nixCraft Linux Sys Admin Blog

Posted: 20 Feb 2008 01:32 PM CST

Google is financially supporting Photoshop On Linux. They have hired Codeweavers to run Photoshop better on Linux. From the google blog:

Perhaps the biggest news is that we hired Codeweavers to make Photoshop CS and CS2 work better under Wine. Photoshop is one of those applications that Desktop linux users are constantly clamoring for, and we’re happy to say they work pretty well now. Perhaps not coincidentally, apps like Flash 8 are now starting to work in Wine, too. We look forward to further improvements in this area.

According to Novell, Photoshop is the most requested non-Linux application that Linux users would like to run. Gimp is good but it is without many professional features such as cmyk and others. This is fantastic news for hardcore photoshop users. Good to see google is helping out wine developers

Chroot in OpenSSH / SFTP Feature Added To OpenSSH

Posted: 20 Feb 2008 01:11 PM CST

For regular user accounts, a properly configured chroot jail is a rock solid security system. I’ve already written about chrooting sftp session using rssh. According to OpenBSD journal OpenSSH devs Damien Miller and Markus Friedl have recently added a chroot security feature to openssh itself:

Unfortunately, setting up a chroot(2) environment is complicated, fragile and annoying to maintain. The most frequent reason our users have given when asking for chroot support in sshd is so they can set up file servers that limit semi-trusted users to be able to access certain files only. Because of this, we have made this particular case very easy to configure.

This commit adds a chroot(2) facility to sshd, controlled by a new sshd_config(5) option “ChrootDirectory”. This can be used to “jail” users into a limited view of the filesystem, such as their home directory, rather than letting them see the full filesystem.

Install and Run Debian Linux from an Encrypted USB Drive

Posted: 20 Feb 2008 02:07 AM CST

Another interesting article with security in mind. From the article:

You’re probably familiar with the live CD concept — a fully functional operating system on a CD that can be run on any computer that boots from its optical drive, without affecting the one(s) already installed. In a similar vein, you can set up Linux to run from a USB hard drive drive on any computer that can boot from USB. The live system offers automatic detection and configuration of the display adapter and screen, storage devices, and other peripherals. A bootable USB drive can run a mainstream Linux distribution such as Debian GNU/Linux, and can be secured, personalised, upgraded, and otherwise modified to suit your needs.

=> Running Debian GNU/Linux from an encrypted USB drive

Legal Issues Associated with Open Source and Free Software Projects

Posted: 20 Feb 2008 02:00 AM CST

This is a must read if you or your organization associated with open source software project. If you are interested in a basic understanding of the legal issues that impact FOSS development and distribution, this primer is for you. The guide, written for developers, has sections on copyrights, trademarks, patents, organizational structure and other legal issues:

First, we provide creative, productive hackers insight on how to interact with the legal systemâ€"insofar as it affects the projects they work onâ€"with a minimum of cost, fuss and risk. Second, we present a starting point for lawyers and risk managers for thinking about the particular, at times counter-intuitive, logic of software freedom. While these are the primary audiences we intend to reach, we hope others will benefit from this Primer as well, and we have purposefully given it a non-lawyer style of communication (for example, by intentionally omitting dense citation of judicial or other legal authority that is the hallmark of lawyers writing for lawyers).

While FOSS development can raise many legal issues, a few topics predominate in our work; these are the issues most integral to FOSS projects. This Primer provides a baseline of knowledge about those areas of the law, intending to support productive conversations between clients and lawyers about specific legal needs. We aim to improve the conversation between lawyer and client, but not to make it unnecessary, because law, like most things in life, very rarely has clear cut answers. Solutions for legal problems must be crafted in light of the particulars of each clientâ€™s situation. What is best for one client in one situation, may very well not be best for another client in the same situation, or even the same client in the same situation at a later date or in a different place. Law cannot yield attainable certainty because it is dynamic, inconsistent, and incapable of mastery by pure rote memorization

Download Primer

The Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects is available in following formats:

Linux / UNIX Find Out What Program / Service is Listening on a Specific TCP Port

Posted: 20 Feb 2008 11:36 AM CST

Q. How do I find out which service is listening on a specific port? How do I find out what program is listening on a specific TCP Port?

Answer to "Linux / UNIX Find Out What Program / Service is Listening on a Specific TCP Port"

FreeBSD Configure NIC Jumbo Frames

Posted: 20 Feb 2008 10:21 AM CST

Q.Under Linux I can set Jumbo Frames by modifying configuration file. How do I configure FreeBSD network card Jumbo frames on all of my NIC for 1000 Mbps speed and make MTU configuration persistence?

Answer to "FreeBSD Configure NIC Jumbo Frames"