[leafnode-list] I have had a go (was Basic configuration questions form a Linux Newbie)

[David Oddie <DaveOddie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 24 Jul 2000 18:28:10 +0200 (CEST), you wrote:

>> Step 3. create a "news" user.  First question :- I take it I need a
>> user called "news"?
>
>Yes. On most - if not all - distributions, this user already exists.

Mine did not have one so I created one.

>
>> Step 4.  Should "make install" be run as "news"?
>
>"root" is better. "news" usually cannot write into /usr/local (or
>whereever you will install leafnode).
>
>> Step 6. States "Make sure $NNTPSERVER or /etc/nntpserver points to
>> your own host.................."
>> 
>> I am lost here.  What is my "own host"?  How can I find it out or set
>> it up should I need to?
>
>Your "own host" is your computer. You can either put a fully qualified
>domain name into /etc/nntpserver (or set $NNTPSERVER to that), or just
>use "localhost" (or its IP number, 127.0.0.1) instead.

I have had a go at configuring leafnode and have almost got it
working.

I think most of what I have done is correct but I have a "missing
link" in that my news client can't access the news server (this all it
says).  I think it is something to do with localhost.

I managed to run fetchnews OK to obtain a list of newsgroups from my
ISP's news server.

I checked I can run leafnode by typing /usr/local/sbin/leafnode in
konsole and I get the message startup message .

200 Leafnode NNTP Deamon, version 1.19.14  running at
localhost.localdomain

so I have built the programs correctly I think.

The output from inetd -d as root gives

ADD : ftp proto=tcp, wait.max=0.40, user.group=root.(null) builtin=0
server=/usr/sbin/tcpd
ADD : telnet proto=tcp, wait.max=0.40, user.group=root.(null)
builtin=0 server=/usr/sbin/tcpd
ADD : pop3 proto=tcp, wait.max=0.40, user.group=root.(null) builtin=0
server=/usr/sbin/tcpd
ADD : auth proto=tcp, wait.max=0.40, user.group=nobody.(null)
builtin=0 server=/usr/sbin/in.identd
ADD : nntp proto=tcp, wait.max=0.40, user.group=news.(null) builtin=0
server=/usr/sbin/tcpd
ADD : linuxconf proto=tcp, wait.max=1.40, user.group=root.(null)
builtin=0 server=/bin/linuxconf 

so I think I have my nntp entry in inetd.conf set OK.

FYI it is:

#
# nntp
#
 
nntp  stream   tcp    nowait    news      /usr/sbin/tcpd
/usr/local/sbin/leafnode   

I stuck this at the end of the file.  I don't suppose the white space
between the entries is supposed to be tabs or anything like that is
it?


The permissions on config in /etc/leafnode seem OK as well i.e. 

# ls -l /etc/leafnode
total 10
-rw-r-----   1 news     news         4480 Jul 26 23:07 config
-rw-r-----   1 root     news         4471 Jul 26 22:25 config.example

The only thing that does not conform to the expected output from the
suggestions in the FAQ is telnet'ing port 119 at local host.

Typing in telnet localhost 119 gives:-

Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.localdomain.
Escape character is '^]'.
Connection closed by foreign host. 

instead of "200 Leafnode NNTP Deamon, version 1.19.14  running at
localhost.localdomain" which is what I should expect according to the
FAQ.

I am all pretty new to this so I guess what telnet'ing localhost 119
should do is some how use the nntp line in inetd.conf to run
/usr/local/sbin/leafnode??

Well it is not doing that so that is where my supposition of a
"missing link" comes from if you get my drift.

I can think of two potential problems.

First off my installation did not have an nntpserver file in /etc.

So I created one and put one line in it that said:-

localhost

Nothing else.  Is this correct?

Likewise $NNTPSERVER does snot seem to reference anything and I don't
know how to set it.  Given I now have an nntpserver file as described
above do I need to do anything with $NNTPSERVER?  If I do, could
someone give me the syntax of the command to set it correctly please.

I would also appreciate a little explanation of which programs access
/etc/nntpserver and/or $NNTPSERVER as I would like to understand what
is going on here if that is not too much trouble.

The other thing that came to mind on this was that I seem to remember
mucking about with a file /etc/hosts when originally trying to get
kppp to work.

The reason I say this is that when I first did telnet localhost 119 it
came back with a strange IP address of 198.98.2.6 or something like
that.  Looking at /etc/hosts there were about four entries in there
including one for 127.0.0.1.  The 198.98.2.6 was the first.

I removed them all except the one for 127.0.0.1 which is now something
like

127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain

(Can't remember and I am at work at the moment so can't check).

Could this be the problem?

Should there be any entries or anything at all in /etc/hosts?

I tried the various syslog options but got nothing out of leafnode but
that does not surprise me as I think I am not actually getting to
leafnode in the first place.

Sorry for the length of this email but I wanted to include as much
diagnostic information as I could.

Any help appreciated.

Dave 

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