For you Kanotix fans: Bug Hunter X is out

[eco2geek]

Download link: ftp://debian.tu-bs.de/kanotix/KANOTIX-BUG-HUNTER-X/

(Note: I initially used a persistent home from BH9 and CUPS wouldn't work correctly. When I made a new persistent home, CUPS worked fine. So if you have any problems, make sure you're using a "fresh" persistent home.)

[nishtya]

new BH. Teehee. Teehee. OOOOH. Should I? Still using BH8 here, and well it's fine. Maybe should try and break it

[eco2geek]

I'm still running BH8, too - although I have totally upgraded KDE (which I see I need to do again) and most of the apps (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, etc.) that I use all the time. It works fine, so I might wait until BHXII comes out before I start over.

(And apart from my /home partition, that's what installing BHX would be, starting over. Unfortunately, there isn't yet an "upgrade" option.)

FYI, I've got some hard disk space to play with, so I tried SuSE (network install) and then Mandrakelinux. They're both OK. Mandrakelinux is still installed on my extra partition.

You can install apt-get on SuSE, but I didn't keep it around long enough to see how well it works. With Mandrakelinux, they use something called "urpmi" to grab packages from repositories and resolve dependencies (Easy Urpmi configuration page here).

The annoying thing about Mandrakelinux is that they're always after you to pay them money. Which is understandable; they're a publicly-traded company. But it'd be nice not to have to cough up money in order just to get security-related fixes. You don't have to with SuSE.

Which leads to a question: How does one know when Debian Sid packages have been released to fix security problems?

And another question: Is there a Debian equivalent to ZoneAlarm or Kerio Personal Firewall? I'm lazy and don't particularly want to learn the ins and outs of iptables/ipchains or whatever it's called, but I feel like I'm sort of naked without a firewall in Linux (even though I'm behind a NAT box).

[Markus]

I'm still running BH8, too - although I have totally upgraded KDE (which I see I need to do again) and most of the apps (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, etc.) that I use all the time. It works fine, so I might wait until BHXII comes out before I start over.

I'm still using BH5 as the nice thing about debian is easy upgradability. Just out of curiosity, why do a lot of people reinstall now and then? Out of curiosity?

FYI, I've got some hard disk space to play with, so I tried SuSE (network install) and then Mandrakelinux. They're both OK. Mandrakelinux is still installed on my extra partition.

Tried both once. Hated Yast. Mandrake was ok but it takes a bit of disk space to have a GUI for everything.

Which leads to a question: How does one know when Debian Sid packages have been released to fix security problems?

I suppose you just need to dist-upgrade every now and then.

And another question: Is there a Debian equivalent to ZoneAlarm or Kerio Personal Firewall? I'm lazy and don't particularly want to learn the ins and outs of iptables/ipchains or whatever it's called, but I feel like I'm sort of naked without a firewall in Linux (even though I'm behind a NAT box).

Ipchains was for kernel up to 2.2.x. 2.4 and up it's iptables. Some front ends are firestarter and guarddog. You can find some ready made scripts for iptables here. A good NAT box seems to work as I haven't got any use of logging in iptables with the router stopping attacks.

[eco2geek]

Thanks. I'll see what I can do with Guarddog (which comes with KDE). I want to be able to surf the Web (naturally), get email, do IRC, ssh, samba, and remote desktop sharing (one of these days I want to set up VNC).

The NAT box does seem to make me invisible on GRC's Sheids Up! test, but I still feel overexposed w/o a firewall.

Haven't yet done a "dist-upgrade" but now that I have a spare computer to mess with I will try it on that one and see how many problems I encounter.

[eco2geek]

After having to remove a few packages manually, dist-upgrade was successful on two computers, one running BH8 and the other, BH9. (Guess I'm not a virgin any more.)

What an alphabet soup of services that got installed! (distmp3? camserv? dbus? Liberal use of "update-rc.d -f {unkownpackagename} remove" followed.)

[Markus]

After having to remove a few packages manually, dist-upgrade was successful on two computers, one running BH8 and the other, BH9.

I really hope no-one using knoppix tries to do the same after reading this as dist-upgrading it can lead to interesting breakdowns. (slipping into the asbestos suit once again).

What an alphabet soup of services that got installed! (distmp3? camserv? dbus? Liberal use of "update-rc.d -f {unkownpackagename} remove" followed.)

Ah, about the only drawback I see with debian. I use sshd now and then and start it manually when needed so I don't want to remove it, and every single time I upgrade I have to follow up with update-rc.d -f ssh remove.
BTW, I think kano has a script in /usr/local/bin for removing unneeded services starting at bootup.

[Cuddles]

Thanks. I'll see what I can do with Guarddog (which comes with KDE). I want to be able to surf the Web (naturally), get email, do IRC, ssh, samba, and remote desktop sharing (one of these days I want to set up VNC).

The NAT box does seem to make me invisible on GRC's Sheids Up! test, but I still feel overexposed w/o a firewall.

Haven't yet done a "dist-upgrade" but now that I have a spare computer to mess with I will try it on that one and see how many problems I encounter.

My fellow BH'er, I like GuardDog. I run it, have, even since installing Knoppix v3.3, its easy, its quick, and has given me "complete" stealth reports from the Gibson site. I used to run FireStarter, but got lost in setup for it, thats when I moved to GuardDog.

Still havent had the chance to get BH9a up, I want to wait for a NIC, so that the install will take care of the configs and setups -=- I also need to make a list of everything I have installed on my 2.6.6 Knoppix v3.4, so that I can get everything back after the install is done...

Hope this helps,

[FelixDzerzhinsky]

"And another question: Is there a Debian equivalent to ZoneAlarm or Kerio Personal Firewall? I'm lazy and don't particularly want to learn the ins and outs of iptables/ipchains or whatever it's called, but I feel like I'm sort of naked without a firewall in Linux (even though I'm behind a NAT box)."

I like Bastille Linux hardening script. It does a lot more than firewalling your system (shutting down unnecessary services, etc) It also teaches you about network security at the same time for free.

apt-get update
apt-get install bastille perl-tk

As su or root:

InteractiveBastille

Follow the destructions.

more information:

http://www.bastille-linux.org

[eco2geek]

Cuddles, you want a copy of Bug Hunter X? (Or whatever BH is current when you're ready to install it?)

Got a pretty good book, Linux Timesaving Techniques For Dummies (a good "For Dummies" book, believe it or not!) that has a complete walk-through of Bastille in its final chapter. Looks like a good candidate.