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• does run Linux
  
  
• proofs that Mirosoft is making bad software
  
  
• shows how stealing intellectual property simply cannot be wrong ("Actually, it is not stealing") because every fucking idiot does it
  
  
• assumes that any law preventing child molesters from distributing their filthy shit is an attack on Free Speech
  
  
• promotes homosexual, interracial or interspecial cohibitation
  

• does run Linux
  
  
• proofs that Mirosoft is making bad software
  
  
• shows how stealing intellectual property simply cannot be wrong ("Actually, it is not stealing") because every fucking idiot does it
  
  
• assumes that any law preventing child molesters from distributing their filthy shit is an attack on Free Speech
  
  

Well, you know how it is ... just finished the stuff for that Swedish customer of Jane (Mr. Torvlads).
It is barely usable, but if you and Dave want to test it before Wednesday, check it out here. Don't use one of the production machines though, you remember what happened last time...

Hey, I admit it, I just like the sound file...

pronunciation

via the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM).

pam_smb
PAM module list

It's an au file.

Letter

Basically, don't forget that "testing" in this case does not mean seeing if it works for you, but seeing if it doesn't work for you. Lots of folks have problems with it, and then just revert back to 2.4. We need people that experience problems to a) see if others are having that problem and have reported it, and if not, b) send a report back to Bugzilla. Also, read This document before sending any reports.

Basically, don't forget that "testing" in this case does not mean seeing if it works for you, but seeing if it doesn't work for you. Lots of folks have problems with it, and then just revert back to 2.4. We need people that experience problems to a) see if others are having that problem and have reported it, and if not, b) send a report back to Bugzilla. Also, read This document before sending any reports.

I have a leaked beta of the new linux.

Meanwhile, you can see a sneak preview of the next release from the competition here.

then you probably ought to become familiar with compiling a kernel from the same kernel series as the one you're running before doing a 2.6 kernel. Many drivers in 2.6 haven't been changed to the new driver specs yet, and 2.6 needs new userspace utils (module tools are the most crucial) to work. When you decide to compile a 2.6 kernel, read Dave Jones' What to expect from 2.6 which hasn't been updated in a couple months but is still very much a must-read.

The Linux Kernel archives has just released kernel 2.6.0-test9. Better test and debug it for the 2.6.0 release.

Download
Full release
Patch

The Linux Kernel archives has just released kernel 2.6.0-test9. Better test and debug it for the 2.6.0 release.

Download
Full release
Patch

Oh please fix this bug before 2.6.0 is released.
I'll send a check for $20 to the developer who does it :-). There's a business model! hehe

If your Unix system doesn't come with one Net-SNMP will install on many of them.

The SNMP daemon by default understands how to monitor Load Avg, Memory, Processes, and so forth. It may not be able to tell you details of the process, such as what user is logged into the POP3 daemon, but it will tell you that you have 500 of them running, and alert you (via SNMP Traps) of that fact.

ALl you need to do once you have checked the documentation for your SNMP agent and then configured it, is to setup a single (ok, maybe 2 or 3) machine to send your traps to so you can kick of alerts. With some simple scripting in $FAVORITE_SCRIPTING_LANGUAGE you can email, page, text message, update web page, or $OTHER.

Cricket or MRTG are nice utilities that will poll the servers in question (by default every 5 minutes) and produce graphs. MRTG was designed to handle network equipment and graph the bandwidth utilization, but with a change to the SNMP string, will graph anything. Cricket is the same concept but does things a little differently by using a tree configuration system for property inheritance and does graph generation on the fly instead of the at poll time method MRTG uses.

And last but not least, Transmeta produced a very good perl script monitoring package known simply as Mon. This package will do active polling of the servers including issuing a transaction to the service you are monitoring. Due to the way this software monitors, you can actually see if the remote machine is alive by actually utilizing the service to monitor instead of just the "I can ping it, it must be up" mentality some people have.

Best part about all the above mentioned software is that they are all applications with an OSI Approved OpenSource license. This means you don't spend anything but TIME, and possibly a few machines to do the actual monitoring with.

And you may wonder about the impact of system performance due to the monitoring by SNMP, MRTG/Cricket, and Mon. The short answer is that I couldn't detect a noticable increase. Other utilities such as Argent (Commercial Pay For Software) would impact a HP-UX V Class 8 CPU with 8GB RAM machine from 0% on all 8 CPUs to about 20% on ALL 8 CPUs while it telneted to the machine, created about 150KB of test scripts, and then ran them.

It seems that Microsoft had lost it's momentum. Next edition in 3 years, when Samba is faster than Windows Server 2003, Mozilla is better than Internet Explorer 6, and GNU/Linux is rapidly conquesting desktops may mean only one thing: when Longhorn will finally be released, world will be dominated by Open Source Software.
Constant evolution in hardware due to Moore's Law, kicks forward software evolution and Microsoft apparently don't care.
Given the current speed of adding features to GNU/Linux and FreeBSD I have no doubts that Longhorn will be long behind competion when it'll be released in 2006.

As Steve Jobs would want, here are the 'Lickable Links':

To centralize auth you can use:

NIS/NIS+ + PAM

OpenLDAP + PAM and More

SAMBA + PAM

Advanced LDAP/Samba

PAM is the way to go

to centralize auth you can use :
+ NIS/NIS+ + PAM -> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/NIS-HOWTO/index.html

+ OpenLDAP + PAM -> http://www.mandrakesecure.net/en/docs/ldap-auth2.p hp
http://www.skills-1st.co.uk/papers/security-with-l dap-jan-2002/security-with-ldap.html

+ SAMBA + PAM -> http://www.unav.es/cti/ldap-smb/smb-ldap-3-howto.h tml
http://www.mandrakesecure.net/en/docs/samba-ldap-a dvanced.php

PAM is the way to go -> http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/

It's really great to read all of these posts regarding cpu hotplug support...

However, I want to address the more common features for the "desktop" linux (read: consumers) that I feel is missing at this point.

• resolution change on the fly
• network authentication (PAM modules)
• drive management

Resolution Change

I have yet to find a distribution that allows quick and easy video graphic resolution change. By this I mean being able to click an icon (ala monitor icon in winblows) and choose the resolution to flip to, instantly.

Can someone tell me a way to make this easier than logging out, adjusting xfre86 configuration and logging back in again? If there's an easier way, I'm all ears.

I am very impressed at the support for monitors, I mean the list is huge in xfree86. I just wish there was better presentation of all the available values one could set.

Network Authentication

The authentication module and the SMB browsing password prompt must go further. It should be possible to have a per-machine user/password setting so that when one browses a win2k network that have differing authentication schemes, it will be smart and use the values you told it earlier.

For that matter, PAM support still is not complete. Various HOWTO sites give a nice guide, but this kind of thing can be better configured in the first place, no?

Drive Management

I noticed something when changing what I thought was the label of a mounted drive on the desktop in RedHat9 recently... It started to immediately copy files when I hit Enter to accept my name change. WTF? Isn't linux smart enough to be able to change the mounted volume name? That is most bizaare.

Some sort of Mounted Volumes manager must be easily accessible from the desktop. It's not. Can this be changed?

These are my three points for the day. I'm not trying to be too critical. I love linux and the direction it's heading in. I just feel there are a couple of "common feature" issues that need addressing.

Thanks. I hope someone more qualified than I can answer my questions.

Nope, sorry, no changes to drivers/video/radeonfb.c. Are either of these bugs the problem you're having? If not, then you should report it here.

Nope, sorry, no changes to drivers/video/radeonfb.c. Are either of these bugs the problem you're having? If not, then you should report it here.

Nope, sorry, no changes to drivers/video/radeonfb.c. Are either of these bugs the problem you're having? If not, then you should report it here.

You may have good intentions, but your post is, unfortunately, the opposite of informative.

I've got a machine with a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection running into two OC48's to MAE West. I just downloaded (via wget) all 32MB of linux-2.6.0-test6.tar.bz2 directly from kernel.org in less than 3.5 seconds--it came in at 9.38MB/second (that's 75 Mbps).

Seriously dude, BitTorrents are obsolete in the New Order. Kernel.org bittorrents YOU.

I'm not joking - look for yourself.
What does this mean?

Get it before its slashdotted

It may be -1, offtopic here. But if you get it now, then you don't have to wait when it gets on the front page!

Linus, in turn, used some Minix code to get started with Linux, but this was quickly replaced. Linux hasn't contained any Minix code for years.

Linus used Minix as a development platform but Linux has never contained any Minix code, ever. Minix code was encumbered by a "look but don't touch" license. Well, sort of. You could touch but you couldn't redistribute the modified version. This draconian license was the reason for the Minix/386 patchset that was very popular before Linux took over. Andy refused to integrate the 386 patches into Minix because it would ruin Minix as a teaching aide, but the 386 patches fixed many of the limitations in Minix (eg, maximum 64kB executables) so nearly everybody applied them. Linux could not have used any Minix code as even the earliest version of Linux was GPLd and this was incompatible with the Minix license.

"Linux is derived from Minix" and "Linux once contained Minix code" are myths. I've seen both myths repeated fairly often but I think this is just confusion because Linus cross-compiled his kernel and gnuserspace from a Minix platform. The easiest way to disprove the myth is to ask Linus himself.

"Although linux is a complete kernel, and uses no code from minix or other sources, almost none of the support routines have yet been coded. Thus you currently need minix to bootstrap the system. It might be possible to use the free minix demo-disk to make a filesystem and run linux without having minix, but I don't know..."
Linus Torvalds - Release Notes 0.01

By "bootstrap" he means create the Minix filesystem and copy across the Linux kernel and gnuserspace. Linux used the Minix filesystem before EXTFS was written but it was a clean-room implementation. No Minix code was used in the Linux implementation of minixfs.

FYI, I've read the entire Minix source tree (I own one of the earlier editions of the book), I've been using Linux since 1992, I've read one of the earliest Linux source trees, and I've never seen any matching code.

I've been using the -mm patchset since 2.5.4x and have been very happy with it. Since it includes the Interactivity patches from Con Kolivas it kicks ass on your desktop, too. Even moreso than the 2.4.x-ck series of patches, which are intended for desktop use. Do note however that it is sometimes more experimental in nature than the mainline kernel, since new functionality is often tested out there first.

If you know how to patch your kernel already, you don't need to read the article, get the patch for your kernel here: http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm /patches/2.6/

This just shows how thorough SCO really is. The article says: That this code "emanated" from SGI was news to SCO.
Well, the linux code clearly states

* Copyright (C) 1992 - 1997, 2000-2002 Silicon Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved.

I hope they know how Silicon Graphics Inc. relates to SGI :-)

1. 
   
   always the first place one should start
   
   Samples#1
   
   samples#2
   
   examples#3 (part of a SVG webring)
   
   examples#4 (it also answers the question. Who uses this?)
   
   ditto#2
   
   Adobe plugin (shoots down the "hasn't been updated in years" argument)
   
   Too imature for you?
   
   Oh yeah! Immature, and it has a browser plugin too
   
   

No one would write software anymore. Oh, except for the part-time hobbyists who do these things for fun and don't really have any motivation for doing the best job they possibly can because no one is getting paid for anything.

You seem to underestimate the power of the part-time hobbyist, the quality of the software he started and the power of that software to rock the foundations of the industry which was built on money.

Now that most of the lies and falsehoods have been eliminated (Your system won't boot linux!

It won't. Will Linus Torvalds be able to pull a tarball from kernel.org, compile it, and boot it on the system?

No he will not.

That ain't Linux.

Not in any useful way. It's been gutted, it's soulless, it's dead.

pam_time: authorize users based on when and where they log in (like securetty, but) in a way that is dependent on the service they are requesting; Andrew Morgan

Hint: RMS, while popular and quite unfluential, doesn't have full control of Linux and never will. Also my su manpage in Gentoo doesn't have that comment.

Make bzImage && make modules is no longer the recommended way to do this. You should just do "make" instead, which will build bzImage and any modules you may have asked for, and do it quicker than if you specify the steps separately. See the Halloween 2.5 document for details.

I call bullshit. You need to go RTFWebsite

ESR has already stated how he feels about being the guidon holder for open source.

1. Take my job, please.

2. Understand my job, please.

Further, if you can find someone who will do all of that, and perhaps more, you need to send him an e-mail, because he wants to know about it. Why not use this as a starting point when you're looking.

As for what ESR has done for the Open Source Community-at-large, ponder this, batman: You need the idealists, the pragmatists, and yes, even the more wild. Why? Because the community they're speaking in the name of, and the communities they're speaking to are just as diverse. It will be these men, and the relevant foundations that write the amici curiae in support of Linux, the GPL, or Open Source in general, when the time is necessary.

When was the last time you said thanks?

Gnome 2.4 RC1 "Kublai" is released
Pakistan India, yet to make request to SCO
Kernel 2.6.0-test4-bk6 released!
Eugina latest flamewars!

-1, offtopic, but its more exciting than this article!

The OS is going to also be DRM enabled and will detect the BIOS type.

Oh, really? I don't think so

This seems to be yet another in the growing collection of mostly useless 2.6 "migration guides". It doesn't mention any of the common gotchas with configuration, its recommendation for invoking the build process is wrong, etc, etc.

A much better guide is Dave Jones's Post Halloween 2.5 document, which, although very slightly dated, does a much better job explaining how and why things have changed in 2.6 and their impact when upgrading from 2.4.

You can get the updated module-init-tools at:

ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modul es

The latest is module-init-tools-0.9.14-pre1.tar.bz2

For those of use that are running the 2.5/2.6beta kernel, what should we do when we do find bugs?

Some resources:

• Dave Jones's "Post-Halloween" document is a good quick overview of what's new in 2.5/2.6, with some useful information on common pitfalls.
• REPORTING-BUGS in your friendly local kernel source tree.
• Documentation/BUG-HUNTING, same place.
• 2.5/2.6 bugzilla

For those of use that are running the 2.5/2.6beta kernel, what should we do when we do find bugs?

Some resources:

• Dave Jones's "Post-Halloween" document is a good quick overview of what's new in 2.5/2.6, with some useful information on common pitfalls.
• REPORTING-BUGS in your friendly local kernel source tree.
• Documentation/BUG-HUNTING, same place.
• 2.5/2.6 bugzilla

Use this

well looging at that dir:
(and assuming morton will be the 2.6 maintainer)

05/12/03 10:49PM 17,511 must-fix-1.txt
05/12/03 10:50PM 19,024 must-fix-2.txt
05/14/03 02:33AM 23,417 must-fix-3.txt
05/15/03 12:38AM 27,594 must-fix-4.txt
05/21/03 05:32PM 28,070 must-fix-4a.txt
05/21/03 09:59PM 30,821 must-fix-5.txt
05/30/03 11:35PM 15,294 must-fix-6.txt
05/30/03 11:35PM 19,045 should-fix-6.txt

The must fix list is not stable at all over time. It grew so big he made a split over must-fix and should-fix.

and ther should be anology's between 2.4-test and 2.6-test

Next bet: when will be 2.7 tree be opened?

Clickable link/azH8nobonus_present=1

From the Linux-PAM System Admin's Guide: "Linux-PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules for Linux) is a suite of shared libraries that enable the local system administrator to choose how applications authenticate users. In other words, without (rewriting and) recompiling a PAM-aware application, it is possible to switch between the authentication mechanism(s) it uses. Indeed, one may entirely upgrade the local authentication system without touching the applications themselves."

So Linux doesn't have that kind of features embedded into the core of the system. Programs have to be written to be aware about such a system.

For what it's worth, I verified the patch archive and the signature was good.

He would have noticed if he's trying to load the kernel.org page that shows him the mirrors...

For what it's worth, those of us in the US should probably start with this list.

Or better yet, the google cache of the top mirrors page and the
google cache of the US mirrors page.

Remember that images on those pages (little flags) are still sucking up the main kernel.org bandwidth.

more info available here, changelog here. Use your local mirror please.

more info available here, changelog here. Use your local mirror please.

more info available here, changelog here. Use your local mirror please.

Well, it's happened again. kernel.org just slowed to a crawl.

Remember to use those mirrors, folks!