- WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

pubkey authentication in openssh
by Eric Stein 17 Feb '06

17 Feb '06

Does anyone know a way to force pubkey authentication for only certain users but allow password for others? Eric

4 4

MySQL replication question
by Bill Mills-Curran 17 Feb '06

17 Feb '06

Does anyone have experience with MySQL's replication capabilities? I'm running versions 4.1.8 and 4.1.14 servers on linux and windows, and I have a very remote site where I'd like to support replication. The data changes very slowly, but the link has 300 ms (ping) latency and has a small (but noticeable) amount of down time. Does it work well enough to be considered reliable for critical applications? TIA, Bill

2 1

Reminder: Upcoming WLUG meeting THURSDAY 7:00 PM
by Andy Stewart 14 Feb '06

14 Feb '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 HI Everybody, Its that time again! The next WLUG meeting will be on Thursday, February 16th at 7:00 PM in the Access Grid Room at WPI in Worcester, MA USA. Directions can be found on the WLUG website. At this meeting, yours truly will give a presentation about getting Linux running on the MikroTik Routerboard 532. I had decided that I wanted to build a silent firewall, no moving parts, running GPL'd software. I used buildroot and Busybox from the embedded Linux world, the Linux kernel (with patches), and the SuSE Firewall scripts, to make a working firewall. The firewall has been up for 13.5 days straight with no discernable problems. It passed a recent screening by nessus. Linux firewall 2.4.30 #12 Sun Jan 22 20:31:58 EST 2006 mips unknown 21:56:47 up 13 days, 12:46, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 I'll bring the box to the meeting and use it in a live demo. I'll have some slides on my laptop as well, which I'll post on the WLUG website afterwards. I also have some items for raffle: 1 Linux Journal magazine from March 2006 (they sent me 2...) Cross Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets Bruce Perens' Open Source Series Prentice Hall ISBN 0-13-147381-6 Linux Patch Management Bruce Perens' Open Source Series Prentice Hall ISBN 0-13-236675-4 Once the meeting concludes, we'll go to the Tech Pizza restaurant nearby. Oh, BTW, Linux world is coming up in Boston during the first week of April. I've received a couple of emails from the Linux world folks. Does anybody have any interest in representing WLUG at this event? I'd like to go, but it depends on whether or not I can get the time off from work. Are people planning to go, because I think we can get a group discount of some kind. I'll print the emails and bring them to the meeting so we can discuss it. I'll post the info to the list afterwards. See ya later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFD8UgRHl0iXDssISsRAgsgAJ9EJLRPyzVvlu+bJAws9R9wlNEUiQCfd/Fc jIhKGn60OhKNLjD2ethRGAE= =KKDx -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Anyone with Verizon fios?
by Bill Mills-Curran 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Anyone using Verizon FiOS? The service looks interesting, but they require their own router. I'm wondering if that prevents all incoming connections, like ssh? Also, the rates they quote on the web page refers to a "bundle discount", but they don't say what a bundle is. Bill

3 2

Rescuing Data From a Hard Drive
by Michael Zarozinski 02 Feb '06

02 Feb '06

Hi All, I've got a bit of a problem... we have a linux server that contained 2 hard drives. The one with the boot information died - LUCKILY the data we NEED was on the hard drive that lived. My question is... how can I recover the data I need? I've been able to boot to the shell using the install disk and can see the data I need but that shell doesn't provide access to the network card so I can copy the data off. I tried a fresh install on a new HD but when I attatch the 2nd HD (with the data I need) I can't see it. Forgive me, I come from the windows world where just plugging in the old HD would allow me to pull the data off. Any ideas/help/etc is greatly appreciated! Michael Z

5 4

RE: [Wlug] Rescuing Data From a Hard Drive
by Hemstreet, Jeffrey L (Jeffrey) 01 Feb '06

01 Feb '06

When you put the 2nd HDD in the system that you built, did you 'mount' the old drive. The system will not automatically mount the old drive when you install it. Putting it into a working system to access the data is the best way. Yes, windows will automatically mount a new drive if it sees a valid formatted partition, but Linux generally does not. jeff -----Original Message----- From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org [mailto:wlug-bounces@mail.wlug.org] On Behalf Of Michael Zarozinski Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 2:32 PM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: [Wlug] Rescuing Data From a Hard Drive Hi All, I've got a bit of a problem... we have a linux server that contained 2 hard drives. The one with the boot information died - LUCKILY the data we NEED was on the hard drive that lived. My question is... how can I recover the data I need? I've been able to boot to the shell using the install disk and can see the data I need but that shell doesn't provide access to the network card so I can copy the data off. I tried a fresh install on a new HD but when I attatch the 2nd HD (with the data I need) I can't see it. Forgive me, I come from the windows world where just plugging in the old HD would allow me to pull the data off. Any ideas/help/etc is greatly appreciated! Michael Z _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

1 0

meeting topic
by Mike Leo 01 Feb '06

01 Feb '06

Am I wrong, or is the gentoo install insanely comlicated? Although I did not sit in front of it from start to finish, it seems like an install takes hours and hours of work... I followed the Handbook (some 80 pages of documentation), which i'm sure is very accurate and each step worked as advertised, but in the end it was too much. After an install of debian, which takes me less than 20 minutes, this was too much for my poor little brain to take, and I eventually gave up. In addition to that, I can't for the life of me, get slackware to consistantly install lilo correctly during the install. Any comments on either of these would be apreciated, however, I am just writing this to toss my vote in for a linux install fest as a meeting topic. I have no problem bringing in a laptop to show the simple, eligant, streamlined, 20 minute debian install, but I would like to also see someone go through a gentoo install, and assist on a slackware lilo config...all of which can be done via my laptop if needed. Thanks ! Mike

5 7

Re: [Wlug] getting that cpu to sleep ...
by Jamie Guinan 30 Jan '06

30 Jan '06

Hi, I just joined the list and was looking through some of the archives. > I have a question for those linux programmers out there. i'm writing > a program on linux (kubuntu to be specific) that requires > high-precision timing, somewhere on the order of 100 to 1000 micro > seconds. <snip> > The problem with this approach is that the process uses 99% of the > CPU since it just spins the CPU until enough time has expired. You can get up to 1/8192Hz (122us) periodic interrupts with the x86 RTC timer. You might have to do a little setup, like, # modprobe rtc # echo 8192 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq [ fiddle permissions on /dev/misc/rtc or /dev/rtc unless you are running your app as root ] See Documentation/rtc.txt in the kernel source for programming details. Basically the kernel is free to idle or run other things until the RTC interrupt hits, then it wakes up your app doing read() or poll() on /dev/rtc. I used this to pulse a hardware register in a project I did a few years ago, worked good enough for my purposes. You might lose an RTC interrupt here and there if your system is under heavy load (call it "soft realtime"), but I think the interface tells you if and how many you lost. There's also the more advanced HPET timer available for newer x86 systems, but I haven't looked at that yet. Good luck, -Jamie Guinan

1 0

JOB: Seeking Unix SysAdmin
by Andy Stewart 25 Jan '06

25 Jan '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Everybody, If you are interested in the following job opportunity, please reply directly to bburns(a)m-Qube.com (Barbara Burns). =====start===== m-Qube, located in Boston, is the premiere mobile messaging management technology company in America and we operate a high-volume wireless messaging ASP. We are currently conducting a search for an experienced Systems Administrator who will be responsible for keeping this Linux/Java/J2EE-based server environment monitored and operational on a 24X7 basis. Responsibilities * Server Administration and Management 1. Configuration, administration and tuning of a high-performance Linux computing environment including new server deployment and setup 2. Develop and maintain scripts for monitoring and automation of periodic jobs 3. Provide problem isolation and resolution using software and diagnostics and/or crash/dump analysis 4. Administration of archive and backup systems 5. Perform ongoing capacity planning activities based on company growth 6. Serve as a system admin knowledge resource for persons throughout the organization 7. Available 24x7 for system emergencies * SAN Storage Administration 1. Maintain existing SAN storage infrastructure 2. Add and reconfigure storage to meet demands of the business 3. Use SAN technology to create backups for disaster recovery * Network Administration 1. Manage network devices including switches, routers and load balancers 2. Resolve issues with network 3. Review logs and run periodic health checks on infrastructure Qualifications: You must have extensive hands-on experience in a high-availability Linux environment with Apache, JBOSS, load balancing and SSL configurations. Your added assets will be an understanding of application programming in Java/JSP, Perl/Javascript or XML interfaces. You have some experience maintaining Cisco network equipment. Candidate must have strong work ethic and possess the ability to perform under time constraints in a dynamic environment. Managing multiple priorities while completing them simultaneously is a basic requirement.The individual must possess excellent skills in troubleshooting complex network environments and devices on his/her own. Experience: Qualified candidates should posses experience in the following: Enterprise-class Linux environments with 5 years of experience Experience with Linux server technologies including NFS, NIS, LDAP, kickstart, etc. Familiarity with engineering tools such as CVS and Bugzilla Proficient in scripting including PERL, Shell, Awk or Sed Extensive operations experience including o Experience analyzing and resolving problems associated with server hardware, server operating system and applications software o Capacity to perform a wide variety of tasks in software/hardware maintenance and operational support of server systems o Strong knowledge and experience with backup policies and emergency recovery procedures Some experience working with the following is preferred: Routing protocol and router administration Maintenance of Java, XML and SQL web applications Education: BS degree in Information Systems or related area desired Please respond directly to Barbara Burns at bburns(a)m-qube.com 617.673.2474 =====end===== - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFD1wKJHl0iXDssISsRApOuAJ4kiKrElcrpiUpcBzlkb03eJxRS/QCfcvE4 i/EIPwzBA5NOL60i3UnW8dQ= =XuEN -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

SSH Tunneling?
by Michael Zarozinski 24 Jan '06

24 Jan '06

Hi all, I'm in the process of moving a web site, msql db, and some game daemons to a new server. While the DNS transfer is in process we want all traffic to go to the new server. I've been told this can be done vial ssh tunnels but don't have any experience.... can anyone point me in the right direction? Do I need to set up a tunnel for every port on the old server (the games open ports)? How is it set up to run all the time? Do I need to mess with sshd_config? Any and all help is appreciated! Thanx! Michael Z

4 3

Rough upgrade to FC4
by Bill Mills-Curran 23 Jan '06

23 Jan '06

I just upgraded to FC4 from FC3 and I had some troubles that should not have happened. My FC3 system was current with updates, and I used downloaded ISO's from fedora. The problem was that many of the FC3 packages were more up to date than the FC4 packages, so the upgrade did not install them. This included the kernel. I felt lucky that I had a workable system. Running up2date did not help -- I was still in an FC3 system (kind of). I manually installed the FC4 kernel and ran up2date again, but it was stuck on many packages, because up2date only wanted to freshen existing rpm's -- it didn't want to add any new ones to solve dependencies. After much arm-wrestling (floundering?), I gave up on the GUI up2date and ran with the command line, feeding it chunks of rpms that needed updating. I feel lucky that I didn't brick my system. What did I do wrong? This must be a common occurance. I have another system that I need to upgrade, but I don't want it to go like this. What's a better way? Thanks, Bill

4 4

Re: Rough upgrade to FC4
by Joshua D. Abraham 23 Jan '06

23 Jan '06

On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 10:24:43PM -0500, nmeyers(a)javalinux.net wrote: > On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 10:13:27PM -0500, Bill Mills-Curran wrote: > > I just upgraded to FC4 from FC3 and I had some troubles that should > > not have happened. My FC3 system was current with updates, and I used > > downloaded ISO's from fedora. The problem was that many of the FC3 > > packages were more up to date than the FC4 packages, so the upgrade > > did not install them. This included the kernel. I felt lucky that I > > had a workable system. > > Sorry to hear things haven't gotten any better since my days as > an RH user (pre-RH9). I never experienced a smooth upgrade; sometimes > had to just rebuild the system. > Agreed. I have been using Redhat since 6.2. I had partitions setup the following way /boot / swap /home /usr/local/ This way I can keep the users data and just install a new system over it. I think that Debian's method of package management is the best of any of the Linux Distro's. I a year ago I switched from FC3 to Ubuntu because Ubuntu has a 6 month release cycle, similar to FC and Ubuntu pays individuals to fix security vulnerabilities. --Josh > I drifted from RH to Mandrake (pre-Mandriva) and then to Gentoo. > Though not without the occasional bump, I've found Gentoo's approach to > package management the least violent of them all. > > Nathan > > > > > Running up2date did not help -- I was still in an FC3 system (kind of). > > > > I manually installed the FC4 kernel and ran up2date again, but it was > > stuck on many packages, because up2date only wanted to freshen > > existing rpm's -- it didn't want to add any new ones to solve > > dependencies. > > > > After much arm-wrestling (floundering?), I gave up on the GUI up2date > > and ran with the command line, feeding it chunks of rpms that needed > > updating. > > > > I feel lucky that I didn't brick my system. What did I do wrong? > > This must be a common occurance. I have another system that I need to > > upgrade, but I don't want it to go like this. What's a better way? > > > > Thanks, > > Bill > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > Discuss(a)blu.org > > http://olduvai.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss(a)blu.org > http://olduvai.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

1 0

Subject: Re: [Wlug] Trial By Fire
by Tom Misilo 22 Jan '06

22 Jan '06

for all mozilla packages visit their project dir heres a link for thunderbird http://suse.cs.utah.edu/projects/mozilla/thunderbird/1.5/ for all the mozilla stuff http://suse.cs.utah.edu/projects/mozilla/ Tom > On 1/21/06, Marie MacDonald <mimsresearch(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Do downloadable software packages for Linux come with intallers? > > It depends. Many do but some require a few more steps. If you stick > with installing SW via yast, you'll have the easiest time. > > > Can anyone help with advice for YaSt? Is my issue with the Thunderbird > > 1.5 package perhaps? > > Perhaps the recent Novell distro is different, but I've never seen > Thunderbird in the Yast repository (I'm still using SuSE 9.3). > Anytime I want Firefox or Thunderbird, I go direct to > http://www.mozilla.com and download it there. What you download there > has an installer built in. > > > Quite frankly if it's this hard (frustrating!) to install software, I'm > > not gonna be a happy gal. I still have other things I want to add to > > this snappy little computer (i.e. my Palm) but darn there's gotta be an > > easier way. Spring semester starts 26 January and I need this up and > > running. > > You sound determined and that's probably the most important trait for > someone trying to stick with Linux. Stick with YaST as much as > possible and post here for other specific questions--we'll get you > through. > > BR

1 0

Perl Unicode question
by Skip Gaede 22 Jan '06

22 Jan '06

Folks, I'm trying to understand how Unicode works in Perl 5.8.7, and things are not working the way they're described in perluniintro. In particular, I have a file encoded in UTF-8 from Perl, that I want to convert to Windows Unicode (UCS-16LE). The intro provides this snippet for converting from one character set to another: open(my $nihongo, '<:encoding(iso2022-jp)', 'text.jis'); open(my $unicode, '>:utf8', 'text.utf8'); while (<$nihongo>) { print $unicode } When I try that, substituting UTF-8 and ':encoding(UTF-16LE)', I get no warnings, but the output has twice as many characters as it should have and they are all NULLs. I can supply a my UTF-8 file if anyone wants to have a try. In particular, I think the fact that I have embedded apostrophes (0x27) encoded as RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK (0x2019) may be part of the problem. Thanks, Skip

1 0

Trial By Fire
by Marie MacDonald 21 Jan '06

21 Jan '06

Greetings All! You may recall a while back I was asking questions about Linux laptops and video capture and editing software for Linux As luck would have it, I was given a shiny new (well, slightly used) Linux desktop compuer. It is running the Novell distro (see I'm learning!!) and I'm loving it. As fate would have it, my laptop died two days ago and this Linux system is all I have left. I no longer have the luxury of time to fiddle and learn. I am working my way through that Novell Linux Desktop free online training, but for some reason that's not allowing me to log in. That's not my question though. No matter how hard I try, I can't install software. I have read the manual and I know how to log in to the root system and activate YaST. I was trying to install Thunderbird 1.5. But I'm enjoying using Evolution, so perhaps I'll forgo Thunderbird for now. I just could not get YaST to recognize or "see" the Thunderbird package. I even figured out "change source of installation", all to no avail. Do downloadable software packages for Linux come with intallers? Can anyone help with advice for YaSt? Is my issue with the Thunderbird 1.5 package perhaps? Quite frankly if it's this hard (frustrating!) to install software, I'm not gonna be a happy gal. I still have other things I want to add to this snappy little computer (i.e. my Palm) but darn there's gotta be an easier way. Spring semester starts 26 January and I need this up and running. Thanks for any advice, support, shoulders to cry on Marie mimsresearch(a)gmail.com

3 2

For Sale: Alpha PWS 600AU
by Phillip G Deneault 19 Jan '06

19 Jan '06

600mhz Alpha with 384megs of ram. On board sound and LAN. This is a REAL AU model, with the qlogic SCSI card and the powerstorm video card(in case you wanted to run OpenVMS). I would recommend using a different video card or using the serial console for anything BSD or Linux. I believe it has a 9 gig SCSI disk in it, but I've suplemented it with a 50gig IDE drive on the IDE chain. I've also replaced the IDE CD-ROM with an 68-pin SCSI CD-ROM(yes, thats right, 68-pin). I also have all the original docs with it. I was running FreeBSD 5.3 on it until a week ago when I upgraded the machine. Nice little hobby system. $200 bucks or best offer. If anyone has any questions, or wishes to haggle, please reply to me(and not the list, they hate that). Thanks, Phil

1 1

Numerous Linux job opportunities
by Andy Stewart 18 Jan '06

18 Jan '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 HI everybody, I'm posting these job opportunities on behalf of John Spencer (jspencer(a)optimaleng.com) Please contact John directly if you have any interest in these opportunities. Andy =====start===== Multiple Linux Contract openings in MA ********************************************************** 1) 6 Months+ in the Wilmington, MA area Responsibilities: As a senior member of the core routing platform group you will be responsible for developing forwarding engine device drivers for next generation enterprise products. Drivers will be developed in C on a Linux platform running on MAC and Layer 1 & 2 chipsets. Required Skills & Experiences: * Strong device driver development experience in C/Linux environments * Solid Ethernet and Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocol experience * Experience with either MAC or other Layer 1 & 2 chipsets highly desired - --------------------------------------------------------------- 2) 2 months+, Billerica MA area Our client needs a contractor for 1-3 months. Responsibilities include: development of new code, bug fixing and maintenance of existing code, porting and integration of new drivers Skills sets required: Expert level proficiency of writing code in C/C++, embedded Linux OS (MontaVista), kernel internals, device drivers, system integration, debugging Technologies: Networking protocols, data communications, embedded SNMP agent, wireless protocols (madWiFi) Experience: minimum 10 years - -------------------------------- 3) 6 months, Acton, MA Area (2 positions) Our customer is looking for 2 software Linux Development Engineers to work in conjunction with the hardware design team to build an interface to their backplane. Will be working closely with development team in Taiwan who is doing most of the work. Ability to speak mandarin a plus but not required. 1st opening: Must have experience with Linux Device driver kernel, C programming, ability to write device driver to interface to the FPGA, knowledgeable about performance issues, Ethernet knowledge important. 6-8 months. 2nd opening: Linux Driver Systems software experience; responsible for device driver and user space Unix daemons that need modifications to run on this board. For this position, person must have FW BIOS (they are hoping the ODM will do this work but this person may need to work closely with them). Both of these positions need consultant to be flexible, willing to participate with ODM conference calls in Taiwan and their is a 13 hr. time difference. This is part of a large development effort for a new blade for their x-services product which is being mainly developed through Taiwan. - --------------------------------- 4) 3 months+, Marlboro, MA area Our client needs a strong C++ coder who is comfortable on Linux systems within the application space. to do a mix of sustaining and new development for disk to disk storage. Strong familiarity with Distributed systems highly desirable. Storage or back-up experience required. - ---------------------------------- 5) 6 months+, Waltham, MA area This is a Linux low level (close to the hardware) drivers req. Scope of Responsibilities/Expectations Mid/Senior level software developer responsible for design and development of user mode device drivers and system utilities of Broadcom or Sigma Designs chips (little Indian MIPs based) platforms based on the Linux operating system. * Candidate is expected to have a history of design and implementation of Linux device-drivers and system utilities in a fast paced environment * Knowledge of Digital STBs, especially experience with Cable Card development is desirable Specifics: * 5+ years experience with C, C++ or assembly-language programming for Linux and/or Unix targets. * 3+ years experience designing, developing and implementing Linux and/or Unix device drivers. * The candidate must be adaptable, flexible and willing to take on new challenges. * The candidate must be a team player, and must be able to work with multiple engineering and cross-functional teams. Additional Desirable Skills * Experienced in developing software for MIPS targets. * Experienced with Multi-media processing - including MPEG2, MP3 and JPEG * Experienced with hardware features such as CPU/memory architectures, DMA engines, Boot loaders, I2C, PCI, Ethernet, USB, IEEE-1394, RS-232, etc. Experienced in developing software to interface Cable Cards into digital STBs - ----------------------------------- 6) 6 months+, Westford MA *Position:* Senior Embedded Software engineer for 6 months, temp. to perm. likelihood *Essential Responsibilities and Duties:* Responsible for architecting, designing, and developing protocols and system software for customer's Optical and Cable broadband access products. Customer is bringing up a brand new board and for that effort they need someone that can write Linux hardware drivers (currently using v2.6) for a variety of different devices. *Required skills, knowledge and abilities*: Experience with C/C++ in an embedded development environment for networking equipment (routers, switches) is required. Experience with VxWorks, and Embedded Linux RTOS is preferred. Must have current experience writing Linux hardware drivers. Networking Industry experience spanning the breadth and depth of Layer Two to Layer Four - from VLAN, Bridging, Switching, DHCP, IP, TCP, UDP, and Multicast applications. Experience developing data-path for communication protocols and NPUs is a plus but not required - ------------------------------------- 7) 6 months+, Bedford, MA area Immediate need for Linux expert to write drivers at OS level for a Service processor. Lots of work going on in this group. The current tasks on the Linux based Service Processor that a contractor would concentrate are ; implementing CLI commands and API functions which maybe transparent calls to Linux OS functions. Other functions that need to be implemented are; supporting networking status and configuration, sensor monitoring, log collection/protection/storage, and field escalation/service mode features. If you are interested and qualified in any of these openings, please forward your confidential resume to jspencer(a)optimaleng.com Please note, your resume will not go anywhere without your prior approval. Regards, John Spencer jspencer(a)optimaleng.com =====end===== - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFDzZYvHl0iXDssISsRAhOrAJ9IslSUPlOjzguhTHlFvlCnNeHVYwCcDBfV CYxMc3jp5HPP/Rt0zssOtCs= =TyQA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: [Wlug] google video...
by Clint Moyer 16 Jan '06

16 Jan '06

Oh god! I thought that had finally died... ---- "Keller wrote: > Last night I had mentioned the Christmas light display. > Open Browser > Goto google video and search for "Christmas Lights" it'll be the first > result returned. > > Tim. > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

3 2

Re: [Wlug] encrypted files
by Stephen C. Daukas 14 Jan '06

14 Jan '06

Chuck hit the nail on the head... The general question that is best to begin with is 'what do you want to protect and what is it worth?' The common metaphor used in security is 'how much does it cost to build the wall versus the value of what the wall protects.' In other words, long keys and the time to encrypt/decrypt, etc., etc., is probably not what you want for your everyday files. It this really is required for everyday files, you are into a model similar to what government agencies do (google "Orange Book" - the nickname for the US standards for computing security - at least when I was into this stuff - but the concepts remain the same). If there are a few things that are really vital, then compartmentalize them and apply lots of security to them (i.e., don't keep them on a hard drive that is on a network - physical security - or encrypt them on removable media - soft and physical security). Depending on what the value is, you can start getting into all kinds of systems that are a real pain to use (and that is another reason why they are more secure). There are lots of other ways to make security easier and still useful. Another approach is "something you have and something you know" - that is how ATMs work. You could put your rings on a thumb drive (like the ATM card) that you unlock with a simple key (pin) that gets you to the next step - using the ring for the encryption you were after to begin with. Retinal and finger print scanners (biometrics in general) are essentially this model. If you loose either piece of the system, the other is no longer useful. Another approach is a so-called "smart card" - these are used in Europe for money, but variations are also used to turn the "key" into something approaching a "one time pad"... The card calculates a decay sequence of some sort (a non-linear countdown with a seed you select) that is also calculated on the system you want access to. You type in the calculated value as *part* of the password (valid for say 5 seconds to allow for boundary conditions) and if the system has the same pattern - your are in. I personally think encrypting entire file systems is far less secure than you might think - it is better to protect several areas with several different methods so that compromise of the entire system with one successful attempt doesn't happen. To be honest with you, my bias is towards physical security - I use a thumb drive and then only parts of it are encrypted. Steve Chuck Anderson wrote: >On Wed, Jan 11, 2006 at 06:22:53PM -0500, Bill Mills-Curran wrote: > > >>Symmetric? (gpg -c) This seems the most secure and flexible, but I'm >>getting tired of typing the key so often. >> >>Public/private? This seems enticing, because encryption is done >>without needing to type a password. However, the keyring is on the >>same system as the encrypted file, and thus is vulnerable. >> >> > >Symmetric keys may be more secure with a caveat: you have to pick a >very good key. This is harder than it seems, since it should be long >and have lots of entropy. English text doesn't have much entropy per >character. So in practice, using a passphrase to unlock a good, long, >randomly generated key that you would never remember is better. You >can always store the keyring on a removable device, like a USB flash >drive and keep that in your safe... >_______________________________________________ >Wlug mailing list >Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org >http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > >

1 0

encrypted files
by Bill Mills-Curran 14 Jan '06

14 Jan '06

I have a question about using gpg to encrypt private files on my system. Which encryption is the preferred for file storage? Symmetric? (gpg -c) This seems the most secure and flexible, but I'm getting tired of typing the key so often. Public/private? This seems enticing, because encryption is done without needing to type a password. However, the keyring is on the same system as the encrypted file, and thus is vulnerable. Thanks, Bill

5 6

google video...
by Keller, Tim 13 Jan '06

13 Jan '06

Last night I had mentioned the Christmas light display. Open Browser Goto google video and search for "Christmas Lights" it'll be the first result returned. Tim.

1 0

server outage
by Frank Sweetser 12 Jan '06

12 Jan '06

In case anyone noticed any problems with the mailing list, the server hosting it ate yet another hard drive. It's been restored from backups, though (which I may do as a meeting topic one month, if there's interest) and everything should be back up now. -- Frank Sweetser fs at wpi.edu | For every problem, there is a solution that WPI Network Engineer | is simple, elegant, and wrong. - HL Mencken GPG fingerprint = 6174 1257 129E 0D21 D8D4 E8A3 8E39 29E3 E2E8 8CEC

2 1

reminder: meeting thursday january 12 2006 7:00 pm
by Andy Stewart 11 Jan '06

11 Jan '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 HI Everybody, We'll be having a WLUG meeting this coming Thursday evening, at 7:00 PM, on January 12, 2006 in the Access Grid room on the WPI campus in Worcester, MA USA. At this meeting, there is currently no single scheduled topic, so this means that ALL topics are freely available for discussion (thanks, Walt). Bring along your questions and maybe somebody in the room will have answers. Bring up any Linux related topic and we can discuss it as a group. Here are some topics we might discuss: Nokia 770 - http://www.nokia.com/770 Linux World Conference and Expo coming to Boston in April 2006 Richard Stallman will speak at WPI on January 13th Xen in the Linux kernel (see also Xenoppix) Next month (Feb 2006), I'll probably put together a presentation discussing my experience using a Routerboard 532 and making a firewall out of it using GPL software which I pieced together. Stay tuned. After the meeting, we'll go out for pizza and soda at our favorite pizza place (Tech Piza) on Highland Street. We always have lively and interesting discussions there. Come one, come all, and bring your friends, too! Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFDxF0+Hl0iXDssISsRAvLOAJ9fl9cSwJxVJ9sRZElNA8OZRm0mRgCdHFrM kCin6TULv47cw6RhqOq6zok= =0lzd -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

RE: [Wlug] Stallman at WPI, 1/13 @ 11am
by James Gray 10 Jan '06

10 Jan '06

I think my message got lost the first time around. I contacted WPI and got a response that sounded like the event would be open to the public. -----Original Message----- From: wlug-bounces(a)mail.wlug.org on behalf of Jared Greenwald Sent: Mon 1/9/2006 11:51 PM To: Worcester Linux Users Group Subject: Re: [Wlug] Stallman at WPI, 1/13 @ 11am Yea, I can imagine this would bring a packed house... -Jared On 1/9/06, Mike Leo <mleo963(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > any wpi'rs here? > > Do we need tickets? Can the wlug get us "in"? Is > anyone welcome? > > thanks > mike > > --- Theo Van Dinter <felicity(a)kluge.net> wrote: > > > I happened to be poking around and found this off > > the main WPI page. I don't > > remember it coming by here yet, so ... > > > > > http://www.cs.wpi.edu/News/Colloquium/20056/stallman.html > > > > -- > > Randomly Generated Tagline: > > "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and > > character. > > But if you must be without one, be without > > strategy." > > - General H. Norman Schwarzkopf > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wlug mailing list > > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

1 0

RE: [Wlug] Stallman at WPI, 1/13 @ 11am
by James Gray 10 Jan '06

10 Jan '06

I found a contact address for events @ wpi and recieved this response, good news. >From Michael C Voorhis <mvoorhis(a)cs.wpi.edu>: I'm not aware of any restrictions on the audience. The event description doesn't imply any restrictions (I just looked) and I would believe RMS to be opposed to any restrictions in any case. James Gray writes: > Hi, is the Stallman event open to the public or are only WPI > students/faculty allowed? I am part of the campus GNU/Linux users > group if that makes any difference. Thanks! On 1/9/06, Mike Leo <mleo963(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > any wpi'rs here? > > Do we need tickets? Can the wlug get us "in"? Is > anyone welcome? > > thanks > mike >

1 0