From: Digestifier To: Linux-Admin@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Reply-To: Linux-Admin@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Date: Mon, 16 Aug 93 20:06:35 EDT Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #3 Linux-Admin Digest #3, Volume #1 Mon, 16 Aug 93 20:06:35 EDT Contents: Optimizing X... (Gary Moyer) bsd_ioctl is where? (Gerrit Nieuwenhuizen) Re: stale LCK file after uucp session (Ed Carp) Re: Optimizing X... (Mark Cosham) Re: Optimizing X... (Dirk Hohndel) Re: NFS mount fails with authentication error (Malcolm Beattie) Stupid ... Stupid .. (and test) (Paul Houghton) Re: LILO like DOS executable Loader? ("Brian E. Gallew") Do we need a "tweaking" FAQ??? ("Dan Newcombe") Re: Do we need a "tweaking" FAQ??? (Iain Lea) Re: bsd_ioctl is where? (Mark Lord) Re: SLS cron perms are insecure (Olaf Titz) PCNFS & printing (Marcus Daniels) Re: bsd_ioctl is where? (Digital Phantasmagoria) Re: cron listed as /USR/BIN/CRON ??? (Thomas Neumann) Re: Optimizing X... (Louay Gammo) FAQ: SAGE, The System Administrators Guild (Steve Simmons) Running the SLS off of a NFS mounted Novell server. (David Williams) Re: Linux standard for system UID/GIDs ?? (Brian Edmonds) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: moyerg@cs.pdx.edu (Gary Moyer) Subject: Optimizing X... Date: 16 Aug 1993 05:47:31 GMT I've been playing with the X color server for the Trident 8900. I've tried just about every option to get the thing to speed up to no avail. Is it just slow ? Has anyone successfully seen a marked improvement in configuration? Hardware: 386DX40, 8M RAM, 1M TVGA. == Gary Moyer moyerg@cs.pdx.edu ------------------------------ From: nieuwhzn@dxgsia.cern.ch (Gerrit Nieuwenhuizen) Subject: bsd_ioctl is where? Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 07:55:29 GMT Normally I don't like to be a system hacker but this time I have to compile a big physics code, including some low-level system hacks. Ioctl is used for tty handling (I know, ioctl is not very portable, should use select instead) and #include sits at the head of the subroutine. In ioctl.h ioctl is redefined (at least when _SGTTY_SOURCE is not set, which should not be the case otherwise, for instance, RAW is not defined properly) as bsd_ioctl. So now the linker starts complaining that it can find bsd_ioctl. My question: where is it??? Gerrit J. van Nieuwenhuizen CERN-PPE-IO Building 595, R-004 CH-1211 Geneve 23 Switserland nieuwhzn@dxgsia (or NIEUWHZN@VXWA80) tel.: +41 22 767 4740 ------------------------------ Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux From: erc@apple.com (Ed Carp) Subject: Re: stale LCK file after uucp session Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 07:36:44 GMT JL Gomez (gomez@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu) wrote: : I have a remote site that calls my machine for e-mail delivery. : I never call this machine. : However, uucico leaves a stale LCK file for this machine, even when : the session is over. : I'm running Slackware v1.01 with uucp1.04 binaries. Possibly because the other side is hanging up the phone before the final hangup negotiation. A common problem with certain uucp implementations. -- Ed Carp, N7EKG erc@apple.com 510/659-9560 anon-2133@twwells.com If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than steel! -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever" ------------------------------ From: inu574f@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Mark Cosham) Subject: Re: Optimizing X... Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 08:13:44 GMT moyerg@cs.pdx.edu (Gary Moyer) writes: >I've been playing with the X color server for the Trident 8900. >I've tried just about every option to get the thing to speed up >to no avail. >Is it just slow ? Has anyone successfully seen a marked improvement >in configuration? >Hardware: 386DX40, 8M RAM, 1M TVGA. I've got a 486DX33, 8Mb RAM, 1Mb TVGA8900C. Make sure that you've got a fair bit of swap space - I've got about 9-10Mb. The Trident cards aren't particularly fast, but with pl10+ (shared libs.) it is quite usable. Mark Cosham -- Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. ===========> <=======> <=======> <=======> <=======> <=======> <=========== Mark Cosham Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia cosham@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au inu574f@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au ------------------------------ From: hohndel@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de (Dirk Hohndel) Subject: Re: Optimizing X... Date: 16 Aug 1993 11:29:27 GMT Mark Cosham (inu574f@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au) wrote: : moyerg@cs.pdx.edu (Gary Moyer) writes: : >I've been playing with the X color server for the Trident 8900. : >I've tried just about every option to get the thing to speed up : >to no avail. : >Is it just slow ? Has anyone successfully seen a marked improvement : >in configuration? : >Hardware: 386DX40, 8M RAM, 1M TVGA. : I've got a 486DX33, 8Mb RAM, 1Mb TVGA8900C. Make sure that you've got a : fair bit of swap space - I've got about 9-10Mb. The Trident cards : aren't particularly fast, but with pl10+ (shared libs.) it is quite : usable. Let's face the facts, TVGA8900 is SSLLOOWW. I think it's only useable in mono mode. Of course your mileage may be different... Dirk -- _ _ _ _ _ | Lehrstuhl Informatik I | | | |_) |/ |_| | | |_| |\ | | | |_ | | Universitaet Wuerzburg |_/ | | \ |\ | | |_| | | | \| |_/ |_ |_ | Am Hubland, D-97074 Wuerzburg ------------------------------ From: mbeattie@black.ox.ac.uk (Malcolm Beattie) Subject: Re: NFS mount fails with authentication error Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 11:44:29 GMT In article tgl@netcom.com (Tom Lane) writes: >I'm a new user of Linux, so please bear with me if this is a FAQ. >(Couldn't find anything about it in the NET-2 FAQ though...) > >I'm trying to network SLS 1.03 with a couple of HP workstations. >I can't get Linux to NFS-mount the workstations' filesystems; >it fails with this message: > >rpc mount: RPC: Authentication error; why = Invalid client credential > Some implementations of NFS have trouble if the client user is a member of too many groups (i.e. appears in too many lines in /etc/group.) Here, `too many' can mean 4 or 8 or 16, for example. Type `groups' to see how many groups you're in. --Malcolm -- Malcolm Beattie | I'm not a kernel hacker Oxford University Computing Services | I'm a kernel hacker's mate 13 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6NN (U.K.) | And I'm only hacking kernels Tel: +44 865 273232 Fax: +44 865 273275 | 'Cos the kernel hacker's late ------------------------------ From: phough@netcom.com (Paul Houghton) Subject: Stupid ... Stupid .. (and test) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 02:04:36 GMT Is this group alive ... It was empty so I just had to post my stupid admin story ... Well I just installed SLS 1.02 a week ago sunday and everything was going fine (no need to post any questions .. GREAT FAQ ), anyway, this past monday i though it would be a good idea to do an fsck ( you know what happens when people start trying to think :^). Well the fsck (e2fsck) said the super block was corrupt. But, everything seem to be going fine? So i tryed a new copy, ran it through debug, and It just didn't match up! We i figured the best thing to do would be to fixed it now ( before it blast my work into never-never land). So I back everything up and re run fdisk, mkfs ... and tryied the fsck again. STILL fails!! Ok so I decide I want a real swap partition anyway and I might as well do a low level media analysis. So now I install my my dos ( on the first partition ) and my new SLS 1.03. Here i go putting everything back on (130mb) dos and linux. Boot to the real os (linux o course) and start working on the configuration. Now dos is on hda1, prim linux hda2 and swap on hda3, so I like descriptive device names and I do the following: ln -s /dev/swap /dev/hda3 mkswap /dev/swap 16??? and walla! whip out my dos partion (SLS /dev/swap point to /dev/hda1) and I just pointed hda3 to swap (not quite what i wanted.) Ok so I put dos back together again and mount, boot, mount, boot, (to stupid to put the dos mount in my fs tab). Well this makes me REAL good a typing /dev/hda1 ( after doing it 50 or so times.) So everythings running fine for a couple of days and I descide to do another e2fsck ( you know just to make sure ). And guess what i type ... e2fsck /dev/hda1 ... I look at it ... and look some more ... HEY this is tring to check the DOS partition. This was exactly why my original e2fsck fail. When i run it against the linux partistion .. e2fsck /dev/hda2 .. everythins is find. STUPID ... STUpid ... Stupid ... stupid ... ... Anyway Is this group alive? enjoy - i certainly do paul -- IMHO - Paul Houghton - phough@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: "Brian E. Gallew" Subject: Re: LILO like DOS executable Loader? Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 08:43:04 -0400 bootlin works nicely for loading linux from DOS. One Caveat: loading linux with bootlin will fail heinously (hard reset necessary) IFF you install a memory manager (e.g. QEMM, 386^MAX). Linux wants to put the cpu into protected mode from real mode, which can't be done once your memory manager is loaded (already in protected mode). -Brian ========================================================================= | "Are they dead?" | | "Does it matter?" | | - Pugsley and Wednesday in "The Addams Family." | ========================================================================= ------------------------------ From: NEWCOMBE@AA.csc.Peachnet.EDU ("Dan Newcombe" ) Subject: Do we need a "tweaking" FAQ??? Date: 16 Aug 1993 08:44:20 -0500 Reply-To: newcombe@aa.csc.peachnet.edu After reading a posting earlier on how to get X to run faster on a Trident, perhaps it might be a good idea to put together a list of ways to get the best performance/usage out of your equipment. This could include ways to save disk space, kill un-needed junk, speed the system up, etc... Stuff like: To save some disk space: use strip on your binaries compress your X fonts remove the 40 megs of GIF's and JPEG's :) To speed up X: Don't use gtwm or olvm as there is too much overhead, use a lightwieght window manager (not that their is anything wrong with the above) Sound like a good idea? Opinions? -- Daniel A. Newcombe Clayton State College Computing Services Morrow, GA 30260 E-Mail Address: newcombe@aa.csc.peachnet.edu (404)-961-3421 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit ------------------------------ From: iain.lea@anl433.erlm.siemens.de (Iain Lea) Subject: Re: Do we need a "tweaking" FAQ??? Date: 16 Aug 1993 14:31:10 GMT Dan Newcombe (NEWCOMBE@AA.csc.Peachnet.EDU) wrote: : : After reading a posting earlier on how to get X to run faster on : a Trident, perhaps it might be a good idea to put together a list : of ways to get the best performance/usage out of your equipment. Nice idea. But what first needs fixing/correcting is the 10's of small inconsistences throughout the SLS distribution (for more info read the install & config article that I posted a few days ago in c.o.l). -- iain.lea@erlm.siemens.de +49-911-3089-407 ------------------------------ From: mlord@bnr.ca (Mark Lord) Subject: Re: bsd_ioctl is where? Date: Mon, 16 Aug 93 13:47:08 GMT In article <1993Aug16.075529.22287@dxcern.cern.ch> nieuwhzn@dxgsia.cern.ch writes: > >In ioctl.h ioctl is redefined (at least when _SGTTY_SOURCE is not set, >which should not be the case otherwise, for instance, RAW is not >defined properly) as bsd_ioctl. >So now the linker starts complaining that it can find bsd_ioctl. >My question: where is it??? My question as well. For the meanwhile, commenting out the #define seems to work just fine. -- mlord@bnr.ca Mark Lord BNR Ottawa,Canada 613-763-7482 ------------------------------ From: s_titz@ira.uka.de (Olaf Titz) Subject: Re: SLS cron perms are insecure Date: 16 Aug 1993 14:43:48 GMT In article marchini@ds18.scri.fsu.edu (Juan Marchini) writes: > 777 for ftpd (and for msgs, a directory inside ftpd) Don't know about that, but... > 777 for smail (and for log, a directory inside smail) surely this is not right. smail runs setuid root anyway. If I remember correctly, on my home machine /usr/spool/smail is 750 root.mail or something, but surely not world-writable (nothing is world-writable except /tmp). Olaf -- olaf titz o olaf@bigred.ka.sub.org praetorius@irc comp.sc.student _>\ _ s_titz@ira.uka.de LINUX - the choice karlsruhe germany (_)<(_) uknf@dkauni2.bitnet of a GNU generation what good is a photograph of you? everytime i look at it it makes me feel blue ------------------------------ From: marcus@ursula.ee.pdx.edu (Marcus Daniels) Subject: PCNFS & printing Date: 16 Aug 93 00:41:57 GMT I've been unable with either old (3.0) or new (5.0) versions of SunSelect PCNFS to get printer devices to mount. Everything else works fine. In pcnfsd, the `pr_init' function completes its initialziations, and appears to return successfully, however PCNFS reports `printer not local or does not exist'. I just installed pl12 and the problem persists. SMC elite 16 ethernet cards... NET2 otherwise works. Anyone else seen this behavior? ------------------------------ From: hdesiato@wam.umd.edu (Digital Phantasmagoria) Subject: Re: bsd_ioctl is where? Date: 16 Aug 1993 15:26:42 GMT >>In ioctl.h ioctl is redefined (at least when _SGTTY_SOURCE is not set, >>which should not be the case otherwise, for instance, RAW is not >>defined properly) as bsd_ioctl. >>So now the linker starts complaining that it can find bsd_ioctl. >>My question: where is it??? > >My question as well. For the meanwhile, commenting out the #define >seems to work just fine. bsd_ioctl is in the BSD libs - when compiling, do something like "gcc -blah bob.c -lbsd" ^^^^^ this is the important part. BTW, this is in the FAQ.. please check them first ;) -Hui-Hui ------------------------------ From: tom@smart.bo.open.de (Thomas Neumann) Subject: Re: cron listed as /USR/BIN/CRON ??? Date: 16 Aug 1993 12:31:36 GMT In article <1993Aug15.201853.7497@surfcty.surfcty.com> chris@surfcty.surfcty.com (Chris D. Johnston) writes: | PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND | 1 ? S 0:00 init | 50 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/crond | 51 ? S 0:00 /USR/BIN/CROND | | Why is the entry for PID 51 there? I can kill it and it will go | away. For an experiment, I restarted the machine and left it | there. I see no ill side effects, just that it does not look | right. The typical Linux-cron is a derivative of the (excellent) cron written by Paul Vixie. Vixie-Cron uses an all-uppercase process title for its active child processes (that are fork()'ed off by crond to execute the crontab entries). The all-lowercase instance of /usr/bin/crond is the master crond that is always running; /USR/BIN/CROND is an active child just executing a crontab entry. The close sequence of the pids (50 and 51) is suspicious, espacially if pid 51 is still around when the system has finished booting. When, from where and with what parameters do you start crond ? | Why is this happening, and does it cause problems? If the /USR/BIN/CROND instance hangs around for an unusually long time or does not die at all, then yes, you may have a problem. Most likely a cronjob that does not exit (and the crond child keeps wait()'ing for it to die). Examine your crontabs and the crond logfile, typically located in /var/cron/ . bye -- Thomas ------------------------------ From: louay@turing.toronto.edu (Louay Gammo) Subject: Re: Optimizing X... Date: 16 Aug 93 17:02:51 GMT In article inu574f@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Mark Cosham) writes: >moyerg@cs.pdx.edu (Gary Moyer) writes: > >>I've been playing with the X color server for the Trident 8900. > >>I've tried just about every option to get the thing to speed up >>to no avail. > >>Is it just slow ? Has anyone successfully seen a marked improvement >>in configuration? > >>Hardware: 386DX40, 8M RAM, 1M TVGA. > >I've got a 486DX33, 8Mb RAM, 1Mb TVGA8900C. Make sure that you've got a >fair bit of swap space - I've got about 9-10Mb. The Trident cards >aren't particularly fast, but with pl10+ (shared libs.) it is quite >usable. > Hmm! I got a 486DX with only 4 megs of RAM, 16 megs of swap space, and a trident 8900 video card, and X runs nice and fine with Linux 99pl7. I can even do reasonably large compilations and run Xtetris and stuff. Doing compilations makes X a bit slow, but it is still a wonder the setup works at all. >Mark Cosham >-- Louay -- louay@rosebud.turing.toronto.edu | meow -- ------------------------------ Crossposted-To: comp.unix.admin,comp.sys.next.sysadmin,comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.org.usenix From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) Subject: FAQ: SAGE, The System Administrators Guild Date: Mon, 16 Aug 93 04:54:16 GMT In response to a zillion requests, here's the first FAQ about SAGE. Much of it is taken from our past press releases, especially a recent writeup by Cynthia Deno of the USENIX Association. I'll be reposting this monthly; more questions and additions are welcome. This first one is kind of scattered; it's a midnight throwtogether. Steve Simmons scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us Questions: 1. What is SAGE? 2. How did it get started? 3. How big is SAGE? 4. Who does what? 5. How can I join? 6. What do I get for my money? 7. Who's the current board and staff? 8. Who do I contact? 9. What is the USENIX Association? 1. What is SAGE? SAGE stands for the Systems Administrators Guild (don't ask what happened to the E). It is a subgroup of the USENIX Association (see below). Sage is Devoted to the Advancement of System Administration as a distinct profession, within the realm of computer science but with similarities to facilities management and other service industries. SAGE answers the widely felt need for an organization dedicated to advancing the profession of systems administration. SAGE brings together system administrators to: o recruit talented individuals to the profession, o share technical problems and solutions, o establish standards of professional excellence while providing recognition for those who attain them, o promote work that advances the state-of-the-art or propagates knowledge of good practice in the profession. 2. How did it get started? SAGE was started by a group coalescing around Bay-LISA around the beginning of 1992. That original group was Shoshana Abrass, Tina Darmohray, Arnold deLeon, John F Detke, Paul Evans, Laura Kirk, Bryan McDonald, Paul M. Moriarty, Arch Mott, Bjorn Satdeva and Elizabeth Zwicky. They did yeoman work in bootstrapping things, which eventually resulting in a linkup with the USENIX Association. The USENIX board appointed two additional members, Steve Simmons and Pat Wilson. This was the board of directors at the time of the formal announcement in June, 1992. Formal elections were held later that year, and the first elected board met in January, 1993. 3. How big is SAGE? Response in the first year has been tremendous. Our membership as of August 1 is 978, much larger than expected. 4. Who does what? There are a number of working groups staffed by volunteers. They focus on various issues relating to system administration: policies, tools, job descriptions, education, local groups, etc, etc. Please pardon me for being vague on details, but we (the board) are currently evaluating the working groups. Some will be pronounced successful and retire in glory, some will be dropped until some future date, some will be modified or encouraged to continue on their present path. Details when available. 5. How can I join? To join SAGE, you must be a member of the USENIX Association (again, see below). As a member of USENIX, you are eligible to join any special subgroup of USENIX (at the moment, SAGE is the only one). It's kind of like the ACM and SIGS. USENIX membership is $65.00/year, SAGE membership is $25.00/year. If you attend a USENIX conference, you will find a checkoff box on your registration form that allows you to apply part of your registration to a USENIX membership, bringing your out-of-pocket costs to zero. If you attend a conference which is sponsored or co-sponsored by SAGE, you will see a similar box including your SAGE membership. And if you already are a member, you'll find your conference membership is cheaper by number suspiciously familiar. 6. What do I get for my money? You get all the usual USENIX benefits (see below). You also get the benefits of the ongoing work of SAGE, which thus far include: o Joint sponsorship with USENIX of the annual Systems Administration Conference--the largest conference devoted exclusively to system administration. o Co-sponsorship with USENIX and FedUNIX of the Conference on Tools & Techniques for System Administration, Networking & Security. Sans-III will be held in 1994. o Planning with USENIX to offer tutorials/invited talks on managing and administering distributed systems and networks at the UniForum Conference in March1994 in San Francisco. o Creating an archive site--ftp.sage.usenix.org--for papers from the Systems Administration Conferences and sys admin-related documentation. o Actively encouraging the formation of local SAGE groups. o Continuing working relationships with newly formed international related groups and affiliates. Two affiliates, SAGE-AU in Australia and SAGE-UK in the United Kingdom, have in recent months formed and held their first conferences in part in response to the formation of SAGE in the USA. o Establishing working groups in areas such as jobs, policies, and education that are important to sysadmins. Much of SAGE's hard, hands-on work is carried out by working groups which focus on a particular goal, set of milestones, and schedule. One example of a current project is the preparation of job descriptions for system administrators at various levels. The Jobs group plans to offer its model job descriptions in the form of templates before the end of 1993. o Initiating production of a series of very practical pamphlets on sys admin-related issues and techniques. Your money goes to pay for these activities, many of which are cheaper for SAGE members than for non-members. In addition, the general costs of running the organization are covered by your membership fees -- insurance, employee salaries, etc, etc. See "Who's the current board and staff" for info on salaries. Note that the Board of Directors and members of the working groups pay all their own expenses. This may change in some future year should Sage get Really Rich, but we aren't holding our breath. 7. Who's the current board and staff? The current board of directors is Carol Kubicki, Paul M. Moriarty, Pat Parsegian (secretary), Peg Schaefer (treasurer), Steve Simmons (president), Pat Wilson and Elizabeth Zwicky (past president). The terms of Kubicki, Moriarty, Wilson, and Zwicky all expire Jan 1994; the terms of the rest expire Jan 1995. In addition to the elected board members, Bryan McDonald has been appointed by the board as official editor of the various SAGE publications. Tom Christiansen is the official liaison between the USENIX board and the Sage board. The SAGE board and membership is supported by the USENIX professional staff, including Executive Director Ellie Young, Conference Manager Judy DesHarnais, and the entire office staff. 8. Who so I contact? If you have questions about SAGE or USENIX, please contact the USENIX Association office at (510) 528-8649 or by email to office@usenix.org. 9. What is the USENIX Association? The official name is the UNIX and Advanced Computing Systems Professional and Technical Association, but everybody just calls it USENIX. USENIX is the original (soon to celebrate its 20th anniversary!) not-for-profit membership organization of those individuals and institutions with an interest in UNIX, UNIX-related and other modern operating systems and, by extension, in C++, X windows, and other advanced computing technologies and tools. USENIX is dedicated to: o sharing ideas and experience relevant to UNIX, UNIX-related and advanced computing systems, o fostering innovation and communicating both research and technological developments, o providing a neutral forum for the exercise of critical thought and airing of technical issues. As a member of the USENIX Association, you receive: o Free subscription to ;login:--the bi-monthly newsletter with technical features, international calendar of events, book reviews, Snitch Reports on various ANSI, IEEE, and ISO standards efforts from the USENIX representative and others. SAGE,with its own editor, publishes in each issue of ;login: SAGE News, views, features, book reviews and other items of interest to system administrators o Free subscription to Computing Systems--the refereed technical quarterly published with the University of California Press. o Discounts on registration for the two general conferences, the annual System Administration and C++ conferences, the single-topic symposia, and associated tutorial programs--as many as ten technical meetings each year. o Discounts on proceedings from USENIX conferences and symposia and other technical publications. o Discounts on the USENIX Association book series published by the MIT Press. Now available the first in the series: The Evolution of C++: Language Design in the Marketplace of Ideas, edited by Jim Waldo of Sun Microsystems Laboratories. o Savings on titles from McGraw-Hill, PTR Prentice Hall, John Wiley & Sons, the MIT Press, Addison-Wesley, and UniForum. If you have questions about SAGE or USENIX, please contact the USENIX Association office at (510) 528-8649 or by email to office@usenix.org. -- "Have faith in the future. Plant oaks." - me ------------------------------ From: dwwillia@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (David Williams) Subject: Running the SLS off of a NFS mounted Novell server. Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 05:53:20 GMT I work at the Indiana University Cyclotron facility, and I have managed to get the Computer Electronics group here to give Linux a try. I did this by bringing my Linux home box in and quietly utilizing it. Linux made its own merits apparent, and I put in the right word here and there. Well, now I am taking my home box home, and I will be installing a permanent Linux setup. I imagine it will catch on, and I will be called on to get Linux and especially X working on minimal machines, 386's with 4 megs. I believe this will work with the tiny X set up. What I think the next step would be is to put the SLS on a central file server, in this case a Novell file server, and create a boot disk that NFS mounts it. I would also create a swap partition and if necessary a small ext2fs partition on the PC. In effect, I want to make X terminals out of the 2nd tier equipment (PCs) the non-researches get. I have put the Novell NFS daemon to a good deal of testing, so I think that will hold up. But I have concerns about actually running Linux with a group of users. Is anybody actually using Linux as a multiple user platform? How many users? How much administration is required comparatively? I think making a central installation would be a giant step in making this workable. The alternative is to have the software distributed on every machine, and my sneakers have enough holes in them from keeping the DOS/Windows PCs running. Has anybody tried to running Linux off of a central mount point like this? Any input is welcome. David Williams, Aki no yo mo Within the vast and empty dwwillia@silver.ucs.indiana.edu tada kuujaku to autumn night death poem by Kinko, died 1860 akete yuku. dawn breaks. ------------------------------ From: edmonds@edmonds.home.cs.ubc.ca (Brian Edmonds) Subject: Re: Linux standard for system UID/GIDs ?? Date: 16 Aug 1993 17:52:10 GMT >>>>> On 15 Aug 1993 17:42:37 GMT, Michael Elkins said: ME> I looked through the linux-standards, but I couldn't find any ME> references for a standard list of UIDs and GIDs that a linux box ME> should have. Obvsiouly, root is UID=0 and GID=0, but what about ME> other "standard" users and groups such as bin, daemon, sys, etc...? ME> It seems like it would be a good idea for everyone to be using ME> roughly the same scheme for these things. Well, that's a nice idea at first appearance. It might be handy for people who have standalone systems, or isolated networks, just to give them some idea what groups they should have, but I'm not convinced that everyone being different in their choice of ids is likely to affect anything. The problem comes with those who are on networks with other machines (esp. NFS), as they really need to have their ids match the others on the network, or things start looking rather wierd, and you can get some interesting security holes. Any standards document must certainly mention that for cross-platform NFS none of the linux standards should be considered to apply. ----Akira---BGC---KOC---KOR---Riding-Bean---UF---UY----/================ Brian Edmonds (MSc CompSci) aka Jubal@tmi-2 / SCA: Bardas GCS d* -p+ c++ l++ m++/- s g+ w+ t+ r !x / Lions Gate, AnTir ---Matthew-Sweet--The-The--REM--Leslie-Spit-Treeo---/___inux spoken here ------------------------------ ** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is: Internet: Linux-Admin-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.admin) via: Internet: Linux-Admin@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites: nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux End of Linux-Admin Digest ******************************