[aklug] Friday Linux

From: Jim Gribbin <jimgribbin@gmail.com>
Date: Sat Sep 04 2010 - 15:17:28 AKDT

Spent a little time trying to figure out netBSD on that Cobalt Cube.

The documentation has some recommended things to do initially as this is
installed rather open so that one can get in and do things. The
recommended first steps are:

Please do not forget to bring your cobalt appliance to a secure state
before connecting it to an open network:

      * set root password by passwd(1)
              * got this one done OK
              *
      * remove all pseudo terminal (tty[pqrs]?) lines from /etc/ttys, or
        remove “secure” field from such pseudo terminals
              * this one I am a little unsure about. I can
                edit /etc/ttys OK, but do I really want to remove all
                the ttys? The only way into this box is over the
                network. I am assuming that removing the "secure" field
                makes it "insecure" and then it will require a password.
                I believe the latter option is the one I will want.
              *
      * comment out telnet and rlogin lines in /etc/inetd.conf if you
        don't really want to enable those services by default (it might
        be better to use sshd(8))
              * I want to get the previous step worked out before doing
                this one. I do plan on using ssh, but I need to get it
                and the previous step squared away before removing the
                telnet and rlogin options. I'm currently using rlogin.
              *
      * add new users with user(8) etc.
              * I tried adding a user, but I'm having some difficulty
                with it. I used:
                      * useradd -D -m -p password -G wheel frilinux
              * It didn't like the password password and told me it was
                giving me a default. What it showed was 13 asterisks
                enclosed in single quotes. Not very useful.
              * I deleted and re-created the user a couple of times
                trying different things. no password, a secure password.
                No matter what I did, it didn't seem to like it and
                created some sort of default that I didn't know what
                was. And I can't seem to change the password without
                knowing what the current is. Catch 22.
              *
      * put users who need root access via su(1) in the “wheel” group by
        editing the /etc/group file.
              * I'll work on this one when I get the previous ones
                worked out.

If someone could give me some hints on my issues, it would be
appreciated. I'm not really looking to fix my accidental password, I'm
looking for someone to tell me where I went wrong and what I should do
to do it correctly in the first place.

Beyond this last night, Fielder came by with a granddaughter and her
Sony laptop w/ cpu fan issues. Does anyone know where one can find new
parts for something like this. All we could find were used ones. Didn't
make much sense to us to replace a worn out fan with a used one. It will
need to be a specific Sony fan as it's cage is also is also the ducting
to get the air out of the laptop.

Beyond that, Greg M. was by kibitzing.

-- 
Jim Gribbin <jimgribbin@gmail.com>
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Received on Sat Sep 4 15:17:40 2010

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