Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #198
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 94 05:13:37 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #198, Volume #2               Sat, 15 Oct 94 05:13:37 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Mystery Chip...AMD (David J. Boniuk)
  microdyne NE-2000 comp cards (Angelos Karageorgiou)
  Re: Mystery Chip...AMD (Erik Corry)
  Interface card for Sony CDU-33A (25928-fan)
  Re: Cron Problems - Script runs from shell but not cron (Michael Faurot)
  Re: Upgrade SLS .99.12 to current (Mike Jagdis)
  Why aren't runlevels used more? (Thomas Koenig)
  Re: BEST Fortress UPS (Mark Bolzern)
  Re: Tar and z option with DAT drive (Mark Hahn)
  Re: Linux Mosaic using Athena (Timothy J. Kordas)
  Mosaic 2.4 won't start (Ashley Miller)
  Re: New Motif lib's for use with XFree 3.1 ? (Craig Groeschel)
  Problems compiling kernel (Chee-Kiang Lim)
  Re: Mystery Chip...AMD (Spire Technologies)
  Re: /etc/utmp not writable by xterm's.  Why? (Harald Milz)
  Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far? (Harald Milz)
  Re: [Q] Commercial Software on Linux (Harald Milz)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (Patrick D. Ashmore)
  Booting different configurations ? (Peter Suetterlin)

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

From: [email-masked] (David J. Boniuk)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Mystery Chip...AMD
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 20:36:36 CDT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (John Palaima) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (John Palaima)
>Subject: Re: Mystery Chip...AMD
>Date: 12 Oct 1994 16:16:24 GMT
>Keywords: cpu, AMD, Intel

>In article <[email-masked]>, Rob Kean <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>AMD is about to release, yes you guessed it, their 486DX2-80MHz!!!!!
>>
>>From what I've heard through my venders, It will run about $20 more than an 
>>Intel 66MHz.

>Hah.  Apparently you didn't hear that the Am486 DX/2 66 could be safely
>over-clocked to run at 80Mhz.  All the DX2-80 is is a relabeled DX2-66.
>That's why it's not much more expensive.  It's the same chip.  Anyone wanna
>take bets that new 66Mhz chips will be "crippled" so they can't be over-
>clocked? :)  
>--
>Richard Cooley Extraordinaire           "Yeah.  Arrgh."

I must disagree here. I was unable to overclock my AMD DX/2-66. Oh, sure..if 
you only run DOS it might fly, but not loaded down Windows, or OS/2. I know 
SOME people get away with it, but it was by no means gauranteed. I am now 
running an AMD DX/2-80 in the same machine with the same software.
        It is possible that the DX/2-80 is  simply a sampling of the "best" of the 
DX/2-66s that come off the line, but I would think it unlikely tht AMD is just 
wholesale relabling DX/2-66s to DX/2-80s.

                        DJB

_________________________________________________________________
David J. Boniuk * Team OS/2  * E-Mail: [email-masked] * Austin, Texas, USA
My opinions are definitely my own, my knowledge belongs to many, my abuse belongs to few, my ignorance is none of your affair!
May the wind be at your back...
"This Post is not to be reproduced in any newspaper, videoclip, or other journalistic media."

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

From: [email-masked] (Angelos Karageorgiou)
Subject: microdyne NE-2000 comp cards
Date: 14 Oct 1994 12:34:29 -0400

        does anyone know why kernels > 1.1.23 do NOT recognize a microdyne
an NE-2000 compatible card at IO adress 260 ?, 
Kernels <=1.1.23 work just fine
. 

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

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.misc
From: [email-masked] (Erik Corry)
Subject: Re: Mystery Chip...AMD
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 03:04:31 GMT

Marten Liebster ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Gregory Urban ([email-masked]) wrote:
: : In article <[email-masked]>,
: : Marten Liebster <[email-masked]> wrote:
: : >
: : >So when is AMD comming out with a 486dx4-120? :-)  
: : >
: : >Marten

: : NO, NO, NO !!!!!!!!!!

: : Only Intel uses STUPID names for their chips.  AMD will produce a DX3/120
: : (clock tripled, 40mhz external, 120mhz internal).

: Isn't a DX3 an IBM chip?  If AMD used dx3 it would seem that they were cloning
: an IBM chip rather than the real Chip.  I thought that dx3s are used in the
: blue lightning system?  I am probably way off, but that is not anything new :)

According to c't (a German magazine) out today, there is a new chip
coming from AMD ('Q4 1994') which will be called DXL4 and will be
optionally a clock doubler or tripler. Clearly the number at the
end is 2 ** (doubling factor - 1) :-).

(This makes the new 300MHz (330 Specint) Alpha a sort of 'DX256',
assuming it runs externally with 33MHz.)

The DXL4 only goes up to 100MHz, if I remember correctly, and doesn't
have the accellerated multiply or enlarged 1st level cache of Intel's
DX4. That's not to say you can't overclock it if you put your PC in
a freezer...

--
-- 
Erik Corry, Skagerrakstr. 2, 79100 Freiburg, Germany, +49 761 406637
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (25928-fan)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom,comp.os.linux.help,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc
Subject: Interface card for Sony CDU-33A
Date: 14 Oct 1994 21:26:18 GMT

-- 
I have a Sony CDU-33A that I want to hook up to my PC but I am missing
an interface card.  Can someone tell me the lowest cost way to get the
interface card?  I already have a SoundBlaster with SCSI so getting
another sound card with CD interface seems over kill.  Thanks.

==========================================================================
Lawrence Fan                                                (908) 699-8051
Bellcore                    444 Hoes Lane, RRC-1D270, Piscataway, NJ 08854
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Michael Faurot)
Subject: Re: Cron Problems - Script runs from shell but not cron
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 17:47:05 GMT

Sorry about the additional post, tin seems to have fouled my earlier
attempt.  Take 2 . . . :-)

Stephen Vance ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Brian Kramer) writes:
: >
: >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?
: >
:       [script snipt]

:       I haven't played with cron yet on Linux, but on several other Un*ces
: it *requires* that scripts be written in Bourne shell.

Thought I would get in on this also . . . :-)

I saw in here one person post that they thought only one shell or the
other could be used to run shell programs out of cron.  So far, in my
experience with Linux, it appears that bash and ksh can be used.
However I ran into a weird one myself recently.

I have a cleanup program that rotates various log files and runs find
against certain directories to purge them of all outdated files
(e.g., /tmp).  Initially I used bash to execute this, and it worked
flawlessly from a login shell.  When run from cron though it would
only partially run.  To solve the problem, I switched the program to
using ksh and now it runs properly to completion.  

The problem seemed to come from the following sub-section of the code:

#########################################################################

while :
do
        read line
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]
        then
                break 1
        fi

        rotate $line

done < $LIST

IFS="${N_IFS}"

# Purge directories
echo ""
echo "Cleaning directories"
echo "===================="
echo ""

while :
do
        read line
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]
        then
                break
        fi

        purge $line

done < $PURGE

#########################################################################

The problem is that when run via cron, with bash executing these
statements, only the first while loop would complete, and then the
program would terminate.  Without changing any of the above code,
except to put "#!/bin/ksh" at the beginning, both loops would execute
properly.

So, is this a quirk of bash or of crond?

I'm using what appears to be bash v1.13.1 with Slackware 1.2, what
appears to be v2.1 of crond and a v1.1.12 kernel.  Not sure on the
versions of bash and crond as I pulled those numbers out of the
binaries with "strings".
-- 
+--------------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+
|   Michael Faurot   | [email-masked]    |      I don't like        |
|   ------- ------   | ...!netcomsv!phzzzt!mfaurot|      lima beans!!        |
+--------------------+--------------------+-------+--------------------------+

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

From: [email-masked] (Mike Jagdis)
Subject: Re: Upgrade SLS .99.12 to current
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 17:10:00 +0000

* In message <[email-masked]>, Steve Miller said:

SM> I am still interested in running SCO Unix binaries. Any info
SM> on that?

tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/ALPHA/ibcs2

                        Mike  

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

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Koenig)
Subject: Why aren't runlevels used more?
Date: 13 Oct 1994 01:32:04 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Runlevels seem to be somewhat underused in current Linux distributions.

For example, it should be fairly easy to set up /etc/inittab so that
on level 4, there's multiuser capability (from different consoles),
but no networking.

This would take a couple of lines like

pm:5:once:/usr/sbin/rpc.portmap
in:5:once:/usr/sbin/inetd
nf:5:once:/usr/sbin/rpc.nfsd 

in /etc/inittab, and (possibly) a little hacking of source code, if
services like nfsd should restart when they've aborted.  The superuser
then could terminate networking cleanly with /sbin/telinit 4.

Comments?
--
Thomas Koenig, [email-masked], [email-masked].
The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double
logarithmic diagram.

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Bolzern)
Subject: Re: BEST Fortress UPS
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 18:44:31 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Stephen Evans <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>I am about to use the info in the UPS HOWTO to write powerdown, etc scripts for the BEST Fortress UPS.  Before I begin, has anyone already done this?

Don't need to, Call BEST, and they'll send you the source code for theirs...

-- 
Mark Bolzern :  [email-masked]    USA Tel: (303) 699-7470  Fax: (303) 699-2793 
WorkGroup Solutions, Inc.    The FlagShip "CA-Clipper and XBase on Unix" People
  FlagShip is a 4GL Database Development System & XBase Porting Tool for Unix
No Runtime Fees   Info at ftp.wgs.com : /pub2/wgs/Filelist OR mail: [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Hahn)
Subject: Re: Tar and z option with DAT drive
Date: 14 Oct 1994 22:13:16 GMT

Claus-Dieter Bredl ([email-masked]) wrote:
> Garry Adkins ([email-masked]) wrote:
> : The volume/minute doesn't bother me, since it will be an automated backup.
> : ...  However, the streaming problem does bother me...
> : If I buy one of the big DAT drives that claim 88Meg/minute and my
> : computer can't possibly keep up with that pace..  I lose tape capacity??
>
> Improbable.

but factual.  DDS drives, if not fed for 5 seconds, will flush a 
DDS block (128k) to the tape.  thus you could construct a pessimal
system which writes one block (say, of zeroes, so it compresses
well), waits 5+e seconds, and repeats.  it would utilize very little
of the tape, but would consume at least 128k for each block...

regards, mark hahn.
--
operator may differ from spokesperson.          [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Timothy J. Kordas)
Subject: Re: Linux Mosaic using Athena
Date: 14 Oct 1994 20:58:42 GMT

Tim Bass (Network Systems Engineer) ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Can't answer your question below.  But with the source code available,
: it shouldn't be too hard to make one.

you want someone to port the Motif calls to Athena ?

...

just use Chimera...or get one of the statically linked Mosaics if
you NEED to use Mosaic...

-Tim
--
Timothy J. Kordas                              |  [email-masked]
Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics     |
Case Western Reserve University                |  PGP public key available
Cleveland, Ohio 44106                          |  via finger

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

From: [email-masked] (Ashley Miller)
Subject: Mosaic 2.4 won't start
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 12:16:43 -0400

i have mosaic 2.4 and it actually starts up but then says something like:

  Connect: no such file or directory

i have looked through the source code and any documentation i can find but
i can't find this error anywhere. can anyone help?

  ashley

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

From: [email-masked] (Craig Groeschel)
Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix,comp.windows.x.motif
Subject: Re: New Motif lib's for use with XFree 3.1 ?
Date: 14 Oct 1994 19:03:11 -0400

Sorry for the massive crosspost.  Please skip to the appropriate newsgroup.

In article <[email-masked]>,
John Burton <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Personally, I think the XFree folks should have consulted more with
>the Motif folks *before* releasing their product so that most of these
>incompatibility issues could be ironed out...

comp.windows.x.i386unix:
I was wondering if I should stay on the beta team any longer, since
I have been too busy to send in any reports on XFree86.  (Yes, I am
still on the beta team.  You heard it here first.)  Guess I will.

But I don't think it's a beta issue or an XFree86 issue at all.
IMHO, it's pointless to point fingers.

comp.windows.x.motif:
The simple fact is that X and Motif are on different development cycles.
There are going to be incompatibilities between the two products,
and there are features in the newer one (X) that the older one (Motif)
cannot exploit.

For developing and compiling new applications, Motif 1.2.4 simply was
not designed to work in an R6 environment.  (I keep thinking of making
water run uphill.)  You cannot make Motif 1.2.4 use features of X11R6
it was not designed to use.  If you could, it probably would not be
Motif 1.2.4 any longer.

comp.os.linux.admin:
Whether XFree86-3.1's X libraries should or should not be compatible
with 2.1's, I don't know.  I've heard speculations both ways.  What I do
know is that the men doing the Linux shared X libraries have been doing
them for longer than a lot of us have been using Linux, so they should
know a thing or two about Linux shared libraries.  Plus, the XC bumped
the major version numbers.  I think they're trying to tell us something.
(But who knows, maybe not.  Our 1.2.3 was not compatible with our 1.2.2. :-( )
-- 
Craig E. Groeschel  <[email-masked]>  Not speaking for my employer.
"Do not play this piece fast.  It is never right to play Ragtime fast." Joplin
GCS/E g+ s+/- au* v+ C+ P->+ L+++ U@ u+++ E---(+) N+ !W Y+ t++ b+ e- n++ h* f

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

From: [email-masked] (Chee-Kiang Lim)
Subject: Problems compiling kernel
Date: 15 Oct 1994 06:35:34 GMT

Hi !

I installed this linux (Slackware 2.0.0) in my friend's machine,
including all the libraries. I have problem compiling 1.1.53 (or any
other lower version of the kernel for that matter). At make zImage, it
always dies with the following error:

gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -m486 -c ksyms.c
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -m486 -c exit.c
gcc: Internal compiler error: program cc1 got fatal signal 11
make[1]: *** [exit.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux/kernel'
make: *** [linuxsubdirs] Error 2
cpp: output pipe has been closed

Any one has any pointers ? Please email me directly. Thanks !

cheeky

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

From: [email-masked] (Spire Technologies)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Mystery Chip...AMD
Date: 14 Oct 1994 11:52:19 -0700

Some motherboards have the CPU mounted on the MB(non removable). Those 
boards usually have another socket to allow you to disable the current 
CPU and upgrade your computer. This is usually expensive.
-- 
                Spire Technologies Ave.
                Portland Or
                Phone (503)222-3086

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: /etc/utmp not writable by xterm's.  Why?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 17:20:41 GMT

In comp.os.linux.admin, Lars Hofhansl ([email-masked]) wrote:

> 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?!

There is -- if your xterm allows for logging. See your respective menu
(Control - right button). I saw different xterm versions for XFree86
(I _really_ wonder why): one which doesn't do logging, and one which does.

hm

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 17:32:19 GMT

In comp.os.linux.admin, Lee Silverman ([email-masked]) wrote:
> In article <[email-masked]> ron@chaos (Ron Atkinson) writes:

>    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.  

> There's a good one!  A sendmail bug was just reported a few months
> ago, adding yet another to the DOZENS of bugs reported about sendmail.

There were several sendmail alerts by CERT recently which also said
sendmail 8.6.9 is _not_ affected. Please do not tell rumours. You might
want to check with info.cert.org:/pub/...

hm

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: [Q] Commercial Software on Linux
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 17:36:28 GMT

In comp.os.linux.admin, Craig Groeschel ([email-masked]) wrote:
> In article <[email-masked]>,
> Mark Johnson <[email-masked]> wrote:
> >>Jan Mario Stankovsky ([email-masked]) wrote:
> >>: Is there a list of commercial software...available for Linux?
> >Try:
> >http://www.linux.org.uk/LxCommercial.html Fri Sep 30 12:58:29 1994
> >Linux Commercial Software Index

> Hmmmm.  It looks like there might be a duplication of effort here.

Not really. Alan's page is just a short listing of software and 
hardware packages whereas I try to collect some more information such as 
pricing, installed base etc. The goal is somewhat different too. 

hm

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

From: [email-masked] (Patrick D. Ashmore)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: 10 Oct 1994 20:19:35 GMT

M. K. Shenk ([email-masked]) wrote:

> >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.

So, someone who breaks into your house/apartment, looks around, and then 
leaves is okay, and not a criminal?

>         I consider myself a (wannabe, at least) hacker in the original 
> sense, and in HS was a "hacker" in the new sense.  I never altered 
> ANYTHING.

That's not the point. If security is breached in any way, sensitive 
information, etc. may be at risk. 

>        I got in, to get in, or to use a compiler.  Nothing criminal about 
> that (except in the eyes of the law.)

Someone breaks into your house, wanders around, then makes a few phone 
calls... Now, tell me... is there anything criminal about that? (He got 
in to get in, or to use the telephone.)

>                                        Penetrating the security of a 
> computer system is totally harmless in and of itself.

This is your opinion, and you would probably find that 99% of 
administrators will disagree with you.

>                                                       It's the defacing 
> of what one finds, or the spreading of info that are the problems, and 
> have made folks so paranoid they 'throw the book' at anybody who pokes 
> around a little.  Hey, I'm gonna see where I can go.

Where do you draw the line? If someone breaks in, and I know who it is, 
I'm not going to simply "bounce them off" and forget about it. I'm going 
to make sure this person doesn't get the chance to do it again or worse.

>                                                  But I will never attempt
> to get someone in legal trouble who has not destroyed something.  This
> 'throw the book at them' mentality for poking around is pathetic and
> (overused cliche word.) fascist.

Breaking into and poking around is bad enough, and I don't consider it 
"pathetic and fascist." I consider it secure. (Relatively secure, that 
is... if you want a truly secure machine, turn the power off, put it in a 
safe, and bury it in 6 feet of concrete.)

> Depends on how ingenious their attempts to enter a system are.  This is a
> dogmatic view.  "Hacker" and "non-malicious-system-tourist" are not non-
> intersecting sets.  Back in HS i performed entries that qualified as 
> hacks.  

"Hacker" is not malicious at all... I would consider myself somewhat of a 
hacker. You're looking for the word "cracker." (I believe someone pointed 
the definitions out... check the jargon300.txt.gz at a GNU site.)

Now "Cracker" and "non-malicious-system-tourist" are the same, IMO, if 
the "tourist" got in by bypassing system security. 

> Barring that, I might still poke around.  Curiosity is not a crime.

No, but breaking and entering is. Trespassing is. What is the difference 
whaehter they are breaking into your house and looking around, or 
breaking into your machine and looking around?

Patrick

--
Patrick D. Ashmore          Network Administrator         1322 W. Cleveland
[email-masked]              Procyon  Networking       Fayetteville,  AR 72701
Finger for PGP key      URL: http://procyon.com/~pda/      +1 501 443 4393
[email-masked]                 [email-masked]            publius  enigma

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

From: [email-masked] (Peter Suetterlin)
Subject: Booting different configurations ?
Date: 14 Oct 1994 14:18:57 GMT

  Hi all!

I am using Lilo for booting different Versions of the Kernel, as well as
MSDOS. But now I ran across the problem and want to know if there is
allready a solution to it:
I want to have two boot choices with the same kernel version, but
different software on startup, namely one configuration should
automatically start a SLIP connection. 
I suppose this to be done in one of the /etc/rc.d scripts (local or
inet). BUT, how do I pass some information to this scripts ? Using
different kernel versions and using uname isn't what I would like to do.

Thanks in advance,

   Peter

==================   Peter 'PIT' Suetterlin   =================
|   Kiepenheuer Institut     |   Sternfreunde Breisgau e.V    |
|   fuer Sonnenphysik        |                                |
|   0761/3198-210            |   0761/71571                   |
-<[email-masked]>-<[email-masked]>--

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

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