September 2013 - luv-main

Accessing email via dns service
by Rob Rankin 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

Hoping someone can throw light on this issue for a Linux newbie. I'm running Ubuntu Server 12.04LTS and accessing the web via DHCP client on a Netgear router/modem. DNS service is provided through Dyndns.org Basic website is accompanied by a Moodle site which is the main focus of my operation. (support learning and teaching for U3A group) All features and functions of Moodle are operative however email cannot be sent or received. My previous experience with Moodle sites has not relied on this DNS service and I have no idea what influence their operation has on the handling of email. If someone is familiar with all the links in this chain I would appreciate some explicit advice. Cheers, Rob

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petition for FTTH
by Russell Coker 11 Sep '13

11 Sep '13

http://tinyurl.com/mpo6vft While I don't think much of the way the NBN has been designed, the Liberal party has an even worse plan that will give little benefit over the current situation and most of the costs of the NBN. The above URL has a change.org petition for them to reconsider this. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Re: petition for FTTH
by Petros 10 Sep '13

10 Sep '13

BTW: I found out why Turnbull does not need much bandwidth. Try to contact him: http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/contact The contact form is restricted to 200 characters. Regards Peter

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Fwd: [LCA2013-Chat] LCA2014 Registrations now open!
by Bianca Gibson 10 Sep '13

10 Sep '13

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Joshua Hesketh <snip> On behalf of the *linux.conf.au 2014* team we are pleased to announce that we have now started accepting early bird registrations. According to Luke John, organising director, “The start of registration represents the culmination of a lot of groundwork in planning for the conference and it's a real milestone to be at this point in the process”, “While there's still a lot to do, it's really starting to take shape now, and I'm quietly confident that we've got a great line up of speakers and topics and we are looking forward to an awesome conference”. Paul Del Fante also chipped in to offer encouragement for those of you who may feel a bit daunted by the distances. “It's Perth, it's Summer, we've got a fantastic Linux conference on, warm beaches, balmy evenings, city life, so come on over and share in our hospitality”. The *linux.conf.au 2014* early bird registrations will be open till 2013/10/13, but are for a limited number of places and may close earlier before we move on to the formal registration period, and we'd please ask anyone who registers during this time to keep an eye out for any minor issues or inconsistencies you come across. The *linux.conf.au 2014* Organising Team. http://lca2014.linux.org.au #lca14 <luke.john(a)osmahi.com> _______________________________________________ Chat mailing list Chat(a)lists.lca2013.linux.org.au http://lists.lca2013.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/chat_lists.lca2013.linux…

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creating TTY
by Tim Connors 10 Sep '13

10 Sep '13

Very early in the boot process, before the getty etc are fired up, I want to fire up a process that talks over a full tty. What state it leaves the console after it has finished is irrelevant - the process will finish with a reboot. I've had some element of success with openvt and screen (and running stty sane in the subshell), but they're not particularly neat, and neither of them propogate the exit value from the last command executed. And my google fu is still failing me. Anyone any idea of a simple .c program or the like that can initialise the tty into a semi-sane state and talking over /dev/tty will do the expected thing? Running 'tty' this early in the process tells me my tty device is /dev/console, but it doesn't behave like a tty, in that rlwrap fails to do the expected thing 'rlwrap: Could not open /dev/tty: No such device or address' (yes, /dev/tty is c 5 0) -- Tim Connors

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Re: selinux stole my bank details (and my pony)
by Petros 10 Sep '13

10 Sep '13

From: "Russell Coker" <russell(a)coker.com.au> > Apart from a few exceptions the SE Linux design is based on a default of deny That is true and definitely adds a layer. Whether it is SELinux or containers - you rely on kernel code. Both can have vulnerabilities. SELinux is sharing the same name space with the rest of the system - so you can reach other services, files etc. by misconfiguration. People are lazy. The easiest way to get it work: allow everything for all. I just help someone to have a test instance of a website. There is a form writing data to one DB table (contact): What do I see: GRANT ALL for db.* for user anyone (no password). Regards Peter

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Re: selinux stole my bank details (and my pony)
by Petros 10 Sep '13

10 Sep '13

From: "Jason White" <jason(a)jasonjgw.net> > Robin Humble <rjh+luv(a)cita.utoronto.ca> wrote: >> ...it didn't really, but... >> is anyone still a selinux fanboi after the recent NSA revelations? >> >> if so then (Russell, I'm looking at you :-) why are you still confident >> selinux is a good thing and not just something designed to be so >> complex or so subtly buggy that the NSA can hide backdoors in it? > > The code has been worked on extensively by people who are not associated with > the NSA, so at this point I'm not concerned that it harbours intended > vulnerabilities. Also remember that SELinux adds to the security of a system: > the Linux discretionary access controls are checked first. Only if the > operation is allowed is SELinux invoked to apply the security policy. That's correct. But I still need additional layers being reliable, otherwise it just adds a false sense of security. At least in the server I rather rely on containers. The FreeBSD jail implementation is completely done in the kernel without further userland configuration. According to Robert Watson he needed to change/add ca. 600 lines to implement it, that is clearly easier to audit than the complex SELinux rules. At the same time it contains services pretty well. As for Androids etc. - I would not trust them as far as I can throw them. I wonder whether people are interested in a "connection fob" which is giving you the functionality of a wireless modem, phone connectivity and GSM, as well as contains and hides devices behind it. It would improve our security and privacy significantly if that little thing is open-source and has practical mechanical switches to enable/disable connectivity, I believe. Behind it, a phone is a (IP) phone and a tablet is a tablet and a computer a computer and they all do not rely on plenty of closed source drivers etc because they do not need to implement the connectivity functions anymore. And the data exchenge between them is tightly controlled. The connection fob would be the most useful "smartwatch" I could imagine. Regards Peter

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Re: petition for FTTH
by Petros 09 Sep '13

09 Sep '13

From: "Russell Coker" <russell(a)coker.com.au> > http://tinyurl.com/mpo6vft > > While I don't think much of the way the NBN has been designed, the Liberal > party has an even worse plan that will give little benefit over the current > situation and most of the costs of the NBN. The above URL has a change.org > petition for them to reconsider this. I think one of the major drawbacks of a fibre to the node network is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Broadband_Network#Fibre_to_the_premis… Mike Quigley, CEO of NBN Co, said one of the advantages of a GPON network is the distribution hub requires no electronics. He used an example in the United States where a hub was "under water and full of mud" and it continued to function while the fire department used a high pressure hose to clean it.[5] Without electronics, the distribution hub does not require a power supply, nor a battery for power outages. In a GPON network only the local exchanges housing the fibre access nodes and the equipment on premises require a power supply. ------------------------ If Turnbull has his way, it means: hubs with electronics (optical to fibre converters) close to the house The converters need power, so it adds additional power lines and other infrastructure, and a need to shelter the electronics against every kind of weather. This will in fact increase the costs of the NBN while decreasing bandwidth and reliability. The savings argument is a dud. Recently I read a print of an IEEE paper which is coming to the same result. (sorry, cannot find a reference anymore) Only politicians without any knowledge could really argue in favour of fibre to the node in dominantly suburban Australia. Regards Peter

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Recommendations for APT caching software for Ubuntu?
by Chris Samuel 07 Sep '13

07 Sep '13

Hi folks, What do folks feel works well for them for a running a local apt-cache? I want to avoid having to download apt packages for my various Kubuntu machines for speed rather than quota reasons. cheers! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP

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What happened at the AGM?
by Dave Hall 07 Sep '13

07 Sep '13

Hi luv-main (or is that now la-luv-main?), Would someone who was there like to give the list a summary of what happened at tonight's AGM? I couldn't attend but I'm interested in the outcome. Cheers Dave

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