Auto-mounting and unattended boot
Hi. I have a removable drive in a machine that doesn't have a display and is used via the network. Since the drive is removable, sometimes the machine boots without the drive, and sometimes with it. I'd like to have it mount the filesystem on the drive automatically on boot, but if it's not there it shouldn't wait for a root password like it does now, but just fail and continue booting. Is it possible somehow? Thanks in advance! Please, CC me on your replies, since I'm not on this list. Thanks. -- Alex Shnitman| http://www.debian.org [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] +--- http://alexsh.hectic.netUIN 188956PGP key on web page E1 F2 7B 6C A0 31 80 28 63 B8 02 BA 65 C7 8B BA "Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles Duell, head of the U.S. Patent Office, 1899 pgpt5MjUaWDnr.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: vmware on debian
On Fri, Aug 06, 1999 at 11:28:28AM +1000, debian wrote: > Anyone managed to install vmware via the vmware install perl script and > actually get it to work and make modules for its devices. I get erros on > install about my kernel version.. > > Anyone care to give me some help/hints on getting it to install cleanly. And > work. You have to have the kernel source, or at least the headers part of it, in /usr/src/linux. Sometimes that's not enough (I'm not familiar with the vmware Makefile so I can't tell for vmware) and you have to do this: cd /usr/include mv linux linux.old ln -s /usr/src/linux/include/linux . mv asm asm.old ln -s /usr/src/linux/include/asm . -- Alex Shnitman| http://www.debian.org [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] +--- http://alexsh.hectic.netUIN 188956PGP key on web page E1 F2 7B 6C A0 31 80 28 63 B8 02 BA 65 C7 8B BA Linux represents a best-of-breed UNIX, that is trusted in mission critical applications, and - due to it's open source code - has a long term credibility which exceeds many other competitive OS's. -- Internal Microsoft memo pgpppfwi9c8e1.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: How to escape this for the bash shell...
On Wed, Aug 04, 1999 at 01:22:17AM -0600, Nate Duehr wrote: > I have a file named : > > ?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~?[4~ > > ... in my home directory. > > I am wondering how to escape this properly for rm to work on it in > bash. Most people told you to rm ./file or rm 'file' but that won't work of course since you can't input the filename from the keyboard at all. (The name as you typed it looks like it consists of escape sequences, not something you can easily type on the keyboard.) So it's a better idea to use the shell's wildcard expansion to do the work for you. You can type rm -i * and then answer n for every file except for this one. -- Alex Shnitman| http://www.debian.org [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] +--- http://alexsh.hectic.netUIN 188956PGP key on web page E1 F2 7B 6C A0 31 80 28 63 B8 02 BA 65 C7 8B BA /real/ kernel hackers dd if=/dev/urandom of=/vmlinuz and influence the Universal Randomosity Field. -- Gaal Yahas pgpEiZGQ47WHo.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Waiting for scripts in /etc/ppp/ip-up.d
Moore, Paul writes: > Can diald be persuaded to do this (hangup-only, no dialup function)? If > not, how do I get at the ppp link stats to monitor packets going > through? If I can monitor packets/sec across the ppp link, or maybe > traffic over the modem, I could write my own monitor-and-timeout > program. No need - take a look at the "idle" parameter of pppd. From the manpage: idle n Specifies that pppd should disconnect if the link is idle for n seconds. The link is idle when no data packets (i.e. IP packets) are being sent or received. Note: it is not advisable to use this option with the persist option without the demand option. If the active-filter option is given, data packets which are rejected by the specified activ ity filter also count as the link being idle. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
alien or rpm?
Hey. I was wondering, what would be a better idea, to install an RPM package by converting it first to .deb with alien, or just by using RPM directly since it's there? -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
Re: smail problems (dial-up)
Leon Breedt writes: > > I found a command "runq" which seems to push stuff through. Is that what > > it's for? If so, how do I get this to happen automatically when I start > > the PPP link? > > any scripts in /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/ get run when the ppp link is established. > so, in your case, i'd create in /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/ a script like so: > > #!/bin/sh > > if [-x /usr/sbin/runq]; then You forgot the spaces - [ is actually a program (check /usr/bin/[) so its name needs to be separate from the -x parameter. Same for the closing bracket which needs to be a separate parameter. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
Kernels from the 2.1 series
Paul Crowley writes: > I'm thinking of moving over to the 2.1 series kernels, since it seems > that they're pretty stable these days. Will this make life very much > harder for me? It shouldn't. I installed a 2.1 kernel right after a vanilla setup of hamm, and haven't had almost any problems. The only problem I remember is when the init scripts initialize the serial ports, the kernel complains about invalid ioctl() calls. Probably setserial or some other thing uses these calls that are no more there in 2.1. It doesn't hurt functionality though, so I never bothered about it. > * I believe I'll need this new "kmod" thing rather than the "kerneld" > that I'm used to. Do I already have this installed? Do I need a > special package? The whole idea is that it's now part of the kernel (a kernel thread) and not an external program like kerneld. So you don't need anything to use it - just the Linux kernel itself. The init scripts in hamm automatically find out the existanse of kmod and don't start kerneld in that case. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://alexsh.home.ml.org
Re: Juliet image.
Liran Zvibel writes: > How can I create an iso9660 with Juliet extensions? (It has to have > Juliet, would be nice to add RR) > > Usually I do it with mkisofs, but it (my version at least) doesn't have > any switch for Juliet. Take a more recent mkisofs. Download the latest version of cdrecord (from the author's site), build it and you'll have the newest mkisofs which you can copy over /usr/bin/mkisofs. For some reason hamm comes with a pretty old mkisofs, and there's no newer one in slink. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://alexsh.home.ml.org
Re: NIS
Miquel van Smoorenburg writes: > >I suspect it has something to do with the way shadow passwords work in > >Solaris and in Linux. However, on an adjacent Slackware box it works > >flawlessly. What can be the problem? > > Is the output of "ypcat passwd" the same? Does the Slackware box > run libc5, libc6, what version etc? It's a libc5 Sackware box (I'm not sure what Slackware version, but I checked that it's libc5). Yes - the output of "ypcat passwd" there is the same. Now I'm sure that the problem is with shadow - I ltraced login, and saw that it crypts the password I enter with the "##" salt, and then compares it to the "##username" string it got from getpwent() as the password. Therefore, it doesn't even look for a shadow password. The machine uses shadow passwords for the root & local accounts. I thought that maybe it would look for a shadow password if the password was "x" and not the "##username" thing, so I changed the last line in /etc/passwd to "+:x:", but as always that didn't help. > >I tried to upgrade to the latest nis distribution from slink (and it > >took the libc along with it) but it did not help. > > Can you do "ypcat passwd.adjunct" (as root!) ? Perhaps you need to > fiddle with /etc/nsswitch.conf No. (No such map...) But I also can't do it from any other box that already is using NIS successfully, such as our SunOS and Solaris boxes! I checked and the map _is there_, and there's indeed no shadow.byname map. AAACK! -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
Re: NIS
Gilbert Laycock writes: > Alex> Is anyone using NIS with hamm? I'm trying to set it to work > Alex> against a Solaris NIS server and it doesn't work. I've got > Alex> everything up to the point that "ypcat passwd" indeed cats all > Alex> the passwd file from the NIS server (with the passwords replaced > Alex> with "##username"). My /etc/passwd has a +:: entry in the > Alex> end, and /etc/group - the +::: entry. /etc/nsswitch.conf says > Alex> "compat" for passwd, group, and shadow. And yet, when I try to > Alex> log in using one of the usernames from the NIS server, it won't > Alex> let me. Has anyone stumbled upon anything like this? > > Alex> I suspect it has something to do with the way shadow passwords > Alex> work in Solaris and in Linux. However, on an adjacent Slackware > Alex> box it works flawlessly. What can be the problem? > > Is the Solaris NIS server running NIS+ ? If so you might be out of > luck, unless you are prepared to build your own glibc. See > http://www-vt.uni-paderborn.de/~kukuk/linux/nisplus.html No, it's running NIS. The responsible sysadmin swears that it is. However, in the meantime I found a message on Usenet asking the exact same question. There was no good answer there, so I e-mailed the author personally to ask if he solved it and he told me that there's a very simple bug in glibc that I need to patch, and then rebuild glibc. (If anyone wants that message tell me - I just don't have it here at this moment.) Since the machine in question is a 486DX2-66/16MB, I started the build today in the afternoon, and I hope that by tomorrow morning it will be done. :-) > On the other hand, if the server is running NIS (or NIS+ in NIS > emulation mode) then it should work fine (except for netgroups). I use > it all the time, and your setup sounds OK to me. Yep, it should - I agree. I try to explain it to the machine but it's ruthless. :-) -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
NIS
Hey again. Is anyone using NIS with hamm? I'm trying to set it to work against a Solaris NIS server and it doesn't work. I've got everything up to the point that "ypcat passwd" indeed cats all the passwd file from the NIS server (with the passwords replaced with "##username"). My /etc/passwd has a +:: entry in the end, and /etc/group - the +::: entry. /etc/nsswitch.conf says "compat" for passwd, group, and shadow. And yet, when I try to log in using one of the usernames from the NIS server, it won't let me. Has anyone stumbled upon anything like this? I suspect it has something to do with the way shadow passwords work in Solaris and in Linux. However, on an adjacent Slackware box it works flawlessly. What can be the problem? I tried to upgrade to the latest nis distribution from slink (and it took the libc along with it) but it did not help. I'm totally out of ideas. :-( -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://alexsh.home.ml.org
Re: More robust filesystem?
Stephen J. Carpenter writes: > 1) Stop it from happening... > cut the wires that goto the reset button...replace it with a key > switch other bits of wiring... Then people will use the power off switch. And I can't cut that off because it's used to switch the workstations off when the lab closes! > 2) mount as much as possible read-only. (/usr /etc ) This is probably what I will be doing. > 3) On a network? NFS mounts don't seem to mind this abuse at all > is NFS-root not an option? Not really - we have big enough HDs on each station, and it would be a shame to waste them. Besides, we don't want to buy a new server for the NFS-root. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://alexsh.home.ml.org
Re: More robust filesystem?
Peter Iannarelli writes: > You could put a directive in your crontab to issue a sync > every 5 minutes of every hour of every day. That's not quite the issue - Linux syncronizes its buffers whenever it has a chance anyway. What I'd like to know is whether there is a way to minimize the damage in the case of a "reset" when the machine was busy. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://alexsh.home.ml.org
More robust filesystem?
Hi. We're using Debian workstations in our labs, and as expected they rarely get shut down properly, many times they are just reset or switched off, either due to ignorance or not caring. The question is whether there is a way to configure the kernel to issue updates to the meta-data more frequently, even in expense of performance? Or what else can I do to keep the filesystems on the workstations more stable, in addition to user educating on which we're of course working? -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://alexsh.home.ml.org
Running a libc5 binary - weird problem
Hi. I'm trying to run the good old Mule 2.3 which I downloaded from some Japanese site. It was part of a "Japanesed" bo distribution. I need it because it supports right-to-left text input, needed for proper Hebrew writing, which XEmacs-MULE doesn't support. I haven't been able to find a newer deb, and I failed compiling it myself - it just won't go with the includes, it apparently needs a lot of fixing before it would compile with glibc. Now, I've never had any problem running libc5 applications, including the libc5 Netscape, until I stumbled upon this one. Normally a libc5 app has its X libraries linked from /usr/lib/libc5-compat, and ldd shows that. However, look what ldd shows for mule: alexsh:~/mule/usr/bin> ldd mule libXaw.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.so.6 (0x4000b000) libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x40043000) libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x40055000) libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x4009d000) libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x400a6000) libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x400bb000) libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x400c7000) libncurses.so.3.0 => /lib/libncurses.so.3.0 (0x4016a000) libm.so.5 => /lib/libm.so.5 (0x401a6000) libc.so.5 => /lib/libc.so.5 (0x401af000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4026d000) ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40312000) Why does it try to link the libraries from /usr/X11R6/lib? When I try to run it it naturally segfaults. Are the paths hard-coded into the binary? How can I get around that? -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
Re: Internet via Proxy-Server?
Miquel van Smoorenburg writes: > Transparant proxying is an optimization in that you can redirect > all connections to port 80 of any outside-server to pass through > a caching proxy, so that you get the benefits of a proxy cache without > configuring the client to use the caching proxy. I mentioned port > 80 because this is done in most cases for web traffic only (not > much use in caching telnet sessions) This is not clear to me - if you want to pass outgoing HTTP requests through a proxy, you need to modify the stream - for all I know, when a browser requests a page from a server it sends a "GET /dir/page.html HTTP/1.0" request to the server, and when it's through the proxy it's "GET http://server.com/dir/page.html HTTP/1.0", i.e. the request includes the protocol & the name of the server. So, what am I mising here? Or does the kernel really edit the outgoing stream when configured with "transparent proxy"? How can this editing be customized? And another question - when one Shift-clicks "Reload" in Netscape and he's using a proxy, a "Pragma: no-cache" directive is sent to the proxy asking it to re-request the document and not retrieve from the cache. How is it possible to do such a thing when Netscape doesn't think it uses a proxy but actually it does? -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
Re: Thanks for mail
George Bonser writes: > > Wow, why such complexities? Try VM under Emacs or (better) XEmacs. You > > I would say the learning curve for netscape mail is a lot different than > for emacs. I agree. OTOH, the learning curve for Windows 95 is a lot different than for Linux. We're not supposed to be afraid of difficulties in the first stages! :-) > At least netscape installs cleanly every time I have tried it. > I did two fresh installs of Debian last month and emacs never installed > either time. When I installed hamm it installed flawlessly. What was your problem with the installation and why don't we solve it? > Besides, netscape is a lot smaller than emacs and company. I'm not sure that's true... alexsh:~> ps auwxm | egrep '(PID|netscape|emacs)' | grep -v grep PID TTY MAJFLT MINFLT TRS DRS SIZE SWAP RSS SHRD LIB DT COMMAND 197 ?5603 62008 3140 7448 10736 148 10588 2900 0 1921 xemacs 673 ?2298 3790 4620 12656 17276 0 17276 5644 0 2870 /usr/lib/netscape/netscape file:/home/alexsh/web/start.html And this is Netscape Navigator not Communicator, and XEmacs not Emacs. Or do you refer to the size on disk rather than memory? -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
Re: Thanks for mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > Does anyone know of a mail reader for html mail? I might need one. > > Netscape handles it well. When I get email with html or a hyperlink that I > want to check out, I forward it to a special username. I have netscape set > up to retrieve it using pop3 and then I can read it or click on the > hyperlink to launch the browser. I use pop3 rather than movemail because I Wow, why such complexities? Try VM under Emacs or (better) XEmacs. You get the best of all worlds. When you're in X you get clickable URLs and HTML rendering (and toolbars and inline image attachment viewing and all the other stuff you see in graphical clients), and when you're at the console you get a regular textual client a la pine. -- Alex Shnitman [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN 188956 http://alexsh.home.ml.org -- PGP key here http://www.debian.org -- and the OS here
