From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 00:37:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: New: Linux Weekly News (fwd)
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>From ravage@ssz.com Tue Feb 10 10:34:50 1998
From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
Message-Id: <199802101634.KAA02399@einstein.ssz.com>
Subject: New: Linux Weekly News
To: users@ssz.com (SSZ User Mail List)
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:34:40 -0600 (CST)
Cc: friends@ssz.com (Ravage's Friends), stugreen@realtime.net
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> X-within-URL: http://www.eklektix.com/lwn/

>                                LINUX WEEKLY NEWS
>                                        
>    
>    
>    
>      _________________________________________________________________
>    
>    -->
>    
>    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? lwn@eklektix.com 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. 
>