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Re: [Wlug] Unique ID

by Theo Van Dinter

On Mon, Nov 05, 2001 at 08:00:11PM -0500, Peter Nikolla wrote: > I am tiring to right a locking mechanism for my program. I wanted to find > something unique on a Linux/Unix system that I could read to lock my code to > that machine. Does anyone know of a call I can make to get an unique ID > like a disk ID, or system ID? I'll agree with Keith on this one, it's fairly impossible to do if you're doing software-only, and probably isn't a good idea anyway. All you'll end up doing is ticking people off as they change system information around on you to bypass the "copy protection". Even semi-devious tricks like locking on root filesystem UUID (which I think would be cool to play with once or twice but not actually use for real code) can be easily fooled by something like tune2fs, if the underlying filesystem has UUIDs at all (ext[23] and XFS do, but does JFS, reiser, etc?) Typically, software tries to lock on hostid, but that's manually changable on every platform I can think of, and since PCs don't have the extra chips for hostid, it's generated in software for Linux/BSD/etc for extra-easy changing. The hostid on some platforms (SPARCs specifically here) are some algorithmic version of the main ethernet controller's MAC address. But that's changable as well via ifconfig. Why are you trying to do this for anyway? Unless your software is so critical that its functions can't be done elsewhere, I think you'll find that most people will see the "lock" business as a reason to not buy the software. -- Randomly Generated Tagline: "Flourescent lights are generating negative ions." - Today's BOFH Excuse

Nov. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Question

by Theo Van Dinter

On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 12:34:37AM -0500, Keith Wright wrote: > DNS has nothing to do with Netscape. Start by trying to ping. ??? Netscape has to use something to resolve hostnames... > network program) works as if by magic. You need to put your > nameserver IP address into /etc/resolve.conf thus: > search free-comp-shop.com > nameserver 208.218.130.4 > nameserver 208.218.130.5 > your names and numbers will vary. Also try ``nslookup'', and > post error messages. A few notes: 1) /etc/resolv.conf is the filename. Put your name servers in there as above "nameserver <IP>", multiple name servers on multiple lines. You can add the "search <domain>" and/or "domain <domain>" bits if you want, but it'll only help you if you don't use FQDNs (fully qualified domain names). 2) Check /etc/nsswitch.conf, and find the line starting with "hosts:". nsswitch.conf (Name Service Switch) controls how the C library does resolving of various things (passwd, group, services, hosts, etc.) Make sure it looks something like "hosts: files dns", unless you're doing NIS/NIS+/etc on your network. 3) Tools like "nslookup", "host", and "dig" will help you figure out if DNS can resolve the names that you're searching for, but they won't tell you if the system uses DNS (see #2). Tools like "ping" will resolve via the C library, so you'll know if the host can be looked up that way. -- Randomly Generated Tagline: "What do you do then? I touch that button and pray really really fast." - Lennier on Babylon 5

Nov. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Question

by Keith Wright

> From: "Pierce C. Barnard" <pbarnard(a)ultranet.com> > > Hello, I am trying to get my copy of Netscape to work. when I go to access > any website, it gives message that it can not reach a specific server. I > have the dns servers for my ISP but how do I configure Netscape to use > them? Thanks. DNS has nothing to do with Netscape. Start by trying to ping. When ping works it's almost certain that Netscape (and every other network program) works as if by magic. You need to put your nameserver IP address into /etc/resolve.conf thus: search free-comp-shop.com nameserver 208.218.130.4 nameserver 208.218.130.5 your names and numbers will vary. Also try ``nslookup'', and post error messages. -- -- Keith Wright <kwright(a)free-comp-shop.com> Programmer in Chief, Free Computer Shop <http://www.free-comp-shop.com> --- Food, Shelter, Source code. ---

Nov. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Unique ID

by Keith Wright

> From: "Peter Nikolla" <petern(a)hvnnet.com> > > I am tiring to right It only took me thirty seconds to figure that you are trying to write. > a locking mechanism for my program. I wanted to find > something unique on a Linux/Unix system that I could read to lock my code to > that machine. Does anyone know of a call I can make to get an unique ID > like a disk ID, or system ID? Depends on why you want it. If you just need a unique ID, the ``hostname'' command will give you the name of your machine, ``uname -a'' will give you that and more. If you are trying to prevent anybody from copying: (a) that's not the Linux way and I'm not sure I would want to help you if I could. (b) it's impossible anyway, since anybody can patch the kernel to find out what your program is looking for and give it a fake one. -- -- Keith Wright <kwright(a)free-comp-shop.com> Programmer in Chief, Free Computer Shop <http://www.free-comp-shop.com> --- Food, Shelter, Source code. ---

Nov. 6, 2001

Question

by Pierce C. Barnard

Hello, I am trying to get my copy of Netscape to work. when I go to access any website, it gives message that it can not reach a specific server. I have the dns servers for my ISP but how do I configure Netscape to use them? Thanks.

Nov. 6, 2001

Unique ID

by Peter Nikolla

Guys, I am tiring to right a locking mechanism for my program. I wanted to find something unique on a Linux/Unix system that I could read to lock my code to that machine. Does anyone know of a call I can make to get an unique ID like a disk ID, or system ID? thanx Peter N.

Nov. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] SSH and tunneling

by Josh Huber

Andy Stewart <andystewart(a)mediaone.net> writes: > I would like to be able to setup some kind of tunnel so that I can > use SSH to log into my machine at home and forward the X11 display. > > Currently, I can successfully SSH into my firewall, and from there > either telnet or SSH into the machine of interest on my home > network. This works OK for text but not for X. > > So, let's say for sake of argument that I am on a computer at the > Linux Showcase in California. How can I set this up so that I can > tunnel through my home firewall to the machine of interest on my > home network and have the X display from the home machine forward to > the machine at the conference? I think its just a matter of syntax > on the SSH command line, but I can't seem to get it right. ssh does X forwarding. For example: ssh -X <hostname> <command> will auto-forward the X connections over the secure connection. Now, if you want to automate it with your firewall, you could do like Chuck suggested, and have iptables forward a connection on an alternate port to an internal machine's port 22. This might be the best way, so you don't have to ssh to the firewall, then ssh to your internal host. but, if you don't mind multiple ssh connections, this works: ssh -C -t -A -X <host1> ssh -t -A -X host2 <command> -C == compression -t == allocate tty (otherwise the second ssh complains there is no terminal. -A == agent forwarding, not sure if you use the agent (it rocks!) -X == X forwarding I do this kind of thing, and it works well. keep in mind, that you may need to enable X forwarding on the server side in /etc/ssh/sshd_config good luck, -- Josh Huber

Nov. 2, 2001

Re: [Wlug] An excellent read for the day

by Skip Gaede

On Tuesday 30 October 2001 08:34 am, Tim Keller wrote: > Hey, its a great read... > > And for the record, I'm using the Arcangeli VM and I like it better than > the "Rik" VM... > > I hope Alan and Linus don't end up forking the kernel, I think it would be > bad for linux. > According to a recent post by Alan Cox, he agrees that the Arcangeli VM is the way to go. Someone replied "So, when are you going to start using the aa VM in your kernels? --Skip

Nov. 2, 2001

Re: [Wlug] SSH and tunneling

by Charles R . Anderson

On Thu, Nov 01, 2001 at 11:17:10PM -0500, Andy Stewart wrote: andystewart> Currently, I can successfully SSH into my firewall, and from there either andystewart> telnet or SSH into the machine of interest on my home network. This works andystewart> OK for text but not for X. You could set up the firewall to do port forwarding to your machine of interest. Then you would just ssh to the firewall on some unused port number (say 33) and the firewall would forward your request to your machine of interest, port 22. I haven't actually done this on Linux (only BSD), but I believe iptables will do it. For ipchains, I've read that you can do it with the ipmasqadm and/por portfw programs, but they don't seem to come with Red Hat...

Nov. 2, 2001

SSH and tunneling

by Andy Stewart

HI gang, I would like to be able to setup some kind of tunnel so that I can use SSH to log into my machine at home and forward the X11 display. Currently, I can successfully SSH into my firewall, and from there either telnet or SSH into the machine of interest on my home network. This works OK for text but not for X. So, let's say for sake of argument that I am on a computer at the Linux Showcase in California. How can I set this up so that I can tunnel through my home firewall to the machine of interest on my home network and have the X display from the home machine forward to the machine at the conference? I think its just a matter of syntax on the SSH command line, but I can't seem to get it right. FYI, I'm using OpenSSH version 2.9.9p2, which I believe is the latest. Thanks in advance, Andy -- Andy Stewart Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org

Nov. 2, 2001

Linux Showcase and upcoming WLUG meeting

by Andy Stewart

HI everybody, I will be attending the Annual Linux Showcase in Oakland, CA on Nov 8 - Nov 10. Is anybody else from the group planning to attend? I'm flying out on Nov 3 to see relatives in Los Angeles, and then I'll fly up to Oakland for the conference. I'll be sure to have a trip report for you all at the next WLUG meeting on Wednesday, November 14th. If anybody else has a small presentation that they'd like to give to the group at the next meeting, please let me know before Friday night if possible. See ya later, Andy -- Andy Stewart Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org

Nov. 2, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Hey, I'm on slashdot!!!

by Dan Potter

Hey, they also misspelled "it's" - "Its worth a read" should be "It's worth a read" - you can tell Taco wrote the writeup :) On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, Keller, Tim wrote: > Hey I just checked slashdot and they took my submission about the VM (per > Brians "An excellent read") I actually mentioned that I got the scoop from > a fellow Lugger and mentioned WLUG, but it looks like they just gave me a > name drop. > > Very cool non the less! > > Hey Brian, next time were in the Boyton, your beers payed for. > > Tim. aka "xturnip" > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Oct. 30, 2001

Hey, I'm on slashdot!!!

by Keller, Tim

Hey I just checked slashdot and they took my submission about the VM (per Brians "An excellent read") I actually mentioned that I got the scoop from a fellow Lugger and mentioned WLUG, but it looks like they just gave me a name drop. Very cool non the less! Hey Brian, next time were in the Boyton, your beers payed for. Tim. aka "xturnip"

Oct. 30, 2001

RE: [Wlug] An excellent read for the day

by Keller, Tim

Hey, its a great read... And for the record, I'm using the Arcangeli VM and I like it better than the "Rik" VM... I hope Alan and Linus don't end up forking the kernel, I think it would be bad for linux. Tim. -----Original Message----- From: Brian J. Conway [mailto:dogbert@clue4all.net] Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 10:11 PM To: wlug(a)wlug.org Cc: discuss(a)wpila.org Subject: [Wlug] An excellent read for the day Normally I try to refrain from posting links, especially since I'm sure a lot of people read LinuxToday, but this one was worth it. It's an excellent article on the whole 2.4 VM extravaganza, including the two implementations at war in the Linus and AC trees, kernel preemption, and some background information. It's a little biased towards the AA/Linus VM, but more informative than anything else. I'd suggest taking a few minutes out of your day and getting caught up on months of debate if you haven't already: http://www.byte.com/documents/s=1436/byt20011024s0002/1029_moshe.html Brian J. Conway dogbert(a)clue4all.net "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992 _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 30, 2001

An excellent read for the day

by Brian J. Conway

Normally I try to refrain from posting links, especially since I'm sure a lot of people read LinuxToday, but this one was worth it. It's an excellent article on the whole 2.4 VM extravaganza, including the two implementations at war in the Linus and AC trees, kernel preemption, and some background information. It's a little biased towards the AA/Linus VM, but more informative than anything else. I'd suggest taking a few minutes out of your day and getting caught up on months of debate if you haven't already: http://www.byte.com/documents/s=1436/byt20011024s0002/1029_moshe.html Brian J. Conway dogbert(a)clue4all.net "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992

Oct. 30, 2001

Re: [Wlug] More than 2 66mhz 64bit pci slots?

by ccb＠acm.org

> I've been looking around and I'm yet to find an x86 machine with more than 2 > 66mhz 64bit PCI slots. > > Does anybody know of such a machine (with 4 or more 66mhz 64bit PCI slots) > they can be on separate PCI buses. I don't think there are any. The best I know of is the Intel Quad Coppermine board used in their Koa (SRKA4) platform. Penguin sells that machine as the Relion 4500. VA used to sell it as the 4450. I'm sure you can still find someone offering it. The Intel STL2 and all of the other boards built around the ServerWorks chipset appear to only support 2 fast-wide slots. ccb

Oct. 30, 2001

SEE YOU IN IRC TONIGHT!

by Jeffrey Michael Reed

/server irc.linux.com /join #mwblug laters... -- ==//> Jeffrey Michael Reed ==//> Metro West Boston Linux User Group ==//> Co-founder/Administrator ==//> HTML, PHP, GNU/Linux ==//> ==//> Phunky Phresh stuff about... ==//> GNU/Linux, Hacking, Humor, ==//> Movies, Music, Programming, ==//> and Underground News about ==//> the Revolution... ==//> ==//> http://www.linuxbusca.com ==//> ==//> Favorite OS: Debian ==//> Favorite food: Lasagna ==//> Favorite brew: Guinness ==//> Favorite music: Mr. Bungle

Oct. 29, 2001

SEE YOU IN IRC TONIGHT!

by Jeffrey Michael Reed

hey y'all...this is jeff... i'd like to invite you to MWBLUG's IRC room tonight for some open-ended discussion. programmers, admins, and 3l33t h4x0rs needed. :) peace... -- ==//> Jeffrey Michael Reed ==//> Metro West Boston Linux User Group ==//> Co-founder/Administrator ==//> HTML, PHP, GNU/Linux ==//> ==//> Phunky Phresh stuff about... ==//> GNU/Linux, Hacking, Humor, ==//> Movies, Music, Programming, ==//> and Underground News about ==//> the Revolution... ==//> ==//> http://www.linuxbusca.com ==//> ==//> Favorite OS: Debian ==//> Favorite food: Lasagna ==//> Favorite brew: Guinness ==//> Favorite music: Mr. Bungle

Oct. 29, 2001

Re: [Wlug] More than 2 66mhz 64bit pci slots?

by Brian J. Conway

> Does anybody know of such a machine (with 4 or more 66mhz 64bit PCI slots) > they can be on separate PCI buses. After going through Tyan's web site (I swear by them), the only model I could find that wasn't using 64-bit 33mhz slots and had more than two at 66mhz was this one: http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderhet.html , featuring 3 66mhz 5V slots and 1 66mhz 3.3V slot. Expensive, I'm sure, as dual processor, dual ethernet, and dual SCSI tend to be. Brian J. Conway dogbert(a)clue4all.net "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992

Oct. 29, 2001

More than 2 66mhz 64bit pci slots?

by Keller, Tim

I've been looking around and I'm yet to find an x86 machine with more than 2 66mhz 64bit PCI slots. Does anybody know of such a machine (with 4 or more 66mhz 64bit PCI slots) they can be on separate PCI buses. Thanks, Tim.

Oct. 29, 2001

Re: [Wlug] oh crud, ext3 has screwed my /home directory!

by RWCONDON＠aol.com

Just a thought about the command, If you are still logged in at root. Would your command history be available. Perhaps, you can print out the command history file and post it. We are looking for the file /root/.bash_history. Bob Condon

Oct. 27, 2001

Re: [Wlug] ATAPI (internal) ZIP drive

by Skip Gaede

On Monday 08 October 2001 10:51 am, Skip Gaede wrote: > I need help! > > I upgraded my system to a new MLB and a faster CPU. With the new board, I > can't read or write to my ZIP drive (under Linux). I have a SCSI system, > with an Adaptec 78xx controller, an Adaptec RW CDROM (also ATAPI), and the > ZIP drive. > > Kernel: 2.4.10 > > Under ATAPI, I've checked only use SCSI emulation and under SCSI I've > checked SCSI CDROM. > > My board has both conventional ATA connectors and PROMISE ATA100 > connectors. The CDROM is attached to the conventional primary controller as > master and the ZIP is attached to the secondary controller as master. > > The drives are being supported as ide-scsi devices. Parameters passed in at > boot time include hda=scsi and hdc=scsi > > Anyone have any ideas? > Folks, It's taken a while, and I actually learned a lot about device drivers and the ide device drivers in particular. To sum it up, there was a bug in both the ide-floppy and ide-scsi drivers, which I was able to fix. The problem, at least on my system, was that the Zip drive issued an interrupt stating it was ready to receive a packet command somewhere in the vicinity of 30 msec before it was ready to actually receive the packet. My initial fix was not elegant. It involved sitting in a wait loop inside an interrupt service routine. Gadi Oxman, the original author, pointed out the error of my ways, and suggested that I implement it using the timer queue in the ide driver. The original fix used 70% of the cpu waiting on the timer. The revised fix uses < 1%. Later, Skip

Oct. 26, 2001

Lancaster MA Linux activities POSTPONED

by Andy Stewart

HI gang, There were a few people who had volunteered to come with me to Lancaster MA to do some Linux work this Saturday, October 27th. Well, I just got word that this will not happen this weekend, through no fault of our own. Warren's granddaughter will be born this weekend, hence, he's a little busy, and he asked us if we could come on another day (yet to be determined). (Warren is the director of the council on aging in Lancaster). I apologize for any inconvenience that this late notice might cause. I just found out myself. My thanks to those of you who were prepared to volunteer your time. -- Andy Stewart Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org

Oct. 26, 2001

Re: [Wlug] oh crud, ext3 has screwed my /home directory!

by Brad Noyes

you may be able to get back some of the files that you lost by using debugfs. This might only work with ext2 (not sure how compatible ext3 is with ext2. But its hard to say if that will help since we don't know what the 'wrong command' was. You may want to research this before you try it, i'm just recalling this from memory. But if you want to use debugfs to recover data: - umount your partition. - type 'debugfs /dev/<your_partition>. - at the prompt, type 'lsdel'. This will list all the files and their inodes that have been deleted (no file name though). - when you see a inode that you want to recover, type 'dump <inode#> /tmp/<new_file_name>. (for example, 'dump <42> /tmp/project1'. -brad On Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 10:51:52PM -0400, Wesley Allen wrote: > OK, I'm an idiot. I should have realized the the "no fault > possible" upgrade to ext3 was too good to be true. Perhaps I read a bit > too much this time and figured, "Hey, it's only adding a journaling > file, right? What can possibly go wrong.?" > Well, I followed the directions, but I'm tired and I ran the wrong > command. I erased my /home directory! Oh excrement, I was just working > on a web site for a client, it looked really nice, and now it's ALL GONE. > Well, I haven't written to the partition yet, so the inodes are > still there, right? How do I recover data? Most of it is not a > problem, but I had 2 projects that I really want to get back. > From now on I will do two things: > > 1. NEVER attempt that "cool thing I've been wanting to check out" > when I'm exhausted and haven't slept in a while. > 2. BACK-UP! > > Just please help! >

Oct. 25, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Speaking of bad things happening to file systems...

by Marc Hughes

If it was me, I would download the SUSE live eval CD and boot off of that. It will give you a basic linux system to work with without changing the hard drive. Then use that to copy the files off of the machine to a safe place. I haven't tried this out in a while, but I'm fairly sure you can get networking running right off the CD. Of course this is all assuming the filesystem on the drive isn't pooched. You can also replace "SUSE live eval CD" with any of the single floppy disk distributions. -Marc On Thu, 2001-10-25 at 08:20, Stephen C. Daukas wrote: > This is a story about a ZIP drive, Windows 2000 Pro, and how I think Linux > might save the day. So, if you have any good ideas before I go down this > path, please let me know! > > So, this all started when I tried to install a Zip drive on my wife's > laptop (IBM A20m) running Win2k Pro. I was doing this so she could back-up > her important files (e.g., Quicken) before we began installing additional > software and RedHat Linux. The Zip drive screwed the OS - couldn't boot > after the install program said to reboot. Windows! > > Next, I tried the various Windows mechanisms for trying to recover and > repair the OS. No luck - things got a bit worse (but I won't bore you with > the details). I even went so far as to call IBM's support center to see if > they had a way of restoring to defaults in a non-destructive way. No > Luck. In fact, the support engineer I spoke with told me he tried to get a > ZIP drive going on his system running Win2k Pro and after working with > Iomega for 3 hours - he gave up. > > My wife says its OK to wipe the disk and start over, but I know better > (esp. after 16 years of marriage)! > > So I had a bright idea (well, an idea anyway). If I had partition magic, I > could partition the disk, install Windows 2000 on the new partition, get > all of her important files across the network to one of my other PCs, then > wipe the disk and start over. BUT, I don't have partition magic (sigh). > > Then it hit me - why couldn't I do this with Linux? I want to have Linux > and Win2k on the laptop when I'm done anyway, so why not partition the > hard drive and then go from there? > > So, because I don't want to take any chances with my wife's files, here are > some overly cautious questions: > > 1. During the install of RedHat 7.1, I assume I can re-partition > non-destructively and end up with a bad Win2k and a good RedHat when I'm > done. Does the RedHat install try to test to see if there is another OS or > does it just let me re-partition at will? (Never installed Linux with > Windows before.) > > 2. If I install RedHat 7.1 in the second newly created partition, can I > read the files from the 2000 partition? IBM tells me they always go FAT16 > with their distributions, but its a large disk so it might be FAT32. > > 3. If there is a problem with reading the Win2k file system, or if you > think going this route is a bad idea, is there a way to run just the > partitioning portion of the RedHat install to make a partition that I can > install Win2k into? > > The goal here is to get files off of the existing Win2k file system and > then to wipe the machine and start over... > > Thanks in Advance! > Steve > > > Stephen C. Daukas > stephen(a)daukas.com > (508) 845-9809 - Home > (508) 845-5015 - Fax > (508) 612-2149 - Mobile > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Oct. 25, 2001