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Bringing you the latest news from the Linux World.
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Leading items and editorialsA response to the challenge. Last week LWN called for a free software response to Microsoft's .NET and HailStorm initiatives that went beyond mere copying of Microsoft's design. In response to our challenge, the community has rallied and announced two initiatives in this area. The Free Software Foundation has put out a press release announcing its support for both projects. We are gratified that our challenge was received in this way. What...? You say all that was happening anyway? And, besides, nobody made it through our editorial? OK, maybe so... Anyway, as stated, there are two independent projects which have announced their existence over the last week, plus one other which has not put out any formal announcements so far. They differ significantly in their scope and goals; we'll have a look at all three. Ximian's Mono project came out with an announcement of its existence on July 9. Of the two projects, Mono is less ambitious at the design level - it has set itself the task of reproducing a number of Microsoft-designed components that facilitate the development of .NET applications. In particular, Mono plans to produce:
This project probably needs to happen, but there are a couple of immediate concerns that come up. One is that Microsoft is being allowed to set the agenda; Mono is playing the "catch up" game creating free implementations of systems designed by others. It helps that Microsoft has submitted the relevant specifications for standards approval, but, in the end, it would not be surprising to see the company "embrace and extend" its own standards. The other concern is the "shared source" release of some of the .NET code. Those who hack on Mono are going to have to be tremendously careful to avoid any sort of exposure to the .NET code, or the whole project could find itself open to lawsuits. As Eric Raymond put it a week ago, the shared source license is the truly viral one - a look at Microsoft's code can contaminate everything a programmer produces. Playing the game with Microsoft brings exposure to those sorts of hazards, but somebody probably has to do it. The .NET infrastructure is likely to prove hard to avoid. And, it is said, it even has some nice features. So we wish Ximian luck in its project. (See also: the Mono Project home page). Then, there's DotGNU. At first, the DotGNU Project looks quite similar to Mono. There is a difference, though: while Mono is concentrating on the low-level plumbing for developers, DotGNU is looking hard at the services that will be implemented on top of that plumbing. Mono, for example, is not concerned with the HailStorm authentication services (other than providing a platform on which they can run); DotGNU, instead, describes HailStorm as "dangerous stuff" and has plans for the implementation of a freer alternative. DotGNU is not ignoring plumbing, though. Three of the project's highest priorities are:
This would all be cool stuff to have, but one must question the wisdom of creating yet another virtual machine definition. It seems like substantial amounts of effort could be saved by, for example, starting with the Java virtual machine - for which multiple free implementations already exist. The reason for this decision, according to DotGNU designer Norbert Bollow, is to support the needs of the distributed execution environment. The end result may look much like the Java platform, but some enhancements will be necessary. Also on DotGNU's list is:
This is an area where DotGNU could, perhaps, make a real difference. A proper set of open, distributed personal information protocols could, simultaneously, make life easier for users of network services and address the concerns that surround HailStorm and its "Passport" system. DotGNU faces an uphill battle. The project is new, with no code to show. It's sponsoring organization, FreeDevelopers.net, is a distributed company with utopian ideals but little cash and no track record. And the project is ambitious, to say the least. DotGNU may well get to where it wants to be, but chances are that it will have to find some partners and/or backers first. It will also need to define a revenue model, since FreeDevelopers.net really is supposed to generate paychecks for its developers at some point. Finally, DotGNU and Mono would be well advised to find effective ways of working together. There is no room for misunderstandings and duplication of effort on a project of this scale. Given the different emphasis that each project has, it should be possible for the two to complement each other, with much better chances of success in the end. The Island of Project Nareau? A third contender for the next generation of Internet services exists, but, while its architecture and design process is well advanced, it has not yet started issuing press releases. The Nareau Project has set out to develop "an open, user centric, cross platform, Internet3.0 platform," based on standard, existing components. If all goes well, the project will have code to show next month. Nareau developers do not see the need to create an entire new framework, as is being done by both Mono and DotGNU in their respective ways. Instead, Nareau plans to make use of the many tools and protocols that already exist. Thus, the project will be built on top of components like:
The Nareau vision sees a net with a great many "nodes," which can be
anything from a cellular phone to a large server. These nodes communicate
A crucial component of Nareau will be the "CloudServer," which handles messaging and object publishing, but which does not concern itself with user interface issues. The Nareau rules system will be implemented in the CloudServer, as will authentication and access in general. It is thus the security gateway for a Nareau node; it is also hoped that it will make rule scripting easy to the point that most users will take advantage of the capability. The authentication aspect of Nareau is handled through a protocol called Sunshine; it is Nareau's answer to HailStorm. It is, of course, a decentralized system, meaning that no single company can position itself as the sole arbiter of access to network services. Any reasonable system has to be that way, but that does leave each participant on the net with the problem of deciding which identity services it trusts. Finding a secure and simple solution to this problem will be a major and unavoidable challenge for any future identity service. Implementation of Sunshine is one of Nareau's first priorities. The interface to Nareau seen by most users will be a separate component called a "SpaceStation." The SpaceStation uses Mozilla to provide a user interface to the net. Since, like any proper, modern system, Nareau is designed around peer-to-peer principles, every SpaceStation will include a CloudServer as well. Thus, the SpaceStation will not only allow users to "browse" the net and control their experience there; it will also allow them to participate and publish their own objects. The Nareau developers hope to have a first release (implementing a calendaring system) available for release at JabberCon in August, with a more complete release sometime around the end of the year. Until then, the project appears to be operating in a cathedral mode, with no downloads or public mailing lists available. The Nareau developers are hoping, eventually, to make money from the project, through the sales of consulting services, and, perhaps, proprietary components (though the base system will be released under the GPL). There may also be an "enterprise version" of the CloudServer subsystem. Even there, the project is talking about a "source available commercial license" - just don't call it "shared source." Inside this LWN.net weekly edition:
This Week's LWN was brought to you by:
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July 12, 2001
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's Security page. |
SecurityNews and EditorialsNAI Labs Announces DARPA-Funded FreeBSD Security Initiative. NAI Labs has received a $1.2 Million contract from the DARPA to develop security extension to FreeBSD. The military, it seems, has decided that it is dependent enough on free software to put some effort into improving its security. This particular effort, which is expected to take 18 months, should bring a number of improvements to FreeBSD. Linux security developers may want to have a look at what is going on as well. The Community-Based Open Source Security project is the recipient of this grant. It's made up of a number of high-profile names, including Robert Watson, Kirk McKusick, and Eivind Eklund. The aim of the project is to target some of the "low-hanging fruit" in the security area, including:
Some of the work is simply trying to catch up with capabilities Linux has had for years (i.e. PAM, TCP SYN cookies), but some of it is interesting and new. The results bear watching. Linux advocates should also, perhaps, be paying more attention to the possibility of government funding for some development work. The money is out there, and, often, it's looking for something interesting to do. Given the difficulty of finding venture capital these days, sharp people with good ideas might just want to consider taking the grant approach instead. Snort 1.8 is released. Version 1.8 of the Snort intrusion detection system is out. New features include a "stateful inspection and TCP stream reassembly module," host tagging, detection of ARP spoofing, defeats for a number of evasion techniques, and much more. This may be the last big release for a little bit, since the author, Martin Roesch, is about to become a father. Security Reportsdip 3.3.7p overflow. An overflow condition has been discovered in dip on SuSE 7.0 X86 and Slackware. This is an old bug that has resurfaced. lmail local root exploit. Lmail is susceptible to a local root exploit that can allow attackers to overwrite and create files. OpenSSL Pseudo-random number generator weakness. A weakness has been discovered in the OpenSSL Pseudo random number generator that can allow an attacker to discover the PNRG's state and predict future values. This week's updates: Caldera security update to OpenSSH. Caldera International has released a security update to OpenSSH fixing an interesting problem: an attacker can remove any file on the system, as long as it's called "cookies"... Immunix update for tetex. Immunix has posted a security update for tetex to address temporary file handling problems that can lead to privilege elevation. Tripwire temporary files. A temporary file insecurity problem has been discovered in Tripwire which make it possible for a local user to overwrite files with root permissions. Xdm cookies advisory. If xdm is compiled with the wrong options the cookie file can be guessed and a denial of service attack can be performed using the X server. Red Hat advisory for xloadimage. Red Hat has issued an advisory for the xloadimage package to address buffer overflow issues. The problem is mostly limited to remote exploits if xloadimage is called by Netscape (by 'plugger', for example). Proprietary products. The following proprietary products were reported to contain vulnerabilities:
Updatesfetchmail buffer overflow. Check the June 21st LWN Security Summary for the original report. This is remotely exploitable and could lead to root access if fetchmail is run by root. An upgrade to fetchmail 5.8.6 will resolve the problem.This week's updates: Previous updates:
Webmin environment variable inheritance vulnerability. Check the May 31st LWN Security Summary for the original report. This week's updates:
xinetd buffer overflow. Check the June 14th LWN Security Summary for the initial report. The buffer overflow is in the ident logging portion of xinetd, so one workaround to the problem is to disable ident logging. Since then, more extensive problems have been found in string handling in xinetd, and the current round of updates addresses them.This week's updates: Previous updates:
ResourcesSecurity BOF report updated. Emily Ratliff's report from the USENIX security module BOF has seen some minor updates from the author; an updated version is now available.
Security Alerts: PHP Weaknesses? (O'Reilly). Noel Davis looks at some security vulnerabilities in PHP and discusses other current security issues in an O'Reilly article. A rogue's gallery of denial of service attacks (ZDNet). ZDNet looks at a few tools that can be used to thwart denial of service (DOS) attacks. Small TCP packets == very large overhead. Darren Reed discusses how small TCP packets can be used maliciously to bog down a server. The minimum size for the maximum segment size field is too small for many operating systems and the value is defined by the caller. LinuxSecurity.com newsletter. The weekly LinuxSecurity.com newsletter has been published. Advisories for Samba, xinetd, Zope, Scotty, and webmin are presented. EventsUpcoming Security Events.
For additional security-related events, included training courses (which we don't list above) and events further in the future, check out Security Focus' calendar, one of the primary resources we use for building the above list. To submit an event directly to us, please send a plain-text message to lwn@lwn.net. Section Editor: Forrest Cook |
July 12, 2001
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's Kernel page. |
Kernel developmentThe current kernel release is still 2.4.6. The latest 2.4.7 prepatch from Linus is 2.4.7pre6, which contains another set of fixes and updates. Alan Cox's 2.4.6ac2 was released on July 7; it contains, as usual, a rather longer list of fixes. Andrea Arcangeli also has a prepatch (2.4.7pre5aa1) out with a set of fixes, mostly to the core kernel code. On the 2.2 front, the current prepatch is 2.2.20pre7, released on July 4. Building the initial root filesystem into the kernel image. One often-heard theme in the ACPI discussion (covered last week) was that it would be nice to move much of the ACPI setup into user space. That way, perhaps, it would not be necessary to bloat the kernel memory footprint with a few hundred kilobytes of ACPI code. But, with current kernels, doing boot-time stuff in user space involves using the "initrd" (initial RAMdisk) functionality, which not everybody likes. Even Linus dislikes it. But there are advantages to having an initial root filesystem handy; it's the clunkiness of the initrd interface that people object to. So, Linus has another idea: why not just append a root filesystem, in tar format, to the kernel executable image? That way, it can be set up in an entirely automatic way, and everything the kernel needs will be right at hand. Linus likes this idea enough that he would likely make it a mandatory part of the boot process. Once you have the initial root as part of the kernel image, you can move a lot of stuff over. For example, the whole process of finding the real, permanent root, and finding and running the init process could live there. That would remove a bunch of code from the kernel itself, and make it far easier to customize for specific situations. It would no longer be necessary to have a DHCP implementation in the kernel for diskless systems. And one could even put the kernel configuration file there, satisfying a perennial request. Given that, with a proper implementation, most users would not even have to know that this "piggyback" filesystem is present, its implementation in the 2.5 series seems likely. How to do 64-bit PCI DMA? In past weeks we have looked at efforts to make it possible to perform DMA I/O operations from anywhere in the first 4GB of memory on the system. That would be a significant improvement over the current situation, but it still leaves out an important case. Large server systems, anymore, can contain well over 4GB of memory, and there do exist PCI cards which can perform DMA with 64-bit physical addresses. For such systems, wouldn't it be nice to take advantage of the 64-bit mode and eliminate the hassles of memory zones and bounce buffers entirely? The folks working on the IA-64 port decided this would be a good idea. Accordingly, they turned dma_addr_t (an internal "cookie" type used by the DMA support routines) into a 64-bit quantity, and changed the semantics of pci_set_dma_mask() to allow drivers to specify that their hardware can do 64-bit DMA. This interface works for the immediate needs the IA-64 porters had, but David Miller, who "owns" the PCI DMA interface, has made it clear that he opposes moving it to the other architectures. Instead, he wants to see a more comprehensive 64-bit DMA interface designed and implemented in the 2.5 development series. (Those interested in the current interface, incidentally, can see the excellent DMA-mapping.txt file found in the kernel source documentation directory). Some people are unhappy with that position; after all, anything deferred to 2.5 might not see a stable release for another two years. But David's objections make some sense, and they give an interesting view into the issues you have to take into account when designing this sort of interface. The discussion may look like a complaint session, but it is really the initial design work for a high-performance DMA interface. Some of the issues with the simple extension used by IA-64 are:
Chances are good that some sort of 64-bit DMA API which addresses the above issues will find its way into 2.5. Thereafter, it may even be backported to 2.4, at which point it will be widely available. Other patches and updates released this week include:
Section Editor: Jonathan Corbet |
July 12, 2001 For other kernel news, see: Other resources: |
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's Distributions page.
Lists of Distributions |
DistributionsPlease note that security updates from the various distributions are covered in the security section. News and EditorialsThe DMA Issue in Red Hat Linux 7.1 (Exocore). The Exocore Linux FAQ has added a section addressing the DMA Issue in Red Hat Linux 7.1. Red Hat Linux 7.1 enables DMA by default to improve performance, but this may cause problems with some equipment. If you are having problems such as slow and unreliable installs, CRC errors, file corruptions or even random system lockups, DMA could be the culprit. The Exocore article will step you through the process of identifying and fixing DMA problems. If you do need to turn off DMA to install Red Hat 7.1, Red Hat wants to know about it. Many models of incompatible hardware have been identified by Red Hat, and DMA is turned off automatically when known incompatibilities are found. Reporting your incompatible hardware to Red Hat can save you and others future headaches. New OS options galore (ZDNet). Here's a story about getting Unix for a PowerPC. The article begins with the old A/UX for Apple OS and moves on to Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD and OS X offerings for the PowerPC. "But Apple never brought A/UX to the PowerPC. Fortunately, that didn't deter either the MkLinux or LinuxPPC projects from bringing the then fledgling GNU-licensed OS to Power Macs, but it was a struggle. Externally available hardware specs for Apple hardware are notoriously nonexistent, so the sheer tenacity of these early pioneers provided the underpinnings for all the Unix-y goodness to come." Comparison of Linux Distributions. A Comparison of Linux Distributions page was found through the Mandrakeforum. Twelve distributions are compared in a table format. New DistributionsThe FullPliant operating system. The FullPliant operating system is very different from other Linux distributions. It doesn't use System V or BSD init scripts or even a shell. Basically, it is not Unix like. Instead all the basic services are provided through a set of highly integrated Pliant applications and scripts, and all the configuration details are stored in a database. The OS has three layers; a Linux kernel, the FullPliant server, and a Debian based embedded computer. More details are available at the Pliant web site. Distribution NewsDebian news. Several new architectures are planned for woody -- hppa, ia64, mips and mipsel. So a bugsquash party is in the works from Friday, July 13th to Sunday, the 15th to fix the problems they're having across a wide range of packages. The July 7th edition of the Kernel Cousin Debian Hurd discusses its expansion to 3 CDs, emacs20 problems, debconf's dependencies, a repackaging of util-linux, ssh, Jeff Bailey's Autobuilder results, and lilo. Mondo 1.0 and Mindi 0.27. Mondo 1.0 has been released. Mondo was the first program to offer 'free' CD-based full disaster recovery facilities to Linux and Lin/Win boxes. The latest version works with ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, XFS and VFAT. While Mindi 0.27 is mentioned in the previous announcement, there is actually a Mindi 0.28 available on Freshmeat. Mindi-Linux uses a skeleton ramdisk and your kernel, modules, and tools to build a boot/root disk set. Red Hat News. Red Hat announced the availability of Red Hat Linux 7.1 for Itanium. The release is available from: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/7.1/en/os/ia64 and mirror sites. Redmond Linux announces no per-seat licenses or pay-per-download. Redmond Linux, Corp. is taking a firm stand on the issue of pay-per-download and per-seat licensing - they are against it. They vow, "You will always be able to download the ISO images of Redmond Linux; you will always be able to get support from the mailing lists." Minor Distribution updatesinnominate Bootable CD. The link to innominate Bootable CD was recently changed. The correct link is now www.innominate.de/enterprise/products/rescuecd/. (Thanks to Heike Scharfe) Owl 0.1-stable. The OpenWall Linux Distribution (Owl) has a new stable branch, which is intended to be production-ready, even if it's not yet up to a 1.0 release. Also, Owl has a new changelog policy where security fixes are clearly marked, but minor fixes are not called out in separate advisories or Bugtraq postings. See Solar Designer's announcement for details. Distribution ReviewsSuSE Linux 7.2 Professional Review (LinuxLookup). LinuxLookup.com reviews SuSE Linux 7.2 Professional. "... what has always bothered me, and other novice users, was the learning curve necessary to get a fully operational GNU/Linux system up and running with minimal effort. That complication has been overcome with the release of the 7.2 version SuSE's popular distribution. I received a copy of the boxed version of the Professional distribution and can state quite categorically that this is the easiest install I've run to date." Mandrake Single Network Firewall Reviewed. A security consultant reviews the Mandrake Single Network Firewall. Found on Mandrakeforum. Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol |
July 12, 2001
Please note that not every distribution will show up every week. Only distributions with recent news to report will be listed.
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's On the Desktop page.
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On The DesktopWindows on Linux.
So while the open source world continues its steady march to get native applications to the masses, users still need stopgap solutions today. They want to run their old applications, their old Windows-based applications. Fortunately, there are a couple of options. The most publicized in the Linux world is WINE, a set of open source libraries that translates Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 (or, more technically, Windows 3.x and Win32) function calls into Linux calls. This is what allows applications like CorelDRAW to work on Linux systems. WINE provides both a porting library and a program loader so Windows applications can simply run right out of the box. WINE's primary advantage over other Windows-on-Linux solutions is that is doesn't require the Windows operating system. It is a replacement for Windows. WINE's limitation is that it isn't completely stable with all applications and with commercial packages such as CorelDRAW you often get a version of WINE specific to that application just to be sure it works. One alternative to WINE is to provide virtual environments in which users can run the Windows OS of their choice directly on Linux. VMWare is one such solution. VMWare offers the ability to run Windows on Linux or to run Windows and Linux side by side without dual booting. VMWare's advantage is that it runs all Windows offerings from Windows 3.1 to Windows95/98/NT to Windows 2000. In fact, it can run Windows on Linux or Linux on Windows. VMWare is a proprietary product which retails for $299/$329 for the electronic or packaged distributions, respectively, of the side by side solution (referred to as the "Workstation" product) or $79/$99 for the Windows on Linux version (known as the "Express" product).
The downside to Win4Lin is that it currently only supports Windows 95 and 98. The package retails for $79 for the downloadable version, $89 for the boxed set and can be purchased through online retailers such as LinuxCentral or LinuxMall.com, or through brick and mortar locations of such retailers as Fry's, MicroCenter, and CompUSA. Reviewing Win4Lin. In a strange case of déjà vu, LWN.net editor Michael J. Hammel stumbled upon Win4Lin when a press release noted the product's long forgotten history as Merge, a DOS emulator packaged with Dell's SVR4 Unix from many years back. Interested in finding if this product had evolved into something useful (which it really wasn't back then), we decided to sample Win4Lin here at LWN.net. We contacted Netraverse and they provided a boxed set of the package in very short order. Installation starts by having the graphical installer, win4lin-installer, check for an updated installer at their web site. A new version was found, downloaded (though you can skip this step if you want), and started. Next, the updated installer checks for an updated Win4Lin runtime package and an updated, Win4Lin-enabled Linux kernel. Since the existing kernel was not modified (Red Hat 6.1) the installer was able to easily recognize the standard kernel and add the new Win4Lin-enabled kernel to the Lilo configuration. The new kernel became an optional boot kernel: $ lilo Added linux * Added win4linAfter installing the Win4Lin-enabled kernel, the Linux system required a reboot. Lilo had been updated properly but the original kernel was left as the default boot kernel, so the new kernel had to be manually selected from the Lilo prompt at boot time. Once back into the X session, the installer was manually restarted. It correctly identified that the Win4Lin installation was not complete and prompted for the install of the Windows98 operating system. Note that if you accidently run the installer as a normal user at this point it will catch this and ask you to rerun it as root to complete the installation. The installer copies all of your Windows installation CD and boot floppy files to your hard disk and then ask you to restart the installer (/usr/bin/win4lin-install) as a normal (non-root) user. This final step installs the Windows for use by that user by opening a Win4Lin window which emulates the Windows environment and runs the usual Windows98 installation process. This goes amazingly well - except, of course, that the Windows98 install requires 4 reboots. Fortunately these are virtual reboots (not real hardware reboots) that Win4Lin handles without a problem. The Win98 install completes the Netraverse install. After you exit the installer it automatically boots a Win98 session. The mouse works as you expect - in the Linux windows it does what you want under Linux. In the Win4Lin window it works in the Windows environment, opening menus and moving Win98 windows around within the Win4Lin window. Internet services work right out of the box. The default of using winsock (instead of VNET) worked fine with our cable-modem connected network. The box on which Win4Lin was installed also happened to be the gateway box, so we weren't able to test how things might work on a box behind the firewall. That said, the first time we booted there was no network configuration necessary under Windows in order to get the IE browser to cruise the Internet. The only other issue we ran into, which may be specific to the Red Hat 6.1 distribution we were running, is that in order to use the cdrom you need to set the permissions on the device (/dev/cdrom or whatever that may be linked to) to 555. The default directory mapped as your C: drive is $HOME/win, which is shown under Windows as "~/win". Win4Lin and Windows Applications. We only tested a few applications because we simply don't have many Windows applications available. But the applications we did try seemed to work just fine. SimCity 2000. This game Installed and ran just fine. It doesn't require DirectX so there was no problem on that end. The game ran a little sluggishly when the Win4Lin window did not have focus or was hidden behind other X windows. Sound worked out of the box again, using the existing sound set up from Linux and with no additional Win98 sound system configuration required. Lotus Notes R5. Again, the Windows installation went smoothly. We had a few problems accessing email and calendar databases but that may have been from an improper installation of the application. All other functions seemed to work as expected. Microsoft Encarta97. This is one of the few packages we might find useful, with its dictionary and research papers available. The installation process for Encarta even reported that MIDI sound support was not available, which it wasn't under Linux. Even so, all images, sound and video worked perfectly under Win4Lin. You Don't Know Jack. An interesting game to say the least, this one worked nearly perfectly. No problems with installation (which was very quick) and the game and all animations and sound played without problems. The only minor issue we noticed was that the sound volume control under the game didn't seem to affect actual sound volume. For what it was worth, sound on the test machine was run through the ESD sound daemon. Win4Lin suggests turning on backing store in your X server, something you can do after installation. Backing store is normally turned off in XFree86 and can slow performance if turned on. We tested with Xi Graphics' server without backing store turned on and there were no problems, even when bouncing around desktops under FVWM2 or overlaying XV and GIMP windows. If you experience problems with screen refreshes (the Win4Lin window doesn't get updated if you change desktops for example) you may want to turn on backing store for your X server. The manual explains how to do this using the XFree86 X server which comes standard with all desktop Linux distributions. Another issue we noticed was that there didn't appear to be an option for specifying where files for win4lin or Windows98 would be installed. By default they all get installed under /opt (the Win4Lin files) or the users $HOME directory (the Windows OS files). The only serious bug we encountered was being forced into capslock mode at one point during installation of a Windows application. This problem, which forced us to completely exit our X session in order to reset to non-capslock mode, only occurred once and we aren't sure exactly how we managed to get there. There are various gotchas with the Win4Lin package - like the install time listed when installing an application under Windows may be incorrect. However, the manual seems to do a good job describing them and how to deal with each one as it arises. None of these would have been considered a major problem, just something worth keeping an eye out for. Read the manual for each step before proceeding to be prepared for them as they arise. More troublesome is that Win4Lin does not support DirectX or DirectDraw, which means many games won't work. RealPlayer is also reported not to work. Cut and paste between Win4Lin and Linux is not supported yet, something that does work with tools like WINE. Even though many games may not be supported, the majority of applications seem to work fine under Win4Lin as long as they are Windows 95 or Windows 98 applications. This in itself opens up Linux users to a wide range of available applications. While you may find that running too many native applications (especially resource hungry applications like Web browsers) at the same time as Win4Lin may bog down your system, in general this is a very useful and easy to use product. If you've already made the investment in Windows and accompanying applications, but truly prefer to run them on the Linux platform, you would do well to make the additional investment for Netraverse's Win4Lin. Lesser tools of the trade. Another set of Microsoft related tools that deserve mentioning before we move on are the Mtools, a collection of DOS floppy disk utilities. Each utility program carries the usual DOS command name prefixed with an "m", such as "mdir" and "mdel". This very useful set of tools is maintained by David Niemi and Alain Knaff, with the latest release, Mtools-3.9.8, having been released May 27th, 2001. There is even a GTK+ based front end to these tools called MtoolsFM, which is a sort of file manager for floppy disk files. Spelling update. Last week we missed a rather interesting - and easy to use - programming interface for spell checking in GtkText widgets: GtkSpell. This LGPL library attaches to the GtkText widget and allows the programmer to provide simple spell checking facilities to any GtkText based application. The only question, of course, is will this library be updated to work with the more complex text widget of GTK+ 2.0? Units update. Last week's note on units, the swiss army knife for unit conversions, included an obvious (to everyone but the editor) bug. Or so it appeared. In this example, the conversion from degrees Farehnheit to degrees Celsius was noted as being wrong:
You have: 79 degF
You want: degC
79 degF = 43.888889 degC
79 degF = (1 / 0.02278481) degC
One reader wrote in to say that the root of the problem was found to
be related to
a missing value of 32 in the C/F conversion.
The version of units used was 1.55. The GNU FTP site for units shows a
version of 1.74 is now
available, though the previous release provided is 1.55.
According to units current maintainer, Adrian Mariano, version 1.55 is the most stable release. And the results shown last week were actually correct - the problem was that the question was interpreted incorrectly. What units shows isn't the conversion between 79 degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius but the equivalent change in degrees Celsius for a change of 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Whew! This problem is actually explained in the man page: The `units' program converts quantities expressed in various scales to their equivalents in other scales. The `units' program can only handle multiplicative scale changes. For example, it cannot convert Celsius to Fahrenheit but it can convert temperature differences between those temperature scales. And as the author puts it:
I ask...: What should be the result of the conversion
17 joules degF^3 / kg m
to
calories kelvin degC degF / lb ft
The problem is more complex apparently than meets the eye of the casual
user. The author also noted that version 1.77, which does support
conversion between temperature scales (and not just temperature changes)
is a radically new version that is in early development. The 1.74 version
on GNU's site was news to him - he wasn't aware anyone had put a copy there.
KIllustrator update. The status of KIllustrator remains unclear this week. Last week's report of a lawsuit filed against the author of the web site for the package and the University he attends was not completely accurate. As it turns out, German law permits law firms and even consumer organizations to file what are known as Abmahnungs ("Warnings" in english) on behalf of companies if the firm or organization notes a possible trademark violation. The accused party can pay a fee (part of which goes to the lawyer and part to the trademark holder) and stop the abuse or risk being taken to court. Such warnings could, of course, be easily abused by less than honorable lawyers. We're not quite clear on whether Adobe was actually involved in this case or not. Additionally, we noted that guilt by association was hardly a basis upon which this case could rest its merit. One reader replied that guilt by association is apparently enough, at least by German standards. We think this topic should rest a bit while those with actual experience in German trademark law examine it more thoroughly. Desktop EnvironmentsKDE 2.2beta1: Ready to Roll. The first official beta release of KDE 2.2 has been announced by the KDE Project. KDE 2.2 offers many new features and improvements over 2.1, including (but not limited to):
Kernel Cousin KDE #16. This week's Kernel Cousin KDE #16 includes discussions on gluing DCOP to SOAP, integration of the new printer management with the Konqueror browser and lots of talk about the possibilities of a Windows version of KDE. GNOME Summary for June 24 - July 08, 2001. Here's this week's GNOME Summary featuring the new release of the Nautilus file manager. Nautilus 1.0.4. A new release of Nautilus has been announced to the GNOME Announce mailing list. This minor release includes numerous speed enhancements and lots of bug fixes. GNUstep Core/GUI 0.7.0 Release. A new release of GNUstep Core/GUI library, version 0.7.0, was announced this week. Office ApplicationsKonqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated (KDE Dot News). Two developers have announced that they have added ActiveX controls to Konqueror. The new feature, called reaktivate, is based on the ActiveX features of WINE. AbiWord Weekly News. The AbiWord Weekly News noted that GNOME printing integration has been fixed, numbered headings have been added and the license to ispell which caused some discussions on the mailing list has prompted Geoff Kuenning (ispell maintainer) to promise to change the license. Desktop ApplicationsGnuCash 1.6.1 is released. GnuCash 1.6.1 has been released. It contains updated user documentation, updated French, German, Japanese,and Portuguese translations, improved startup time, and many bug fixes. And in other news...Slashdot talks with GnuCash developer Robert Merkel. The responses to questions submitted by Slashdot readers are actually a collection from the GnuCash team. "If your bank provides downloadable QIF files, as many do, you can import them into GnuCash easily right now. We are working on the ability to use GnuCash's built-in web browser to log on to the bank with SSL and download the QIF directly into GnuCash without having to save to a file." Section Editor: Michael J. Hammel |
July 12, 2001
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's Development page. |
Development projectsNews and EditorialsThe BlueBox browser and peer-to-peer programming.
A company known as dLoo, Inc
has announced the release
of an architecture for an extensible open-source peer-to-peer programming
language that works in conjunction with its BlueBox browser.
BlueBox uses the concept of language structures called words which programmers can post on the net in a manner that is similar to posting web pages. BlueBox can compile the words that it receives from network sites into various languages such as C++, Perl, and Python. The plan is to have the words written for various problem domains such as mathematics, graphics, and art to name a few possibilities. People using the BlueBox browser can then tie various words together to build larger programs. The BlueBox introduction documentation describes the goals of the system: Most programming languages are statically defined when they are compiled. C++, Perl, Python, and other languages cannot become richer over time after their compilers or interpreters are compiled.
BlueBox and the underlying words seem like a novel idea with many possible uses. The notions of tying multiple languages together across platforms and linking software together like web pages are fairly unique. To get a better picture of some BlueBox issues, LWN asked Nile from the BlueBox project a few questions. The BlueBox site claims that all of the advertised features are already functional. BlueBox is an open-source project that is being released under the GPL license. ClustersThe Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer (Scientific American). Written by the people who created the Beowulf clustering software, this article explains how the Oak Ridge National Laboratory built a supercomputer out of discarded PCs and Linux. "We knew that obsolete PCs at the U.S. Department of Energy complex at Oak Ridge were frequently replaced with newer models. The old PCs were advertised on an internal Web site and auctioned off as surplus equipment. A quick check revealed hundreds of outdated computers waiting to be discarded this way. Perhaps we could build our Beowulf cluster from machines that we could collect and recycle free of charge. We commandeered a room at ORNL that had previously housed an ancient mainframe computer. Then we began collecting surplus PCs to create the Stone SouperComputer." CORBAWeb services architect, Part 3: Is Web services the reincarnation of CORBA? (IBM developerWorks). Dan Gisolfi compares CORBA to web services in an IBM developerWorks article. "Even during these early stages of the evangelism of Web services, customers have already begun to ask how this technology differs from CORBA. Isn't it just another form of distributed computing? In this installment of the Web services architect, Dan Gisolfi offers a brief overview of the differences between SOAP, DCOM, and CORBA and suggests a value proposition for Web services within the distributed computing realm." DocumentationLinux Documentation Project updates. The Linux Kernel and PHP HOWTOs have been updated at the Linux Documentation project, along with a a few others and the addition of the new Chroot-BIND HOWTO. EducationSEUL/EDU Report for July 9, 2001. The July 9, 2001 edition of the SEUL Linux in Education report is out. Topics include the use of Linux for teaching English, Linux in Columbian schools. Reviewed software includes the Liebnitz calculator and a Perl/Tk based searchable book database. ElectronicsNew Icarus Verilog and ACS packages from gEDA. The gEDA project has announced new versions of the Icarus Verilog simulator and ACS, Al's Circuit Simulator. Embedded SystemsEmbedded Linux Newsletter for July 5, 2001 (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices.com has posted its weekly summary of the embedded Linux marketplace. This week's stories include a look at the CerfCube, a hand powered Web server running uClinux and the results of the ELC board of directors election. BusyBox 0.52 released. Version 0.52 of the BusyBox cluster of common Unix utilities for embedded systems has been released. This version contains many "bug fixes, optimizations, and cleanups" and is reportedly very stable. New features include several cpio utilities and a few new shells. see the changelog file for all of the details. GraphicsSketch 0.6.12 released. Bernard Herzog has announced Sketch version 0.6.12. Sketch is a vector drawing program and this version fixes several bugs. InteroperabilitySamba 2.2.1. The Samba team has released Samba version 2.2.1. This is a stable source-only release, binary packages for major platforms are to be released soon. Easy Steps to Samba: Linux Orbit HOWTO (LinuxOrbit). This quick reference piece aims to help new users get acquainted with Samba. "It should be noted that if you intend to share network devices on your Linux machine from Windows, you'll need to configure your Windows machine for "Client for Microsoft Networks" in your Network Neighborhood properties. This is not the default setting for many consumer Windows systems." Mail SoftwareTMDA 0.22 Python anti-spam filter for qmail. Jason Mastaler has announced TMDA 0.22, a Python package for removing spam on systems using qmail. This version adds support for site-wide installations using qmail-relay rewriting, wild card pattern matching, and new installation options. Printing SystemsKDEPrint slides from LinuxTag. Michael Goffioul, author of the new KDEPrint subsystem, has posted the slides from his presentation on this feature at the recent LinuxTag conference. The slides are available for download only at this time (no online viewing is available) in KPresenter format. CUPS v1.1.9 released. A new release of the CUPS printing system has been announced. The CUPS v1.1.9 release notes list a number of new features such as a revamped configuration script, AIX support, performance improvements and bug fixes. Omni Printer Driver version 0.3.2 released. Version 0.3.2 of the Omni printer driver has been announced. The main change with this release is a fix for a compatibility bug with the 5.50 release of Ghostscript. ScienceGNU Medical Record Project. Linux Med News talks about the GNU Medical Record System that is being developed by Dr. O'Kane. The system is based on Mumps and PostgreSQL. The system includes a data entry system and a medical record browser application among other things. Web-site DevelopmentZope Developer's Guide and new beta release. A new release of the Zope Developer's Guide is out. This is "the first polished draft of the guide," and it covers the upcoming 2.4.0 release. Speaking of 2.4.0, the third beta release of Zope 2.4.0 is now available. Zope Weekly News for July 6, 2001. The July 6, 2001 edition of the Zope Weekly News is out. Topics include CVS update news, the release of Zope 2.4 beta 3, CMF in intranets, and interoperability with other CMF systems. Midgard Weekly Summary. The latest Midgard Weekly Summary has been published. Topics include the Midgard booth at Linuxtag, a server move, and notes from a Repligard class. MnoGoSearch-php-3.1.3.5. A new release of the MnoGoSearch-php frontend has been announced. This version fixes a bug in the categories section. Section Editor: Forrest Cook |
July 12, 2001
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Programming LanguagesCamlCaml Weekly News for July 10, 2001. The July 10, 2001 issue of the Caml Weekly News is out. Topics this week include PXP, the polymorphic XML parser, E packaging O'Caml libraries in RPM format, a new O'Caml runtime environment, and a library for dealing with Java class files. JavaJava 2 SE v1.3.1. The Blackdown team has released the Java 2 S v1.3.1-FCS package. No formal announcement is available, but the code can be downloaded from a Blackdown mirror site. Magic with Merlin: Swing's new Spinner component (IBM developerWorks). John Zukowski explores new features from the Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4 SDK. in an IBM developerWorks article. "The most recent release of the Java 2 SDK, the 1.4 beta, adds two powerful new components to the JFC/Swing component set. One of them, JSpinner, allows a user to easily select a date, number, or choice from a pick list. (The other is JFormattedTextField for formatted input support.)" If the shoe fits... (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices is running a white paper by David Tannenbaum about using Java technology with embedded Linux. "The vast array of disparate hardware and software architectures present throughout the embedded market begs for a common language and platform with which to develop applications. It was to address this issue that Sun initially developed the Java technology platform." Ten JSP technology books compared (IBM developerWorks). IBM developerWorks takes a look at ten JSP technology books in an article by John Zukowski. LispcCLan News for July 4, 2001. Issue number 2 of the cCLan News is out. Topics include building Debian packages, new Lisp packages, and a proposal for inline documentation. PerlPerl 5 Porters for July 7, 2001. The July 7, 2001 edition of the Perl 5 Porters digest is out. Topics include the upcoming Perl 5.7.2 release, a bug in grok_number, using asynchronous callbacks, and more. PHPPHP Weekly Summary for July 9, 2001. The July 9, 2001 edition of the PHP Weekly Summary is out. Topics include more on the autocasting bug, PHP documentation in Arabic, a SAP R/3 extension, a YATS extension, and more. Advantages of PHP Over Java (Zend). Dan Orzech and the Zend Staff offer some advantages in using PHP over Java in an article on the Zend site. PythonPython Development Summary. The bi-weekly summary of the python development list has been posted. This issue includes the discussion on a draft of PEP 261 for wide Unicode characters, the "psyco" Python specializing compiler, IPv6 support, and more. Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! for July 3, 2001. Here is Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for July 3. It includes, among other things, some interesting coverage of the rising concerns among Python developers that the language may be developing too many new features. Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! for July 9, 2001. The July 9, 2001 Python-URL! is also available and includes talk of a sequence to CSV tool, discussions on installing modules, quibbles on standard libraries and the spectacular ways exec and eval can break. PyWebLib: yet another web programming framework for Python. Michael Ströder has released version 1.0.2 of PyWebLib, a web programming framework for Python. RubyRuby Garden. The Ruby Garden site features a discussion of BlueBox, Ruby documentation in Portugese, and translation of a bowling score program from Java to Ruby. Tcl/TkDr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! for July 10th. Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! for this week includes discussion on the side effects of the byte code compiler, creating new widgets, and a tip-fest. XMLJava and XML Week (O'Reilly). The O'Reilly onJava.com site features several articles on using Java and XML. Namespace Nuances (O'Reilly). John E. Simpson answers several common XML Namespace Questions in an O'Reilly xml.com article. Against the Grain (O'Reilly). Leigh Dodds discusses some recent threads on XML-DEV concerning XML and databases. MiscellaneousSection Editor: Forrest Cook |
Language Links Caml Caml Hump Tiny COBOL Erlang g95 Fortran Gnu Compiler Collection (GCC) Gnu Compiler for the Java Language (GCJ) Guile Haskell IBM Java Zone Jython Free the X3J Thirteen (Lisp) Use Perl O'Reilly's perl.com Dr. Dobbs' Perl PHP PHP Weekly Summary Daily Python-URL Python.org Python.faqts Python Eggs Ruby Ruby Garden MIT Scheme Schemers Squeak Smalltalk Why Smalltalk Tcl Developer Xchange Tcl-tk.net O'Reilly's XML.com Regular Expressions |
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's Commerce page. |
Linux and BusinessBRU ends up at the TOLIS group. Back in May, we covered the shutdown of Enhanced Software Technologies and the uncertain future of the BRU backup system. BRU, as it turns out, has found a new home at The TOLIS Group, a company made up of former EST employees. So BRU users will be able to count on updates and BRU support for the foreseeable future. Mitel Networks Acquires e-smith. Mitel Networks has announced the acquisition of e-smith, the creators of the Linux-based "server and gateway" product. Dan York, Director of Training at e-smith writes: From a development perspective, nothing really has changed. We still have the same technical team. We are still creating an open source server product with an open architecture that you all can enhance and customize. The difference is that we are now part of a larger organization with more resources and capabilities.
For more information, see the acquisition FAQ on the e-smith site. "Linux Device Drivers" updated for Linux 2.4. O'Reilly has posted a press release for the updated Linux Device Drivers text, 2nd edition, co-authored by LWN.net Executive Editor Jonathan Corbet. SnapGear offers VPN Router Internet appliances. SnapGear, Inc. has launched the SnapGear product line of VPN Internet appliances. The SnapGear VPN Internet appliance is based on the Lineo SecureEdge platform and will be sold for less than $300 directly through the reseller market. SnapGear, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lineo, Inc. Great Bridge releases Great Bridge PostgreSQL 7.1 . Great Bridge announced Great Bridge PostgreSQL 7.1, which includes a graphical installer, documentation and an installation and configuration support package. European Union supports OSS projects. The EU's Information Society Technologies continues to fund open source projects. In the June 28, 2001 commerce page we mentioned that three projects had been funded in May and June. Since then two more open source projects have received funding. Tobias Hövekamp has been tracking EU project funding at http://www.vt.ilw.agrl.ethz.ch/~hoevekam/open-world/ist-projects.html You can also find out more by searching for "open source" (include the quotes) on the EU Projects database. UK Gov't request for comments. The UK Government has opened discussions on the future of its net portals, asking how they should be designed and reogranized. Open source advocates are encouraged to speak their minds to avoid future problems similar to the one that prevented Linux users from accessing the site. Linux NetworX Secures $5 Million Investment. Linux NetworX, which provides Linux cluster solutions, has secured $5 million in investment capital from an unamed private investor group. Linux Journal Readers' Choice Awards Begin. Specialized Systems Consultants (SSC), publisher of Linux Journal and its sister publication, Embedded Linux Journal, announced the opening of the polls in Linux Journal's seventh annual Readers' Choice Awards. Linux Stock Index for July 05 to July 11, 2001.
LSI at closing on July 05, 2001 ... 29.33
The high for the week was 29.33
Press Releases:Proprietary Products for Linux
Products and Services Using Linux
Products With Linux Versions
Training
Partnerships
Personnel & New Offices
Other
Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol. |
July 12, 2001
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Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions On the Desktop Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters See also: last week's Linux in the news page. |
Linux in the newsRecommended ReadingGNOME's Miguel de Icaza on .NET (O'Reilly). Ximian's Miguel de Icaza is interviewed by O'Reilly and says that .Net is a new development environment for the next 20 years. He feels that the design goals behind .NET and Bonobo were very similar, but he thinks the .NET component model is better. "One problem is that Bonobo has a lot more overhead than .NET. .NET is pretty slim when it comes to the size of the components and things that you can expose." A companion technical article on Mono has also been published by O'Reilly. Open-source fans to emulate .Net (ZDNet). ZDNet looks closer at the offerings and meanings behind the new Mono and DotGNU offerings proposed by Ximian and the Free Software Foundation. "The Mono software project, hosted by Ximian, is designed to reproduce on Linux the ability to execute programs written in the C#...DotGNU is designed to sidestep Microsoft's Passport." Why it pays to embrace and extend .NET - de Icaza (Register). Miguel de Icaza, CTO of Ximian, tells the Register that .NET actually solves problems GNOME has been trying to address for some time. "Once an API is exposed - every time we add a new Gnome API, we have to wrap it in Python and Perl and Pascal and Objective C. So one problem that .NET solves is that we have to define class libraries once." Garbage collection is another, he says. The Unix API has grown messy, and .NET provides a clean interface: "It's basically starting from a clean slate." Mono to open source .NET by mid 2002 (Register). A more detailed look at the Mono project has been posted by The Register. "Although Ximian's announcement refers to Linux throughout, and specifically mentions a Win32 (on x86) versions, since it's open source, it'll run on any GNOME- (or glibc)-friendly platform: which these days includes the free BSDs and almost every Unix too. So Sun Microsystems, which is committed to making GNOME the default UI for Solaris, will find itself hosting a Microsoft production platform for the first time." Ximian To Release Open Source Version of .NET. Here are two more stories about Ximian's Mono project. This one from |
![[Nareau architecture]](nareau.png)
