SlackBlogs

Security Update: PHP and Samba

2009-10-04T15:53:00.003+07:00

There are two security updates released today, which are PHP and Samba. Both appeared on -Stable and -Current changelog, but if you follow -Current, there are other updates as well, such as MySQL, Amarok, QT, Perl, and also bunch of GCC 4.4.1 on testing directory. In short, i'm thinking -Current is preparing for KDE 4.3.x which has been released shortly before Slackware 13.0 but it didn't make it into -Current testing timeframe.

So, here's the latest -Current changelog:

Sun Oct 4 00:17:50 CDT 2009
ap/mysql-5.1.39-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. This bumps the version of the shared libraries to .so.16.0.0.

d/perl-5.10.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. Compiled against mysql-5.1.39, upgraded to perl-5.10.1, DBD-mysql-4.013, DBI-1.609, and URI-1.40.
kde/amarok-2.2.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/qt-4.5_0bd8418-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. This is the KDE Qt 4.5.2-patched git branch, compiled against mysql-5.1.39.

l/redland-1.0.9-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. Compiled against mysql-5.1.39.

l/soprano-2.3.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/taglib-1.6-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/taglib-extras-1.0.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/openssh-5.3p1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/php-5.2.11-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. This release fixes some possible security issues, all of which have "unknown impact and attack vectors".
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3291
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3292
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3293
(* Security fix *)
Also, thanks to Frank Gingras and Rich Bowen for helping to improve the syntax in mod_php.conf.

n/samba-3.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This update fixes the following security issues.
A misconfigured /etc/passwd with no defined home directory could allow security restrictions to be bypassed.
mount.cifs could allow a local user to read the first line of an arbitrary file if installed setuid. (On Slackware, it was not installed setuid)
Specially crafted SMB requests could cause a denial of service.
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2813
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2948
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2906
(* Security fix *)

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-g++-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-gfortran-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-gnat-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-java-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-objc-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

Mesa Upgraded

2009-09-20T07:38:00.002+07:00

One small change on -Stable and -Current is about Mesa which has been upgraded and now it include glxinfo and other programs that were part of previous Mesa patches. It's nothing serious, but if you need those applications, then, i would suggest you to install these update.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Sat Sep 19 17:16:06 CDT 2009
x/mesa-7.5.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Fixed install script to add glxinfo and other programs that were part of previous Mesa patches. I was under the impression that these no longer built, and had been deprecated upstream. Thanks to Adam Kirchhoff for setting me straight on that.

Security Update: Mozilla Firefox

2009-09-14T15:37:00.002+07:00

One security update has been released for 12.2 up to Current which is Firefox package, which is now 3.5.3.

Latest -Current changelog about this change:

Mon Sep 14 01:49:32 CDT 2009
xap/mozilla-firefox-3.5.3-i686-1.txz: Upgraded.
Upgraded to firefox-3.5.3.
This fixes some security issues.
For more information, see:
http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox35.html
(* Security fix *)

Addition of libnssutil3.so

2009-09-13T22:12:00.002+07:00

seamonkey-solibs has been rebuilt and in this new version, libnssutil3.so has been re-included, since this library is being used by many other application that depends on Seamonkey package. It's not a security update, but i think it's a worth update since many people complained that they couldn't built application that linked to libnss3 library.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Fri Sep 11 20:17:06 CDT 2009
l/seamonkey-solibs-1.1.18-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Added libnssutil3.so, as several other libraries in the package depend on it, and otherwise it is found only in the main seamonkey package (which sort of defeats the purpose of this one).
Thanks to Grigorios Bouzakis for the bug report.

Security Update: Seamonkey

2009-09-08T13:51:00.002+07:00

First security update for Slackware 13.0 and also -Current comes to Seamonkey. This package is available for Slackware 11.0 and up to 13.0 (including -Current). On -Current, there are also sysstats package which is upgraded.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Mon Sep 7 20:58:42 CDT 2009
ap/sysstat-9.0.4-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/seamonkey-solibs-1.1.18-i486-1.txz:
Upgraded to seamonkey-1.1.18 shared libraries.
(* Security fix *)

xap/seamonkey-1.1.18-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Upgraded to seamonkey-1.1.18.
This release fixes some more security vulnerabilities.
For more information, see:
http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/seamonkey11.html
(* Security fix *)

Proxy Setting on Pidgin

2009-09-06T16:32:00.003+07:00

Pidgin 2.6.2 has been released and one of the changelog entry that i'm interested in is about proxy setting. Up to 2.5.9 (the default version being used in Slackware 13.0), there is proxy support for Pidgin, making it unusable when being used behind a proxy. Unfortunately, my workstation at my campus is behind a proxy. That leaves me with no working Pidgin at my workstation.

With the release of 2.6.x, i was hoping that proxy support will be implemented and i started to see that in 2.6.2 by looking at this entry: Fix using GNOME proxy settings properly. (Erik van Pienbroek).

I will probably test it tomorrow when i started to work again. Let's hope it works

New wicd Release to Fix Problem

2009-09-05T22:11:00.003+07:00

For people who used Slackware 13.0 and having some problem with wicd to get the WiFI connection, there is a good news. New wicd 1-6.2.2 has been released and it has fixed those problem, according to someone who posted a comment on my previous post.

You can grab the SlackBuild script here and change the version to the correct one and run the SlackBuild as root. You will have the new package on /tmp and use upgradepkg to upgrade the package.

Thanks to Aivurn for the heads up about wicd.

Slackware on Plurk

2009-09-03T21:08:00.003+07:00

Lately, i have become Plurk addicted and there was so many people who used Slackware joined Plurk after it was announced on ID-Slackware mailing list.

Everyday, there are always plurks about Slackware from many Slackware users around Indonesia. Lately, one of my friend, who used Fedora (mainly) and Ubuntu (sometime) are getting bored of seeing too many Slackware-related plurks

Yeah, Slackware is now very popular on my time line. Do you want to join the hype? Come and visit my plurk

Wine 1.1.29 Released

2009-09-03T06:35:00.002+07:00

Another Wine release (1.1.29) for this week and this time, it has this changes:

Improved Gecko integration by using Wine's network layers.
Use of external libmpg123 for mp3 decoding.
Support for JPEG and PNG formats in WindowsCodecs.
Many regression test fixes for Win64 and Windows 7.
Various bug fixes.

Again, thanks to Kyle for building this package using SBo script, so i don't have to compile it manually.

New Poll

2009-08-31T15:15:00.001+07:00

Since Slackware 13.0 has been released few days ago, it's time to know what changes in Slackware 13.0 do you like most. I have posted several big changes in Slackware 13.0, but it may not include all of them, so please vote on the available options. This time, i put other if there are other options which is not listed. You can give your votes on this post as a comment if your answer is not listed.

This poll will last for two months, so let's start voting guys

Poll Result

2009-08-31T14:56:00.002+07:00

One month has ended and it's time to post the result. The questions was about slackpkg and we have the final results:

I have been using it for long time 37 (41%)
I started using it recently 23 (25%)
I will use it when 13.0 released 6 (6%)
What is slackpkg? 24 (26%)

So almost 50% of the voters have used slackpkg for some time and i believe they will keep using it in the future. Great job and thanks to Piter Punk who created Slackpkg

Time for new vote

Slackware 13.0 With LVM and LUKS

2009-08-31T14:36:00.004+07:00

This post is contributed by Winlesky Burham and if you have any corrections, please contact him and CC it to me so i can update this post as well.

Hello slackers! My name is Winlesky Burham and on August 30, 2009, I managed to install Slackware 13.0 on my laptop. I would like to share my experience on installing this wonderful distro with LVM + LUKS support for better security and protection of computer's data by writing in the steps I took.

Before I continue, I would like to thank Willy Sudiarto Raharjo for his immense patience by filling me in the difference between KDE 3.5.X and KDE 4.2.x, for making me aware of the great possibilities that Linux in general, and Slackware in particular, has to offer, and also for the time he willingly sets aside to discuss the obstacles that present to me when I am dealing with Slackware, and also I would like to thank the people of the open source community that make such a wonderful system.

Now, I will begin with my laptop brand and specifications. The complete specs is not necessary, because we only need to know processor, memory and hdd to fully understand the steps (for people that have other brands of laptop, just use your imagination ) :

Laptop brand : Acer TravelMate 6291
Specifications : Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T5500 (1.66 Ghz, 667 MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache)
RAM: 1GB DDR2
HDD: 80GB

* First, we will insert Slackware 13.0 installation DVD into the DVD drive and reboot the laptop. The laptop will then perform its usual BIOS process. Press F12 to summon the "boot from other device" feature and choose the "boot from CD/DVD drive" option, wait until it needs your input.

* Slackware will now ask you to choose kernels it provides to boot the DVD, we will press 'enter' to use the default huge.smp.s kernel to begin the installation and wait until Slackware tells you to log-in by typing root, followed by pressing enter.

* We are now logged in :), we continue by partitioning the hard drive into 2 partitions. a /dev/sda1 100MB to hold /boot and the rest for /dev/sda2 to hold LVM partition. Use fdisk to split the hard drive. DON'T forget to set partition's system id to '83' for /dev/sda1 and '8e' for /dev/sda2 (read fdisk help pages to know how to split the hard drive)

* We are going to fill these partitions with random data to block any security experts efforts to determine where your encrypted data resides in those partitions: dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda1 ; dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda2. For a 80GB, my computer needs 6 hours and 25 minutes.

* Now we encrypt /dev/sda2 with cryptsetup:

# cryptsetup -y --cipher aes-xts-plain --key-size 512 luksFormat /dev/sda2 ( DON'T encrypt /dev/sda1 because we need /dev/sda1 unencrypted).

* Open the encrypted partition and also name it to 'acerluks':

# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 acerluks

* Next we are going to create a physical volume '/dev/mapper/acerluks', a volume group called 'acercryptvg', three logical volumes; one swap 2GB partition, one / (root) 25 GB partition, and one /home '40ish' GB partition. You must be wondering why '40ish', it is because you have to keep the sum of the logical volumes sizes less than the total size of the physical volume. On my system, 44GB, but on your computer, who knows....

# pvcreate /dev/mapper/acerluks
# vgcreate acercryptvg /dev/mapper/acerluks
# lvcreate -L 2G -n swap acercryptvg
# lvcreate -L 25G -n root acercryptvg
# lvcreate -L 44G -n home acercryptvg

* Create the device nodes before activating the volumes:

# vgscan --mknodes

And activate the the volumes:

# vgchange -ay

* Run 'mkswap' so that the 'setup' program can identify the 'swap' logical volume as a valid swap partition.

# mkswap /dev/acercryptvg/swap

* Now run 'setup' by typing setup on the command prompt, and match swap, / (root), /home, /boot with respect to /dev/mapper/swap, /dev/mapper/root, /dev/mapper/home, /dev/sda1 (for /boot), and let Slackware install packages into your computer. (make sure you install generic.smp and huge.smp kernel packages and choose ext4 as the default filesystem).

* After Slackware has finished installing packages, Slackware will need you to install LILO. At LILO configuration screen, choose 'expert lilo configuration', and install LILO to Master Boot Record (MBR). Select '/dev/acercryptvg/root' as the / (root) partition to boot and select 'install LILO'.

* After the installation completed, exit to command prompt. DON'T reboot the system! We are going to fix the lilo.conf, but before that, we're going to chroot our new Slackware system: chroot /mnt.

* Create initrd.gz with LVM, Crypt, and Hibernation support so that Slackware can pass the boot process and also Slackware can perform the hibernation feature.

# mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.29.6-smp -m ext4 -f ext4 -h /dev/acercryptvg/swap -r /dev/acercryptvg/root -C /dev/sda2 -L -o /boot/initrd.gz

* Make sure for the last time that your lilo.conf contains the following:

append="vt.default_utf8=0 resume=/dev/acercryptvg/swap" (so that Slackware knows that you're using it as a hibernation partition)

bla..bla..bla..bla..

image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.29.6-smp
root = /dev/acercryptvg/root
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz

* Finally, run 'lilo' to update the lilo configuration you just set and make sure there are no problems.

* Reboot the laptop, and enjoy your new and shiny Slackware 13.0 with LVM + LUKS support!

First Installation of Slackware 13.0

2009-08-30T07:41:00.002+07:00

Yesterday, i went to my campus to meet with new students who have joined with UKDW Net Club. One of it's division is Linux User Group. I went there bringing the latest Slackware 13.0 ISOs on my hand, because one of them was asking for it and he wanted to install Slackware 13.0 on his laptop.

When i got there, one of the new students asked me to install Slackware 13.0 on his laptop and i agreed to do it. Everything works very fast, and in the end, he was very pleased to have Slackware works perfectly. All the major component were detected automatically. I have to run alsaconf for the sound card, but after that, it worked without no problem.

When i ran the X (using KDE), the resolution is set up for optimum resolution, without having to mess up with xorg.conf anymore. I tried to enable the desktop effect and it worked. I haven't installed NVidia drivers yet, but it's still working and very smooth. Many other students were amazed with Slackware, mostly the girls

When he asked about the WiFI, i installed WICD tool and start scanning, it got an IP and he can start browsing the Internet. Meaning that his WiFI card was detected by the default Slackware kernel

This is my fresh first installation of Slackware 13.0, because even though i'm using 13.0, i followed it from -Current tree, so it's not a fresh one.

I have a good impression on my first installation of Slackware 13.0. What about you?

Indonesian Mirrors for Slackware 13.0

2009-08-29T08:06:00.005+07:00

Good news for Indonesian Slackware users. There has been several mirror sites who have completed the 6 ISOs and the DVD ISO. They are Kambing, UGM, and FOSS-ID

More mirrors will be available on the next following days

Updated (2:05 PM): New Mirrors: Indonesian Slackware Community Site (#1) and (#2). Thanks to Ozzie

Invalid File on Slackware 13.0 ISO

2009-08-29T07:28:00.003+07:00

If you look at the CD ISO or DVD ISO tree structure, you will probably see ANNOUNCE_12.2 file located on top of the directory along with ANNOUNCE_13.0. I think Pat forgotten to delete the file after making the 13.0 version

It's not critical though. Let's just say it's an added documentation

K3B Burning Problem on Slackware 13.0

2009-08-29T07:12:00.003+07:00

Several people complained that they couldn't have a successful burning using K3B provided in the Slackware 13.0. Most of the process stopped at 99% and it hang. When they canceled the job, the media will be useless.

AFAIK, this is known bugs and it has been written on the RELEASE NOTES:

One of the issues we're aware of is that k3b hasn't been working as well as the KDE3 version for some people (it works fine here, but we have heard some reports), and there are some other KDE applications where people still prefer the old versions.
To help with this, there are KDE3 compatibility packages that can be found in /extra/kde3-compat/. With these installed, most KDE3 programs will run. A KDE3 version of k3b is also included in that directory.

So if you need a K3B as a burning tool, install kde3 packages in /extra (which is located in disc 4) and install the old K3B version. It should work normally.

There is also a good post about how to burn DVD iso. Some people failed to burn at 16x, so drop it to 4x or 8x and it should be working.

All About Slackware

2009-08-28T23:27:00.002+07:00

Since today is Slackware 13.0 release day, many sites are discussing about this new release, including Plurk and Twitter. So many comments and new posts are posted on Plurk and Twitter today and it's talking about Slackware.

There's one good news about Slackware 13.0. Some site (including Indonesian mirror sites) has got or still mirroring the official CD/DVD ISOs on their site, so by tomorrow, you will be able to start downloading it from the nearest mirror site. It's by far faster than the previous 12.2 release, where an ISO would be available days after the release date.

Please consider to give support for Slackware Linux by purchasing items in Slackware Store or give donations to project.

Slackware 13.0 Released

2009-08-28T14:27:00.004+07:00

After almost nine months of development, Slackware 13.0 is finally released by Patrick Volkerding. The last update before the release is wicd, aaa_base, and the addition of new Intel driver which has just been released few days ago. It's still not yet tested, so it's included in /extra rather in x/.

Read the Announcement or Release Notes for information about Slackware 13.0.

Please consider supporting the Slackware project by picking up a copy of the Slackware 13.0 release from the Slackware Store.

Have fun with the new shinny Slackware 13.0

OOo 3.1.1 Released, No More Manual Fix

2009-08-27T21:48:00.002+07:00

OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 has been released and it is now being distributed to the mirror site around the world. It's just a matter of time before it will be officially announced and the download link is displayed on the download page.

As usual, on every OOo release, i would post a simple HOWTO to upgrade to the latest OOo. First of all, download the OpenOffice.org binary code (OOo_3.1.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz). Next, extract using tar -xzvf OOo_3.1.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz. Go to the RPMS directory and use rpm2tgz to convert the RPMs into tgz packages.

When you are done, remove the old packages by issuing this command:
cd /var/log/packages
removepkg ooobasis-* openoffice.org*

Next, go back to the RPMS directory and then install it using rpm2tgz. In the past, i had to manually fix the application due to truncation caused by the old version of tar used by rpm2tgz. Thanks to Pat, the rpm2tgz has been changed to use makepkg instead of tar on -Current

a/rpm2tgz-1.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. Make .tgz with makepkg, not tar.

This has fixed the truncation issues, so my post on the previous post is no longer needed. You can now enjoy OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 on Slackware

More Packages Updated

2009-08-25T20:43:00.002+07:00

More packages are being upgraded and fixed for the next Slackware release. Today, Pat released some updates on several packages as well. The image are being enhanced to work on slow CD drivers. It may be a sign that a release would be very close.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Tue Aug 25 05:31:05 CDT 2009
f/linux-howtos-20090805-noarch-1.txz: Upgraded.

isolinux/initrd.img: Rebuilt.
Make the CD install disc swap more reliable on slow CD drives.

usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img: Rebuilt.
Make the CD install disc swap more reliable on slow CD drives.
+--------------------------+
Mon Aug 24 23:44:38 CDT 2009
a/kbd-1.15-i486-3.txz: Rebuilt. Fixed the default font in unicode_start.
Thanks to Conraid and Dugan Chen.

ap/vim-7.2.245-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/boost-1.38.0-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Patched wrong BOOST_NO_EXCEPTIONS define placement.
Thanks to Steve from the GNOME SlackBuild project, and Christoph Willing.

n/network-scripts-13.0-noarch-2.txz: Rebuilt. Correct the comments about DHCP timeout to say that it is 10 seconds. Thanks to Mark Payne.

xap/vim-gvim-7.2.245-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

2009-08-24T22:42:00.002+07:00

Small changes occurred on -Current. Infozip and Sox have been upgraded while there are some rebuilt packages in the images and also bluez-utils.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Mon Aug 24 04:16:26 CDT 2009
a/infozip-6.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Upgraded to Zip 3.0 and Unzip 6.0.
Thanks to Michal Dorocinski for the notice.

ap/sox-14.3.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/bluez-utils-3.36-i486-7.txz: Rebuilt.

isolinux/initrd.img: Rebuilt.
Fixed bad block checking option for ext* filesystems.
Thanks to Pete Cervasio.

usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img: Rebuilt.
Fixed bad block checking option for ext* filesystems.
Thanks to Pete Cervasio.

Cryptsetup Upgraded

2009-08-24T17:15:00.001+07:00

One one changes on today's changelog, which is cryptsetup. It's being upgraded and the image are also rebuilt.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Sun Aug 23 23:17:38 CDT 2009
a/cryptsetup-1.0.7-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

isolinux/initrd.img: Rebuilt. Upgraded cryptsetup.

usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img: Rebuilt. Upgraded cryptsetup.

Kernel 2.6.30.5 on Testing

2009-08-23T21:15:00.002+07:00

Get ready for Slackware 13.0, as Pat himself has given a sign that a release of Slackware 13.0 is close to an end. Good news is that there are still some small changes on -Current and there's one big thing happening on /testing, which is the addition of Linux Kernel 2.6.30.5. Many people would asked why on earth does Slackware doesn't ship 2.6.30.5 and instead going with 2.6.29.6?

We should all understand that newer kernel does bring new feature and better hardware detection as many drivers were added during development, but it *may* also breaks in some occasions. While the release date is getting closer, there's not enough time to do a full-blown testing on the new kernel and Slackware is stick with it's stable philosophy. Slackware isn't a bleeding-edge system that sacrifices the stability of a system.

That's why Pat has generously put 2.6.30.5 on /testing. This directory probably won't be included in the CD/DVD form, but you can download them manually from the mirror sites around the world. Pat has stated very clearly that you should read the README_FIRST.TXT in the kernel directory before you try to use this kernel packages.

There are some small changes in other packages, but most of them are just recompiled package.

Have fun with it and prepare for the next Slackware 13.0

Minor CUPS Update

2009-08-22T21:58:00.002+07:00

CUPS package has been updated with the latest version, thus aaa_elflibs is also updated. Gutenprint and ghostscript are also updated to reflect the latest development work of both application. Let's hope this new version does not bring any regression.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Sat Aug 22 02:00:23 CDT 2009
a/aaa_elflibs-13.0-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt. Updated CUPS libraries.

a/cups-1.3.11-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

ap/ghostscript-8.70-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

ap/gutenprint-5.2.4-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

Security Update: Mozilla-Thunderbird

2009-08-21T16:19:00.002+07:00

Mozilla-Thunderbird has been updated to the latest version which fixed some security problem. There is one new package added, which is mplayerplug-in, that enables users to use MPlayer to see the movies on the web.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Thu Aug 20 22:41:16 CDT 2009
x/xf86-input-evdev-2.2.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

xap/mozilla-thunderbird-2.0.0.23-i686-1.txz: Upgraded.
This upgrade fixes a security bug.
For more information, see:
http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/thunderbird20.html
(* Security fix *)

extra/brltty/brltty-4.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

extra/mplayerplug-in/mplayerplug-in-3.55-i486-1.txz: Added.
Enables the use of mplayer for web-embedded media.