OK, so I didn't get this done weekly. Probably something to do with travelling back from Belfast on the day I wanted to do it. Anyone want to do the next one? Well, here we go for our irregular summary of the ALUG list activity...

Topics: [Alug] Microsoft FUD [Alug] pppd problem [Alug] Virus on Linux? [Alug] Disappearing messages [Alug] Problems with Mandrake, silly questions and the result. [Alug] linux and USB! Can it be achieved with SuperMicro P6SBA, AmiBios R1.5b? [Alug] Linux Expo... [Alug] A complete beginners view [Alug] Van Eck X config [Alug] Secure FTP

Subject: [Alug] Microsoft FUD

Adam Bower posted a link to "the document with the worst use of grammer (not that mine is great but then hey I'm not an advertising exec) and the greatest FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) from Microsoft ever." and noted that the document's comments (don't you love Word giving the game away?) described it as "Our latest anti-linux paper.."

Steve Fosdick reasoned "why does Microsoft write a document about operating systems to target the end user? For the same reason that Intel advertise the Pentium Processor on the TV - because they want to convince the end users who don't have the technical understanding to specifically ask for the advertised product when that decision is better left with someone who understands the technology."

There were also numerous specific rebuttals. Suffice to say, the group wasn't impressed with the tactics used. George Waring posted a link to "Microsoft: We Use FreeBSD at: http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=992921150 ... These guys sure know how to make themselves easy to hate." And Jen implored us to "Just remember, all, - Linux is NOT FREE, your system can be hacked into by ANYONE due to the open source software, and there are NO DRIVERS for ANY of it so it WON'T WORK. The trouble is, of course, that there are a lot of people out there who will read that and believe it."

Subject: [Alug] pppd problem

New list contributor Andrew Glover complained about "disconnecting straight away with pppd." He answered his own question shortly after "I found out it's a compatibility problem with debian potato and 2.4.x". Welcome to the list Andrew. May we solve all your problems so easily ;-)

Subject: [Alug] Virus on Linux?

Vanisa Surapipith asked: "Can virus attact a linux system? People with MSWindows are constantly affected and need to update their Norton or McAfee virus scanner. Is there a similar thing in linux world?

Neill Newman replied that "installing a virus on a linux box is much more dificult than under windows..." and pointed out that "for Redhat, ther are a fre options for updates.. if you are new to this, and want things to just work smoothly, I suggest looking at the up2date and up2date-gnome programs."

Meanwhile, xsprite gave the short answer that "Yes. http://www.big.net.au/~silvio/ However initial infection can be harder because of the multiuser nature of gnu/linux (and peer review). Worms are far more common. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5080656,00.html http://www.computeruser.com/news/01/01/23/news13.html" and Steve (brodders) offered a link to http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue65/lg_toc65.html

Subject: [Alug] Disappearing messages

Adam Bower and numerous others complained of strange happenings with the list. The short answer was some network and electrical maintenance which occurred near the list servers at UEA. Hopefully we're back to normal now.

Subject: [Alug] Problems with Mandrake, silly questions and the result.

John Seago reported more success with Red Hat than Mandrake, but there were some lingering problems. Owen offered condolences saying that "I still feel a begginer much the time, I think its the nature of linux. Some times I feel like its a "Civalisation" like stratagy game, in that as soon as you master one aspect of the system you find there is another level of technology to explore. Unless this is a hobby or profession I should target your efforts to what you want to do. Sound cards are a little tricky to install. Each sound card is installed slightly differently."

John posted a later message: "Having now got over the initial euphoria of actually having a working (?), (see later), set of "Linux", Chris, my daughters fiancee, and I have now come up against several problems, In my case numbers of applications just don't work,and trying them delivers a bug report window> I can't believe that a complete system was sent out with a non working spreadsheet, time manager, and other bits that just don't work. I am of the opinion that I haven't installed or set up the system properly or may have installed something that needs other, installed items to work."

Once again, Adam's message summarised many: "Yeah, Linux at the beginning is/can be frustrating. I remember the initial learning curve of How-to X would recommend reading Y that would recommend Z that would recommend X again. Made me say arghhhh more than once, although when you find you have 'got it' on one thing (in my case how init worked and the rc.d directorys) you suddenly find that nothing is a real problem and you can fix things yourself. What distro are you using though as it does sound a little buggy! I found that I had the same experience (installed apps not working etc.) as you until I found Debian, although Debian was more stressful to install and the prior knowledge of other distros was very helpful. Take the time to read and you will find yourself never going back to windows, it can take some dedication but it is really worth it."

Subject: [Alug] linux and USB! Can it be achieved with SuperMicro P6SBA, AmiBios R1.5b?

Tim Gowing announced: "I am having trouble making USB work under Linux (stand alone Linux only system, SuSE 6.3). ... Does anyone have any suggestions for a remedy?" Adam was swift with his reply: "I just had a look here http://www.supermicro.com/TECHSUPPORT/BIOS/bios.htm and it looks as though your Bios is now at version 3.1 so I would also suggest upgrading this and the kernel."

Of course, how do you run these upgrades with a Linux-only system? This is a problem the seasoned Linux hackers have hit before. John Woodard answered: "Use a dos boot floppy you can use freedos if you really don't want to run Redmond code. Plenty of boot floppy images on the net if you look. My Epox mobo has the award awflash utility accessible in the bios!" Sounds like manufacturers are getting Clue.

Subject: [Alug] Linux Expo...

Many messages flew about, trying to arrange an ALUG meet at this event. So far, it sounds like Earl, Owen and David are there on Wednesday, while Jo, Adam and myself appear to be going on Thursday (Adam: "(damn less freebies!)"). Probably it's time to take up Adam's suggestion of "a big organising session on who is going on which day on Mondays IRC?"

Subject: [Alug] Van Eck X config

David Freeman "was reading cryptonomicon for the second time and I was wondering how I would go about do what Randy does with X windows. For those who don't know, Randy configures X so that there are no window titles, and the background is a script generating windows which open and close at random. Also I wondered if it was possible to output morse code on the scroll lock LED."

The answers (from many): "The window titles bit would be the work of your window manager" ... "I did once have a program that would find a random .jpg from the net and display it in the root window as a background, although I would not reccomend using this program as it could be more than a little embarassing considering some of the content of the net" http://www.sudac.org/~napolium/linux/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ditdah/

A discussion of Sun 3s broke out. http://www.sunhelp.org/faq/sunref1.html

Subject: [Alug] Secure FTP

Ashley Howes asked "I was wondering if anyone knows of a secure FTP server. By secure I mean the difference between telnet and SSH (so all traffic is encrypted in transmit). I briefly saw references to scp (part of SSH) on a google search. As anyone used this or could comment on alternatives?"

Andrew Savory answered "Yes, I use scp all the time. It's usually available as part of the standard ssh package on linux (debheads do 'apt-get install ssh') and works quite nicely. If you're a windows user, search for putty and grab a copy of pscp."

Adam (Ubiquitous?) Bower: "sftp is an interactive file transfer program, similar to ftp(1), which performs all operations over an encrypted ssh(1) transport."

Andi Chandler offered http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=sftp&sektion=1 "This has the man page for sftp client" and http://www.xbill.org/sftp/ "This package contains sftpserv. I haven't tried it yet - when I do I'll email the list."