OT: Linux
Belba Grubb
SELinux in Fedora 10. There weren't too many answers available and I
said I'd therefore have to write a few recipe cards myself.
Well, apparently they're up to Fedora 12 now, but I've got Fedora 11
installed and have not only gotten the basics (the *very* basics) of
SELinux going--you can do a lot with it through the GUI, i.e.,
Graphical User Interface, or what we think of in Windows as the
desktop and windows--I have also found the SELinux Users Guide online,
and have even gotten to run my Windows-based work software on the
Linux machine using VMWare's Workstation 7 (there is also Virtual Box,
but you have to be pretty smart to run that [this is code for "I
couldn't get it even to install"--BG]).
Anyway, I wrote a few "recipe cards," and in the off chance that
anyone here is actually interested (you scientists are probably doing
things with Linux that I couldn't even dream of!), they'll be online
through the end of the year at these links (it's a 3-part series, plus
an additional "coda" after the series' end):
1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19033942/My-Linux-Adventure-Part-1-Introduction
2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19076601/My-Linux-Adventure-Part-2-Choosing-a-Distro
3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19733926/My-Linux-AdventurePart-3-Hacked-and-Struggling-With-Virtualization
Coda: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22218174/My-Linux-Adventure-Coda
For anyone who wants real information, the SELinux User Guide, which
is good but detailed, as anything should be that promises to bring you
up to an intermediate level of proficiency (no, I'm not there yet but
gaining on it), is at:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/selinux-user-guide/f11/en-US/
The reason it's all about Fedora and not the other Linux distributions
is that AFAIK Fedora is the only distro outside of Red Hat Enterprise
that has the whole thing; there is a version of SELinux that (if
you're smart) you can install in later versions of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron
on upward, I think). I went with Fedora for that and other reasons (as
described in the essays).
There are some pretty advanced and adaptable distributions (yes, I'm
thinking of Gentoo), so advanced, that for all I know, those people
WRITE SELinux. Such distributions are for serious geeks, and I haven't
explored that end of the spectrum.
Barb
PS: Don't know if Jo is still here in this spam-laden place (sigh --
where's Hercules carrying a couple of navigable rivers when you need
him?), but if so, it sure would be nice to see some of her stuff (or
anyone else's) on http://www.scribd.com, either as a freebie or for
sale (my essays above are freebies through the end of the year).
Please let us know, anyone who is already there or decides to post
there, so we can check it out (doesn't cost a thing, BTW -- if you try
to sell something, which you don't have to do, Scribd let's you keep
10% more than Amazon does with its Kindle publishing; that's all, but
that's fun enough!).
----------
"We are in the first age since the dawn of civilization in which
people have dared to think it practicable to make the benefits of
civilization available to the whole human race."
-- Arnold Toynbee
infixum
> Back in May I posted a question about a "cookbook" guide to setting up
> SELinux in Fedora 10. There weren't too many answers available and I
> said I'd therefore have to write a few recipe cards myself.
>
> Well, apparently they're up to Fedora 12 now, but I've got Fedora 11
> installed and have not only gotten the basics (the *very* basics) of
> SELinux going--you can do a lot with it through the GUI, i.e.,
> Graphical User Interface, or what we think of in Windows as the
> desktop and windows--I have also found the SELinux Users Guide online,
> and have even gotten to run my Windows-based work software on the
> Linux machine using VMWare's Workstation 7 (there is also Virtual Box,
> but you have to be pretty smart to run that [this is code for "I
> couldn't get it even to install"--BG]).
>
> Anyway, I wrote a few "recipe cards," and in the off chance that
> anyone here is actually interested (you scientists are probably doing
> things with Linux that I couldn't even dream of!), they'll be online
> through the end of the year at these links (it's a 3-part series, plus
> an additional "coda" after the series' end):
>
> 2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19076601/My-Linux-Adventure-Part-2-Choosing...
> 3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19733926/My-Linux-AdventurePart-3-Hacked-an...
> Coda: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22218174/My-Linux-Adventure-Coda
>
> For anyone who wants real information, the SELinux User Guide, which
> is good but detailed, as anything should be that promises to bring you
> up to an intermediate level of proficiency (no, I'm not there yet but
> gaining on it), is at:
>
> http://docs.fedoraproject.org/selinux-user-guide/f11/en-US/
>
> The reason it's all about Fedora and not the other Linux distributions
> is that AFAIK Fedora is the only distro outside of Red Hat Enterprise
> that has the whole thing; there is a version of SELinux that (if
> you're smart) you can install in later versions of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron
> on upward, I think). I went with Fedora for that and other reasons (as
> described in the essays).
>
> There are some pretty advanced and adaptable distributions (yes, I'm
> thinking of Gentoo), so advanced, that for all I know, those people
> WRITE SELinux. Such distributions are for serious geeks, and I haven't
> explored that end of the spectrum.
>
> Barb
>
> PS: Don't know if Jo is still here in this spam-laden place (sigh --
> where's Hercules carrying a couple of navigable rivers when you need
> him?), but if so, it sure would be nice to see some of her stuff (or
> sale (my essays above are freebies through the end of the year).
> Please let us know, anyone who is already there or decides to post
> there, so we can check it out (doesn't cost a thing, BTW -- if you try
> to sell something, which you don't have to do, Scribd let's you keep
> 10% more than Amazon does with its Kindle publishing; that's all, but
> that's fun enough!).
>
> ----------
> "We are in the first age since the dawn of civilization in which
> people have dared to think it practicable to make the benefits of
> civilization available to the whole human race."
> -- Arnold Toynbee
Barb,
Thanks for the Linux links. I've bookmarked them.
I'm a FreeBSD and OpenBSD user myself, but I glean a lot from the
Linux end (the Desktop systems KDE and Gnome are essentially the same
on either system). Plus it's good to see how other geologists are
using software.
Carl T.
Weatherlawyer
quid to get my records back. So I paid 6 quid for a magazine and
plugged in the free distros that came with it. Now I have Mandriva I
am a happy hippy.
I can't think why we carry on spending money on Windows. We really are
thick. No time to read you links sorry. And theyu won't highlight for
saving so they are burned. too bad.
Belba Grubb
> I can't think why we carry on spending money on Windows. We really are
> thick. No time to read you links sorry.
Try it, if you get a chance -- I found Windows is pretty good stuff,
too. Biggest lesson learned? The nut behind the keyboard is the
greatest strength, and weakness, in a computer OS.
Barb
----------
"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that
is in it - and stop there, lest we be like the cat that sits down on a
hot stove - lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove - lid again
- and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one
anymore."
-- Mark Twain, cat portrait sketcher and writer.
Belba Grubb
> Thanks for the Linux links. I've bookmarked them.
>
> I'm a FreeBSD and OpenBSD user myself, but I glean a lot from the
> Linux end (the Desktop systems KDE and Gnome are essentially the same
> on either system). Plus it's good to see how other geologists are
> using software.
You're welcome, Carl! How are Free BSD and OpenBSD in terms of
security? That's my main issue because I get hacked so much. I've only
tried KDE via my Knoppix rescue disk, and it looks quite nice. I
always go with Gnome on an installation, though, just because it's
familiar now. Later on, when I've had more experience, I'll give KDE a
try.
As an update to the series, I learned a couple days ago that virtual
machines running Windows on a Fedora installation can get hacked. The
obvious drawback is indeed possible: just because you're using a Linux
Net connection doesn't mean that your Windows machine is untouchable.
If you can save stuff on it (and you can), then so can hackers, though
that only happened after an extensive period of being online with the
Windows machine. I'm going to try it again using Linux-based Firefox
for any online stuff that is not absolutely necessary for work and see
how that goes. It might work pretty well.
I should also thank you for mistaking me for a geologist, but
unfortunately I'm just a serious amateur -- gave it a good try back in
the 80s but could not get my head around undergraduate mineralogy and
geochemistry. Loved the rest of it, though, and the Internet has
allowed me to at least sit close to that wonderful "geofire."
Respects to all geologists!
Barb
----------
"Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always
successful. The rest is literature."
-- Paul Valery
Skywise
6c8796...@p36g2000vbn.googlegroups.com:
> On Nov 23, 8:13�am, Weatherlawyer <weatherlaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I can't think why we carry on spending money on Windows. We really are
>> thick. No time to read you links sorry.
>
> Try it, if you get a chance -- I found Windows is pretty good stuff,
> too. Biggest lesson learned? The nut behind the keyboard is the
> greatest strength, and weakness, in a computer OS.
I couldn't agree more to that last sentence.
Windows has it's issues, there's no doubt. But I am convinced from
expereince that most of the problems people have with their computers
they bring upon themselves. They simply don't know what they are doing.
Furthermore, because they don't know what they are doing they don't
realize that they don't know what they are doing.
Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?
Belba Grubb
> Windows has it's issues, there's no doubt.
Oh, yeah.
> But I am convinced from
> expereince that most of the problems people have with their computers
> they bring upon themselves. They simply don't know what they are doing.
That's about, oh, maybe 90% of users.
> Furthermore, because they don't know what they are doing they don't
> realize that they don't know what they are doing.
About another 7% or so are in this group and will eventually have the
Aha! moment after they've messed around for a while.
An additional 2.5% proceed after that to the stage where they actually
learn a bit because they weren't devastated neither by all the ruined
systems and lost data along the way nor by the stunning revelation
that they didn't know anything, and so kept going.
The other 0.5% are running Gentoo.
All this is not a bug, BTW; it is a feature, and it extends way beyond
the realms of computer science and use to encompass to entirety of our
modern society. Per G. K. Chesterton in "Uses of Diversity" way back
in 1921: "I think the oddest thing about the advanced people is that,
while they are always talking about things as problems, they have
hardly any notion of what a real problem is."
Barb
----------
"I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me."
-- Dr. Bunson Honeydew in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcEpdxsWZLA
(And you thought you could escape this video by hiding out on Usenet!
Muwhaaaaaaaa!!! Hey, you Americans out there, happy T-day today, and
everybody else, metta!)