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Re: [Alug] Your reply
by MJ Ray 19 Mar '01

19 Mar '01

Jenny_Hopkins(a)toby-churchill.com writes: > I've been thinking about this reply for a day or two. I was actually bit > shocked by it. With all respect to the guys who run the show, I wonder if > you mean to be so elitist? [...] Whoa whoa whoa! It's not intended to be elitist, it's just a self-defence mechanism. Indeed, the point I was trying to make was that OK, ALUG is informal, but we can't let anything go. Security announcements are blatantly best done elsewhere, else malicious types could put out alerts that most of us don't have the knowledge to check and we stop getting any useful work done. There are countless other mailing lists for security announcements. It would be a shame if this list becomes another one and kills our user group in the process. I doubt anyone wants that. Similarly job ads: from some discussions, I'd suggest either adopting Adam's proposal of only allowing a few people to vet and post job ads, to point people to some jobs site or other, or to set up an alug-jobs mailing list. It's probably time to compile a list "Charter" or FAQ, pointing people towards other more appropriate resources for common requirements like good security alerts. Anyone able to help on this? > PS. I am running 6.2 and had no idea that patches were needed. Read The Fine Manuals. You should *always* follow security announcements, regardless of distribution, operating system, etc. All computers are insecure, except when switched off and locked away. Perhaps a "Securing Linux" talk or two at the next meeting? Any takers? Once again, I'm sorry if I upset or intimidated anyone. That wasn't my intention at all. Please don't take it as such. Like the job ads, there's a real danger we could drown in real (new and old) and fake security alerts, which would kill this list. I just didn't want that to happen. The open atmosphere on here is something I love, but sometimes a little note of caution has to be sounded. Sorry for making it a bit loud this time. -- MJR

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irc meeting reminder
by Adam Bower 19 Mar '01

19 Mar '01

Hi People, I havn't put it in cron yet, but here is my sample text for the meeting reminder if there is anything wrong or obviously or broken in this please let me know so I can correct it. Adam 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 Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!) -- Adam Bower, <abower(a)zeus.com> Tel: +44 1223 525000 System Administrator Fax: +44 1223 525100 Zeus Technology Ltd http://www.zeus.com Zeus House, Cowley Road Cambridge CB4 0ZT England

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Sun Sparcstation
by Chris Allen 18 Mar '01

18 Mar '01

Thanks for the many requests for the SparcStation. The first to reply was Andrew Savory - sorry to everyone else who requested it.. Amazingly I offered this machine to our local school, together with help and advice on setting it up, etc, and they weren't interested. It wasn't windows compatible!!

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ALUG-IRC 8pm tonight (Monday)
by MJ Ray 16 Mar '01

16 Mar '01

ALUG-IRC meetings are held Monday evenings at 8pm on eu.openprojects.net channel #alug ... see you there! (So who said they'd put this email in a crontab?)

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Re: [Alug] who's clever with bash scripts?
by MJ Ray 15 Mar '01

15 Mar '01

bsamuels(a)datamansys.co.uk writes: > I copied this from a posting I saw on a newsgroup and it works > perfectly well when run by root from the command line. However if I > set it up to be run as a root cron job it doesn't work as it should. [...] > Can anyone offer advice as to why this should be happening? Almost certainly a path problem, I would expect. While ifconfig may be in root's default path, cron tends to run with a different environment to minimise security problems. Try giving full path of things like ifconfig and see what happens. -- MJR

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who's clever with bash scripts?
by bsamuels＠datamansys.co.uk 15 Mar '01

15 Mar '01

I have created a script as under: #!/bin/sh # Start the connection pon # Wait until the connection is made until ifconfig ppp0 | grep "inet addr" > /dev/null; do sleep 1; done; # Get the mail and then poff. Using ; is better than && because # fetchmail exits with an error if it doesn't get any mail. fetchmail -d0 > /dev/null ; poff I copied this from a posting I saw on a newsgroup and it works perfectly well when run by root from the command line. However if I set it up to be run as a root cron job it doesn't work as it should. After the script has been started by cron I see an entry for the script and an entry for 'sleep 1' in the list of running processes. If I run ifconfig ppp0 at this time I see a line starting 'inet addr' but the 'until' loop never exits. Can anyone offer advice as to why this should be happening? Barry Samuels

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Software for Sunday
by Adam Bower 15 Mar '01

15 Mar '01

Hi People, I have just placed an order with the linux emporium http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk for Debian 2.2r2 and a copy of John's Latest and Greatest CD. If you want a CD-R copy of any of the above could you let me know now so I can go and buy a spindle of CD-Rs and get burning (assuming that John get me the cd's to me before Sunday). If you want a copy of Debian please let me know which cd's you want i.e. only the 1st or all the binary cd's or all of them including the source. I will have to ask for the price of the blank CD-R's (or you can bribe me with old computer hardware or chocolate!). Also if anyone has a copy of partition magic could they please bring it on Sunday? we can then do an install on a Transmeta based laptop (Sony VAIO C1VE) if you do. thanks Adam

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Add one to the event distribution list
by MJ Ray 15 Mar '01

15 Mar '01

Is it worth emailing meeting announcements to lwn(a)lwn.net? Too late for this time, sadly. -- MJR

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[Various] Digested Articles
by MJ Ray 13 Mar '01

13 Mar '01

Spam4u... the second one is the most interesting to me. See what you think. MJR Topics: Open Source XML Programming Tutorial (fwd) Linux UK re-re-relaunch Linux@work 2001 Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 14:00:34 -0500 From: Steve Litt <slitt(a)the-oasis.net> Reply-To: slitt(a)troubleshooters.com Subject: Open Source XML Programming Tutorial Hi Mark, could you please post this to the mailing list of British Linux User Groups Homepage? Thanks. SteveT Hi all, Because most XML books and websites force the you to recite Microsoft incantations, I wrote an all Open Source XML programming tutorial using Linux and Xerces-Java from Apache Software Foundation. It thoroughly covers coding of DOM, SAX, and DTD's. http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200103/200103.htm Enjoy! SteveT Steve Litt Member: Linux Enthusiasts and Professionals of Central Florida (LEAP-CF) Webmaster, Troubleshooters.Com http://www.troubleshooters.com slitt(a)troubleshooters.com Date: 13 Mar 2001 17:37:21 +0000 From: Denny <denny(a)concretecow.com> Subject: Linux UK re-re-relaunch Linux UK will be attempting its annual tradition of rising from the ashes on April 1st, after the resignation of Jono as project leader. It may or may not relaunch under a different name and/or on a different domain, given the loss of interest and other problems generated by the continuing DNS issues. It will definitely do so with a different focus, as UK specific Linux news is not plentiful enough to sustain a website that people will want to read. The idea for the future is to have plenty of locally held content, articles about open source software and issues, written specifically for the site or republished there. While news will still have a place on the site, it will no longer be the only thing the site has to offer. If you want to be part of this relaunch process, please attend the IRC meeting occurring Thursday at 8pm (if you can't make it to this meeting, please email me to indicate your interest and suggest days/times that you could attend an IRC meeting). /server irc.openprojects.net /join #linuxuk Regards, Denny PS - I am also on IRC now if you would like to talk to me immediately. Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 23:36:52 +0100 From: Roberto Zicari <zicari(a)ltt.de> Subject: Linux@work 2001 Linux@work in 12 cities in Europe in 2001. For the third year, LogOn Technology Transfer will be organizing a series of Linux events throughout Europe called Linux@work. These 1-day, city-to-city events, will take place in 12 European venues in 2001. Linux@Work is unique because it is the only series of free business-to-business Linux events designed to unite the leaders in the Linux community with European IS professionals. More than 2,500 visitors attended the 2000 event series - triple that of 1999. The Linux@work schedule for 2001: Copenhagen May 8, 2001 Oslo May 9, 2001 Stockholm May 10, 2001 Helsinki May 11, 2001 Frankfurt May 15, 2001 Zurich May 16, 2001 Milan May 17, 2001 Vienna May 18, 2001 London June 12, 2001 Paris June 13, 2001 Brussels June 14, 2001 Amsterdam June 15, 2001 Bookmark: http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/ Best Regards Roberto Zicari -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] IRQ's and hardware issues
by MJ Ray 10 Mar '01

10 Mar '01

David Freeman <david_freeman(a)rocketmail.com> writes: > > > 1) How do I get a listing of the boot messages under Peanut liniux? > > dmesg? > Where will I find this? /bin/dmesg ... hopefully they haven't removed it in Peanut Linux. > Whats lspci? Part of the pciutils. "man lspci" may help. Or look at the PCI or Plug-and-play HOWTOs... I've not had to use these yet myself. http://webdocs.essex.ac.uk/LDP/HOWTO/PCI-HOWTO.html and http://webdocs.essex.ac.uk/LDP/HOWTO/Plug-and-Play-HOWTO.html HTH. cc'd to alug mailing list. -- MJR

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Kit going free to a good home
by merville 10 Mar '01

10 Mar '01

The following bit of kit is going free to a good home due to lack of space. Whoever wants this must collect unless they are close to PE32 [Swaffham/Dereham]. 1 HP scanjet IIc SCSI flatbed scanner c/w document feeder + HP SCSI card. Cost over £2,500 new, built like a brick s**thouse and weighs about the same. This works under Linux using my Adaptec card. The original HP card is a rebadged Symbios and I havn't tried this. Will not work under NT or Windows 2000 with the original card as HP stopped supporting the drivers after Windows 95. I have had it working with Adaptec EZ-Scsi on all MS platforms. If no-one gets back to me within a week, it goes in the skip as I am sick of wife nagging me about 7 year old hardware stored under the bed. ======================================== Rob Somerville | me(a)merville.net | http://www.merville.net ========================================

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Re: Your reply (MJ Ray)
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 10 Mar '01

10 Mar '01

>Hope this doesn't sound condescending. No, not at all - I think I owe a bit of an apology for my mail of the other day. I'm hoping I 'll make the meeting on the 25th to meet people, which will make how I interpret stuff very different. A security talk would be excellent. Jenny.

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Re: Your reply (MJ Ray)
by Earl Brannigan 09 Mar '01

09 Mar '01

Hi all This discussion is already past its sell-by-date so I don't want to prolong it any further unnecessarily. In my office (V Small Co.) I get very tired of anyone and everyone passing on the latest 'Virus Warning' or something so I have alot of sympathy with MJ. I have implemented a virus/security policy as follows : Every Monday Morning I visit the website of our virus checker vendor and download the latest updates, then install them. I also visit www.securityfocus.com (good source of general info), www.cobalt.com (our webserver vendor) www.redhat.com (our in-house linux vendor) www.microsoft.com (our desktop/server vendor) and check all the security advisories, download any necessary patches and install them. Meanwhile, I subscribe to a couple of the (relevant) advisory newsletters from security focus and read them when they arrive. That's it. EOF If anyone can think of anything further needed please let me know. > It's probably time to compile a list "Charter" or FAQ, pointing people > towards other more appropriate resources for common requirements like > good security alerts. Anyone able to help on this? ALUG Admin:, if you wish you can use this mail as the basis for an FAQ on posting security announcements/requests for all subscribers. Everyone: (especially home users/linux beginners) this is about all you need to do, and about all you need to advise anyone. Then if someone wants to get 'security-techie' they have a great start in the right places. Hope this doesn't sound condescending. (aside : the point is valid that for beginners the idea of totally secure Linux has been hyped from somewhere (LINUX IS MORE SECURE THAN WINDOWS BY DEFAULT - TRUE - , but that's about it) you can get a bit shocked when you hear of a so called Linux Virus - and I do think that to a point the first port-of-call for any newbie who is unsure of something should be the local LUG - from where they can get pointed in the right direction - without feeling intimidated - agreed??) > Perhaps a "Securing Linux" talk or two at the next meeting? Any > takers? I would be glad to discuss security issues in more depth if people are interested, the concepts of hacking (cracking) etc and common methods + good prevention practice (If anyone feels better qualified please feel free - I'm not an expert, just forced into it by necessity). Just an overview with perhaps some handout info so that anyone who is completely new to it can at least get a handle on it. I would admit now though that I would only be using info gleaned from www.attrition.org, www.insecure.org and www.securityfocus.com as a basis! (but I could bring along some RPMs of nmap, tripwire and other stuff for people who want them (of course I could explain/demo them if needed)) I'll await feedback on this offer... Sorry I went on a bit. Best Regards Earl

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Free hardware now gone to a good home
by merville 09 Mar '01

09 Mar '01

The scanjet has now found a good home with a Linux user ! Thanks to all who responded. ======================================== Rob Somerville | me(a)merville.net | http://www.merville.net ========================================

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Re: [Alug] IRQ's and hardware issues
by MJ Ray 08 Mar '01

08 Mar '01

David Freeman <david_freeman(a)rocketmail.com> writes: > 1) How do I get a listing of the boot messages under Peanut liniux? dmesg? > 2) How do I resolve this problem? Is it going to mean replacing the > hardware or can it be resolves in software? Almost certainly there is a software solution, but I've not had to do this. Probably lspci's friends? > 3) If anyone can suggest how I can get USB to work as well that would > be a great help Enable it in the kernel and it just works, I think. -- MJR

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[Various] Digested Articles
by MJ Ray 08 Mar '01

08 Mar '01

Spam4u... one interesting, one not. Well, not to me anyway. Topics: [lugmaster] FW: Call For Papers - Linux2001: Manchester, UK First Official MySQL Training in the UK. Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 22:39:52 +0000 From: Alasdair Kergon <agk(a)ukuug.org> Subject: FW: Call For Papers - Linux2001: Manchester, UK I enclose the call for papers for this year's developers' conference. The closing date for abstracts is 30th March. If you want to suggest speakers/discuss sponsorship/discuss topics before submitting an abstract etc. please get in touch with us at linux2001(a)ukuug.org. Please circulate the document amongst the development community! You can link to it at: http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2001/CFP.shtml You'll find information about Manchester (incl. Travel - flights etc.) at: http://www.manchester.com/ Alasdair Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 14:41:12 +0200 From: Bertrand Matthelié <bertrand.matthelie(a)polycon.fi> Subject: First Official MySQL Training in the UK. Dear member of the UK Linux user community, MySQL is the leading Open Source database, and the most widely used in Linux environments. Jointly with the MySQL core team members, Polycon developed the first Official MySQL Training Program, in order to teach the MySQL users how to harness the full power of their favourite database. A portion of each course fee will be contributed to MySQL AB toward the further development of the MySQL database. Polycon will hold the first Official MySQL training session in the UK in London from May 14th to 18th, and we would very much like to communicate this news to the UK Linux community. All the information concerning the Official MySQL Training is available at: http://www.polycon.fi/mysql Do not hesitate to contact me. Best Regards, Bertrand Matthelié -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Re: alug post approval required for hahaha@sexyfun.net
by MJ Ray 07 Mar '01

07 Mar '01

MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> writes: > this virus? I'm getting tired of filtering these. s/virus/worm/ ... I'm just off out to flog myself for a while. I will learn not to do your typical journo error. -- MJR

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Re: alug post approval required for hahaha@sexyfun.net
by MJ Ray 07 Mar '01

07 Mar '01

> List: alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > From: hahaha(a)sexyfun.net > Subject: Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL story! ALUG users using Outlook (I think that's where this comes from), please can you upgrade or make sure your emailer isn't vulnerable to this virus? I'm getting tired of filtering these. -- MJR

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Jobs in Norfolk? :(
by Toby Jaffey 06 Mar '01

06 Mar '01

Does anyone know of any interesting technology companies in Norfolk that do embedded systems work? Coming to the end of my degree, I'm looking for work in East Anglia. Ideally, I'd like to live in Norwich. But, I'm grudgingly accepting that I'll have to work in/around Cambridge. -- (o_ | Toby Jaffey : www.nott.ac.uk/~psystrj/ //\ | "... it is important to realize that any lock can be picked with a V_/_ | big enough hammer." -- Sun System & Network Admin manual

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RE: [Alug] NFS Install probs.
by Corner Paul 06 Mar '01

06 Mar '01

An update on my little problem - After recompiling the kernel and found I then had a corrupt source file. Checked the sources on another machine and everyting looked fine.... Put the problem to one side for a week or so and returned to it this weekend. The NFS download and compile worked without a hitch. For a while at least !! Started getting a new error - Something to do with an IDE error. OK swap the dive with another one, still the same problem - Try both the drives in another box and found both to be fine. Last straw - Changed the PSU. Everything has been running fine for the last three days. It looks as if it has been a hardware problem causing the trouble. Regards, Paul. > -----Original Message----- > From: Steve Fosdick [SMTP:fozzy@pelvoux.demon.co.uk] > Sent: 12 February 2001 23:23 > To: 'A. Lug' > Subject: Re: [Alug] NFS Install probs. > > > do an NFS install, it all goes as I expect. But on booting up the new > > machine, lilo does what it should, the kernel starts to load, then > trouble. > > I get an error message "crc error --system halted--". > > From a quick look at the kernel source it looks as if this error comes > from a module called inflate.c which is used to uncompress the kernel > image once it has been loaded into memory. > > The most likely cause of the message therefore is the compressed > kernel image as loaded into memory being corrupt and in the case of a > kernel being loaded from hard disk the most likely cause of that is > the LILO kernel image map being out of date so LILO loads the wrong > disk blocks. > > The solution is to make sure the /sbin/lilo commands gets run between > installing the kernel onto the hard disk of the newly installed > machine and the reboot. > > Hope this helps. > Steve. > > > _______________________________________________ > alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list > Send list replies to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > See the website for instructions on digest or unsub!

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Re: [Alug] Your reply
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 06 Mar '01

06 Mar '01

>And if you think I'm being harsh, please just imagine what posting >your message to the uk.comp.os.linux newsgroup would have been like. I've been thinking about this reply for a day or two. I was actually bit shocked by it. With all respect to the guys who run the show, I wonder if you mean to be so elitist? If you are going to run a public forum like the alug mailing list, you can't expect to have everyone on the same level. If people lower down than you on the learning curve of linux make comments that you feel are irrelevant and it annoys you, perhaps you should consider forming a new group of experts on a higher echelon? Call it AELUG, E for Expert. I personally am still at the stage where everything I hear about linux, kernels, networking, makes my eyes bulge and my head fill up like a sponge. Kerin's post was relevant to me, i.e. I learnt quite a lot of different things from it and the responses. Isn't this the point of the lug groups, or am I too low down to get "the point"? Responses like yours to Kerin's post are quite intimidating and unlikely to encourage new membership or attendance at meetings, which perhaps isn't in the spirit of the open source movement. >2) more importantly, if someone out >there is running 6.2 or 7.0 and they have not updated, is not it a friendly >thing to do and warn them that they could have a problem. remember the spirit >of the Linux world. PS. I am running 6.2 and had no idea that patches were needed. Jenny.

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Got and wants......
by Simon Parkes 03 Mar '01

03 Mar '01

Hi everyone... Got some goodies that I'm looking to swap...And I thought I'd offer them on here before going on the NG. Got 2 x 256MB 133Mhz DIMM (bought in error) and I'm looking for a sound card and/or 3D GFX card (Cash will also be accepted) .. Simon

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(no subject)
by John Woodard 03 Mar '01

03 Mar '01

I've posted this announcement to the following usenet groups: comp.os.linux.announce uk.comp.os.linux uk.local.east-anglia uk.local.essex uklinux.general uklinux.lugs pcplus.linux <begin announce> Announce: ALUG 2001.2 The next Anglian Linux User Group (ALUG) http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ will be at our Mid Suffolk venue Syleham Village Hall as guests of Syleham and Wingfield Computer Club (SWCC) on Sunday 18th March 2001 2:00pm - 6:00pm. Venue details at http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/venues/syleham.html All Linux users will be made most welcome. <end announce> Cheers, BJ

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Call for help at the next meet
by John Woodard 02 Mar '01

02 Mar '01

If anybody (Brett) who is going to ALUG 2001.2 had had any experience with Psion - Linux conectivity I would be most gratefull of some help. Also a clean up (or in Kde speak a 'klean up') of 'Rodney' is needed so a bit of help there wouldn't go amis. TIA. Cheers, BJ

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Goodies for ALUG 2001.2
by Gareth Watts 02 Mar '01

02 Mar '01

I have in my posession no fewer than 20 of Linuxcare's "Bootable Business Card" cdroms plus a few stickers and other bits and pieces. As usual they were handing these out at Linuxworld in New York so I asked Linuxcare to send some my way for distribution at our next meet and thus they arrived today :-) For those that haven't come across these before, Linuxcare have basically managed to get about 100Mb worth of Linux recovery tools onto a bootable CD the size of a credit card. These things are incrediably useful if you come across a Linux box that no longer boots or has some other weird problem; it's stuffed with useful utilities and it's all bang up to date (it'll mount ReiserFS partitions for instance). Anyhow, if you want one I'll be giving them out on a first-come-first-served basis in Syleham. See you there :-) Gareth

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