 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Joel M. Hoffman) writes:

>I have a few questions about term and termnet.  I got term up and
>running a few nights ago (see my previous post), and all of the normal
>clients work fine.  I also downloaded termnet, but those clients don't
>work.  They fail for various reasons.  XGopher can't find an
>initialziation file.

This is true. The initialization file is not in the package. I am told
that the next version will contain it.

>Xarchie silently dies.  Ytalk can't find any
>outside addresses, etc.  Some program "cannot find term directory."

Hmm, no problem with all the other clients. Just make sure you are
running term 2.0.4 or higher. All the clients in the termnet package
are built using libtermnet 2.00.04. Furthermore, make sure all
clients are owned by group 'term' or whatever is the name you gave
to the term stuff.

>Others can.  Are there any docs on these programs.  Where did they
>come from?  Where does the term support come from?

There are no docs on this stuff. These programs are compiled by
Bill Riemers, the guy who is also the maintainer of the term package.
As you can see in one of the README's in the termnet package he has
used normal sources of the clients which he compiled with term support
, meaning that the makefiles are a bit changed so the programs are
compiled with libtermnet library and include file termnet.h.

>Secondly, is is possible to do NFS mounts over term?

NO, look at the following send to me by Bill Riemers:

'OK, the basic point is it won't work, and it will take someone clever with
some extra time on there hands to make it work.

Here is the problem:

Like rlogin, and rsh, the NFS server is only supposed to accept requests
if the socket requesting the connection is bound to a port below 1024.
I haven't carefully checked how this restriction is implimented, so the
solution could be as simple as making the mount read-only and squashing
root.  It could be more compilcated like writting a special server to
interphase, or using the PC-NFS server instead.  My understanding is
Linux's NFS is painfully inefficient (not good at 14.4k) so I haven't
even seriously tried to solve the problem.

'

>Thirdly, I have termncftp running, but I like the ordinary ftp I've
>come to know and love.  Are there any versions that will work with
>term?

Yes, there is one in the termnet package. I haven't tried it so I don't 
know if it works.

>Thanks for any help.

>-Joel
>([email-masked])

>-- 
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>|_|~~ Germany, Europe. 1943.    "The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimeters,
>__|~| 16 Million DEAD.           and the diameter of its destruction, about 7
>                                meters, and in it four killed and 11 wounded. 
> cnc  Bosnia, Europe. 1993.     And around these, in a larger circle of  pain
> cnc  HOW MANY MORE?          and time,  are scattered two  hospitals and one
>                          cemetery.   But the young woman who was  buried  in
>                    the place from where she came, at a distance of more than
>             than 100 kilometers, enlarges the circle considerably.   And the 
>      lonely man who is mourning her death in a distant  country incorporates
>into the circle the whole world.  And I won't speak of the cry of the orphans
>that reaches God's chair and from there makes the circle endless and godless."
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     Tell Clinton to stop the genocide:  [email-masked]

Patrick REijnen

--
************************* Patrick Reijnen *************************
* Department of Computer Science, Catholic University of Nijmegen * 
* Email:  patrickr@{sci,cs}.kun.nl                                *
* WWW:    http://{atlas,zeus}.cs.kun.nl:4080/homepage.html        *

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

From: "Stephen Davies" <[email-masked]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze!
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 94 11:42:49 PDT

I still saw the problem at 1.1.51 (but not yet at 1.1.52) but only with 
FTPD on Linux and only when the FTP client came in via PPP (pre latest
alpha).

I have no trouble with Linux as a client nor with FTPD when the client
comes in via Ethernet.

Implication: The problem is caused by some interaction between PPP (or SLIP)
and FTPD. (??)

I have not had a chance to test 1.1.52 or Al's latest PPP version in this
context.

I will try to do that this week.

Cheers, 
Stephen.
>Ralph Sims ([email-masked]) wrote:
>: [email-masked] (System Administrator) writes:
>
>: >Trevor Lampre ([email-masked]) wrote:
>
>[stuff deleted]
>: >for confirming what we've been seeing!  I suggest we keep this thread 
>: >open and fill it with additional information until the problem gets the 
>: >attention it needs.  I'm not a programmer, much less a kernel hacker, so
>: >I can only voice frustration with the situation.
>
>: And what about those of us that DON'T see it?  Basic setup is a
>: dedicated PPP link on a 14.4 dialup, NET-3 stuff, ppd 2.1.2a,
>: etc., with an InfoMagic/TransAmeritech CD-ROM combined install.
>
>: I move many megabytes of files around via FTP daily, and another
>: many megs around with mosaic and lynx.  Sendmail+IDA's been
>: rock-solid.
>
>[stuff deleted]
>
>If your not seeing be thankful and provide your system configuration
>so the experts can see whats working and whats not working
>
>I am NOT seeing th problem,  Have a  14.4 modem using NET-3 pppd 2.2.2a with
>slackware 1.2 , and kernel 1.1.30.  I have downloaded 20 and 30 megs in a
>single session via ftp and never had a problem.  I regularly rlogin to
>other sites, once again without problem
>
>         
>Colin
>

========================================================================
Stephen Davies Consulting                              [email-masked]
Adelaide, South Australia.                           Voice: 61-8-2728863
Computing & Network solutions.                       Fax  : 61-8-2741015

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

From: "Stephen Davies" <[email-masked]>
Subject: terminfo vs termcap
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 94 18:42:24 PDT

I just spent half an hour putting together a terminfo entry only to
discover that Linux vi ,top, elm etc all use termcap.

I was under the impression that termcap was "old fashioned" and that
terminfo was the way to go. 

Is the use of termcap by Linux part of it's Posix allignment or just
a policy decision? Is there any reason why I should not compile things
which have a terminfo option (eg emacs) with terminfo rather than termcap?
Are there any problems with terminfo support under Linux?

TIA.
Stephen.

========================================================================
Stephen Davies Consulting                              [email-masked]
Adelaide, South Australia.                           Voice: 61-8-2728863
Computing & Network solutions.                       Fax  : 61-8-2741015

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

From: "Stephen Davies" <[email-masked]>
Subject: FTPD and dir/ls
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 94 21:03:59 PDT

For the past year or so I have been running a version of ftpd dated April
11, 1993.

Because of the problems described in the "FTP freezes" thread, I decided
to try alternative ftpd codes. So far, I have tried the wu-ftpd and the
ftpd in Florian La Roche's NetKit.

Both of these exhibit the behaviour that client "dir" and "ls" commands
_say_ that they have completed successfully, but nothing is displayed.

The "nlist" command, however, works correctly.

The CHANGES file in NetKit says that the code has been changed to conform
to RFC959 and that this will cause problems for some clients. I have tried
the Linux client and two others and all refuse to display any directory/
file information.

What I see in the FTP session is:

ftp> dir
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp>

Running a sniffer on the session confirms that this is all that is 
transferred; both for ordinary users and for root (when allowed to FTP in).

I haven't had time to search the source code for an explanation so would
be very grateful if someone who knows the explanation could save me the 
effort.

TIA,
Stephen.

========================================================================
Stephen Davies Consulting                              [email-masked]
Adelaide, South Australia.                           Voice: 61-8-2728863
Computing & Network solutions.                       Fax  : 61-8-2741015

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

From: [email-masked] (Werner Almesberger)
Subject: Re: LILO & BusLogic 445s
Date: 9 Oct 1994 11:42:51 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Marc de Courville) writes:
> Now install lilo on your hard disk. And before booting modify /etc/disktab
> and enter the geometry detected by the lilo fdisk (with cyl>1024).

You might not have made the kind of mistake outlined below, but from
your description this isn't clear, so ...

One word of warning here: any modifications done to /etc/lilo.conf,
/etc/disktab, or some of the files in /boot _after_ running /sbin/lilo
(i.e. immediately _before_ actually booting) become only effective
after running /sbin/lilo the next time.

So they do not affect whether or how the system boots the first time
(and probably for a while after that), but may cause some unexpected
effects much later, when you already thought it works.

The simple rule is: whenever anything that affects LILO changes (and
you want the changes to take effect), you _must_ run /sbin/lilo.

- Werner
-- 
   _________________________________________________________________________
  / Werner Almesberger, sending this from    [email-masked] /
 /[email-masked]/

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

From: [email-masked] (Roman Gollent)
Subject: Linux on a Laptop using Bootp
Date: 12 Oct 1994 20:22:20 GMT

We are planning on using a Laptop with linux installed to network
troubleshooting. The only thing is, this laptop will be used in several
subnets, therefore, it will have to get it's ip addresses from a bootp server.
My question is, is this possible?

Roman

--
Take your dying with some seriousness, however.  Laughing on the way to
your execution is not generally understood by less advanced life forms,
and they'll call you crazy.

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

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