From: Digestifier To: Linux-Admin@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Reply-To: Linux-Admin@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 16:13:24 EDT Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #52 Linux-Admin Digest #52, Volume #1 Sat, 11 Sep 93 16:13:24 EDT Contents: col.admin - what for ? Re: IT WORKS! e2fsck now marks root CLEAN! (Ian Jackson) Re: Enough SLS bashing (Re: Install on a ARC Pentium) (Juergen Unger) Re: Enough SLS bashing (Re: Install on a ARC Pentium) (David Lesher) Re: SHADOW 3.2.2 PASSWD DANGER!!! (John Henders) Re: `ofiles' anyone (Michael K. Johnson) Re: Let's collect KNOWN BUGS (Andreas Klemm) Re: Where's the PostScript stuff for groff? (Andreas Klemm) Re: Install on a ARC Pentium (Andreas Klemm) Re: Install on a ARC Pentium (Andreas Klemm) Re: SHADOW 3.2.2 PASSWD DANGER!!! (oops, sorry) (OUTTA HERE!) Re: ANNEX communications server installation trouble (Fred N. van Kempen,Voorhout,+31-2522-30205,+31-2522-30205) Re: mt: /dev/tape not found? (qic-02) (Hennus Bergman,,,) Re: run level testing (Miquel van Smoorenburg,,,) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson) Subject: col.admin - what for ? Re: IT WORKS! e2fsck now marks root CLEAN! Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:55:40 GMT In article , Harvey J. Stein wrote: > >(Please forgive me for having also posted this to col.help also, but >the discussion has been on both lists.) Don't worry about it. I have yet to see someone explain what col.admin is for. Should one post an admin question (which well over half of the questions are) to .help or .admin ? Should one post about Linux development in .admin or .development ? I said this during the RFD but they ignored me ... Crossposed to and followups to col.misc. -- Ian Jackson, at home or PGP2 public key available on server. Urgent email: 2 Lexington Close, Cambridge, CB4 3LS, England; phone: +44 223 64238 ------------------------------ From: unger@igd.fhg.de (Juergen Unger) Subject: Re: Enough SLS bashing (Re: Install on a ARC Pentium) Date: 11 Sep 93 14:37:39 GMT uknf@rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Olaf Titz) writes: [...] >What really would be needed is a proper version numbering. Now we have >at least (?) three different 1.03s... YES !!! I mentioned this before. What we need first, that we can talk about cleaning up SLS, is a proper version-numbering ! *every* little update of the SLS released to pulic should get an own subrelease-number so that we can distinguish between the many versions floating around. -Juergen- -- Juergen P.R. Unger * on IRC: dwalin o o FAX@home: +49 6253 85110 (home) unger@thorin.swb.de * Voice@home: +49 6253 85140 (uni) unger@igd.fhg.de \_/ Voice@uni: +49 6151 155 202 ------------------------------ From: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Subject: Re: Enough SLS bashing (Re: Install on a ARC Pentium) Date: 11 Sep 1993 12:33:48 -0400 Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Others said: >>What really would be needed is a proper version numbering. Now we have >>at least (?) three different 1.03s... >YES !!! I mentioned this before. What we need first, that we can talk >about cleaning up SLS, is a proper version-numbering ! *every* little >update of the SLS released to pulic should get an own subrelease-number >so that we can distinguish between the many versions floating around. I have to agree. I've been stung by the "BTW, we moved some things from a1 to b3, and from b4 to c6, and....." and it took hours to figure it out. I've still got some patch files that I have no idea where they go, and what to do with them..... -- A host is a host from coast to coast.....wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu & no one will talk to a host that's close............[301] 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433 ------------------------------ From: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca (John Henders) Subject: Re: SHADOW 3.2.2 PASSWD DANGER!!! Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 01:17:45 GMT aehall@calvin.seattleu.edu (OUTTA HERE!) writes: >I just found something very dangerous with the passwd command that >I compiled from the shadow 3.2.2 package. >Observe: >#root:[51]/> passwd root ^^^^^^^^^^ I assume this means you're doing this as root. ... >and now I'm logged in correctly... i.e.: NO PASSWORD!! >Surely this is a bug, not a feature. As someone's sig file says. Unix allows you to do stupid things in order to allow you to do clever things. If you try this as an ordinary user, passwd is a lot stricter on what it will allow. I guess root is assumed to have a darn good reason to want to use a stupid password. If the ordinary user restrictions were enforced on root, you couldn't even create an account with the password guest. Personally, I like the behaviour the way it is. I had to use the root account to give my ordinary user account an empty password, but at least I could do it. If, I couldn't, I would have nuked shadow passwords completely. -- John Henders GO/MU/E d* -p+ c+++ l++ t- m--- s/++ g+ w+++ -x+ ------------------------------ From: johnsonm@calypso.oit.unc.edu (Michael K. Johnson) Subject: Re: `ofiles' anyone Date: 11 Sep 1993 18:38:24 GMT In article grosen@NoDak.edu (Johannes Grosen) writes: Has anyone written an `ofiles' for linux? Specifically, a utility to tell which processes have open files on a given file system? I am having troubles getting a file system to unmount and can't track it down.... I suggest you look at fuser, which is distributed as part of the psmisc distribution available at tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/BETA/procps/. I have an older version included in my procps suite, but that whole suite is due for revision. michaelkjohnson ------------------------------ From: andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm) Subject: Re: Let's collect KNOWN BUGS Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 18:01:57 GMT kai@depeche.toppoint.de (Kai Voigt) writes: >bf703@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Patrick J. Volkerding) writes: >>Seriously, after seeing posts about the same SLS bugs over and over >>again, I tend to doubt this will really help do anything about them at >>the source. (where it counts) >>I think if SLS is going to continue to try to lead the way, someone in >>change of it should get a *usable email address* and start taking bug >>reports a little more seriously. >Of course the publisher of a distribution should provide a 'bug service' >and should try to fix bugs, I don't want to have the news system running >under user root in the next 5 SLS's :-) There could be a shell-script >(named 'bug-report' or whatever) that could be invoked when a user >finds a bug. The user will be prompted to describe the bug and the script >will automatically send an email to the distributor or a list of people >that care for bugs. Sounds like a good idea to me. >>The solution on the user end is to switch to a better distribution, if >>the problems with SLS cannot be resolved. My Slackware distribution has >>far fewer bugs, and comes with a full collection of software, including >>X11. The MCC distribution doesn't come with all the bells and whistles, >>but it's about as bug free as a distribution can get. Everything I hear >>about the ongoing Debian project suggests that it will be far superior >>to SLS and may become the leading package in the not too distant future. >We here on our German sls-mailing-list could easily create another >distribution (we are about 30 people), but this would cause too much >confusion among the users. So we decided to improve the SLS distribution >since it's the most popular one for Linux. Since there are so many people >building distributions for Linux, why don't all these people work >together for ONE good distribution. The work could be divided into >single project (like X project, news-mail-uucp project, gcc, etc etc), >This would be much more effeciently. The shell-script mentioned above >could ask for the category of the bug and send the bug report to the >group that is responsible for the packet. So bugs can removed very fast! >So let's work together, we don't have to invent the wheel twice or even >more (hmm, does this saying exist in English? :) Ok, have a look to the postings about the Demian project for nn: 750174007:comp.os.linux.development:+s/:Standards 750174036:comp.os.linux.development:+s=:Linux Standards (was Re\: Debian\: a brief status report) My goal one union base distrib with kernel + developement system one exactly matching source disk to the base distrib ! everything else should be distributed in SVR4 pkgadd/pkgrm/... format. Reason: binary compatibility to SVR4 is coming (soon?). SVR4 is a consolidated platform for the 90's on PC's. Support the diskussion, maybe this way, too. The pkgadd... utilities a la SVR4 provide all needed features for clean package removing, pkg creating+listing, permission fixes .... Bye Andreas /// -- /-\ Andreas Klemm +-----------------+ |@|########################################################-@ "pay for it !" | \-/ 41469 Neuss Germany phone +49/ 2137 12609 +-----------------+ ------------------------------ Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc From: andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm) Subject: Re: Where's the PostScript stuff for groff? Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 18:17:57 GMT rick@ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller) writes: >I've got all the nifty groff stuff that came with the SLS-1.03, but it >doesn't seem to include a directory needed by "groff" to produce PostScript >output. The error I get is: > gtroff: can't open `DESC' > gtroff: fatal error: sorry, I can't continue >I looked around with "find" and have deduced that I need a directory called >"/usr/lib/groff/font/ps" (which would contain the file DESC, among others). So it's in SLS 1.03 not included, too ???? Two Releases after 1.01 ??? My advice ... complain about that to Peter Mc Donald sls pmacdona@sanjuan.uvic.ca (Peter MacDonald) I didn't do that, 'cause I recompiled it myself ... and groff-1.08 works perfectly now for me ... -- /-\ Andreas Klemm +-----------------+ |@|########################################################-@ "pay for it !" | \-/ 41469 Neuss Germany phone +49/ 2137 12609 +-----------------+ ------------------------------ From: andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm) Subject: Re: Install on a ARC Pentium Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 18:27:26 GMT ace@acelab.ruhr.de (Andreas Fatum) writes: >wescott@olive.cs.bucknell.edu (Jeffrey Wescott '95) writes: >>[...] to trade systems and I'll get it running. ;) But seriously, if you >>have any specific problems (with MCC that is, I refuse to help the > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>people plagued by SLS), you can mail me at wescott@bucknell.edu and I >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>will be glad to help you. Good luck. >This is a bloody damned (and silly, too) - attitude and people like you >should be removed from the net for crap like that. >We are here to help each other and we also hope to get help from the >community in case of any problems. >Do you happen to _think_ before you post articles? Imagine your car >breaks down and the guy of the repair-service tells you: "Pretty easy >problem, but I refuse to help you because you drive a XYZ. Buy an ABC >and I'll help you". You may think about it. Yes a real slyboot. -- /-\ Andreas Klemm +-----------------+ |@|########################################################-@ "pay for it !" | \-/ 41469 Neuss Germany phone +49/ 2137 12609 +-----------------+ ------------------------------ From: andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm) Subject: Re: Install on a ARC Pentium Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1993 18:41:30 GMT pgr@sst.icl.co.uk (Phil Richards) writes: >In , Andreas Fatum >writes: >[about somebody offering to help people with problems with MCC but not >with SLS] >Ignoring the argument about which is `better' between SLS and MCC >(personally, I prefer MCC), the point was that somebody was offering >to help people with one specific thing You're a slyboot, too. The other point was, that originally somebody was asking for help for a specific product. The reply to help him, if he would use another package than SLS wasn't asked and didn't help much. > -- nobody should get upset >because they explicitly say they won't help with something else. If somebody wants to help, then he should *do* so and not start to prattle. If he can't help, because being religious fanatic against some other product, then he should keep it for himself. It wasn't asked by the one who wanted help ! flames > /dev/null. -- /-\ Andreas Klemm +-----------------+ |@|########################################################-@ "pay for it !" | \-/ 41469 Neuss Germany phone +49/ 2137 12609 +-----------------+ ------------------------------ From: aehall@calvin.seattleu.edu (OUTTA HERE!) Subject: Re: SHADOW 3.2.2 PASSWD DANGER!!! (oops, sorry) Date: 11 Sep 1993 18:54:08 GMT Oops, sorry for the scare... I've had it pointed out to me that assigning a null password with passwd as root is a feature not a bug... I've been a sysadmin for a couple of years now (mainly SCO Unix, gag) and I've never noticed this feature before because when I've run passwd, I usually do it on purpose to change a passwd. However, the other day when I posted this, I was just messing around with passwd and happened to hit enter a couple of times for "new passwd:" and "retype passwd:"... You learn something new every day :) -A -- Anthony Hall _ _ Unix System Administrator aehall@seattleu.edu /_/ /_/ Physician Micro Systems, Inc. _ _ 2033 6th Ave Suite 707 /_/ /_/ Seattle, WA 98122 206-441-8490 ------------------------------ From: waltje@metallica (Fred N. van Kempen,Voorhout,+31-2522-30205,+31-2522-30205) Subject: Re: ANNEX communications server installation trouble Date: Fri, 3 Sep 93 03:25:26 Chris Thompson (thompsch@ccmail.orst.edu) wrote: : Has anyone out there tried to install the annex communication software for : release 7.0. I am very new to Unix and Linux so I am not really sure what : the hell I am doing, but Iknow someone out there can answer some or one of : these questions or just offer someadvice or comment on what they found. Well, I "ported" the 6.1 release of the Annex Operating Software to the Linux NET-2e environment while I was doing the "Hacking at the End of the Universe" (== HEU) Summer's Congress a month ago. I got it to boot on the last day, but didn't bother switching over to it, as it was the last day anyway. We had a small Annex-1 clone (a Gould product), and it booted fine. : First of all it asks during installation what typeof OS that you have and : the choices are 1) 4.[23]BSD Unix (&UMAX BSD) 2) System VUnix (& UMAX V) 3) : XENIX System V 4) MACH 5) SVR4 ? Then depending on whatyou answer to the I used SunOS as a base platform. : above question it will ask for additional loader options for : networklibraries, and alternate include directory for network code, and : where are the networkinclude files located? Then it will ask what kind of None. All standard stuff. : network software does your OS have, 1) 4.[234]BSD or compatible 2) Excelan : EXOS package 3) CMC package 4) WollongongWINS package 5) TLI. Transport : Layer Interface? (4) - 4.3BSD : If anybody has any idea please e-mail me at Thompsoc@kerr.orst.edu Cheers, Fred -- ------------------------------ From: hennus@nic.nl.mugnet.org (Hennus Bergman,,,) Subject: Re: mt: /dev/tape not found? (qic-02) Date: Mon, 6 Sep 93 01:01:43 Andre Hufschmidt (u241026@niesel.dkrz.de) wrote: : In article <1993Sep4.175111.3714@news.vanderbilt.edu>, : Sait Umar, wrote: : >I bought a WANGTEK 5150PK tape drive which is QIC-02 compatible. The host : >adapter switch settings are at (I/O=0x338,DMA=3,IRQ=2 in tpqic02.c file). : >I recompiled the kernel with tpqic02.c having the same values as the : >switch settings (otherwise it conflicts with 3c503 card). The boot process : >detects and gives the message that tpqic02 at I/O=338, DMA=3, IRQ=2.... : > : According to tpqic02.h, one shouldn't use IRQ 2: : #define TAPE_QIC02_IRQ 5 : /* Muhammad, please don't use 2 here. -- Hennus */ : Try using an other IRQ setting, which will not conflict with your other : hardware. I think, IRQ 5 is a good thing to try first. If you have your adapter set for IRQ2, you should specify IRQ 9 for the driver. This is because of the brilliant PC-design. : >The Major device number in tpqic02.h is 12. I am not sure about how to : >find the minor numbers. I created the devices as required by the tpqic02 : >manual. Specifically, I created : > : > mknod /dev/tape c 12 8 : > : >for QIC-150 dev. Then I try to use mt to test the tape by simly issuing : > : > mt rewind : > : >the response is : > : > mt: cannot find /dev/tape : > : >or /dev/tape doesn't exist, something like that. I used the -f option, tried : >different tape devices to no avail. When I insert a tape into the tape drive : >the drive automatically rewinds, so at least I know it is on! What could be : >wrong? : Have you tried ls -l /dev/tape to make sure that mknod has created : /dev/tape and that mayor and minor numbers are correct. : mknod will not do anything if the file already exists. Therefore : one good guess is removing the tape-devices /dev/tape /dev/rmt* : and then trying to create them again. : Andre If the problem is just caused by an incorrect IRQ setting, I think a simple mt rewind should still succeed. Check your settings in linux/include/linux/ tpqic02.h. I also have a 5150EQ, so it should work ... ;) Oh, if you're trying to recompile from SLS 1.03, try to get a clean kernel source from nic.funet.fi first, I've seen several reports from people having problems with recompiling the tape driver in that. Perhaps Peter made some mistakes when making some changes to my driver? Hennus Bergman -- ------------------------------ From: miquels@caution.cistron.nl.mugnet.org (Miquel van Smoorenburg,,,) Subject: Re: run level testing Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 20:21:48 In article <1993Sep8.013819.307@omphalos.equinox.gen.nz> david@omphalos.equinox.gen.nz (David Liebert) writes: >How does a script test to see what run-level it is running under. >(The Sys V 'who -r' doesn't work) Assuming you are talking about my SysVinit 2.4 package, you can't. The GNU who does not have support for this, and neither does init. I assume that the runlevel has to be kept somewhere in /etc/utmp ? >Also, under init the 'bootwait' programs are run when the system first >goes into a numeric runlevel. I would have expected therefore that >processes (like cron, lpd) that get started by a 'bootwait' script >would get killed when init goes back to single user mode??? SysVinit 2.4 can and does do this. When going to single user mode (s) it does a 'kill -9 -1' so that all processes are killed, and it then spawns just a single shell. >I think that it would be good to be able to '/etc/init s' and know >that all your daemons have been killed off. > >The alternative (reading a Sys V book) seems to be to have 'rc' split up >and have the script which starts daemons run at a 'wait' level (with >of course a test for run-level in the script ...) > I have begun with this in my SysV init package. If you are using SLS, you cannot see this is SLS still uses the old style of dealing with /etc/rc. You don't need a test for the runlevel with who -r or something: just pass the number from /etc/inittab like: r2:2:wait:/etc/rc1.d/rc.daemons 2 I'm still trying to get more info on the subject. I have access to a SysV R3.2 machine, and will try to find out what the "official" way of dealing with this is. Mike. -- | Miquel van Smoorenburg, | | Chips - the dope of the nineties. You may carry them with you, | | but they are more expensive per kilo than cocaine. | ------------------------------ ** 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 ******************************