From: Digestifier To: Linux-Admin@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Reply-To: Linux-Admin@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 08:14:03 EDT Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #192 Linux-Admin Digest #192, Volume #2 Fri, 14 Oct 94 08:14:03 EDT Contents: Re: Please fix your domain! (Klaus Lichtenwalder) Mail problem for incoming mail Re: Passwd problem in Slackware 2.0.1 (Kai Voigt) Optimizing CSLIP performance via kernel TCP parameters ("Jerry.Hagon") Re: bugs and stuff: rpc.portmap, grep (Thomas Koenig) Re: Ftape works. mt doesn't :( (Timothy Murphy) Re: Problems with Current Slackware TeX/LateX ("Eric Jeschke") Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far? (Matthew Donadio) Re: Mystery Chip...AMD (Gregory Urban) Re: Please don't post security holess... (Ron Atkinson) Problem using a LINUX-PC as a Router (Volker Hamm) strange lockups, bizarre networking... (Rob Newberry) Re: Please don't post security holess... (M. K. Shenk) Re: PASSWORD LOCK FILE problem - /etc/ptmp (Greck Cannon) HELP: CDROM & Modem Installation? (Bruce Bigby) Re: Inn on a Linux box! (Klaus Lichtenwalder) Re: Extreme delays telnetting into linux box (Klaus Lichtenwalder) Re: shutdown without root access -- SUMMARY (Larry Doolittle) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: klaus@gaston.m.isar.de (Klaus Lichtenwalder) Subject: Re: Please fix your domain! Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 09:59:53 GMT ig25@fg70.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Thomas Koenig) writes: >PAUL D. KROCULICK 607.770.3337 (KROCULICK@bng.ge.com) wrote in comp.os.linux.admin, > article <37eh6i$rin@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>: >>Recently, I've noticed an increase in postings where the >>authors e-mail address is showing up as: >> (some name) @myhost.subdomain.domain >This is from people who've installed C news (probably by accident) >and who haven't updated /usr/lib/newsbin/newshostname (or whatever, >I don't run C news myself ;-) I really can't imagine how to setup C news accidentally. You have to manipulate the crontab, for example. To know this, you most probably will read the README file (in /usr[/local]/lib/news, in most Linux distributions). In this file, there's also the mailname, organization,... setup described. I think that's a standard problem: people don't read [all of] the documentation. Klaus -- __________________________________________________________________________ Klaus Lichtenwalder, Dipl. Inf., Buschingstr. 65 D-81677 Muenchen, F.R. Germany, Fax +49-89-98292755 email: Lichtenwalder@ACM.org, klaus@gaston.m.isar.de ------------------------------ From: j2yc@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca () Subject: Mail problem for incoming mail Date: 10 Oct 1994 23:48:27 GMT I have a problem with my mailer... I am sending mail via my 56k line no problem (using my linux box 1.0.9 I believe) but on the return, all incoming mail goes to the /var/spool/smail/input directory and I get an entry for each piece of incoming mail in the msglog directory which says "Xdefer: <> reason: (ERR 148) transport smtp: IP address for not found" The message header looks fine... Thanks Derek ------------------------------ From: kai@depeche.toppoint.de (Kai Voigt) Subject: Re: Passwd problem in Slackware 2.0.1 Date: 12 Oct 1994 21:47:43 GMT In <36npa5$10pi@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> kaszeta@cps.msu.edu (Richard W Kaszeta) writes: >After installing Slackware 2.0.1 (clean install on a blank partition) >my users can no longer chagne their passwords. Instead, the error >message "cannot open /etc/ptmp" is given. There is no /etc/ptmp on >my system, and if I 'create' one with 'touch /etc/ptmp' it instead >says '/etc/ptmp already exists' >Any ideas? Your passwd binary should be suid root. Kai -- Kai Voigt, Werftstrasse 2, 24148 Kiel, Germany, +49 431 7297514 "3.2 Kostet EMail Geld?" "... Aus verstaendlichen Gruenden wird es nicht gerne gesehen, dass unnoetige oder gar private Mails verschickt werden." -- aus FAQ der Informatik, Uni-Kiel ------------------------------ From: "Jerry.Hagon" Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help Subject: Optimizing CSLIP performance via kernel TCP parameters Date: 13 Oct 1994 11:49:33 GMT Hello Recently I succeeded in getting cslip to work between Linux and a SUN IPX by installing cslip-2.7 on the SUN end. To improve performance the CSLIP documentation recommends reducing the default TCP buffer sizes on the dialup client side (i.e. my Linux box). Does anyone know how to do this since I couldn't find any reference to the parameters tcp_sendspace and tcp_recvspace (mentioned in the CSLIP guide) in my Linux kernel code. Finally, it was recommended in the CSLIP docs to make the retransmit timer more conservative and an example was given on how to do this using the 4.3-tahoe networking code. Could anyone tell me how to do this in Linux? Any other suggestions for optimizing my CSLIP link would be greatly appreciated. many thanks Jerry -- =========================================================================== Jerry Hagon | E-Mail: MIME FINE! Theory of Condensed Matter Group | INTERNET : Jerry.Hagon@newcastle.ac.uk Dept. of Physics | The University | PHONE1: +44 91 2227380 Newcastle upon Tyne | PHONE2: +44 91 2227360 NE1 7RU | FAX: +44 91 2227361 United Kingdom | =========================================================================== ------------------------------ From: ig25@fg70.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Thomas Koenig) Subject: Re: bugs and stuff: rpc.portmap, grep Date: 13 Oct 1994 23:15:11 GMT Reply-To: Thomas.Koenig@ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de Greck Cannon (greck@scaredy.catt.ncsu.edu) wrote in comp.os.linux.admin, article <37kank$put@taco.cc.ncsu.edu>: >I have a couple of problems I'd like to see if anybody can fill me in >on. First, some config info: >1.1.53 kernel >16 megs RAM >Buslogic SCSI >3com ethernet >Soundblaster 16 >ATI GUP VLB >1) I'm running rpc.portmap, rpc.nfsd and rpc.mountd to export some stuff >via NFS. Everything seems to work fine, except once every couple of days, >rpc.portmap decides that it's broken and should respawn. Known problem. Install /pub/Linux/system/Network/daemons/portmap_3_rpcfix.shar.gz to fix the (libc 4.5.25) bug which caused this. While you're at it, install the rest of the package for a more secure system ;-) -- Thomas Koenig, Thomas.Koenig@ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de, ig25@dkauni2.bitnet. The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic diagram. ------------------------------ From: tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) Subject: Re: Ftape works. mt doesn't :( Date: 14 Oct 1994 00:28:00 +0100 carlos@interport.net (Carlos Dominguez) writes: >Ftape is working OK now. But I'm trying to use mt to stash more than >one tar archive per tape and It doesn't work. You have to use /dev/nftape for this: nftape = non-rewinding ftape. Incidentally, if ftape is working for you, please tell us: 1. Version of Linux kernel 2. Version of ftape 3. Exact backup command given 4. Size (approx) of backup -- Timothy Murphy e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland ------------------------------ From: "Eric Jeschke" Subject: Re: Problems with Current Slackware TeX/LateX Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 15:56:57 -0500 cirigara@nova.umd.edu (Carlos Irigaray) writes: :Jamie Wyatt (jwyatt@sandman.cosc.brocku.ca) wrote: :: I just installed the latest release of Slackware (2.0.1 I think) and am :: having problems with LateX/TeX. In particular dvips. First time through :: I only installed what I needed. I re-installed again this time installing :: everything (to play it safe). :: Basicall, it looks like dvips is not finding any fonts and when it :: run Make...PK it fails on every font. :If you got the Slackware distribution before October 2nd, maybe that's the :problem. I was having the same problem and I've decided to take a look :again at ftp.cdrom.com to see if the diskettes were the same, I and saw :that some diskettes were chenged. Download the diskettes (I don't :remember wich ones!) and install it again. It should work. Works for me :now. No, the problem with Slackware is that the directory where Metafont is trying to put the built fonts is write protected. Just make it world writable and you are all set. I don't remember the path exactly, but it is something like /usr/TeX/lib/texmf/fonts/public/tmp/pk -- Eric Jeschke | Indiana University jeschke@cs.indiana.edu | Computer Science Department ------------------------------ From: donadio@mxd120.rh.psu.edu (Matthew Donadio) Subject: Re: Security hole - has noone noticed so far? Date: 10 Oct 1994 04:06:33 GMT Bill C. Riemers (bcr@k9.via.term.none) wrote: : Did you reverse things there? "smail" is probably the simpliest thing : to install on my whole system. Much easier than libc, XFree86-3.1, : ... I've had several people contact me asking how to use term over : sendmail. My typical responce is to give them my recompiled smail : binaries and get them up and running in about 15-45 minuites, : depending on whether they have "term" installed correctly... I guess this depends on point of view. I can install sendmail on a new system in about 5 minutes, and had ton of trouble when I got bored and felt like installing smail. : Yep. Speaking of security problems, anyone know what the login(1) : scare was a while back. That is one case where neither the hole : nor the solution where posted, just a note to get the xxxx patch : to fix it. Being lazy, I just tooked my machine off the net for : a while and then eventually picked-up a new executable. But it : would be nice to know what the problem was. Had to do with the -f switch if I remember right. And it only was a problem with one version of login (there are two). Poe's (what us old-timers use) was secure while the other wasn't. I think it may have also been a problem with some commercial login's. -- Beaker aka Matt Donadio | Life is short, --- __ o __~o __ o donadio@mxd120.rh.psu.edu | ride like ---- _`\<, _`\<, _`\<, --- Penn State Cycling ---| the wind. --- ( )/( ) ( )/( ) ( )/( ) ====================================URL: http://mxd120.rh.psu.edu/~donadio ------------------------------ From: urban@cs.umbc.edu (Gregory Urban) Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Mystery Chip...AMD Date: 13 Oct 1994 11:57:12 -0400 In article <37jjnd$9m6@panix2.panix.com>, Marten Liebster wrote: > >So when is AMD comming out with a 486dx4-120? :-) > >Marten NO, NO, NO !!!!!!!!!! Only Intel uses STUPID names for their chips. AMD will produce a DX3/120 (clock tripled, 40mhz external, 120mhz internal). -- Greg Urban | "I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite urban@cs.umbc.edu | unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. gurban1@gl.umbc.edu | It is hitting below the intellect." Lord Henry ------------------------------ From: ron@chaos (Ron Atkinson) Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess... Date: 10 Oct 1994 04:20:04 GMT Matthew Dharm (mdharm@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu) wrote: : But, consider how a security hole is discovered. Someone, who is most : likely trying to break into a system, discovers it. I don't know how : they look for them, or how they dream up how to use them, but they do. : This means: HACKERS ARE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT A HOLE! : Naturally, they don't want us (the sysadmins, the "good guys" in the : white hats) to know about it. If we did, they would have one less : tool with which to break into our systems. What kind of crap is that??? Sure I realize that a lot of people do go around and break into systems, but I have found that a whole hell of a lot of the security problems are discovered by system admistrators that are the types of people who have open minds and have a habit of trying to do every possible combination of a configuration for a program or server just to make sure it's as bug free as possible. A good sysadmin who really wants his users to have a very efficient system will make sure everything runs right, and this means that they are very likely to find bugs eventually. Those people that call themselves system adminstrators, but actually just copy other peoples configurations with no knowledge of how they work, typically don't have enough knowledge of what they are running to realize that there is a security problem and how to either fix it or duplicate so they can repair the problem. There are some things that I am very good at and can find problems with, then there are some things that I have no idea how it works (Smail is one of those that I'm not familiar enough with realize if something is wrong), but whenever I hear about a security problem I want to know how I can check if it exists or not. Just saying "Smail has a security problem" doesn't help me any. Either do one of 2 things, tell everyone what the problem is in detail so system administrators can try it and see if their systems are at risk and they can try to fix it, or give out the patch or the fix with the original message of the problem. I'm one of those people that find illegal hackers and turn them in and believe that laws aren't strict enough against it, and I also find security problems in programs too while maintaining local systems. I actually take your comment as an insult to system adminstrators that try to make things better since they are the ones who report the bugs that you see on here. I doubt an illegal hacker is going to give out their 'secrets' in this list anyways. ------------------------------ From: hamm@n1 (Volker Hamm) Subject: Problem using a LINUX-PC as a Router Date: 12 Oct 1994 07:18:24 GMT Dear Readers, a friend of mine has a 486-PC with LINUX and two Eternet-Cards inside. He want it to use as a Router, but the route-deamon erases all after 3 minutes! Thanks for help ------------------------------ From: rob@eats.com (Rob Newberry) Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.help Subject: strange lockups, bizarre networking... Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 00:40:14 As was posted several days ago, my machine is one of those which has been having strange lockups the past weeks. Basically, when I upgraded from 1.1.10 to 1.1.45 (and now 1.1.50), my system will occasionally hang hard. A power-reset is the only thing to bring it back. Another person sent me a possible fix, claiming that it may be a portion of the ne.c code (the system does use an NE2000 clone). However, that patch did not stop the lockups from occuring. I suppose I may need to invest in another network card... Before doing that, though, I thought it might be beneficial to the Linux developers if I told them some more about the symptoms we've been having lately. Usually, there are 4-5 machines active on the network. 3-4 WfWg machines, and 1-2 Macs. The Linux machine is a Dell 486, 720 MB IDE drive (w/ 30MB SWAP), 8 MB RAM, and an NE2000 card. The Linux machine is also connected to a 28.8 K modem, and runs DIP to connect our LAN to the internet. It is connected to an additional modem and runs FlexFax. Finally, the machine also runs SAMBA to serve files/printers to the WfWg machines. I am currently working on making CAP work, and at times it is running some CAP processes -- but usually not for very long. And in any event, running CAP is not consistent with the times the machine hangs. Finally, one more bit of information. Often times the hangs are preceded by periods of sluggish network performance. My telnet logins to the machine will simply sit there as I type commands, then eventually they'll work. Also, tonight something VERY strange happened. My Linux machine stopped responding to my LAN, so I ran "arp -a". Only two machines were listed, but both had a hardware address of 00:00:00:00:00:00. It looked like this: Address HW type HW address Flags (ip of machine 1) 10Mbps Ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00 C (ip of linux box) 10Mbps Ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00 Running it now, arp still reports 00:00:00:00:00:00 for the linux machine (itself that is) -- I don't know if that is correct or not. It does, however, have the correct address for the other machine now, and it has it's own correct address when I run "ifconfig". Anyway, these are the facts. If any of the developers can figure out how to get around these hangs, I (and several others I know) would be greatly appreciative. I hope that this information will help, and if I can be of any more assistance, please let me know. Thanks! Rob Newberry ******************************************************************* Rob Newberry Education and Technology Solutions, Inc. Email: rob@eats.com 4303 Parkland Court Phone: 301 438 3915 Rockville, Maryland 20853 FAX: 301 438 3748 The secret to happiness is knowing how many weekdays you can afford a hangover. ******************************************************************* ------------------------------ From: mkshenk@u.washington.edu (M. K. Shenk) Subject: Re: Please don't post security holess... Date: 10 Oct 1994 04:39:53 GMT In article <37aa9b$1ob@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, Damien P. Neil wrote: >In article <37a749$9ke@jaws.cs.hmc.edu>, >Matthew Dharm wrote: > >>This means: HACKERS ARE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT A HOLE! >> >>Naturally, they don't want us (the sysadmins, the "good guys" in the >>white hats) to know about it. If we did, they would have one less >>tool with which to break into our systems. > > > >I would like to consider myself to be a hacker. (Others may disagree -- as >the quote below states, it is a title best given, not taken.) I have never >broken into a system. I do not plan on doing so at any time in the future. >The term `hacker' has been perverted by some to refer to criminals who >attempt to penetrate security on computer systems. This was not the Oh, criminals. Give me a break. The criminals are the ones that mess with things. I consider myself a (wannabe, at least) hacker in the original sense, and in HS was a "hacker" in the new sense. I never altered ANYTHING. I got in, to get in, or to use a compiler. Nothing criminal about that (except in the eyes of the law.) Penetrating the security of a computer system is totally harmless in and of itself. It's the defacing of what one finds, or the spreading of info that are the problems, and have made folks so paranoid they 'throw the book' at anybody who pokes around a little. Hey, I'm gonna see where I can go. I also understand, as the owner of a system about to be on the net, the paranoia, and will surely bounce anyone who gets on my system off as quickly as I can, not knowing that they are as nice as I am. (I even had operators do poor jobs of throwing me off, which pissed me off, because understimating your 'enemy' is stupid, and the worst I ever did (once) was get back on, do a stop proc /id=blahblah (VMS) and abdicate. Just to let him know he screwed up and his back was wide open and somebody nasty could have caused him some trouble. ) But I will never attempt to get someone in legal trouble who has not destroyed something. This 'throw the book at them' mentality for poking around is pathetic and (overused cliche word.) fascist. True, a lot of these system crackers are malicious little bastards, the same sort who write viruses (or would if they could), but judging intent before an action is a pathetic reaction in the direction of security over liberty. I fully understand the worries involved here. But the criminalization of the curious is pathetic and computer-bureaucrat-like. Let's reserve the word 'criminal' for those who break things. What I generally did after I got in was tell the op. what I did and how I did it and ask for a user account (in exchange for the niftier root or SETPRV, READALL, etc account I had.) A fairly helpful little vermin, I was. I despised anyone who deleted or defaced anything, as did most of the (good) "entry experts" of the time. This was say ten years ago. >original meaning of the word. To refer to such people as `hackers' is to >give them a dignity they do not deserve. Depends on how ingenious their attempts to enter a system are. This is a dogmatic view. "Hacker" and "non-malicious-system-tourist" are not non- intersecting sets. Back in HS i performed entries that qualified as hacks. Today? There is enough to do without entering other people's systems. I've got a Linux box that beats the crap out of 99% of the systems I used to want to get into. (why get in? I often wanted a c compiler. not gonna get that on an apple II+.) Also, there are 50 bizillion fascist hardass computer bureaucrats waiting to hurl that book. Also, there is the risk of being identified with the aforementioned malicious little you-know-whats. Barring that, I might still poke around. Curiosity is not a crime. ------------------------------ From: greck@scaredy.catt.ncsu.edu (Greck Cannon) Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help Subject: Re: PASSWORD LOCK FILE problem - /etc/ptmp Date: 10 Oct 1994 04:30:20 GMT Rick Daugherty (rick@vt.edu) wrote in message <<37a9at$65j@solaris.cc.vt.edu>>: > >When issuing the 'passwd' command, and after entering the old pword and > >new pword, the change fails. The error message is "Can't open /etc/ptmp, > >can't update password". /usr/bin/passwd is not setuid in the slackware 2.0.1 installation. to fix: 1) login as root. 2) cd into /usr/bin 3) chmod u+s passwd It will now work. Why it didn't work: To be able to write /etc/ptmp and then update /etc/passwd, your must be root. So passwd is executed setuid, which means it is run as if it had been started by root. (To see this for yourself, start passwd and then run ps aux--it will show up owned by root.) This allows all the necessary files to be created/changed/updated. -greck -- Greck S. Cannon \ [He's] only bitter on the outside--inside sophomore CSC major \ he's got creamy nougat. greck@ \ -Slappy Squirrel scaredy.catt.ncsu.edu \ =========================== set your URL to http://www.catt.ncsu.edu ------------------------------ From: bbigb.henr801b@xerox.com (Bruce Bigby) Subject: HELP: CDROM & Modem Installation? Reply-To: BruceBigby@Aol.com Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 17:06:36 GMT Recently, I purchased Yggdrasil (RevB?) and am awaiting its arrival in the mail. I have a multifunction board, called the ACE 5000, from Best Data Products in CA. The board is fantastic! It features a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) MWave Technology for excellent voice/sound reproduction, MIDI features (16 instruments), a 14.4k Data modem/FAX (software upgradeable to 28.8k), and is Soundblaster 16-bit compatible. It also has a Panasonic-compatible interface for CDROM and support that enables you to connect the audio of another CDROM to it so that ACE applications can process its audio, but I don't use the feature since I purchased an inexpensive Sony CU33A CDROM and interface board. Here are my questions: 1. Under Windows, I access the modem features of the board by running one of several modem applications: 2400B through 14.4kB. Once the modem "driver" is running, communications applications access it through COM3. The COM port is configurable. The modem application is Hayes compatible, of course. Is there a driver for the ACE that exists! It is a fairly new board. 2. I recently purchased a Sony 2X CDROM, because it was very cheap. Under DOS, it is not in interrupt mode because I don't have any spare IRQs, unless I do some major reconfiguring. Do I need to have my CDROM drive in interrupt mode for Linux to recognize it? If so, here is my next question: 3. My CDROM can use IRQs 2, 3, 4, 5, or 9. I have a bus mouse that accompanies my ATI Ultra Graphics Plus video adapter/accelator; it is Mach 32-based. I do not use the mouse because I already have a 3-button Logitech serial mouse that is on COM1, IRQ4. I can free up this serial port if I use the bus mouse. Does Yggdrasil Linux have a bus mouse driver built in? Will it detect it upon installation? I am not sure whether it is PS/2 compatible. I suppose it is. Can I simply use IRQ9? MSD says that this is a redirected IRQ2. What does this mean and is IRQ9 available or is it off limits? I suppose, under LINUX, I could use IRQ9, but this might screw up DOS...any takers? 4. I do have a second modem, a Telebit Trailblazer, that currently is taking up COM2/IRQ3. I suppose if I use this modem, instead of the ACE 5000 modem feature, I won't need to worry about obtaining a driver for the ACE. I would like to get rid of this modem, but may keep it anyway. If I can get rid of it, I can setup my CDROM to use IRQ3. If not, I must keep it since I might not be able to access the modem features of my ACE. Much thanks for replies. BruceBigby@Aol.com P.S. Please reply by email or post a reply AND send email. ------------------------------ From: klaus@gaston.m.isar.de (Klaus Lichtenwalder) Subject: Re: Inn on a Linux box! Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 08:24:45 GMT thowi@chiba.escape.de (Thomas Winterfeldt) writes: >Nathan Stratton (nstn@netcom.com) wrote: >: I also tared my system on a 8 mill exabyte tape so I could make a bigger >: swap file, now I can not untar it. I get data reads errors and tar >: crashes. Is there a way I can untar the tape and have it not crash if it >: hist a read error? >If you use tar and get bad blocks youre in real trouble. Better use cpio >instead because cpio handles bad blocks. Anyway I dont know any way to >read tar tapes once they are damaged, because tar stops at the first >bad block. Not if you're using the -i option, ignore bad block. Tar tries to resync in case of checksum errors. Hope this helps Klaus -- __________________________________________________________________________ Klaus Lichtenwalder, Dipl. Inf., Buschingstr. 65 D-81677 Muenchen, F.R. Germany, Fax +49-89-98292755 email: Lichtenwalder@ACM.org, klaus@gaston.m.isar.de ------------------------------ From: klaus@gaston.m.isar.de (Klaus Lichtenwalder) Subject: Re: Extreme delays telnetting into linux box Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 08:28:25 GMT barkerc@GRAPHICS.CS.NYU.EDU (Chris Barker) writes: >[...] >delays when telnetting into my box from my PC over ethernet. Upto a minute of >delay before I see the issue.net message and a login prompt. This did not occur >using the 1.1.0 kernel. It also takes a long time to ping the box, although >pinging my PC from the linux box is ok and telnetting out over my slip is fine. >I am using gated 3.5 alpha, but this was happening even running routed. Every >thing is fine once I get in, but it is so slooooow to login! Any ideas? Yeah, have a look at /etc/resolv.conf. There might be a reference to an unknown name server. Looking up this name server gives a timeout, that's (perhaps) your delay. Also have a look at /etc/host.conf whether bind or nis is referenced. If there's no name server (and no nis for that matter) you might as well delete these key words, leaving only hosts (for looking in /etc/hosts). Klaus -- __________________________________________________________________________ Klaus Lichtenwalder, Dipl. Inf., Buschingstr. 65 D-81677 Muenchen, F.R. Germany, Fax +49-89-98292755 email: Lichtenwalder@ACM.org, klaus@gaston.m.isar.de ------------------------------ From: doolitt@recycle.cebaf.gov (Larry Doolittle) Subject: Re: shutdown without root access -- SUMMARY Reply-To: doolittle@cebaf.gov Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 04:14:15 GMT Austin Donnelly (and1000@cus.cam.ac.uk) wrote: : This is because umount can be run by ordinary users when (for example) : unmounting a floppy, and it needs to update /etc/mtab. So umount : ignores the EUID of a user (since this is normally root) and only : allows the root filesystem to be unmount by someone with a UID of 0 : (ie the superuser). : I don't think there is *any* elegant solution to this umount problem. Maybe when /proc/mtab is in wide use, and most people get into the habit of running with the root partition read-only? - Larry Doolittle doolittle@cebaf.gov ------------------------------ ** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is: Internet: Linux-Admin-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.admin) via: Internet: Linux-Admin@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites: nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux End of Linux-Admin Digest ******************************