Re: Rescue disk for Debian?
The boot floppies contain a program called star that extracts a tar on the standard input. Someone could beef this up a bit or at least document it. The boot floppies make a reasonable rescue disk set now. Thanks Bruce
Re: NIS storms
From: Christoph Lameter [EMAIL PROTECTED] - The group.byname database was completely read by other machines continuously. - The ypserv process was running most of the time and was not able to satisfy all those requests. [...] How can we solve this issue? Perhaps we should go back to the old approach of putting users into one group? It doesn't seem as if this is solving the problem. This is also an issue for /etc/passwd, not just /etc/group. Look what happens when you run ls. Many system managers eventually conclude that NIS isn't worth the trouble, and they arrange to automaticaly distribute some of the files that NIS would otherwise serve. Implementing a local cache of NIS queries would help solve the problem as well. Thanks Bruce
Re: NIS storms
On Wed, 25 Sep 1996, Bruce Perens wrote: From: Christoph Lameter [EMAIL PROTECTED] - The group.byname database was completely read by other machines continuously. - The ypserv process was running most of the time and was not able to satisfy all those requests. [...] How can we solve this issue? Perhaps we should go back to the old approach of putting users into one group? It doesn't seem as if this is solving the problem. It never happened to us with the old approach. This is also an issue for /etc/passwd, not just /etc/group. Look what happens when you run ls. ls is requesting those uids gids neeeded I guess but does not do a exhaustive search of all 600 users. /etc/group is special since an exhaustive search has to be done to localize to which group a user belongs. Many system managers eventually conclude that NIS isn't worth the trouble, and they arrange to automaticaly distribute some of the files that NIS would otherwise serve. Implementing a local cache of NIS queries would help solve the problem as well. Right now I am automatically distributing the groups file (once a day). But this is really not the solution I have dreamt about. I am thinking of modifying the c-library to not do NIS group searches. NIS group searches dont work with NIS 1.20-1 under Debian anyways so I should not loose functionality.
Re: Rescue disk for Debian?
Bruce The boot floppies make a reasonable rescue disk set now. When I last used them, e2fsck was missing. Can you can squeeze it in? -- Dirk Eddelbuttel http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd
More packages up for adoption
I sent this yesterday, but since I never got a copy back, it may have gotten lost with the list move. I hate to add to the growing number of orphaned packages, but I currently barely (if even that) have time to maintain the packages I'm really interested in. As a result, I'm officially putting up for adoption the packages I took over on an interim basis much too long ago when they were originally orphaned. In case anyone is wondering, I am not leaving the project. I will continue to maintain my other packages and will also be available to help whoever takes over my former packages. Here is the list of packages I'm putting up for adoption with my assessment of what is involved in maintaining them. binutils: Track H.J. Lu's version and various architecture-specific patches. Not too much work right now but could change as support for other architectures is added. gcc/cpp: Track FSF version. Not too much work. gdb: Track FSF version. Not too much work. libc5*/libc6*: Some of the most important packages. potentially a lot of work. My plan was to only add serious patches to the current versions and wait for glibc/libc6. Whoever takes these may want to upgrade to one of H.J. Lu's newer versions before taking on libc6. libg++: Current version needs to be upgraded to H.J. Lu's newest version. Track H.J. Lu's version. Things could be complicated by multiple architecture support and libc6. libc4*, aout-binutils, aout-gcc: As far as I'm concerned, these are deprecated and should not be supported. However, if somebody wants to update them, I won't stop them. David -- David EngelOptical Data Systems, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1101 E. Arapaho Road (214) 234-6400 Richardson, TX 75081
Re: Problems with dselect...
'Michael Dillon wrote:' -- Forwarded message -- Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 00:50:32 -0400 From: Jon Lewis [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Clipped generic complaint about dselect's user unfriendlyness.] Wow one of my USENET heroes forwards a mail from another of my USENET heroes about my favorite Linux distribution. I simply must respond :) It is true that deselect is a bit quirky. And the last stable release of Debian had at least one fatal bug (if you select to install cflow, all dies due to a bug in the cflow package). However dselect is under continual improvement and is better each time I've tried it (you might consider downloading the latest version (ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/unstable/binary/base/dpkg*) and installing it with dpkg -i before running dselect). The on-line documentation explains enough about the system to get by. But my approach is to install whatever dselect chooses (adding a few add-ons maybe -- I've found that trying to add everything can cause problems). Then switch to the low-level command line tool, dpkg. I feel Debian's chief advantages are in its integration between packages, the community development model and its upgradeability. For these reasons I use Debian on most of my ISP clients' servers (and I like it much better than the one client who is sticking with Red Hat). Certainly there is room for improvement in dselect. And the author of dselect reports that it will be easy to develop an alternative user interface to the low-level package management system. If only I had time! In sum, for servers, I really like Debian. -- Christopher J. Fearnley|Linux/Internet Consulting [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] |UNIX SIG Leader at PACS http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf |(Philadelphia Area Computer Society) ftp://ftp.netaxs.com/people/cjf|Design Science Revolutionary Dare to be Naive -- Bucky Fuller |Explorer in Universe
Bug#4594: VIM: no help, no conffiles
Package: vim Version: 4.4-1 /usr/doc/vim/vim_tips.txt.gz explains how to make vim function with compressed helpfiles (which are gzipped as per the guidelines) in the section Compressing the help files. However, this vim package doesn't use this tip: When the .vimrc has no version 4 in it, vim suggests to do :help version which unfortunately results in No tags file Sorry, no help for version Also, /usr/doc/vim/changelog.debian.gz says: * redirected global vimrc/gvimrc to /etc but the package doesn't include these files at all. It should include at least empty versions of them, as conffiles. Greetings, Ray -- ART A friend of mine in Tulsa, Okla., when I was about eleven years old. I'd be interested to hear from him. There are so many pseudos around taking his name in vain. - The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan
Bug#4594: VIM: no help, no conffiles
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (J.H.M.Dassen) wrote: Package: vim Version: 4.4-1 /usr/doc/vim/vim_tips.txt.gz explains how to make vim function with compressed helpfiles (which are gzipped as per the guidelines) in the section Compressing the help files. However, this vim package doesn't use this tip: That'll teach me not to package up something without R'ingTFM :-) Also, /usr/doc/vim/changelog.debian.gz says: * redirected global vimrc/gvimrc to /etc but the package doesn't include these files at all. It should include at least empty versions of them, as conffiles. Fair comment, I'd guess. I'll fiddle around when I get time; unfortunately, I've got lab work and assignments coming out of my ears at the moment. :-( (Ah, university...what fun.) I appreciate the bug report.
Re: dpkg changes and queries - the answers to your questions
Dominik Kubla wrote: : : Heiko Schlittmann wrote: : Have you ever tried : dpkg-buildpackage -r'su root -c' : Or even better install the sudo package and do: : dpkg-buildpackage -rsudo : sudo will ask you for YOUR password (not the root password) once and will ... AND needs full path names or the all option. (I have patched su to cope with env. SUPASS, like pgp does. It seems to be somewhat insecure, but on the other hand, a process environment can be read only by root and/or the owner, and I I set the *PASS with the read built-in to history is written ...) Heiko -- email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] pgp : A1 7D F6 7B 69 73 48 35 E1 DE 21 A7 A8 9A 77 92 finger: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#4595: mc: no lynx on virtual files
Package: mc Version: 3.2.1-1 In the present configuration, the viewer lynx for HTML files does not work on virtual filesystems. This problem can be solved by a small change in the mc.ext. We have to substitute the 'lynx -dump %d' in the viewer line for HTML files by 'lynx -dump -force_html %f'. Best wishes -- Volker Volker Ossenkopf, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Astrophysikalisches Institut und\\/// Universitaets-Sternwarte Jena ( . . ) Tel.: 03641/630324 --oOo--(_)--oOo-
Bug#4557: Last file on iso9660-image always corrupted
Stephen Early and Winfried Truemper write: This error can be reproduced as follows: bash bash mount -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0 cd /mnt Have you checked to make sure that this isn't a problem with the loopback filesystem? I will test mkisofs on a raw disk partition shortly; I can't do so just yet because I don't have a partition free. It isn't a problem with the loopback becaus it also occurs on written images later. :-( I have seen this problem but havn't investigated it that fas as Winni. Joey -- / Martin Schulze * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * 26129 Oldenburg / / http://home.pages.de/~joey/ / Ich glaube nur der Statistik, die ich selbst gefälscht habe! /
Re: Problems with dselect...
On Wed, 25 Sep 1996, Jeff Prothero wrote: Here's an attempt to turn above grumps into a constructive proposal: - Introduce the idea of a Debian configuration -- a complete set of packages guaranteed to work together and constitute a complete, usable Debian install, and actively maintained by a Debian volunteer much as packages are currently maintained. IMHO it's time to release a debian-first-user-acount package which provides a usefull beginners-configuration with foreign language-support. Michael Gaertner [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel/Fax +49-761-32684
Packages that still need a maintainer
Hi I still have a few packages left that need a new maintainer. The following is a list of my packages and their new maintainers if they have one. tcshChristian Hudon [EMAIL PROTECTED] lynxChristian Hudon [EMAIL PROTECTED] mirrormagic Joey Hess [EMAIL PROTECTED] xinvaders Joey Hess [EMAIL PROTECTED] xtet42 Joey Hess [EMAIL PROTECTED] xntpBdale Garbee [EMAIL PROTECTED] samba Klee Dienes [EMAIL PROTECTED] ksmbfs Klee Dienes [EMAIL PROTECTED] p2c Ed Petron [EMAIL PROTECTED] ytalk Bdale Garbee [EMAIL PROTECTED] rxvt ircii tf mandelspawn xtron Andrew -- Of course...lager...the only thing that can kill a vindaloo. -- Lister, fighting the vindaloo monster in Red Dwarf `DNA' Andrew Howell [EMAIL PROTECTED] Perth, Western Australia [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: dpkg changes and queries - the answers to your questions
Heiko Schlittermann wrote: : sudo will ask you for YOUR password (not the root password) once and will ... AND needs full path names or the all option. ??? I can not confirm this. I work with exact the line i quoted in my earlier mail without any problem, i just needed to remove the quotes around the argument line in /usr/bin/dpkg-buildpackage which appeared for an unknown reasons in the latest revision of dpkg. Dominik -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The text above represents my personal opinion and does not represent the official position of my employer on the issue(s) discussed. Any official statement made on behalf of my employer by me is marked as such.
Bug#4596: /dev/MAKEDEV: cyclades update
Package: base Version 1.1.0-14 [Originally reported by Bernard Leach [EMAIL PROTECTED] on debian-user:] the minor device numbers for the cyclades devices have changed; see kernel sources drivers/char/README.cyclomY Here's a patch for our MAKEDEV: --- CUT ME --- diff -r base-1.1.0.orig//prototype/dev/MAKEDEV base-1.1.0/prototype/dev/MAKEDEV 9a10,12 # - the various READMEs in the kernel source may contain more up to date # information than Linux Allocated Devices, which is not incorporated here # yet 342,343c345,346 makedev ttyC$i c $major1 `math 32 + $i` $tty makedev cub$i c $major2 `math 32 + $i` $dialout --- makedev ttyC$i c $major1 $i $tty makedev cub$i c $major2 $i $dialout --- OUCH! --- Greetings, Ray -- POPULATION EXPLOSION Unique in human experience, an event which happened yesterday but which everyone swears won't happen until tomorrow. - The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan
NIS storm solutions?
I think the NIS problems with /etc/group could be solved in the following
way:
1. Implement a cache for the initgroups library call that is so frequently
used to find all groups a user belongs to. This will also improve
general performance without NIS since the search of the complete
/etc/groups file does not have to be repeated again and again.
2. Create a new NIS map group.byuid that provides a list of groups for a
given uid. That list can be generated during the generation of the NIS
maps.
3. Modify the library subroutine to consult that new map instead of
rereading the complete group.byname map.
The cache should be fairly simple to implement, but the consultation of
that new map might be quite complex for situations in which /etc/group
includes only a subset of the NIS /etc/group contents.
INITGROUPS(3) Linux Programmer's Manual INITGROUPS(3)
NAME
initgroups - initialize the supplementary group access
list
SYNOPSIS
#include grp..h
#include sys/types.h
int initgroups(const char *user, gid_t group);
DESCRIPTION
The initgroups() function initializes the group access
list by reading the group database /etc/group and using
all groups of which user is a member. The additional
group group is also added to the list.
RETURN VALUE
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Bug#4597: emacs should provide news-reader
Package: emacs Version: 19.34-2 emacs should not only provide info-browser and mail-reader, but news-reader as well. xemacs does it.
Bug#4599: xanim documentation is not world readable
Package: xanim Version: 2.70.6.3-3 xanim installs the indeo.readme.gz, creative.readme.gz, and cinepak.readme.gz files as 600. -- Richard W Kaszeta Graduate Student/Sysadmin [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of MN, ME Dept http://www.menet.umn.edu/~kaszeta
Bug#4570: xview-clients without owplaces
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED] Volker Ossenkopf [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Package: xview-clients Version: 3.2p1.2-1 The Save workspace internal command of olwm requires olwplaces (which often uses xtoolwait). olwplaces and xtoolwait are not available in the package. Are these programs part of the public available xview sources ? I didn't find them. The installation script does not add olwm to /etc/X11/window-managers. I'm not that sure that every available window manager has to be mentioned in /etc/X11/window-managers. I thought it is only used as a list of default window managers. Sven -- Sven Rudolph [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; WWW : http://www.sax.de/~sr1/
Re: Packages that still need a maintainer
Hi, add me: ircii Bernd Eckenfels [EMAIL PROTECTED] Greetings Bernd
Bug#4600: libc does not build
package: libc5 version: 5.2.18-11 I cannot build libc5: [miriam]/usr/src/libc5-5.2.18:./debian.rules build make make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/libc5-5.2.18' set -e; for i in assert bsd cvt ctype des dirent grp inet io libbsd libio locale login math misc mntent netgroup posix pwd regex rpc setjmp signal stdlib string sysdeps time ufc malloc malloc-930716 yp nls gcc elf; do \ echo making lib in $i; \ make -C $i lib; \ done making lib in assert make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/libc5-5.2.18/assert' /usr/bin/gcc -V 2.7.2.1 -b i486-linux -m486 -O1 -funroll-loops -I../sysdeps/linux -I../libio -I../libio/stdio -DNLS -I../nls -DYP -DNO_SHADOW -D_GNU_SOURCE -DSTDC_HEADERS -DUSG -DDIRENT -DSYSV -DUSE_BSD_REGEX -D_LIBC -DINTERNAL_LINUX_C_LIB -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -funsigned-char -I../internal -nostdinc -I../include -I`/usr/bin/gcc -V 2.7.2.1 -b i486-linux -m486 -print-libgcc-file-name | sed -e 's/libgcc.a/include/'` -D_POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS -D_POSIX_THREADS -D_MIT_POSIX_THREADS -c assert-perr.c -o ../elfstatic/libc/assert-perr.o In file included from assert-perr.c:21: ../include/string.h:33: stddef.h: No such file or directory make[2]: *** [../elfstatic/libc/assert-perr.o] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/libc5-5.2.18/assert' make[1]: *** [lib] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/libc5-5.2.18' make: *** [build] Error 2 [miriam]/usr/src/libc5-5.2.18:
Potential NIS storm fix
Here is a patch to the libc 5.2.18 to hopefully fix the NIS storms. I
could not test it since the debian source package for the libc does not
build its targets. Anyone know how to get the debian source package to
build? debian.rules binary or debian.rules both fail without ever
reaching the initgroups.c file
The patch has to be applied to the directory libc-5.2.18/grp
--- initgroups.c.orig Wed May 31 22:08:15 1995
+++ initgroups.cThu Sep 26 12:10:32 1996
@@ -82,9 +82,10 @@
}
else if (0 == strcmp(g-gr_name, +))
{
- ypmode = 1;
- g = __nis_getgrent(1, info);
- if (NULL == g)
+# Disable exhaustive NIS searches
+# ypmode = 1;
+# g = __nis_getgrent(1, info);
+# if (NULL == g)
break;
}
#endif /* YP */
Consequences of this patch:
- You loose NO functionality. I have never gotten /etc/groups to work
across an NIS network. Miquel confirmed a while ago that the NIS stuff
for /etc/group does not work.
- The users still have the group they are assigned to in /etc/passwd (or
the NIS map)
- For The +:: stuff at the end of the /etc/group nothing will be done.
- You can still manually include a group with
+group
- Exhaustive NIS searches are not performed anymore.
I reviewed the NIS code for /etc/passwd as well. The library contains an
extensive caching mechanism for those.
Reviewing what I just wrote: You might simply have the same effect by
removing the +:: line from etc groups G
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Re: Packages that still need a maintainer
Hi I still have a few packages left that need a new maintainer. ... rxvt ircii tf mandelspawn xtron Andrew I guess it's time that I learned how to put together a Debian package - now that I've finally been able to subscribe to the debian-devel list. Sign me up for mandelspawn - sounds about my speed. Not too mission critical for anyone I hope (in case I screw up). :-) Cheers, - Jim
lynx
I noticed while installing Debian 1.1 that the lynx package is slightly out of date (version 2.4; newest is 2.6). I also couldn't find any documentation on it in /usr/doc after installing the package. Does anybody know who the maintainer is, and/or whether this package has been orphaned? Nathan L. Cutler
backup of file
Hello, for the lilo package I would like to make a backup link of boot.b on pre-installation time, since after the new boot.b is insatlled and before the new lilo is run the system wont boot anymore. The question is now: ln /boot/boot.b /boot/boot.b.suffix what should i use for suffix? is .dpkg-old ok? This would be deleted after the first successfull run of liloconfig. Greetings Bernd -- (OO) -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ( .. ) [EMAIL PROTECTED],linux.de} http://home.pages.de/~eckes/ o--o *plush* 2048/A2C51749 [EMAIL PROTECTED] +4972573817 *plush* (OO) If privacy is outlawed only Outlaws have privacy
Bug#4601: Several small problems in Apache
Package: apache Version: 1.1.1-3 Many of the modules offered are called *required* which didn't seem to me to be required. Sorry, I forget which ones exactly. But I chose not to load common_log_module and got a syntax error due to the TransferLog directive. I also got a syntax error when #LoadModule proxy_module /usr/lib/apache/modules/mod_proxy.so was included. I had to comment it out. Perhaps it depends on another module that I hadn't loaded? Very nice configuration .. just a little incomplete. -- Christopher J. Fearnley|Linux/Internet Consulting [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] |UNIX SIG Leader at PACS http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf |(Philadelphia Area Computer Society) ftp://ftp.netaxs.com/people/cjf|Design Science Revolutionary Dare to be Naive -- Bucky Fuller |Explorer in Universe
Re: lynx
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nathan L. Cutler [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I noticed while installing Debian 1.1 that the lynx package is slightly out of date (version 2.4; newest is 2.6). I also couldn't find any documentation on it in /usr/doc after installing the package. Does anybody know who the maintainer is, and/or whether this package has been orphaned? The following file just apeared: rex/binary-i386/net/lynx_2.6-1.deb It is now maintained by Christian Hudon [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sven -- Sven Rudolph [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; WWW : http://www.sax.de/~sr1/
NIS storm fix II
I compiled a new c library and its availabe from
ftp.fuller.edu/Linux/debian/libc
My initial patch was totally wrong...
And also my assertion that the NIS code for groups does not work. I
checked it while at this stuff and it worked to my surprise.
I did not reboot my system after installing it and it seems that the login
process still does the old exhaustive search one time but when the shell
comes up no NIS search is done anymore. Wonder whats going on here?
Do I need to reboot?
So this patch will reduce functionality. You will loose the group
membership made through listing userid after the password entry for the
tools using initgroup to figure out the extra groups a user belongs to.
The regular group listed after the uid entry in /etc/passwd will work
fine.
Groups can be made NIS searchable with
+group
in /etc/groups. Only the
+
and
+
will be omitted when doing the initgroups()
--- initgroups.c.orig Wed May 31 22:08:15 1995
+++ initgroups.cThu Sep 26 14:41:13 1996
@@ -73,20 +73,20 @@
/* FIXME: must remember this group, it must not show up
in grouplist! */
continue;
-
- if ('+' == g-gr_name[0] '\0' != g-gr_name[1])
+/* The following code was modified so that
+ 1. + or + in /etc/group does not lead to an exhaustive NIS search here
+ 2. +groupname still works so if the sysop decides to have the overhead
+ then its still possible to have some groups evaluated via initgroups.
+
+ Christoph Lameter, September 26, 1996
+*/
+ if ('+' == g-gr_name[0] '\0' != g-gr_name[1] ':' !=
g-gr_name[1])
{
g = __nis_getgrnam(g-gr_name + 1, g-gr_mem, info);
if (NULL == g)
continue;
}
- else if (0 == strcmp(g-gr_name, +))
-{
- ypmode = 1;
- g = __nis_getgrent(1, info);
- if (NULL == g)
-break;
-}
+ else if (g-gr_name[0]=='+') break;
#endif /* YP */
if (g-gr_gid != group)
{
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Re: Maintainer needed for adduser
On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, Emilio Lopes wrote: Hi! Can I make some suggestions for adduser? Here they go... 1- Is it possible to make adduser NIS aware? If the the machine is a NIS client it could warn about adding users to that machine only. If the machine is a NIS server, it could run make in /var/nis/ That should be done. Forward that to maor who is now the maintainer. 2- Maybe adduser could have an option to automatically generate a password. There is a debian package (passwdgen or pwgen or genpw or something like that) that can be used to generate them. If convenient, this package could even be made part of adduser. pwgen was debianized by me. You can do adduser --password `pwgen 8` --gecos Hugo Smilie hsmilie with adduser 2.11. The functionality you want is already there.
