April 2001 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Macs and Linux
by Marcus Birkin 29 Apr '01

29 Apr '01

Is there any way for SuSE v7.1 to mount AppleTalk shares? Marcus (Assistant Technician - The Arts in Education Centre)

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MIS, databases
by Miles Berry 29 Apr '01

29 Apr '01

My governors have invited me to put together proposals for implementing a Management Information System / School database. The lack of flexibility, poor interface and high cost of most commercial offerings make these unattractive. One key requirement is that my colleagues can access and add to the database from their classroom PCs or laptops. I'm eager to see as much of our administartion, timetabling, planning and assessment computerised as possible. Obviously I'm interested in pushing for an open source solution and am curious to know how much work has been done in this area. As I see it at present our options are: 1. A full commercial product. Not SIMS, but we've heard good things about Hebron and Facility CMIS (http://www.ccmsoftware.com/cmis.htm) The latter at least has an optional web interface. It is difficult to justify the costs involved given only 140 pupils on roll. 2. Run Facility CMIS as the back end (I'm told it'll run on an SQL server, regardless of OS), their proprietry front end on key workstations (the school office, my laptop) and develop our own web interface for the other PCs. 3. Find an open source developer who would be interested in exploring this market and would like to work alongside us. I'd have thought a small school such as ourselves with an existing commitment to open source software would make an excellent test bed / case study. Please feel free to get in touch off list if you're interested. 4. Develop our own system in house. Possibly start in MS Access, then port the back end to PostgreSQL / MySQL and then develop a web interface. There is much to be said for a bespoke system, and I'd thoroughly enjoy the challenge, but a) have I got the time to do this? and b) what happens when I leave? Miles Berry Deputy Head St Ives School, Haslemere www.st-ives.surrey.sch.uk mberry(a)st-ives.surrey.sch.uk 01428 643734

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re: SuSE 7 + firewall
by Marcus Birkin 28 Apr '01

28 Apr '01

Quick note, the link file should be /etc/init.d/rc3.d/S06myfirewall not rc6myfirewall

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Suse 7 + firewall
by Azrael Angel Of Death 28 Apr '01

28 Apr '01

Perhaps I have caused some confusion. I am _not_ refering to the SUSE Firewall that comes with suse. I have made (via an online script) a firewall script, and all I want to do is know where to put it to run. I do not want to use the 'SUSE firewall' just my firewall ... and on SUSE. Does this make sense? --Azrael _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Firewall SUSE 7 again
by Azrael Angel Of Death 28 Apr '01

28 Apr '01

Just another attempt to rattle people's brains :) Still having little luck on the firewall front... anyone with a SUSE firewall able to help me with this? thanks :) --Azrael _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Firewall SUSE 7
by Azrael Angel Of Death 24 Apr '01

24 Apr '01

Am making a suse 7 machine into a firewall... I have my firewall script.. but am not 100% sure where to put it. I read soemthing about /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall invoked from /etc/rc.d/rc.local but I'm not sure. Can anyone help me? :) thanks... Azrael _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Firewall SUSE 7
by Azrael Angel Of Death 23 Apr '01

23 Apr '01

Ahh.. but in that case.. why is there no rc.local file.. and why does /etc/rc.d/README say... NAME INIT.D - The S.u.S.E. boot concept SYNOPSIS /sbin/init.d/* /etc/rc.config DESCRIPTION The scripts for controlling the system are placed in /sbin/init.d/. These scripts are executed directly or indirectly by /sbin/init, the father of all processes. The configuration of /sbin/init is given by the file /etc/inittab (see inittab(5)). etc.... thanks.. Azrael >From: "John McCabe" <manager(a)enorf.ac.uk> >To: <suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com> >Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Firewall SUSE 7 >Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 14:58:08 +0100 > > >----- Original Message ----- > > > Am making a suse 7 machine into a firewall... I have my firewall >script.. > > but am not 100% sure where to put it. > > >That's a *very* silly thing to say!!! > >The Script should be saved as /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall. That appears to be the >usual convention. > > > I read soemthing about /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall > > invoked from /etc/rc.d/rc.local > > but I'm not sure. > > >Exactly right. At the end of the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file add > > #Run the IP MASQ and firewall script > /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall > >Make sure your script is executable. (chmod 700 etc) > >See http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch/LINUX/index-linux.html for lots >of useful hints and tips. > > > >This e-mail is intended for the addressee shown. It contains information >that is confidential >and protected from disclosure. Any review, dissemination or use of this >transmission or its >contents by persons or unauthorized employees of the intended organisations >is strictly prohibited. > >The contents of this email do not necessarily represent the views or >policies of >East Norfolk Sixth Form College, it's employees or students. > > _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Multi-site ADSL setup - comments wanted
by Gary Stainburn 22 Apr '01

22 Apr '01

Hi all, I've been asked to look at the existing setup for a local adult education authority (sorry don't know correct terminology/TLA's). Currently they have 5 centres which each have a Planet gateway. This gateway consists of a closed headless Linux box connected to an ISDN router. It performs caching and mail server functionality and is administered via a web browser. It does not do NAT/masq as each PC as a public IP address. They only have a limited number of IP, so each site has a finite network size. This setup works quite well, but the phone bills are quite extortionate. I have looked at conventional kilostream connection, but the cost of this is comparable with the current phone bills. I have therefore had a look at ADSL, as BT's Openworld is available to most of the sites. The Openworld 500 Business is only £150 install + £70/qtr and appears as a 4 port eithernet hub. It gives 512K downstream and 256k upstream. On the end of this I would then put a Linux box with squid, Masq, ipchains, etc., and hang the network off the back of it. The only problem I can see is that the ADSL connection is dynamic IP, which means that the site could possibly move without warning. This will of course stuff any inbound traffic such as email. To get round this, I thought about co-hosting a box somewhere and use that as the mail gateway. After all that waffle, I have only a few simple questions. 1) Has anyone had experience with BT openworld? does the service perform as quoted? Is the Dynamic IP *really* dynamic, or are they just saying that? 2) Can anyone see any gaping holes in this setup? 3) Assuming that dynamic means dynamic, does anyone have suggestions on how I can deliver the mail. Ideally, I would like to push the mail using standard smtp if possible rather than using fetchmail etc. 4) As technical info is not very forthcoming from BT, can anyone explain how, if the link is presented as a 4-port ethernet hub, does it manage dynamic IP? Is it done at the router stange and then NAT'd before it appears on the hub? 5) Can anyone come up with a better setup? Cheers, -- Gary Stainburn This email does not contain private or confidential material as it may be snooped on by interested government parties for unknown and undisclosed purposes - Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000

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Re: Update to KUser Manager
by Paul Munro 20 Apr '01

20 Apr '01

Thanks to all who answered my questions regarding the KUser application. I think we have "solved" the issue. This is what we found out: After searching links provided on the subject of NIS, looking in the rc.config file and also checking /etc/passwd and /etc/group, we found no indication that NIS was running on the system at all. We checked the rc.config in YAST2 just to make sure, and even checked YAST1. It would seem that the application (for some reason) is looking for this service to run, even when it isn't supposed to. Anyway, finally my brain got into gear and I checked the SuSE Linux Support site (should have done that first I guess :-) I searched "KDE2 User Manager failing" and the result was satisfying in a weird way. It told us that there is "an error in the user manager of KDE2" and that the solution was to "use YaST1 to manage your users". This is what we had thought in the first place, but wanted to check it out anyway. The knowledgebase article reference is mjb_kuser_71. So- we will now be using YaST1 (which isn't that bad anyway). Again, thanks to all who helped :-) Paul

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Re: KUserManager and Groups
by Paul Munro 19 Apr '01

19 Apr '01

Hi all! I've been trying to help someone with an implementation of SuSE Linux Professional 7.1 on a LAN that requires four primary groups: 1. Sales 2. Accounts 3. Office 4. Schedule These groups have on average some 10 users each, and each group requires global access to "all software" except four users who require specific data access (to a database and payroll application). To "speed" things up, we decided to try K User Manager on a Laptop not connected to the LAn first to see how it implements users and groups and how easy the additions would be compared to other alternatives. I personally was struck by the excellent graphical element, and thought that it would be fine for the task ahead. Anyway, we encountered a number of errors whilst attempting the test: 1. On loading the application the errors "Couldn't read from /etc/yppasswd" and "couldn't read from /etc/ypgroup" popped up. The application launched, but only after these errors. 2. On trying to save the new groups and users, and after spending much time loading in the parameters for each, the application closed without saving with the error "/etc/yppasswd.bak" and a red error (windows looking!) sign. I realise that I can add users normally from YAST or using the command line, and add them to /etc/group, but it would help if we could use the graphical element of KUserManager. Does anyone have any ideas or advice on how we could fix this, or am I missing something important? From what I understand, ypbind etc looks for a yp server (NIS?) on the LAN, and I wondered whether KUserMgr needs this before operating properly? We're stumped, and if you could help I know there would be two very happy users out there and perhaps a very appreciative school!! Thanks! Paul.

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