papa
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response 17 of 24:
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May 10 23:59 UTC 2018 |
resp:16 Re. FT, I think you're right. Re. compile options, I will continue
experimenting. I should figure out how to run Apache on my Slackware box so
I can try out options that require root authorization.
To summarize what I have found for others who are experiencing crashes on the
BT web interface and/or FT from the shell (`bbs`) not remembering which items
you've read: BT and FT are having file permission-related problems when
trying to save or read user status data. It's not yet clear whether this is
a code problem or a configuration problem, but there is a work-around:
1. Rename or delete the subdirectory .cfdir in your home directory. If
renaming, the new name can be anything other than ".cfdir". If deleting
you will have to first delete all the files in the subdirectory or use
`rm -rf`. If your .cfdir subdirectory contains the files .cflist and/or
.cfonce, you might want to save copies of them in order to restore your
conference hotlist and configuration.
2. Choose one interface, shell or web, and stick with it. If you want to
access the conferences from your shell account (with the command `bbs`),
do not log in to the web interface (though you can still read
conferences on the web in anonymous mode). If you want to participate in
conferences via the web, do not use the shell interface.
3. If you choose the shell interface, run `bbs` and read at least one
item in the Agora conference then quit. FT will automatically (re)create
subdirectory .cfdir in your home directory. If you saved copies of
.cflist and/or .cfonce in step 1., copy/move them into your new .cfdir
subdirectory to restore your hotlist and FT configuration.
4. If you choose the web interface, open the web page, log in, and use
the system as normal. If you had a hotlist, you will have to recreate
it.
Other than having to give up one of the conference interfaces, the
biggest draw-back to the workaround is that your reading history will be
lost and you will have to catch-up on all the old conferences.
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bwh
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response 23 of 24:
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May 4 14:56 UTC 2019 |
2nd pass of response 21: I encountered the backtalk crash error. I
walked through the investigation above and came up with the following
...
Current state
(1) fronttalk (cli) creates the ~/.cfdir directory
with mode 755 and ownership <user>:people.
(2) fronttalk (cli) creates files under ~/.cfdir
with mode 644 and ownership <user>:people.
(3) backtalk (web) creates files under ~/.cfdir
with mode 644 and ownership cfadm:people.
(4) Backtalk (web) logon & use results in crash errors if ~/.cfdir
or any file below are not rwx for backtalk (web).
I.E. files created by fronttalk (cli).
Work-a-round *
(1) Manually change the mode of ~/.cfdir so backtalk (web) can access:
$ chmod 777 ~/.cfdir
* Yes, some bad user can now delete or change the 666 files.
Not really much at stake here (backup if concerned).
(2) To make files under ~/.cfdir accessible to fronttalk (cli)
and backtalk (web)
change ownership to <user>:people and mode set to 666.
Users cannot set mode to 666 on files owned by cfadm.
Users can replace these files instead per below.
Script to do this: talk-fix.bash
#!/usr/local/bin/bash
mkdir ~/.cfdir/ZTMP
find ~/.cfdir -type f -user cfadm -exec cp {} ~/.cfdir/ZTMP \;
find ~/.cfdir/ZTMP -type f -exec mv -f {} ~/.cfdir \;
find ~/.cfdir -type f -exec chmod 666 {} +
rmdir ~/.cfdir/ZTMP
(3) Rerun the script before using of fronttalk (cli)
if backtalk (web) was used previously.
Rerun the script after using fronttalk (cli)
if backtalk (web) will be used subsequently.
Or only use either the cli or web interface as discussed above.
Fixes that seem needed
(1) backtalk (web) should create ~/.cfdir if missing with ownership
<user>:people.
Or at least:
/etc/skel should include .cfdir so it is present for backtalk (web).
That is, the user does not need to open fronttalk (cli) in order
for creation of ~/.cfdir.
(2) backtalk (web) should create files with ownership <user>:people.
I will update again if I learn more.
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bwh
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response 24 of 24:
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May 17 00:35 UTC 2019 |
More on the back/front talk .cfdir access errors and partutil
**problem
described above
**background info**
unixpapa.com/backtalk/stab/doc/glossary.html
Partutil Program
The partutil program is used only on systems where real Unix accounts
are used and Backtalk is to cooperate with Picospan or Yapp [or
fronttalk]. In this case, the files stored in the user's home directory
are owned by the user, and thus not writable by the Backtalk program.
The partutil program is a work-around for this problem. It is an
suid-root program which can be called by Backtalk to creates or destroys
these files, and to permit the to be writable to a Backtalk's Unix
group-ID. Various safeguards are built-in to prevent partutil from being
run by anyone other than Backtalk.
CURRENT mode for partutil
grex$ for f in $(locate partutil); do ls -l $f; done
-rws--x--x 1 root cfadmg /suid/libexec/partutil
lrwx------ 1 root wheel /suid/libexec/partutil-1.3.30 -> partutil
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel /cyberspace/libexec/backtalk-1.3.30/partutil
-> /suid/libexec/partutil-1.3.30
**mode testing
SUID mode tests on Linux (I don't have an OpenBSD install.)
The files below are here: http://grex.org/~bwh/suid.tgz
user1@I660> pwd
/opt/suid
user1@I660> ls -l
total 24
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root addent_suid_target -> suid_script_wrapper
-rwx------. 1 root root suid_script.bash
-rwsr-xr-x. 1 root root suid_script_wrapper
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root suid_script_wrapper.c
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root suid_target
**suggestion
change mode of /suid/libexec/partutil to -rwsr-xr-x (4755)
instead of -rws--x--x (4711)
And, maybe the mode of this link:
lrwx------ 1 root wheel /suid/libexec/partutil-1.3.30 -> partutil
should be lrwxr-xr-x (Linux sym links are lrwxrwxrwx and permissions of
the linked file are used.)
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