Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #23
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 94 03:14:51 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #23, Volume #2                 Mon, 5 Sep 94 03:14:51 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Crond annoyance (Liam Greenwood)
  Re: [Q] No route to host? (Gus J Grubba)
  PPPD permissions (Gregory Trubetskoy)
  Re: An idea for running dos (Thomas Quinot)
  Re: Whats the best _CHEAP_ ISA video card for Linux/Xfree? (Bram Smits)
  Re: WHAT's the problem? was: Re: _setutent: can't find file or dir (Robert Moser)
  Re: DNS & 'format error no SOA record...' (Timothy E. Onders)
  Re: Crond annoyance (Matthew Dillon)
  need  pcftobdf  font conversion (Srini Seetharam)
  Re: linux & ISDN (Dave Gardner)
  CSLIP Problems (random halts in data...) (Isis Leslie)
  Re: PPPD permissions (Al Longyear)
  Re: [ALERT] Password problem with Linux (Jason Multari)
  Re: Linux Accounting (David Miller)
  Re: Swap file VS Swap partition (Ian Nicholls)
  ? Kernel (1.1.47) ftape incompatibility (Oz Dror)
  about wtmp (XiaoFei Wang)
  Re: An idea for running dos (Lige F. Hensley)
  Re: about wtmp (Tracy R. Reed)

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

From: [email-masked] (Liam Greenwood)
Subject: Re: Crond annoyance
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 1994 09:01:26 GMT

Matthew Dillon ([email-masked]) wrote:
>     Damn It!  Doesn't anybody read instructions?
Nope :-) ...
>     I very CLEARLY state in the README file that the proper way to start
>     crond from your rc file is:
It's not in the Slackware 2.0 man page, which is the man page for 
your crond.
>     /usr/bin/crond -l8 >>/var/log/cron 2>&1
The line in /etc/rc.d/rc.M from the Slackware 2.0 distribution I've
got (from the InfoMagic Developers Resource CD-ROM) is:
        # Start crond (Dillons crond):
        /usr/sbin/crond -l10 >>/var/adm/cron 2>&1

Oh, and thanks for writing it.  I had heaps of troubles and funnies
trying to get the previous crond to work for me.  I was a happy 
chappie when I saw who had written the one in Slackware 2.0 .  I hope
it's proves as good as the last cron of yours I used.

                        Cheers, Liam

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

From: [email-masked] (Gus J Grubba)
Subject: Re: [Q] No route to host?
Date: 4 Sep 1994 22:14:53 GMT

[email-masked] wrote:

>I think possibly your traceroute is broken.
>When I do the same, it gets to a machine AUTODESK.BARRNET.NET, which
>rejects the packets: No route to host.
>The problem is definitely at "the other end". (in this case it appears
>a machine or route is down, or someone's routing tables are gaga.)
>

Great. That basicaly answers my question. I've been doing a lot of
reading these past couple of days (after I got a suggestion from another
Australia fellow) and I have been able to pin point several of these
problems. The one thing I was missing was having someone else trying 
traceroute and see how it got routed from their point of origin. I
noticed that traceroute's man pages makes refference to a -g option 
which doesn't exist in the executable I have. I found several other
packages and am now in the process of reading them all.

Thanks

==============
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Gregory Trubetskoy)
Subject: PPPD permissions
Date: 4 Sep 1994 23:25:45 GMT

I'm trying to set up a ppp server, using the approach described in the new 
NAG with /etc/ppp/ppplogin script. I get this in syslog:

Sep  4 19:16:33 mira pppd[326]: ioctl(PPPIOCGUNIT): Operation not permitted
Sep  4 19:16:33 mira pppd[326]: ioctl(PPPIOCGDEBUG): Operation not permitted

Then it hangs up.

What should I do to make this permitted? Somewhere in the README's it sais 
that pppd should be run by root - but how, then, I set up a ppp login 
without making the ppp user a root equivalent?

Am I missing something obvious?

Thank You.

P.S. The new nag is great, my hat is off to Olaf Kirch, but page 146 (post
script version), "Configuring a PPP Server"  obviously hasn't been proofread
- check out the lower paragraph. 

--
================================================================
Gregory Trubetskoy                   [email-masked]
================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Quinot)
Subject: Re: An idea for running dos
Date: 3 Sep 1994 22:08:16 +0200

Le Prostetnic Vogon John Hoford écrit :

> Then a program could be written whic save/stoped unix and ran dos.
> Is this possible?

I think it's possible, but it would have to be integrated in the kernel,
whereas dosemu is a user-mode program afaik. What's more, dosemu -being a
"normal" process, doesn't disable the other running processes while it's
running. This data has also to be considered in a multi-user environement.

-- 
Thomas QUINOT                       |  "Un roi sans divertissement est un
<[email-masked]>      |             homme plein de misère."
Linux - choice of a GNU generation  |                          Jean GIONO

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

From: [email-masked] (Bram Smits)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Whats the best _CHEAP_ ISA video card for Linux/Xfree?
Date: Sun, 04 Sep 1994 23:40:00 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

[email-masked] (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR) writes:

>: monitor so I am looking for an accelerated card that gives me 800x600 and 
>: 1024x768 (but not more, no 2 MB cards needed) and that will be faster than 
>: the 512 kB Oak Oti67 it will replace (this one sucks: TOTAL  3012.000000 
>: xStones  reported by xbench).
>
>It's not an accelerated card, but the little beastie is FAST! - the Trident
>8900CL with 1MB... you can get them for about $60.00 and I've seen them
>run rings around some so-called accelerated cards!  I dunno how they do it,
>but they do!

WD 90C31 based cards are also pretty cheap, and I've seen it run rings 
even around some VLB cards. 

    v__   
  <"___\____     Bram 'mouser' Smits.

Namechange: fangorn.hacktic.nl will become fangorn.xs4all.nl soon. Please use
this new address when replying, it is already operational.

* All views expressed herein are my own, etc, etc. | Fangorn Systems          *
* All disclaimers apply.                           | Heerlen, The Netherlands *
*  Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of reality,                       *
*  O Smaug the Greatest and Chiefest of Calamities  - JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit *

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert Moser)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: WHAT's the problem? was: Re: _setutent: can't find file or dir
Date: 05 Sep 1994 02:11:34 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthew Donadio) writes:

> 
> Problem:
> _setutent: Can't open utmp file: No such file or directory.
> 
> Your libc is looking for utmp in a different place than where you have
> it.  It will either be /etc/utmp or /var/adm/utmp, depending on what
> you have in <paths.h>.  Check the _PATH_UTMP macro in this file, and
> touch utmp in either /etc or /var/adm depending on what is defined.
> 

I believe current linux fsstnd wisdom calls for umtp currently in /var/adm
(fsstnd'ers correct me if I'm wrong) -- the problem was correctly stated, but
a better solution (IMO) is a symlink.  This avoids having some programs logging
in one place and others in another, also the admin programs that look for utmp
will not have the correct info.  Just do (as root):

rm /etc/utmp
rm /var/adm/utmp
touch /var/adm/utmp
cd /etc
ln -s /var/adm/utmp .

Now all logging takes place in /var/adm/utmp, and binaries that look in /etc
will still work correctly.

araw

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

From: [email-masked] (Timothy E. Onders)
Subject: Re: DNS & 'format error no SOA record...'
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 06:55:58 GMT

If you are using the SlackWare distribution named, I don't think it looks
in the right place for the data files.  After having a similar problem
with getty_ps, I did a strings on the named binary, and didn't find any
references to any directories other than /etc.

                                        -Tim Onders
                                        [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Matthew Dillon)
Subject: Re: Crond annoyance
Date: 2 Sep 1994 00:14:02 -0700

:In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matt Warnock) writes:
:>In article <[email-masked]>,
:>>    VC1 !
:>>
:>>                                             -Matt
:>
:>Point well taken, I should have looked up the README, but it was a Slackware
:>install, and I'm not sure the README was on the disk.  Could be, but...
:>I think the problem occured when I moved to a new version of Slackware,
:>trying to keep all the /etc stuff as is, and changing out the binaries from
:>underneath.  Probably a dangerous move at best.  Thus I think we had your
:>crond running from Vixies' config files.  Pure recipe for disaster.
:>
:>Still, by way of suggestion, READMEs are great but I prefer man pages, as
:>they tend to stick around after the source code has been compiled, installed
:>and deleted.  Your man page explained the options pretty well, but the above
:>suggestion in the man page would have been nice.  Just a thought. ;^)
:>
:>-- 
:>W. Matthew Warnock, Attorney ([email-masked])          Tel:408.778.7273 
:>60 West Main Avenue, Suite 12A, Morgan Hill CA  95037-4553  Fax:408.778.7989

    I suppose this is what I get for not using the syslog interface right
    off the bat.

    It's on my TODO, but I managed to get myself hooked on two board designs
    this month and have no time to work on this stuff at the moment.

                                        -Matt

-- 

    Matthew Dillon              [email-masked]
    1005 Apollo Way             ham: KC6LVW (no mail drop)
    Incline Village, NV. 89451  Obvious Implementations Corporation
    USA                         Sandel-Avery Engineering
    [always include a portion of the original email in any response!]

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

Subject: need  pcftobdf  font conversion
From: [email-masked] (Srini Seetharam)
Date: 4 Sep 94 20:29:59 CDT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Srini Seetharam)

Hi,
I need to find the program that converts pcf fonts
to bdf format. 

I know this might seem like going backwards but the reason
is that I have an Xclient in MS windoze that has
a utility to convert bdf fonts to fon  windoze 
compatible fonts.

If there is a utility to convert pcf directly to
.fon files, that would be great. If not,
I would appreciate any pointers to a pcf to bdf
conversion utilty.

thank you
--
srini

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

From: [email-masked] (Dave Gardner)
Subject: Re: linux & ISDN
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 03:09:16 GMT

Sterling Ledet ([email-masked]) wrote:
: What is required to set up an ISDN line with linux? Does the necessary
: software exist? What would be the necessary hardware?

As far as I know, you'll be able to use all the same software you have/use
now for your Internet connection over an ISDN line.  So if you use
SLIP/PPP to get connected, you should be able to continue doing the same
old thing.  As for the hardware, expect to spend about $600-800 for it. 
According to the info sheets I just got from Pacific Bell's ISDN office,
here's a list of the equipment you will have to have: 

        1)  Network Termination 1 (NT1).  This is a piece of
            hardware that creates the two B channels and the
            one D channel needed for ISDN transmission.

        2)  Power supply for the NT1.  ISDN needs constant
            electrical power (in other words, if you have a
            blackout, you lose your ISDN).  Sometimes you can
            find NT1s with built-in power supplies.

        3)  Terminal Adapter (TA).  This can be a card that
            you plug into your computer, or it can be a stand-
            alone box that you run ethernet from to your computer's
            ethernet card.  It puts all information it receives
            into ISDN protocol format so it can go out on the
            ISDN wire.

You can optionally get an ISDN phone which plugs right into the NT1, but
it costs about $400 right now.  I believe they have some nifty features
beyond the capabilities of normal phones, but I don't know any of them. 
They do recommend you keep a standard phone line in, as you will lose all
communications if the power goes out; a standard phone will at least let
you dial in and let folks call in during blackouts. 

Now, on to line fees: 

Pacific Bell is charging $22.95 per month for a single ISDN line.  
Installation is $34.75 if you keep the line installed for at least two 
years, otherwise it's $125 more.

Also, the cost for daytime rates (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) is 4 cents for the 
first minute, and 1 cent per minute thereafter, for local calls.  During 
off-hours, it's free.  But you still have to add your telco's normal zone 
and/or long distance fees to the above rates if you dial out of your area.

Folks in Pacific Bell's jurisdiction can call 1-800-472-4736 for more
information or a copy of the 9-page handout I received from them (home
ISDN). 

Hope this helps a bit.

Dave

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

From: [email-masked] (Isis Leslie)
Subject: CSLIP Problems (random halts in data...)
Date: 4 Sep 1994 23:22:14 -0400

I have a problem with a SLIP line going from a Slackware 2.0 machine and a
CISCO terminal server.  
 
Often times, if I do, letsay "ls -l" the output won't be displayed unless
I escape back to the terminal server prompt and then return to the connection.
Also I often have timed out Kermit and Zmodem transfers as well.  This also
happens if a I telnet into my machine, then two a thrid machine, I similarly
get astopped screen output.
 
FTP works just liek its suppossed to and my OS/2 based machines slip in/out 
fine. 
 
This must be a tty (stty?) setup problem someplace, but I'm kinda stumped.
Any ideas?

thanks-Isis

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

From: [email-masked] (Al Longyear)
Subject: Re: PPPD permissions
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 03:54:13 GMT

[email-masked] (Gregory Trubetskoy) writes:

>Sep  4 19:16:33 mira pppd[326]: ioctl(PPPIOCGUNIT): Operation not permitted
>Sep  4 19:16:33 mira pppd[326]: ioctl(PPPIOCGDEBUG): Operation not permitted

>What should I do to make this permitted? Somewhere in the README's it sais 
>that pppd should be run by root - but how, then, I set up a ppp login 
>without making the ppp user a root equivalent?

>Am I missing something obvious?

chown root pppd
chmod 4755 pppd

If you don't run it as root then it needs to be suid to root.
-- 
Al Longyear           [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jason Multari)
Subject: Re: [ALERT] Password problem with Linux
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 04:05:40 GMT

Jerry Ablan ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I just found a most heinous thing. I had my root password set to
: 'squiggle*halbert' a long, but good password.

: However, by mistake, when su'ing, I only typed in squiggle and IT LET ME IN!
: I further tested another password of mine that ended in a number and I left
: off the number (i.e. Butthole7, only typed Butthole), and it again let me
: pass.

Like, oh my god! It's almost like unix passwords have been only been 8 
characters for like 30 years!....

You cant be serious. 

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

From: [email-masked] (David Miller)
Subject: Re: Linux Accounting
Date: 3 Sep 1994 23:54:32 -0400

Tracy R. Reed ([email-masked]) wrote:
: [ Article crossposted from comp.os.linux.help ]
: [ Author was Tracy R. Reed ]
: [ Posted on 4 Sep 1994 01:35:51 GMT ]

: Hello all. First, I wish to thank all those who helped me out with my 
: uugetty problem. I got 8 responses, some containing the solution. :)

: Now I would like to know if there is a good accounting software for 
: Linux. I checked sunsite.unc.edu and found acct-1.1.18, but I am running 
: kernel 1.1.45. Is there any accounting software that I can use on this 

        You can use that particular package. I do currently with kernel
1.1.pre50. The only trick is that you have to apply the kernel diff
files yourself, and this is NOT very hard at all. All the rest of the
package will work unchanged, completely. I have about 1 1/2 week's
worth of process accounting info at present and it's still going. I
put 'accton' in my rc script, then during a reboot it gets put into a
backup and a new file is created for the next boot.
        It works very well, and hasn't given me any problems as of
yet.

Later,
David S. Miller
[email-masked]
[email-masked]
[email-masked]
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

: kernel? I could move down to 1.1.18, but I don't see linux-1.1.18.tar.gz 
: anywhere on sunsite, which implies I would need to get 1.1.0 and apply a 
: bunch of patches or some other nonsense. acct-1.1.18 is a patch itself, 
: which is why it won't work with 1.1.45. It finds several differences in 
: the code. I tried recompiling the kernel anyway, and it didn't get very 
: far at all. I am not nearly good enough at C to resolve the differences 
: myself. Thanks for any info you can provide.

: --

: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
: Mr. Tracy Reed         |Every artist is a cannibal.|Two Betazoids walk into
: San Diego State Univ.  |Every poet is a thief.     |  a bar.
: Aerospace Engineering  |All kill their inspiration |
: [email-masked] |And sing about their grief.|One says,
: [email-masked]      |-U2 IRC-Maelcum /me smiles |  "I'll have the same."
: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

: --

: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
: Mr. Tracy Reed         |Every artist is a cannibal.|Two Betazoids walk into
: San Diego State Univ.  |Every poet is a thief.     |  a bar.
: Aerospace Engineering  |All kill their inspiration |
: [email-masked] |And sing about their grief.|One says,
: [email-masked]      |-U2 IRC-Maelcum /me smiles |  "I'll have the same."
: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

From: [email-masked] (Ian Nicholls)
Subject: Re: Swap file VS Swap partition
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 04:12:36 GMT

[email-masked] (Darin Johnson) writes:

>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthew Dillon) writes:

>>     * Better localized.  The best place to put your swap partition is right
>>       smack in the middle of the disk.

>But isn't this dependent upon what happens on either side?

The phrase that OS/2 uses to suggest where to place the swap file is
`in the most-used partition on the least-used disk.'  That way, the
heads are most likely to be near the right place.  For a swap partition,
it would be best to have it placed on a disk which is the least used
under Linux, for the same reason.
--
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  Ian Nicholls  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<<  Post: Coles Supermarkets, PO Box 480, Glen Iris 3146, Australia >>
<< Phone: +61 3 829 6088              E-mail: [email-masked] >>
<<   FAX: +61 3 829 6886                                            >>
-- 
The opinions of the poster do not necessarily represent those of the company.

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

From: [email-masked] (Oz Dror)
Subject: ? Kernel (1.1.47) ftape incompatibility
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 06:04:55 GMT

Software: ftape 1.13b (with io_fdc patch)
          linux 1.1.47
Hardware: 486dx1,50MHz, AHA1542CF, JUMBO 120
          Floppy A: 5 1/4"
          Floppy B: 3 1/2"
          From A or B a multiplexor board Called AB-10
           Connects to the Tape.

Maefile flags:

FTAPE_OPT       = -DVERIFY_HEADERS -DFAST_SEEK
# enable if tape drive on CMS FC-10 controller:
#FDC_OPT         = -DPROBE_FC10 -DFDC_BASE=0x180 -DFDC_IRQ=9 -DFDC_DMA=5
# enable if tape drive on secondary floppy disk controller:
FDC_OPT        = -DFDC_BASE=0x370 -DFDC_IRQ=6 -DFDC_DMA=2

When I type:
mt -f /dev/rft1 rewind
or 
mt -f /dev/rft0 rewind

I do not get any response. I am not able to kill that process.
I get segmentation faults on other programs.
Basically I have to reboot the system.

1. Are the Makefile flags (above) correct for my system.
2. Is my Hardware really supported by ftape
   (hadware that includes the floppy adaptor card AB-10).
3. If the answer to to is NO. that what is the most economical way
   to solve it. (What do I need to buy in order to get is to work)
   I do not want to sacrifice any of my floppies.
4. Is the above kerel of ftape bug.

-Thanks
Oz

P.S. I have had Linux for two weeks. I need to back up my system urgently

-- 
NAME   Oz Dror, Los Angeles, California
SMAIL  [email-masked]
PHONE  (213) 874-7978  Fax (213) 874-7965

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

From: XiaoFei Wang <[email-masked]>
Subject: about wtmp
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 1994 04:36:34 GMT

How do I use wtmp? It is a binary file. 
The only manual I have is 

================================================================
UTMP(5)             Linux Programmer's Manual             UTMP(5)

NAME
       utmp, wtmp - login records

SYNOPSIS
       #include <utmp.h>
...
================================================================

On another system where I am a user ( not superuser ), I received
a message from the sys-admin as follows:

================================================================
Subject: wtmp entry

you're running a program which corrupts your wtmp entry in some fashion.
since this makes your jobs look unattached they are likely to be terminated
as strays.  please stop running this program.
================================================================

How can I find if my wtmp entry is corrupted? 

Thank you very much.

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

From: [email-masked] (Lige F. Hensley)
Subject: Re: An idea for running dos
Date: 4 Sep 1994 17:47:48 GMT

John Hoford ([email-masked]) wrote:
: for linux but I have a simpler idea.

: Most people who want a dos emulator have at least a partition with dos
: on it, a partition with linux and a swap partition.

: What if two commands could be add to the kernel: 

: save_stop which put ever process into the swap,
:         saved its internal state, the screen etc..

: resume (a boot option) which would load its internal stat
:        from the swap and resume the processs.

: Then a program could be written whic save/stoped unix and ran dos.
: Is this possible?

Why bother?

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

From: [email-masked] (Tracy R. Reed)
Subject: Re: about wtmp
Date: 4 Sep 1994 05:33:52 GMT

XiaoFei Wang ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Subject: wtmp entry

: you're running a program which corrupts your wtmp entry in some fashion.
: since this makes your jobs look unattached they are likely to be terminated
: as strays.  please stop running this program.

Strange. What program were you running that did this?

=============================================================================
Mr. Tracy Reed         |Every artist is a cannibal.|Two Betazoids walk into
San Diego State Univ.  |Every poet is a thief.     |  a bar.
Aerospace Engineering  |All kill their inspiration |
[email-masked] |And sing about their grief.|One says,
[email-masked]      |-U2 IRC-Maelcum /me smiles |  "I'll have the same."
=============================================================================

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

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