2004.05_Projects-Free Software and Its Makers.pdf

COMMUNITY

Free Software Projects

Projects on the Move

Free software covers such a diverse

Oikarinen in 1988, describes a pro-

tocol that allows multiple clients to

communicate directly via a central

server. There are five Requests for

Comment (RFCs) by now, and a

multitude of server variants, whose

only common denominator is basic

IRC functionality.

Way back in 1990, the best-

known IRC servers joined forces to

create a network without a fixed

structure. There was an average of

12 users for 38 servers. That same

year, another network with 25

servers started up. This time it did

not have any users, as it was

entirely concerned with testing the

new IRCd version 2.6.

In August, a few admins decided to

link an open server to the existing net-

work, which had been known as

Anarchy Net, or simply A-Net, up to this

time. The server allowed third parties to

attach their own IRC servers to the net-

work. Its hostname was eris.berkeley.

edu . As Eris caused quite a stir, the

EFNet [5] (Eris Free Net) was founded

just a short time later. Most of the

servers and users on the A-Net left to

join EFNet, which has since become the

largest IRC network in the world.

As EFNet grew very quickly, the lines

were often overloaded. This led to net

splits, i.e. servers started dropping con-

nections to other servers. Clever IRC

users exploited this. Both servers have

an open channel to a specific network. If

a computer loses its network connection,

the channel continues to exist both on

the computer and on the network. An

attacker joining an empty channel on

one of the affected servers automatically

assumes operator privileges.

When the network link is reestab-

lished, the attacker retains his privileges.

Thus, a net split will allow a previously

non-privileged user to assume operator

privileges, and take over the role of the

“chanop” in that channel. Users and

server operators alike were unhappy

with this security loophole. This meant

range of utilities, applications and

other assorted projects, that it can

be hard to find the perfect tool

from all that programming effort.

We pick the best of the bunch for

you, including - Apple’s IPod, the

nitty-gritty on IRC.

BY MARTIN LOSCHWITZ

players has dropped to well below

US$ 100. Sadly, the low price is not

always an advantage, as the sound qual-

ity tends to suffer.

Apple’s iPod is anything but “cheap”.

Apple’s asking price for the iPod is still

US$ 299. For that amount of money, the

owner can expect excellent sound qual-

ity and a nicely-finished, good-looking

device. You also get a large hard disk

with a capacity of up to 40GB into the

bargain.

There are Linux programs for upload-

ing music to the device, organizing

tracks, and creating playlists by now.

Before you start, you may want to con-

sider replacing Apple’s default HFS+

operating system with VFAT. Linux does

support HFS+, but the driver is slightly

buggy. The VFAT driver is much more

stable, and the iPod is perfectly happy to

run with VFAT. Surf to [1] for a how-to

on formatting the disk.

The Gtkpod [2] tool, and the Gnupod

script collection [3], allow for convenient

track management on the iPod. As the

name suggests, Gtkpod uses the GTK2

interface, whereas the Gnupod tools are

command-line programs, and this typi-

cally makes Gtkpod a more convenient

choice. Users can synchronize local

directories with the iPod, create playlists,

and sort their tracks. Gtkpod also allows

users to rate tracks, and sort them by

order of preference.

If synchronizing with Linux does not

keep you happy, why not install Linux

on the machine? The iPod Linux project

at [4] lets you do so. The project website

provides the required tools, and a guide

that tells you how to install and config-

ure the iPod. As proof, the website

shows a photo of an iPod outputting

Linux kernel messages in its display.

All in all, the iPod turns out to be

extremely Linux-friendly. Gtkpod takes

the pain out of managing your music. If

you have always wanted to have the Tux

framebuffer logo in your LCD display,

this is your big chance – thanks to iPod

Linux.

Martin Loschwitz is from a small Ger-

man town called Niederkrüchten and

a developer for Debian GNU/Linux.

Martin’s leisure time is mainly pre-

occupied with activities in the Debian

or GNU community.

IRC History and Software

Many Internet users prefer Internet Relay

Chat (IRC) rather than email, as IRC

allows a quicker and more timely

exchange of information. The IRC stan-

dard, which was developed by Jarkko

May 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

An up-to-date overview of free software and its makers

T he price of portable miniature MP3

Free Software Projects

COMMUNITY

Figure 1: The Gtkpod main screen. Gtkpod is a program that works with

Apple’s iPod. It can handle playlists, track rating, and data synchroniza-

tion tasks.

admins to launch their

own project, called

IRCNet [8]. The US

EFNet kept the original

name.

Quakenet [9] was

launched in 1997. As

the name sugggests,

the network is primar-

ily aimed at gamers.

Quakenet has seen

explosive growth since

its launch and is one of

today’s biggest net-

works. Again it has its

own server software.

A year after the

Quakenet launch,

another network, the

Open Projects Net-

work, now known as Freenode [10],

started up. Freenode is a communica-

tions platform for free software projects

that currently has about 13000 users.

although there are a few differences.

Bahamut [15] is another Hybrid fork,

which is used on the DALNet and has a

few interesting features. For example, it

prevents viruses and worms from

spreading by intercepting DDC connec-

tion requests.

Undernet has used Ircu [16], which is

based on the original IRCd, ever since its

inception. Quakenet’s Asuka [17], in

turn, is based on Ircu. FreeNode uses a

Hybrid variant called Dancer [18] which

provides facilities for centralized net-

work administration.

It is questionable whether there will be

any more major developments in the

future IRC, as it has some serious compe-

tition. Various instant messaging

protocols, such as ICQ, AIM, and SILC

[19] (which works in a similar way to

IRC, but is SSL-integrated). Who knows

whether IRC will be capable of holding

its own against these technologies?

extending the contemporary IRCd to

resolve the issue. 1992 saw the introduc-

tion of another test network, which was

opened up to normal users just a short

while later. This was the birth of Under-

net [6].

Debian on AMD’s 64

64 bit CPUs are slowly but surely con-

quering the mass markets. Intel’s

Itanium and Itanium II are not exactly

show stoppers, but Intel’s arch-rival

AMD seems to be on the path to success

with its own 64 bit platform. The

Opteron easily outpaces most 32 bit

CPUs, especially for server applications.

Now AMD looks set to corner the desk-

top market with its Athlon64, which is

based on the AMD64 architecture.

Although there isn’t actually a 64 bit ver-

sion of the Windows operating system, it

probably won’t be long until Microsoft

Server Software Variants

The server software used today is as

diverse as the networks themselves. IRC-

Net still uses the original IRCd [11]

server, which provides only basic IRC

support. This said, very little of Jarkko

Oikarinen’s original code has survived.

Christophe Kalt is mainly responsible for

the ongoing development of IRCd, which

is currently at version 2.10.3p5. Don’t

expect to find services such as Chanserv

or Nickserv in IRCd.

EFNet uses Hybrid [12], which is

based on the original IRCd. One of the

major differences

between Hybrid and

IRCd is the net split

protection mechanism.

Also, Hybrid provides

services [13] and has a

few enhancements,

which have even been

ported back into the

original IRC daemon.

These include channel

modes, +I and +e ,

which protect a user

from being banned.

You might also stum-

ble across Ratbox IRCd

[14], a Hybrid fork, on

EFNet. Ratbox is fully

compatible to Hybrid,

A Host of New IRC Networks

The Undernet IRCd developers’ original

aim was to harden the network against

exploits. To achieve this aim, they inte-

grated timestamp functions that

withdrew a user’s operator status if that

user had joined a channel during a spilt,

thus usurping chanop privileges. The

programmers also implemented the first

“CService”, which allowed users to reg-

ister a channel, helping them to retain

operator status in that channel indefi-

nitely.

In the summer of 1994 another IRC

network was founded; it was known as

DALNet [7] after its founder Dalvenjah’s

nickname. DALNet used the Undernet

IRCd. DALNet had a new feature that

allowed nicknames to have more than

nine characters. Also, the DALNet IRCd

was capable of banning users on a net-

work wide basis. Besides the CService,

which was known as Chanserv on DAL-

Net, there was also a Nickserv that

allowed users to register nicknames,

thus preventing misuse.

The biggest split of all time in the

world of IRC happened back in 1996.

The EFNet operators disagreed on how

to protect the network in case of net

splits. This prompted European EFNet

Figure 2: The Quakenet IRC network simply appeared from nowhere. It

grew extremely quickly and has now become one of the world’s

biggest networks.

www.linux-magazine.com

May 2004

COMMUNITY

Free Software Projects

impacting performance in

any major way.

This will lead to users in

many scenarios wanting to

run a system based on 64 bit

files, while still having the

option to run 32 bit pro-

grams if and when needed.

Unfortunately, the dpkg

package manager cannot

handle this at present. As a

result, developers face some

non-trivial restructuring.

The Alioth AMD64 project

aims to investigate and

resolve these issues step by

step. Goswin von Brederlow recently

sent a message to the debian-devel mail-

ing list [20] suggesting an approach.

In his message, Goswin gives a

detailed discussion of the problem. To

allow a system to run binaries built for

both the i386 and the AMD64 architec-

tures, the major libraries for both

architectures need to be available on that

system. One way of achieving this would

be to distribute the AMD64 libraries in

packages of their own, and to unpack

the files in directories such as /lib64 .

Viewed superficially, this would seem to

be a possible answer. A closer look

reveals that this method would mean

changing more or less every package in

the archive (in order to resolve depen-

dency changes).

This is why Goswin suggested a differ-

ent approach. He would like to modify

dpkg to allow it to install two different

packages with the same name. Also,

packages that provide a special ABI, and

are thus entirely architecture-dependent,

should have an extra line in the control

file. The line for packages of this type

would be ABI: strict . Also, developers

would need to specify the architecture

for which they compiled the package in

the dpkg status file. Finally, the packages

with major libraries would still need to

store their files in /lib64 . This would

allow for storing two identically named

packages on a single system.

Goswin’s suggestion provoked a long

thread on the debian-devel list. Debian’s

Release Manager, Anthony Towns,

warned that this suggestion contravened

all the standards that Debian had intro-

duced throughout its development

history. Steve Langasek stated that fun-

damental changes of this kind were out

of the question before the release of

Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, aka Sarge.

Goswin had announced that he at least

wanted to integrate the dpkg status file

modifications prior to the Sarge release.

It remains to be seen if Debian will

support the AMD64 architecture in the

near future. One thing is for sure, Debian

can’t afford to postpone supporting the

new architecture for too long.

Figure 3: AMD’s Athlon 64. Now that Suse and Red Hat have

paved the way, Debian looks set to release a version for this

CPU.

That’s all folks…

… for this month at least, but we do

have one request before we go: If you

can recommend a program that you

would like to see featured in Projects on

the Move , why not mail me with your

suggestion [21]? I look forward to your

comments!

delivers the goods. In the meantime, the

Athlon64 has a high-performance 32 bit

emulation mode.

Athlon64 support is no problem for

Linux distros – at least in theory – as the

kernel has supported the platform for

quite a while now. Keeping to the theory,

you simply need a 64 bit kernel and a

suitable compiler to build your pro-

grams. Suse was first to react, winning

the race to provide a distribution for

AMD64 CPUs with Red Hat hot on its

heels.

■

INFO

[1] VFAT on the iPod: http://www.formorer.

de/~formorer/ipod.html

[2] Gtk Pod: http://gtkpod.sourceforge.net/

[3] Gnu Pod:

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnupod/

[4] The iPod Linux project:

http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net/

[5] EFNet: http://www.efnet.org/

[6] Undernet: http://www.undernet.org/

[7] DALNet: http://www.dal.net/

[8] IRCNet: http://www.irc.net/

[9] Quakenet: http://www.quakenet.org/

[10] Freenode: http://freenode.net/

[11] Information on IRCd:

http://www.irc.org/techie.html

[12] Ircd Hybrid: http://www.ircd-hybrid.org/

[13] Hybserv2:

http://www.2mbit.com/hybserv2/

[14] Ircd Ratbox: http://www.ircd-ratbox.org/

[15] Bahamut: http://bahamut.dal.net/

[16] The Undernet Coder Committee:

http://coder-com.undernet.org/

[17] The Quakenet Developer Committee:

http://dev-com.quakenet.org/

[18] Dancer IRCd:

http://freenode.net/dancer_ircd.shtml

[19] SILCNet: http://www.silcnet.org/

[20] Message from Goswin von Brederlow:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/

2004/debian-devel-200401/msg00762.

html

[21] Tips and suggestions:

projects@linux-magazine.com

Library tickets

Of course, the Debian developers will

have to look into the possibilities of inte-

grating Athlon64 support in their

distribution sooner or later. People

started putting on their thinking hats

quite a while back, starting up a devel-

oper group on Debian’s Sourceforge

counterpart alioth.debian.org . Interest-

ingly, the group chose to call itself

Debian x86-64. The name was controver-

sial, as it was simply too long for most

developers. At this time of writing,

AMD64 seems to be the generally

accepted name for the project.

What is far more important than the

name discussion is resolving current

technical problems. Some people may

ask themselves why the AMD64 should

be handled in exactly the same way as

the Intel 64 bit server architecture, that

is, by creating a completely independent

architecture branch. It doesn’t make

much sense to run 32 bit programs on

the Itanium, or Itanium II, as the perfor-

mance is abysmal. This is not true of the

AMD64. The integrated 32 bit emulation

allows 32 bit applications to run without

May 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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