Year 2000 status of debian
According to http://www.debian.org/y2k/ about half the packages in the base
Debian system are not known to be Year 2000 compliant. While I realise that
the probably are, I am having a very hard time trying to get a Debian
system installed due to it not being year 2000 compliant. (as compared to
Redhat (http://www.redhat.com/corp/legal_statement.html#y2k) - whose statement
is actually useless for knowing if the system will work in the year 2000, but
is better for getting the system past a 'Year 2000 compliant' new system
installation checklist item.
In particular it would be very useful if someone who understands dpkg and
the other debian specific bits could decide if they are y2k compliant and if
they are, then to arrange an update to the web page.
John Lines
Re: Where are ms-dos filenames for Debian packages?
> I read somewhere that dpkg can handle "mangled" filenames because it looks > inside the package to determine if it is the correct version. Is dpkg what > I need to be learning to use? > It is certainly worth knowing how to use dpkg directly for one-off operations. > > CD-ROM is not an option. Modem is not an option. Are files in my > /hda3/debian (which is my Windows 3.1 c:\debian directory) an option? > That's where I rejoined the perl_5.004.04-6.deb file tht I'm trying to > install. > > Thanks for the on-list and off-list suggestions I've already received. The > idea about changing my ms-dos partition to a vfat partition which would > support long filenames is a good idea, but I don't know if that will help > me since I have Windows 3.1. Thanks for your patience. I'm trying to leap > from Windows 3.1 to Linux instead of following the path from Windows > 3.1...to Windows 95to Windows 98to an old Windows NTto a new > Windows NTto who-knows-what. The get-the-CD suggestion was also a good > suggestion but right now I'm trying to introduce myself to Linux on my > computer which has no CD before I make big changes to my other computer > which my family uses every day (it has Windows 3.1, also). > > It may be worth investigating the UMSDOS file system - this provides a Unix file system (with long file names) over an MSDOS filesystem. The Unix files live in an MSDOS directory, with a DOS file called something like linux.--- which holds the long filename and protection/ownership info etc; all the things that Unix likes which DOS does not have. The files themselves look to the DOS side of things like a truncated form of their long names. It is useful for people running in a mixed environment because it allows you to pinch space from your DOS partition and use it as real Unix space John Lines p.s. Slackware had support for a UMSDOS boot disk - you could run with no 'real' Linux partition at all. It would be very handy to have that in Debian at some stage.
Re: DNS-DHCP solution for linux?
> Is there any such? It would be nice not having to update the DNS server by > hand all the time. And using DHCP to assign IP:s automatically could solve > this if there was a tool for updating the DNS server. > There have been some published patches to the ISC DHCP server (the one which is in the debian dhcp-beta package) which do this. >From a message on the dhcp-server list From: "Igor Sharfmesser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Dynamic DNS patch Hello Unfortunatelly, I have no enough time to properly maintain the patch, but I am trying to do my best. The patch is available on ftp://dream.online.kz. It is the same version I posted on the list. It doesn't include any changes suggested by list memebers, but I hope I will implement its in the nearest future. Regards, Igor If you are not expert in both DHCP and DNS I would suggest you do not use this on a production network at present as this is leading edge development work. John Lines
Re: Spam abuse?
> Hi all, > > Since a few hours I got this kind of messages on the console: > > May 19 17:30:15 pebbles in.smtpd[23842]: connect from > 146.west-palm-beach-01.fl.dial-access.att.net > > In /var/adm/smail there are many items like > > 05/19/1998 17:30:30: [m0yboLS-0005sdC] Delivered VIA:c.mx.aol.com TO:[EMAIL > PROTECTED] ORIG-TO:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ROUTER:inet_hosts TRANSPORT:smtp > 05/19/1998 17:30:30: [m0yboLS-0005sdC] Delivered VIA:c.mx.aol.com TO:[EMAIL > PROTECTED] ORIG-TO:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ROUTER:inet_hosts TRANSPORT:smtp > > It looks as though someone is sending spam to a lot of AOL addresses via > my PC. Switching off the smtp services with inetd.conf shut it off. > Should I try and send email about this to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (this seems to > be a valid DNS entry, I can run a traceroute to it)? You should complain to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - this is someone running a 'stealth mailer' trying to route spam to aol through you. They are connected to an ATT dialup account, and ATT will pull the plug on their account when you tell them about it. (Make sure you can tell them the UTC time when the spammer was operating so they can work out who it was) John Lines -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: modem
> I tried using my modem, but discovered that I have no /dev/modem or > /dev/cua*. A look through the kernel config options didn't turn up > anything obviously related to modems, so I'm a bit confused. > I'm runing Debian 1.3, and have a Xircom Ethernet+Modem PCMCIA card > that seems to work under Windows 95. > David > I have just been looking at the Xircom CEM56, which I have borrowed from someone else. I have the ethernet part working, but the notes in the PCMCIA HOWTO (I think) say that you need a development series kernel to use the ethernet and modem facilities becuase the 2.0 series does not support sharing the interupt. Have a carefull look at the log messages you get when you insert the card (p.s. also I am using a hamm system - I dont know if the pcmcia in bo recognised the xircom at all) I may try it with a more recent kernel some time (I only borrowed the card yesterday and have to give it back soon). I cant remember if /etc/pcmcia/serial creates /dev/modem or not (I dont have my laptop handy to check at the moment) - also Debian uses the more modern /dev/ttyS* John Lines -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: DEBIAN does not find my harddisk!!
On Thu, 8 Jan 1998, Nils Sandmann wrote: > I've got an old 386 IBM PS/2 55 SX computer and when I start debian > installation everything works quite well. (there are some error > messages, but I don't know if they are relevant for my problem : 'PPA: > unable to initialise controller at 0x308, error 1' and 'PS/2 ESDI: > Attention error. interrupt status: EF'). After that it is searching for > > the harddisk and it is doing something with it (you can hear it) and it > then it displays the number of sectors and so on.. After that the kernel > > is loaded and the installation begins. Everything is fine until I want > to create a swap disk. When the partion-program is loaded it says, that > it can't find a harddisk. Why is this? It had already worked with the > drive and it also told me the number of sectors, clusters and heads. If > someone could help me I would be very thankful! I have installed Debian on a PS/2, but it required a little fiddling around. Here is what I wrote at the time (repost of previous message) I am attempting a Debian install on an IBM PS/2 Model 70, with the standard 1.3 (might be 1.3.1) rescue disk. The kernel recognises the IBM ESDI disks, but I had to do mknod /dev/eda b 36 0 mknod /dev/eda1 b 36 1 mknod /dev/eda2 b 36 2 Also dinstall does not recognise /dev/eda as a local drive, so I have used the second window to do the fdisk and mke2fs The next problem is that fdisk -l does not recognise eda disks, even though fdisk /dev/eda does work. (This is being reported in the order I found it, there may be a better order) I got round this by doing (in the other window) fdisk /dev/eda >/tmp/fdisk and then p, to list the partition table and q to quit. I then edited the resulting /tmp/fdisk With this I could enable swap, and eventually mount the root partition (you have to keep recreating /tmp/fdisk because dinstall keeps overwriting it) I have now reached the stage where it is installing the base set, so hopefully everything will be OK from here. John Lines (end of repost of previous message) Once the base set was installed everything else worked fine, though I have not tried setting up X windows or anything else very fancy. Note that there is a Linux on PS/2 page at http://glycerine.cetmm.uni.edu/mca but that seems to be down at the moment. I seem to remember it was Slakware based - but had usefull information for all versions of Linux. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: UPS
> > While the UPS-HOWTO is very informative, I was also looking for a > Linux oriented consumer review of UPS models and features, some Linux > user's web pages with a little more up to date info than the Aug 1994 > date shown in one part of the HOWTO, as well as a survey of first hand > experiences with different UPS brands and models by Linux users. > -- I use apcd (version 0.5) which I pulled off sunsite (or tsx11 ?) on my network monitoring machine. It talks to an APC SmartUPS and keeps track of battery levels etc. As far as I know it is not available as a Debian package but when I looked (some time ago) it was the only 'smart mode' UPS monitor available for Linux. (and the APC UPS - which I inherited from another project) John Lines -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Alternatives to NIS?
John Goerzen wrote: > > At my location, we are dealing with a large Unix network composed of > machines from multiple vendors -- Debian, RedHat, Sun, DEC, etc. We are > moving largely in the direction of Debian and some of the legacy systems > will be dropped within a few years anyway (due to Y2K nonconformity). > > We have approximately 2500 users that can pick any of a few dozen machines > to log in to. Currently, we use NIS to propogate passwd information > (login, password, UID, etc.) I am aware that NIS is widely considered to > be insecure. I am wondering what alternatives Debian might support that > would provide a more secure solution than NIS. I recommend you investigate Kerberos - (I am non-US so I use http://www.pdc.kth.se/kth-krb/ as a starting URL) Note that Kerberos does not seem to be available as a Debian package yet. Many Unix distributions (US versions) include Kerberos and it is written into the security related internet standards such as GSSAPI. John Lines -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Debian Installation on IBM PS/2 Model 70
I am attempting a Debian install on an IBM PS/2 Model 70, with the standard
1.3 (might be 1.3.1) rescue disk.
The kernel recognises the IBM ESDI disks, but I had to do
mknod /dev/eda b 36 0
mknod /dev/eda1 b 36 1
mknod /dev/eda2 b 36 2
Also dinstall does not recognise /dev/eda as a local drive, so I have used the
second window to do the fdisk and mke2fs
The next problem is that fdisk -l does not recognise eda disks, even though
fdisk /dev/eda does work.
(This is being reported in the order I found it, there may be a better order)
I got round this by doing (in the other window)
fdisk /dev/eda >/tmp/fdisk
and then p, to list the partition table and q to quit.
I then edited the resulting /tmp/fdisk
With this I could enable swap, and eventually mount the root partition
(you have to keep recreating /tmp/fdisk because dinstall keeps overwriting it)
I have now reached the stage where it is installing the base set, so hopefully
everything will be OK from here.
John Lines
p.s. it would be useful to have some way (not nescessarily obvious) to
re-execute dinstall, for people who have edited it in the second window -
I havent really looked into exactly how it is started
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Re: Loading multiple GNU/Linux machines
> > I am looking for methods to efficiently load many (up to > 200) Debian GNU/Linux machines. The machines are to > be configured identically. TCP/IP connectivity is available. > > Any help will be appreciated. > > Tnx, > Nick Gilliam > Lockheed Martin > For the IP configuration BOOTP is very useful for this kind of thing. You have a server machine which knows which IP address to hand out to any particular ethernet address, and when your clients boot they pick up their IP address, and other IP related information, such as the nameservers to use etc. We use it to allow us to distribute a single, identical system to several machines. The distribution we use is not Debian based at present, but I looking at migrating to Debian. Looking through the packages I see one called nfsroot, which looks as if it may be ideal for what you want - I have not tried it yet, but I certainly will when I get the chance. John Lines p.s. Bootp is well integrated with the PCMCIA support for laptops with ethernet cards. I take my laptop from one site to another, or to my home ethernet, and just plug it in and boot, and it picks up the appropriate IP configuration whereever it happens to be. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Debian and they Year 2000 problem
The Year 2000 problem has been discussed extensively, but when anyone asks about Linux the answer is always 'The kernel is OK up till 2038, other than that it is an application problem' It seems to me that the Debian distribution, by breaking up the applications into a large number of manageable packages, could help to address the year2000 problem for Linux users. If we knew the year 2000 status of every package then we could see which areas were OK and which ones needed work. Something along the lines of a database (flat file type) with package name and version and Year2000 status, with Year 2000 status being one of Unknown No date dependancies OK Not OK I would expect the majority of packages to be in the 'No date dependancies' or OK catagories without any work required. The database would only deal with that particular package, leaving the issues of dependancies on other packages to the normal Debian depandancy machanism. John Lines -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Debian over MS-DOS (UMSDOS distribution)
Does anyone have experience of running Debian as a UMSDOS system - I have used a Slakware based system built on UMSDOS as a gentle introduction to Linux for people who dont like the idea of partitioning their hard disks, just to try Linux. They pull a big tar file off the network, and a copy of gnu tar for DOS, untar it and use Bootlin to reboot into Linux, where they automatically pick up their IP address etc through BOOTP and they can then install anything outside the base system via an NFS mounted Slakware distribution. The whole process takes about 10 minutes and they can get rid of Linux from Windows file manager very quickly if they want. (Very few people do get rid of it, but it is much easier to persuade someone to try it if they know they can get back to where they started very easily.) John Lines -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Installing onto Compaq Proliant SCSI system
I am trying to install Debian 1.3 on a SCSI based Compaq Proliant system, and the built in drivers cant find a hard disk to become the system disk. Has anyone managed to get Linux to run on the Compaq Proliant ?? Is the Compaq FAST SCSI adaptor a rebadged something else? John Lines -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
