Redhat 9 annoyances with fixes
todo: the fixes…
Mouse (ps2) disconnect/connect during X session does not work.
No rescue tools in install cd’s (press alt-ctrl-f2 in installer). Lacking nano/pico, lynx, parted,
smart boot manger…
Fire seems to have these.
Default workstation and desktop installation don’t have easy text mode editors, such as pico or nano, must
apt-get install pine nano
Broken paths, */sbin/ is not in the path. users must type /sbin/ifconfig to see computers ip-number.
Redhat obviously does not know about su either. Fix by adding the required pathts to all users
pico /etc/profile
# Add to /etc/profile
pathmunge /sbin
pathmunge /usr/sbin
pathmunge /usr/local/sbin
Ssh daemon has ssh version 1 enabled by default. Bugs in old protocol are so mainstream even Matrix Reloaded
shows them. Also, root can login trough ssh. pico /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# Add to /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Protocol 2
PermitRootLogin no
Gnome/KDE main menu is cluttered with Extra-items (redhat 8) or More-items (redhat 9). In KDE, you can
fix the menu manually.
Gnome calendar, bottom right on the panel, has wrong (US) order for weekdays. ISO says week starts on Monday.
Fixed in KDE.
Proxy must be configured once for the command line and once for each gui program. Fix: make GUI programs understand
shell variables. Define proxy for all users in /etc/profile, add
export http_proxy="http://proxy.example.com:8080". Better yet, write shell script to find out if there
is a proxy and use that.
GPG or PGP encryption is not easy to use
No NTFS support
No disk encryption. ppdd, rubberhose
No mp3 support. Ogg is superior, but many mp3’s are still around. apt-get install xmms-mp3
No Finnish spell checking. soikko, soikko-oo, tmispell.
Firewall configuration (lokkit) does not know what rules are used currently, makes very easy to do mistakes (trust eth0
opens firewall), what is the use for telnet hole, does not help where needed (samba), leaves FORWARD chain to ACCEPT and
makes a very ugly firewall.
Too hard to follow logs. osdwrite, wheel group. Snort rpm with readymade basic config.
File searching is too hard, there is no single utility integrating find and locate.
X window system cannot handle computer name change or DNS downtime. Fix: make X connect trough 127.0.0.1 (is this efficient,
does it needlesly use tcp?)
Ugly redhat branding everywhere, hiding original program logos. Make own rpms to overwrite redhat-logos and redhat-artwork.
They must provide the same stuff, because half of the programs rely on the two packets.
Browsers (mozilla, galeon) give away too much information. It’s not too bad that a windows computer says it is ie, but
browsing saying you have galeon build somenumber is more identifying. user.prefs.
Cron is too hard to use. man 5 crontab, find a text mode ui.
All servers leak information on banners.
Ssh seems hidden. There is no menu entry for ssh. Graphical ssh file tranfer program gFTP has wrong default configuration, user must set FTP: Options: SSH: Use SSH2 SFTP Subsys: Save
Editing default user setup in /etc/skel and something/X11/something is too hard.
When network comes up after shortage, dhcp client does not recover automatically.
Redhat has no official rpms of calc, nano, snort, httrack.
Redhat Reference Guide and other official manuals are not installed automatically. There is no rpm of all howtos.
apt-cache search is slow, there is no aptate for redhat.
By default, must be root to burn cd’s, restart network after network downtime, use floppies from the command line.
All partitions should be automounted, but they are not.
There is no decent media player installed. apt-get --yes install mplayer
Sendmail, the buggy incomprehensible horror (starring in bugtraq), is the default MTA.
Root email is not forwarded to anyone.
Using groups is too hard, for example, try to make a folder marketing
can read but only administration can write. Or make your public_html
readable by apache, but not other users.
Tested with redhat 9.0 Shrike.
Copyright 2003 Tero Karvinen. All rights reserved.
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