Bio:
Craig Buchek (AKA your friendly newsletter editor) has worked with Linux since 1994. He was introduced to UNIX in college, and has been interested in it ever since. He has been writing training materials for Linux for the past year. Recently, his efforts have been directed at writing an Open Source Linux training manual for Linuxgruven. He knows how to get a file that show up like this in ls -l:

  p--S--S--T    1 booch    booch           0 Feb 23 23:14 file

Questions and ideas about this discussion are welcome; please send mailto:sluug@craigbuchek.com?subject=SLUUG+Mar+2001+Tutorial

Presentation

Abstract:
This presentation will be a group effort, with Buck Pyland leading the effort.

Randy Karl will begin by presenting a brief history of BSD. The story begins at AT&T Bell Labs and UC-Berkeley, goes through some court challenges, and ends up in the present with several high-quality BSD variants.

Buck Pyland will then explain the differences between the several varieties of BSD, Linux, and other UNIX variants. He will talk about the advantages of OpenBSD, and try to convince you why you might want to use it instead of something else. (Hint: S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y.)

John Brooks will describe IPFilter and IPNAT. These tools are used to build a packet-filtering firewall based on OpenBSD.

Finally, Jason Preston will give a live demo of an OpenBSD installation via FTP.

For more information, check out the STLBSD web site (http://www.stlbsd.org) and the OpenBSD web site (http://www.openbsd.org)

Bios:

Randy Karl is a Senior Staff Engineer at Systems & Electronics, Inc. in St. Louis and has been working there about 20 years. He has experience developing code for a variety embedded airborne and ground defense systems (RADARs, Laser Rangefinder Targeting Stations, ATE, ELINT, etc.). These were developed using cross-compilers on PCs, VAXen, SUNs, and other systems. He has a BS in EET (SIU-C), a BS in CS (SIU-C) and a Master's in CS (UM-Rolla/St.Louis).

Buck Pyland is a Systems Analyst and Oracle DBA for Maverick Tube Corporation in Chesterfield, MO. He administers two HP 9000 L-class servers and two Oracle databases for the J.D. Edwards OneWorld ERP system.

John Brooks is self-employed. He installs network and communication solutions using FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

Jason Preston is a consultant who does a little bit of everything from system administration to sometimes even pulling a wire or 2 when it absolutely has to be done. He prefers to implement FreeBSD whenever and wherever possible, but sometime those folks with the neck ties get in his way.

Ideas, questions and suggestions are welcome; please contact us by sending mailto:editor@mail.sluug.org?subject=SLUUG+Mar+2001+Presentation

Next STL Linux User Group Meeting Is 15 March

Abstract:
We will take a look at some of the new features of the Linux 2.4 kernel. These include:

• New hardware support, especially USB
• Additional file systems
• Improved networking
• New packet filtering system
• Enterprise-level features
• Better SMP
• Direct Rendering support for X

Bio:
Craig has compiled and used the 2.4.x Linux kernel. He has been using Linux since 1994, starting with Slackware 2.2 and kernel 1.0.9. For several years he upgraded his system by building all the packages from sources. Craig currently works for Linuxgruven, writing training materials and training people on TurboLinux Cluster Server.

Meetings of the St. Louis Linux User Group (LUG) are held from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM every THIRD THURSDAY of each month. Location: Indian Trails Branch - Saint Louis County Library. Meetings are free and open to everyone. Refer to http://www.stllinux.org for details and maps.

Comments, questions and ideas for the St. Louis Linux Users Group are welcome; please contact Matthew Porter by phone at 314-353-7988 or send mailto:matthew@linuxguys.net?subject=St.+Louis+LUG+Presentations

Special Promotions

Titles of the Month The March special will be 25% off of all Security book titles. There will be a special 30% discount on all books marked with a red sticker and a 15% discount on all other books this month.

All regularly priced titles are 10% off retail cost at the general meeting. (Excludes featured, or specially priced or promotional items)

The O'Reilly and Associates line of books is available at each monthly general meeting as a convenience to our members.

Each month we feature book titles related to that month's presentation or tutorial topic. Discounts off retail prices are offered to all members and each month's featured books may be additionally discounted. Usually, all titles are discounted 10%, while special titles are discounted 25%.

Upcoming Events

Meeting Directions

Directions From Downtown

1. Take 40 West to the Hanley exit.
2. Turn left (south) onto Hanley.
3. Turn left (east) onto Manchester, then turn right ASAP into the Sunnen Products driveway.

(NOTE: A security guard from Sunnen is scheduled to be at the door from 6:20 PM to 7:20 PM to allow entry. After 7:20, the door will be unattended and attendees may not be able to enter.)

The SLUUG Steering Committee meets the Monday following the general meeting at 6:00 PM in the 2nd floor training room of Daugherty Systems, One City Place in Creve Coeur.

The SLUUG Linux SIG (SLUUG-LS) meets the 3rd Thursday of every month at the Indian Trails Branch Library.

See map at http://www.stllinux.org/directions/

• ITEC Show in May -- Planning Continues
• Elections Results
• Linux Installfest
• New SLUUG BBS Home
• Quotations
• Interesting Browsing
• Spotlight on Maverick Tube Corporation
• Missouri Open Source/Linux Users' Group (MOSLUG)

NOTE: These articles may express personal opinions and SLUUG exerts no more editorial control over such content than does a public library, bookstore, or newsstand. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed herein are those of the respective authors and not necessarily supported by SLUUG. SLUUG does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.

ITEC Show in May -- Planning Continues

We are moving right along!

Don't forget it's ITEC planning and development time.

Everyone and anyone is welcome who would like to participate to create a successful show. There is plenty to do and team leaders are needed.

Now that our systems have a home again, look for activity on the ITEC mailing list to pick up. That will be where the latest information will be posted, ideas circulated, etc.

An update on progress since last month:

• We have a booth! (Always a good thing at a show!)
  #131 - A floor plan will be on our website soon.
• We have a seminar room at our disposal for the duration of the show!
  #125 - We will be meeting soon to layout the details on presentations.
• We have some important publicity deadline dates looming.
• Mike King revitalized the www.when.com site and a calendar is available there.
• Susan Hurst is actively working with O'Reilly on a possible author visit, goodies, and books.
• Tony Zafiropoulos has been developing leads in the Open Source arena which we should have more information on by the next newsletter.
• ...and many more tidbits.

Join us in the fun!

Contact John O'Reilly and Christine Wanta by sending email to itecteam@dark.wustl.edu or visit the website at http://www.sluug.org/members/volunteer/ and send us a comment that you are interested in helping with ITEC.

Our web site should be up shortly with updates. See http://www.sluug.org/members/ITEC/2001.

ITEC PROJECT COMMITTEE

Elections Results

SLUUG held director and officer advisory elections at our 14 February meeting.

New Board of Director members (for three year term):
Craig Buchek
Ed Wehner

There was also an advisory vote for officers. The officers are actually appointed by the board, but it is our tradition to hold this advisory election as well.

New SLUUG officers are:
President: Ed Wehner
Vice Pres: Dave Mills
Secretary: Tony Zafiropoulos
Treasurer: Mike Kriz

The election committee will be reviewing the election process and suggestions to improve our process. A report will be made to the Steering Committee.

Linux Installfest

You can find directions to the Wave offices at http://www.wavetech.com/centers/StLouis/stlmap.html.

The InstallFest is sponsored by Wave Technologies and Linuxgruven, two companies prominent in the St. Louis Linux community. Wave will be providing classroom space, a high-speed Internet connection, and a server with several Linux distributions, suitable for network installations. Linuxgruven will be providing pizza and refreshments. Several employees from Linuxgruven and Wave Technologies will be present to assist with installations and to give presentations on various aspects of Linux. Many others involved in the St. Louis Linux Users Group and local community will be there as well.

In most cases, all you will need to bring is the computer itself. Wave will provide Super VGA monitors, PS/2 keyboards, and PS/2 mice. If you have older or non-standard hardware, you should bring it along. If you're not sure, bring everything to be safe. Free copies of popular Linux distributions will be provided on CD. If you have a specific distribution that you want to install, you can bring it along as well. Be sure to back up your system before you bring it in, as the installation process may overwrite existing data.

For more information on the Linux InstallFest, please contact one of the following people:

• Matthew Porter (matthew@linuxguys.net)
• Rod Hauser (rhauser@wavetech.com)
• Craig Buchek (cbuchek@linuxgruven.com)
• Tony Zafiropoulos (tonyz@ctitek.com)

Current information will be posted as it develops at http://www.stllinux.org/

There will be a special 22 March Hazelwood LUG meeting for beginners (newbies) that will focus on planning and preparing for Linux installation. For more information, visit http://www.sluug.org/~stan/hzlug.html and get ready!

New SLUUG BBS Home

Linuxgruven was kind enough to donate the space, network connection, and physical access for us to move our servers into their offices.

The move took place on Tuesday, February 27. It began at about 2:30 PM and was completed by 8PM. All system functions were up at that time. Unfortunately, a hardware problem developed on Dark, our file server, the next day. At the time this is being written, our system administrators are still working to resolve the problem. The web site is still functioning, but shell access to the systems is somewhat limited.

Quotations

Ximian: Dude, there is a bug in GtkHTML.
GtkHTML: That isn't a GtkHTML bug.
Ximian: Yeah dude, it is.
GtkHTML: Dude, no it isn't.
Ximian: Dude, it is.
GtkHTNL: No, dude, it isn't.
[Pause.]
Ximian: Hmm. You're right, it isn't. Sorry, dude.
-- Seen on Ximian Red Carpet beta announcement.

Various items overheard at recent SLUUG meetings and seen on the mailing lists:

Ding! You are now free to move about your Operating System source code.
    -- Mike808

Or you could turn Y's into K's to solve the Y2K problem.
    -- Don Ellis, referring to a possible use of the 'tr' command

If someone argues with me, I'll go find out *why* I'm right.
    -- Christine Wanta

It's no fun to talk about BSD. There's nothing wrong with it.
    -- Stanford Baldwin