LINUX NEWS
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Thursday, October 25, 2001TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Sean’s Notes
2) Linux News
Red Hat 7.2 Released
Kernel 2.4.13
Mandrake 8.1 Reviewed
Yellow Dog Releases 2.13) Linux Resources
Using Apache to Stop Spam Robots
More Spam Prevention Tricks
Got Some Big Files?
Performance Tweaks
UUCP?4) App o’ the week
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1) Sean’s Notes
Many of you noted my omission of the RHCE in last week’s newsletter about Linux certifications.
http://www.ertw.com/~sean/newsletter/October+18%2C+2001
By no means was it intentional! I intended to focus on the entry level certifications, and I consider the RHCE to be in the advanced category.
Why’s that? To obtain the status of Red Hat Certified Engineer, one must pass three tests:
1) Debug Exam - 2.5 hrs 2) Multiple Choice Exam - 1 hr 3) Server Install and Network Services Setup Exam 2.5 hrs
Six hours of testing! Did I mention that #1 and #3 are lab exams? Only 1 hour out of the 6 is a written test (40-50 questions). The debug exam is the scenario where you’re handed a broken system and the instructions “fix it!” using only the resources on the computer (another reason to learn how to use man pages!) The process itself boasts a 60% pass rate on the first try.
In the words of an RHCE certified individual that commented on last week’s article,
“You can’t bluff your way through this one.”
In terms of the validity of the RHCE, one only has to look at how often the term “Red Hat” and “Linux” are used interchangeably. How often do you hear someone say ”I’m running Linux 7.1” (I hear it a lot, and it bugs me). The practical exam components, and the difficulty level ensure that this certification put someone’s resume on the top of the pile for that Linux job.
Another impressive aspect of the RHCE is that they don’t delist certifications like other, larger, operating system vendors. You’re certified at a certain version, and it’s up to you if you want to always be at the latest and greatest.
The downsides of the RHCE are the price ($749USD), and the locations. It can only be taken in certain locations, mostly within the US.
http://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/rhce_faq.html http://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/examprep.html
Rest assured, if I have the opportunity to attempt this certification, I’ll let you all know the details (more specifically, the details that I’m allowed to divulge).
On another note, this is the 52nd issue of the Cramsession.com Linux Newsletter, meaning it’s been around for an entire year. In the first year I’ve striven to bring you relevant news, helpful resources, and articles that teach, or make you think. In the upcoming year, I hope to bring you more content that will help you get the most out of Linux. As usual, your suggestions, comments, and flames are most welcome. (Well, maybe not the flames)
Long live the Penguin,
Sean swalberg@cramsession.com
Visit the Linux News Board at http://boards.brainbuzz.com/boards/vbt.asp?b2
2) Linux News
Red Hat 7.2 Released
Bigger, Badder, Faster sums it up. Support for the ext3 journaling filesystem tops my list of features, though GNOME 1.4 and KDE 2.2 might make your day. The web page claims new administration tools, and a 2.4.7 kernel. Go forth and download!
http://www.redhat.com/software/linux/solutions/
Kernel 2.4.13
It seemed like only the other week I was announcing 2.4.11, which was quickly taken off the shelves and replaced with 2.4.12. The kernel hackers have been busy, and the result is 2.4.13.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ChangeLog-2.4.13
Mandrake 8.1 Reviewed
Mandrake’s latest release, 8.1, gets a review from Linux.com. It’s got some helpful hints on the install process, because it would appear that some features are still broken. It also has some good comments on the new and improved aspects of the software.
http://www.linux.com/learn/newsitem.phtml?sid=1&aid552
Yellow Dog Releases 2.1
For those that fancy running Linux on their Apple computers, Yellow Dog may be the distribution for you. Featuring up-to- date software (Kernel 2.4.10, KDE 2.2.1) and easy-to-use interfaces, this software might be just what you need.
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/products/ydl2.1.shtml
3) Linux Resources
Using Apache to Stop Spam Robots
It’s pretty trivial to write a program that can cruise the web and harvest email addresses. In fact, that’s one of the ways spammers get their targets. Apache can protect your site from being harvested, though you have to be creative. The method described on this site employs some clever tricks to identify the sites themselves, and stop them from gathering addresses off of your server.
http://evolt.org/article/Using_Apache_to_stop_bad_robots/18/15126/i ndex.html
More Spam Prevention Tricks
This page also has some ways to get Apache to stop spammers, this time using mod_rewrite. It also has other techniques for web page authors to make their pages unfriendly to spam harvesters, and for general web surfers to stop from getting on lists.
http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/08/champeon/
Got Some Big Files?
The standard ext2 filesystem limits the size of a file to 16GB (worst case). If you need files bigger than that (and with the size of drives today, you might just run into this), you’ll want to hear what CramSession.com reader kvanhaaren has to say about it.
http://boards.cramsession.com/boards/vbm.asp?m93311
Performance Tweaks
“The goal of this site is to provide practical assistance in Linux server performance tuning in the fewest possible words. If you go though this list, and check off each item as you apply it, you should end up with close to the fastest performance possible on your hardware under Linux.”
http://home.att.net/~jageorge/performance.html
UUCP?
UUCP, the Unix to Unix Copy Protocol, heralds from the days where computers didn’t connect to each other on a continual basis, and the Internet wasn’t yet born. It still has practical purposes for people who run mail servers on demand dial connections, not to mention being a fun thing to play with. This article has the low down.
http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/September2001/article215.shtml
4) App o’ the week
So Napster’s gone, and the FastTrack network is in. You may recognize clients like Kazaa and Morpheus, but only on Windows. Kazaa has released a binary client (text mode) for Linux. It’s linked against libncurses.so.4, so if you’re running version 5, you’ll have to make a symlink from libncurses.so.5 to libncurses.so.4 to get this to go.
http://www.kazaa.com/index.php?page=download#lin
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