Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #190
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 22:13:41 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #190, Volume #2               Thu, 13 Oct 94 22:13:41 EDT

Contents:
  PPP documents anywhere? (Serge Solski u)
  Re: Bus mouse (Eric Zager)
  Bash leaves Wedged Processes (Todd R. Lawrence)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (M. K. Shenk)
  Novell Netware support for Linux... (Matthew Dharm)
  bugs and stuff: rpc.portmap, grep (Greck Cannon)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (Bill Davidsen)
  Re: SLS system passwd problems (Bill Davidsen)
  Re: 16-user dial-up Linux? (Phil Hughes)
  Re: Drat--lpd runs, but not lpr. (Tom Griffing)
  more LEDs? (Benjamin Ryzman)
  Re: XFree86-3.1 - Whoopee! (Stephen Early)
  Re: /etc/passwd and /etc/group standards (Matt Beal)
  Re: Serious Bug In The Networking Code (Frank Lofaro)
  Re: [Q] I/O error with sendmail (John Gotts)
  Re: [Q] RAM / Disk (Alan Osborne)
  Re: Should I up to 3.1? (was Re: XFree86-3.1 - Whoopee!) (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: SLIP through terminal concentrator? (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: XFree86-3.1 - Whoopee! (Andrew R. Tefft)

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

From: [email-masked] (Serge Solski u)
Subject: PPP documents anywhere?
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 15:52:58 GMT

        Are there any documents, files, how-to's, faqs, etc., anywhere 
that helps with the install of PPP? Everthing that I've found states that 
PPP is new and no documentation is developed yet. Surely something must 
exist by now.

        -Mark
-- 
"Key chuckles. 'If Skinny Puppy, in terms of the movie _Alien_, is a
chest-burster, then Doubting Thomas is more of a face-hugger,' he informs,
as if that were an explanation."
                                                        -Keyboard, Jan '92

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

From: [email-masked] (Eric Zager)
Subject: Re: Bus mouse
Date: 11 Oct 1994 16:49:43 GMT

The files in /dev are not like DOS device drivers.  The program code 
to implement different devices is compiled into the kernel.  Files in
/dev just map a device name like "/dev/hda1" into a major and minor
device number, like 3, 1.  The kernel then uses these numbers to figure
out how to treat the device.

To create the entry you need in /dev, try (as root)

        mknod c /dev/bmousems 10 2

10 and 2 are the major and minor device numbers you need, and c tells the
kernel that the mouse is a character (unbuffered) device.

Good Luck,

 - Eric

Todd Fries ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I am having a problem figuring out how to get the /dev/bmousems driver for
: my mouse to appear.  I've no clue which part of the distribution, if any,
: should have it...the selections command is the one that is giving me the
: problems, so I don't have any clue how to find the drivers, although I 
: did re-compile the kernel, so that it includes bus-mouse support...

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

From: [email-masked] (Todd R. Lawrence)
Subject: Bash leaves Wedged Processes
Date: 12 Oct 1994 04:58:06 GMT

Is there any known solution to the annoying habit of BASH to leave
all kinds of wedged processes floating about when a telnetted in user simply
drops his connection without using logout/exit.

--
Todd Lawrence
LOD Communications
"I would like everyone to be nice to baby crabs..."

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

From: [email-masked] (M. K. Shenk)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 12 Oct 1994 04:54:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Jeff Kesselman <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Yeah, what Patrick said.
>
>Surely the man who thinks his breaking into MY machine and using MY 
>system resources for something I didn't intend is not a crime wouldnot 
>mind if I broke into his car and borrowed it to run drugs??? I'll return 
>it as soon as I'm done.....

I suppose I was unclear.  What I meant: someone who does this may be
commiting a crime (they are) but they are not necessarily a criminal
in the sense that you probably think about criminals.  You have a nice
label that allows you to feel certain things about anyone you plaster it
on. If all you meant by criminal ws "someone who has broken the law" then
i would agree.   But you probably don't, even if you think you do.  I
am not (if you people could get it through your thick heads) in favor
of system cracking.  What i am AGAINST is the mindless damning of anyone
to ever bypass a login prompt.  Some of these people are 11-12 year old
children.  I'm not even saying that they should be treated any
differently because of this.  I am saying your label of criminal may
not fit.  I am opposing a knee-jerk reaction to someone that has done
something that you -> have a perfect right to be upset about, and a legal
right to get them in trouble <-  but really has in many cases not done any
harm.  I.e.: someone uses cycles on my Linux box.  They are essentially
free.  I may not want him there, but it is possible for him to enter and
leave and *do me no harm.*  Did I say this makes it "okay."?  Don't
respond to what I am not saying.  It is also possible for someone to
enter your house and do you no harm.  NOT "do you no wrong" but "do
you no harm."  Can you accept this statemnt, with no implications?  

Folks, opposing a statement that is true for what you think it may imply
is pathetic.  First and foremost is the truth of a statement.   Statement
"A" if true, is still true if the consequence of believing it is the
destruction of all living things.  My point: do what you like.  People
should not enter your system.  If you bend reality in your mind, you
are pathetic.

>
>As Patrick ably poinetd out the issue is that the system in question 
>belongs to someone else who did NOT give you permission to use it.  Myabe 
>in YOUR house nobody cared if you took your parents stuff without asking, 
>but in MY up bringing that was considred immoral.
>
>JK
>

Oh, boy, little dig, eh?  Do you possess the mental capacity to understand one
can take a side in debate without believing in it?  Do you understadn one may
do this to destroy bad thinking in the side he IS on?

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

From: [email-masked] (Matthew Dharm)
Subject: Novell Netware support for Linux...
Date: 13 Oct 1994 18:29:56 GMT

I will be setting up a Linux box very soon which will be connected to
an ethernet network which is running Novell Netware and TCP/IP.  There
are several printers on the Netware which I would like to access, but
I don't think I can from Linux.  Or can I?  If anyone knows anything
about attaching a Linux box to Netware (including current projects to
develop such support -- I'm willing to help), drop me a line here.

Thanks much.

Matt Dharm
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Greck Cannon)
Subject: bugs and stuff: rpc.portmap, grep
Date: 13 Oct 1994 22:01:24 GMT

I have a couple of problems I'd like to see if anybody can fill me in
on.  First, some config info:

1.1.53 kernel
16 megs RAM
Buslogic SCSI
3com ethernet
Soundblaster 16
ATI GUP VLB

1) I'm running rpc.portmap, rpc.nfsd and rpc.mountd to export some stuff
via NFS.  Everything seems to work fine, except once every couple of days,
rpc.portmap decides that it's broken and should respawn.  Unfortunately,
it doesn't kill itself first, so the second copy exits because the port
is still held by the first copy.  Thus is begins an infinite loop of
respawning and dieing because the first copy won't go away.  If you kill
the first copy, the next copy that loads will be happy and it stops.
I don't even know why the first copy becomes unhappy, but I'm getting
tired of getting back to the computer to find it happily crunching away
with a load of close to 2 because of portmap.  I know for a fact that
nothing was going on with NFS the last several times it's happened, so
I don't know what to blame it on.

2) GNU grep version 2.0 only pays attention to what appears to be the
first 80 characters of each line?  Is this a new feature?

Any feedback is appreciated,
-greck
-- 
Greck S. Cannon       \     [He's] only bitter on the outside--inside
sophomore CSC major    \    he's got creamy nougat.
greck@                  \                                 -Slappy Squirrel
scaredy.catt.ncsu.edu    \ 
===========================
set your URL to http://www.catt.ncsu.edu

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Davidsen)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 13 Oct 1994 15:20:30 -0400
Reply-To: [email-masked] (bill davidsen)

In article <[email-masked]>,
David Dyer-Bennet <[email-masked]> wrote:

| I can't reasonably evaluate a patch that doesn't include a description
| of what it fixes.  And I hope you aren't suggesting that people apply
| any patch that anybody posts!
| 
| Historically, not posting bug reports seems to result in bugs not
| getting fixed.  After watching the net for, um, a number of years now,
| I'm firmly in favor of full disclosure.

I've been on the net since I was ARPA technical person for GE's *only*
gateway. I agree, the crackers will spread the info among the bad guys,
it's up to the good guys to spread the word, too.

I would rather have a problem complete with solution, but I would really
like to know about the problem anyway. Of course sensitive sites should
not be on the net (directly) at all, but that's another issue.
-- 
Speaking *from* but never *for* Prodigy
        "Pain builds moral fiber"  -my dad
        "Pain hurts"  -me

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Davidsen)
Subject: Re: SLS system passwd problems
Date: 13 Oct 1994 15:28:47 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, Mike Shurtleff <[email-masked]> wrote:
:I just loaded up the minimal (4Adisks) version of SLS 1.05. While I can 
:assign 
:passwords to non-root accounts from root.. I can't change passwords from 
:the non-root accounts (for the same account of course).. I get bumped 
:because it doesn't recognize the old password.
:
:If I try to change the root password on root, the change goes through 
:..but the password is not the one entered..i.e. I lose access to my root 
:account!

There are two copies of the passwd command in the SLS release, one for
shadow and one for non-shadow. You are getting the wrong one. I suggest
that after you find the correct one, you move or rename the other so you
don't get the problem again.

I don't remember where the copies are, /bin and /usr/bin, matbe?

-- 
Speaking *from* but never *for* Prodigy
        "Pain builds moral fiber"  -my dad
        "Pain hurts"  -me

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

From: [email-masked] (Phil Hughes)
Subject: Re: 16-user dial-up Linux?
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 18:19:41 GMT

Bart Kindt ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Steve DuChene) writes:

: >        Supposably there are going to be some Digiboard card drivers soon.
: >        You might want to check with them also for multi-port cards to run
: >        with Linux.

: Yes, but only for the 4 and 8 port cards. There will be no driver for a 16 
: port card. I just got a mail from Digiboard on that.

The driver for the Cyclades board (see Linux Journal, issue 5) works with
their 16-port card.  Cyclades can be reached at [email-masked] or
800-347-6601
-- 
Phil Hughes, Publisher, Linux Journal (206) 527-3385
usually [email-masked], sometimes [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Tom Griffing)
Subject: Re: Drat--lpd runs, but not lpr.
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 04:19:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Dolf Smits <[email-masked]> wrote:
>What does lpc stat give for messages?
>Did you enable the printer?  (with lpc enable <printername>
>Try this, if it doesn't work give the output of lpc stat over here and I will
>have a second look at it

I am having similar troubles with printing on my HP 4L.

I got the following when printing a text file:

    # ls -l consult.book
    -rw-r--r--   1 tom      users         506 Jan 27  1994 consult.book
    # lpc stat
    lp:
            queuing is enabled
            printing is enabled
            no entries
            no daemon present
    # lpr consult.book
    # echo $?
    0
    # lpc stat
    lp:
            queuing is enabled
            printing is enabled
            no entries
            no daemon present
    # 

And wala!  No printout.  The light doesn't even blink.
But it prints fine from MS-DOG.

The printcap entry follows (maybe this is the problem):

    # Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet:
    lp|hplj:\
            :lp=/dev/lp0:\
            :sd=/usr/spool/lp0:\
            :mx#0:\
            :of=/usr/spool/lp0/hplj:

I get *some* output if I just 'cat' the file to /dev/lp0,
but it has the "staircase" effect.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

--
 _____________________________________________________
| Thomas L. Griffing       |                          |
| [email-masked]         |  (214) 352-3441          |
|__________________________|__________________________|

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

From: [email-masked] (Benjamin Ryzman)
Subject: more LEDs?
Date: 11 Oct 1994 15:18:58 +0100

>>>>> Au sujet de "Re: SCSI vs IDE", Alan Cox écrivait récemment:

AC> In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Panzer Boy)
AC> 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.

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

Yep!
In fact, we'd need a user programmable LCD (2x40?) screen for:
-disk status
-serial port status
-system load
-custom peripheral status (like your amateur radio...)

Or maybe a multi-led ramp, if you prefer a "Thinking Machine"-like
computer ;-))

Time to check alt.comp.home-built, eh?

-- 
Amicalement, "Benj"  Email: [email-masked]
Calm down, it's only ones and zeroes.

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

From: [email-masked] (Stephen Early)
Subject: Re: XFree86-3.1 - Whoopee!
Date: 11 Oct 1994 17:15:19 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Alan Cox <[email-masked]> wrote:
>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Carlos
>Dominguez) writes:
>>Will fvwm and its modules work in Xfree3.11? 
>
>I can't get any of openlook or fvwm to work. I'm inclined to think this is
>probably X11R6 incompatibilities with these packages rather than bugs. So
>until they appear fixed I shall stay with 2.1.1. 

You probably just have things in the wrong place, like fvwm not being on the 
path, not moving or symlinking /usr/X11/lib/X11/fvwm to the
appropriate place, not having your old shared libraries in an
appropriate place and in /etc/ld.so.conf, etc.

Once I'd moved everything around, fvwm and its modules worked with no
problems.

Steve

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

From: [email-masked] (Matt Beal)
Subject: Re: /etc/passwd and /etc/group standards
Date: 13 Oct 1994 14:41:06 GMT

Chris Bitmead ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Gareth McAleese) writes:

: From my SunOS machine:
[encrypted root password deleted]

For your sake, I hope that password isn't crackable :-) Mebbe you
should change it now, eh?

Matt

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Frank Lofaro)
Subject: Re: Serious Bug In The Networking Code
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 19:47:06 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>
>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:
>
>AMD DX2/66, 8Mb, VLB CL5428 1Mb with either
>* Etherlink II, kernel 1.1.50 and 1.1.49
>* SMC Ultra Combo, kernel 1.1.33, 1.1.49, 1.1.50
>       -tried both coax and TP
>* SMC Ultra something else, also with various kernels
>
>AMD 386/40, 12Mb,
>* SMC Ultra Combo, kernel 1.1.33
>
>The 386 works perfectly well with the network with both cards when
>using older software (Some old SLS distrib. I believe)
>
>I would very much like to know what is wrong, and how to fix it.
>
>There is also a 'bug' in df, causing a float exception when it cannot
>access a non-existent NFS-mount.
>
>Thanks for any help,
>--
>
> « Ketil Malde                        In real life:  [email-masked] »
> « Nuke The Whales!  Pave The Earth!  And Honk If You Love Unicorns! »

Are you running routed? The could cause routes to get dropped and 
thus Network unreachables to occur.

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

From: [email-masked] (John Gotts)
Subject: Re: [Q] I/O error with sendmail
Date: 12 Oct 1994 05:31:12 GMT

Tim Bass (Network Systems Engineer) ([email-masked]) wrote:

: Sendmail sends mail just fine.  Receiving mail gives
: the error:

: linux[\64]/tmp> /usr/lib/sendmail -v root < /tmp/testmessage
: root... Connecting to linux.silkroad.com (local)...
: lmail: write failed to temp file /tmp/lmail1465
: root... I/O error
: linux[\65]/tmp> 

: Any ideas?

: BTW:  The /tmp/lmail* file(s) are created.
-- 

The same stuff happens to me.  Any ideas?

--
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!>

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Osborne)
Subject: Re: [Q] RAM / Disk
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 22:45:17 +0000

K.B. van Benten ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi there,

: buy 16Mb of RAM (is it MUCH better than 8Mb) or buy
: 4MB of RAM and, say 400Md harddisk?

Could your motherboard/bus/graphics adaptor stand an upgrade (esp. as
you find X important)?  There seem to be quite cheap and tasty PCI
mboards available with onboard (NCR) SCSI-2 and 16550 serial ports - add
the cost of that and a PCI graphics card and see how much money you've
got left for some RAM and disk space.....you could maybe get a nice fast
SCSI-2 hdd too.  I'd rather take this route and make to with 8Mb RAM
until I could afford more.  You'd have to sell the simms you've now got
first though probably.

Volgens mij, tenminste :-)   Hoeveel geld heb je ?
(Apologies for my appalling Dutch, everyone) 

Daag,
-- 
AlanO

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

From: [email-masked] (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: Should I up to 3.1? (was Re: XFree86-3.1 - Whoopee!)
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 13:24:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Andrew Robert Ellsworth) writes:
> Getting the
>entire XFree86 3.1 package is a bit of overkill if you just want an updated
>Xserver. 

Somewhat true. But you will need the libraries, and you might as well get
them all because they all come together; in the future I suspect precompiled
binaries will use the new libraries. And if you have the libraries and the
server, there is not much reason you should link your own binaries with
the old libraries, so you might as well get the headers. Also you will
need the updated man pages, which all come together. 

So about the only thing you end up not really needing to upgrade is the 
fonts.

-- 

Andy Tefft               - new, expanded .sig -     [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: SLIP through terminal concentrator?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 13:26:21 GMT

SLIP requires an 8-bit clean line.
PPP has the ability to escape characters that cannot be sent directly
over the line.

-- 

Andy Tefft               - new, expanded .sig -     [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: XFree86-3.1 - Whoopee!
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 13:32:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Andrew Robert Ellsworth) writes:
>Carlos Dominguez <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>Now that it's been released.. Is there a compelling reason to upgrade?

>Unless you have a bunch of X11R6-specific programs you need to run, no. 
>... if you
>don't need to run X11R6-specfic stuff, I doubt it's worth the trouble (unless
>you just want to be able to say "I have the latest version of Xfree86"). :)

I would guess that from about now on,  most precompiled X binaries
will be linked with the R6 libraries. Going to 3.1 (keep your old libraries
too!) will give you some backwards compatibility, since the R6 server
can work with your older binaries.

-- 

Andy Tefft               - new, expanded .sig -     [email-masked]

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

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