March 2010 - Arch-general - lists.archlinux.org

[arch-general] [OT] ArchLinux on uncyclopedia
by Gaurish Sharma 19 Mar '10

19 Mar '10

Hi, Sharing ArchLinux's article on uncyclopedia[1]. Its awefully funny. I almost fell from my chair laughing. Here is a small part of it: "The almighty Judd has succeeded in making Archlinux the only Linux distribution which combines all the worst features Slackware and Gentoo have to offer. Archlinux is mighty fast, only runing on computers with a certain leetness factor (codenamed 686+), and features a package manager with an extremely funny name: pacman. When used with a large pill, Pacman is also a very valuable tool for devouring ghosts." Also, checkout the modified Wallpaper http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iaFx0ymozoI/SPWLes9mLOI/AAAAAAAAAPE/B4iXp3vdw30/s800/… Read full [1] http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Archlinux -- Regards, Gaurish Sharma www.gaurishsharma.com

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Re: [arch-general] DVD's won't read
by Roberto Malinverni 19 Mar '10

19 Mar '10

> ------------------------------ > Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:20:21 +0530 > From: Nilesh Govindarajan <lists(a)itech7.com> > Subject: Re: [arch-general] DVD's won't read > To: General Discussion about Arch Linux <arch-general(a)archlinux.org> > Message-ID: <4BA259CD.8000200(a)itech7.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > > My drive has in total only 40 pins. How an 80 pin connector would fit > into it ? > Sorry, I forgot to post the link: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html All ide devices have only 40 pin, but ide cables come in two flavour, one with 40 pin /40 connectors, the other with 40 pin /80 connectors. They fit both with every ide device, but some device works correctly only with the 40/80 type of cable. Roberto -- Il messaggio e' stato analizzato alla ricerca di virus o contenuti pericolosi da MailScanner, ed e' risultato non infetto.

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[arch-general] patch command not working?
by Preston C. 19 Mar '10

19 Mar '10

When I try to use the 'patch' command it tells me "command not found"? Yet, there is an entire man page on this command. Any reason for this? Preston

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[arch-general] Dedicated Arch servers
by Nilesh Govindarajan 19 Mar '10

19 Mar '10

Hi, Do you know some dedicated server / VPS provider (unmanaged), who supports Arch Linux, with good service and reasonable rates ? -- Nilesh Govindarajan Site & Server Adminstrator www.itech7.com

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[arch-general] New versioned-dep libgl on xorg-server
by Ng Oon-Ee 19 Mar '10

19 Mar '10

Hi, I saw this mentioned in the forums as well, but it was basically a 'wait for new version' advise given. Latest xorg-server in [testing] (1.7.6-1) has a versioned dep on libgl (libgl>=7.7.0.901). I'm sure there's reasons for this, since as I recall versioned deps are used sparingly if at all. I use nvidia-utils-beta however, and it only provides libgl (no specific version). nvidia-utils from [extra] is the same. Is it safe to merely make nvidia-utils-beta provide libgl=7.7.0.901, and will this be done with the nvidia-utils backage from [extra]?

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[arch-general] [signoff] mdadm-3.1.2-2
by Tobias Powalowski 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

This is a bugfix/stability release over 3.1.1. Significant changes are: - The default metadata has change again (sorry about that). It is now v1.2 and will hopefully stay that way. It turned out there with boot-block issues with v1.1 which make it unsuitable for a default, though in many cases it is still suitable to use. - Stopping a container is not permitted when members are still active - Add 'homehost' to the valid words for the "AUTO" config file line. When followed by "-all", this causes mdadm to auto-assemble any array belonging to this host, but not auto-assemble anything else. - Fix some bugs with "--grow --chunksize=" for changing chunksize. - VAR_RUN can be easily changed at compile time just like ALT_RUN. This gives distros more flexability in how to manage the pid and sock files that mdmon needs. - Various mdmon fixes - Alway make bitmap 4K-aligned if at all possible. - If mdadm.conf lists arrays which have inter-dependencies, the previously had to be listed in the "right" order. Now any order should work. - Fix --force assembly of v1.x arrays which are in the process of recovering. - Add section on 'scrubbing' to 'md' man page. - Various command-line-option parsing improvements. - ... and lots of other bug fixes. Please signoff both arches, greetings tpowa -- Tobias Powalowski Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa) http://www.archlinux.org tpowa(a)archlinux.org

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[arch-general] [signoff] mdadm-3.1.2-1
by Tobias Powalowski 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

This is a bugfix/stability release over 3.1.1. Significant changes are: - The default metadata has change again (sorry about that). It is now v1.2 and will hopefully stay that way. It turned out there with boot-block issues with v1.1 which make it unsuitable for a default, though in many cases it is still suitable to use. - Stopping a container is not permitted when members are still active - Add 'homehost' to the valid words for the "AUTO" config file line. When followed by "-all", this causes mdadm to auto-assemble any array belonging to this host, but not auto-assemble anything else. - Fix some bugs with "--grow --chunksize=" for changing chunksize. - VAR_RUN can be easily changed at compile time just like ALT_RUN. This gives distros more flexability in how to manage the pid and sock files that mdmon needs. - Various mdmon fixes - Alway make bitmap 4K-aligned if at all possible. - If mdadm.conf lists arrays which have inter-dependencies, the previously had to be listed in the "right" order. Now any order should work. - Fix --force assembly of v1.x arrays which are in the process of recovering. - Add section on 'scrubbing' to 'md' man page. - Various command-line-option parsing improvements. - ... and lots of other bug fixes. Please signoff both arches, greetings tpowa -- Tobias Powalowski Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa) http://www.archlinux.org tpowa(a)archlinux.org

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[arch-general] Package signing (was: Arch Linux security is still poor)
by Linas 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

I had already this email draft in my head, but Ananda 'Arch Linux security is still poor' thread, on which the point was also brought up, moved me to really write it. First off, there's an implicit level of trust on the package software, no matter which OS you use. When using Windows, you trust in Microsoft, when using Mac OS, you trust in Apple, when using a Linux distro, you trust the packagers and upstream. Either you do that or trust just whatever came installed and not install anything ever (thus not patching to new vulnerabilities). The problem with Arch current packaging system is not that you must trust people able to write in core not to add a rm -rf / (to name the classical 'attack') nor that you didn't install arch with an infected media. The problem is that every time you do pacman -Syu, you must blindly trust that your dns, network, and mirror are reliable, too. The packages are verified with a md5 from the server list, but should you update from a compromised mirror (or impersonated, eg. arp poisoning, dns spoofing, bofh proxy operator...) you have lost. A pacman -Syu from an open wifi might be enough. A later update may 'clean' it, so you may not even notice that you were once compromised. There are several ways to close the gap: *Always download the package list from ftp.archlinux.org It's the easier solution, but it only protects against the mirror operator. Moreover, it increases load on that server and makes it a single point of failure. *Package lists are signed from a trusted master key. There may be up to a key per repo. Easy to provide, allows backward compatibility. *Packages are automatically signed by ftp.archlinux.org before distributing them. Removes the dependancy over the package list. Packages can be shared securely (eg. getting a downgrade for an untrusted user). *Each developer signs its own packages prior to uploading. Each repository key signs the keys of the developers with write access. Users can blacklist or trust independent developers. Needless to say, the last solution is the one I like most. However, being more complete, it also means more work. :) The package signing could be a simple text file with filenames and hashes (preferably something more secure than md5) signed with gpg, or could be expanded if more fields are needed. Do you think this is a good idea? Which solution do you prefer? And most important, what would be needed to reach there? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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[arch-general] howto get kde3 to appear as a session in kdm greeter?
by David C. Rankin 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

Guys, In Arch, how do I make kde3 appear as a choice in the kdm greeter? I thought I just had to add a kde.desktop launching /opt/kde/bin/startkde in /usr/share/xsessions, but that didn't do it. What's the trick? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] [signoff] dmraid-1.0.0rc16-3
by Tobias Powalowski 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

HI, readded static dmraid again to fix: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/18348 please signoff both arches, greetings tpowa -- Tobias Powalowski Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa) http://www.archlinux.org tpowa(a)archlinux.org

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