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Jeff Gipson | 2 Feb 2009 14:56

Re: Request peer review; Ubuntu 8.10 Secure Autorun for removable media

On Thursday 08 January 2009 13:03:10 Jeff Gipson wrote:

| Greetings The Austin (TX) Linux and General Discussion;

|

| I finally got sick of the warning dialog box that Ubuntu (Nautilus)

| displays when you insert removable media with autorun.sh in the root

| folder. I just wanted autorun.sh to run. There were some hacks about

| this on the web, but all with stern warnings about security and it being

| a lousy idea to autorun anything. I think it's only a lousy idea to

| autorun untrusted apps, so I created a script that integrates seahorse

| with autorun. The script is below the use cases, and I appreciate

| feedback (I'm a script hacker, not a script artist).

|

| Use case #1:

| User inserts media with no .autorun autorun autorun.sh or autorun.bin

| in root folder.

| Result: Nothing happens

|

| Use case #2:

| User inserts media with .autorun autorun autorun.sh or autorun.bin in

| root folder. No *.sig file exists

| Result: Nothing happens

|

| Use case #3:

| User inserts media with .autorun autorun autorun.sh or autorun.bin in

| root folder. An *.sig file exists, but does not verify.

| Result: Nothing happens

|

| Use case #4:

| User inserts media with .autorun autorun autorun.sh or autorun.bin in

| root folder. An *.sig file exists, verification succeeds.

| Result: the autorun script executes.

Turns out that the script which runs when media is inserted to verify autorun.sig may also be launched by incron. incron takes folder-watching to the kernel level so the auto-run capability no longer requires Nautilus.

incron also gives the equivalent functionality as OS X 'folder actions.' Folders and files can be watched using an incrontab which launches my scripts based on configurable events. E.G. Hamster-Applet (used for time tracking) creates reasonable reports, but doesn't allow me to configure it to put reports in my ~/public_html folder. All reports go straight to $HOME. An incron script can watch $HOME (using the inotify kernel feature) and move files whose names match a regexp from $HOME to ~/public_html, as they are created. In my case, the script also sends an email notification that my hours have been posted.

--

---------------------------

Jeffrey Gipson

Process Networks Plus, Inc.

---------------------------

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Jeff Gipson | 2 Feb 2009 14:58

Re: Something I posted to KCLUG RE: keeping the OS and user data on separate devices.

On Saturday 31 January 2009 13:48:20 Oren Beck wrote:

| I have been gently suggesting a new practice. Making it routine to keep

| the Non-OS data on a separate drive from the OS. Bluntly stating the two

| bedrock facts seems belaboring the obvious. But the percent of such default

| installs is trivial at best. So? I invite constructive comment on why or

| why NOT using a separate device for OS and user data makes any sense.

|

| The two bedrock facts being? 1: that any disaster befalling the OS device's

| file system has "less chance" of damaging user data. 2: Establishing that

| user data as detached from the OS assists many things. The list of those

| "many things" is non-trivial and more. Let me give the short closers

|

| *IF* we establish it as default practice that future Linux installs use a

| two device minimal mode we banish whole categories of data disasters. That

| alone is good enough for me. The icing on that being swapping an OS becomes

| closer to a trivial "no user data risked" operation.

|

| Addendum forced by premeditated desire to stifle the YahBut gallery is the

| cherry on top.

|

| In a long past time a "drive" was a truly major expense. Even removable

| media such as floppy etc were cost issues. Today ? I humbly offer the KCLUG

| thread on Craig's issues RE: Rolling back updates. as "Exhibit A"

Wouldn't a mirror-set RAID preserve both user and OS data?

--

---------------------------

Jeffrey Gipson

Process Networks Plus, Inc.

---------------------------

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Oren Beck | 2 Feb 2009 15:54
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Re: Something I posted to KCLUG RE: keeping the OS and user data on separate devices.



On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 7:58 AM, Jeff Gipson <jagipson <at> pnplus.com> wrote:

On Saturday 31 January 2009 13:48:20 Oren Beck wrote:

| I have been gently suggesting a new practice. Making it routine to keep

| the Non-OS data on a separate drive from the OS. Bluntly stating the two

| bedrock facts seems belaboring the obvious. But the percent of such default

| installs is trivial at best. So? I invite constructive comment on why or

| why NOT using a separate device for OS and user data makes any sense.

|

| The two bedrock facts being? 1: that any disaster befalling the OS device's

| file system has "less chance" of damaging user data. 2: Establishing that

| user data as detached from the OS assists many things. The list of those

| "many things" is non-trivial and more. Let me give the short closers

|

| *IF* we establish it as default practice that future Linux installs use a

| two device minimal mode we banish whole categories of data disasters. That

| alone is good enough for me. The icing on that being swapping an OS becomes

| closer to a trivial "no user data risked" operation.

|

| Addendum forced by premeditated desire to stifle the YahBut gallery is the

| cherry on top.

|

| In a long past time a "drive" was a truly major expense. Even removable

| media such as floppy etc were cost issues. Today ? I humbly offer the KCLUG

| thread on Craig's issues RE: Rolling back updates. as "Exhibit A"

Wouldn't a mirror-set RAID preserve both user and OS data?

--

---------------------------

Jeffrey Gipson

Process Networks Plus, Inc.

---------------------------



Not being sure of snip reply rules here yet- so snip whatever's needed when you reply if needed>

Yes, RAID devices handle that sort of preservation nicely. But? In 2005 I was migrating NT based POS systems to XP embedded. With the usual backup-scrub drives- install new OS- Restore Data hassles. And under NT it seemed inescapable.

Burned as read-only copies of Puppy Linux hatched a crazy idea of not installing the OS on the same "device" as user data" being a desirable "daily usage" architecture. Somone on KCLUG pointed out  /VAR  and /TMP as needing write access. Yet Puppy's Ramdisk mode sort of moots that pair of issues neatly.

The main "Sanity Checking" aspect is to me WHY would one want to have potentially irreplacable user data entangled with the operating system these days?

The question laid then before this forum now is:

How much of your average computer's  disk "footprint" is the Linux OS+ Programs/Libs?

I suspect the answer will be rarely above 10gb and closer to 4~5.  Which would fit onto a cheap flash drive.
In that simple concept lies a seed to alter how we think of Linux and data apportionment between devices. I'm NOT a comp.sci major nor even much of a coder. I am however a "Hands On " hardware tech who has spent way too many nights migrating data that could have been left in place while we merely swapped the OS holding device! Technical Blasphemy  though it is- do consider the concept on its isolated merits.

Thanks for your considerations...



--
Oren Beck

816.729.3645
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Carl Perry | 2 Feb 2009 19:03
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ANNOUNCEMENT: The AustinLUG Server is Moving!

Greetings All -

Over the next few days, the AustinLUG server will be undergoing an
upgrade and move. Rackspace, our hosting provider, has recently
purchased mosso.com and slicehost.com for adding "cloud" services to
their offerings. As part of this, they are transitioning all sponsored
accounts to a slicehost or mosso service instead of a physical server.

What does this mean for us?  Well, not much.  Our current server is an
old Duron 700 with 256M of RAM.  Our new slicehost has 1GB of RAM and is
running on modern hardware.  Our old server also had a tendency of
destroying it's hard drive every other year, and it's about that time
for it to happen again, so the timing is perfect.

What are the effects of this move?  Again, not much.  The new server
will have more memory and more processing power.  Bandwidth will be the
same.  All the services running on the current server will continue to
function on the new server.  I've already changed the DNS timeouts to
very short intervals, so the DNS switch over should be as seamless as
possible.  Email has a backup server that is not effected by this move,
so it should be able to forward messages for you if you cannot contact
the main server.  Between now and the end of this move everything should
move along smoothly, but please don't panic if the website suddenly
becomes unavailable.  It should be back shortly.

How will you know when the move is complete?  You will be able to tell
when the switch over has occured when a DNS lookup for austinlug.org has
the same IP address as slicehost.austinlug.org instead of the current
rackspace.austinlug.org IP address. At that time, if you cannot visit
the website you may need to flush your local DNS cache.

I'm hoping to have the transition complete within a few days.  There
should be little interruption to our normal services.  I'll send out an
announcement when the move is complete.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
 Thanks for your time.
  -Carl


Greetings All -

Over the next few days, the AustinLUG server will be undergoing an
upgrade and move. Rackspace, our hosting provider, has recently
purchased mosso.com and slicehost.com for adding "cloud" services to
their offerings. As part of this, they are transitioning all sponsored
accounts to a slicehost or mosso service instead of a physical server.

What does this mean for us?  Well, not much.  Our current server is an
old Duron 700 with 256M of RAM.  Our new slicehost has 1GB of RAM and is
running on modern hardware.  Our old server also had a tendency of
destroying it's hard drive every other year, and it's about that time
for it to happen again, so the timing is perfect.

What are the effects of this move?  Again, not much.  The new server
will have more memory and more processing power.  Bandwidth will be the
same.  All the services running on the current server will continue to
function on the new server.  I've already changed the DNS timeouts to
very short intervals, so the DNS switch over should be as seamless as
possible.  Email has a backup server that is not effected by this move,
so it should be able to forward messages for you if you cannot contact
the main server.  Between now and the end of this move everything should
move along smoothly, but please don't panic if the website suddenly
becomes unavailable.  It should be back shortly.

How will you know when the move is complete?  You will be able to tell
when the switch over has occured when a DNS lookup for austinlug.org has
the same IP address as slicehost.austinlug.org instead of the current
rackspace.austinlug.org IP address. At that time, if you cannot visit
the website you may need to flush your local DNS cache.

I'm hoping to have the transition complete within a few days.  There
should be little interruption to our normal services.  I'll send out an
announcement when the move is complete.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
 Thanks for your time.
  -Carl
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George Goodyear | 2 Feb 2009 23:03
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Favicon

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: The AustinLUG Server is Moving!

Yep, Thanks again Carl. You are still doing a great job with this. If you need anything please let us know. I am sure we are all willing to help!!!

Carlos

Carl Perry wrote:
Greetings All - Over the next few days, the AustinLUG server will be undergoing an upgrade and move. Rackspace, our hosting provider, has recently purchased mosso.com and slicehost.com for adding "cloud" services to their offerings. As part of this, they are transitioning all sponsored accounts to a slicehost or mosso service instead of a physical server. What does this mean for us? Well, not much. Our current server is an old Duron 700 with 256M of RAM. Our new slicehost has 1GB of RAM and is running on modern hardware. Our old server also had a tendency of destroying it's hard drive every other year, and it's about that time for it to happen again, so the timing is perfect. What are the effects of this move? Again, not much. The new server will have more memory and more processing power. Bandwidth will be the same. All the services running on the current server will continue to function on the new server. I've already changed the DNS timeouts to very short intervals, so the DNS switch over should be as seamless as possible. Email has a backup server that is not effected by this move, so it should be able to forward messages for you if you cannot contact the main server. Between now and the end of this move everything should move along smoothly, but please don't panic if the website suddenly becomes unavailable. It should be back shortly. How will you know when the move is complete? You will be able to tell when the switch over has occured when a DNS lookup for austinlug.org has the same IP address as slicehost.austinlug.org instead of the current rackspace.austinlug.org IP address. At that time, if you cannot visit the website you may need to flush your local DNS cache. I'm hoping to have the transition complete within a few days. There should be little interruption to our normal services. I'll send out an announcement when the move is complete. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. Thanks for your time. -Carl _______________________________________________ ALG Mailing List http://austinlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/alg 
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Donn Washburn | 3 Feb 2009 02:05
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VoIP boxes

I have Skype working via a microphone and boom.

I ran across a site
"

http://www.antonline.com/p_Linksys--PAP2T-NA--Linksys-Internet-Phone-Adapter-with-2-Ports-for-Voice-over-IP-PAP2T---VoIP-phone-adapter-_524317.htm 
"

that is selling a 2 POTs telephones in to eth# output.  And it seems cheap 
enough,  You use your own old POTs.

Has anyone played around with this device?
--

-- 
73 de Donn Washburn
307 Savoy Street     Email:" n5xwb@... "
Sugar Land, TX 77478 LL# 1.281.242.3256
Ham Callsign N5XWB   HAMs : " n5xwb@... "
VoIP via Gizmo: bmw_87kbike / via Skype: n5xwbg
BMW MOA #: 4146 - Ambassador
       " http://counter.li.org " #279316
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Don Crowder | 3 Feb 2009 03:51
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Re: VoIP boxes

On Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:05:39 -0600
Donn Washburn <n5xwb@...> wrote:

> I have Skype working via a microphone and boom.
> 
> I ran across a site
> " 
>
http://www.antonline.com/p_Linksys--PAP2T-NA--Linksys-Internet-Phone-Adapter-with-2-Ports-for-Voice-over-IP-PAP2T---VoIP-phone-adapter-_524317.htm 
> "
> 
> that is selling a 2 POTs telephones in to eth# output.  And it seems
> cheap enough,  You use your own old POTs.
> 
> Has anyone played around with this device?

I've a friend in Canada who uses one of these gadgets and swears by
it.  *shrug*

Found this on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127070

--

-- 
Don Crowder
http://www.don-guitar.com
http://www.lockergnome.com/eldergeek/
http://www.freelists.org/list/donspatch
http://don-guitar.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/donguitar
A proud user of Debian Etch w/KDE.
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Donn Washburn | 3 Feb 2009 04:13
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Re: VoIP boxes


Don Crowder wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:05:39 -0600
> Donn Washburn <n5xwb@...> wrote:
> 
>> I have Skype working via a microphone and boom.
>>
>> I ran across a site
>> " 
>>
http://www.antonline.com/p_Linksys--PAP2T-NA--Linksys-Internet-Phone-Adapter-with-2-Ports-for-Voice-over-IP-PAP2T---VoIP-phone-adapter-_524317.htm 
>> "
>>
>> that is selling a 2 POTs telephones in to eth# output.  And it seems
>> cheap enough,  You use your own old POTs.
>>
>> Has anyone played around with this device?
> 
> I've a friend in Canada who uses one of these gadgets and swears by
> it.  *shrug*
> 
> Found this on newegg:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127070
> 
This one is a USB unit so you would need a PC to make it work.  The other one is 
a Ethernet unit so it likely has a power supply and could be hooked in to a 
hub/switch/router an I guess it would not need a computer running.
--

-- 
73 de Donn Washburn
307 Savoy Street     Email:" n5xwb@... "
Sugar Land, TX 77478 LL# 1.281.242.3256
Ham Callsign N5XWB   HAMs : " n5xwb@... "
VoIP via Gizmo: bmw_87kbike / via Skype: n5xwbg
BMW MOA #: 4146 - Ambassador
       " http://counter.li.org " #279316
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Robert Cope | 3 Feb 2009 12:30

Re: VoIP boxes

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Donn Washburn <n5xwb@...> wrote:

> that is selling a 2 POTs telephones in to eth# output.  And it seems cheap
> enough,  You use your own old POTs.

I have not used one of these devices, but I did purchase a "dedicated"
GE Skype phone. It has a base unit which plugs into your network and a
wireless (DECT) handset. I was skeptical as to whether it would work
well, but it really does! The best part is the Skype is engineered
well enough that I can have the same account logged in on multiple
computers and the phone, and each of them will ring when a call comes
in.

I believe this is the phone I have:

   http://www.amazon.com/GE-SKYPE-Dect-Cordless-phone/dp/B000QXAU8I/

robert
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n5xwb | 3 Feb 2009 16:54
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Re: VoIP boxes

On your Skype phone where did you go to get a phone number that is for incoming calls?  

Skype uses coded names so therefore, I don't think a "n5xwbg" on Skype would work with the rest of the world.

---- Robert Cope <robert@...> wrote: 
> On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Donn Washburn <n5xwb@...> wrote:
> 
> > that is selling a 2 POTs telephones in to eth# output.  And it seems cheap
> > enough,  You use your own old POTs.
> 
> I have not used one of these devices, but I did purchase a "dedicated"
> GE Skype phone. It has a base unit which plugs into your network and a
> wireless (DECT) handset. I was skeptical as to whether it would work
> well, but it really does! The best part is the Skype is engineered
> well enough that I can have the same account logged in on multiple
> computers and the phone, and each of them will ring when a call comes
> in.
> 
> I believe this is the phone I have:
> 
>    http://www.amazon.com/GE-SKYPE-Dect-Cordless-phone/dp/B000QXAU8I/
> 
> robert
> _______________________________________________
> ALG Mailing List http://austinlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/alg

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