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A complete beginners view
by John Seago 28 Jun '01

28 Jun '01

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. I am not pleading for help here, unless I can manage to work this out for myself, or in concert with Chris I am not going to get anywhere. the main problem Have is that whatever source of written information I find, I have yet to find one that does not presuppose a certain amount of prior knowledge/experience, which I just don't have. I fact I have to admit that deep down I have a sneaking suspicion that mention of daemons/demons in the long list of scroll down print at the start of the log-in process actually refers to real demons/imps/goblins/elves/fairies that live inside the box to the left of my screen whose main purpose in life is to frustrate me. However both Chris and I are determined to persevere and to learn, so expect to see us at a meeting some time. I now have to start some intense reading. John Seago

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Parking for Linux Expo....
by Simon Parkes 28 Jun '01

28 Jun '01

Hi All... Just a quick note about parking, there's very little in the Earls Court Area, I work near there and what I have found easiest is parking in (well near it!!) the Dome (£3 per day), and getting the tube accross town. It's also easier to get to the dome from the M11 or A12 as from the M11 you can just go straight on from the A406 and instead of going along the A13 through the Blackwall tunnel go accross the Woowich Ferry turn right and follow the road, you see a demented albino turtle with yellow legs after about 5 miles on the right .... I'm hoping to go down on the 5th, so hope to see some of you guys down there.. Simon

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Re: [Alug] I'm receiving no messages
by MJ Ray 28 Jun '01

28 Jun '01

"Ashley T. Howes Ph.D." <ashley(a)turton.com> writes: > I have stopped receiving messages on both my work and home account from ALUG There was an electrical shutdown at UEA on Saturday morning. Various other people don't trust sysadmins to power down machines safely in good time and cause system failures instead. Grrr... -- MJR

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RE: Linux Expo...
by Earl Brannigan 28 Jun '01

28 Jun '01

Hi all, Re my note earlier... just to clarify for anyone considering taking up my offer. I am based in Gazeley Nr Newmarket, I am more than willing to collect people within a reasonable radius but obviously not too far. If you live pretty far afield and you can get a local train to any station close to me for about 8:00am I will collect you. I'm sure Kennet (the closest to me) Bury and Newmarket stations are all served from Ipswitch (unless I am very much mistaken). Collection from any of these is absolutely no problem. Of course if you live within what you would consider a reasonable distance from Gazeley then let me know where and I'll see about collecting you at home. I was thinking of being on-the-road no later than 8:30 ... is that reasonable ? (sorry I don't have the times with me while writing this but I usually make the M25 within 50 mins) So an ETA of between 10-10:30. Obviously if we can get going earlier so much the better. I think that pretty much covers it. Have had 2 enquiries so far. Cheers Earl

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government tobuy proprietry software
by John Seago 26 Jun '01

26 Jun '01

See the lead article in the on-line version of "Linux Format", then find "fax your MP" and let him/herknow what you think of their idea. John Seago

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Promotion of "Linux"
by John Seago 26 Jun '01

26 Jun '01

Now that I am working in/with Linux, i trust that this will get to its destination without collecting unwanted attachments. To return to the Email that did pick up an attachment during its journey. The Workers Education Association, (WEA), run courses on computer literacy etc., in Halesworth, (Suffolk), some of which are subsidised by various governmental initiatives, others are voluntary. the WEA is expanding its activities at the Halesworth Centre. It occurs to me that these, if a Linux aspect could be added to the voluntary courses, would provide an ideal "Promotional" platform. there is also another aspect, the equipment at the Educational Centre is set up using several terminals connected to a server, (to the best of my memory, I took a "Start Computing" course there 18 months ago), which runs Windows/Office. Perhaps they could be persuaded that "Linux" would better suit their needs and its "free". I have found that this, (Red Hat 7.1), is very similar to "Windows/Office", and from my experience so far it is my opinion that it would have been easier to make the transition the other way round! Why doesn't Red hat 7.1 speak English English? John Seago

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Linux Expo...
by Earl Brannigan 26 Jun '01

26 Jun '01

Hi Owen --__--__-- > > Please can I have a lift to the linux exbo I would like to go down day before > an come back day after but will probaly use train if not posible. If anyone > else going please get in touch or add to this thread so we canm go down a the > alug tribe as I think that could be fun for the journey. I shall be driving down on the first day, there and back same day. I have room for a few passengers and would appreciate splitting the petrol/parking with one or more others. I think it would cost about ?15 for petrol + perhaps another ?5 or so parking so we would be looking at ?4-5 each if we fill the car. If anyone is interested mail me off list, I drive a Renault Scenic so there is good room for 4 passengers. BTW I smoke (I open the window obviously ... and the draft sucks the smoke straight out), but if you absolutely hate smoking, I understand... get another lift! ;o) First Come..... Cheers Earl

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Documentation, network cards and printers
by David Freeman 26 Jun '01

26 Jun '01

All, Documentation: Does any one know of a javadoc equivilent for C? Network cards: This was what was stopping me getting my printer to work, my FA311 is dud, the 3Com card works fine, but only at 10Mbps :o( Printers: My rpinter now works now I use the correct network card oo, and finally I found a case tool for Linux, Dia, see the gtk site for more info. Thanks D __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

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linux and USB! Can it be achieved with SuperMicro P6SBA, AmiBios R1.5b?
by Tim Gowing 26 Jun '01

26 Jun '01

I am having trouble making USB work under Linux (stand alone Linux only system, SuSE 6.3). I have a SuperMicro P6SBA motherboard (PII MMX 266MHz CPU, 440BX chipset hence UHCI host controller) with AmiBios R1.5b. I have compiled kernel 2.2.16 with the 'usb-2.4.0-test2-pre2-for-2.2.16-v3.diff' patch. The error in /var/log/messages is:- "linux kernel: usb-uhci.c: version v1.184 time 01:06:53 Mar 25 2000 linux kernel: usb-uhci.c: Found UHCI device with no IRQ assigned. Check BIOS settings!". In the Bios set-up I have 'USB Function' set to enabled and 'Plug and Play-Aware OS' set to No. I have tried many other permutations of the bios settings. Has anyone made USB operational with this motherboard/Bios? Does anyone have any suggestions for a remedy? Failing all else, can anyone recommend a currently available motherboard that will provide functional USB? Any help much appreciated. Tim.

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Please can I have a lift to Linux Exbo
by oms101＠freeuk.com 26 Jun '01

26 Jun '01

Please can I have a lift to the linux exbo I would like to go down day before an come back day after but will probaly use train if not posible. If anyone else going please get in touch or add to this thread so we canm go down a the alug tribe as I think that could be fun for the journey. PS the Alug member I met on the train although I had never met at Alug I remebered where we met before. I was trying to get my old employers to pay for experianced person to come down to set up linux networking but failed Owen Date: 25-Jun-01 Time: 23:21:41

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Re: SuSE security and updates
by Joss Winn 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

> > Neill Newman wrote: > > > Aparently SuSE has something similar to up2date, but I don't know too > > much about it, any SuSE fans care to comment on th autoupdate features > > of Yast ?? > > Well, it seems to work well enough! Alan has used it, I've just watched > him really, but he ticks the boxes for the kinds of things he wants and > off it goes and does its thing. Simple as that, by all accounts... > > Jo Indeed, the SuSE YAST2 online update is as easy as it gets. You click on the update button, it tells you what updates are available and which of those it recommends for your system, you decide what you think you need and then click on a button for it to download and install. You can automate the whole procedure as much or as little as you like. A short while back, I decided to go through the security of my SuSE system and downloaded a SuSE hardening script, a firewall script and a security checker that checks my system for changes daily, weekly and monthly. It took 15 minutes to finish setting up everything. I thought the harden script would inconvenience me in some way but I haven't noticed it at all. Though when I look at files like /etc/hosts.deny, they are hardened versions with good security settings. For what it is worth, SuSE claim to have had the first dedicated security team on any linux dist. and the previous team leader who still works for SuSE has a decent page you can grab the latest stuff from. http://www.suse.com/~marc I'm sure all distributions are very security aware. Though I can only vouch for the convenience of SuSE. Joss -- http://www.josswinn.org

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(no subject)
by Tim Gowing 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

-- Regards Tim Gowing

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Problems with Mandrake, silly questions and the result.
by John Seago 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

I last wrote to the forum yesterday, I see that there is some problem with something, and it is still undelivered. The good news is that I have overcome the problem, not by finding the solution but by erasing Mandrake 8 from my Hard drive and installing Red Hat 7.1. Mandrake is promoted as a system suitable for beginners, I however found trying to get it to work so frustrating that I considered taking the easy route and buying a hardware upgrade to make Windows/Office 2000 work. Luckily I had made a mistake when ordering the CD's for my prospective son-in-law and myself and bought two sets of each. Having seen how easily his Red Hat went in I installed it in my computer, the installation was about a 1000% easier than Mandrake, (took less than 90 minutes, I've been trying toget Mandrake function for 8 days), it worked first time, connected to the Internet and the web, and is up and running, I do have one problem with the sound card drivers which are there but not functioning. This however is not a problem as I usually work with the sound muted under Windows anyway. John Seago

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Configuring network card (again)
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

Hello all, I have been given the following info from someone at LNO on trying to get a 3com NIC to work (one that was given to me by an alug member at the last meet, as it happens). Can anyone confirm this is indeed a good thing to do? I tried for a while to get a Dlink card working, then changed it for this 3com one, which I'm not having much success with either. "3c509 isa cards are PnP jumperless nic's - they were designed to work with winders PnP (work great out of the box for that) in linux, it no worky-worky. you have internet access from a winders pc? if yes, then download disk 2 from here (this link is kicking my butt!!) \http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=support&pathtype=support&sku=3C509B-COMBO and boot the pc with a dos/winders boot disk - run the PNPDSABL.BAT utility to turn off PnP, then run 3c5x9cfg.exe to set the irq and mem addy you want (i like 10/300 )- after this, you should be good to go" I duly downloaded the disk2, copied it to /tmp on the linux box, started to reboot the linux box with a 95 startup disk, then bottled out and plopped the disk out before it could boot, in a fit of underconfidence at my noncomprehension. The actual history behind the thread at LNO in the first place is here: http://www.linuxnewbie.org/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13… Thanks, Jenny

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Re: [Alug] Documentation, network cards and printers
by MJ Ray 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

David Freeman <david_freeman(a)rocketmail.com> writes: > Documentation: Does any one know of a javadoc equivilent for C? Is this "literate programming"? -- MJR

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Weekly IRC meeting reminder
by Adam Bower 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

This is the automated ALUG irc meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an irc meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Popular irc clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and ircII on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.bitchx.com http://www.xchat.org http://freshmeat.net http://www.epicsol.org/ (for Brett!) Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Re: [Alug] Problems with Mandrake, silly questions and the result.
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

John Seago writes: >Having seen how easily his Red Hat went in I installed it in my >computer, the installation was about a 1000% easier than...... Hey! Told ya! Everyone should listen to my wise and knowledgable advice ;-) Your two mails arrived together, John. Go and have a look in the rc.d scripts ( /etc/rc.d/)(I think) to see what happens when the computer is booting up, so if you get a nice red failed message again you can start to see where the problem is. If when booting, the log says "entering runlevel 6" (I think that is the default on Dead Rat) you want to look at rc6.d. This will show you which scripts are started up. >.....buying a hardware >upgrade to make Windows/Office 2000 work. You had a lucky escape then! Jenny.

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Re: [Alug] pppd problem
by MJ Ray 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

"A Glover" <Flexifoil(a)btinternet.com> writes: > After over a year away from Linux I decided to install it again, > unfortunatly Ive forgotten how to fix small problems. The current one > and im having no success finding an answer for is disconnecting straight > away with pppd. Distribution is Debian, using the script pon. Add "debug" to /etc/ppp/options and tell us what appears in /var/log/debug please. Thanks. (Remember to take the debug line out when you're done, unless you want to eat disk.) -- MJR

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Stupid question from John Seago
by John Seago 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

I have made a start on 'Running Linux', and have got to the passage which entreats beginners NOT to ask simple questions. The problem is whilst I can work the word processor etc., in windows, I don't know how to do much else, so I'm ignoring the sound advice and asking stupid questions, I have no doubt that there will be others. Having, by a combination of a faulty CD, a CD drive which didn't like the first disk of Mandrake 8 had to reinstall Mandrake 8 I have in the long list of script which scrolls down at the beginning 1 item marked [FAILED] in red. The item refers to the Kernel libraries, my question is: Is this Failed notice appearing because I didn't use the second disk, if so how do I put the contents of the second disk in please? John Seago

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Re: Microsoft is right Re: [Alug] Microsoft FUD
by MJ Ray 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

"Mark Wilkinson" <mark(a)wiggis.com> writes: > Whoops... Time for a list etiquette reminder: - put your reply at the bottom, not the top - trim irrelevant material (esp sigs) from the quote - no HTML email - no attachments, not even automatic ones -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Disappearing messages
by MJ Ray 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

Adam Bower <abower(a)thebowery.co.uk> writes: > Is this affecting anyone else? It's OK here. It might be a local problem to your ISP causing some messages to be queued for retry, so they arrive out of order. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Virus on Linux?
by Earl Brannigan 25 Jun '01

25 Jun '01

Hi all, tell its Friday, Earl get's a little time out to post. > Message: 16 > To: xsprite(a)bigfoot.com > Cc: alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > Subject: Re: [Alug] Virus on Linux? > From: MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> > Organization: Cat-killingly bad > Date: 22 Jun 2001 12:49:23 +0100 > > xsprite(a)bigfoot.com writes: > > > If you have a high amount of bandwidth, or your isp provides a > > service such as cable, you are likely to get scanned (I do atleast > > once every two days or so) whether the scan is for open netbios > > shares or the latest s'kiddie 0day. > > My home dial-up machine gets scanned pretty much every evening for > samba shares. I intend to develop a small samba share of poisoned > files padded out with 0s (so they compress well and go up the modem > fast). > The most likely culprit here is sharesniffer. (www.sharesniffer.com) It's looking for Windoze (but will of course find any SMB public shares) I have a load of virus algorithms in zip form I could let you have if you wish to set up a SMB 'honeypot' - sorry about the misappropriation. I was actually thinking of doing something like this, put a load of XL/Word files on a drive which are actually just these things. Some are disk crunchers, others boot sector infectors (TSR as well), others just lock your cpu into infinite loops etc. The 'nice' approach would be to just call them MyVeryImportantCreditCardsDetails.doc or something, and the lame script kiddie who has just scanned your machine for things will download it and probably try to open it in Word straight away, excited at the perceived goodies. ..... one would hope that such a donkey is not running a good virus checker. Many are in Assembler for easy inclusion into any proggie..... Been looking for an excuse to use them (only have them for research purposes .... honest..!) Cheers Earl > Yes, don't let anything listen to the external interface unless > absolutely necessary. netstat -a will show what's listening. inetd > always seems to want to listen to everything, but you can use "ALL: > ALL EXCEPT 127." in hosts.deny (man hosts_access) to pin that down to > only the local machine (change to taste) for most services it starts. > Commenting out some lines in /etc/X11/*/Xaccess is also good, as in > running X with -nolisten tcp if you don't use that. > > And use ipchains/iptables just to be sure. > Good Advice .... > -- > MJR > Sorry, I was to have been at the last meet to do a little security demo but couldn't make it at the last minute. This is still a plan if it is still required. Sorry I've forgotten but I know there are a few others who are into this sort of thing (to the point of test-hacking their own machines, playing with nmap/nessus and others. It would be a good idea to collaborate for this, and do a proper job of it as a team... Mail me off list guys and let's start planning, we could have a nice little demo together for the next meet. Cheers Earl Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Albert Einstein)

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RE: Microsoft is right Re: [Alug] Microsoft FUD
by Laurie Brown 22 Jun '01

22 Jun '01

22/06/01 15:02:43, "Mark Wilkinson" <mark(a)wiggis.com> wrote: >I find that the occasional reboot on NT helps to keep things a bit more >stable. About once a week does it for me... My old faithful 486 DX-4/120 with 64meg of crappy old memory and a slow HDD, which runs our firewall has an uptime of: laurie@firewall:~ > uptime 3:27pm up 315 days, 20:30, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 I'd like to see *any* windows box do that, even if all it does is route and filter traffic between three NICs... Cheers, Laurie. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com PGP key at http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Microsoft is right Re: [Alug] Microsoft FUD
by Laurie Brown 22 Jun '01

22 Jun '01

22/06/01 15:47:39, Neill Newman <neill(a)entora.co.uk> wrote: >Laurie Brown wrote: >> >> >> My old faithful 486 DX-4/120 with 64meg of crappy old memory and a slow HDD, which runs >> our firewall has an uptime of: >> >> laurie@firewall:~ > uptime >> 3:27pm up 315 days, 20:30, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 > >cool, don't get caught out by the 497.1 day uptime bug as I did a few >weeks ago.. I thought I had been hacked, turns out the uptime couter >wraps ;).. I remember that one, and saved the mail for future reference! In fact, it'll have to come down soon, to be replaced with a P200 running 2.4.x and iptables. Shame, cos it'd be nice to see it hit a year. In fact, the last power down was the result of a server-room refit, and I've forgotten how long it was up before that. It has never fallen over, and for sure has run for more than a year with no problem of its own making. Let's just say it's been reliable! Here's the ifconfig on the internet-facing NIC (3C-509): laurie@firewall:/home/laurie > ifconfig -i eth0 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:C0:F0:4D:2F:E4 inet addr:213.155.158.242 Bcast:213.155.158.243 Mask:255.255.255.252 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:28597916 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2 TX packets:28085146 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:35357 txqueuelen:100 Interrupt:10 Base address:0x6000 It's fairly active for an old girl! Cheers, Laurie. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com PGP key at http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [Alug] Virus on Linux?
by MJ Ray 22 Jun '01

22 Jun '01

xsprite(a)bigfoot.com writes: > If you have a high amount of bandwidth, or your isp provides a > service such as cable, you are likely to get scanned (I do atleast > once every two days or so) whether the scan is for open netbios > shares or the latest s'kiddie 0day. My home dial-up machine gets scanned pretty much every evening for samba shares. I intend to develop a small samba share of poisoned files padded out with 0s (so they compress well and go up the modem fast). Yes, don't let anything listen to the external interface unless absolutely necessary. netstat -a will show what's listening. inetd always seems to want to listen to everything, but you can use "ALL: ALL EXCEPT 127." in hosts.deny (man hosts_access) to pin that down to only the local machine (change to taste) for most services it starts. Commenting out some lines in /etc/X11/*/Xaccess is also good, as in running X with -nolisten tcp if you don't use that. And use ipchains/iptables just to be sure. -- MJR

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