Linux DevCenter Articles

Meet The Hardy Heron: What's New in Ubuntu 8.04 by Brian DeLacey
Ubuntu 8.04 (code named Hardy Heron) is out, and Brian DeLacey not only has the scoop on the new features, but a look at some of the players who made it happen, places it's in use, and what machines it's running on. 05/06/2008

LILO and GRUB: Boot Loaders Made Simple by Judith Myerson
LILO and Grub are the most popular Linux bootloaders. Usually, your Linux distribution chooses and configures one or the other for you, but this article provides a handy comparison of the two, and offers some troubleshooting and configuration tips if you ever want to do it by hand. 01/22/2008

Linux vs. BSD, What's the Difference? by Dru Lavigne
Linux mavens are usually pretty sure they'll never go back to (or start using) Windows. They may like Mac OS, but usually don't jump ship for that either. But how about the other open source Unix descendant, BSD? Dru Lavigne offers a basic primer on what's different in PC-BSD for a Linux user, and what's better. 08/23/2007

An Introduction to Linux Audio by John Littler
OSS. ALSA. JACK. Linux certainly has enough ways that you can get access to the sound subsystem. But which one to use, and how? John Littler takes us on a guided tour of Linux Audio, complete with code. 08/02/2007

/dev/hello_world: A Simple Introduction to Device Drivers under Linux by Valerie Henson
For many seasoned Linux developers, device drivers still remain a bit of a mysterious black art practiced by a select few. While no single article could possibly attempt to covered everything there is to know about writing drivers, Valerie Henson gives us a brief taste of what's involved, by implementing a device to return "Hello World" using all the major driver frameworks. 07/05/2007

Optimizing Linux System Performance by Swayam Prakasha
Wringing the value out of every processor cycle on your machine required a variety of approaches. Sure, your code has to be efficient, but you also have to have your disks configured correctly, and a multitude of other things. Swayam Prakash provides a guide to some of the lower hanging fruit you can pick. 06/07/2007

Semaphores in Linux by Vikram Shukla
Semaphores are one of those things that most programmers have heard of, but may not have ever used. But if you're using threads under Linux, it's one of the best ways to keep everyone in sync. Vikram Shukla provides a code-rich tutorial on semaphores, including the differences between the System V and POSIX styles. 05/24/2007

Unified Home Networks with the Fritzbox by Guylhem Aznar
The Fritzbox is an all-in-one Linux-based device that supports VoIP, home networking, and even some extension mechanisms. Hacker Guylhem Aznar explains how he simplified his home network with this device. 01/11/2007

VOIP on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet by John Littler
Nokia's 770 Internet Tablet is more than a Linux-based device; a recent software update made it a handy VOIP device. John Littler examples how the upgrade works and walks you through setting up VOIP and Asterisk. 12/14/2006

When Linux Runs Out of Memory by Mulyadi Santosa
Memory is a precious commodity in computers. Generally the more you have, the better. Yet your application has to run alongside other applications, and each wants its own area of memory. What happens when there's not enough to go around? Mulyadi Santosa explores the memory management principles in the Linux kernel to explain how the Out of Memory killer works--and how to avoid it. 11/30/2006

Virtualization and the POWER5 Architecture by Ken Milberg
Virtualization is a trendy topic in the server room now, especially as commodity computers begin to support features that mainframes have had for decades. Mainframes aren't standing still, however; IBM's POWER5 architecture supports powerful virtualization features on AIX... and Linux. Ken Milberg describes some of the benefits of the recent work on this platform. 11/22/2006

Degrees of Openness by Adrien Lamothe
"Open" is a word too important to apply merely to source code. Although open source code is important to free and unfettered computing, openness encompasses far more components of a computing system. Adrien Lamothe explores other degrees of openness and their implications. 11/09/2006

Rediscovering Bluetooth by Guylhem Aznar
Bluetooth is a powerful protocol. Its advantages over WiFi make it capable of doing a lot more than most people imagine--yet few people understand how to get the benefits. Guylhem Aznar walks through enabling Bluetooth on a Linux PC and connecting to useful devices. 09/21/2006

Four Tough Lessons of System Recovery by KIVILCIM Hindistan
KIVILCIM Hindistan recently migrated to a new laptop and promptly destroyed his partition table. Flailing around with false laziness taught him the true value of true laziness. Here's a real-life tale of Knoppix rescue and a cautionary tale about troubleshooting. 08/31/2006

Linux on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet by John Littler
Nokia's 770 Internet Tablet is more than a phone, according to John Littler. It's a Debian GNU/Linux system. This makes it a prime target for hackers. Littler explores some of the built-in utilities and some of the other tricks you can use. 07/20/2006

Indie Podcasting with Open Source by John Littler
Linux has a reputation as a multimedia lightweight. That's undeserved; there are plenty of powerful, useful, and usable applications to meet most of your media needs. For example, it's possible to become an independent podcaster with a little bit of equipment and experience. John Littler shares his advice on podcasting with open source. 06/22/2006

Switching Back to Desktop Linux by chromatic
Almost everyone at O'Reilly owns an iBook or PowerBook and almost everyone runs Mac OS X. It's not everyone's ideal operating system, however. Recently, free software editor chromatic explained to Mac editor Derrick Story why he switched back to desktop Linux. Here's what he wants in a usable Unix desktop. 06/01/2006

How Shellcodes Work by Peter Mikhalenko
Buffer overflow problems are well-known. Fewer people know how exploits can help attackers execute their malware through buffer overflows and other holes. Peter Mikhalenko walks through the construction and refinement of a shellcode to show how they work so that you can protect your machines. 05/18/2006

Managing Disk Space with LVM by Bryce Harrington and Kees Cook
Linux's Logical Volume Manager (LVM) allows you to create virtual disk partitions out of one or more hard drives. This makes it easy to manage growth in filesystems. Combined with RAID, it provides a nearly unbeatable way to keep your files safe and available. Bryce Harrington and Kees Cook show how to configure LVM, how to combine it with RAID, and how to use it on desktop machines too. 04/27/2006

Installing Software on Debian by Edd Dumbill
Debian GNU/Linux is a powerful and popular community-developed Linux distribution--and the basis for several other useful and usable distributions. One of the reasons for its popularity is the ease of installing and maintaining software. Edd Dumbill, Debian developer and GNU/Linux advocate, shows how to use Debian's tools to find and install software packages. 04/06/2006

Secure Your Linux Server by Aaron Brazell
Linux is a powerful and popular operating system kernel. That popularity means you might be running it even if you're not a dedicated Unix administrator or high-powered programmer. That doesn't mean that rock-solid security is out of your reach, though. Aaron Brazell shows how to make Red Hat 9 (and other Linux distributions) much more secure in a few easy steps. 03/23/2006

Fine-Tuning Kubuntu by Carla Schroder
Ubuntu is a well-maintained, well-organized Linux distribution. Kubuntu adds the popular and powerful KDE desktop environment. As nice as Kubuntu is, the default installation doesn't fit every user. Carla Schroder shows how to get help, get access to more software packages, set up a firewall, and review and get rid of unnecessary services. 03/09/2006

Bristol Switches to StarOffice by Jono Bacon
Bristol is one of the largest cities in the United Kingdom. Recently, the city council reviewed its software policies and needs and decided to switch to open document formats by using Sun's StarOffice, based on OpenOffice.org. Jono Bacon recently interviewed Gavin Beckett, architect of the strategy, to discover how and why the migration was successful. 02/23/2006

Powerful Remote X Displays with FreeNX by Tom Adelstein
Imagine X server technology with compression so tight that GNOME and KDE sessions yield impressive response times when run over modems with SSH encryption. Don't pinch yourself; you're not dreaming! Tom Adelstein explains how FreeNX is the cure-all to many of X11's ills in this excerpt from Running Linux. 02/09/2006

Linux Virtualization with Xen by Kris Buytaert
Virtualization is an old idea--running multiple distinct operating systems atop a powerful box has a lot of advantages. Xen is a new virtualization platform. Despite its youth, its Linux support is very good. Kris Buytaert explains the basics of virtualization and shows how to configure and install Xen and to create new virtual machines. 01/26/2006

Previewing KDE 4 by John Littler
The next major release of KDE will come out in the fall, and the developers are already planning new features and benefits. John Littler recently interviewed Aaron J. Seigo about the team's plans--and controversy surrounding upcoming ports to nonfree platforms. 01/12/2006

Retro Gaming Hacks, Part 3: Add a Ball and Score to Pong by Josh Glover
Now that we have moving paddles for our SDL Pong clone, the only thing standing in the way of some real fun is making the ball move (and adding scorekeeping). Josh Glover delivers the finale to his three-part Pong hack by showing you how to add these last two elements to finish off your very own table tennis computer game. 01/05/2006

Retro Gaming Hacks, Part 2: Add Paddles to Pong by Josh Glover
In part one of this three-part series on hacking Pong, Josh Glover detailed how you can write your own Pong clone, using SDL. So what's next? Adding the paddles. Today Josh walks through how, with the help of sprites, you can create and animate player-controlled paddles for your Pong clone. Tune in the first week of '06 for Josh's conclusion--you'll need to add the ball and scoring next, right? 12/21/2005

Retro Gaming Hacks, Part 1: Clone Pong, Using Only SDL (and Your Brain) by Josh Glover
One of the great things about the games of yore is that they tended to be pretty simple, and as Josh Glover explains, Pong is one of the simplest to implement. In this first article of a three-part series, Josh shows you how to clone Pong all by yourself. Josh contributed a number of the hacks in O'Reilly's Retro Gaming Hacks. 12/15/2005

Through Project Looking Glass with Hideya Kawahara by John Littler
3D has taken over video gaming. When will it take over mundane computing areas such as file managers, word processors, and desktop environments? Maybe soon, if Hideya Kawahara and the Project Looking Glass team have their way. John Littler explores the ideas, implementations, and possibilities of 3D interfaces in this interview. 12/08/2005

Using the Root Account on Debian by Edd Dumbill
Debian GNU/Linux is a powerful and popular community-developed Linux distribution--and the basis for several other useful and usable distributions. With the recent release of Debian Sarge, it's better than ever. Edd Dumbill, Debian developer and GNU/Linux advocate, shows how to use the root account safely and responsibly. 12/01/2005

PHP Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in PHP, Emacs, ftpd-ssl, Lynx, Roaring Penguin pppoe, OpenVPN, RAR, Fedora Core X-Chat, HP-UX xterm, libungif4, and GpsDrive. 11/18/2005

Installing and Configuring Ubuntu on a Laptop by Jeremy Jones
Jeremy Jones recently bought a new laptop and decided to run Linux. Don't shudder--it actually works! Here's how he installed, reinstalled, and configured Ubuntu GNU/Linux on a Dell Inspiron. 11/17/2005

Ethereal Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in sudo, Ethereal, Apache mod_auth_shadow, fetchmailconf, lynx, Mantis, pnmtopng, gnump3d, Squid, unzip, uim, Curl, and imlib. 11/04/2005

What Is a Linux Distribution by Edd Dumbill
The Linux kernel may be the star of the show, but like any star, it needs a supporting cast. In this case, the supporting cast is known as a Linux distribution--a useful set of system and application programs bundled with the OS. Edd Dumbill serves up overviews of the major Linux distributions as well as the specialist distros, and for who (or what) each distro is best suited. 10/27/2005

KWord Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in KWord, SPE under Gentoo, wget, Brightstore, eTrust, Unicenter, OpenSSL, XMail, uw-imap, weex, tcpdump, graphviz, up-imapproxy, xloadimage and xli, and Ruby. 10/20/2005

What Is the Linux Desktop by Jono Bacon
Much has been made of predictions about the "year of the Linux desktop," but what is the Linux desktop, why should we use it, and why should you care? Jono Bacon takes a look at development of the Linux desktop, from its roots to its apps to its future prospects. Jono is the author of Linux Desktop Hacks. 10/13/2005

What Is Linux by Ellen Siever
For a long time, Linux was seen as a geek's system--too complicated for ordinary folks. But Linux has matured, and with today's desktop environments and new user-friendly installations, Linux is finally coming into its own as a desktop system. Ellen Siever takes a fresh look at what Linux is (and is not), its features, distributions, and much more. Ellen is a coauthor of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition. 10/06/2005

XFree86 Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in XFree86, cfengine, RealPlayer 10, Helix Player, ClamAV, XSun, Xprt, arc, prozilla, AbiWord, Backupninja, Hylafax, ApacheTop, and libsnmp5. 10/06/2005

Installing Debian by Edd Dumbill
Debian GNU/Linux is a powerful and popular community-developed Linux distribution--and the basis for several other useful and usable distributions. With the recent release of Debian Sarge, it's better than ever. Edd Dumbill, Debian developer and GNU/Linux advocate, walks through a typical installation. 09/29/2005

Open Source Advocacy for the Enterprise by Jono Bacon
The free and open source software movements do a great job of providing software and guidance for programmers, and reach charities and educational markets fairly well. Aside from highly technical projects, there has been comparatively little attention given to Very Serious Business--and for good reason. Jono Bacon explores the motivations and values of the "enterprise" software market and considers how to evangelize it effectively. 09/29/2005

MySQL Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in MySQL, umount, KDE's kcheckpass, GNOME Workstation Command Center, X.org, Squid, TWiki, ncompress, grip, Turquoise SuperStat, gtkdiskfree, and LessTif. 09/22/2005

Problems in PCRE, the Linux Kernel, and SILC by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in PCRE, the Linux kernel, SILC, Frox, MPlayer, pam_ldap, maildrop, lm_sensors, simpleproxy, backup-manager, Adobe Version Cue, phpGroupWare, and webcalendar. 09/15/2005

Improving Network Reliability with Keepalived by Philip Hollenback
No matter how good the software, hardware eventually fails. Redundancy is an important way to keep your important services running smoothly. With the right software, you can even sleep through otherwise catastrophic network failures. Philip Hollenback demonstrates how to make your network robust by using Keepalived on multiple Linux routers. 09/01/2005

What Is the X Window System by Ellen Siever
Developed at MIT in 1984, the X Window System, now up to X11 release 6, or X11R6, has been the standard environment for Unix windowing systems. Ellen Siever provides some historical context for X's staying power, then discusses its major features: working with X and the X server and X clients; configuring X; and much more. Ellen is a coauthor of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition. 08/25/2005

Distributing Content with BitTorrent by Robert Bernier
You have good software, or audio or video, and you want to make it available to the public. If you get really popular, though, you'll spend all of your money and bandwidth being popular--and then what? Consider P2P distribution with BitTorrent, which allows your users to share pieces of your file with each other, giving them faster transfers and you fewer headaches. Robert Bernier explains. 08/25/2005

PHP Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in PHP, Adobe Reader, Kismet, LibTIFF, Evolution, Mutt, bluez-utils, Ignite-UX, CPAINT, Awstats, Clam AntiVirus, and Gaim. 08/25/2005

What Is the GNOME Desktop by Aaron Weber
Nope. It's not some elfish paperweight for the home office. GNOME is a desktop software environment designed to look familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. Aaron Weber distills what the GNOME desktop is, what apps users will find as well as what platform development tools developers will find, and the resources to help you get started using it. Aaron is a coauthor of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition. 08/18/2005

Linux for Video Production by Jono Bacon
Linux and open source software is traditionally good for developers and system administrators, and recently good for business users. When will it be good for multimedia users? A handful of projects are making video production and editing possible (and useful)--PiTiVi and GStreamer among them. Jono Bacon examines the present and future of video production with Linux and open source software. Jono is the coauthor of Linux Desktop Hacks. 08/18/2005

The Ur-Quan Masters by Howard Wen
Star Control II is one of the most beloved space exploration games. When its original developers released a version of the source code under the GPL, members of the fan community began to port it to modern operating systems. Howard Wen recently interviewed the developers about their goals, their progress, and how open source works for them. 08/11/2005

Apache Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Apache, bzip2, Cisco devices, fetchmail, Netpbm, Ethereal, Proftpd, pstotext, apt-cacher, Compress::Zlib, Gopher, nbSMTP, and PowerDNS. 08/11/2005

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08/10/2005

Problems in Oracle Reports by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Oracle Reports, Skype for Linux, MediaWiki, Kate, Kwrite, Shorewall, ekg, libgadu, PHPNews, phpSurveyor, Affix, Heartbeat, and phpPgAdmin. 07/29/2005

Problems in SpamAssassin, PEAR, and Bugzilla by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in SpamAssassin, PHP PEAR, Bugzilla, Heimdal/Kerberos telnetd, Vipul's Razor, TikiWiki, poppassd_pam, zlib, FUSE, the Solaris kernel, HT Editor, GNATS, JBoss jBPM, Trustix Secure Linux, and Trac. 07/22/2005

OSDL's Linux Initiatives by Lynn de la Torre and Ibrahim Haddad, Philip Peake, John Cherry, Mary Edie Meredith
OSDL is a somewhat vague entity in the minds of many in the Linux community. Beyond employing several top kernel hackers, the company spearheads several initiatives designed to improve the GNU/Linux operating system for use in business and industry. Here's what it's doing, what it's done, and why. 07/14/2005

Problems in OpenSSH, Sudo, and Java by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in OpenSSH, Sudo, Sun Java, Blackdown Java, tcpdump, cpio, JBOSS, Adobe Reader and Acrobat, gedit, Gaim, and Trac. 06/24/2005

Problems in the Kernel, OS X, and WordPress by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, Mac OS X, bzip2, WordPress, WebSphere, Peercast, PHPMailer, Binutils, Popper Webmail, Dzip, and FreeBSD's gzip. 06/17/2005

Problems in the Linux Kernel, LISTSERV, and gdb by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, LISTSERV, gdb, FreeRADIUS, shtool, mailutils, Qpopper, davfs2, libmagick6, picasm, cheetah, and ppxp. 06/03/2005

The Irrlicht Engine by Howard Wen
One of the most complicated pieces of software in the world is a 3-D engine, right? Not according to Nikolaus Gebhardt. He's almost single-handedly created his own open source-capable 3-D engine, Irrlicht. Howard Wen talks with him about the design, implementation, and goals of the project. 06/02/2005

Rendering Everything as Text by Philip Hollenback
Ah, the days of plain-text everything are long gone, what with media files (hooray!) and encumbered binary blobs (boo!). Is the solution to give up your comfortable, efficient, and effective text-based tools? No way. Philip Hollenback proposes that you can render any data format to meaningful text for mail reading, indexing, and more. Here's how. 05/26/2005

Hacking the Linux Desktop, Part 2
In Part 1 of this two-part excerpt from Linux Desktop Hacks, we offered hacks on controlling desktop access. In this second installment, learn how to view Microsoft Word documents in a terminal and how to create an internet phone. 05/26/2005

Mozilla and Firefox Flaws by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in gzip, Mozilla and Firefox, OpenOffice.org, the FreeBSD kernel, Ethereal, TCPDump, libTIFF, Smail, Apache2's htdigest, and SCO UnixWare's chroot. 05/20/2005

Hacking the Linux Desktop
Modifying stuff to suit individual desire is the credo of hackers everywhere. These two excerpts from Linux Desktop Hacks let you modify Linux to suit your desires: The first hack uses Virtual Network Computer (VNC) to access Windows and Mac OS X from your Linux desktop. The second shows how to lock down KDE with Kiosk mode, allowing you to control exactly what users can and can't change. 05/19/2005

MusE: MIDI Sequencing for Linux by Howard Wen
Think Linux lacks for good multimedia creation and editing applications? Think again. Another application making ears perk up is MusE, a MIDI and audio sequencer intended to be a complete multitrack virtual studio. Howard Wen looks at the current and future development of the project. 05/12/2005

CVS Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in CVS, PostgreSQL, Squid, Gaim, Debian's lsh, Xine-lib, Caroline, Convert-UUlib, Rootkit Hunter, snmppd, Kommander, kimgio, RealPlayer, Helix Player, xli, and Debian's samba. 05/06/2005

Simplify Network Programming with libCURL by Q Ethan McCallum
The curl command-line utility is a fantastic way to download data from all kinds of repositories via HTTP, FTP, LDAP, and more. It's not just a utility, though. The back-end library libCURL allows you to make your programs URL aware, publishing and retrieving data over HTTP and FTP. Ethan McCallum demonstrates how easy it is to use. 05/05/2005

PHP, cpio, and rsnapshot Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in PHP, cpio, rsnapshot, Gld, Axel, Domino, BrightStor ARCserve Backup, xv, Pine, GnomeVFS, libcdaudio, FreeBSD's ifconf, libexif, and monkeyd. 04/22/2005

Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy by Jono Bacon
Advocacy is critical to the spread of open source and free software. Good advocates build trust in their audiences, explaining how, and if, F/OSS can help them solve their problems. Jono Bacon explains how to build trust and avoid overzealous advocacy. 04/21/2005

Userspace Filesystem Encryption with EncFS by KIVILCIM Hindistan
Laptops and removable storage devices are convenient both for users and for thieves. While you can't always protect the device from wandering away, you can protect the data. EncFS, a user-level encrypted filesystem in a file, makes this possible. KIVILCIM Hindistan explains how. 04/14/2005

Professional Sound Editing with Audacity by Howard Wen
Think Linux lacks for good multimedia creation and editing applications? Think again. In the world of sound editing, Audacity is powerful and easy to use, and it's free software. Howard Wen explores the design, features, and future of Audacity. 04/14/2005

Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
In Noel Davis' latest column, he looks at problems in the Linux kernel, Telnet, sharutils, Ethereal, Midnight Commander, mpg321, OpenMosixView, cdrecord, ImageMagick, and grip. 04/08/2005

Adventures in Migrating to New Linux Distributions by Kevin Farnham
Linux doesn't stand still, whether it's the kernel or GNU/Linux distributions. If you're a developer or a hobbyist who likes to stay up to date, you can't stand still, either. Upgrading isn't always easy, though. Kevin Farnham recently switched distributions several times; here are some hard-earned lessons from the process. 04/07/2005

KDE Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in KDE, MySQL, Perl, Ximian Evolution, GnuPG, OpenSLP, Ringtone Tools, LuxMan, and Ethereal. 03/25/2005

Inside GnomeMeeting by Howard Wen
As bandwidth and processor power increase, so do the compelling reasons to consider voice and video over IP. Damien Sandras' polished GnomeMeeting application is a good example. Howard Wen recently interviewed Sandras about the project's successes, goals, and plans. 03/17/2005

Problems in GProFTPD by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in GProFTPD, bsmtpd, Uim, phpMyAdmin, Vim, Cyrus IMAPd, the Kodak Color Management System on Solaris, Arkeia Network Backup, curl, and PuTTY. 03/11/2005

Sowing the Seeds of Open Source Advocacy by Jono Bacon
Advocacy is critical to the spread of open source and free software. Good advocacy can help spread freedom and software quality, while bad advocacy can reinforce unpleasant stereotypes. Good advocacy requires far more than just being right, though. Jono Bacon explores how to approach the message and the audience. 03/03/2005

Trouble in the Kernel, VMware, and PostgreSQL by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, VMware, PostgreSQL, Squid, MySQL, mailman, Apple OSX HFS+, movemail with GNU Emacs or XEmancs, KStars, typespeed, awstats, and synaesthesia. 02/28/2005

Inside the Multiple Emulator Super System by Howard Wen
Building an emulator for a classic machine is tricky. Now consider building over 150 of them. That's what the MESS team has done since 1988. Chances are, MESS supports your favorite classic computer or video game console. Howard Wen profiles the project. 02/24/2005

Perl Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Perl, PostgreSQL, ncpfs, Squid, cpio, UW IMAP, ChBg, FireHOL, Clam AntiVirus, and f2c. 02/11/2005

HA-OSCAR: Five Steps to a High-Availability Linux Cluster by Ibrahim Haddad and Chokchai Leangsuksun, Stephen L. Scott
Clustering, the current thinking in computing, addresses the availability and scaled performance in cost-effective equipment. There are several open source clustering stacks, but HA-OSCAR is one of the few to address high availability with many built-in characteristics that allow continuous service availability. In this tutorial targeted for system administrators, engineers, researchers, and even students interested in leaning about building HA clusters, Ibrahim Haddad provides a step-by-step guide on how to install and build a highly available Linux cluster with HA-OSCAR. 02/03/2005

Linux and Darwin Kernel Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, the Darwin/Mac OS X kernel, iSync, Ethereal, enscript, hylafax, rssh, Xine-lib, mpg123, and Konversation. 01/27/2005

Freevo: Freedom For Your TV by Howard Wen
PVRs may be the next big thing in home entertainment, but relying on a closed box leaves you few options for customization. The Freevo project is building a platform for developing television-aware applications, whether recording, timeshifting, or general-purpose mayhem. Howard Wen explains the Freevo project and interviews its developers. 01/27/2005

DB2 Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in DB2, SHOUTcast, nasm, Vilistextum, libtiff, wxGTK2, phpGroupWare, Vim, namazu2, and htmlheadline. 01/14/2005

Network Installation of Windows Printers from Samba by Carla Schroder
The combination of Samba and CUPS makes network printing on a mixed Linux/Windows LAN easier than ever. You can share Linux printers with Windows clients, and Windows printers with Linux clients. A Linux/Samba/CUPS printer server is reliable and reasonably simple to set up and maintain. Carla Schroder, author of Linux Cookbook, shows you how. 01/13/2005

Range-Keyed Queries by Dan Tow
Dan Tow, author of SQL Tuning, ran into a rather interesting dilemma on an Oracle mail group regarding a recurring class of SQL tuning problems. Dan presents the original single-row query problem and shows the route to the most viable solution. 01/06/2005

Use Your Digital Camera with Linux by Robert Bernier
With the holidays over, it's time to pause, reflect, and clean up a bit. Why not download the photos from your digital camera? Don't worry, it's easy under Linux. Robert Bernier demonstrates the killer combination of gphoto2, ImageMagick, and digiKam. 01/06/2005

Clever Tricks with MythTV by John Littler
Building your own personal video recorder means that you can avoid manufacturer- or broadcaster-enforced restrictions. That's not all, though. John Littler presents some clever ideas on what you can accomplish with a MythTV box, some free time, and a little work. 12/29/2004

Linux AMD64 Kernel Bug by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a Linux 2.4 kernel bug on AMD64 machines, problems in Samba, changepassword.cgi, MPlayer, the MIT Kerberos 5 administration library, logcheck, Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, Konqueror, Debian debmake, Xpdf, and xzgv. 12/29/2004

Excerpt from Linux Cookbook, Part 2 by Carla Schroder
In the second part of this two-part series, Carla Schroder, author of Linux Cookbook, offers two more recipes, including tips on running different window managers simultaneously with Xnest and hosting multiple domains with Apache. 12/22/2004

Freedom, Innovation, and Convenience: The RMS Interview by Federico Biancuzzi
Since 1984, Richard M. Stallman has fought for software freedom as a coder, a project leader, and a philosopher. The GNU GPL and GNU/Linux projects are just two results of that work. Federico Biancuzzi recently interviewed rms about his views on freedom, the GNU project, and the Linux kernel and GNU/Linux distributions. 12/22/2004

J2SE Woes by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Java 2 Runtime Environment, wget, FreeBSD's procfs and linprocfs, OpenSSL, OpenSSH, AbiWord, Blogtorrent, scponly, rssh, and kfax. 12/17/2004

The Watchful Eye of FAM by Q Ethan McCallum
If you've ever written code waiting for a file to appear or change, you've likely done the select/sleep loop dance. How'd you like to never again experience that? SGI's File Alteration Monitor API can help. Ethan McCallum demonstrates how to watch files and directories on Linux, Irix, and probably your other favorite, Unix. 12/16/2004

Linux Music Blossoms with Rosegarden by Howard Wen
No kidding: many software geeks are also music geeks. It should be no surprise that free software music programs have started to rival their commercial counterparts. Howard Wen walks through Rosegarden, a Linux-based music sequencer and scoring package. 12/16/2004

Excerpt from Linux Cookbook, Part 1 by Carla Schroder
Carla Schroder, author of Linux Cookbook, has three tasty recipes to share in this week's excerpt. Whether you want tips on installing a program for easy uninstall, killing user processes, or better logins without passwords, Carla poses the problems and offers solutions. Too bad not all recipes can be this clear, quick, and painless. 12/09/2004

ELF Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, sudo, TWiki, phpBB, cscope, Cyrus IMAP, Bugzilla, ProZilla, unarj, libxml2, and fetch. 12/01/2004

Media-Tool Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in libgd, mtink, zip, ruby, Samba, freeamp, Kaffeine and gxine, Portage, zgv, shadow, and BNC. 11/24/2004

Trouble in iptables by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Linux iptables, OpenSSL, PuTTY, rssh, Quake II Server, libmagick6, HP Serviceguard, Xpdf, FreeRadius, WVTFTPD, GNU tftp, and pppd. 11/19/2004

Feather Linux: The Swiss Army Knife of LiveCDs by KIVILCIM Hindistan
Bootable LiveCDs have made the lives of Linux dabblers easier. They're also good for administrators and people facing system recovery woes. Among LiveCDs, Feather Linux is a lean and powerful tool. KIVILCIM Hindistan demonstrates how it can make backing up and restoring partitions easy. 11/11/2004

A Firm Foundation for the Linux Desktop by Andy Oram
Nearly every advance of Linux, open source, and free software on the desktop owes a debt to the X Window System. Too often, this debt goes unacknowledged. With the birth of X.org earlier this year, a foundational but once-stagnant project prepares to improve itself and its code to help free desktops everywhere. Andy Oram reports. 10/28/2004

mod_ssl Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in mod_ssl, LibTIFF, mpg123, LessTif, the Cyrus SASL library, MySQL, CUPS, ProFTPD, and the Squid web proxy cache. 10/19/2004

Storming the Microsoft Edifice by Sam Hiser
In the battle for open source and open standards on user desktops, applications such as OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Firefox are stealthily winning small skirmishes. Sam Hiser describes the situation in terms of Monty Python's "Trojan rabbit." 10/14/2004

PC Hacks for Linux by Jim Aspinwall
PC Hacks author Jim Aspinwall handpicks two Linux-specific hacks to share from his new book. Whether Linux just won't boot or it isn't as zippy as you'd expect, help is merely a hack away. Jim will teach you how to recover your system's boot-ability as well as how to test and optimize Linux's settings for the best hard drive performance. 10/14/2004

A Day in the Life of Dave the Dollar by Breckin Loggins
In the world of Linux financial software, GnuCash stands out as a powerful but esoteric project. For users who never learned financial bookkeeping (and many who did), double-entry accounting is a difficult subject to master before using the program. As Breckin Loggins explains, though, it's much easier than it first appears. 10/07/2004

Temporary-File Race Conditions by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a collection of temporary-file race conditions, and problems in Samba, GNU sharutils, JRun, Subversion, imlib, IBM AIX ctstrtcasd, YahooPOPs, and OpenOffice.org. 10/06/2004

Devil Whiskey: From Fan-Made to Self-Made by Howard Wen
The golden age of computer RPGs saw classic 2D, party-based dungeon crawls in series such as Wizardry, Might and Magic, and The Bard's Tale. The recent open-source-friendly Devil Whiskey tries to pay homage to those days and find a way to compensate its developers at the same time. Howard Wen explores a modern classic in the making. 09/30/2004

New Apache by Noel Davis
Noel Davis look at problems in Apache 2.x, GNU Radius, libXpm, CUPS, gdk-pixbug, cdrtools, SUS, and Webmin. 09/20/2004

Defining the Linux Enterprise by Tom Adelstein
Linux users often call into question decisions by major vendors who increase innovation in the enterprise at the expense of the desktop. In this article, Tom Adelstein, coauthor of Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop, defines the market and discusses the business reasons why Linux companies pursue the enterprise market while limiting their initiatives for consumers. Tom also examines possible ways enterprise advances and the community can benefit consumer products. 09/16/2004

The Best Tips from the Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest by Ed Stephenson
What's the best way to move an organization to a Linux desktop? Here's a collection of the best tips we received from our Great Linux Desktop Migration contest. 09/10/2004

Linux Kernel Exploitation by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, Oracle Database Server, Oracle Application Server, DB2 Universal Database, vpopmail, MIT Kerberos 5, cfengine, CDE libDtHelp, Anonymous CVS, Samba, the zlib library, Courier-IMAP, and Python. 09/09/2004

Scribus: Open Source Desktop Publishing by Howard Wen
Desktop publishing came of age in the '80s, but open source options concentrated mostly on TeX and LaTeX. For users who want a friendlier interface, Scribus aims squarely at PageMaker and QuarkXPress. Howard Wen explores the features of Scribus and talks to its developers. 09/02/2004

Dave Whitinger: Inventing Linux News Reporting by Tom Adelstein
In 1997, Dave Whitinger began collecting and spreading news about the adoption of the still-fledgeling Linux operating system. It grew into the immensely popular Linux Today. Dave retired from the Linux news scene, but he's returned now with a new site and fresh ideas. Tom Adelstein interviewed Dave recently on promoting Linux worldwide. 09/02/2004

Create Self-Booting Movie CDs by Robert Bernier
Self-booting Linux distributions are really, really cool. They can also be really, really useful, and not just for system administrators or gamers. Robert Bernier demonstrates how he turns his precious DVDs into self-booting Linux CDs that his son can take with him. 08/26/2004

Qt Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Qt, SpamAssassin, MySQL, rsync, NetBSD ftpd, Xine-lib, KDE, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Gaim, and xv. 08/23/2004

CDE Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in CDE's dtlogin, Oracle, SquirrelMail, SoX, phpMyAdmin, wvWare, Openftpd, CVSTrac, PostgreSQL's ODBC driver, PuTTY, and Citadel/UX. 08/09/2004

Linux and Patent Risks by chromatic
OSRM recently commissioned a study that found the Linux kernel potentially infringes on 283 patents. Though some people find cause for alarm, others see this knowledge as a good thing. Here's more information on the study and its findings. 08/06/2004

OSCON 2004: The SCO Moot Court by chromatic
SCO's lawsuits over Linux copyrights and Unix contracts are still ongoing. Monday night featured a mock court, where lawyers presented the arguments of SCO and IBM to the attendees. Here's a rundown. 07/28/2004

PHP Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis look at problems in PHP, Samba, mod_ssl, HP-UX's xfs and stmkfont, Ethereal, l2tpd, Domino, APC PowerChute Business Edition, Webmin, and Lexmark network printers. 07/26/2004

Stratagus: Open Source Strategy Games by Howard Wen
When would an expression of appreciation land you in legal trouble? When you try to appreciate Blizzard software's strategy games! Fortunately, the legally threatened FreeCraft has taken on new life with a new name: Stratagus. Howard Wen explores how this customizable RTS engine may spur the development of new open source strategy games. 07/15/2004

Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000L: A Free Software PDA by Guylhem Aznar
Sharp is the leading PDA manufacturer in Japan, but recent models have had serious missteps that GNU/Linux friendliness can't quite overcome. Guylhem Aznar reviews the Zaurus SL-6000L from the point of view of a free software user. 07/15/2004

Device-Driver Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, Apache 2, the Linux Virtual Server, Pure-FTPd, FreeBSD's Linux binary compatibility mode, Domino, Shorewall, libpng, and the X Display Manager. 07/13/2004

Looking for Indemnification While Linux Sales Double by Tom Adelstein
Tom Adelstein examines issues related to Linux use in the enterprise while copyright infringement claims exist. 06/28/2004

Kernel DoS Vulnerability by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, www-sql, super, rssh, Horde-IMP, GNU GNATS, gzip, ISC DHCP, and sup. 06/28/2004

A Linux Quick Reference to Useful Commands by Daniel J. Barrett
Daniel J. Barrett, author of O'Reilly's Linux Pocket Guide, has compiled a quick-reference guide to the most essential Linux commands and the tasks they perform. We are presenting this quick reference as a PDF download. Print it and keep it by your keyboard for quick answers to problems that arise. 06/24/2004

Semi-Pro Linux-Based Recording by John Littler
As computers grow ever more powerful and recording equipment grows ever cheaper, it's easier and easier to create and record your own music. Why not use free software? John Littler explores the hardware and software you'll need to build your own home recording studio with Linux and related tools. 06/24/2004

Subverted by Noel Davis
Noel Davis look at problems in Subversion, Apache's mod_proxy and mod_ssl, Squid, MIT's krb5, RealOne, RealPlayer, ksymoops-gznm, smtp.proxy, FreeBSD's Jail(), Aspell, Tripwire, and icecast. 06/14/2004

Keeping the Myths Alive by Howard Wen
Bungie has some rabid fans. Though they've moved on from their Myth series, devoted fans lobbied the company for the right to create enhancements and bugfixes -- winning 80GB of source code. Howard Wen explores what the MythDevelopers have achieved and what they plan. 06/10/2004

Tales of Optimization and Troubleshooting by Howard Feldman
Sometimes your software just isn't fast enough. Before reaching for your checkbook for the latest and greatest hardware, think for a minute. Can throwing brains, not money, at the problem really work? Howard Feldman demonstrates real optimization techniques from the bioinformatics world. 06/03/2004

KDE Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in KDE, CSV, Subversion, Firebird, FreeBSD msync(), mailman, Opera, Apple's HelpViewer, cPanel, and xpcd. 06/02/2004

Building a Linux Media PC by John Littler
What do DVDs, CDs, TV stations, and video games have in common? Besides the fact that they require bulky equipment that takes up precious space in your living room, you can play them all on a PC running Linux. John Littler introduces the Linux media PC, a media convergence device. 05/27/2004

Inside the Homebrew Atari 2600 Scene by Howard Wen
Despite console-company protestations to the contrary, emulators aren't only tools for copyright infringers. If it weren't for emulators, would the Atari 2600 homebrew scene be where it is today? "Wait, there's an Atari 2600 homebrew scene?" you ask. As Howard Wen explains, it exists, and new-school programmers are making some impressive games in the old-school style. 05/20/2004

Apache Repaired by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a problems with the Apache web server, the Linux kernel, Systrace, ssmtp, exim, SuSE Live CD 9.1, Heimdal k5admind, Kolab, IRIX Networking Security, and NukeJokes. 05/17/2004

An Introduction to GraphViz and dot by Michele Simionato
A good graphic can go a long way to explaining a knotty problem, especially if the problem involves graphs or diagrams. Of course, many people who build networks or design systems aren't graphics artists. Fortunately, GraphViz and dot exist. Michele Simionato explains how to use and automate dot to generate attractive drawings programmatically. 05/06/2004

TCP Vulnerability by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the TCP protocol, Midnight Commander (mc), proftpd, OpenOffice, libpng, rsync, LHA, Utempter, X-Chat, and sysklogd. 05/03/2004

Linux on Windows, Linux in Hollywood, and Diskless MiniPCs by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 03 May 2004. 05/03/2004

CinePaint: The GIMP Goes Hollywood by Howard Wen
As movie effects studios adopt open source, expect them to adapt existing projects in new ways. That's the lesson of CinePaint, a project that's risen from the ashes of FilmGIMP. Howard Wen explores the goals and development of the program and interviews two of its lead developers. 04/29/2004

coLinux: Linux for Windows Without Rebooting by KIVILCIM Hindistan
Trying Linux just keeps getting easier. Knoppix and other live CDs let you take Linux with you on CD and USB keys, but you have to reboot to run your software. What about Windows users who want to use Linux in conjunction with their existing systems? KIVILCIM Hindistan explores the world of coLinux -- cooperative Linux. 04/29/2004

MySQL Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, MySQL, CVS, Cadaver, subversion, sitecopy, tla, iproute, Zope, logcheck, kdeprint, emil, and GNU Sharutils. 04/22/2004

Parrot, Cfengine, OpenBSD's PF, XMMS, and MySQL by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 19 April 2004. 04/19/2004

Getting the Most Out of XMMS by Rickford Grant
XMMS (X Multimedia System), available with just about every Linux distro, is simple enough to use, yet many users fail to reach below the surface and take advantage of its many capabilities. In this article, Rickford Grant takes you from the basics of using XMMS to its more advanced features, such as creating playlists, playing Internet radio broadcast streams, and more. Rickford is the author of Linux for Non-Geeks from No Starch Press. 04/15/2004

OSDL's Carrier-Grade Linux by Ibrahim Haddad
As Linux grows and matures, it moves into more and more applications and markets. A recent initiative from the Open Source Development Lab brings together telecommunications companies to build carrier-grade features into Linux. Ibrahim Haddad examines what that means, what progress the CGL team has made, and what plans they have yet to achieve. 04/08/2004

Squid Security Issues by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in squid, Ethereal, monit, texutil, nstxd, eMule, vfte, YaST Online Update, oftpd, OpenLDAP, and MPlayer. 04/07/2004

Linux on the GameCube by Howard Wen
As consoles grow in power and digital convergence looms, they become ever more attractive targets for free operating systems. What better hack than to port Linux or BSD to the GameCube? Howard Wen interviews the developers behind GameCube Linux. 04/01/2004

Linux on the PS2 by John Littler
As consoles increase in power and alternate operating systems increase in functionality and flexibility, it's ever more attractive to port your favorite free operating system. In the case of Sony's PlayStation 2, the company even encourages it. John Littler explores Linux on the PS2, including hardware, installation, upgrades, alternatives, and game programming. 03/25/2004

OpenSSL Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks look at problems in OpenSSL, sysstat, metamail, Mozilla, ModSecurity, Samba, Crafty, UUDeview, metamail, and calife. 03/23/2004

Growing with Gentoo by Danny O'Brien
Daniel Robbins, Gentoo's chief architect, recently spoke to students and professors at Stanford University's Computer Systems Lab. Danny O'Brien reports on his presentation, which focused on lesser known aspects of Gentoo: how it evolved, what problems and opportunities it's encountering, and Daniel's opinions on its future. 03/15/2004

New Nmap by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a new version of Nmap, problems in jailed processes under FreeBSD, and other problems in Adobe Acrobat Reader, the GNU Coreutils dir command, xboing, Apple Filing Protocol, libxml2, GNU Anubis, Sun's passwd command, and Safari. 03/08/2004

Inside Warp Pipe by Howard Wen
GameCube afficionados may know of Warp Pipe, a project to allow LAN games to work over the Internet. The already-controversial project experienced another shakeup when the developers announced that all new releases would be closed source. Howard Wen recently talked to them about their experiences reverse-engineering the protocol, developing the software, and closing an open project. 03/04/2004

Making Screen-Capture Movies by Robert Bernier
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially if they're documentation. Why not make screenshots -- or, better yet, movies -- to accompany free software documentation? It's not hard. Robert Bernier demonstrates how to put all of the tools together. 03/04/2004

A Global Survey of Linux Distributions by Alexander Prohorenko
In the English speaking world, a few Linux distributions claim the top spots. What's popular around the globe, though? Alexander Prohorenko explores some of the more popular commercial Linux distributions. 02/26/2004

Kernel Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, AMD64 Linux kernels, XFree86, slocate, mod_python, susehelp, mutt, metamail, Mailmgr, PWLib, clamav, and NetBSD's Racoon IKE daemon. 02/23/2004

Inside Scorched 3D by Howard Wen
Ex-DOS gamers likely remember the classic tank game Scorched Earth, with its VGA graphics, clever weapons, and good-enough ballistics. Scorched 3D is its spiritual successor, taking the 2D, one-computer battles to the next level. Howard Wen explores the game. 02/12/2004

Real Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in PHP, Perl, the GNU C Library, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Oracle9i, RealOne, RealPlayer, CVSup, gaim, GNU libtool, and mailman. 02/11/2004

Why Run Free Software on a PDA? by Guylhem Aznar
As PDAs gain power and capabilities, embedded Linux is more and more attractive. Sharp's Zaurus is a popular Linux PDA. Why aren't more palmtop computers running free software? Guylhem Aznar explores and evangelizes Linux on small devices. 01/29/2004

Using IPv6, Security Through Proxy, Open Source Telephony, and Postfix Troubleshooting by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 26 January 2004. 01/26/2004

Lotus Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Lotus Notes for Linux, tcpdump, mod_perl, kdepim, honeyd, NetWorker, NetPBM, jabber, mc, and Mambo Open Source. 01/26/2004

Sendmail Advice, Python's Twisted, PHP 5's SimpleXML, and Open Source Government Strategies by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 19 January 2004. 01/19/2004

Open Source in Government: Newport News, Va. by Tom Adelstein
Open source software is often attractive to local governments due to cost savings, stability, security, and open access. Migration is still tricky though. Andy Stein, CIO of Newport News, Va., is tackling the problems of adopting open source. In this interview with Tom Adelstein, Andy explains why local governments should form an alliance to share their knowledge and their code. 01/15/2004

Backups, Databases, Virtual Hosts, and UUCP by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 13 January 2004. 01/13/2004

Linux Kernel Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, Ethereal, Tethereal, INN, mpg321, vbox3, isakmpd, nd, phpGroupWare, and enq. 01/12/2004

Apache Regex Woes, Video Editing, and an IPv6 Introduction by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 05 January 2004. 01/05/2004

Professional Video Editing on Linux with Cinelerra by Howard Wen
Someday Linux will be a great platform for editing media files, right? If you know about Cinelerra, you know that day is soon, if not now. Howard Wen explores this high-quality, long-lived video editing application. 12/30/2003

Enabling IPv6 in Linux by Ibrahim Haddad
IPv6 is coming. In fact, you can encourage its adoption by using it right now. Ibrahim Haddad explains the ideas behind, and justifications for IPv6 and demonstrates how to support it on a Linux server. 12/30/2003

MySQL for PHP Programmers, Apache Home Cooking, and ONLamp 2003 by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 29 December 2003. 12/29/2003

Apache Regex Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Apache, mod_php, XDM, Goahead Web Server, Xerox Document Center, SARA, phpBB2, OpenBB, SquirrelMail, and pServ. 12/29/2003

PHP Transactions, Futuristic Ruby, and Linux for Small Business Redux by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 22 December 2003. 12/22/2003

Using Linux as a Small Business Internet Gateway, Part 2 by Alexander Prohorenko
Internet access is vital to many small businesses. Maintaining a reliable and worry-free connection may seem difficult, but several good monitoring tools exist to simplify the lives of administrators. Alexander Prohorenko explains how to serve DNS and monitor a small network. 12/18/2003

Open Source Flight and Questioning Some Open Source Development Practices by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 15 December 2003. 12/15/2003

Linux Kernel Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, rsync, cdwrite, 4inarow, CVS, Ebola, net-snmp, lftp, and irssi. 12/15/2003

Flying the Open Skies with FlightGear by Howard Wen
Realms of geographic data are entering public use every day. Mappers, hikers, and navigators love it. What's in it for the rest of us? Realistic flight simulators. That's what pilots, aeronautical engineers, and enthusiasts are building with FlightGear, a GPL'd flight sim. Howard Wen talks to the creator and the maintainers. 12/11/2003

Security Alerts, Data Hiding, Database Crosstabs, and #Apache Questions by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 08 December 2003. 12/08/2003

BIND DoS Attack by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a denial-of-service attack against BIND and problems in KDE, GnuPG, screen, Ethereal, FreeRadius, mod_gzip, Pan, detecttr, OpenCA, EPIC, and libnids. 12/01/2003

mod_security, Client-Side Mail Filtering, and Graphy Word Puzzles by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 01 December 2003. 12/01/2003

Custom Knoppix, Linux for Small Business, BZFlag, and glibc Concerns by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 24 November 2003. 11/24/2003

BZFlag by Howard Wen
Sometimes a demo program can spin out of control to take on a life of its own. A ten-year-old project to demonstrate 3D movement has become a simple-yet-clever online tank battle game. Howard Wen talks to the creator and maintainer of BZFlag. 11/20/2003

Using and Customizing Knoppix by Robert Bernier
Several Linux distributions boot directly from CD-ROMs. How many are usable in that state? How many are customizable in that state? Klaus Knopper's Knoppix is perhaps the best known of these distributions. Robert Bernier explains how to use Knoppix and how to customize your own self-booting distribution CD. 11/20/2003

Using Linux as a Small Business Internet Gateway by Alexander Prohorenko
Internet access is vital to many small businesses. Creating a reliable and worry-free connection used to be difficult. With good software such as the Linux kernel, wvdial, Squid, Postfix, and iptables, it's reasonably easy to set up Linux as an Internet gateway. Alexander Prohorenko explains how. 11/20/2003

Trouble with glibc by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the standard C library libc and in xinetd, hylafax, pServ, UnAce, Quagga, Zebra, terminatorX, and omega-rpg. 11/17/2003

Linux for PVRs and Pocket PCs, DB Tuning Without the Database by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 17 November 2003. 11/17/2003

The State of Home-Brew PVRs on Linux by Joe Stump
A TiVo is basically a Linux box with some extra software (and a nice service). That's something a competent hacker could replicate. Joe Stump explores the state of the home-brew PVR (personal video recorder) community on Linux as of late 2003. 11/13/2003

Linux on Pocket PCs by John Littler
While tiny, handheld computers may seem like geek toys, they're actually very practical for any environment with mobile data access -- hospitality, medicine, or finance -- and even for journalists. They can even run Linux. John Littler explores the Penguin-friendly heavy hitters in this area. 11/13/2003

GBA Programming, Network Programming with Python, and Easier Unix Printing by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 10 November 2003. 11/10/2003

GBA Programming with DevKit Advance by Howard Wen
Emulation has opened up game programming to realms of hobbyists. While it's possible to build amazing games on all sorts of obsolete platforms, it's also possible to build them on modern ones, including the GameBoy Advance. Howard Wen explores DevKit Advance and interviews its lead developers. 11/06/2003

New Apache by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a new release of Apache, and problems in fileutils, coreutil, anonftp, Kpopup, CUPS, Libnids, PostgreSQL, thttpd, mod_security, and the Linux Java Installer. 11/05/2003

Better Passwords, REST from Web Services, and an Easy REBOLlion by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 03 November 2003. 11/03/2003

OpenOffice Vulnerabilities, Spam and Virus Scanning, Zend Studio, and OpenGL by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 27 October 2003. 10/27/2003

Building an Advanced Mail Server, Part 3 by Joe Stump
While it'd be nice to pretend you never receive spam or viruses, server-side filters are a necessary evil. In the final installment of Building an Advanced Mail Server, Joe Stump demonstrates how to install and configure SpamAssassin and ClamAV. 10/23/2003

Animation in SDL: OpenGL by Bob Pendleton
SDL, the cross-platform multimedia toolkit, is powerful enough to have brought over 40 commercial games to Linux. While it has its own graphics primitives, it also supports the popular and powerful OpenGL API. In the third of a series of articles, Bob Pendleton introduces OpenGL and demonstrates how to use it in your SDL programs. 10/23/2003

OpenOffice Irritation by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in OpenOffice, slocate, fetchmail, GDM, Tomcat, ircd, HPUX's dtprintinfo, and Openserver's Xsco. 10/20/2003

Many Flaws, Upgrading Schemas, Open MMORPG Engines, and the Whole Open Source Product by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 20 October 2003. 10/20/2003

NeL: The Software Behind the Next Great MMORPG? by Howard Wen
Several people have theorized that the best mix of open source and gaming is to release the engine's source code while keeping the art, levels, and music restricted. Nevrax is doing just that with their upcoming Ryzom game. NeL, the engine code, is an actively-developed open source project. Howard Wen examines the company and the project and talks with a founder and a lead developer. 10/16/2003

Problems Aplenty by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in XFree86, Stunnel, Exim, wu-ftpd, pam_smb, gdm2, pam_ldap, whois, the atari800 emulator, Horde, MPlayer, and Node. 10/15/2003

Publishing Plans, Webmail, Kernel Hacking, and PHP Logging by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 13 October 2003. 10/13/2003

Building an Advanced Mail Server, Part 2 by Joe Stump
A modern mail server just isn't quite complete unless you allow your users to roam; while secure IMAP works for some people, others swear by webmail. In the second installment of "Building an Advanced Mail Server," Joe Stump explains how to install, secure, and extend your mail server with SquirrelMail. 10/09/2003

Denial-of-Service Attacks by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at denial-of-service attacks against Apache, OpenSSL, and FreeBSD, and problems in Perl, lsh, Teapop, ProFTPD, TclHttpd, MPlayer, Node, mpg123, and Freesweep. 10/06/2003

Fixing gcc, Layering PHP, Apache-ing Python, and Buying a Hackable TiVo by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 06 October 2003. 10/06/2003

Security, Paul Vixie, Palmtop NFS, An Advanced Mail Server, and iPod Linux by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 29 September 2003. 09/29/2003

Porting Linux to the iPod by Howard Wen
A new piece of unknown hardware is a challenge; what can it do? To Bernard Leach, Apple's iPod was just waiting for a Linux port. Thanks to his work, you can play music on an iPod running Linux. Howard Wen recently interviewed Leach on the goals and process of porting Linux to the iPod. 09/25/2003

Building an Advanced Mail Server by Joe Stump
Email is crucial to many businesses. Setting up a mail server doesn't have to be difficult, though. Joe Stump demonstrates how to install and configure qmail with support for virtual domains, IMAP, POP3, and SSL. 09/25/2003

Sendmail Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Sendmail OpenSSH, Pine, saned, MySQL, gtkhtml, and Solstice AdminSuite. 09/22/2003

Ports Final Call, Writing Unix Tools, Inside Prelude, and Streaming TiVo Files by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 22 September 2003. 09/22/2003

Building Unix Tools with Ruby by Jacek Artymiak
Unix command line tools should follow a few simple rules. They must do one thing well. They should conform to standard option conventions. They must be able to be part of a pipeline. Jacek Artymiak demonstrates a simple Unix CSV-parsing utility built in the Ruby programming language. 09/18/2003

Hacking the Xbox, Securing Distributed Computing, Un-Annoying Linux, and Signing On Just Once by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 15 September 2003. 09/15/2003

Is Linux Annoying? by Paul Weinstein
Let's face it, Linux isn't perfect. While people are working night and day to improve things, you have frustrations and, hopefully, workarounds in the meantime. Paul Weinstein gives an example of RPM hell and potential solutions and calls for your Linux Annoyances! 09/11/2003

The Hacker Behind "Hacking the XBox" by Howard Wen
Reverse engineering seems a mysterious and dark art, aided, perhaps, by the specter of the U.S. DMCA. Andrew "Bunnie" Huang risked penalties for his self-published "Hacking the Xbox". Howard Wen recently interviewed Huang on reverse engineering, disclosure, and the guts of the Xbox itself. 09/11/2003

Red Hat and Oracle, Jails, Encrypted Email Cookbook, and TiVo by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 08 September 2003. 09/08/2003

Encrypted Email Cookbook by Robert Bernier
A feature of the current email protocol is that anyone can claim to be anyone else. Another feature is that email tends to be sent as plain text. Clearly, there's room for more security, including authentication (you are who you claim to be) and encryption (only the intended receiver can read a message). Robert Bernier presents several recipes for implementing authentication and encryption in your email. 09/04/2003

portupgrade, Railroad Security, Paranoid PHP System Calls, and XP for Open Source Developers by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 2 September 2003. 09/02/2003

GNOME trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in BitKeeper, the GNOME Display Manager, rcpd, ViRobot Linux Server, OpenSLP, eMule, lMule, xMule, netris, and autorespond. 08/27/2003

ScummVM, Postfix, Regular Expressions, and Search Engines by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 25 August 2003. 08/25/2003

Inside ScummVM: Classic Adventure Engine Overhaul by Howard Wen
The short list of quintessential adventure games includes several picks from LucasArts' stable. While the genre might be fading, the ScummVM project is reviving classic games such as the Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island series. Howard Wen interviews the developers behind the ScummVM project. 08/21/2003

Guido van Rossum, ACLs, and libldap by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 18 August 2003. 08/18/2003

Postfix Attack by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Postfix, DB2, stunnel, OpenSSH, up2date, eroaster, wget, xfstt, xpcd, pam-pgsql, xtokkaetama, and Half-Life. 08/11/2003

C++ Memory Strategies, Accelerated SDL, and Making Ports Sing by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 11 August 2003. 08/11/2003

C++ Memory Management: From Fear to Triumph, Part 3 by George Belotsky
George Belotsky eloquently explained Common C++ Memory Management Errors and C++ Memory Management Principes in two previous article. He concludes his series by exploring good memory management in C++. 08/07/2003

Animation in SDL: Hardware Surfaces by Bob Pendleton
SDL, the cross-platform multimedia toolkit, is powerful enough to have brought over 40 commercial games to Linux. It's also portable enough to run just about anywhere that has graphics and an operating system. In the second of a series of articles, Bob Pendleton demonstrates how to use hardware surfaces in your SDL programs. 08/07/2003

Going (mostly) Extreme, PHP Black Hattism, Declaring Your Intents, and Keeping Secure by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 4 August 2003. 08/04/2003

Kernel Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Linux 2.4 kernels, Apache, VMware, BRU, Oracle, fdclone, simi, wimi, phpMyAdmin, nfs-utils, mpg123, and phpGroupWare. 07/28/2003

SMTP Proxies, SMTP Protection, and HTTP, Virtually by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 28 July 2003. 07/28/2003

Defending Your Site Against Spam, Part 2 by Dru Nelson
Dru Nelson recently had spammers attempt to attack his network, but this time, he didn't notice until he checked the logs. Why? He's using qmail and Trustic. Read on to find out how they can protect you from unwanted e-mail. 07/24/2003

Coding BitTorrent, OpenBSD's Core Developers, Easier Encryption, and Microsoft at USENIX by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 21 July 2003. 07/21/2003

Unzipping Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in PHP, OpenLDAP, Xpdf, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Mozart, liece, OpenBSD's Packet Filter, unzip, Imagemagick, Ezbounce, semi, and wemi. 07/14/2003

OSCON Wrap-Up, PHP Style, Slash'Em Developers, and More Linux Security Tips by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 14 July 2003. 07/14/2003

Slash'EM Interview by Howard Wen
Any worthwhile Nethack variant eventually finds a home in Slash'EM. Tracking those variants and the main Nethack sources is quite a job though. Howard Wen discusses the project with Warren Cheung and J. Ali Harlowe. 07/10/2003

Secure Cooking with Linux, Part 3 by Daniel J. Barrett, Robert G. Byrnes, Richard E. Silverman
This week's set of recipes from Linux Security Cookbook fall into an advanced category. Learn how to use PAM to restrict authentication on Linux systems and how to use SMTP to accept connections from arbitrary clients securely. 07/10/2003

HTTP Proxies, PHP Web Services, Open Source Telephony, and Stas Bekman by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 7 July 2003. 07/07/2003

Unfinished Business Part 2: Closing the Circle by David HM Spector
David HM Spector recently claimed that Linux is missing directory services. Of course, Active Directory is built around software already available for the free UNIXes. What's left? David examines the parts and pieces necessary to become a full-fledged directory member. 07/07/2003

Packet Filtering, Spam Proofing, Searching, and Timed Network Services by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 30 June 2003. 06/30/2003

Summer GNATS Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in OpenSSH, radiusd-cistron, Ethereal, ypserv, lbreakout, GNATS, frox, poster, eldav, and PerlEdit. 06/30/2003

Secure Cooking with Linux, Part 2 by Daniel J. Barrett, Robert G. Byrnes, Richard E. Silverman
In part two in our series of sample recipes from Linux Security Cookbook, the authors have selected two recipes of an intermediate flavor. Learn how to restrict access to network services by time of day, and how to use sudo to permit read-only access to a shared file. 06/26/2003

Defending Your Site Against Spam by Dru Nelson
To users, unsolicited commercial e-mail is an annoyance. To mail server administrators, it's a threat. Dru Nelson recently had his network attacked by spammers. He explains the various defenses he considered for protecting against future attacks. 06/26/2003

OSCON Keynoters, Proxy Terms, C++ Principles, and Secure Cooking by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 23 June 2003. 06/23/2003

Secure Cooking with Linux, Part 1 by Daniel J. Barrett, Robert G. Byrnes, Richard E. Silverman
The authors of Linux Security Cookbook have selected a number of recipes from their book to present on ONLamp. These recipes are organized into basic, intermediate, and advanced categories. This week's set consists of three recipes of a basic flavor. You'll find recipes on authenticating by public key, encrypting backups, and combining log files. Over the next two weeks we'll present the intermediate and then advanced recipes. There'll be something for everyone here. Enjoy. 06/19/2003

C++ Memory Management: From Fear to Triumph, Part 2 by George Belotsky
Half of wisdom is knowing what doesn't work. George Belotsky eloquently explained Common C++ Memory Management Errors in a previous article. This article explains design principles that will help you use C++ effectively and efficiently. 06/19/2003

More Kernel Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Linux kernels, GNU Zip, xaos, Speak Freely, eterm, Hangul Terminal, typespeed, mikmod, kon2, zblast/xzb, and zenTrack. 06/16/2003

Secure Email, Better than Nethack; Collaborative Gotchas; and the Embedded Future by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 16 June 2003. 06/16/2003

Slash'EM: The Sum of All NetHacks by Howard Wen
Any worthwhile Nethack variant eventually finds a home in Slash'EM. It's the proving ground for all sorts of new and unique ideas. Far more than just a conglomeration of patches, Slash'EM is a fresh game in its own right. On the twilight of a new release, Howard Wen examines how a classic is kept alive and fresh. 06/12/2003

Embedded Systems, Linux, and the Future by Karim Yaghmour
Karim Yaghmour, author of Building Embedded Linux Systems, looks at the various initiatives, moves, and trends having an impact on the future direction of embedded Linux. He also examines what role the open source and free software community--as well as embedded system developers--should play to ensure that Linux is the best choice for an embedded OS. 06/09/2003

Apache 2 Exploits, Extending CVS, TFTP, and Palmtop Unix by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 09 June 2003. 06/09/2003

Running Arbitrary Scripts Under CVS by Jennifer Vesperman
CVS includes several hooks to integrate with other tools, such as bug and project tracking. Jennifer Vesperman, author of the upcoming Essential CVS, demonstrates how to expand CVS to meet your needs, using Bugzilla as the example. 06/05/2003

Apache Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at vulnerabilities to denial-of-service attacks with Apache web server and with CUPS; buffer overflows in PHP, glibc, and gps; and problems with ghostscript, Apache Portable Runtime (APR), mod_gzip, Batalla Naval, and Xmame. 06/04/2003

Saving Our Bacon: Snort Security Holes and Strategies for Safe Network Monitoring by Robert G. Byrnes
Recently, a CERT advisory announced the discovery of two separate buffer-overflow vulnerabilities in Snort, a popular security-monitoring tool used for detecting suspicious network activities. In this article, Bob Byrnes, coauthor of Linux Security Cookbook, reviews the past Snort attacks, as well as the recent (and more serious) buffer overflows. In each case, Bob discusses strategies that system administrators can use to minimize risks. 06/02/2003

Multimethods, Netcat, Cfengine, and PHP Style by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 2 June 2003. 06/02/2003

Kernel Exploits, Email History, Distributed Communities, CVS and Kerberos, and Geoffrey Young by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 28 May 2003. 05/28/2003

Adventures with Kerberos, CVS, and GSS-API by Jennifer Vesperman
One of the difficulties of writing about technology is exploring the dark corners where no one's ever been before. Jennifer Vesperman, author of the upcoming Essential CVS, recently tried to make her CVS installation use Kerberos authentication. She describes how she went about integrating the two in this article. 05/22/2003

Command-Line Email by Robert Bernier
Unix and the Internet have both come a long way in the past thirty-some years; many of the tools and protocols grew out of those early years. Email is no exception. Robert Bernier takes a look at the basic design and history of SMTP and POP3, the email protocols, and suggests some useful tricks that still work. 05/22/2003

Linux Kernel Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Linux 2.4 kernels, sendmail, IMAP clients, cdrecord, lv, GNU Privacy Guard, EnGarde Secure Linux's sudo, SCO OpenLinux's mgetty and faxspool directory, BEA WebLogic Server, Unreal Engine, and WebLogic Express. 05/19/2003

Language Philosophy, SDL Animation, Complex DHCP, Linux Semantics, and Embedded Subversion by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 19 May 2003. 05/19/2003

Using the Subversion Client API, Part 2 by Garrett Rooney
Embedding version control into your application just got easier with the development of libsvn. A previous article introduced the Subversion client API. In part two of the series, Garrett Rooney explores the most useful functions for adding, merging, and changing versions within your application. 05/15/2003

Animation in SDL by Bob Pendleton
SDL, the cross-platform multimedia toolkit, is powerful enough to have brought over 40 commercial games to Linux. It's also portable enough to run just about anywhere that has graphics and an operating system. In the first of a series of articles, Bob Pendleton demonstrates how to use SDL for animation and video in your programs. 05/15/2003

Embedded Linux: Semantics and Reality by Karim Yaghmour
"Embedded Linux doesn't exist." Quite a statement for author Karim Yaghmour to make, since he's just completed writing a book about the use of Linux in embedded systems--O'Reilly's recently released Building Embedded Linux Systems. To understand why he makes this statement, read Karim's article on the historical and contemporary uses of "embedded Linux." Along the way, he also tackles whether "embedded Linux" is a noun or an adjective. 05/12/2003

pf Rulesets, C++ Memory Traps, Exult Interviews, Standards, and, uh, a Monkey by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 12 May 2003. 05/12/2003

Exult Developer Interview: Reinventing a Classic by Howard Wen
Howard Wen recently introduced the Exult project that's making Ultima 7 accessible on a new generation of platforms. This week, he talks to developers Jeff Freedman and Ryan Nunn about code reuse across projects, reverse engineering, and other proposed and actual gaming ideas. 05/08/2003

C++ Memory Management: From Fear to Triumph by George Belotsky
With modern memory-managed languages, is there any reason to program in C or C++ anymore? George Belotsky says yes. Even a brilliant memory-management scheme may not fit your particular application. In the first of three articles, George examines common memory errors in C++. 05/08/2003

Monkey Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Portable OpenSSH, Portable OpenSSH under AIX, ATM on Linux, Qpopper's poppassd, Monkey HTTPd, Red Hat's mod_auth_any, pptpd, EPIC4, HPUX's rexec, and vulnerabilities in Cisco equipment. 05/05/2003

DHCP Servers, PHP Uploads, Open Standards, and Weblog-mania by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 5 May 2003. 05/05/2003

Unfinished Business: The One Missing Piece by David HM Spector
With all of the work done on Linux in the past few years, there's only one missing piece preventing widespread adoption in the enterprise -- directory services. David HM Spector explores the history and current state of directory services, explaining why it's important to interoperate with Active Directory. 04/28/2003

Security Alerts, Your Own Subversion Client, Twisted Python, and Exult-ima by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 28 April 2003. 04/28/2003

Exult: The Open Age of Ultima by Howard Wen
Ultima 7 is universally recognized as one of the most impressive computer RPGs of all time. Unfortunately, getting it to run under DOS was--and is--an exercise in frustration. As Howard Wen reports, the Exult project is reimplementing and enhancing the U7 virtual machine. If you still have a CD lying around, you can enjoy this classic on your Linux box. 04/24/2003

Using the Subversion Client API, Part 1 by Garrett Rooney
One of Subversion's subversive benefits is its modular nature. Adding version control to your application is as easy as embedding libsvn. Garrett Rooney explains the basics of the Subversion client API in the first of two articles. 04/24/2003

Snort Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in Snort and SheerDNS, and problems in Xinetdvixie-cron, Oracle E-Business Suite FNDFS, xfsdump, Ximian Evolution, GtkHTML, kdegraphics, and psbanner. 04/21/2003

PHP Template Integration, DHCP Introduction, Mind-bending OOP, Security Tips, and Controversies by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 21 April 2003. 04/21/2003

Apache, Apache + Python, Simple PHP Templates, NetBSD Upgrades, and Linux Video by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 14 April 2003. 04/14/2003

Video Playback and Encoding with MPlayer and MEncode by KIVILCIM Hindistan
No consumer Linux box is complete without the ability to play digital video files. Until recently, this was difficult -- the codecs weren't freely available or distributable. MPlayer seeks to change this. KIVILCIM Hindistan introduces MPlayer and demonstrates some of its features. 04/10/2003

More File Integrity, More PHP Security, More Binary Compatibility, and Cheap IP Takeover by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 07 April 2003. 04/07/2003

Apache Security Update by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a security update to Apache; a major problem in sendmail; buffer overflows in Balsa, libsmtp, passlogd, lpr-ppd, and Solaris' dtsession; and problems in NetPBM, Eye of GNOME, the Progress database, and Red Hat Linux 9's vsftpd daemon. 04/07/2003

Cheap IP Takeover by Rob Flickenger
Rob Flickenger offers a scheme for monitoring the health of a server that lets another server take it over if it fails, using ping, bash, and a simple network utility. Just another sample of the hacks you'll find in Rob's hot-selling O'Reilly book, Linux Server Hacks. 04/03/2003

PHP and GD, Python 2.3, Contact List Ubiquity, Secur-i-tee, and a Cute RPG by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for March 31, 2003. 03/31/2003

Egoboo Developer Interview by Howard Wen
Having explored the world of Egoboo in Egoboo: The Cute Way to Dungeon Role Play, Howard Wen talks with Ben and Aaron Bishop, its lead developers, on portability and the hard lessons of game programming. 03/27/2003

Linux Kernel Root Hole by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a root hole in the Linux kernel; buffer overflows in Samba, qpopper, ircii, Mutt, DeleGate, SuSE's lprold, and Ethereal; and problems in OpenSSL, MySQL, man, tcpdump, and Red Hat's rxvt. 03/24/2003

PHP Security, tripwire, Linux Upgrade Woes, and Samba by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for March 24, 2003. 03/24/2003

It's a Cycle of Life Thing: Managing Linux Releases by David HM Spector
Linux distributions have grown in complexity and completeness over the past few years--and that's a good thing. Shipping a comprehensive list of utilities is a selling point for a distribution. Of course, this bundling can come at the price of upgrade ease. David HM Spector explores an old idea for improving enterprise Linux adoption by separating applications from the core OS. 03/17/2003

A Cute RPG, sendmail Security, Government-Sponsored Hackers, and PHP Forms by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for March 17, 2003. 03/17/2003

Egoboo: The Cute Way to Dungeon Role Play by Howard Wen
Dungeon crawls are as popular among the computer RPG crowd as first person shooters are among the action crowd. In the open source world, Egoboo is perhaps the cutest and most accessible RPG. Howard Wen examines the project, its history, and its future. 03/13/2003

Buffer Overflows in sendmail by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in sendmail; Snort; the gzprintf() function supplied with the zlib library; and the lprm utility under OpenBSD, as well as problems in BIND; file; tcpdump; terminal emulators; Internet Message; and Messaging in the Emacs World. 03/11/2003

Backups, New Features of pf, and Rootkit Protection by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for March 10, 2003. 03/10/2003

Using NFS for Networked Backups by Glenn Graham
As mass storage prices continue to fall, making backups to a centralized server starts to look convenient. Of course, the mechanics of this situation can be tricky. Glenn Graham demonstrates a quick and easy solution using NFS. 03/06/2003

Testing SMP Kernel Modules with UML by Jerry Cooperstein
Code that works well on a single-processor box may fail spectacularly on a multiprocessor box. Until recently, the only way to test this was to use a two-, four-, or more-way machine. Not anymore! Jerry Cooperstein introduces UML (User Mode Linux) and demonstrates how to emulate a multiprocessor machine with it by testing kernel modules. 03/03/2003

SMP UML, OpenSSL, Systrace Policies, and Apache Configuration by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for March 3, 2003. 03/03/2003

OpenSSL Timing Attack by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in OpenSSL, Oracle, mod_php, MySQL, pam_xauth, VNC, apcupsd, nethack, Rogue, and BitchX. 02/24/2003

PAM, Reverse-Engineering Games, Linux for Finance, and the PHP ch-functions by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for February 24, 2003. 02/24/2003

Christoph Reichenbach and Lars Skovlund on FreeSCI by Howard Wen
The FreeSCI project seeks to bring life back to Sierra On-Line's adventure games. What kind of pitfalls have the developers faced in reverse engineering the engine? Howard Wen interviews Christoph Reichenbach and Lars Skovlund. 02/20/2003

Distributing Your CA to Client Browsers by Rob Flickenger
In a follow-up to his article on "Creating Your Own CA," Rob Flickenger, author of Linux Server Hacks, shows you how to distribute your new Certificate Authority to a client's browser. He also offers some key advice on accepting a new CA in your browser. 02/20/2003

Linux in the Enterprise at LWE 2003 by David HM Spector
This year's LWE 2003 had an understandable focus on Linux in the Financial Services industry -- it was practically next door to Wall Street. Though the economy has taken its toll on Linux companies, David HM Spector sees a bright future for Linux in the Enterprise. Here's what caught his eye at LinuxWorld NYC. 02/18/2003

Kernel Vulnerabilities, Text Chat, Custom Error Pages, and Chroot Magic by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for February 17, 2003. 02/18/2003

Secure Chat with YTalk and SSH by Robert Bernier
Instant messaging may be a "killer application" among the glitz and glamour crowd, but it's been around as long as multi-user systems. Robert Bernier re-introduces the venerable and powerful YTalk and demonstrates how it can be used securely with SSH. 02/13/2003

Linux Newsletter Monthly Summary
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for February 12, 2003. 02/12/2003

Linux Kernel Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in the Linux kernel, Kerberos, dchp3, the Blade encoder, WebSphere Advanced Server, SpamAssasin, OpenBSD's chpass, Red Hat Linux 8.0's kernel-utils package, w3m, Window Maker, and HPUX's wall. 02/10/2003

Adventures, Self-Signing, Passwords, and Permissions by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for February 10, 2003. 02/10/2003

Creating Your Own CA by Rob Flickenger
Rob Flickenger, author of O'Reilly's recently released Linux Server Hacks, shows you how to establish your own SSL Certificate Authority using OpenSSL and a utility called CA.pl. 02/06/2003

Bayesian Filtering, chroot, Systrace, and the Slammer by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for February 3, 2003. 02/03/2003

FreeSCI: Rebuilding Sierra's Classic Quests by Howard Wen
Few publishers were as important to adventure games as the venerable Sierra On-Line. Their King's Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry series paved the way for other fine installments. Though Sierra has moved on, their games live on through the FreeSCI project. Howard Wen explores how FreeSCI lets you play your favorite old games -- and, just maybe, create new ones. 02/03/2003

Bayesian Filtering with bogofilter and Sylpheed Claws by Oktay Altunergil
Spam's not just a theft of resources, it's also highly annoying. Fortunately, probability filters can distinguish between good and bad messages with stunning accuracy. Oktay Altunergil explains bogofilter, a popular filtering package and how to integrate it with the Sylpheed Claws mail agent. 01/30/2003

Jaguar PEARs, Anti-DDoSes, Traffic, and Odds and Ends by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for January 27, 2003. 01/27/2003

CVS Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Concurrent Versions System (CVS), DHCP, slocate, Vim, Linux printer drivers, susehelp, fnord, mpg123, Astaro Security Linux firewall, and phpLinks. 01/27/2003

Mach/Darwin on NetBSD, IPSec Debugged, and PHP Directories by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for January 20, 2003. 01/20/2003

Jaakko Peltonen on Falcon's Eye by Howard Wen
Falcon's Eye, an impressive graphical front-end to the venerable text-only Nethack is a milestone in open source gaming. In this interview, Howard Wen talks with Jaakko Peltonen, creator of Falcon's Eye, about the technical and social issues the project has faced. 01/16/2003

Linux Newsletter Monthly Summary
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for January 15, 2003. 01/15/2003

CUPS Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in libmcrypt, HSphere Webshell, HTTP Fetcher Library, LCDproc, and UnixWare and Open UNIX's ps; and problems in the Common Unix Printing System, BitKeeper, FreeBSD's fpathconf(), S-PLUS, dhcpcd, leafnode, and Middleman. 01/13/2003

Mach/Darwin on NetBSD, IPSec Debugged, and PHP Directories by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for January 13, 2003. 01/13/2003

Subversion, Games, NTP, and IPSec by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for January 6, 2003. 01/06/2003

Synchronizing Networks with NTP by Glenn Graham
Accurate timekeeping is vital to accurate records, and accurate logs are the mainstay of good system administration. Glenn Graham explains NTP (the Network Time Protocol) and how to put it to work on your network. 01/02/2003

Buffer Overflows in SSH and PHP by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in SSH, PHP, typespeed, Cyrus IMAP Server, Cyrus SASL library, and pdftops; and problems with PFinger, KDE, and zkfingerd. 12/30/2002

Kernel Housekeeping, Private Networks, Identity, and Binary Files by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for December 17, 2002. 12/17/2002

MySQL Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a problem with Perl's safe mode; some serious vulnerabilities in MySQL; buffer overflows in wget, tcpdump, Canna, and GTetrinet; and problems in lynx, mICQ, Sun Cobalt RaQ 4 Server Appliances, xdvi, dvips, and Exim. 12/16/2002

Linux Newsletter Monthly Summary
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for December 16, 2002. 12/16/2002

Vanishing Features of the 2.6 Kernel by Jerry Cooperstein
"Housecleaning is almost an obsession in Linux," writes Jerry Cooperstein. The upcoming 2.6 kernel is no exception. While there are always new features to add, there are always features to polish and features to remove. Here's what you won't see in 2.6. 12/12/2002

Samba, mdadm, Nagios, and One-Time URLs by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for December 9, 2002. 12/09/2002

Samba Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems in Samba, Pine, FreeS/WAN, Solaris priocntl(), Traceroute NANOG, kon2, libcgi-tucbr, Python, pServ, and Alcatel OmniSwitch switches. 12/06/2002

Samba Pushes the Boundaries Again by Dustin Puryear
With version 2.2 stable and well-deployed version Samba 3.0 just around the corner, the Samba team has been very busy. In this article, Dustin Puryear explores some of the new and surprising features in recent builds. 12/05/2002

mdadm: A New Tool For Linux Software RAID Management by Derek Vadala
Derek Vadala, author of Managing RAID with Linux, looks at the new mdadm (multiple devices admin) package, a simple, yet robust way to manage software arrays. In this article, Derek covers installation and mdadm's five major modes of operation. 12/05/2002

Multilingual PHP, OpenSSH Configuration, and Traffic Balancing by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for December 2, 2002. 12/02/2002

MySQL Recipes, CVS Tools, and Disk Images by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for November 25, 2002. 11/25/2002

BIND Issues by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a large set of problems in BIND; buffer overflows in KDE's LISA, libpng, masqmail, FreeBSD resolver code, Windowmaker, Tiny HTTPd, and Zeroo HTTP Server; and problems in Lib HTTPd, KDE's telnet and rlogin KIO code, Kgpg, Squid, and UnixWare and OpenUnix's talkd. 11/18/2002

Security Week by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for November 18, 2002. 11/18/2002

Linux Newsletter Monthly Summary
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for November 14, 2002. 11/14/2002

Threads, Cartography, GRUB, and Routing by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for November 11, 2002. 11/11/2002

Linux Multithreading Advances by Jerry Cooperstein
Linux multithreading has traditionally lacked full POSIX compatibility. Recent development kernels have seen the addition of two competing thread replacements. Jerry Cooperstein examines the history and implementation of both NPTL and NGPT in plain English. 11/07/2002

Subversion, Secrets, and Security Snippets by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for November 4, 2002. 11/04/2002

Abuse Attack by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in Abuse, log2mail, kadmind, Heimdal, ypserv, and trek; and problems in PHP-Nuke, lprng, pam_ldap, uudecode, and bzip2. 11/04/2002

Simple Search Engines, Webmail, Python Robots, and Communities by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for October 28, 2002. 10/28/2002

Denial-of-Service Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at denial-of-service vulnerabilities in xinetd, syslog-ng, net-snmp, and Sun's lockd; problems with heartbeat, dvips, OpenOffice, and Cisco CatOS embedded HTTP server; and security vulnerabilities in kpf, gnome-gv, ggv, Mozilla, and PAM. 10/22/2002

Python for Bioinformatics, Multimedia, LDAP, and BGP by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for October 21, 2002. 10/21/2002

Linux Newsletter Monthly Summary
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for October 18, 2002. 10/18/2002

Gentoo, Gaming, and IRIX Signals by chromatic
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for 10/14/2002. 10/14/2002

Free Frags with Cube: The Linux First-Person Shooter by Howard Wen
Will the availability of attractive and feature-packed game engines attract mod communities to Linux? Howard Wen thinks so. This article introduces Cube 3-D, a simple, elegant, and free first-person shooter engine. 10/10/2002

Gentoo Linux Reloaded by Daniel Robbins
Over the past year, Gentoo Linux has grown from a niche distribution into something of a phenomenon in the Linux world. In this article, Gentoo Linux chief architect Daniel Robbins explains what Gentoo Linux is all about, describing the good things found in Gentoo Linux 1.4. 10/10/2002

Apache Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in Apache, fetchmail, Heimdal, logsurfer, ghostview, kghostview, and WN Server; and problems in unzip, tar, gv, SMRSH, and rogue. 10/07/2002

Richard Thieme: "Real Hacking Rules!" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for October 7, 2002. 10/07/2002

Securing Linux: Why It's Worthwhile and Achievable by Michael D. (Mick) Bauer
Michael Bauer, author of Building Secure Servers with Linux, explains some of the reasons why it's both possible and worthwhile to secure Linux for use as an Internet server platform. 10/03/2002

Who Has Which Files by Bruce Stewart
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for September 30, 2002. 09/30/2002

Slapper Worm by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at the Linux Slapper worm; a large set of vulnerabilities in NetBSD; and problems in libX11.so, OS X's nidump, DB4Web, joe, BRU Workstation, xbreaky, and Tru64/OSF1 version 3.x. 09/23/2002

Linux Laptop Sound Configuration by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for September 23, 2002. 09/23/2002

Linux Laptop Sound Configuration by Dave Phillips
Configuring sound for laptops running Linux can be a very tricky process. Dave Phillips describes his experiences installing and configuring a sound system for an HP Omnibook 4150. 09/20/2002

Linux Newsletter Monthly Wrap-up by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for September 19, 2002. 09/19/2002

PHP Injection Attack by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at an injection attack against PHP; several problems in KDE and Konqueror; buffer overflows in gain, kadmin, multiple applications in Tru64, and Ethereal; and problems in cacti, mhonarc, wordtrans, scrollkeeper, and the Cisco VPN Client. 09/16/2002

Andy Oram on "European Union Researches the Benefits of Open Source Software" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for September 16, 2002. 09/16/2002

Joao Prado Maia on "Smarty: A PHP Template Engine" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for September 9, 2002. 09/09/2002

Roll Your Own Digital Video Recorder by Howard Wen
Video Disk Recorder, or VDR, is a user interface for building a digital satellite TV receiver and recorder box running under Linux. Though not yet available in the U.S., VDR is for people who like to program their set-top to do what they want, and not just what products like TiVo will let them do. 08/29/2002

Bugzilla Security Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in PostgreSQL, and UnixWare and Open UNIX's ndcfg; and problems in PHP, scponly, the kernel supplied with Red Hat Linux 7.3, Bugzilla, EPIC Script Light, UnixWare DNS Resolver, Mantis, an exploit for the Cisco IOS TFTP Server bug, and Red Hat's tcl/tk and expect. 08/26/2002

Tim O'Reilly on "Mac OS X Switcher Stories" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for August 26, 2002. 08/26/2002

Lawrence Lessig on "Free Culture" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for August 19, 2002. 08/19/2002

C Call Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in calloc(), Sun's ONE/iPlanet Web Server, dietlibc, OpenAFS, Kerberos 5 Administration System, and PNG libraries; and problems in FreeBSD's Berkeley Fast File System, CVS, iSCSI, Red Hat Secure Web Server, tinyproxy, and IRIX named. 08/12/2002

Cory Doctorow on "What to Do About Spam?" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for August 12, 2002. 08/12/2002

Simson Garfinkel on "Protecting Privacy with Translucent Databases" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for August 5, 2002. 08/05/2002

CASE Tools: Large System Development by David HM Spector
Computer-Aided Software Engineering is a term that can generally be applied to any system or collection of tools that helps automate the software-design and development process. David HM Spector discusses what is available for Linux. 08/01/2002

Promiscuous Mode Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a vulnerability in PHP; buffer overflows in Cisco IOS, Fake Identd, HylaFAX, and EnGarde Secure Linux's resolver libraries; and problems in the reporting of Promiscuous Mode by the Linux kernel, Sun Fire servers, chfn, chsh, Pine, GNU Mailman, and the VNC challenge and response. 07/30/2002

Sam Williams on "What Have You Done for Freedom Today?" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for July 29, 2002. 07/29/2002

An Interview with Joshua Drake: Coauthor of Practical PostgreSQL by Jonathan Gennick
Joshua Drake, coauthor of Practical PostgreSQL, talks about a Mac OS X distribution of PostgreSQL, XML support, LXP, and much more in this in-depth interview with O'Reilly editor, Jonathan Gennick. 07/25/2002

Linux in Government by Sam Williams
Open source has flourished in places where users view software not as a political football but as a pragmatic tool. In this article, Sam Williams looks at the impact of open source software in government--both inside and outside the U.S. 07/15/2002

Lisa Nyman Discusses Open Source in Government by Sam Williams
Lisa Nyman is co-creator of QuickFacts, a service that lets visitors track down city, county, state, and national census data using only a single pulldown menu. QuickFacts uses Perl scripts, Apache Web servers, and a MySQL database to deliver increased interactivity at minimal cost. Sam Williams interviews Ms. Nyman about QuickFacts and open source in government. 07/15/2002

Squid Trouble by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in Squid, mod-ssl, the Solaris Volume Manager, ATPhttpd, iPlanet, and kcms_configure; and problems in the CDE ToolTalk Database Server, the Linux kernel, nn, Icecast, NcFTP, and Sharp's Zaurus handheld computer. 07/15/2002

A Timeline of Open Source in Government by Sam Williams
A timeline of open source software use by governments around the world. 07/15/2002

Sam Williams on "Linux in Government" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for July 15, 2002. 07/15/2002

Gian-Paolo Musumeci on "Controlling Resources with Solaris" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for July 8, 2002. 07/08/2002

OpenSSH Remote Challenge Vulnerability by Noel Davis
Noel Davis look at remotely exploitable vulnerabilities in OpenSSH and Apache; a denial-of-service attack against BIND 9; buffer overflows in libc, tcpdump, and some RADIUS daemons; and problems in dnstools, XChat, UnixWare and Open UNIX's ppptalk, and IRIX's pmpost. 07/01/2002

Tim O'Reilly on "The Strange Case of the Disappearing Open Source Vendors" by Tara McGoldrick Walsh
Online version of the Linux Newsletter for July 1, 2002. 07/01/2002

X-Window Mozilla Attack by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a denial-of-service attack against X Window servers; buffer overflows in the Oracle 9iAS Reports Server and Sun's AnswerBook2; and problems in Simpleinit, CGIscript.net scripts, Cisco IP Telephones, Mailman, Sun's snmpdx and mibiisa, the StepWeb Search Engine, FreeBSD's accept_filter, and Ghostscript. 06/17/2002

Tracking Changes in CVS by Jennifer Vesperman
A look at the functions and commands used in CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) that will help you get the most out of this amazingly rich repository of programming files and technical information. 06/14/2002

Ship in a Bottle by David HM Spector
David H.M. Spector shows us how to get the most out of one computer by running multiple operating systems on it. He covers programs such as WINE, DOSEMU, Bochs, and User-Mode Linux. 06/06/2002

Trojaned Networking Tools by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at trojaned networking tools; a new version of OpenSSH; buffer overflows in fetchmail, mnews, Debian Solaris Netstd, Informix, and BannerWheel; and problems in dhcpd, Sendmail, Solaris' rwalld, and FreeBSD's rc. 06/03/2002

Writing PAM Modules, Part Three by Jennifer Vesperman
Part Three of a three-part series on PAM modules. This article discusses the four types of PAM modules: account, authentication, password, and session. An application needs to completely fulfill the requirements for at least one of the four types. 05/30/2002

Writing PAM Modules, Part Two by Jennifer Vesperman
This is Part Two of a three-part article on writing PAM modules. Part One discusses the background information needed to write modules, and Part Three discusses the critical functions the module must supply. This part discusses the support code a module author will need to use. 05/23/2002

The Sharp Zaurus -- A Lovely Little Computer by Simson Garfinkel
Simson Garfinkel reviews Sharp's new Zaurus SL-5500 palmtop computer. With its GNU/Linux-based operating system and applications, the Zaurus is turning heads in the open source community. 05/23/2002

OpenSSH 3.2.2 Released by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a new version of OpenSSH that corrects several security problems; buffer overflows in Wu-imapd, Solaris' lbxproxy, tcpdump, mpg321, lukemftp, and OpenServer sar; and problems in bzip2, FreeBSD's k5su, SuSE's shadow/pam-modules utilities, Red Hat's XML Extras Mozilla packages, and the Quake II server. 05/21/2002

Writing PAM Modules, Part One by Jennifer Vesperman
This is part one of a three part article on writing PAM modules. This part discusses the background information needed to write modules. 05/16/2002

Poor Sysadmin's Guide to Remote Linux Administration by Kendall Clark
Kendall Clark explains how to keep services hosted on remotely colocated servers running 24/7 using cheap, free software tools and a bit of hacking. 05/16/2002

A Batch Job to Add New User IDs by Arnold Robbins
Arnold Robbins, coauthor of O'Reilly's "Learning the Korn Shell, 2nd Edition," shows a script to automate adding many user IDs at once. 05/09/2002

Solaris Buffer Overflows by Noel Davis
In this week's column, Noel Davis look at buffer overflows in Solaris' admintool and cachefsd, the Kerberos4 FTP client, and dtprintinfo; problems in mod_python, Nautilus, Red Hat Linux's DocBook stylesheet, IRIX's nsd, and Solaris' rwall; and talks about reducing the risk of security problems. 05/06/2002

Vulnerabilities in FreeBSD by Noel Davis
This week Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in OpenSSH, Squid, Listar/Ecartis, slrnpull, and IRIX's syslogd; problems in Sudo, MHonArc, and Mosix; and a local root hole and a DOS attack in FreeBSD. 04/29/2002

Energizing Grid Computing by David HM Spector
Distributed-style computing is a hot topic in the industry right now. David HM Spector introduces the Powerllel system for porting applications to grid computing on Linux. 04/25/2002

Oracle9i Database Server Problems by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at problems with the Oracle9i Database Server; buffer overflows in XPilot, Tru64 Unix's libc and dtprintinfo, and the Melange Chat Server; and problems in Snort, Mandrake's rsync, Raptor Firewall, restricted shells, and the Informix Web DataBlade. 04/22/2002

Writing PAM-Capable Applications, Part Two by Jennifer Vesperman
Jennifer Vesperman covers how to call PAM authentication, account management, session management, and token-changing functions. She also covers response codes, setting credentials, and supplying a default configuration for your application. 04/18/2002

Open BSD Local Root Exploit by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on an OpenBSD local root exploit; problems with OpenBSD's rshd, rexecd, and atrun; new versions of Red Hat Linux's tcpdump, libpcap, and arpwatch; and problems in Webalizer, Open Unix and UnixWare's libX11, IMP, ntop, SuSE's ucd-snmp library, Anthill, INN, and several IRIX utilities. 04/16/2002

Wireless Linux: Putting Wireless to Work by David HM Spector
Most wireless networks consist of at least one wireless access point, or base station. David HM Spector shows how to configure the Apple's AirPort base station from Linux. 04/11/2002

New Version of Apache by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a new release of Apache; buffer overflows in VNC, Icecast, Progress, and Solaris' Xsun; and problems in LogWatch, talkd, popper_mod, EMU Webmail, wwwisis 3.x, and OpenLinux's KDE. 04/08/2002

Writing PAM-Capable Applications, Part One by Jennifer Vesperman
The first of a two-part tutorial on writing PAM-capable applications. Part One provides the background knowledge and some of the supporting functions necessary for a developer to effectively use the Pluggable Authentication Modules library. 04/04/2002

Log File Tool Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on problems with two popular log file analysis tools, analog and LogWatch, as well as security holes in Java Web Start, libsafe, phpBB2, and Posadis. 04/01/2002

Java Runtime Environment Vulnerability by Noel Davis
Noel Davis looks at a local root vulnerability in Webmin; a bug in BSD-based TCP/IP stacks; a vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment; buffer overflows in listar, Imlib, and Open Unix and UnixWare 7's rpc.cmsd; and problems in Netscape, QPopper, PHP's move_uploaded_file() function, Penguin Traceroute, PHP Net Toolpack, and Mandrake's kdm. 03/25/2002

Opening Up the PlayStation 2 with Linux by Howard Wen
Howard Wen takes a look at Sony's upcoming Linux distribution kit for the PlayStation 2. 03/21/2002

Ads in Cache-Friendly Pages by Jennifer Vesperman
If a cached Web page doesn't allow an advertisement to be updated or counted, that can mean lost revenue for the Web site publisher. Jennifer Vesperman explains how to make cache-friendly Web pages get along with advertisers. 03/21/2002

zlib Compression Library Bug by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a bug in the zlib compression library; buffer overflows in efingerd and many RADIUS servers; and problems in CVS, rsync, PureTLS, xtux, SMS Server Tools, and GNU fileutils. 03/18/2002

AbiWord: Open Source's Answer to Microsoft Word by Howard Wen
Open source efforts are working on faster, sleeker alternatives to Microsoft Word. Howard Wen tells us about the progress made by AbiWord. 03/14/2002

Open Source Household by Daniel Dern
Open source breeds computer literacy. Linux programming and administration, gaming and homework -- kids can do this stuff, no sweat. 03/14/2002

Buffer Overflows in OpenSSH and mod_frontpage by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on buffer overflows in OpenSSH and mod_frontpage, a fix for Zope, and more. 03/11/2002

Cache-Friendly Web Pages by Jennifer Vesperman
Caching saves time and bandwidth. Here are some of the advantages of caching, as well as an example of how to set up cache headers in Apache, focusing on the Expires and Cache-Control headers. 03/07/2002

Buffer Overflows in PHP Forms and mod_ssl by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports buffer overflow problems in PHP forms and mod_ssl, as well as security holes in Oracle 8 and 9 systems, User Mode Linux, and the webtop application of Caldera's Open UNIX and UnixWare systems. 03/04/2002

Why Caldera Released Unix: A Brief History by Ian F. Darwin
In January, Caldera, the latest owners of the "official" Unix source code, released some of the older versions of Unix under an open source license. Ian Darwin gives the history behind this. 03/01/2002

Insecure Web Proxy Servers by Noel Davis
Some Web proxy servers appear to be vulnerable to attack. Abuses include bypassing firewall restrictions and sending spam email. In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis covers this topic plus a handful of other important issues. 02/25/2002

Flaws in LIDS, CUPS, and Sawmill by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis finds flaws in LIDS, CUPS, and Sawmill. 02/19/2002

Advanced makefiles by Jennifer Vesperman
Jennifer Vesperman dissects a working Makefile and demystifies its innards. 02/14/2002

Buffer Overflows Abound by Noel Davis
This week Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in mutt, groff, OpenServer's lpstat, and mIRC; and problems in Plesk, OpenLDAP, mrtgconfig, dnrd, Perdition, DeleGate, BSCW, Oracle9iAS Web Cache, and FreeBSD's AIO. 02/11/2002

Scanning for Rootkits by Oktay Altunergil
When a hacker gets access to your system, he will leave himself an easy way back in, called a rootkit. Oktay Altunergil shows us how to detect rootkits and remove them. 02/07/2002

LinuxWorld: Big Vendors, More Suits by Daniel Dern
At Javits Center in NYC, Daniel Dern found big vendors bragging about getting into the official kernel the way they used to boast of 'proprietary technology.' A report from LinuxWorld. 02/07/2002

AIM Filter's Back Door and gzip's Buffer Overflow by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis sees a buffer problem in gzip, a vulnerability in OpenBSD's lpd, and problems in the AIM Filter that was to protect users from buffer overflow attacks. 02/04/2002

Introduction to Make by Jennifer Vesperman
The compilation tool Make is also effective for installing programs, system configuration changes, or any time a change in one file requires actions elsewhere. 01/31/2002

WorldForge: In Pursuit of Open Source, Massive, Online Games by Howard Wen
An online community works to build games that would rival Ultima Online. How are they learning the tricks of the trade? 01/31/2002

Buffer Overflows in RealPlayer and GNU Chess by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on buffer overflows in Real Player and GNU Chess, a vulnerability in PHP-Nuke, and a security bug in rsync. 01/28/2002

Easing Web Application Development with CVS by Oktay Altunergil
CVS can be a valuable tool when developing Web applications. Oktay Altunergil explains how and why to use it. 01/24/2002

Problems with sudo, at, and efax by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis details problems with sudo, the at command, the efax program, and other open source apps and commands. 01/22/2002

CVS Administration by Jennifer Vesperman
Jennifer Vesperman explains how to create and manage a CVS repository. 01/17/2002

ProFTPD's DoS Problem and Slash's Weak Link by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a denial-of-service attack for ProFTPD, vulnerabilities in Slash code, and other problems. 01/14/2002

Problems with Pine and Stunnel by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a vulnerability in Pine's URL viewer that grants the user's permission to an attacker. 01/07/2002

Introduction to CVS by Jennifer Vesperman
Jennifer Vesperman explains CVS, the Concurrent Versioning System, which is a popular system for storing and version-controlling files. This first article is intended for folks who will be using CVS already installed on a system. Jennifer explains check-out, update, adding, merging, and other functions. 01/03/2002

Vulnerability in login by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a vulnerability that lets remote attackers access root through login, a problem in JRun Java app server software that exposes souce code of JavaServer pages, and a glitch in the script utility that lets users overwrite arbitrary files. 12/17/2001

Understanding Rootkits by Oktay Altunergil
Hackers have many tools that allow them to remain undetected during an attack. Understanding these tools is key to recognizing and cleaning up after an attack. 12/14/2001

New Vulnerability in OpenSSH by Noel Davis
A new vulnerability in OpenSSH can be exploited by a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the root user. Noel Davis also covers problems in OpenBSD, wmtv, Auto Nice Daemon, NetDynamics, Xitami Web server, libgtop_daemon, xtel, Lotus Domino, OpenServer's setcontext and sysi86, SuSE's Postfix installation, and fml. 12/10/2001

Introducing Sylpheed by Oktay Altunergil
Need a responsive, open source replacement for Outlook? The Sylpheed email client may be just what you need. 12/06/2001

Buffer Overflow in WU FTP daemon by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a buffer overflow in a popular FTP daemon, as well as problems with procmail, Hypermail, and Red Hat and BSDI's UUCP applications. 12/03/2001

System Failure and Recovery Practice by Jeff Dike
Jeff Dike uses User-Mode Linux (UML) to safely emulate system failures and helps us learn how to recover from them. 11/29/2001

An Interview with the Creator of Ruby by Bruce Stewart
An interview with Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, the creator of Ruby. Matz talks about Ruby's history, its future, and his new book, Ruby in a Nutshell. 11/29/2001

A New Version of OpenSSH by Noel Davis
A new release of OpenSSH fixes a variety of bugs, including a security vulnerability, while Red Hat's Stronghold has a vulnerability that can be used to disclose sensitive system files. Details on these and more in this week's Security Alerts. 11/26/2001

Building Freeciv: An Open Source Strategy Game by Howard Wen
Since it was introduced in 1995, hundreds of developers have contributed to Freeciv, an open source strategy game similar to Civilization. The project continues, and is looking for more contributors, expecially artists and those familiar with AI code. 11/21/2001

An Intro to Qt 3.0 by Cameron Laird
Cameron Laird gives a detailed overview of the new features in Qt 3.0 and explains how they benefit programmers. 11/20/2001

SSH Buffer Overflow by Noel Davis
The big news this week is that the SSH Communications Security recommends that users stop using the SSH1 protocol and replace it with SSH2. Users of OpenSSH should upgrade to version 2.3.0 as soon as possible. Learn more about the SSH buffer overflow problem, plus other alerts, in this column. 11/19/2001

Why Use a Command Line Instead of Windows? by Jerry Peek
Jerry Peek, coauthor of Learning the Unix Operating Systems, 5th Edition, explains why Unix and Macintosh users should learn to use the command line. 11/15/2001

A DoS Attack via Tux by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis highlights a DoS attack on Tux, the Web server in the Linux kernel, and other vulnerabilities in open source software, Novell, Cisco, and Mac OS 10.1. 11/13/2001

Time and Tide Wait for No Protocol by Richard E. Silverman
An analysis of the SSH Keystroke Timing Attack, by Richard Silverman, author of SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide. 11/08/2001

Getting Started with LDAP by Luke A. Kanies
Luke A. Kanies shows you how to set up a basic LDAP directory to store Unix user accounts, along with a script to pull those accounts to a Unix system. 11/08/2001

Linux syncookies Vulnerability and an scp/sftp bug by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a vulnerability in the cookie used by netfilter, a weakness that allows an attacker to access the Web admin template in Lotus Domino, and a bug in some versions of scp and sftp. 11/05/2001

Creating Filesystem Backups with 'rsync' by Brian Wilson
Using RAID-1 for drive mirroring doesn't always accomplish what you need. Brian Wilson shares a script for implementing a slow mirror using Perl and rsync. 11/01/2001

Linux System Failure Post-Mortem by Jennifer Vesperman
Diagnosing what went wrong after a system failure can prevent it from happening again. Jennifer Vesperman introduces the tools required for finding out what happened. 11/01/2001

Five Steps to Adding Physics-Based Realism to Your Games by David M. Bourg
A general overview of the five major steps you must take when developing physics-based simulations for your games, by the author of O'Reilly's upcoming Physics for Game Developers. 11/01/2001

Linux Buffer Overflows and an old SSH Daemon by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on a bug in the Linux kernel that can allow files that exceed a user's quota limits; an old daemon hanging around in SSH 2; and vulnerabilities in Red Hat's printing system. 10/29/2001

An Introduction to Ruby by Colin Steele
Ruby is two parts Perl, one part Python, and one part Smalltalk. So says Colin Steele, a developer who is smitten with this "diamond in the rough" of scripting languages. 10/25/2001

Transparent Proxying with Squid by Jennifer Vesperman
Transparent proxying frees you from the hassle of setting up individual browsers to work with proxies -- but there are a few caveats. Jennifer Vesperman discusses the benefits and gotchas of using transparent proxying. 10/25/2001

A Root Exploit and DoS in the Linux Kernel by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis looks at a root exploit and a denial-of-service attack in the Linux kernel; buffer overflows in Snes9x and Oracle 9i Web Cache; and problems in PAM's login, Squid, Apache, Mac OS X, W3Mail, sdiff, and looking-glasses. 10/22/2001

A Sysadmin's Security Basics by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch
A checklist of network security items includes user passwords, email client settings, firewalls, a DMZ, SSH and a list of tools to check your network. 10/18/2001

Developing and Using Snd: Editing Sound Under Linux, Part Two by Dave Phillips
In part one of this two-part series on sound editing under Linux, Dave Phillips showed us how to move over from Windows-based Cool Edit to Linux-based Snd. Now, in part two, Dave walks you through a Snd tutorial and dicusses advanced sound-editing techniques. 10/18/2001

Vulnerabilities in Lotus Domino, Zope, and Cisco Secure PIX Firewall by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports on vulnerabilities in Zope, Mandrake and Caldera uucp packages, PHP Nuke, Lotus Domino, and more. 10/15/2001

Proper Filesystem Layout by Luke A. Kanies
How you partition your filesystem in Unix can be a very important decision, ultimately affecting the performance of your server. Luke A. Kanies gives some practical advice on where and when to separate your filesystems. 10/11/2001

Vulnerabilities in sendmail, speechd, and OpenServer vi by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports problems in sendmail, Solaris Yellow Pages, CDE ToolTalk, speechd, FreeBSD login, OpenServer vi, Hushmail's Web-based email server, and FreeBSD's OpenSSH. 10/08/2001

Developing and Using Snd: Editing Sound Under Linux, Part One by Dave Phillips
In part one of this two-part series on sound editing under Linux, Dave Phillips shows how you can move over from Windows-based Cool Edit to Linux-based Snd. He compares the two software packages, then moves into installation and configuration of Snd. 10/05/2001

PAM Modules by Jennifer Vesperman
While most Pluggable Authentication Modules are designed for authentication, programmers have written ones to handle a host of other issues. Jennifer Vesperman introduces to some of the more useful modules available. 10/05/2001

Lineo's GPL Compliance Tool by Chris Coleman
Some developers shy away from using any open source software in their projects because they worry about having to release all their code if they come under the GPL (GNU General Public License). Now, Lineo offers a tool to those working with its embedded toolset to help them figure out if they're in conflict with the GPL. 10/04/2001

OpenSSH Problems by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis reports that sftp is the weakest link in OpenSSH. Find out what to do about it and problems with Websphere, Red Hat setserial, and Apache running on OS X. 10/01/2001

Introduction to PAM by Jennifer Vesperman
Pluggable Authentication Modules provide a solution to the difficulties of user authentication. Jennifer Vesperman introduces PAM and helps you get started. 09/27/2001

Buffer Overflows in uidadmin by Noel Davis
In Security Alerts for Sept. 24, 2001, Noel Davis warns about buffer overflows in Open Unix and UnixWare's uidadmin, an exploit in glFTPD, a vulnerability in the Web-based email system Basilix, and more. 09/24/2001

Protect Your Network from the Nimda Worm by Noel Davis
The Nimda worm, first reported on Sept. 18, 2001, exploits a range of vulnerabilities in Microsoft servers, email clients, and web browsers to attack and infect server and client machines. In this special Security Alert, Noel Davis details the worm's methods of attack, shows how to tell if your network has been infected, and how to patch the problems. 09/21/2001

SDL: The DirectX Alternative by Howard Wen
SDL has become known as an essential toolkit for Linux game development. It's similar to MS's DirectX API -- the big difference is that it's open source and supports multiple operating systems. 09/21/2001

Introduction to Wireless by David HM Spector
The low cost of wireless network equipment has brought this technology into the realm of affordability for most users, but will it replace all your wires? David HM Spector explains when and where to use wireless in your network. 09/20/2001

Linux Virus Reported by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis warns about a Remote Shell Trojan Linux-based virus, buffer overflows in fetchmail, and problems in the BSD Line Printer Daemon. 09/18/2001

Peering Squid Caches by Jennifer Vesperman
If you are paying for bandwidth by the byte, organizing your Squid servers to work together can save you lots of money. Jennifer Vesperman shows how to configure Squid to work with its peers. 09/17/2001

CrossOver Brings QuickTime Movies to Linux: Part 2 by Derrick Story
It's true. CrossOver enables QuickTime movie playback on Linux. In this second part of a two-part series, we test its performance and see how far we can push its capabilities. 09/13/2001

Buffer Overflow in OpenServer's Mana by Noel Davis
This week Noel Davis warns about a buffer overflow in OpenServer's mana; symbolic link race conditions in Solaris' patchadd and the Netscape 6.01a installation scripts; and problems in ProFTPd, Conectiva Linux's tcltk, NetBSD's dump, mailman, mod_auth_mysql, Directory Manager, Taylor UUCP, screen, PHProjekt, and Red Hat's lpd. 09/10/2001

CrossOver Brings QuickTime Movies to Linux: Part 1 by Derrick Story
Until recently, QuickTime movie playback was limited to Windows PCs and Macs. But the CrossOver plug-in attempts to bring native QT functionality to the Linux platform. Here's an introduction to CrossOver and a look at what QuickTime can bring to open-source computing. 09/06/2001

Buffer overflows in OpenUnix 8 utilities and the Solaris printer daemon by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis looks at buffer overflows in OpenUnix 8 utilities, vulnerabilities in the Macromedia ColdFusion server and other weak links in your system. 09/04/2001

Red Hat and Debian GNU/Linux Package Managers by Stephen Figgins, Jessica P. Hekman, Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour
Learn about the two major Linux packaging systems, the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and the Debian GNU/Linux Package Manager, in this complete chapter excerpt from "Linux in a Nutshell." 08/31/2001

Serious Problem with sendmail by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis looks at a serious problem with sendmail; buffer overflows in HP-UX ftpd, UnixWare su, and AOLserver; and much more. 08/27/2001

Quake 3 Arena Buffer Overflow by Noel Davis
In this week's Security Alerts, Noel Davis warns of a remote root compromise in the back-up and recovery tool Arkeia, an attack against Web browsers that can send data to arbitrary TCP ports, and a buffer overflow in Quake 3 Arena. 08/20/2001

Consolidating Servers Under Linux by David HM Spector
David HM Spector explains how to reduce the number of servers that your company has to support and how to bring more services together on the servers that remain. 08/16/2001

Freedom or Power? by Bradley M. Kuhn and Richard Stallman
Bradley Kuhn and Richard Stallman of the Free Software Movement respond to Tim O'Reilly's weblog, "My Definition of Freedom Zero." The term "freedom zero" refers to the first of Stallman's four freedoms, "The freedom to run the program, for any purpose." 08/15/2001

Tim O'Reilly Responds to "Freedom or Power?" by Tim O'Reilly
Bradley Kuhn and Richard Stallman recently published, Freedom or Power?, which was a response to Tim O'Reilly's weblog, My Definition of "Freedom Zero". There were a few issues raised in Freedom or Power? that Tim wanted to clarify or expand on, and he attempts to do so in this article. 08/15/2001

More Telnet Daemon Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in Linux telnet daemons, IBM AIX telnet daemons, the Kerberos 5 telnet daemon, Window Maker, and Solaris' xlock; temporary-file race conditions in AllCommerce and rcs2log; and vulnerabilities in ZyXEL Prestige 642R and 642R-I ADSL routers, groff, OpenLDAP, fetchmail, UnixWare Package Tools, docview, and ColdFusion Server 5. 08/13/2001

Authentication and Squid by Jennifer Vesperman
Proxy authentication is easy to get wrong because the access control list rules are the inverse of what you would expect. Jennifer Vesperman explains how to authenticate correctly and provides tips for avoiding common mistakes. 08/09/2001

Shared Source vs. Open Source: Panel Discussion
A lively panel discussion followed the keynote presentations by Craig Mundie and Michael Tiemann at O'Reilly's Open Source Convention. Panelists included: Clay Shirky, Michael Tiemann, David Stutz, Mitchell Baker, Ronald Johnston, Craig Mundie, Brian Behlendorf, and Tim O'Reilly. Here is the transcript from that conversation. 08/09/2001

Shared Source vs. Open Source: Craig Mundie and Michael Tiemann
On July 26, 2001, Microsoft Senior VP, Craig Mundie addressed the open source community directly during the morning keynote that also featured Red Hat CTO, Michael Tiemann and a panel of prestigious experts. Here is the transcript of Mundie's and Tiemann's presentations. 08/09/2001

Security Alerts: Linux IP Masquerading by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in xloadimage, ucd-snmp, Oracle dbsnmp, and xmcd's cda; and vulnerabilities in phpMyAdmin, wvdial, Slackware's man, Linux IP masquerading, and Slackware's locate. 08/06/2001

Using Squid on Intermittent Connections by Jennifer Vesperman
Need to access important web sites without being connected to the Internet? Jennifer Vesperman shows you how to use Squid in offline mode with intermittent connections. 08/02/2001

Life in the Big Hairy by Malcolm Dean
On the final day of the Open Source Convention in San Diego, Michael Tiemann introduces three enterprise technology leaders who are fully conversant with the open-source philosophy and see it as key to their ongoing success. 08/02/2001

Raymond Runs The Great Brain Race by Malcolm Dean
Eric Raymond treated a roomful of attentive geeks to an overview of his latest writing at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in San Diego, along with a peppering of observations on the Linux kernel, Sendmail, libertarianism, and economics. 08/02/2001

Linux Kernel Bug by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a bug in Linux Kernels newer than 2.4.3; a buffer overflow in Solaris' dtmail; vulnerabilities in CylantSecure, PHPLib, top, Apache, tar, Firewall-1, Arkeia backup software, and IRIX's netprint; and talks about the configuration of Cayman DSL routers. 07/30/2001

Using Linux to Tame the Big Hairy Beast by Chuck Toporek
Linux and open source software are entering mainstream business practices. O'Reilly open source editor Chuck Toporek reports on Friday's keynote, "Fueling the Open Source Alternative." 07/27/2001

Installing and Configuring Squid by Jennifer Vesperman
Need to reduce bandwidth on your network? Jennifer Vesperman explains how to use Squid, including a list of dos and don'ts to make it run faster. 07/26/2001

Heading for a Safe Harbor in a Rough Market by David HM Spector
Don't get caught in the next round of layoffs. David HM Spector has some helpful hints to leverage Linux and avoid becoming a victim of corporate downsizing. 07/26/2001

Security Alerts: Remote Root Exploit in Telnet Daemon by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a root exploit in BSD derived telnet daemons; buffer overflows in xman, the Merrit and Lucent RADIUS servers, ypbind, the AIX libi18n Library, and tcpdump; temporary-file race conditions in lmail and tripwire; and vulnerabilities in SSH Secure Shell 3.0.0, Lotus Domino Server, IMP, SSLeay/OpenSSL, and squid. 07/23/2001

Rockin' in the Free Software World by Dave Phillips
Join Dave Phillips on a tour of free software available for the "Linux guitarist." Phillips guides you through notation formats for file exchange, instrument tuners, effects processors, and a few cool surprises. 07/20/2001

Security Alerts: sudo root exploit by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in sudo, SuSE's dip, Scotty's ntping, and UnixWare's statd; a flaw in FreeBSD's rfork(); two vulnerabilities in Check Point's VPN-1/FireWall-1 firewall products; a new version of the rpm package manager; two vulnerabilities in Macromedia's ColdFusion Server; a minor Apache bug; a brute-force attack against SuSE's AXP Alpha xdm utility; and more on the cfingerd remote vulnerability. 07/16/2001

Tools of the Trade: Part 3 by Carl Constantine
A look at syslog and snort as security protection in this third article of our "Tools of the Trade" series. 07/13/2001

Security Alerts: PHP Weaknesses? by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a correction to the report on the AIX rsh buffer overflow; buffer overflows in Solaris' whodo, and UnixWare's su, uucp, and crontab packages, and xvt; temporary file symbolic link race condition vulnerabilities in Red Hat's LPRng, and Red Hat's crontab; problems in Poprelayd, PHP Safe mode, ePerl, 802.11b Access Points, Gnatsweb, SquirrelMail, and phpMyAdmin; and a paper on common PHP vulnerabilities. 07/09/2001

A Closer Look at Linux PDAs by Derrick Story
Here's an in-depth look at three of the top Linux PDA contenders compiled by Linux expert Chris Halsall. Read his reviews of the Agenda VR3, the iPAQ, and the YOPY, and find the right device to suit your needs. 07/03/2001

SAMBA Remote Root Exploit by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in the GazTek HTTP Daemon, Solaris Printer Daemon, and w3m; a problem in default SAMBA installations that can be used to gain root access; and problems in Cisco 6400 NRP2, udirectory, Tarantella, Oracle 8i SQLNet, Formmail.pl, OS X directory permissions, and kdesu. 07/02/2001

Moving to BSD Without Leaving Linux by Chris Coleman
BSD provides impressive support for Linux binary applications. Chris Coleman explains how easy it is to start using BSD without giving up Linux. 06/29/2001

Tools of the Trade: Part 2 by Carl Constantine
In the second part of this ongoing series, Carl Constantine shows you how to use tcpdump and Tripwire to protect your Linux server. 06/29/2001

AIX Remote Root Exploit by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in AIX's rsh, the curses library, Red Hat Linux's XFree86 packages, xinetd, MDBMS, BestCrypt, and cfingerd; format-string vulnerabilities in Kaspersky AntiVirus, eXtremail, and the Solaris at command; a symbolic-link race condition in KTVision; and problems in pmpost, AIX's diagrpt, and iptables. 06/25/2001

Tools of the Trade: Part 1 by Carl Constantine
In this first of a three-part series, Carl Constantine covers tools and techniques that system administrators can use to protect their networks, including discussion of nmap, Ethereal, and how to set up honey pots. 06/22/2001

Death of a Palm by Chris Halsall
Was it suicide or merely an untimely death? Chris Halsall chronicles the tension among his PDAs that led to a tragic accident. 06/19/2001

OpenBSD Local Root Exploit by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a race condition in the OpenBSD kernel; cross-site request forgeries; a new version of tcpdump; buffer overflows in rxvt, fetchmail, the HP-UX implementation of CDE, and UW-IMAP; a symbolic-link race condition in mandb; and vulnerabilities in SITEWare Editor's Desktop, Apache under Mac OS X client, LPRng, Caldera's Volution, and Slackware 7.1's /etc/shells. 06/18/2001

Bootstrapping the YOPY PDA by Chris Halsall
The consumer version of G.Mate's all-Linux YOPY PDA may be one of the most anticipated technology events since the delivery of Netscape 6. Will the YOPY be worth the wait, or has the Agenda VR and the Linux iPAQ stolen its thunder? 06/15/2001

Dynamic Address Assignment by Terry Dawson
Are you still assigning static IP addresses on your network? Terry Dawson explains how dynamic IP address assignment works and helps you understand if it is right for your network. 06/14/2001

Remote Root Exploit in QPopper
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in the Solaris mail utility, Qpopper, and TIAtunnel; temporary-file race conditions in Imp, kmmodreg, and ispell; format-string vulnerabilities in GnuPG and exim; denial-of-service attacks against NetBSD and Fpf; and problems in OpenSSH, the Cisco Content Service Switch, and BestCrypt. 06/11/2001

Linux Device Drivers Update by Derrick Story and Allen Noren
O'Reilly book author, Jonathan Corbet, talks about the current state of Linux device drivers, where he thinks they might be going in the future, and the process the Linux community embraces to develop new ones. 06/08/2001

Apache.org Server Compromised by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us the compromise of the Apache Software Foundation Server; buffer overflows in yppasswd, Qpopper, and mailtool; vulnerabilities in TWIG, webmin, and GnuPG; a new type of attack against sendmail; and discuss the use of the user nobody. 06/04/2001

Linux on an iPAQ by Chris Halsall
You may not realize that there are a number of Linux installations available for the Compaq iPAQ handheld computer. Chris Halsall reviews the various distributions and walks you through the reconfiguration process. 06/01/2001

Bulletproofing Servers: Building a Challenge for Murphy by Andy Neely
"Software operates at the whim of hardware, which makes stable hardware important to our longterm happiness as system administrators," writes Andy Neely. To make sure your server hardware is protected from the forces of Murphy, follow his advice for RAID protection, dual power supplies, and redundant Network Interface Cards (NIC). Andy will be a speaker at the upcoming Open Source Convention in San Diego, CA this coming July. 06/01/2001

Carnivore: A System Admin's Concerns by Mike DeGraw-Bertsch
The packet-sniffing Carnivore box gives the FBI the ability to nab and read a suspect's e-mail and web page requests. But those are abilities every sysadmin already has, so why are we so upset? 05/29/2001

Clean Up Your Code with Flawfinder by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in the FTP daemon included in the krb5-workstation package, Debian's ftpd, HP OpenView NNM v6.1, and ncurses; temporary-file race conditions in scoadmin and InoculateIT; problems in Cisco CBOS, Cisco IOS, and Solaris 8 fingerd; new versions of OpenSSH and Red Hat's mktemp; and two tools to scan C and C++ source code for potential errors. 05/29/2001

Testing and Automating PPP by Bill Unruh
Bill Unruh shows us how to test a PPP connection, as well as use tools to automate the connection to dial on demand. 05/24/2001

Cheese Worm Plugs Hole Left by Lion Worm by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in man, DQS, Netscape Enterprise Web Publisher, and IRIX Embedded Support Partner; a temporary-file race condition in the ARCservIT Unix Client; problems in Zope, Cisco Content Service Switch, CUPS, i386 syscalls in Solaris x86, and the Logitech Wireless Desktop; and talks about Cheese the "friendly" worm. 05/22/2001

The Agenda VR3: Real Linux in a PDA by Chris Halsall
If you're after a simple PDA to handle this week's appointments, then the Agenda probably isn't for you. But if you want a PDA that runs X Windows and has a Terminal Window, you should check out this device. 05/18/2001

Linux Soundcard Drivers: A brief guide for users and developers by Dave Phillips
Dave Phillips offers an in-depth look at finding and installing audio drivers, writing drivers, and programming devices to Linux APIs. 05/17/2001

Finding and Installing Drivers by Dave Phillips
Dave Phillips offers an in-depth look at finding and installing audio drivers, writing drivers, and programming devices to Linux APIs. Part 2 of 4. 05/17/2001

Inside the Driver by Dave Phillips
Dave Phillips offers an in-depth look at finding and installing audio drivers, writing drivers, and programming devices to Linux APIs. Part 3 of 4. 05/17/2001

The Future of Linux Audio Driver Support by Dave Phillips
Four-part article on Linux soundcard drivers, including finding and choosing drivers, programming drivers, and writing to the kernel and ALSA APIs. Part 4 of 4. 05/17/2001

Solaris Worm Attacks IIS Servers by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us problems in vixie cron, Oracle ADI, EnGarde Secure Linux, and Samba 2.0.8; discuss the sadmind/IIS worm; and how to protect your system against worms and other attackers. 05/15/2001

Troubleshooting ISP Connection Problems by Bill Unruh
In this PPP how-to feature, Bill Unruh describes a procedure to help Linux users troubleshoot ISP connection problems. 05/11/2001

Linux on Your PDA by Chris Halsall
We decided not to write another Linux PDA article until we actually tested the devices ourselves. We now have not one, not two, but three Linux PDAs in hand! And we're going to show you what we've learned about them. 05/11/2001

Predictable Initial Sequence Numbers by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us predictable initial sequence number attacks; a format string vulnerability in minicom; a buffer overflow in mailx; a new version of GnuPG; and problems in SAP R/3 demo, Bugzilla, and Red Hat Linux 7.1's mount package 05/08/2001

An Introduction to Extreme Programming by chromatic
When you look at it closely, Extreme Programming isn't really as extreme as it is logical. This introduction shows you the tenets of XP and its relationship to open source methods for writing software. 05/04/2001

Initial PPP Setup by Bill Unruh
Setting up PPP on Linux can be frustrating at times. Bill Unruh explains the basics of PPP in part one of an in-depth PPP how-to for Linux 05/03/2001

Looking at the lpdw0rm Worm by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us the lpdw0rm worm; an updated version of OpenSSL; buffer overflows in MIT Kerberos 5's FTP Daemon, and Mercury for NetWare's POP3 Daemon; a string format vulnerability in gftp; a symbolic link race condition in nedit's backup files; a temporary file race condition in rpmdrake; and problems in phpMyAdmin, Debian's zope packages, and the Tektronix PhaserLink 850's Web Server. 05/01/2001

The ROCK Linux Philosophy by Clifford Wolf
Clifford Wolf is creating an admin-friendly distribution of Linux. He explains the differences between ROCK Linux and standard, user-friendly distributions of Linux. 04/27/2001

Sudo Contains Root Exploit by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in sudo, innfeed, and Cyberscheduler; symbolic link race conditions in Samba, VMware, exuberant-ctags, and nedit; and problems in Red Hat FTP iptables, mgetty, DCForum, Cyberscheduler, and sendfiled. 04/24/2001

FTP Buffer Overflows by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in FTP daemons, Oracle Application Server, Solaris ipcs, Solaris Xsun, and SCO OpenServers; temporary-file race conditions in pine and pico; format string bugs in HylaFAX and cfingerd; a bug that causes Netscape to execute JavaScript placed in a GIF comment; and problems in Midnight Commander, mkpasswd, Alcatel ADSL-Ethernet Bridges, and Interscan VirusWall. 04/17/2001

A New Worm Targets Linux by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us the Linux based Adore Worm; buffer overflows in xntpd and ntpd; and vulnerabilities in SharePlex, Ultimate Bulletin Board, Lucent/ORiNOCO Closed Network, Red Hat's OpenSSH, Cisco Content Services Switches, and IPFilter. 04/10/2001

Is Indrema Just a Dream? by David Sims
John Gildred dreamed of a way to lower the barrier for game developers to create entertainment that would run not just on PCs, but in the much wider universe of gaming consoles. The idea: build a Linux-based gaming console that open source hackers can develop for. But can a startup get a foothold on a market dominated by Nintendo, Sony, and (soon) Microsoft? 04/06/2001

Lion Worm Continues Rampage by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us the Lion worm; a race condition in the Linux kernel; buffer overflows in several SCO Unix utilities; a new version of MySQL that fixes a major security problem; vulnerabilities in some Cisco routers, switches, and concentrators; and problems with Raptor Firewall, CrazyWWWBoard, Solaris tip, and Pitbull LX. 04/03/2001

Beyond Firewalls by Carl Constantine
Now that you have your firewall up and running, you're all set, right? Well, not exactly. Carl Constantine explains how to plug some of the common security holes beyond the firewall. 03/30/2001

Streaming Media With Linux, Part 2 by Dave Phillips
In the second part of this two-part series, Dave Phillips shows you how to begin your career as the next famous Internet DJ with some help from RealServer and Icecast. 03/30/2001

Streaming Media With Linux Resources Page by Dave Phillips
An Internet guide to the tools and software you'll need to receive and broadcast streaming media with Linux. 03/30/2001

MySQL File Overwrite Vulnerability by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a buffer overflow in ASPSeek; a denial of service attack against timed; a new version of OpenSSH with many improvements; an attack against the private keys used by GnuPG; a race condition in the UFS and EXT2FS file systems; and problems with MySQL, VIM, FCheck, Solaris perfmon, Interchange, and Compaq's management software. 03/27/2001

Streaming Media With Linux by Dave Phillips
Dave Phillips reviews streaming media tools for Linux users that put Internet radio stations, MP3s, and other streaming content within reach. 03/23/2001

Apache Insecurity Reveals Directory Contents by Noel Davis
Noel Davis discusses buffer overflows and format string vulnerabilities in icecast, Half-Life Dedicated Server, Solaris SNMP, ipop2d, ipop3d, imapd, mutt, and cfengine; temporary-file problems in the SGML-Tools package and Mesa; and problems with Apache, several FTP daemons, a Solaris SNMP agent, vBulletin, FTPFS, and Ikonboard. 03/20/2001

Multi-Homed Server Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
This week: Buffer overflows in ircd, ePerl, MIT Kerberos 4 and 5, ascdc, and slrn; temporary file problems in MIT Kerberos 4 and 5, the GNU C Library, and Athena widgets; problems with proftpd under Debian, Midnight Commander, Cisco Aironet 340 Bridges, and man2html; and loopback devices and multi-homed routing. 03/13/2001

Is Your Router Insecure? by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a problem in Cisco IOS that can be used to predict TCP sequence numbers in routers; problems in PHP-Nuke, Chili!Soft ASP, Nortel Networks Connectivity Extranet Switches, Joe, Veritas Cluster Server, and fcron; and a buffer overflow in mailx. 03/06/2001

Java JDE Allows Unauthorized Commands by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a problem in Java that allows Java code to execute unauthorized commands; buffer overflows in CUPS and sudo; temporary file problems with StarOffice, MicroFocus COBOL, and CUPS; and vulnerabilities in pgp4pine, the Solaris LDAP PAM module, adcycle, and Zope. 02/27/2001

MySQL Buffer Overflow; Secure PHP Coding by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us buffer overflows in MySQL, analog, vixie cron, and Kerberos IV; problems with kicq, licq, and kaim; root exploits in NetBSD i386 kernels; and insecure coding with PHP and MySQL. 02/20/2001

Ximian GNOME: Welcome to Your Desktop by Daniel Solin
Daniel Solin follows up his GNOME installation article and shows us how to configure the Ximian GNOME desktop. 02/16/2001

Creating Network Diagrams by Terry Dawson
As the complexity of your network grows, it makes good sense to maintain documentation that describes it. Terry Dawson reviews tools to make this easier. 02/15/2001

Linux Kernel Problems; SSH Design Flaw by Noel Davis
Noel Davis shows us a system-call problem and a race condition in Linux; buffer-overflow problems in SSH-1 and XMail; DOS attack vulnerabilities in BIND 9.0.1 and ProFTPD; string format problems in man; design flaws in wireless networking security code; and temporary file problems in FreeBSD's sort. 02/13/2001

Buffer-Overflow Problems in BIND by Noel Davis
Buffer-overflow bugs are discovered in BIND, gnuserv, tinyProxy, and INN; developers report issues with ntop and LPRng. 02/06/2001

New Security Problems and a Warning About Checking User Input by Noel Davis
Noel Davis summarizes new security issues including buffer overflows in splitvt, bing, write, and Lotus Domino's SMTP server; temporary file problems with webmin and Apache's mod_rewrite; format string problems with icecast; ip firewalling problems with FreeBSD; and SQL problems in Postaci. 01/30/2001

Ramen Worm Attacks Red Hat Linux Machines by Noel Davis
An Internet worm that attacks Red Hat Linux machines has cracked hundreds of machines. Noel Davis describes this and other security problems brought to light this week. 01/22/2001

How Your Computer Boots by Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati
Have you ever wondered what happens right after you switch on your Linux computer? Here's an article that explains exactly how the Linux kernel image is copied into memory and executed -- in other words, how it's "bootstrapped." Excerpted from Understanding the Linux Kernel. 01/16/2001

Insecure Temporary File Functions by Noel Davis
Noel Davis reports on the latest security problems and news, including the Immunix OS security audit, issues with GNU C library, ReiserFS, linuxconf and more. 01/15/2001

IBM Websphere, Shockwave Flash, and emacs Advisories by Noel Davis
Problems this week include minor problems with sendmail, exposure problems with Lotus Domino, problems in the default setup of Informix Webdriver and IBM Websphere Commerce Suite, a buffer overflow in Shockwave Flash, denial of service attacks against login, privacy problems in emacs, symlink attack in exmh, and a potential exploit against GTK+. 01/08/2001

Creating Audio CDs With Linux by Dave Phillips
A comprehensive "how to" by Dave Phillips that addresses both the musical and the technical sides of creating great audio CDs with Linux. 01/05/2001

PalmOS, Half-Life Server, and Ethereal Vulnerabilities by Noel Davis
Problems this week include more symlink problems with catman and dialog, buffer overflows in oops, halflifeserver, and ethereal, key problems with gnupg, problems with PalmOS devices, and a prime example of amazing vulnerabilities in third-party software packages. 01/02/2001

Security Alerts: OpenBSD, Zope, syslogd, and More by Noel Davis
Security-related advisories this week include a remote root exploit of OpenBSD and NetBSD, more temporary file problems in Solaris's patchadd and ksh, local root vulnerabilities in Stunnel, syslogd, and klogd, and new tools for man in the middle attacks. 12/27/2000

Security Alerts: SAMBA, pine, ircd, and More by Noel Davis
Noel Davis summarizes recent open source and Unix security-related advisories. Problems this week include symlink problems with joe, pico, and samba, a buffer overflow in bftpd, and problems with pine. 12/19/2000

Security Alerts: KTH Kerberos, Red Hat PAM, and More by Noel Davis
Noel Davis summarizes open source and Unix exploits. Problems this week include local and remote root exploits in KTH Kerberos, buffer overflows in Red Hat's PAM, a discussion of security problems with web-based applications, and an example of one of these security problems in phpGroupWare. 12/12/2000

Security Alerts: Twig, Midnight Commander, and More by Noel Davis
Noel Davis summarizes published open source and Unix exploits. Problems this week include arbitrary code execution in Twig, new symlink attacks, a hidden control code attack on Midnight Commander, and a LANGUAGE attack on glibc. 12/06/2000

Small Office Linux by Michael J. Norton
People from all walks of life are becoming Linux system administrators for small enterprises. If that's the case for you, here's a valuable guide to get you started on the right foot. 12/01/2000

Security Alerts: Koules Local Root Exploit And More. by Noel Davis
This week's exploits include a local root compromise in Koules 1.4, a buffer overflow in modutilities, and various problems with Alladin Ghostscript. 11/28/2000

Security Alerts: Vixie cron Exploit and More by Noel Davis
This week's column includes exploits reported for Vixie cron, OpenSSH, tcsh, and more. 11/20/2000

Achieving Low-Latency Response Times Under Linux by Dave Phillips
Here are a number of easy-to-implement adjustments that will dramatically reduce latency times on Linux systems. 11/17/2000

Exploring the /proc/net/ Directory by Terry Dawson
Terry Dawson explains the /proc/net directory and shows us the wealth of kernel information that is exposed there. 11/16/2000

Security Alerts: OpenBSD Non-exploit and More by Noel Davis
Noel Davis reviews the published exploits from Unix and open source. This week's Insecurities column includes a satirical non-exploit against OpenBSD 11/13/2000

LinuxPPC 2000 on a Dual Boot G4 by Michael J. Norton
Michael Norton explains how to install the stable Linux OS on the sexy, robust G4 tower -- and enjoy dual operating systems to boot! 10/27/2000

OpenAL Explained by Dave Phillips
OpenAL, the Open Audio Library, is a parallel effort to OpenGL, the Open Graphics Library. It is cross-platform, open source solution for programming 2D and 3D audio. Creative Labs and Loki Games are spearheading the effort. Dave Phillips, who maintains the Linux Music & Sound Applications Web site gives us an overview of the program. 10/13/2000

What Is This 3D Audio Business? by Dave Phillips
OpenAL supports developing 3D audio, sometimes called quadraphonic or surround-sound. The technology can make games or other immersive environments feel more real, by allowing sound to come from all directions. Dave Phillips explains 3D sound and how it is supported in OpenAL. 10/13/2000

OpenAL Applications: The User's View by Dave Phillips
Dave Phillips cites several games that use OpenAL as the audio programming interface, including the Linux versions of Heavy Gear II and Soldier Of Fortune. 10/13/2000

OpenAL Development: The Programmer's View by Dave Phillips
Dave Phillips walks us through a demo using OpenAL: Coding an object for movement and sound. 10/13/2000

Building High Performance Linux Routers by Terry Dawson
Trying to add a high performace router to a big network on little budget? Terry Dawson shows us how to put one together using Linux. 09/28/2000

Program Your Computer to See by Chris Halsall
Computer Vision is the science of reading images to extract meaningful data. Current CV uses include OCR, handwriting interpretation, gesture recognition, face tracking, and security. On Sept. 13th, Intel made its Open Source Computer Vision Library available for the Linux platform -- a move that should accelerate CV development. Chris Halsall introduces you to CV and its applications. 09/22/2000

How the CamCal Program Works by Chris Halsall
Chris Halsall walks you through the CamCal set-up and calibration in this companion article to "Program Your Computer to See," which is an introduction to the science of Computer Vision. 09/22/2000

Brainbench and Linux Certification Roundup by Jeff Dean
Jeff Dean evaluates Brainbench as a certification company and recaps the Linux Certifications discussed in previous articles. 09/21/2000

Installing Nautilus: An Emerging Linux File Manager by Terrie Miller
Nautilus, a new Linux File Manager from Eazel, is pretty and easy to use. But is it easy to install? We rolled up our sleeves and filed this report. 09/15/2000

Building a Black Hole With OpenGL by Chris Halsall
Our latest OpenGL tutorial shows you how to build mesmerizing black holes as stand alone entertainment or to incorporate into sophisticated games. 09/15/2000

Eazel's Business Model by John Ochwat
Even though Eazel is on the verge of launching a great software product, they're success may depend on the bundled services they'll offer. 09/15/2000

Infrastructure Monitoring by David HM Spector
David Spector shows us what software is commercially available to allow management of Linux in a 10,000 server enterprise environment. 09/14/2000

Open RSA: The Patent Expires by David Sims
RSA Security released its rights to license the patent on the RSA encryption algorithm, just weeks before it was due to expire. What is RSA, and what does its patent expiration mean? 09/08/2000

Linux PDAs: There's Rustling in the Bushes by Derrick Story
Linux users craving a PDA running an open source OS might not have a bird in the hand yet ... but there's rustling in the bushes. 09/01/2000

When Will We See Linux PDAs?
Tim Wilkinson, CEO of Transvirtual Technologies, talks about PocketLinux and the future of Linux in the palmtop. 09/01/2000

Traffic Shaping by Terry Dawson
Traffic shaping is the general term given to a broad range of techniques designed to enforce prioritization policies on a network link. Terry Dawson shows us some of the IP traffic shaping tools available for Linux and a simple example of how to use them. 08/24/2000

The Gnome Foundation: Is 'As Good' Good Enough?
The newly formed Gnome Foundation aims to build a desktop environment for Linux that's as easy to use as Microsoft's Windows. Will that be good enough? 08/18/2000

Broadcast 2000 Brings DV Editing to Linux by Curtis Lee Fulton
iMovie is great if all you have is an iMac, but Broadcast 2000 is the way to go for Linux users. 08/11/2000

Why I Prefer the Open Source Solution for Video Editing by Curtis Lee Fulton
A personal note from Curtis Lee Fulton about why he prefers to use the open sourced "Broadcast 2000" editing application over other solutions such as Final Cut Pro. 08/11/2000

Linux for Security Applications by David HM Spector
David Spector explains basic Firewall and network security techniques. He also lists the basic tools that can be used, such as NMAP and IP Chains. 08/10/2000

Linux Gaming Resources by Terrie Miller
All work and no play makes for dull penguins. Liven up your Linux box with these invigorating game resources. 08/04/2000

Open Source Beyond Software by Michael Stutz
Software isn't the only thing that can be open source. Michael Stutz shows us how to apply the open source philosophy to other projects. 08/01/2000

What will be in Perl 6?
At O'Reilly's Open Source Conference in Monterey earlier this month, Perl creator Larry Wall announced the start of work on Perl 6. This week, O'Reilly Network Publisher Dale Dougherty talks with Perl.com managing editor Mark-Jason Dominus and Perl Mongers director brian d foy about the announcement, its meaning, and the reaction of the Perl community 07/28/2000

Linux Professional Institute Certification, Part II by Jeff Dean
Jeff Dean reviews LPI certification Exam 102 and relays his experience with Exam 101. 07/27/2000

Helix GNOME: Unix For Humans by Daniel Solin
Daniel Solin introduces a special distribution of the GNOME desktop developed to provide an easy-to-use and easy-to-install open source desktop. 07/27/2000

Linux and the Tools Philosophy by Michael Stutz
Michael Stutz explains the Unix tools philosophy of piping commands together and how it applies to Linux 07/25/2000

What is a Network Administrator Anyway? by Terry Dawson
Terry Dawson ponders: how do you differentiate between system administration and network administration? 07/20/2000

Scanning Images With SANE by Michael Stutz
Getting a scanner to work on a Linux system hasn't always been smooth going. SANE works with a variety of scanning hardware, and Michael Stutz shares some tips for using it. 07/18/2000

Is Carnivore Eating You?
The FBI wants to install black boxes at ISPs to monitor email traffic of suspects. What are civil libertarians doing to try to stop it? 07/18/2000

Napster Rides Again
Is the song-swapping service a model for a new breed of Net application? A roundtable discussion with News.com's John Borland and Steve Pizzo of Forbes ASAP. 07/14/2000

Transforming Images by Michael Stutz
Need to rotate, resize, or resample an image for the web? Michael Stutz shows us some really useful image tools that you can run from a script. 07/11/2000

Linux in a Multivendor Environment by David HM Spector
One of Linux's strongest suits is as an "interoperability agent" that can allow a company to support multiple platforms, such as Windows, Unix systems, NetWare, and Apple Macintoshes painlessly from one central server. 07/06/2000

Beyond Browsing the Web by Michael Stutz
Can't get Netscape running, but you need to surf the web? There are other ways of getting to the information you seek, including graphics. 07/05/2000

Speeding up Linux Using hdparm by Rob Flickenger
Instantly double the I/O performance of your disks or, in some cases, show 6 to 10 times your existing throughput! 06/29/2000

Connecting to the Internet by Michael Stutz
This week's column shows where to get the latest Linux documentation for connecting to the Internet and how to set up a dial-up connection. 06/27/2000

NISTNet: Emulating Networks on Your Own LAN by Terry Dawson
Use NISTNet to create realistic network traffic on a local LAN. Stress test your applications before they reach the real world. 06/22/2000

Reminding Yourself With Linux by Michael Stutz
Here's a few simple ways to use Linux and open source tools to make reminders for either later in your current login session, or for the next time you log in. 06/20/2000

Linux Clusters - Using Linux for Power Computing by David HM Spector
An overview of building Linux clusters and how a cluster can help many businesses that need supercomputer performance but have a workstation budget. 06/15/2000

Contact Managers by Michael Stutz
Use basic UNIX tools to keep track of phone numbers and addresses. 06/13/2000

Securing Your Home Network With the Edge Firewall by Carl Constantine
Should you consider setting up a home firewall, and if so, what are the pros and cons? Carl Constantine describes his adventures into home network security. 06/09/2000

Sair Linux and GNU Certification by Jeff Dean
Jeff Dean explains the Linux Certification programs available from Sair Inc. 06/08/2000

Managing Appointments by Michael Stutz
Keep track of your schedule using the calendar tool. It also tracks most major holidays. 06/06/2000

LyX, the Document Processor by Michael Stutz
LyX brings a GUI to documentation projects, making it easy for beginners to contribute. 05/30/2000

Managing Documents With SGMLtools by Michael Stutz
Learn how to contribute to documentation projects using SGML and LinuxDoc. 05/23/2000

Crystal Space: 3D for Free by Howard Wen
How is this Open Source 3D Graphics Engine challenging Quake's? 05/16/2000

Linuxcare's CTO Responds by Tim O'Reilly
Dave Sifry reacts to Tim O'Reilly's article Lessons from the Layoffs at Linuxcare. 05/12/2000

Lessons from the Layoffs at Linuxcare by Tim O'Reilly
Open Source is a service-business, but to be successful companies must do more than tech support for open source software. Tim O'Reilly reflects on the layoffs at Linuxcare. 05/09/2000

Linux/ATM - State of Play by Terry Dawson
Terry Dawson explains the Linux support that's available for ATM and what you can do with it. 05/05/2000

All Linux PDA: Fact or Fiction? by Derrick Story
Have you heard about the Yopy? It's the promised Linux-based PDA that can surf the net, reel off MPEG movies, and play MP3s. 05/05/2000

Making the Palm/Linux Connection by Chris Halsall
You may not realize that there's plenty of Linux software for Palm users. Here are a few tricks to help you make the connection. 05/05/2000

The Writer's Workbench by Michael Stutz
Michael Stutz explains the Writers Workbench and how it has been rewritten for Linux. 05/05/2000

Printing Banners and Signs by Michael Stutz
How to print simple banners and signs in Linux. 04/28/2000

Document Templates for TeX and LaTeX by Michael Stutz
Michael Stutz shows how to make TeX and LaTex input files using a few simple templates. 04/21/2000

The Week in Linux News by Baiju Thakkar
Exploring RAID technology, reviews of Red Hat 6.2 preview release, Enlightenment, startx, KDE icons, and shell loop constructs. 04/20/2000

CYA for System Administrators by David HM Spector
Some things to keep in mind when testing your network's security, given today's litigious society. 04/19/2000

Processing TeX and LaTeX Files by Michael Stutz
In his third Living Linux column, Michael Stutz shows how to process files in two popular typesetting formats. 04/12/2000

The Week in Linux News by Baiju Thakkar
More security, starters for newbies, app development, and interviews with Torvalds, Alan Cox, and Linsight's David Whitinger. 04/12/2000

Linux Professional Institute Certification by Jeff Dean
As with any certification program, there's no substitute for experience. Jeff Dean looks at LPI's Exam 101. 04/07/2000

Netscape 6: A New Look for Linux Users by Chris Halsall
Navigator has been the default king of browsers on the Linux platform. Will Netscape 6 help it retain its royal status? 04/07/2000

The Week in Linux News by Baiju Thakkar
How to build a firewall, tutorials on vi and Bash, Sun's hesitation on Linux, and new releases. 04/04/2000

Outputting Text by Michael Stutz
Using GNU Enscript to format text for printing. 04/04/2000

Linux Word Processing Road Map by Michael Stutz
Michael Stutz goes over your options for word processing, and why we may be moving past the word processor era to a time when we take a different view of how we create, store, and output text. 03/28/2000

GNOMEs in Paris: A Report from GUADEC by Chuck Toporek
Upcoming GNOME releases, GTK 1.4, Pango, Bonobo, and Eazel's Nautilus. 03/22/2000

The Week in Linux News by Baiju Thakkar
New tutorials and reports on security, PHP, Apache and Perl. 03/22/2000

An Interview with Loki Games' Scott Draeker by J. S. Kelly
Loki games founder Scott Draeker on porting Windows apps to Linux and the importance of giving back to the open source development community. 03/16/2000

The Week in Linux News by Baiju Thakkar
Network and security resources, new releases, and developer resources. 03/15/2000

Deploying Squid, Part 2 of 2 by Jeff Dean
Install your own web proxy. 03/10/2000

Preventing Distributed Denial of Service Attacks by Terry Dawson
Six ways to avoid becoming an unwilling collaborator. 03/09/2000

vi Mode for bash on Red Hat by Stephen Figgins
Why putting "set -o vi" in your .bashrc won't work on Red Hat. 03/07/2000

Linux Tools For Network Analysis by David HM Spector
Spector finds two tools for watching traffic: Ethereal and Netwatch. 03/03/2000

The Week in Linux News by Baiju Thakkar
Red Hat's big deals, links to security articles, and new releases. 02/28/2000

The RHCE Experience by Jeff Dean
Considering the Red Hat Certified Engineer exam? Here's what to expect. 02/25/2000

Interview With Matt Welsh by Dale Dougherty
How the Linux Documentation Project evolved into a model for collaborative documentation projects. 02/25/2000

Interview Transcript: Matt Welsh by Dale Dougherty
Dale Dougherty interviews Matt Welsh, a founder of the Linux Documentation Project and O'Reilly Author. 02/25/2000

Using Standard Input and Output by Mike Loukides and Jerry Peek
A quick review of basic redirection techniques used by every Unix guru. 02/24/2000

Checking Differences with diff by Dale Dougherty
Quickly examine differences between similar files. 02/24/2000

Comparing Three Different Versions with diff3 by Dale Dougherty
Got three similar files to compare? Use diff3! 02/24/2000

Context diffs by Jerry Peek
Context diffs show the lines around changes in similar files. 02/24/2000

ex Scripts Built by diff by Tim O'Reilly
diff can build automatic editing scripts you can use to change multiple files or to store a revision history. 02/24/2000

Looking for Closure by Tim O'Reilly
A gawk script that can be used to make sure items that need to occur in pairs actually do so. 02/24/2000

Change Many Files by Editing Just One by Jerry Peek
Use ed and diff to edit mulitple files. 02/24/2000

patch: Generalized Updating of Files that Differ by Tim O'Reilly
There's an easy way to make changes based on diffs, use Larry Wall's patch utility. 02/24/2000

Apache Leaving the Competition in the Dust by Baiju Thakkar
Weekly news summary from O'Reilly Network's Linux Bureau Chief, Baiju Thakkar. 02/22/2000

An Interview with Tim O'Reilly & Eric Raymond by David Sims
O'Reilly Network talks with two open source leaders on how corporate America is embracing open source technologies and methodologies. 02/18/2000

Interview: Mendel Rosenblum of VMware by David Sims
VMWare's Chief Scientist explains the virtual machine that runs multiple operating systems on your desktop. 02/18/2000

VMware and My Alien Dream by Stephen Figgins
Years ago, I dreamed an alien tinkered under the hood of my computer, leaving it running Unix, Windows, OS/2, MacOS... 02/18/2000

Standard Input to a for Loop by Jerry Peek
A for loop can be used to step through a list of arguments from standard input. Find out how in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/10/2000

Making a for Loop with Multiple Variables by Jerry Peek
Got more than one variable you want to use in your for loop? Find out how in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/10/2000

Handling Command-Line Arguments with a for Loop by Jerry Peek
Need a shell script that can step through its command line arguments one by one? Read how to do it with a for loop in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/10/2000

Trapping Exits Caused by Interrupts by Jerry Peek
If your shell script is terminated prematurely it could get messy. Learn how to trap those unruly interrupts in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/10/2000

The exec Command by Mike Loukides and Jerry Peek
There is more than one use for exec, learn a couple of new ones in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/10/2000

eval: When You Need Another Chance by Mike Loukides
Ever want to use a variable to get a variable in a shell script or to construct a command on the fly? Find out how in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/10/2000

Getting in the Door by David HM Spector
A business plan to sell Linux to your boss. 02/08/2000

Deploying Squid, Part 1 of 2 by Jeff Dean
Install your own web proxy cache. 02/07/2000

Copying Directory Trees with cp -r by Jerry Peek
Want to recursively copy everything under a given directory? Don't get caught by the gotcha's. Learn about cp -r in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/03/2000

Copying Directory Trees with (tar | tar) by Jerry Peek
Not just for tape archives, tar can overcome several of the pitfalls of using cp -r. Find out how in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/03/2000

Telling tar Which Files to Exclude or Include by Jerry Peek
Sometimes you don't want to tar just everything in a directory. Or maybe you want to include some subdirectories and exclude others. Find out how in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/03/2000

Handle Too-Long Command Lines with xargs by Jerry Peek
That command line getting too long? Conquer it with one of the tools that makes Unix "weird and wonderful" in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/03/2000

xargs: Problems with Spaces and Newlines by Jerry Peek
Gnu's xargs patches up a sticky problem in the original - it choked on filenames with spaces or newlines. Find out how to take advantage of that patch in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 02/03/2000

Will Money Spoil Open Source? by Dale Dougherty and David Sims
A Discussion with Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann. 01/31/2000

Interview: LinuxPPC's Jeff Carr by David Sims
Who Runs Linux on the Mac? 01/31/2000

Linux Kernel Intervew: Jon Corbet by Stephen Figgins
Jonathan Corbet, co-author of O'Reilly and Associates' upcoming second edition of Linux Device Drivers, discusses new features in Linux kernel 2.4. 01/31/2000

Why Certify? by Jeff Dean
With IT professionals in high demand, is there any need for a Linux certification process? Of course there is, and our Linux Professional introduces us to the main ones. 01/31/2000

Build Strings with { } by Jerry Peek
Save typing by expanding strings at the shell prompt. Learn hot to use the {} pattern-expansion characters in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 01/27/2000

What Can You Do with an Empty File? by Jerry Peek
There are more uses for /dev/null than you might have imagined. Learn four of them in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 01/27/2000

The () Subshell Operators by Tim O'Reilly and Jerry Peek
Learn why using parentheses to group commands is a useful shell trick in this modified excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 01/27/2000

Protecting Files with the Sticky Bit by Jerry Peek
Want to keep others from altering or deleting your files even if they have write permissions to your directory? Learn about the sticky bit in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 01/27/2000

Hacking on Characters with tr by Tim O'Reilly and Jerry Peek
Want to quickly strip special characters from a file or change a mac text file into a Unix text file? Learn how in this excerpt from Unix Power Tools, 2nd Edition. 01/27/2000