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Contents: |
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 17:59:52 -0600
From: Ernesto Vargas,
evargas@aisinternational.com
Subject: email to pager gateway
I'm trying to find an e-mail to pager gateway. So for example if I send a e-mail to 123456@mydomain.com it will send it to the pager system but if I send and e-mail to evargas@mydomain.com leave the message in my pop account. Additional to this is not to specify each pager our company has more then 25,000 and is growing 1,000 per month.
Thanks,
Ernesto Vargas
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 14:44:52 -0600
From: "MARK C ZOLTON",
mcz@wheat.ksu.edu
Subject: SyQuest EZ 135 and Linux...
For quite some time now I've been wondering how to set up my SyQuest EZ 135 removable disk drive under Linux. If you haven't seen one, it's kind of like a ZIP drive, but less of an industry standard. I got it for free, otherwise I don't think it would have been worth it. Anyway, I have about six 135MB disks for it and I'd like to give some of that to Linux. Any ideas? I've seen a driver around before, but I don't remember where to get it.
Mark
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 17:01:00 +0300
From: admin,
admin@jrol.com
Subject: chroot how to?
I have been trying to lookup information on chroot command. i am trying to see if I can restrict my users to there home directories. Same concept like anonymous ftp. So each user will have his or hers own work space. Is there any documentation ? Thank you for your time. I have Red Hat5.0 and 5.1.
Khriss,
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 05:32:21 -0700
From: "Wizard Saturn",
alexey@mailcity.com
Subject: problem mouse
I have Genius Net Mouse (with a Magic-Button for making browsing easy, hardware scrolling). I use Read Heat 5.0, but I cannot use Magic-Button for scrolling in Xwindows.What shall I do for using it.
Thank you in advance.
alexey
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:47:35 +0100 (BST)
From: Sean Kelly,
S.Kelly@newcastle.ac.uk
Subject: Recognising the AMD K5-PR166
I'm wondering whether any other readers have used the AMD K5-PR166 with Linux. It's just that my system seems to think it's a K5-PR133 and states that it's running at 100MHz. Also, the BogoMips value indicates that the processor is running at 100MHz. Anyone any advice?
Thanks in advance,
Sean.
Date: 08 Jul 98 16:10:03 +0000
From: James Spenceley,
creative@create.com.au
Subject: PPP help
I'd like to set my Linux box up as a PPP remote access server. Can you give me an idea of where i can find some info on how to do this ? Or maybe someone who has done it with a positive outlook and an email address. Any help would be great
Thanks
James
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 02:20:45 +0200
From: silvia ballmann,
sballmann@usa.net
Subject: Linux AND Lanprinter
Can I manage 800 lanprinter with one Linux system? Thanks.
bye, Thomas
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 16:50:41 -0700
From: al00584,
al00584@snetsy.cpg.com.au
Subject: DStealth Linux FVWM driver
I have a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Virge card. In initial drivers even 16 bit display modes were patchy. Now I'm wondering if there would be new drivers developed which are stable since. Furthermore I seem to have trouble installing and uninstalling files. No Uninstallshield equivalent of windows??
Keep up the great service.
Andrew
(No need for an uninstall with Linux, rm -rf will remove all the way down a directory tree. Be careful when you use it though. Also, if you feel the need to write C code to this, there is an article in the August issue of Linux Journal about how to write a "deltree" command. --Editor)
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 10:07:36 -0700 (PDT)
From:
dhelm@linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
Subject: CHAOS
I would like more information on the CHAOS article in the July (#30) issue of LG. Are there any HOW-TO's on how to set a thing like that up? Since I cant afford (OK, to cheap to buy..) one of the new systems, a little network of cheap PC's sounds fun.
GreatDane
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 00:08:57 EDT
From: Kilgorecom@aol.com
Subject: notebook
I have an OLD laptop that is probably only good for a doorstop or running DOS. (I did download DR. DOS, and may give it a try, but am more interested in putting a Linux system on it if possible. It is a DTK model DLT-3311 which has a whopping Cx486dlc 33 Mhz processor and 4 MB of ram. It has a monochrome monitor, and runs windows 3.x slow. I can't find any more ram for it and am interested in finding out if there is a distribution of Linux, BSD, or something of the like that would turn this into a suitable companion for sales calls, including a database, pim, and anything else slick I could get this to do until I can afford something less paeliolithic.
Any info you could send would be greatly appreciated, as well as being a big feather in your Karmic hat.
Thanks in advance, Kent
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 08:18:28 +0000
From: Abduraghmaan Phillips,
phillips@srvnac3.nac.ac.za
Subject: Intel Celeron Processor
I would like to know whether Linux will have any problems with the Intel Celeron Processor.
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 12:19:00 -0700
From: Antony Chesser,
antonyc3@integritas.com
Subject: The Other Side of the Story
In the article, Installing Microsoft & Linux, by Manish P. Pagey, we were treated to a (possibly justified) diatribe about the difficulties in integrating Linux and Win95. However, to have a more balanced view, one might also note the following:
I like Linux thus far. But I never mistake what I like with that is simpler for the average person out there to use. Linux is as user friendly as a hurled brick. Installing Linux puts you at a $ or # prompt with no clue of where to go afterwards. I'm a Novell CNE with many years experience working with PCs and networks, so I'm not daunted by a non-intuitive prompt. And I already had a WIN95 machine set up so I could access the net, download the truly excellent Linux Journal online, and get support on how to install RPMs, etc. Had that not been the case, however, I'd have been hard pressed to iron our the wrinkles in my install, or to know which files to edit, or programs to run, to do basic configuration. By comparison, win95 starts off in the gui mode, allowing for rather intuitive productivity immediately. And yes, I agree...it IS less stable. But crashing once a week (and I don't, by the way... I applied the service pack to it, and I am very stable) is still far better than not being able to even find out how to connect to the net.
When Linux finishes installing, you're left with a # prompt. When WIN95 finishes installing, you've a fairly intuitive GUI that allows you to quickly and easily install and run programs, connect to the net, and **apply updates without re-compiling the kernel**.
So is win95 better than Linux? Nope. But neither is it inferior. Each tool for the right job. If someone wants to set up their own PC and get working quickly, the average person without experience in EITHER of the OS's will have an easier time with win95. The trade off for that is that yes, it IS less stable in the long run, and yes, you DO have to pay for it. But considering that for the novice, the alternative is a PC that he/she cannot use, the answer seems clear that one should get the more easily installed and usable system. And that is not yet Linux.
I believe firmly that it one day WILL be. Many of the Linux Accolytes have decried the attempt to enhance the functionality and ease of use for Linux as the equivalent of "Starting down the Dark path of the Force." (shrug) A bit melodramatic, if you ask me. Consider this... that if we don't make it more user friendly, it will STAY a tiny share of the home and small business market, which in turn means less software written for it, and less call for us to support it for a living. Which, given all it's virtues, seems a shame, doesn't it?
Let's keep the tight, elegant kernel that is Linux, and add ease of use to it. If we do this, then like IBM's iron fisted dominance of the PC market that faded, so too will Microsoft be "The Giant That Was." However, if we insist on keeping Linux the OS that commands a religious like fervor with a select few, and keeping it un-usable for the vast majority of home and small business users, we'll continue to watch Mr. Gates... the richest man in the world... sell upgrades to a kludgy OS for more money than ANY current version of Linux gets. And we'll hear his laughter.
Antony Chessor
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 20:01:16 -0400
From: Kevin Fortin, kfortin@ufl.edu
Subject: RedHat Service Pack 1
A badly organized yet sketchy editorial, upon these themes:
Just when Linux was starting to get a little more of the limelight, Red Hat releases a new version of its popular distribution, the regrettably buggy RH5.1 (a few weeks ahead of whatever product from Redmond).
Many Linux beginners will probably start with Red Hat, because of the ease of installation and the collection of software. bo Many or most beginners who want to give Linux a try will be installing on their home machines, and will want to connect to the Internet by modem afterwards (sorry -- PPP module not supported by kernel). Note: this feature makes it difficult for home users to download patches from FTP sites.
Furthermore, all users might want to install additional RPMs from CDROMS (sorry -- unable to mount iso9660 filesystem).
[Strangely, when I upgraded an RH4.2 system to RH5.1, I did not have trouble with PPP or CD-ROM support, but when I did an RH5.1 installation from scratch, I did have problems. On that troublesome system, I reformatted and reinstalled RH4.2.]
Many (or at least I) passed over RH5.0 (because I had read it needed a lot of patching) and waited for RH5.1 to come out.
The Linux press doesn't appear to have commented on this situation. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but I haven't come across any product reviews or editorials in the on-line Linux press chastising RedHat for rushing a defective product to market (ala Microsoft).
In spite of the above, "Me, I'm a Red Hat Man".
I'm no expert user, but I am a fan of the Linux phenomenon and certainly of Red Hat, and I guess I'm just disappointed by the possibility that potential newcomers might be frustrated and turned away from Linux by the current Red Hat distribution.
I wish the people at Red Hat well, and will probably even send some money their way, in appreciation of their 4.2 distrib as well as their ongoing efforts. However, I might wait for RH5.2 or at least give the most crucial of the RH5.1 patches enough time to make it onto the official CD pressings.
[To be fair, I should note that I obtained RH5.1 on a $1.99 CD from CheapBytes, but from reading the newsgroups, I don't believe that this undermines the points made above. Also, I don't imagine that RedHat's own commercial CD releases and their FTP site would be much out-of-sync, and CheapBytes probably relies on the RH FTP site for its pressings.]
Kevin Fortin
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 11:59:33 +0900
From: Tom Holroyd,
tomh@taz.ccs.fau.edu
Subject: Compaq Unix Support
Since the recent acquisition of Digital by Compaq, I think it's important to let everybody know how they can show their support of Linux on Compaq's AXP platform. Jon Hall, Unix Software Group Senior Leader inside Compaq, and also Executive director of Linux International, has posted the following announcement to axp-list@redhat.com
url: http://archive.redhat.com//axp-list/1998-June/0567.html
Remember that if a major player such as Compaq started shipping machines (and not only axps) with Linux pre-loaded, it would do much for Linux popularity.
Since sending them all one at a time to Mr. Pfeiffer will only make him pissed off in the long run, you are welcome to send them to me, and I will roll them up for him, and present them all at once. I would suggest including in the letter (along with whatever else you want): Your name, Your occupation, Whether you are buying the machine for personal or business use, How many machines per year you buy (ONE is an o.k. number!! Even one, every two or three years...he will understand, and they mount up over many people), What type of machine you would buy (Alpha, Intel), What size (how many megs memory, disk, etc.), and Whether you would be interested in buying support. Put as the subject line: YET ANOTHER UNIX USER
I will guarantee you that my immediate management will look at them, at a minimum, and I am fairly sure that they will get all the way up to Mr. Pfeiffer, at least as a report. -- Jon "maddog" Hall, maddog@zk3.dec.com
Dr. Tom Holroyd
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:04:27 +0100 (BST)
From: Karsten Ballueder,
karsten@phy.hw.ac.uk
Subject: Portable GUI C++ Libraries
I have just read your article about "Portable GUI C++ Libraries" and found it to be not very well researched. The information given about wxWindows is outdated and a bit inaccurate.
You mentioned that Version 2.0 "is rumoured to be available in the near future". Fact is, it has already been available in different alpha releases for quite some time. While the code is still under development, it is worth mentioning that it is already very usable and=20=
the turnaround time for bug fixes is quite low. At present there are two implementations of wxWindows 2.0, the Windows version, available from the main wxWindows web page mentioned in your article, and the GTK based Unix version wxGTK, available from http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~wxxt/ . Both versions are ready for development right now ( We are using it to implement quite a large e-mail application, http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/M ). A third version,=20=
based on Motif is under development.
You also mentioned the "side project" of a port of wxWindows which doesn't require the Motif libraries. This "port", called wxXt has been=20=
around for many years and is probably the most-used wxWindows version on Linux. It provides a complete Motif-lookalike interface, without requiring Motif.
I find that if you look at the newer wxWindows releases, especially wxGTK, they provide a much more complete environment and a much improved user interface than other toolkits. Unfortunately, your screenshots based on the older Motif version don't show this.
Regards, Karsten
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 00:09:07 +0000
From: general, general@gis.net
Subject: LG30 article by Manish Pagey
The most intelligent statement in this persons article was " Because I'm stupid thats why". This article was not anything of general interest but only a tirade about Bill Gates and Microsoft.
If your Linux is so great why must you degenerate the efforts and products of others. Evidently, you people all live in the ivory towers of academia and not the real world. Manish cites that the Feds and the state ag's are after MS.
His vehemence smacks so much of hate that they may come for him next for committing "hate crimes or if not hate crimes the incidence of a hate crime", to quote one great liberal mayor here in Marxachusettes.
Why must all of Linux literature be permeated with the stink of egotistical minds rotting putridly in the sun. Linux may be the operating system of the future, that is if we can get by humid putrification of your egotism.
Quite frankly, LG should hide in shame for printing such childish gibberish. When I downloaded your recent issue to my Linux box, it was with the hope that it might enlighten my experience with another operating system and broaden my limited computer knowledge.
However, this trash will not deter my efforts to learn about Linux as it has presented quite a challenge to run both it and W95. Here's hoping that you and others can present a journal that will teach not disgust.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Robert E. Lee
I frankly don't have time to read every word of every article. I try to avoid articles that are just hate mail. Obviously, I missed on this one if it is as bad as you say. People are always asking for articles about installing both Linux and Microsoft and the problems incurred while doing so and this one looked to fit the bill. I am sorry you were offended and that I did not do a better filtering job. Thanks for writing -- Editor
Thank you for responding to my e-mail. However, my feelings were not of offense but of total irritation that the Linux literature at all levels is saturated with the debasing of others and their operating system.
There are forums where people can vent their dislikes but they do a disservice to the Linux community by littering Linux literature all of types their personal dislikes of others and their efforts.
Linux is being touted as the operating system of the future and it could very well be that some day it will mature to this status. However, the Linux community will have to mature with it if they expect this to happen. The type of article will only repel people rather than attract them. Sell the features and benefits of the Linux operating system and people will use it, denigrate others and their efforts and Linux will languish.
Perhaps, it would be timely to include the 'Advocacy Mini How-to' by Paul L. Rogers in a future edition in an effort help Linux users understand that tirades and even snide remarks are counter to their goal of promoting Linux and are destructive instead.
Thank you for lending an ear.
Robert E. Lee
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 20:00:20 -0400
From: "Donald N. McKay",
fstop@a-znet.com
Subject: Promoting Linux
I listened intently to the Internet audio broadcast when Steve Jobs supplied the voice over to the great race between a 333 MHz Pentium II and Apple's G3. Of course, for those who did listen, we were to learn that G3 ate Pentium's lunch when the two processors 'drag raced' through a run-time application of Photoshop followed by animation, courtesy of Macromedia Director. After listening to the Inter-cast, the world suddenly became aware of the power of G3.
So.... Why not host a drag race on the Internet between Win 95, Win NT 4 and Win 98 and Linux? Hell, throw OS/2 Warp and Novell in there also. (of course, using identical computers - processors, networking cards, etc.). Ballyhoo the event with home page and search engine banner ads (paid for by Red Hat, Caldera, and anyone else who'll make a buck out of the event). Invite C|NET, Andover Net and ZDNet to cover the event. Run Linux on Apache or however the Linux-meisters see fit, but let's see once and for all just what this OS can do not only for speed but for reliability. Then, and only then, will people not only take notice of the product, but will, in fact, try it (buy it in some cases) and use it.
What do you think?
Don McKay
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 13:18:39 -0300
From: Michael Rasmusson,
miker@bdamicro.com
Subject: the cruel reality
Note: This essay assumes that the DoJ (Department of Justice) is nonexistent.
While I am a vocal Linux (and Unix) advocate and am deeply alarmed at the thought of a Redmond controlled world, once in a while it helps to sit down and examine reality.
Linux, at this point in its development, is still too much of a learning curve for the majority of PC users. Most of the Linux users I know, including myself, are software engineers, systems programmers, system administrators, or some other variant of systems professional. All but one use a commercial Unix variant at work. Some PC aficionados showed genuine interest in my Linux box with its various GUIs during its lifetime. The interest seemed to fade when they saw the command line tricks still lurking under most of the more interesting things you can do with Linux, even if these tricks are eventually launched from the window manager. Until the time comes that Linux can be installed, configured and maintained from a fright free interface, it will stay in the realm of techies.
All is not hopeless though. Looking back 20 years to the beginning of personal computing we see that the innovators and early adopters were overwhelmingly techies and electronic hobbyists. We also see that traditional IT types dismissed the early PC as inappropriate for business use. Big Iron would rule the glass tower forever. PC advocates retorted that they would eventually take over and the centralised systems of MIS would be phased out as dinosaurs. Even respectable periodicals like The Economist spouted drivel about PCs replacing mainframes. The reality that has developed since the early 80's has been neither a continuation of Big Iron nor a clean sweep by Wintel. Centralised computing in the form of servers, including the new generation of mainframe class systems, is doing just fine. Wintel PCs have occupied most of the lower niches and are rising into new ones, but will this rise continue until Wintel everywhere is a reality?
Most of the decision makers in IT right now are either managers who were flexible enough to allow PCs into the systems framework back in the 80's or they rose through the ranks during the last 15 years of PC centric computing. Many of them honestly believe in Wintel's manifest destiny. They have either known no other reality except Wintel dominance, or if they have, it was one of IBM dominance. In either case the mind set is very similar. Just like in the early 80's, a closed IS mind set seems dead against branching from the safe and tried road and into new and fresh territory. Fortunately, similar to what happened in the 80's, a few courageous thinkers can see the widening cracks in the Windows.
To these "aware" techies the dream of an inexorable upward rise of the Wintel PC into the world of workhorse systems is turning into a nightmare. More people are starting to see this. The interest in Java, the NC concept, managed PCs, Citrix ICA, all are early signs of a growing dissatisfaction with the legacy of DOS. Windows boxes are notoriously troublesome, but where are the alternatives? Linux is showing itself to be promising, but it is _not_ yet ready to be adopted by the herd. PC makers are aware of this and continue to bundle MS OSes, you're better off with the devil you know.
The great hope of the Windows world is NT. With Windows98 showing itself to be a yet another troublesome incarnation of DOS/Windows, NT is the last refuge.
Strangely, instead of making NT the solid crash proof system people crave, Redmond hacks and bloats up NT in hopes of getting it into higher margin roles that are still too much for it to handle. Redmond pushes, and reacts to criticism of its baby with patches, hacks and bloat. Redmond keeps pushing, and NT continues to show itself as being unready for the big leagues. Redmond say, "Wait! NT version 5.0 will have all sorts of new features and capabilities that will make it perfect for enterprise computing." More likely is NT 5.0, with it's 30+ million lines of code, 24+ million of them new and untested, may just turn out to be the most bug ridden bloated carcass of ugly hacks we've ever seen. Redmond will once again have egg on its face, but this time will it be a permanent stain?
If NT 5.0 turns out to be a huge disappointment, then the alternatives will have to be ready to entice a growing pool of would-be defectors. Linux will have to be more usable and manageable by the WinHerd. It will have to be viable enough to convince OEMs that they can afford to break their devil's bargains with Microsoft. If Redmond trips and once again the lack of viable alternatives allows it to get on its feet and continue building its empire, we have only ourselves to blame. We have two years, can we do it?
Regards,
Mike
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 10:37:33 -0500
From: "Pronovici, Kenneth",
Kenneth.Pronovici@mchugh.com
Subject: CHAOS
Please pass on my congratulations on a wonderful article to Alex - his CHAOS system apparently caused my coworkers to think of me, and my WHOPPeRS (Wacky Hastily Organized Parallel Processesing Research Scheme) system, which looks a lot like CHAOS. Only difference is that mine is sitting on my bedroom floor... ;-)
Ken Pronovici
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More 2¢ Tips!
RE: Photogrammetry tools for Linux? in Issue 30
In the July 1998 issue of LG, this message was listed in the "Help Wanted" section.
From: Maurizio Ferrari, Maurizio.Ferrari@tin.itI have tried to e-mail the user back at his given address with some info found on the company and product, but the address given is not valid. So, here it is:
I am looking for a Linux program to do some close-range photogrammetry. Close range photogrammetry is a technique that enables to reconstruct 3D images from a series of 2D pictures. There are a few powerful (and relatively inexpensive) tools for Windows but none so far for Linux, that I know of. There was something once upon a time called Photo4D. Despite my massive Internet search, any occurrence of Photo4D seems to have been wipe erased from the face of earth. It is listed in SAL but all the links fail. I don't want to resort to buy and use Windows software for this. Help, anyone?
CompInt
712 Seyton Drive
Nepean, Ontario K2H 9R9
Canada
General e-mail : compint@igs.net
http://www.igs.net/~compint/
This page updated 8/15/97 at 5:45:19 AM ET.
I found this article about the product on Computer Graphics World's site.
http://www.cgw.com/cgw/Archives/1996/09/09prod1_05.html
Product Spotlight
New Motion-Capture Tool
CGW Magazine - September 1996
With CompInt's Photo4D-Pro, animators can now capture 2D and 3D motion based on video recordings. The Windows 95/NT-based program, available for $490, features auto-detection and auto-marking tools which use pattern recognition technology to automatically detect and mark similar feature points in images, making it possible to effectively digitize a large number of points. The software enables users to capture accurate 3D motion from multiple video recordings of a subject by tracking the feature points in videos and computing their x, y, and z coordinates in each frame. Furthermore, its advanced algorithms can synchronize recorded videos to sub-frame accuracy, allowing the use of low-cost home video cameras.
Coinciding with this product launch, the company is also releasing Photo4D-Lite V2.0, a $99 product designed for users who require only 3D digitizing and modeling capabilities. Both products will be available on Windows 95/NT, SGI, Sun, HP, and Linux platforms. (Nepean, Ontario; 613-721-1643)
The web page that is listed is not valid, but hopefully this may help people trying to locate this product.
John
Re: Suggestion for Article, simultaneous versions of Kernels
From: Renato Weiner, reweiner@yahoo.comLet me state the following:
Recently I was looking at the Gazette and I think I have a good suggestion of an article that will be very useful for the Linux community. I have had some technical difficulties of having two simultaneous versions of Kernels in my system. I mean a stable one and a developing one. I searched the net looking for information of how to co-exist both but it's completely fragmented. If somebody more experienced could put all this information together, it will certainly help a lot of people from kernels developers to end-users.
HOW TO HAVE COEXISTING KERNELS
First let me assume that, with "coexisting kernels", you meant to have several different kernels (with different kernel numbers such as 2.0.34 and 2.1.101) each of which can be chosen at boot time to be started. (The point is: I suppose, you don't want to simultaneously __run__ different kernels, which of course is impossible.)
So, all you have to do is this:
For each kernel you want to use, get the kernel sources, e.g. as .tgz file, cd to /usr/src, do a
tar xzf ../where/ever/it/is/package.tgzthen cd to /usr/src/linux-2.0.34 (e.g.) and do the ordinary kernel configuration / compilation, i.e.
make config (or menuconfig or xconfig, whatever you like) make zImage modules modules_install cp arch/i386/boot/zImage /linux-2.0.34 (e.g.)The last bit of the make will generate a directory /lib/modules/2.0.34 (e.g.) where the modules are put.
Then edit the /etc/lilo.conf. Copy the parts that configure your "normal" system start and change the name of the configuration. Also change the name of the kernel binary to /linux-2.0.34 (e.g.).
Then proceed with the next kernel in identic behaviour. Nothing can be overwritten during this process, because all of the kernel compilation is done in its separate directory /usr/src/linux-2.x.y, and all the generated modules will be put in a separate directory /lib/modules/2.x.y, and your zImage copy (residing in /) will have a new name, as you have used an other kernel version.
When you're through with all your kernel versions and have added the last portion to the /etc/lilo.conf file do a
liloat the prompt which will make lilo reinstall the boot manager with the changed values. Now reboot, press [TAB] at the LiLo prompt and choose a kernel to use. If you followed these steps, you will not have deleted your original entry in /etc/lilo.conf, so if none of your newly compiled kernels can boot properly, you can still boot the old kernel.
Hope it helps,
H.-G. Esser
Secondary IDE interface CDROM detection/automounting tip
In the Linux Gazette #28 the question was asked:I ran into this same problem on my home machine. I found that the rc.cdrom script wasn't checking for my drive properly. It couldn't find /dev/hdc and I had to change/add in /dev/hd1a in order to get the master on the secondary IDE interface. Once I put that in the list it worked fine. I would suspect you should use /dev/hd1b for the slave?
Hello.I have the Linux Slackware 2.0.30 Walnut Creek.I installed it on a Pentium 200 MMX with a 24x CD-ROM. During the installation I had to write "ramdisk hdd=cdrom" for reading the CD-ROM, but after the installation Linux doesn't see the CD-ROM. I have an atapi CD-ROM, and when I tried to compile my kernel another time, I saw that atapi is the default !!! So I don't understand where is the problem . What can I do?
Jim Reith reith@racores.com
Re ext2 partitions
A much simpler solution to Albert T. Croft's file finding troubles of only wanting to look at ext2 drives so as to exclude the vfat partitions is:
find . -fstype ext2 -name fooReplacing foo with whatever you are looking for.
Cheers, Alex.
pdf resumes: pdflatex
Dave Cook, the man who wrote the 2cent tip about createing a .pdf file of a resume, must not have the latest TeTeX installed. Either that, or he's not explored it much. ;-)
There is a `pdflatex' now, that creates .pdf files directly. It works really well. There is also `pdftex', and `pdftexinfo'. You can typeset texinfo documents with `info2pdf' now.
Last time I tried it, there was an off by one bug, apparently... When you click a section heading in the table of contents panel, it would jump to one section lower than the one you click. The bug has been reported to the Debian bug tracking system.
Karl
Re: CHAOS
A point to note: the IP addresses used for the network should probably be modified to be in one of the ranges set aside in RFC 1918. In summary, they are:
The Mailbag!
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)
These addresses are guaranteed to not be in use on the Internet, should
you get connected later. See the RFC for the full rational.
Dom Mitchell
Re: 3com network cards
Re: complaint about 3com network card being slow in 2c tips.
3com 3c590 3c900 and 3c905 cards have a setting stored into them. Unlike traditional settings like IO port , Interrupt, or media type, these cards just take one setting ...
They actually have a setting that slows down the card so that the CPU time isnt chewed up with a flood of network traffic.
There is also a maximum throughput setting and a medium setting.
leon
ext2 Partitions
In your 30th issue, Albert Croft wrote in with a script to search only ext2 partitions. I believe you can do the same thing by using
find / -fstype ext2David Rudder
RE: Searching (somewhat in vain) for sources on shell scripting
Well, my 2 sec search turned this up. In addition, www.oreilly.com is the only site you need for the definitive source on anything related to Unix.
Unix Shell Programming Revised Ed.
Kochan, Stephen G.; Wood, Patrick H.
0-672-48448-X
Hayden Books
Korn Shell Programming Tutorial
Rosenberg, Barry
0-201-56324-X
Addison Wesley
AWK Language Programming; A User's Guide for GNU AWK
Robbins, Arnold D.
1-882114-26-4
Free Software Foundation
Learning Perl, 2nd Edition
2nd Edition July 1997
Randal L. Schwartz & Tom Christiansen Foreword by Larry Wall
1-56592-284-0
302 pages, $29.95
Programming Perl, 2nd Edition
Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen & Randal L. Schwartz
2nd Edition September 1996
1-56592-149-6
670 pages, $39.95
Advanced Perl Programming
By Sriram Srinivasan
1st Edition August 1997
1-56592-220-4
434 pages, $34.95
Paul
Re: $.02 tips on ext2 Partitions
In the July 1998 issue of Linux Gazette, Albert T. Croft said:A quick perusal of the mount man page would have revealed the -t flag obviating the necessity of the grep and gawk in the above command. Therefore the command could have been shortened to:
We knew the files we were looking for would only be on the ext2 partitions. We tried writing a batch file, using grep and gawk to get the mount points for the ext2 partitions and handing them to find. This proved unworkable if we were looking for patterns, such as h2*. We then tried to write just a find command, using gawk and grep to get the mount points. This was somewhat better, but using a print statement in gawk to get the names of the mount points wouldn't work. Some help came with remembering that gawk has a printf statement,allow. Our final product, which we found quite useful and now have in our .bashrc > files as linuxfind, is the following:
find `mount|grep ext2|gawk '{printf "%s ", $3}'` -name
find `mount -t ext2` -nameAlso, the "locate" command is also available on linux (and has been documented within the pages of LG and LJ a number of times). From the man page:
locate searches one or more databases of file names and displays the file names that contain the pattern.In addition, one could use 'which', 'whence' and 'whereis' to assist in the location of files.
Paul
LG30 ext2 Partition tip
Thanks for your tip which I saw in the Linux Gazette.
I think you may want to add the -mount switch to your command line though.
That way find won't go onto other filesystems except those listed.
Since on my system, / is ext2 and /hdd/c is vfat, without the mount switch, find *WOULD* search the vfat partitions too. The mount switch limits it to those partitions which you list with your grep/gawk combination
Hope that helps.
Modem Connecting Speed
What speed is my modem connecting at ?
Got a new 56K modem and wondering how it's doing ? Fed up with seeing "115200" ?
(This assumes Red Hat 5.0)...
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/chat-ppp1 (or whatever chat file you use) Insert a line:
'REPORT' 'CONNECT'Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-ppp
Change this line:
connect "/usr/sbin/chat $chatdbg -f $CHATSCRIPT"to:
connect "/usr/sbin/chat $chatdbg -f $CHATSCRIPT" 2>/dev/console- to log to the console, or:
connect "/usr/sbin/chat $chatdbg -r /var/log/modem-speed -f $CHATSCRIPT"- to log to a file /var/log/modem-speed
You'll see entries like:
chat: Jul 22 22:31:06 CONNECT 52000/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS(If you're lucky!)
NP
Short Article on upgrading to SMP
My son and I upgraded to an SMP machine this last weekend. We encountered some problems, and thought it might make an interesting short article. Use it if you can :).
About a month ago, I acquired two 4.3GB UW SCSI drives from IBM. At the time, I was running an old Adaptec 1542 SCSI card (with no problems I might add), but it does not support Ultra Wide, and it was an ISA card. In the process of looking at PCI Ultra Wide SCSI Cards (I was going to purchase an Adaptec 2940UW since I had some experience with them), I came across a Micronics W6-LI motherboard, dual Pentium Pro, with builtin Adaptec AIC7880 SCSI UW chip. This is the story of that project.
My son and I started at 8:00 Saturday morning. We took my existing ATX machine, which housed an Intel VS440 motherboard, 2GB IDE drive, 2GB SCSI drive, and SCSI cdrom apart. We removed everything - Motherboard, Drives, Powersupply, etc. This is because the Micronics board is big, and we wanted as few obstructions as possible while we put the motherboard in. We put the motherboard, two 4.3GB UW drives, CDROM, and powersupply back in. I only needed the data from the IDE drive, so we hooked that up also, but did not install it in the case. We booted into the bios, and set a few things, including setting it to use the MP1.4 spec. We inserted the Slackware 3.4 boot and root disks, and it booted just fine. The hardware portion was a snap.
We set up the partitions on the two UW drives, and copied the data from the IDE drive to a partition on the frist UW drive. We then started the installation of Linux. We installed the Slackware 3.4, with kernel 2.0.30. This went well. We booted, and this came up. We were anxious to try SMP, so we compiled a kernel with SMP, and this was where the problems started. The machine would hang after running about a minute in SMP mode. We decided to download a newer kernel, so we tried 2.0.34. There is apparently a nasty bug in 2.0.34 on SMP machines. The SCSI chip could not be reset, and was looping trying to do this. We also tried 2.0.35, with no luck. This behaviour happened whether we compiled for single or multiple processor. The next step was to try a development kernel (this was the first time for me). We downloaded 2.1.107, and installed it. We also found that to use this kernel, we need updated binutils, modutils, libc, ld.so, procps, procinfo, and mount. The upshot of this was, that 17 hours after we started, we had a running multiprocessor machine.
Some things to keep in mind:
Cross-platform Text Conversions
Well, I had some text files that I needed to convert from UNIX to DOS format. Downloaded the 'unix2dos' program ... and discovered to my horror that it was an A.OUT BINARY! Thought they'd purged all of those from the archives ;-) But seriously, I couldn't run the program, so I came up with a Tcl script to do the job. It can convert text files in any direction between UNIX, DOS and Mac formats. It has only been tested w/ Tcl 8.0, but since it's very simple, I imagine it'll work with earlier versions too. It has a small bug: when converting from DOS format, it adds one extra newline at the end of the file.
Why Tcl? Well ...
d2m d2u m2d m2u u2d u2mThese names must be exactly as shown in order for the script to work.
$ m2u macintosh.txt unix.txt
------ cut below this line ------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/tclsh
# capture the command name that invoked us and the
# source and destination filenames
set convtype $argv0
set infile [lindex $argv 0]
set outfile [lindex $argv 1]
set inchannel [open $infile "r"]
set outchannel [open $outfile "w"]
# according to the command name, set the end-of-line
# and end-of-file characters to the appropriate values
switch -glob -- $convtype {
*2d {
fconfigure $outchannel -translation "crlf" -eofchar "\x1a"
}
*2m {
fconfigure $outchannel -translation cr
}
*2u {
fconfigure $outchannel -translation lf -eofchar ""
}
default {
error "Invalid command name. This script must be \n\
invoked through a symbolic link with\n one of the following \
names:\n d2m, d2u, m2d, m2u, u2d, or u2m."
}
}
while {[gets $inchannel line] >= 0} {
# if converting from DOS, lose the end-of-file character
if {[string match "*d2*" $convtype]} {
set line [string trimright $line "\x1a"]
}
puts $outchannel $line
}
close $inchannel
close $outchannel
#------------ end Tcl script--------------------------------
Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido, Japan
|
Contents: |
September Linux Journal
The September issue of Linux Journal will be hitting the newsstands August 7. The focus of this issue is Graphics and Multimedia and we have feature articles on LibGGI, Open Inventor, XIE, VTK, SGI audio applications and more. Check out the Table of Contents at http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue53/index.html. To subscribe to Linux Journal, go to http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html.
StarOffice Promotional Price
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 09:49:44 GMT
Caldera is pleased to announce that for a limited time, the Office
Suite StarOffice 4.0 for Linux is on sale for $49 (regularly $99).
This price is for a commercial license to the most popular and full- featured application suite on Linux. StarOffice 4.0 includes:
For more information:
http://www.caldera.com/
Bryan Standley,
bryanst@caldera.com
Atlanta Linux Showcase Registration is Open
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 10:30:48 GMT
Online registration for the 2nd Annual Atlanta Linux Showcase is now
open!
The registration process has been automated this year, and pre-registration for the conference sessions will require payment with a credit-card from our secure web server. Prices for the showcase are as follows:
Exhibition Hall Admission: FREE! (A registration is required)
Conference pre-registration: $60/day ($35/day for students/seniors)
Conference after October 1: $75/day ($50/day for students/seniors)
The 2nd Annual Atlanta Linux Showcase will be held October 23rd and 24th at the Atlanta Apparel Mart and is presented by the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts and Linux International. The showcase will feature an exhibition hall for vendors of Linux related hardware, software, and services, live demonstrations of Linux related products, and conference sessions featuring some of the most respected members of the Linux community.
For more information:
http://www.ale.org/showcase/
registration@ale.org
The Antarctic Project - OpenSource WWW/FTP/mailing list hosting
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 10:40:15 GMT
Have a killer OpenSource application, but no where to host the web pages?
Want to let the world read your Perl tutorial? Need a home for your
Linux Users Group?
Penguin Computing is proud to announce the Antarctic Project, an internet server specifically for OpenSource/Linux web pages, mailing lists and ftp sites. If you have a site that needs a home, we may be able to host it on the Antarctic Server. This service is completely free.
The Antarctic Project is limited to sites having to do with Linux or other OpenSource projects. All sites must be non-commercial. Internet connectivity is provided by Penguin Computing ISP services. The Antarctica Server is located in Silicon Valley, and has a 100 Megabit connection to Mae-West and CIX-PAIX.
For more information:
isp@penguincomputing.com
http://www.penguincomputing.com/antarctic.html
Microsoft ordered to show Windows95 source with Caldera (fwd)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 10:42:11 -0700 (PDT)
http://www.sltrib.com/07291998/utah/45304.htm
"Microsoft Corp. must hand over the computer source code for Windows 95 to Caldera Inc., a small Orem software company suing it for alleged antitrust violations, a Utah federal judge ruled Tuesday. "
[...]
"The judge did agree to warn the Caldera experts and lawyers the code cannot be used for any purpose other than the litigation. Jardine said Microsoft will provide the code within five days. "
Three Point's Linux News --- http://www.threepoint.com/
Linux Links
"Choice is Not a Four Letter Word" by Joshua Galun, http://www.shawmag.com/archive/0105/01.html
Oracle and inofrmix now on Linux: http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980717.whorlinux.htm
"Engineers and Linux": matsumoto.txt
Linux in the Enterprise? (Wired News Daily): http://www.wired.com/news/news/email/explode-infobeat/technology/story/13621.html
Pre-installation checklistnini-HOWTO: http://members.tripod.com/~algolog/lnxchk.htm
SmallEiffel is a GPL implementation of Eiffel, a simple yet
full-featured object-oriented programming language:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/eiffel/
http://www.loria.fr/SmallEiffel
Linux questionnaire: http://aachen.heimat.de/alug/fragebogen/
Beowulf questionnaire: http://aachen.heimat.de/alug/beowulf/
Digital Library Project
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 10:30:19 GMT
Announcing a new Linux project: The Digital Image Library Project (DILP).
DLIP is an online image database that would be used to archive images for
searching and viewing. Currently slide libraries used by art historians
consist of tens of thousands of individual 35 mm slides. These slides are
organized, and sometimes there information is index in a computer. But
never all of images and there information. The goal of this project is to
create a database with a web interface that can be used from multiple
locations to allow researchers access a digital index.
For more information:
http://www.hp.uab.edu/digital-library
Ed Kujawski,
kujawski@cter.eng.uab.edu
Subject: Linux Hardware Certification Laboratory Announced
July 1, 1998, Dallas, Texas
Aegis Data Systems and Best4u Internet Services today announced a joint collaboration to establish a testing center for Linux hardware compatibility. The focal point of the center will be a web site at http://Linux.Best4u.com/, which will be online by August 1, 1998. The web site will be used to publish results of tests and provide a central registration for hardware manufacturers and Linux device driver programmers.
For more information:
Mark Stingley, sarge@AegisData.com
Informix SE on Linux
Informix Corporation has announced the release of Informix SE on Linux. Informix SE is a SQL-based database engine for small to medium-range applications. It is a solution for businesses that want the power of SQL without the complex database administration requirements. Linux application developers are now able to download a free developer<\#146>s kit that includes Informix SE, ESQL/C for Linux, Informix<\#146>s SQL toolkit, I-Connect (the runtime version of ESQL/C). Informix SE and ESQL/C in Linux is available from Caldera and S.u.S.E on the Intel platform.
For more information:
Informix Software, Inc.,
http://www.informix.com/
CALDERA ANNOUNCES SUPPORT OF KDE TECHNOLOGY
OREM, UT July 16, 1998 Caldera, Inc. today announced the adoption and support of KDE technology. Caldera will include the K Desktop Environment in the OpenLinux 1.2.2 maintenance release due out the end of September. KDE will be the default desktop in the Caldera OpenLinux 2.0 product, scheduled for release the fourth quarter of this year.
Caldera is supporting KDE technology by hosting the official KDE U.S. FTP site at ftp.us.kde.org. Provided by Caldera, KDE 1.0 binary and source rpms for OpenLinux 1.2 are available for download from the site.
The K Desktop Environment is an international Internet based volunteer project which develops the freely available graphical desktop environment for the UNIX platform.
For more information:
Caldera, Inc., http://www.caldera.com/
KDE, http://www.kde.org
Ingres port to Linux
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 12:32:13 -0700
The NAIUA (North American Ingres Users Association) would like to
announce that Computer Associates has committed to porting the Ingres
II RDBMS to Linux by the end of Q3 1998. It will be included on the
UNIX Software Development Kit which will be available for free on the
CA Web site at http://www.cai.com/.
(Note: the SDK currently available on CA's web site is for Windows
NT only and does not yet include Ingres for Linux)
Ingres II for Linux was demoed with Red Hat at CA-World 98 and will be available for Linux platforms running Red Hat 2.0 pl27 as well as other compatible versions. It will be free with the Ingres II SDK for UNIX. Support structures have not been determined by CA at this time.
For more information: Bob Griffith, tech_tools@naiua.org
Java Released Under Open Source
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 14:34:03 -0700
Berkeley, CA - Transvirtual Technologies, Inc. announces the release of
Kaffe OpenVM(TM), the first complete independent implementation of Java(TM)
available under the ``Open Source'' initiative. Unlike other third-party
VMs, Kaffe comes with a "just-in-time" compiler and a complete set of
class libraries, including Beans and AWT.
Kaffe was designed from day one to be highly portable and to provide a complete Java environment in the smallest possible memory footprint. It has already been ported to a number of processors, including the x86, StrongARM, MIPs, 68K and Alpha, and can provide a full graphical environment in as little as 500K (including VM and class libraries).
For more information:
http://www.transvirtual.com/
Tim Wilkinson,
tim@transvirtual.com
Game Textures CD1
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 19:52:04 -0500
AUSTIN, TX- Crack dot Com, developer of the cult-hit Abuse and the
anticipated 3D real-time strategy title Golgotha, has made available
a CD specifically tailored for game artists titled "Game Textures CD1".
Crack dot Com released "Game Textures CD1" today for sale. CD1 is a compilation of textures gathered from outdoor environments, buidling faces, and military and civilian vehicles. These high-resolution textures were specifically designed by Crack artist Kevin Tyler for use by game artists who demand high-detail tileable textures for use in 3D games, and many of the textures appear in Crack's upcoming title Golgotha.
CD1 is currently available only directly through Crack dot Com. An order form and index of the textures is available at http://crack.com/.
For more information:
textures@crack.com
Dave Taylor, ddt@crack.crack.com
JPython-1.0 Provides a Powerful Companion to Java
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 08:59:43 -0700 (PDT)
Reston, VA -- The Corporation for National Research Initiatives has
announced the release of JPython-1.0. JPython is a freely available
implementation of the high-level, dynamic, object-oriented language
Python -- integrated seamlessly with the Java(TM) platform and
certified as 100% Pure Java(TM).
JPython's integration with Java draws on the strengths of the Java platform. JPython code can easily access any existing Java libraries and JavaBeans. The Java virtual machine allows JPython to statically compile Python source code to Java bytecodes that will run anywhere that Java does. Through Java's support for dynamic class loading, JPython can dynamically compile Python code to allow interactive use while still achieving the performance of a true compiler.
Guido van Rossum created the Python language in the early 1990s, and it has been used successfully in many interesting software projects since then.
JPython completely implements the Python language in 100% Pure Java, and is freely available in both source and binary form. In order to implement Python's Perl5-compatible regular expressions, JPython includes the outstanding OROMatcher(TM) regular expression engine developed by Original Reusable Objects(TM) at http://www.oroinc.com/ By agreement, this regular expression engine is only distributed in binary form. JPython can be found at http://www.python.org/jpython/.
For more information:
Jim Hugunin, hugunin@python.org
NetStreamer 0.16 available: Streame audio over 28k8, ISDN or LAN
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 10:48:02 GMT
NetStreamer offers the possibility to stream audio over your 28k8 modem
or ISDN at a sample rate of 8 or 16 kHz. It offers a fancy radio-alike
frontend that allows you to tune in on "radio-programs" that are offered
by the NetStreamer Server, which is a kind of reflector that passes on
audio that may be offered by several transmitters.
Currently NetStreamer-0.16 is available. You can download the NetStreamer software (The Server, Receiver and Transmitter) from:
http://flits102-126.flits.rug.nl/~rolf/NetStreamer.html
The software is distributed in source and binary form under GPL.
For more information:
Rolf Fokkens,
rolf@flits102-126.flits.rug.nl
CurVeS 0.8.3 -- console UI for CVS
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 10:41:51 GMT
CurVeS performs two functions. It provides a menu and
command completion interface to CVS so that
inexperienced users can learn the features of CVS
without documentation. This also involves adding some
meta-features that are built from CVS commands which
are used together in some common-use circumstances.
The second function of Curves is to provide visual
presentation of a project directory so that the status
of each file is comprehensible at a glance. CurVeS
uses color, when available, to accent the file
classification marks.
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/el/elf/curves/ in the file curves-0.8.3.tar.gz and curves-0.8.3.lsm
Runs on any UN*X. Tested on GNU/Linux and Solaris. C++ necessary to build from source. CVS and possibly RCS to use.
For more information:
Marc Singer, elf@netcom.com
urlmon 3.0 -- URL monitoring software
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 10:50:08 GMT
urlmon version 3.0 is released, now with ability to filter out portions
of HTML data so that things like rotating advertisements don't give false
positives. The filtering capability is quite flexible, and it
user-extensible. The code has been cleaned up, making it much more
elegant and simple. The format of the urlmonrc database file has
changed, and this causes problems addressed in the various
documentation files. Some enhancements have been made to make urlmon
more conducive to scripting.
urlmon is the URL Monitor. It reports changes to web sites (and ftp sites, too).
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/www/mirroring/urlmon-3.0.tgz (soon)
http://source.syr.edu/~jdimpson/proj/urlmon-3.0.tgz
For more information:
http://source.syr.edu/~jdimpson/urlmon/
Jeremy D. Impson, jdimpson@acm.org
GramoFile 1.1 - Gramophone records to CDs
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:28:30 GMT
GramoFile is a computer program, running under the Linux operating
system, with the main goal of putting the sound of gramophone
records on CDs. The program is not finished yet (and maybe never),
but it is able to do a lot of useful things already. Like removing
ticks and splitting a long sound file into separate tracks.
This program was originally written by Anne Bezemer and Ton Le as
a study project at the department of Information Technology and
Systems (sub-department of Electrical Engineering) of the
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. However,
development has continued after the end of the project, resulting
in the program as it is now (read: much more functional :).
The new version 1.1 is available at the GramoFile Home Page:
http://cardit.et.tudelft.nl/~card06/
For more information:
J.A. Bezemer, J.A.Bezemer@ITS.TUDelft.NL
WavPlay/GnuWave Update
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 09:39:55 GMT
WavPlay-1.0 was the last LINUX sound play/record program that
was released to the net, with 2 levels of patches.
This a short note to announce that the "home web page" for the WavPlay software is moving (since I am also moving, and will change ISP + email addresses etc.)
To find out what is currently happening with the new WavPlay software, visit the new "home page" at:
http://members.tripod.com/~ve3wwg/
For more information:
Warren Gay VE3WWG, ve3wwg@yahoo.com
aumix 1.9: adjust an audio mixer
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 10:33:10 GMT
I've uploaded aumix 1.9, a program for adjusting an audio mixer from the
console, a terminal, the command line or scripts. Here's what's new:
* interactive screen won't show channels that don't exist * should build without automake or autoconf * might compile under FreeBSD * muting function should work for everyone now * left and right levels shown with "L" and "R" in interactive screen * fixed small bug with adjustment by mouse * usage text printed when mixer file can't be opened
WWW access:
http://jpj.net/~trevor/aumix.html
Primary-site:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/mixers/
Files: 40898 aumix-1.9.tar.gz and 638 aumix-1.9.lsm
For more information:
Trevor Johnson, trevor@jpj.net
locus 0.85 - a fulltext database
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 10:22:43 GMT
locus lets you find words in your texts: newsgroup messages,
Web page mirrors, electronic books - whatever you have. It uses word
patterns (order, locality etc.) to match queries to texts, makes
reasonable choices by default yet does exactly what you want when
you specify it.
locus homepage: http://www.cermak.cz/~vbarta/
For more information:
Vaclav Barta, vbar@comp.cz
S-PLUS 5.0 for UNIX & LINUX
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 11:53:59 -0700
On August 10, MathSoft will be announcing/shipping a new version of
S-PLUS called S-PLUS 5.0 for UNIX and LINUX, a key new addition to MathSoft's statistical data mining family. This addition to the broadest line of statistical data mining software for business and academia comes with several significant upgrades, including:
NetBeans Developer 2.0, Beta 2
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 12:02:08 +0200
Prague, Czech Republic, July 28, 1998 - NetBeans, Inc. today released the second Beta version of its well-received Integrated Development Environment (IDE) written entirely in the Java(TM) language and based on Sun's Java Foundation Classes framework. NetBeans Developer 2.0 - Beta 2 is available for free download from the company's web site, http://www.netbeans.com. NetBeans IDE is a full-featured visual programming environment that allows flexible development on any platform which supports JDK 1.1.x, including NT, Win95, Linux, OS/2, Solaris, HP-UX, and others.
NetBeans IDE will ship in two versions - Developer and Enterprise. NetBeans Developer was created for the single developer working on a desktop PC. NetBeans Enterprise was designed as a multi-user, multi-platform product. Users can fully exploit the object-oriented nature of the IDE, design distributed applications based on RMI/CORBA, share virtual filesystems, debug remotely, and access source control systems.
The second beta version of NetBeans Developer 2.0 is now available and can be downloaded from the NetBeans Website at http://www.netbeans.com. NetBeans Developer 2.0 is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 1998, and will retail for approximately $149. Pricing and availability of NetBeans Enterprise will be announced in September, 1998.
For more information:
NetBeans, Inc.
Helena Stolka,
helena.stolka@netbeans.com
Caldera Releases NetWare for Linux 1.0
OREM, Utah, July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Caldera(R), Inc. today announced the release of NetWare(R) for Linux 1.0. Caldera NetWare for Linux provides NetWare file, print and directory services ready to run (native) on a Linux distribution. With NetWare for Linux, Caldera brings the most-widely used networking operating system to Linux with full client support and integrated administration utilities. NetWare for Linux is a component of the Caldera Small Business Server scheduled for release later this year.
A NetWare for Linux three-user version is now available for download at no cost from the Caldera Web site (http://www.caldera.com/products/netware). Bump packs can be purchased in user license increments of 1 ($95), 5 ($450), 25 ($1,875), or 50 ($2,750). A $59 two-CD jewel case version offering a complete NetWare solution including NetWare for Linux, NetWare utilities and OpenLinux Lite 1.2 will be available mid-August.
For more information:
Caldera, Inc., http://www.caldera.com/
The Answer Guy
Remote Backups (Yet Again)
--or--
Assigning UID/GID
--or--
How to check your modems connect speed?
win95 slowdown
--or--
Bad Cluster
XFree86 on Trident Providia 9685
redhat linux 5.0 and reveal sc400 rev a sound card
--or--
Kernel Overview needed....
Printing Solaris -> Linux --or--
Lilo not working on SCSI when IDE drives installed
Yggdrasil: A Breath of Life for the Root of the Linux Distributions?
...and what about OpenLinux Base?
115K Baud from a Modem: In your dreams!
Linux NDS --or--
What is an RPM?
Stupid question --or--
'sendmail' requires DNS ... won't use /etc/hosts
Question on Memory Leak --or--
X Window with two monitors...
DAO software for linux?
Greetings From Jim Dennis, August 1998By now you've probably heard it a dozen times:
Oracle
Announces Intent to Support Linux
Informix
Releases Linux version of their SQL Engine
... so, what does that mean.
Well, the good part is that Linux will get more respect from many IT departments. It will be easier for sysadmins to recommend Linux, FreeBSD, and similar solutions. There also will be a flurry of other software companies that will also jump in and port their software to this new, upstart Unix implementation. The Informix announcement was re-iterated at just about the same time and Inprise (formerly Borland) had already made Interbase available awhile back). I expect that Lotus Notes and Domino aren't too far behind, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that SAP (publishers of the R/3 ERP system) were quietly talking to S.u.S.E. (I seem to have heard that Adabas is one of the supported db engines for SAP R/3, and that has been available for Linux for some time).
There's also an interesting teaser at the Caldera website (http://www.caldera.com/openlinux/index.html) regarding an impending "Netware for Linux" --- which should be an interesting server platform (Netware's implementation of ACL's, access control lists -- always seemed better then the others I've seen. So, if you really need them on a fileserver, this might be the way to go).
We've also heard that the server software isn't the only niche that's discovering Linux. Regulars of Slashdot () and the Linux Weekly News (http://www.lwn.net), and any of the major Linux newsgroups and mailing lists are also probably aware that Corel has announced projects to port their whole office suite to Linux (they've had versions of WordPerfect available for awhile, and one of their affiliates, Corel Computing --- a hardware concern --- is using a StrongARM port of Linux which they helped develop as the core of their NC --- network computer). Presumably they will also consider porting their flagship CorelDraw package, which has been been available for some other Unix platforms for some time).
http://www.corel.com/news/1998/may/linux.htmOf course it's already joining the fray with Applixware, StarOffice, Cliq Suite, Wingz, XessLite, and NeXS, among others.
So, the commercial software is coming. Linux will take yet another step from hobbyist "do-it-yourself" project towards a widespread platform for the masses.
Is there a downside to all of this? Naturally there are some risks. While I welcome the availability of Oracle, Informix and other major players to the Linux world --- I'd like to remind everyone that there are alternatives. See Christopher B. Browne's excellent list of these under his website at:
http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/... Some of the commercial SQL engines for Linux that I've heard good reports about are Solid, JustLogic, and Infoflex. That's not to mention the free and shareware packages like PostgreSQL, mSQL, MySQL, and Beagle.
(There are differences in capacity and scalability --- many of these are currently limited to table locking rather than being able to lock individual records).
The big risk we now face is that we'll adopt and promote (or perpetuate) some application suite or tool with a proprietary set of file formats or interfaces. If Microsoft were to ship MS Office for Linux tomorrow --- we'd have the same essential problem that we have today. When someone sends you a Word .DOC, an Excel .XLS or a PowerPoint .PPT you're expected (by an alarming percentage of your correspondents) to be able to handle those files.
Everyone, (freeware and commercial third party vendors alike) is has been playing "catch-up" to this tune for far too long.
This issue of "open document formats" is far more important than choice of operating systems. What you run on your machine is none of my business. What you send to me in our business transactions is. Applix and StarOffice (and the free 'catdoc' and LAOLA filters) make a truly valiant effort to deal with some of these proprietary formats. They do so with some success (Word 2.0 seems fine, Word 6.x might be a bit dicey --- Word '97 documents die a horrible death).
If Microsoft moved quickly they might be able to "take over the Linux desktop" by providing "MS Office '98 for Linux." Personally I think that would be a shame. I think it would squelch some of the interesting work being done on LyX and Cicero, and various other "word processor" and desktop publishing interfaces for Linux.
So, before you rush out to embrace Oracle, and buy one of their servers --- take a look at some of the other DBMS packages that are out there. Give them a real try (feasibility and capacity test) before you commit.
On another note: I'd like to grant the first "Answer Guy Support Award" of the month to Sam Trenholme. He practically owns the comp.linux.misc newsgroups and answers alot more questions there than I get to in a month here. Thanks, Sam. We all owe, ya!
(I'll try to give these out about once a month --- to someone, somewhere, who answers lots of questions in some Linux tech support venue).
One final tidbit: I guess the press isn't getting all mushy on us. Either someone at Miller-Freeman's _sysadmin_Magazine_ doesn't like Linux or they were typing too fast when they wrote:
.... Linux is a 2-bit multi-user, multitasking variant of the UNIX operating system. (p 68, August, 1998; vol. 7 no. 8)
Can anyone find an extra 30-bits to send them?
Remote Backups: GNU 'tar' through 'rsh'From Ken Plumbly on 18 Jul 1998 in the comp.unix.questions newsgroup
Hi :
I'm sure this one will probably drive you crazy, I read your answer in LG issue 29 for remote backups, and did what the article said, but I get the response back from the server with the tape drive:
(Some friends might say that "crazy" is a state they've come to expect of me).
permission denied.
tar: Cannot open user@host.our.domain:/dev/st0: I/O error
and in the messages file on the tape host is:
pam_rhosts_auth[7300]: denied to root@hostname.our.domain as user:
access not allowed
We are running redHat 4.2 with a connor 4gb tape drive.
I created a user on the tape server, and put a .rhosts file in the ~user directory but still no joy.
Any Ideas?
Ken
rsh -l operator tapehost "id; pwd; ls -l /dev/st0"
... and get the desired results?
In my example I make some assumptions:
I'd run this command from root on the client and use the "-l operator" switch and argument to specify that I want rsh to access the "operator" account on the tapehost.
I'd create an account named "operator" on the tapehost machine. It would have no special privileges except that it would be a member of the "tape" group.
My copy of /dev/st0 on the tapehost would be owned by root.tape (the "tape" group) and would be mode 770 (writable by group).
This should allow what you want. Until you can use stock 'rsh' commands through this context --- your 'tar' commands are doomed. (Since GNU tar actually calls 'rsh' for that part of this work).
For more security you can use 'ssh' instead of 'rsh'
Next I would not use the command as you described it.
Tape drives are very sensitive to inconsistent latency (caused by transport of the data over a network and by any compression you attempt to do). If the data is not fed to the interface fast enough and at an even rate then the drive will have to stop, rewind a bit, and restart to get back to the right speed and tape position to continue writing.
This is called "shoeshining."
To prevent shoeshining we run a program called 'buffer' (Lee McLoughlin) on the "tapehost" (the machine that recieves the data over the network and writes it to the tape drive).
So that command would look like:
# tar czSf - .... | rsh -l operator tapehost "buffer -o /dev/st0"
Note the -S switch that we use to preserve "sparsity" in files --- that is to detect cases where the data blocks have not be continously allocated to the file --- where there are "holes" in the allocation map for the "empty" parts of the file's data. These sorts of files are commonly created with dbm libraries and other "hashing" algorithms that use file seek offsets as "indexes" into a file --- your /etc/aliases.pag file might be one of them. If you don't understand "holes" and "sparse" files (which are features of the Unix filesystem that aren't supported in some others --- though I know that Netware had them) --- don't worry about it. Just add the -S and it won't hurt anything even if there are no such files in the data set that you're working with.
Note that I use the c (create), z (compress) and f (file target) flags, and that the file target I specify is "-" (a dash). In Unix this usually indicates that the "standard output" device should be used. In other words, "-" (dash) is an idiom in a number of Unix/Linux commands. So, this command will write all of the tar file into the pipe.
On the recieving side of the pipe we have a local copy of 'rsh' that will try to connect to the "tapehost" as the user named "operator" and thereon try to run a command named "buffer" with the -o (output) of that pointed to the tape device.
How much difference does 'buffer' make? About an order of magnitude. Yes. You read that right --- on my network (which was completely idle at the time) I ran experiements with and without buffer (and with and without compression) and it would take 10 times longer to write the tape without 'buffer'. On top of all of that the tapes created without 'buffer' are much less reliable. So, failing to use that can be harmful to your data, and add immense amounts of wear and tear to the drive (shortening its useful life).
The 'buffer' command came with my copies of S.u.S.E. and might come with your copy of RH 5.x (although I don't think 4.2 had it). You can find that at:
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/public/packages/buffer
Imperial College, U.K./Great Britain where Lee McLoughlin is a a system manager, and programmer.
Lee McLoughlin is also known for an FTP mirror package he wrote and maintained in PERL a few years ago. He maintains a web page (http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~lmjm/) which doesn't mention this or the 'buffer' program but highlights some of his other work.
With RH 4.2 you might also be suffering from some confusion with your PAM configuration. You might have to change that around a bit or upgrade it to a new version.
If you were trying to access the root or any "root equivalent" account -- that is anyone with a UID of 0 (zero) you might have been bumping into the "/etc/securettys" problem. This is one of the other reasons why I configure my systems with an "operator" account and give that account access to the 'buffer' program and to the /dev/st0 node.
If you did tests with 'rlogin' that seemed successful (you were able to 'rlogin' to the account but not to run 'rsh' commands, keep in mind that these are separately configurable services in PAM.
Another constraint that is a bit more subtle: you cannot access 'rsh' and 'rlogin' commands through IP Masquerading. This is because the source IP port for an rsh or rlogin connection must be set to specific values
It's a very weak form of "authentication" on the part of the protocol, it was intended to ensure that the process on the client side of the machine was running with 'root's authority --- that it wasn't a random user's process just claiming to be anybody. That was almost reasonably 20 years ago before people had TCP/IP capable workstation on their desktops --- back when all of the "computers" were locking in server rooms and you wanted to create loosely coupled computing clusters within your domain. It is wholly inadequate and inappropriate on today's networks. That's why we have 'issh' and why I spend all night last night playing with the "Linux Free S/WAN" project (just search Yahoo! on that phrase).
(Free S/WAN is a project to implement secure, network level IP --- so that we can use transparent cryptography to protect applications layer protocols like rsh, and so many others. It's being developed internationally --- so that it will have to be imported into the U.S. --- this is because we're a "free nation" except when it comes to the practical application of advanced mathematics as a medium of expression).
In any event --- I really doubt that you're trying to access your tapehost through a masquerading router --- but if you are, you can expect that to fail.
From the error messages you show it looks like you do have the appropriate /etc/services entry and the appropriate entries in the /etc/inetd.conf. It also looks like you are not having a TCP wrappers problem in this case (since that would have given a different error message in the tapehost's syslog).
UID/GID Synchronization and ManagementFrom Gordon Haverland on 16 Jul 1998 in the comp.unix.questions newsgroup
Hi:
I inherited sys admin stuff as part of a job. At first, this wasn't a problem: GIS work on a single Linux machine. I did development and analysis, others did just analysis. Soon we got another Linux machine, so development moved to there. To share printing, Ethernet was installed and LPRng. Then a Solaris 2.5.1 machine was added. So, the 2 linux machines have a handful of users, the Sun has those plus a few other groups of users, and I plan to add a Beowulf cluster "real soon now". Is there any rationale out there for assigning UID and GID in a hetrogeous cluster/network like this? It sure looks like users common among machines have to have the same UID and GIDs. The Solaris has NIS on it, so I guess whatever I do should get administered from there. Thanks for any light you might shed on this.
Gordon Haverland
Do you mean:
"Why should I co-ordinate and synchronize the account management on the systems throughout my network?"
... or do you mean:
"How should I ....."
... or do you mean something else entirely?
I'll answer the first two questions (probably in far more detail than you wanted):
There are two principle reasons why you want to co-ordinate the user/UID and group/GID management across your network. The first is relatively obvious --- it has to do with user and administrative convenience.
If each of your users are expected to have relatively uniform access to the systems throughout the network, then they'll expect the same username and password to work on each system that they are supposed to use. If they change their password they will expect that change to be global.
When you --- as the admin --- add, remove, disable, or change an account, you want to do it once, in one place. You don't want to have to manually copy those changes to every system.
Of course these reasons don't require that the UID/GID's match. As you probably know names and group names in Unix and Linux are mapped into numeric forms (UID's and GID's respectively). All file ownership (inodes) and processes use these numerics for all access and identity determination throughout the kernel and drivers. These numeric values are reverse mapped back to their corresponding principle symbolic representations (the names) by the utilities that display or process that information. Thus the 'ls -l' command is doing a lookup on each directory entry to find the name that corresponds to the the owner and group ID's.
Most of the commands you use actually do this through library calls. In deed most of these commands are "dynamically linked" (use shared libraries) which perform the calls through common external files (the libc). As we'll see this is very important as we look at the implications of consolidating the account mapping information into a networked model (such as NIS).
As I said, you could maintain a network of systems which co-ordinated username/password data, and group membership lists without synchronizing the UID's and GID's across the systems. Most network protocols and utilities (the r* gang: rsh, rlogin, rcp, and things like telnet, ftp, etc) exchange this data in "text" (symbolic) form.
However, we then come to NFS!
The NFS protocols use numeric forms to represent ownership. Therefore an NFS server provides access based on an implicit trust that the NFS client is providing a compatible and legimate mapping of the cient's UID/GID to the server's.
It is possible in Linux' NFS implementation to run a ugidd (a UID/GID mapping daemon). Thus you could create maps for every NFS server to map each clients UIDs to this server's UID's, etc. Yes, that idea is as ugly as it sounds!
I won't go into the security implications of NFS' mechanism here. I'll just point out that my pet expansion of NFS is "no flippin' security." I'm told that it is possible to enable a "secure RPC" portmapper which implements host-to-host authentication. I'd like to know more about that.
However, it is still the case that any users who can get root access to any trusted NFS client can impersonate any non-root user so far as the NFS servers in that domain are concerned. Since "sufficient" physical access virtually guarantees that workstation users can get root access (possibly by resorting to a screwdriver and CMOS battery jumper) I come to the conclusion that NFS hopelessly insecure in today's common network configurations (which workstations and PC's at everyone's desks).
(In defense of NFS I should point out that its security model, and the one's we see in the r* gang were not unreasonable when most Unix installations had a small cluster of multi-user systems locked in a server room --- and all user access was via terminals and X-terminals. This suggests that there are some situations where they are still justified).
Despite these limitations and implications, NFS is the most commonly deployed networked filesystem between Unix and Linux systems. I have high hopes for CODA, but even the most optimistic dreams reveal that it will take a long time to be widely adopted.
So, it is in your best interests to synchronize your UID/GID to user/group name mappings throughout your enterprise. It is also recommended that you adopt a policy that UID's are not re-used. When a user leaves your organization you "retire" their UID (disabling their access by *'ing out their passwd, removing them from the groups maps, setting their "shell" to some /bin/denied binary and their "home" directory to a secured "graveyard" --- I use /home/.graveyard on my systems). The reason for this may not be obvious. However, if you are maintaining archival backups for several years (or indefinitely) you'll want to avoid any ambiguities and confusion that might result from restoring one (long gone) user's files and finding them owned by one of your new users.
(This "UID retirement" policy is obviously not feasible for larger ISP's and usually difficult for Universities and other high turnover environments. You can still make it a policy to cycle all the way around the UID/GID space before re-use).
That should answer the questions about "why" we want to co-ordinate account information (user/password, and group/membership data) and why many (most) of us want to synchronize the UID's and GID's that the accounts map to.
Now, we think about "how" to do so.
One common method is to use 'rdist' to distribute a set of files (usually /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/hosts) to every machine in a "domain" (this being the "administrative" sense of the term, which might or might not match a DNS domain or subdomain). For this to work we have to declare one system to be the "master" and we have to ensure that all account changes occur on that system.
This can be done by manually training everyone to always issue their 'passwd' 'chfn' 'chsh' and similar commands from a shell on that system, or you can create wrappers for each of the affected commands (replacing the client copies of these commands with a script that doesn't something like: 'ssh $master "$0"' for example).
The nice things about this approach are:
It works for just about any Unix and any Linux (regardless of the libraries and programs running on the client).
The new risks and protocols are explicitly put in place by the sysadmin --- we don't introduce new protocols that might affect our security.
There is no additional network latency and overhead for most programs running most of the time. You are never waiting for 'ls' to resolve user and group names over the network!
The concerns about this method are:
You have to ensure the integrity and security of the master --- I'd suggest requiring 'ssh' access to it and using PAM and possibly a chroot jail to limit the access of most users to just the appropriate commands.
All clients must "trust" the master -- they must allow that system to "push" new root owned system configuration files to them. I'd use 'rdist' or 'rsync' over 'ssh' for this as well.
You may have unacceptable propagation delays (a user's new password may take hours to get propagated to all systems).
It doesn't "scale" well and it doesn't conform to any standards. You (as the sysadmin) will have to do your own scripting to deploy it. Any bugs in your scripts are quite likely to take down the entire administrative domain.
Then there's NIS.
NIS is a protocol and a set of utilities and libraries which basically implement exactly the features we've just described. I've deliberately used several NIS terms in my preceding discussion.
NIS distributes various sorts of "maps" (different "maps" for passwords, groups, hosts, etc). The primary NIS server for a domain is called the "master" --- and secondary servers are called "slaves." Nodes (hosts, workstations, etc) that request data from these "maps" are called "clients."
One of the big features of glibc (the GNU libc version 2.x which is being integrated into Linux distributions as libc.6.x) is support for NIS. It used to be the case that supporting NIS on a Linux client required a special version of the shared libraries (a variant compilation of libc.5).
In Red Hat 5.x and Debian 2.x this will not be necessary. We expect that most other Linux distributions will follow suit in their next major releases. (This transition is similar to the a.out to ELF transition we faced a couple of years ago, and much less of a hassle than the infamous "procps" fiasco that we went through between the 1.x and 2.x kernels. Notably it is possible to have libc.5 and glibc concurrently installed on a system --- the major issue is which way your base system binaries and utilities are linked).
The advantages of NIS:
It's a standard. Most modern forms of Unix support it.
It's scaleable and robust. It automatically deals with capacity and availability issues by having two tiers of servers (master and slave).
It's already been written. You won't be re-inventing this wheel. (At the same time it is more generalized --- so this wheel may have more spokes, lug nuts, and axle trimmings than you needed or wanted).
The disadvantages of NIS:
NIS is designed to do more than you might want. It will default to providing host mapping services (which might conflict with your DNS scheme and might give you a bit of extra grief while configuring 'sendmail' --- at least the Solaris default version of 'sendmail'). These are relatively easy issues to resolve --- once you understand the underlying model. However they are cause for sysadmin confusion and frustration in the early stages.
It's not terribly secure. There is a NIS+ which uses cryptographic means to tighten up some of that. However, NIS+ doesn't seem to be available for Linux yet. That is probably largely the result of the U.S. federal government's unpopular and idiotic attitudes towards cryptography --- which has a generally chilling effect on the development and deployment of robust security. The fact that U.S. policy also recognizes patents on software and algorithms (particularly the very broad RSA held patents on public key cryptography) also severely constrains our programmers (they are liable if they re-invent any protected algorithm --- no matter how "obvious" it seemed to them nor how "independently" their derivation). Regardless of these political issues, I still have technical concerns about NIS security.
Hybrid:
You can use NIS within your domain, and you can distribute your NIS maps out to systems that are on the periphery (for example out to your web servers and bastion/proxy systems out on the "firewall" or "perimeter network segment." This can be combined with some custom filtering (to disable shell access by most users to these machines --- helping to ensure that the UID/GID mappings are used solely for marking file ownership --- for example).
NIS maps are is the same format as the files to which they correspond. Thus the NIS passwd map is a regular looking passwd file, and the NIS group map is in the conventional format you'd expect in your /etc/group file.
You might have to fuss with these files a bit to "shadow" them (or "star out" the passwords on accounts that shouldn't be give remote access to a given host).
Ideally I'd like to see a hybrid of NIS and Kerberos. We'd see NIS used to provide the names/UID's --- and Kerberos used for the authentication. However, I haven't yet heard of any movement to do this. I have heard rumblings of LDAP used in a way that might overlap with NIS quite a bit (and I'd hope that there'd be an LDAP to NIS gateway so we wouldn't have to transition all those libraries again).
Back to your case.
NIS sounds like a natural choice. However, you don't have to pick the Solaris system for the administration. You can use any of the Linux systems or any Solaris system (among others) as the NIS master. Since your Solaris system is probably installed on more expensive SPARC hardware, and it probably was purchased to run some services or applications that aren't readily available on your Linux systems --- it would probably be wiser to put up an extra Linux box as a dedicated NIS master and administrative console.
It doesn't sound like internal security is even on your roadmap. That's fine and fairly common. All the members of your team probably have sufficient physical access to all of the systems in your group that significant efforts at intranet (internal) security in software would probably be pointless.
I'd still recommend that you use "private net" addressing (RFC1918 --- 10.*.*.*, 192.168.*.* and the range of class B's from 172.16.*.* through 172.31.*.*) --- and make your systems go through a masquerading router (Linux or any of several others) or a set of proxies or some combination of these.
In fact I highly recommend that you fire up a DNS caching server on at least one system --- and point all of your clients at that, and that you install a caching web proxy (Apache can be configured for this, or you can use Squid --- which is my personal favorite). These caches can save a significant amount of bandwidth for even a small workgroup and they only cost a little bit of installation and configuration time and a bit of disk space and memory.
(The default Red Hat configuration for their 'named' rc file is to just run in caching mode. So that's truly a no brainer --- just distribute a new resolv.conf file to all the clients so that it refers *first* to the host that runs the cache. My squid configuration on a S.u.S.E. machine and has run, unmodified, for months. I vaguely remember having to edit a configuration file. It must not have been too bad. Naturally you have to get users to point their web browsers at the proxy --- that might be a hassle. With 'lynx' I just edit the global lynx.cfg file and send it to each host. Similar features are available in Netscape Navigator --- but you have to touch everyone's configuration at least once).
Once you have your workgroup/LAN isolated on its own group of addresses and working through proxies --- it is relatively easy to configure your router to filter most sorts of traffic that should not be trusted across domains and, especially, to prevent "address spoofing" (incoming packets that claim to be from some point inside of your domain).
You can certainly spend all of your time learning about and implementing security. However, the cost of that effort may exceed your management's valuation of the resources that are accessible on your LAN. Obviously they'll have to do their own risk and cost/benefit analyses on those issues.
I pay an undue amount of attention to systems security because it is my hobby. As a consultant it turns out to be useful since I can explain these concerns and concepts to my customers, and refer to them to specialists when they want "real" security.
To learn more details about how to setup and use NIS under Linux read the "The Linux NIS(YP)/NYS/NIS+ HOWTO" at: (http://www.ssc.com/linux/LDP/HOWTO/NIS-HOWTO.html). This was just updated a couple of weeks ago.
I guess there is support for NIS+ clients in glibc --- so that's new to me. I've copied Thorsten Kukuk (the author of this HOWTO) so he can correct any errors I've made or otherwise comment.
By the way: What is GIS? I've heard references to it --- and I gather that it has to do with geography and informations systems. Would you consider writing an overview of how Linux is being used in GIS related work for LJ or LG?
Modem Connect SpeedFrom James R. Ebri