Evidence WinXP "security updates" may break Linux

[Harry Kuhman]

I have another topic in this forum titled "Knoppix using NatSemi DP83815 stopped working". However, I now think I have enough information that this should be called to the attention of more users, so I'm posting under a title that will attract the attention of more users than those who know they use the NS DP83815 based NIC.

If you are a WinXP user and you have a NIC card or built-in nic that has an eeprom that holds configuration information (not all do), then you may have found that you can no longer connect to the network when you run Knoppix. I would be interested in any feedback from other users in these areas:

Do you also run WinXP, and if so have you downloaded the "security updates"?

Does Knoppix fail to connect to the network for you? Did it connect previously? What NIC (network interface) do you have and do you know if it contains EEPROM?

Did your connection stop working when you installed recent WinXP "security updates"?

From what I'm learning, if you have a NIC with EEPROM for configuration on it and have installed the WinXP "security updates" recently, you may no longer be able to connect to the network with Knoppix, although WinXP clearly overrides the new settings and connects fine.

There is a work-around for this. See the other thread for the details. Please post back any and all experiences; we need to track this down if it really is a case of the "security updates" breaking your computer so that it can no longer properly run Linux.

And if anyone has an XP system, and a nic with eeprom, and has not yet installed the security updates, it would be extremely helpful if you can determine the current EEPROM contents (tools at http://<a href="http://www.scyld.com...index.html</a> )and then install the "updates" and see what happens to your ability to connect to the network with Knoppix. (Keep the data before you run the "upgrade" and you will be able to reset the eeprom to it's correct values.)

[Striker2002]

What you just described is exactly the problem that I am having. I have a LinkSys EtherFast 10/100 NIC, which is connected to my Westell Wirespeed DSL modem (PPPoE). When I first got Knoppix I had a great time learning to use it that I nearly stopped using Windows 98. A few weeks later, the "Oh-So-Dangerous" security issue with all versions of Windows arrived, and I downloaded the update. I really did not use Knoppix until a week later, but when I finally did, the ADSL/PPPoE Configuration Utility did not work with my modem anymore. Well now I know why. DAMN YOU BILL GATES!!!!!!!

[Harry Kuhman]

.

A few weeks later, the "Oh-So-Dangerous" security issue with all versions of Windows arrived, and I downloaded the update.

Can you tell us exactly which update this might be? Unfortunately, my XP system was new and there were a lot of XP updates at the same time. I do run 98se on another system, but never take M$ "security updates" for that. Knowing which update it is might be another important step in reproducing this on demand and getting the word out on what this company is doing and hopefully holding them responsiable for it.

And thanks for spelling out which network card was affected, that may help as well.

[Striker2002]

The most recent security update I installed for Windows 98 is http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...n/MS02-050.asp

I am pretty sure that this is the one.

[Striker2002]

Holding Microsoft responsible won't do anything anyways. When they set out to undermine their competitors, they usually succeed (hence the Sun Microsystems case with the JVM). I'm not worried about holding them responsible, I only hope that I can undo what the update has already done so I can get my ADSL/PPPoE connection working again in Knoppix.

[Harry Kuhman]

Thanks for the additional info. For what it's worth, the Linksys card you have does have eeprom for configuration on it, on the card I checked it's a tiny 8 pin 93c46 inside the footprint of the boot rom socket. You may have a lot better results getting the original settings from Linksys than I'm having getting them from HP for my nic (unfortunately, different chip set so your settings would not help me). While you're talking to them, try to learn if there are seeing a lot of reports of this problem in the last month or two. They might even be interested in what is causing it.

[Striker2002]

I just called the LinkSys tech support number and the person on the phone really didn't help me too much. She had me reinstall the drivers for my EtherFast LNETX100 lan card. Now how would that help? Do you know of any way I could reset the settings my self?

[Harry Kuhman]

Do you know of any way I could reset the settings my self?

Sorry, I'm still working on that myself for my HP notebook nic. One approach I might tak involves getting my hands on another notebook, which presents it's own problems. This might ne less of an issue with an inexpensive nic card. I'm also wondering if I can set the card to something that works without knowing the original settings, but still need to do some tests before I can post on that (it may be a little while, I have a deadline on another project fast approaching). If you want to experiment on your own, see mii-tool that is on the knoppix CD and mii-diag at http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html and let us know if you do make progress.

[Striker2002]

Here's some extra info in case anyone knows how to fix this issue. I do successfully get through the ADSL/PPPoE Configuration process and the connection supposedly gets triggered. However it isn't because I can't view any web pages or ping any ip.

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:20:78:0E:3A:73
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:45 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:105 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
          RX bytes:2708 (2.6 KiB)  TX bytes:6328 (6.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:9 Base address:0x1000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:2800 (2.7 KiB)  TX bytes:2800 (2.7 KiB)

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
          POINTOPOINT NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

root@ttyp1[floppy]# /mnt/floppy/mii-diag
Using the default interface 'eth0'.
Basic registers of MII PHY #1:  1000 7869 0022 5410 01e1 0021 0004 2001.
 Basic mode control register 0x1000: Auto-negotiation enabled.
 Basic mode status register 0x7869 ... 786d.
   Link status: previously broken, but now reestablished.
 Your link partner is generating 10baseT link beat  (no autonegotiation).
   End of basic transceiver information.

root@ttyp1[sbin]# mii-tool
eth0: no autonegotiation, 10baseT-HD, link ok

[aay]

Harry,

Thanks so much for following up on this issue. I've been away from my computer for a couple of day's so I haven't checked the other post. Even though I don't have one of these cards this seems like a really important issue to me. It really pisses me off that MS is able to do this to people. Are eeprom cards becoming more prevelant? Are there many of them on the market now? Perhaps it would be helpful to link to a list of eeprom based cards. I did a bit of searching on google and was unable to come up with anything so maybe we need to start compiling our own list and make it available in the docs section. We have at least two cards to put on the list at this point! Thanks again for doing your homework on this one and sharing the info with others.