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Caldera

The latest Hackpak contains the Linux 2.2.5 kernel. Check out the announcement for location and details.

Debian

Problems with Debian 2.1 installations from CDs were reported by Ian Smith. From the conversational thread that follows, it appears that apt's support for multiple CDs is just not there. Several workarounds were mentioned, from running apt multiple times to using dpkg-multicd. Still, it is apparent that Debian's support for installation from a large number of CDs still needs work. Since Debian continues to grow in size, they are likely to get the practice they need to smoothe out the problems.

Andrei D. Caraman has an issue with the Debian Apache configuration. In his posting to Bugtraq, he points out that the default Apache setup makes the /usr/doc directory available via http, which can allow anyone on the Internet to see the exact packages installed on your machine. This type of information is very useful to a hacker looking for a vulnerability to exploit. Andrei has notified Johnie Ingram, the Debian package maintainer for Apache, who replied that the problem was already logged to the Debian Bug Tracking System, along with a suggested workaround. A repaired package is reported to have been uploaded.

Stephen Gregory noted that the Boa package, a light-weight web server, has the same problem.

Updated packages for XFree86 will be made available shortly, even though apparently Debian is also not susceptible to recently reported race conditions reported in this package.

Mandrake

Those of you with access to the alt.* newsgroup hierarchy may want to take a look at alt.os.linux.mandrake. We haven't been able to check it out personally, but Tom Berger dropped us a note to mention its creation.

A call for developers for the next version of Mandrake has been put out. If you are interested, you'll want to subscribe to the devel@linux-mandrake.com mailing list.

Red Hat

XFree86 3.3.3.1 RPMS with TrueType support, mentioned for Caldera last week, are also available for Red Hat, as noted in this message from Jon Sundquist.

Slackware

The TOSHIBA Satellite Pro 490CDT is the topic of this website, which contains information on how the author got his Toshiba up and running with slackware 3.5, Linux kernel 2.2.5 and the XFree86 3.3.3.1 SVGA server. Declan Malone dropped us a note to tell us about the site and mention that he found it quite helpful for non-Slackware installs as well; he's using Debian 2.1.

SuSE

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh

April 8, 1999

Please note that not every distribution will show up every week. Only distributions with recent news to report will be listed.

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