Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #210
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 94 19:16:10 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #210, Volume #2               Mon, 17 Oct 94 19:16:10 EDT

Contents:
  Re: [NEEDED] Inbound Mail Transator (Geoff Collingwood)
  Re: Compressed FS for Linux? (Jonathan E. Brickman)
  Support for ISO9660 CDROMS with 512 byte logical blocks? (Philip R. Randall)
  Re: New Motif lib's for use with XFree 3.1 ? (David E. Wexelblat)
  Re: Secure File System Wanted ... (Paul Bash)
  Re: How do I use XDM? (Mark Cooke)
  Re: Cron Problems - Script runs from shell but not cron (David Dyer-Bennet)
  Re: /etc/utmp not writable by xterm's.  Why? (Harald Milz)
  Re: shadow-332: -f bug present (Harald Milz)
  Re: Please don't post security holess... (Alan Cox)
  Re: Linux on a Laptop using Bootp (Alan Cox)
  Re: PCNFS and file locking (Alan Cox)
  Re: more LEDs? (Alan Cox)
  Which /bin/[Mm]ail* for Linux ? (Wolfram Gloger)
  Re: Linux NOT logging people out on hangup (Matthias Urlichs)

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

From: [email-masked] (Geoff Collingwood)
Subject: Re: [NEEDED] Inbound Mail Transator
Date: 17 Oct 1994 15:19:33 GMT

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

: -- Jerry

/usr/lib/aliases is for that very purpose.

john.smith      smith2

will send mail addressed to [email-masked] to [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jonathan E. Brickman)
Subject: Re: Compressed FS for Linux?
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 13:00:57 GMT

Jeff Kesselman ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]>,
: N B Venkateswarlu <[email-masked]> wrote:
: >I remember some one mentioning "tcx-linux.tar.gz" to use for compressed
: >executables.
: >
: >    venkat

: I don't know if this is a general faeture, but my Fall94 Yygdrasil has 
: the ability to recognize the .gz extension and decompress a file as it 
: loads it into memory- kinda a neat little trick.

: JK

I have heard of two separate total-compression schemes for Linux: 
'double', which reputedly is dangerous (fill the filesystem and you are 
dead), and and 'brbasec', about which I haven't heard anything.

--
||Jonathan E. Brickman
-->  Want to have a good time driving yourself crazy, but also have the
-->  best PC Net connection in the world?  Try Linux :)
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Philip R. Randall)
Subject: Support for ISO9660 CDROMS with 512 byte logical blocks?
Date: 17 Oct 1994 23:53:12 +1000

Does anyone known how to get the Linux file system to work with CDROMs that
have a logical block size of 512 bytes? The ISO filesystem code with the
kernel I have, 1.1.45, dies when the 2048 (or 1024) byte assumption fails.
I have tried to set the block size manually, eg "mount -o block=512 ..." but
`ll_rw_block' chokes with "only 1024-char blocks implemented (2048)."  Could
I just rearrange the code for isofs/inode.c do adopt the CD's logical block
size dumping the test that kills the mount? A two hour compile time and not
being sure how blocks are mapped to buffers stop me from just trying it. Any
advice would be appreciated.

Phil R. 

email: [email-masked]

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

Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix,comp.windows.x.motif
From: [email-masked] (David E. Wexelblat)
Subject: Re: New Motif lib's for use with XFree 3.1 ?
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 01:16:09 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Adam J. Richter) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Craig Groeschel <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>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.
>
>       That is no excuse cause Motif or other applications to be
>unable to work *at all* with R6 shared libaries.  When Linux becomes
>the most widely used unix variant, do you think it will be acceptable
>for all binaries to *unnecessarily* break when a new version of a
>library comes out?
>
>>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.)
>
>       Could the author of the above statement please explain what
>interface in R6 *breaks* Motif 1.2.4?  I would sincerely like to know.
>We are not talking about using new R6 features, just continuing to run
>existing applications.
>
>>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.
>
>       Then these people should state some good technical reasons for
>their decision!
>
>       Remember, we had an X11R6 distribution in
>ftp.yggdrasil.com:pub/software_dist that ran binaries of R5 programs
>that can successfully relink against R6 (we even adjusted the jump
>tables to reflect procedures that had simply been renamed in R6).
>
>       If XFree86 made their beta releases free and accessible to the
>world (like new Linux kernels), the shared library problem would have
>been detected and fixed long ago.  I also think that it would result
>in more contribution and faster bug detection and bug fixing.
>-- 
>Adam J. Richter                                  Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated
>(408) 261-6630                           "Free Software For The Rest of Us."

Richter, shut up.

I'm tired of listening to you.  You've been after us about how we do things
for the last 1.5 years or more.  We haven't changed our methods to suit you,
and we never will.  You've insulted us, cajoled us, tried to get people to
leave our team to work with you, and none of it has worked.  Get it through
your thick skull that XFree86 is not Linux, and never will be Linux.  We
do things OUR way, not YOUR way, and, for that matter, not Linus' way.

By our choice.

We've got 75-100 beta testers running Linux.  None of them reported these
problems.

Since I don't run Linux, I can't comment on why the shared libraries were
done this way.

Except to point out that if you folks had SVR4-style shared libraries, you
wouldn't have these problems.

I'll be damned if I'm going to put up with 10-100,000 newbies monkeying
around with software that could damage their hardware, when I know damn
well it isn't ready for them.  Others seem to be able to shed themselves
of that responsibility (yourself included - your R6 servers have bugs/hacks
known to damage hardware; these problems were documented long before you
released them).  We choose to not release software until we can be pretty
damn sure that it's not going to blow up someone's hardware.

You're free to try to displace The XFree86 Project, Inc as the preeminent 
supplier of free X software - if you can.

--
David Wexelblat <[email-masked]>  (703) 430-9247 x301  Fax: (703) 450-4560
AIB Software Corporation, 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160, Dulles, VA  20166

Mail regarding XFree86[TM] should be sent to <[email-masked]>

"What happened to the 'Kaboom'?  
  There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering 'Kaboom'!"
        -- Marvin the Martian, "Hareway to the Stars"

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

From: [email-masked] (Paul Bash)
Subject: Re: Secure File System Wanted ...
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 17:51:32 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Thomas Russell Hoover <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Does anybody know where I can get a "secure" filesystem? I read about CFS
>1.1 and it looks interesting - Does it port easily??
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Tom Hoover

CFS 1.1.2 compiles right out of the box on both Linux and SunOS.

-- 
Paul Bash   
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Cooke)
Subject: Re: How do I use XDM?
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 16:46:21 GMT

Rasta Smurf ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I've managed to get X Windows running unde Slackware Professional Linux 2.0
: using the 1.1.18 kernel. I would like to set my system up to boot into X
: Windows, but when I run XDM, it loads a login requester. When I log in it
: acts like it's going to load X, but then it kicks me back to the login
: requseter. Even when I login as root. Any suugestions? I'm running on a
: 486DX-33 with 8 megs, Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 w/2megs DRAM, and a Sony CDU-33A
: cdrom. I used ConfigXF86 to configure X, and can run it by typing 'startx'.

: What am I doing wrong, or haven't done?

I have the same sort of problem.  startx runs X no problem at all. 
However, when using xdm (setting runlevel = 6), I can log it ok, but
moving the mouse quickly causes the pointer to disappear and the console
to lock up/go so slowly it may as well have locked up.  I run a 486DX2-66
with 16Mb, a Cirrus 5428 with 1Mb and a panasonic cd rom.  Hints & Tips
welcome via post or email.

Mark

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

From: [email-masked] (David Dyer-Bennet)
Subject: Re: Cron Problems - Script runs from shell but not cron
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 13:59:14 GMT

Brian Kramer <[email-masked]> writes:

>Ok, that sounds right.  Let me make a correction.  The following must
>be the case.  The cron with linux uses the shell the user is setup.
>So it cannot handle more than one type of shell script per user.

I routinely run PERL scripts out of my crontab, where SHELL=/bin/sh,
so I doubt this is true.  I think when it execs the program given the
system figures out if it's a machine executable or a script and takes
care of it as usual.
-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, proprietor, The Terraboard             Minneapolis, MN
[email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Web URL: http://www.mtn.org/~ddb (SF, photo)

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: /etc/utmp not writable by xterm's.  Why?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 15:53:57 GMT

In comp.os.linux.admin, Christopher Etz ([email-masked]) wrote:
> Harald Milz ([email-masked]) wrote:

> : 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.

> Mine does allow logging, and it is setuid root.  But -- stupid as I am --
> I don't see the security hole.  Turning on logging, writes to a file
> called `XtermLog.XXXXX' (the 5 X's are really literally) in my home
> directory.  And if I make `XtermLog.XXXXX' a symbolic link to a file
> owned by root (/etc/motd for example ;-)), it doesn't write at all.
> So what?

Sorry: I don't like to answer this question in a newsgroup. I'll send
you a PM. 

-- 
Justice always prevails ... three times out of seven!
                -- Michael J. Wagner
-- 
Harald Milz ([email-masked])      WWW: http://www.ix.de/editors/hm.html
iX Multiuser Multitasking Magazine      phone +49 (511) 53 52-377
Helstorfer Str. 7, D-30625 Hannover     fax   +49 (511) 53 52-378
Opinions stated herein are my own, not necessarily my employer's.

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: shadow-332: -f bug present
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 16:20:50 GMT

In comp.os.linux.admin, Hal N. Brooks ([email-masked]) wrote:

> Btw, e-mail from here to [email-masked] bounced.

Hmmm. I was the original poster anyway. 

> Here is the official patch for lmain.c.  It should close all of the
> holes that have been posted and a few that haven't.  The patch has
> been tested to insure that it can be applied to every version of
> lmain.c that has ever existed.

Not always true; I had to apply the patch manually because the line
numbers changed significantly:

--- lmain.c.orig        Mon Oct 12 18:35:06 1992
+++ lmain.c     Mon Oct 17 17:11:21 1994
@@ -268,6 +268,7 @@
        char    pass[32];
        char    tty[BUFSIZ];
        int     retries;
+       int     arg;
        int     failed;
        int     flag;
        int     subroot = 0;
@@ -286,6 +287,17 @@
         */
 
        name[0] = '\0';
+  
+        /*
+         * Check the flags for proper form.  Every argument starting with
+         * "-" must be exactly two characters long.  This closes all the
+         * clever rlogin, telnet, and getty holes.
+         */
+  
+        for (arg = 1;arg < argc;arg++) {
+                if (argv[arg][0] == '-' && strlen (argv[arg]) > 2)
+                        usage ();
+        }
 
        /*
         * Get the utmp file entry and get the tty name from it.  The

-- 
In case of injury notify your superior immediately.  He'll kiss it and
make it better.
-- 
Harald Milz ([email-masked])      WWW: http://www.ix.de/editors/hm.html
iX Multiuser Multitasking Magazine      phone +49 (511) 53 52-377
Helstorfer Str. 7, D-30625 Hannover     fax   +49 (511) 53 52-378
Opinions stated herein are my own, not necessarily my employer's.

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess...
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 10:48:49 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>significant thing.  You are advocating a way of life that leaves people no  
>choice but to completely conceal their private information within their own  
>heads.

Thats ok - he's following the Government line of most of the world's
governments. More to the point this is no longer linux related material....

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Linux on a Laptop using Bootp
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 10:52:10 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Roman Gollent) writes:
>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?

Yes - get bootpc from ftp.linux.org.uk and read the scripts that come with
it. You may need a --bootimage "" option on the bootpc command line.

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: PCNFS and file locking
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 10:54:57 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Michael C. Loewen) writes:
>   No one has (yet) written a lock manager (rpc.lockd) for Linux.  High
>praise to the first one through the gate!

Find the spec - writing it is easy, finding an example and the protocol spec
is not.

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: more LEDs?
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 11:02:13 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Benjamin Ryzman) writes:
>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?

Damn..we don't get that here. I was wondering if any hardware freaks had
written an 8 LED for parallel port driver. After all I've got three parallel
ports - one for the printer, one for PLIP debugging and one free.

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Wolfram Gloger)
Subject: Which /bin/[Mm]ail* for Linux ?
Date: 17 Oct 1994 20:42:51 GMT

Hi,

For the first time I have to set up mail on several Linux
machines, and all that I am missing is the equivalent of
/bin/mail on other systems.  AFAIK, I need all of the following

1. Transport agent - I use sendmail 8.6.9.
2. Local delivery agent- I've tried mail.local coming with sendmail
   and procmail;  both seem to work OK.
3. A user frontend !  OK, elm works, and many more, but the standard
   on other systems is /bin/mail, isn't it ?

The Email HOWTO is a bit sparse about this last point, only pointing
to the binary package.  I ended up getting the sources for a 'mail'
from NetBSD-current - they compiled after few patches.

2 questions:

(a) Is there a better version for Linux (I see nothing on sunsite) ?
(b) Is there maybe a version that combines features 2. and 3. from
    above in a single binary ?

Thank you,

Wolfram.

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

From: [email-masked] (Matthias Urlichs)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: Linux NOT logging people out on hangup
Date: 17 Oct 1994 17:33:05 +0100

In comp.os.linux.development, article <[email-masked]>,
  [email-masked] (Bart Kindt) writes:
> 
> >Anyway, a cursory look at 1.1.53 doesn't reveal any loops the close could
> >hang in.
> 
> But it does happen... all the time.
> 
Grrr. That is a bug. Please fix bugs, don't kludge them.

Could you (or somebody who sees the problem) implement the following patch
please? It installs a "kernel stack" file in /proc/*, which shows the
active part of the kernel stack of a process. Dumping that file (with "od
-t x4 /proc/???/kstack") and looking up the addresses in linux/zSystem.map
(or with gdb tools/zImage /proc/kcore, "l *0xaddress") should show where
the process is hanging, which should tell us how to fix the problem.

Warning, the following patch is heavily edited (my kernel is somewhat
nonstandard) and may not apply cleanly.

diff -rub --unidir /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/fs/proc/base.c ./fs/proc/base.c
--- /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/fs/proc/base.c      Fri Aug 12 13:59:09 1994
+++ ./fs/proc/base.c    Fri Aug 12 19:48:56 1994
@@ -62,7 +62,8 @@
        { PROC_PID_CMDLINE,     7, "cmdline" },
        { PROC_PID_STAT,        4, "stat" },
        { PROC_PID_STATM,       5, "statm" },
-       { PROC_PID_MAPS,        4, "maps" }
+       { PROC_PID_MAPS,    4, "maps" },
+       { PROC_PID_KSTACK,      6, "kstack" },
 };
 
 #define NR_BASE_DIRENTRY ((sizeof (base_dir))/(sizeof (base_dir[0])))
diff -rub --unidir /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/fs/proc/inode.c ./fs/proc/inode.c
--- /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/fs/proc/inode.c     Sat Oct 15 08:51:58 1994
+++ ./fs/proc/inode.c   Sat Oct 15 09:11:53 1994
@@ -159,4 +159,8 @@
                        inode->i_op = &proc_fd_inode_operations;
                        inode->i_nlink = 2;
                        return;
+               case PROC_PID_KSTACK:
+                       inode->i_mode = S_IFREG | S_IRUSR;
+                       inode->i_op = &proc_array_inode_operations;
+                       return;
                case PROC_PID_ENVIRON:
diff -rub --unidir /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/fs/proc/array.c ./fs/proc/array.c
--- /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/fs/proc/array.c     Fri Aug 26 17:25:08 1994
+++ ./fs/proc/array.c   Mon Sep 12 11:23:57 1994
@@ -30,2 +30,4 @@
+extern int get_kstack(pid_t pid, void *page);
+
 static int read_core(struct inode * inode, struct file * file,char * buf, int count)
 {
@@ -513,2 +591,4 @@
                        return get_maps(pid, page);
+               case PROC_PID_KSTACK:
+                       return get_kstack(pid, page);
        }
diff -rub --unidir /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/include/linux/proc_fs.h ./include/linux/proc_fs.h
--- /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/include/linux/proc_fs.h     Fri Aug 26 17:25:10 1994
+++ ./include/linux/proc_fs.h   Sun Aug 28 11:10:13 1994
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 #ifndef _LINUX_PROC_FS_H
 #define _LINUX_PROC_FS_H
 
+#include <linux/config.h>
+
 /*
  * The proc filesystem constants/structures
  */
@@ -36,4 +47,5 @@
        PROC_PID_ENVIRON,
        PROC_PID_CMDLINE,
+       PROC_PID_KSTACK,
        PROC_PID_STAT,
        PROC_PID_MAPS
diff -rub --unidir /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/kernel/sched.c ./kernel/sched.c
--- /pub/src/linux/kernel/linux-1.1/kernel/sched.c      Sat Oct 15 08:48:10 1994
+++ ./kernel/sched.c    Wed Oct 12 08:31:02 1994
@@ -55,1 +55,13 @@
+int get_kstack(pid_t pid, void *page) 
+{
+    struct task_struct *p;
+    for_each_task(p) {
+        if(p->pid == pid) {
+            memcpy(page,(void *)p->tss.esp,PAGE_SIZE - (p->tss.esp & ~PAGE_MASK));
+            return PAGE_SIZE - (p->tss.esp & ~PAGE_MASK);
+        }
+    }
+    return -EBADF;
+}
+
 static void show_task(int nr,struct task_struct * p)

-- 
In 1918 illuminated helmets were first made for miners. It
made them feel light headed.
                                -- "On This Day in History"
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP Nürnberg  | EMail: [email-masked]
Schleiermacherstraße 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 Nürnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42
          PGP: 1B 89 E2 1C 43 EA 80 44  15 D2 29 CF C6 C7 E0 DE 
      Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

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