Reboot coming up...

[James Vahn]

testing. <laughing to myself> Yes, James, even Debian, which is already
installed on the test machine, and running KDE at the moment, which is
further along than I've gotten in the past.

Did you go with testing/unstable? It's where all the goodies are.

Ever have a play with "webmin" ? I'm not going to install it here for
fear of turning a working system upside down, but it seems quite busy:

apt-cache search webmin

returns 52 hits.

"Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix."


--

[James Vahn]

testing. <laughing to myself> Yes, James, even Debian, which is already
installed on the test machine, and running KDE at the moment, which is
further along than I've gotten in the past.

Fonts can be a problem, here's the fix in a nutshell:

http://egads.ertius.org/~rob/font_guide.txt

--

[dlaird]

G'morning, James...

Post by James Vahn

testing. <laughing to myself> Yes, James, even Debian, which is already
installed on the test machine, and running KDE at the moment, which is
further along than I've gotten in the past.

http://egads.ertius.org/~rob/font_guide.txt

I'll be damned! I've been turning my head this way and that for over 48
hours and here you've got it under your thumb. Shame on me for not asking in
the beginning. The Vera font family sure made a difference, too. 8-)
O'course I moved my Windows master fonts over from the Windows boxen and
installed them while I was at it. 8-)

Dave
--
Dave Laird (***@kharma.net)
The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project
Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 12/17/2003
Usenet News server: news.kharma.net
Musicians Calendar and Database access: http://www.kharma.net/calendar.html

An automatic & random thought For the Minute:
Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules.

Corollary:
Following the rules will not get the job done.

[dlaird]

G'morning, again, James...

Post by James Vahn
Did you go with testing/unstable? It's where all the goodies are.

Yup. That was one of the reasons I decided to give Debian another shot at
me. They have a *lot* of new (not old but buggy) packages in there, and I
think with a little time, I could almost make a production box out of what
I've already seen.

Post by James Vahn
Ever have a play with "webmin" ? I'm not going to install it here for

Yes, in fact I have. I *wouldn't* consider it for a machine that was outside
my firewall, simply because there are too many kiddies out there who
regularly scan all permutations of port 80. Having said that, I tried Webmin
from a workstation and was amazed at how I could "diddle" with my network
settings, and from within a web page. I think (without looking) the entire
thing is written in either Python or Perl, and thus subject to the vagaries
of the base language, but having said that, I would give it a thumbs-up fer
sure. It's definitely going to be an application that bears watching.

If they could, for example, wire it into SSL to where access and
modification permissions required a key for security, one could easily use
it with relative security (I know, I know, what's security these days?) to
examine and correct entire networks, such as at an ISP. 8-)

Pretty cool software, though. Like everything else, you have to wait awhile.
In another area, I see where they have essentially debugged Open Orifice to
where it works predictably well across all platforms. Now if they would just
fix the damned Java bugs, to where the Java installation was seamless, they
could take on Gates' minions without tipping their hats.

Ah well, real soon now... 8-)

Dave
--
Dave Laird (***@kharma.net)
The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project
Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 12/17/2003
Usenet News server: news.kharma.net
Musicians Calendar and Database access: http://www.kharma.net/calendar.html

An automatic & random thought For the Minute:
Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules.

Corollary:
Following the rules will not get the job done.

[James Vahn]

If they could, for example, wire [webmin] into SSL to where access and
modification permissions required a key for security, one could easily use

I think it does, "apt-cache show webmin":

Package: webmin
Provides: webmin-ssl
Depends: perl, debconf, libauthen-pam-perl, libnet-ssleay-perl, openssl

Look at "spong-server" too, and see if it gives you any ideas.


--

[dlaird]

Good afternoon, James...

Like a vanquishing hero approaching on a large prancing white horse, once
again James, you have come to the rescue...

Post by James Vahn
Package: webmin
Provides: webmin-ssl
Depends: perl, debconf, libauthen-pam-perl, libnet-ssleay-perl, openssl
Look at "spong-server" too, and see if it gives you any ideas.

Yes!!!! It *does* have that capability. Now I have to build myself an SSL
key, which requires more coffee. However, that will have to wait until later
on tonight, as I have "missions" which I must accomplish of a more serious
nature before it starts snowing again, driving everyone in Spokane into a
state of panic-behind-the-wheel. (AKA normal driving in Spokane's winter).
8-{

Dave
--
Dave Laird (***@kharma.net)
The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project
Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 12/17/2003
Usenet News server: news.kharma.net
Musicians Calendar and Database access: http://www.kharma.net/calendar.html

An automatic & random thought For the Minute:
The best portion of a good man's life, his little, nameless, unremembered
acts of kindness and love.
-- Wordsworth

[James Vahn]

Post by dlaird
Yes!!!! It *does* have that capability.

Did you see the "webmin-bind8" package?


--

[dlaird]

Good evening, James...

Post by James Vahn
Did you see the "webmin-bind8" package?

I noticed it, but didn't pay it much attention. The only use I have for
Bind, at present, is as a standalone caching nameserver which runs on a
stripped down machine of its own. Since I doubt I will ever have a
forseeable use for it above that point, I simply ignore a lot of things that
mention Bind.

That is, of course, unless you have something else in mind. <ahem> Do you
*think* I should be running Bind on my standalone box to provide Kharma with
name service of its own?

Dave
--
Dave Laird (***@kharma.net)
The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project
Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 12/17/2003
Usenet News server: news.kharma.net
Musicians Calendar and Database access: http://www.kharma.net/calendar.html

An automatic & random thought For the Minute:
Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know that he is.
-- Jean Anouilh, "The Lark"

[James Vahn]

Post by dlaird
That is, of course, unless you have something else in mind. <ahem> Do you
*think* I should be running Bind on my standalone box to provide Kharma with
name service of its own?

I'm hardly qualified to say, but once had a problem with an ISP misspelling
a domain and repeatedly restoring the misspelling from their backups.. The
owner of the system wanted never again to rely on someone else for that, and
setting him up a nameserver wasn't difficult. But you've got good people
running things. I'd leave it alone, unless you are seeking an education from
the school of hard knocks.. ;-)

The caching server is a different story though, harmless and easy to set up.
How much of a difference it will make I don't know. My connection is by modem
and "looking up ads.doubleclick.com" is just a blur on the screen now. DSL
might make the speed difference insignificant.


--

[dlaird]

Good afternoon, James...

Had enough *SNOW* yet? <grin>

Post by James Vahn
I'm hardly qualified to say, but once had a problem with an ISP
misspelling a domain and repeatedly restoring the misspelling from their
backups.. The owner of the system wanted never again to rely on someone
else for that, and setting him up a nameserver wasn't difficult. But
you've got good people running things. I'd leave it alone, unless you are
seeking an education from the school of hard knocks.. ;-)

Yes, overall I am extremely pleased with the job Harry does at CET on
getting the dns to run smoothly. However, because I always hedge my bets, I
used Wind Wireless's venerable dogear as my primary backup. Shhh. Don't tell
anyone. <g>

Post by James Vahn
The caching server is a different story though, harmless and easy to set
up. How much of a difference it will make I don't know. My connection is
by modem and "looking up ads.doubleclick.com" is just a blur on the screen
now. DSL might make the speed difference insignificant.

Having a caching nameserver is a *real* benefit, using DSL. It means web
pages really fly right in much faster. If I'm waiting on KREM's web server
to go connect with ads.doubleclick.com, I might have time to go run for
coffee the old way, but with the nameserver working behind-the-scenes, it
doesn't take but half a second, if that. That is, of course, so long as the
server isn't running at full-throttle, which it is doing a remarkable
percentage of the time these days. It's time to buy some more bandwidth from
Qwest DSL, I think. 8-(

Dave