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>From [email protected] Tue Feb 10 10:34:50 1998
From: Jim Choate <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: New: Linux Weekly News
To: [email protected] (SSZ User Mail List)
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:34:40 -0600 (CST)
Cc: [email protected] (Ravage's Friends), [email protected]
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> X-within-URL: http://www.eklektix.com/lwn/
> LINUX WEEKLY NEWS
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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> -->
>
> Linux Weekly News
>
>
>
> Bringing you the latest news from the Linux World.
> Dedicated to keeping Linux users up-to-date, with concise news for all
> interests
> Published February 5, 1998
>
> Sections:
> Linux articles
> Security
> Kernel news
> Distributions
> Ports
> Software Development
> Tips and tricks
> Announcements
>
>
> Leading items
>
> This is going to be the year of free software. I have honestly come to
> believe that. The free software movement is about to make tremendous
> gains in respect and mindshare in realms where it has long been
> ignored. Big software firms may want to start worrying, because the
> world is changing around them.
>
> Anybody who didn't read Eric S. Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar
> paper should go and do so now. It describes the Linux development
> model nicely, as well as the reasons for the success of that model.
> Netscape has credited this paper with being a crucial influence in
> their decision to free the source to their browser.
>
> As of this writing, Eric is evidently in Silicon Valley discussing
> licensing terms with Netscape. The word is that he is also meeting
> with several other "leading Silicon Valley CEO's" to discuss the free
> software model. One wonders who else may decide to adopt the bazaar
> model of development.
>
> Whether or not other firms follow Netscape in the near future, free
> software now has a visibility that was lacking before. Peruse the set
> of articles listed below, and you'll see what we mean. This can only
> be good for the Linux world, as the validity of its model of
> development gains the recognition it deserves. It's looking like
> interesting times.
>
> David Miller, the force behind the Sparc and SGI ports, finally
> resurfaced after a longish, low-profile period. To see what he has
> been doing, check out the Cobalt Micro page. I don't know anybody who
> has actually run one of these cool, blue Linux boxes, but they look
> like a fun toy...
>
> Does unix need to be rescued from the hackers?. This item isn't
> particularly new, but Michael Hoffman's article on the need for a
> seamless graphical user interface for unix systems is still good food
> for thought. Another person, Perry Harrington, would like to replace
> the X window system with something better, and which would include a
> serious user interface policy. See his page if you would like to
> participate.
>
> Peruse the LWN Archives.
>
> Our obligatory Linux links page.
>
> Got some feedback, some news to publish, or something else you would
> like to tell us? [email protected] is our address.
>
> Or would you like to be notified when new editions of the Linux Weekly
> News are published? Click here and send a blank message.
>
> Please see our contact page for other contact information.
>
> The permanent site for this page is here. [Articles]
>
> Linux in the news
>
> Wired news ran an article on free software last week. The obvious
> point of interest was Netscape, but Linux rated some favorable mention
> as well. It's a reasonable discussion of the merits of free software
> in general.
>
> Accolades from the Emerald Isle. An article in the Irish Times
> financial section is also favorable toward Linux, explicitly as an
> alternative to NT. I assume that "Linux remains at the coalface
> technologically [...]" is a positive thing...
>
> There is a four-part series on free software in news.com this week.
> It's a reasonably good and sympathetic series, despite its title:
> "Socialist Software."
>
> Many of us have heard the old argument: "There is no technical support
> for Linux." Well, then, why has Infoworld awarded its 1997 technical
> support award to the Linux community? It's a great bit of recognition
> that just because software is free doesn't mean that it's unsupported.
> Show this one to your boss.
>
> Ah yes, and their award for operating systems went to Red Hat 5.0...
>
> Two other articles in Infoworld: Nicolas Petreley thinks that
> Netscape's move could be a winning strategy, while Mark Tebbe talks of
> the model used by "a renegade OS such as Linux" and raises, you
> guessed it, the spectre of support.
>
> "[Linux] is emerging as a viable competitor to Microsoft's Windows NT"
> according to an article in the New York Times. Note that this site
> requires registration now... The old convention of using 'cypherpunks'
> for the username and password will get you in, if you don't wish to
> register separately.
>
> The folks at TBTF ran a couple of Linux-related articles this week.
> One, dedicated to estimating the size of the Linux community, comes up
> with 5-7 million installed Linux systems in the world.
>
> We are told January's issue of Sky & Telescope has a nice Linux
> article in it. We haven't seen it, though; check your local newsstand.
>
>
> CNN's article on top selling software for January includes a reference
> to Red Hat Linux. It's number three in the "Business Software
> (MS-DOS/OS/2)" section. "Business software" can almost make sense, but
> "MS-DOS"??? [Security] A serious X-windows security problem has
> been reported in XKB, depending on X11 version and environment, which
> can allow local users to exploit a "feature" XDB to execute arbitrary
> programs with extra privileges. Quick vulnerability check and fix are
> provided in the posting to linux-alert. You can also see Red Hat's
> advisory on this bug.
>
> The AT&T Crowds project has chosen linux for their next target. Crowds
> is intended to protect a person's anonymity as they browse the web and
> already runs under SunOS, Solaris and Irix.
>
> The filter program that comes as part of the elm-2.4 package contains
> two vulnerabilities, one of which could be remotely exploited. Details
> here.
>
> Michal Zalewski reported a problem with gzexe, part of the gzip
> package. Seems it uses predictable filenames in /tmp, which may allow
> users to destroy the contents of files on your system. Use of gzexe is
> not widespread, but Red Hat recommends upgrading your version of gzip.
> [Kernel] The current development kernel version is 2.1.85. It
> includes the ability to boot off of MD striped disks, a bunch of SCSI
> changes for machines with the IBM MCA bus, bug fixes, and
> documentation updates. Thus far, reported problems are few, though
> there are evidently some build problems with the MCA SCSI stuff.
>
> Alan Cox states that TCP is "somewhat broken" in the 2.1.8x series,
> "and will remain so until it's fixed." As always with development
> kernels, be careful out there. Patches continue to roll in towards a
> (still somewhat distant) 2.2 release.
>
> A stated goal, once development starts on 2.3, is reworking and
> cleaning up the sound driver code. Some of you may have noticed that
> it can be a bit, um, difficult to configure and make work right. It's
> not clear how that development will proceed, but Colin Plumb posted a
> good, concise article on some of the issues involved.
>
> Richard Gooch continues to update his enhancements. The MTRR patch
> (MTRR stands for Memory Type Range Registers - now we all understand,
> right?), which greatly speeds frame buffer access, is up to rev 1.8
> (against kernel 2.1.84). His "devfs" patch (runtime creation of the
> /dev tree) is up to version 18. Both are available from his patch
> page. Still no word on when (or if) these patches will go into the
> 2.1 kernel.
>
> Unless you have a multiprocessor machine, be sure not to compile your
> kernels with SMP enabled. Recent development kernels seem to be even
> less than usually forgiving in this regard; SMP kernels on a
> uniprocessor machine can die in weird and unpleasant ways.
> Unfortunately, SMP is still the default, and is not a configuration
> option; you need to edit the Makefile and comment out the SMP = 1 line
> near the beginning. Believe me (voice of experience here) it's an easy
> thing to forget...
>
> Also in the SMP arena is a flurry of activity around IO-APIC use. The
> IO-APIC is an interrupt controller on multiprocessor systems which is
> able to route interrupts to any CPU, thus helping to create a true
> symmetric multiprocessing system. However, each motherboard seems to
> do it a little different, leading to one of those bits of hardware
> obnoxiousness that takes a long time to sort out. The 2.1.85 kernel
> added a document describing IO-APIC for those interested in the
> details.
>
> Is the Linux Maintenance Project dead? The question was raised this
> week, since the web pages have not been updated in recent times. The
> answer is that the maintainer is busy, and some new ways of running
> the web pages are being worked out. Expect some activity there in the
> not-too-distant future.
>
> William Stearns is working on a program to automate the process of
> building a new kernel. Check out his web page for more info. Since
> we're a weekly publication, chances are we'll be behind a rev or two
> on the kernel release by the time you read this page. Up-to-the-second
> information can always be found at LinuxHQ. [DISTRIBUTIONS]
>
> Debian
>
> Yes, it's true! Debian is dumping dselect! From the recent mention on
> debian-announce, the new package manager meant to replace dselect is
> now being demonstrated and will probably appear in 2.1 or one of the
> early point releases.
>
> Mentioned recently on debian-announce, a Debian system was used to
> develop the AMSAT Phase 3-D satellite, one of the series of Ham Radio
> Satellites. Check it out here.
>
> A reminder to frustrated Debian users who are only finding their
> favorite software in RPM format: "alien" can be used instead. If you
> have trouble with alien, try upgrading to debianutils 1.6.
>
> The January issue of the German magazine CHIP Extra comes with a
> CD-ROM containing Debian 1.3.1 and the Beta version of StarOffice 4.0
> for Linux. Review from debian-user indicates that the issue is very
> well done, with a lot of useful info for both novices and users.
> Here's CHIP's Web site, primarily in German.
>
> Red Hat
>
> Red Hat reports recent turn-over in their support staff which has hurt
> the Red Hat installation support they provide via e-mail to people who
> purchase their $50 set. They "have been working to midnight and
> beyond" to catch up with the backload and have hired new staff. Robert
> Hart (Red Hat's support manager) assured people on redhat-list that
> Red Hat installation support will not be terminated at 30 days if a
> delay on their part caused the time to run out.
>
> Red Hat 5.0 users have also been griping a bit about how the errata
> pages are handled. Complaints include slow updates, and Red Hat's
> tendency to update existing entries, making it very hard to notice a
> second update for a given package. A call was made for public
> announcements from Red Hat whenever updates go out.
>
> Users on redhat-list have been poking at
> http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/IE4mk/, finding that
> accessing it from Netscape 4.04 crashes some Xservers, and not others,
> depending on your Xserver and Linux version. No direct link is
> provided, on-purpose, but feel free to check it out!.
>
> Off-topic, but on the redhat-list, Dave Wreski compiled and posted a
> list of free ssh-clients for Windows. He would like to see people
> choose one, try it out and post a review, since interest in them is so
> high.
>
> Slackware
>
> Reported on bugtraq: Imapd/ipop3d problems in slackware 3.4 if you
> install the pine package. When fed an unknown username, imapd and
> ipop3d will dump core. Details here. Patrick Volkerding [maintainer of
> Slackware] has already responded and will put out a repaired package.
>
> S.u.S.E
>
> For the Linux trivia buffs, S.u.S.E stands for 'Software und System
> Entwicklung', which means software and system development. If you're
> interested in S.u.S.E's history, check out this post from Bodo Bauer.
>
> How do you pronounce S.u.S.E? A popular Americanism is "Suzie", but if
> you ask in Germany, the pronunciation will be closer to "Seuss-eh" (as
> in Doctor Seuss) or "Souss-uh". Boy was it fun to watch people try and
> describe a sound in an e-mail message!
>
> There are a lot of converts from various Unix flavors on the
> suse-linux-e list (of course!). If you're interested in comments from
> one person who recently installed the distribution, check it out.
> [Ports]
>
> Alpha
>
> At least one Linux system vendor (Net Express) has stopped selling
> Alpha-based systems as a result of the Compaq takeover of Digital. See
> their Alpha systems page for details on their reasoning. On the other
> hand, most other vendors and the Alpha discussion lists remain
> relatively calm on this subject, suggesting that not everybody is
> worried.
>
> There is an article in SunWorld Online about the Compaq takeover. No
> real conclusions, but they raise some concerns.
>
> Sparc
>
> People are already asking whether SPARC/Linux will run on the new,
> PCI-based Ultra workstations. No definitive answer has been posted,
> but it seems awfully unlikely. The new bus, new video, and (oh joy)
> IDE disks are all stuff that SPARC/Linux has never had to deal with
> before. /td> [Software Development] Almost overnight, the
> linux-ha (linux high-availability list) has revived and is generating
> good discussion! If you are interested in high-availability Linux
> solutions, now is the time to get involved! You can subscribe to
> linux-ha on the Linux Mailing Lists page.
>
> [Articles] Some folks are discovering they can no longer access
> hosts with underscores in their names. Host names with underscores
> have always been against the rules, but many systems have let them
> work anyway. However, the new GNU C library, shipping with the latest
> Linux distributions, enforces this rule. If you have host names with
> _underscores_, you might want to consider renaming them soon.
>
> Want to run Oracle 7.3.3 under Linux? Jan Andersen posted a detailed
> howto describing the path to there using the IBCS package.
>
> If you see these errors from Netscape Communicator 4.04:
>
> sh: -c line 1: missing closing `)' for arthmetic expression sh: -1
> line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `;' sh: -c line 1:
> `((/usr/local/bin/rvplayer /tmp/MO34B2F4B209B0136.ram); rm /tmp/\
> MO34B2F4B209B0136.ram )&'
>
> your problem is actually probably your version of bash. Try upgrading
> to the latest version (2.01) to fix the problem.
> [Announcements]
>
> Software and documents
>
> Package Version Description accton 4.0 Driver for Accton pocket
> ethernet adaptor buslogic 2.0.11 Leonard Zubkoff's outstanding
> BusLogic SCSI adaptor driver CD patch Patch to 2.0 33 kernel to
> support new CD formats datapult 2.02 Scripting language for web
> servers ddd 2.2.2 Graphical front end to gdb (very nice) FireMyst 0.8
> Small, UMSDOS-based system (for recovery diskettes) fnorb 0.4 CORBA
> object request broker for Python. One of the best-named packages out
> there, in your editor's opinion. freetype 1.0 TrueType font rendering
> engine ImageMagick 4.0 Amazing image manipulation/conversion system
> KDEbeta 3 K desktop environment lftp 0.14.0 Command-line FTP client
> lilo-color Patch to Lilo 20 to display boot messages in color linbot
> 0.3 Web site management tool mat 0.15 System administration tool plor
> 0.3.2 Offline mail and news reader secure-linux Patch to kernel 2.0.33
> to add a number of security features. SMS client 2.0.5 Send SMS
> messages to mobile phones snipix 2.12 Run SNA (and talk to your old
> IBM mainframes) on your Linux box. Free for Linux, commercial for
> other OS's. Software Building mini-HOWTO 1.52 HOWTO on building
> software from source StarOffice 4.0 Office suite, free for private use
> TkInfo 2.4 Tcl/Tk-based info browser TtH 1.1 Translate TeX to HTML
> webalizer beta WWW server log analysis xbomb 2.1 X-based minesweeper
> game LLNL XDIR 2.1 Motif-based graphical FTP client xtc 0005 X toolkit
> in Java zed 1.0.1 "Fast, powerful, simple, configurable" text editor.
> -->
>
> Projects
>
> A bunch of ambitious folks have announced the Java/Linux NC project.
> They want to provide a complete network computer implementation, with
> a full set of Microsoft-type applications, for free. Java and Linux
> are their tools. It's a big project, and I wish them luck; check out
> their announcement for more info, or to join up.
>
> Other folks want to clone Userland's "Frontier" scripting environment.
> See their announcement for more.
>
> A volunteer-supported (commercial) Webzine, 32 Bits Online is looking
> for LINUX writers to share with the world why Linux is their operating
> system of choice. If you're interested in an audience for your
> opinions, send e-mail to Ronny Ko.
>
> The Virtuoso project seeks to put together a fancy 3d graphics package
> for Linux. See their announcement if you would like to help.
>
> The folks with the amazing samba project are setting out to create a
> free NT domain controller.
>
> The Linux Clothing Project moves into a new phase of Linux fashion.
> Heaven forbid we have any naked Linuxes out there...
>
> Web Sites
>
> The LSDB (Linux Software Database), a cgi searchable database of linux
> software has moved. The new address is http://www.egypt.pca.net.
>
> Events
>
> 1998 Atlanta Linux Showcase, October 23 - 24, 1998, Atlanta, Georgia.
>
> Asia and Pacific Rim Internet Conference on Operational Technologies
> (APRICOT). Manila, Philippines, February 16-20, 1998.
>
> On the lighter side
>
> A native returning "down under" after a year and a half gives a note
> on Linux' increased popularity in Australia.
>
> Some fear that the joke announcement that Linus was going to integrate
> Netscape into the Linux Operating System may have the same lifespan as
> the Good Times Virus ... Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! This
> page is produced by Eklektix, Inc.
>