docs March 2005

docs@lists.fedoraproject.org

21 participants
34 discussions

review of hardening guide
by Rahul Sundaram 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

Hi > > The preview site has been updated. You can check it > out at > http://members.cox.net/tuxxer http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/ch-intro.html#intro-audience " Most of the threats on the Internet typically target Microsoft Windows systems. As more and more users start trying and using linux, it will become more and more important for the common user to know how to harden his or her system against these threats. " this suggests that Linux has no security threats at present which is not true. I would prefer a guide on hardening Linux talk about Linux rather than start by a comparison with Windows http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/ch-chapter1.html The parts about using gpg or md5 requires more explanation. If you are explaning it in a later part refer to that http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/sysid-and-role.html If you are including abbrevations such as NAT it would be better to provide the expansion, explanation or a side note http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/gui-update.html afaik I know yum is the recommended command line program to use instead of up2date in fedora. if you have sections on both yum and up2date you probably need to explain the differences too which I would consider out of scope for this article http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/services-gui.html " The services that you can *safely* disable will depend upon the role of your system." if you need to emphasise on safely use italics or what the style guide recommends. " yum - Enable daily run of yum, a program updater. (This will depend on your environment.)" since every service is pretty much dependant on the role of the system special emphasis for the yum deamon is unnecessary http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/userconfig-cli.html " Below is a list of user accounts that most Fedora Core users will want to disable." The above wording suggests that most users of Fedora do not run the services that follows it. It would be better to say something like this "The following are some of the services that you might want to disable in the system depending on the your requirements" http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/ch-chapter2.html Since this is out of scope for your document by your own admission it would be better to just drop this. Kernel recompilation or additional hardening is unnecessary for the large majority of users and worse gives the idea that the kernel requires active manual intervention to make it secure. http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/ch-chapter3.html I am not sure what the policy is for linking to external documents but permissions are much better explained here http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/ Either link to this document or copy and paste with attribution (The license is compatible) http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/fssummary.html you can mention that these program exist in fedora extras. fc4 will have extras repo enabled by default. previous versions will require more explanation or how to add the repo (steps are different between fc2 and fc3 fyi) http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/limit-root.html a related sshd configuration change is disable ssh1 protocol which is prone to man-in-the-middle attack http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/ch-chapter4.html this section seems to be redundant http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/shells.html this can probably be clubbed together with the section on users http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/passwd-sec-pam-config.html this section requires more information. if you are going to just point to external links convert this section into a note http://members.cox.net/tuxxer/iptables-fw-config.html it is possible to provide a port range here. More information is available in the redhat docs. redhat.com/docs. you cannot copy and paste (license restrictions) but you very well gather the information from there I would prefer a link to the SELinux faq and guide and provide references and a bibliography. thanks Regards Rahul Sundaram __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

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Self-Introduction: Duncan Lithgow
by Duncan Lithgow 03 Apr '05

03 Apr '05

from: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject_2fSelfIntroduction > The below items in bold are Required while the other items are optional but highly recommended. WTF!!?? People volunteer to help and get rather long list of *required* information!!?? I reserve further comment and decided it would be bad form for a new user to edit the wiki... I won't even start talking about right to privacy and the idea of a meritocracy! Anyway... Body 1. Duncan Lithgow 2. I'm in the city of Århus in Denmark (pronounced 'oar-huus'), but New Zealander by birth and taste in breakfast cereals. 3. I'm trained as an architect, self taught so-so php programmer but good with html/css. Currently doing boring labour temping. Done lot's of other irrelevant stuff. Oh, one relevant thing is I'm a trained 'english as a foreign language' (efl/esl) teacher - so i'm passionate on the need for docs written in easy to understand english - far too much is written for advanced english speakers - think how many non english speakers try to make use of these docs. 4. n/a 5. Your goals in the Fedora Project * What do you want to write about? * - don't know yet. Maybe 'Why should your non-nerd girlfriend/boss/college use linux and how to convince them and them her' * What other documentation do you want to see published? - see above * Do you want to edit for grammar/writing and/or technical accuracy? * - yes/yes/no * Anything else special? * - editing for friendliness to esl readers. 6. Historical qualifications * What other projects or writing have you worked on in the past? * - while learning postnuke cms I wrote this about the theme system, I thought it was poorly documented and neede to keep track of what I was learning. I've since turned the xml file over to the postnuke docs team ( i don't use postnuke any more) http://www.lithgow- schmidt.dk/pnThemeManual_v01/ch01.html * What level and type of computer skills do you have? * - modest, just starting to learn the command line. Long time semi-power-user of windows. * What other skills do you have that might be applicable? User interface design, other so-called soft skills (people skills), programming, etc. * - good at cross-culture communication, constructive critic of design quality of gui's in terms of logical structure and intuitiveness. * Why should we trust you? <--- too blunt? * You shouldn't until I've proved myself, but hey, get over it, we're talking about writing docs! 7. GPG KEYID and fingerprint * Be sure that your GPG key is uploaded to pgp.mit.edu. Use "gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --send-key KEYID". * Your GPG fingerprint is 40 hexadecimal characters long, while your KEYID is the last 8 digits. * Below is an example of a block of text suitable for cut & paste into your self-introduction e-mail. * sounds like a hastle, follow the link, it's easier: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x21A8C63A So, that's me on a good day, in an impatient tone. ;-) Duncan

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fedora-list guidelines
by Gustavo Seabra 02 Apr '05

02 Apr '05

Hi, I am new to this list. the reason I'm posting here is the following: At the 'fedora-list' there has been a recent community effort to formulate a document with the "guidelines" for posting to that list. After a number of drafts and discussions, this document has reached a more mature form, and has been put in the form of a web page: Original: http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~seabra/linux/FedoraRules.html Mirror: http://www.cwelug.org/fedora/FedoraRules.html It is already considered "official", in the sense that it grew from discussions in the list that have reached a consunsus. As a next step, we would like to make this document know for most users of the list. For this, the suggestions we have are: 1. Monthly reminder: having a link or a text-only version of this document sent automatically monthly to all subscribers; 2. Part of a welcoming message: Either include a link in the welcoming message, or send a separate e-mail with the text-only version of the document to every new subscriber; 3. Linked to sign-up page: maybe there could be a link in the sign in page? 4. Link in the sugnature. (in **MY** opinion, this would likely be the most effective of all.) It would help if there could be a link in the signature added by RedHat to all messages distributed. The signature could then look something like: --** fedora-list mailing list fedora-list(a)redhat.com To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Before posting to this list, please check << link here >> 4. Submission to Fedora-docs: That last suggestion was made to make this documet more "official". So, that's where we are now. Please consider this message as a "submission" Unless there's another way to do it). We would really appreciate if the people responsibe could take a look at the page and consider accepting it, if it seems appropriate. Thank you very much, -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Gustavo Seabra Graduate Student Chemistry Dept. Kansas State University Registered Linux user number 381680 ------------------------------------------------------------------ If at first you don't succeed... ...skydiving is not for you.

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new project leader
by Tammy Fox 01 Apr '05

01 Apr '05

Hi everyone, Thanks to everyone who has helped with the Fedora docs project. After a slow start, I think we are steadily gaining momentum. >From the Red Hat side, Karsten Wade has really stepped up and demonstrated leadership potential. So much potential in fact, that I have decided to turn over leadership of the project to him. Most projects change leadership once a year or more, and I think this is a great idea for our project as well. In the future, the project leader will change on a yearly basis, if not sooner. I will take more of a technical perspective, offering editing assistance and programming skills should any of our custom DocBook scripts and stylesheets need updating or modifications. In the next few weeks, Karsten will put together a steering committee for the Fedora docs. The committee will meet on a regular basis to discuss tasks that need to be done to move the project forward. Expect to hear more about it from him shortly. Regards, Tammy

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re:how to recruit writers
by samuel desseaux 01 Apr '05

01 Apr '05

I 've read this interessant message and would be happy to get involved in the docs project. I'm French,29,Linux user (and addict) since a long time. In my free time, i like to contribute to free softwares projects (as developer or translator,writer). I am a Fedora user since last year and it's very wonderful (with my 64 bits,that's amazing ).That's for why i want to contribute to Fedora as writer (and developer if i have enough time).It would be for me a very good and learnful experience. So,tell me what i can (or could) do. Best regards sam

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how to recruit writers
by Karsten Wade 01 Apr '05

01 Apr '05

We definitely need more writers and content. Here is a summary of my recruiting spiel, and I encourage all of you to look for opportunities to recruit new writers: * When someone complains about the docs, ask if they are interesting in helping to make them better. * When someone posts any kind of doc, ask if they are interested in making it a Fedora doc (such as Rahul just did on f-devel-l). * When someone expresses a desire to help a particular project or just open source in general, use the arguments below to see if they might like being a doc writer. Where to look: * The LUG you are a member of and related technical groups (IEEE, SANS, etc.) * IRC and other help forums. * Within existing upstream projects, e.g. GNOME, Samba, etc. In the latter case, a person might be able to get a document into Fedora that wouldn't fit or be accepted in an upstream project. Here is a modified spiel I sent out recently. It's a bit long, but it embodies all the ideas I've thought of. I've used this same kind of content in IRC to recruit folks. ## The Fedora Project is looking for more writers. You don't need to be a great writer. That's why we have editors. Look upon it as a chance to improve your writing skills while contributing to the Fedora community. If this intrigues you at all, please read on. Maybe you've wanted to be involved with Fedora but don't know a way. Or you want to expand your involvement. Consider writing or editing for the Fedora Docs Project (FDP): * Have closer contact with your favorite developers and projects. * Become or further expand into being a subject matter expert for your favorite topics.[1] * Gain reputation within the community. * Learn to be a better writer, editor, and technical reviewer. What might you write about? * Be the release notes subject expert. * Installation or configuration of any software or hardware under Fedora Core, including any of the sub-projects such as Fedora Extras, Fedora Directory Server, and so forth. * General or security best practices, even abstracted from the OS but still relevant to Fedora Core. * Whatever interests you. What is there to worry about? "The toolchain is hard." If you don't know DocBook, it's definitely time for you to learn. Meanwhile, project members have volunteered to help anyone get their document converted into DocBook. From there, you can teach yourself as you continue writing and maintaining. We are using the Wiki at http://www.fedoraproject.org/ and remain open to further toolchain/publishing considerations. Heck, if you want to get fedoraproject.org to host a blog that to publish tips-n-tricks, that would be a great Fedora documentation effort. "The amount of content is a lot to write and maintain." The FDP is geared to small how-to and tutorial documentation. If you know your subject area, you can likely write a usable draft that is 80% complete content within a few hours. Give it a try. You can contribute to a larger guide, such as a chapter or even a section. This is currently true for the release notes, and may be how the Fedora Installation Guide is handled in the future. If you are writing about what you know and alrady use, then the odds are that you will be using it in the future and can easily maintain a document on the subject. This is the difference between Fedora docs and the kind of documentation that Red Hat Enterprise Linux does: massive guides are hard to maintain, while small tutorials and how-to docs can be practically painless to maintain. "I hate writing." We need technical editors, especially if more writers start joining. We may need your help in an area you know about already, in terms of the toolchain, automation, CVS management, project management and so forth. Since effective communication is a part of all of our lives, perhaps this is an opportunity for you to get free editing and writing advice. This is especially helpful for non-native writers who would like to improve their English writing skills. Interested? Drop a note to fedora-docs-list(a)redhat.com and tell us whatever you want. [1] To see what this has done for one Fedora wirter, google for "selinux" and see the second full return. The Fedora SELinux FAQ has a lot of googlejuice. ## 30 ## ^^^^^^^^ -- This is an old newspaper usage for "that's all, stop setting type." -- Karsten Wade, RHCE * Sr. Tech Writer * http://people.redhat.com/kwade/ gpg fingerprint: 2680 DBFD D968 3141 0115 5F1B D992 0E06 AD0E 0C41 Red Hat SELinux Guide http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/selinux-guide/

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XIncludes and href
by Gavin Henry 31 Mar '05

31 Mar '05

Dear all, Does anyone have any experience of these, as they are doing my head in? -- Kind Regards, Gavin Henry. Managing Director. T +44 (0) 1467 624141 M +44 (0) 7930 323266 F +44 (0) 1224 742001 E ghenry(a)suretecsystems.com Open Source. Open Solutions(tm). http://www.suretecsystems.com/

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re:how to recruit writers
by BEN CASEY 31 Mar '05

31 Mar '05

Hi Everyone, Regarding this thread... I signed up for the mailing list right when my job was terminated and I was laid off from SGI. Once I can land myself a job, I'll be an active contributor. I have one heck of a mail queue to look through! Regards, Ben __________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger Show us what our next emoticon should look like. Join the fun. http://www.advision.webevents.yahoo.com/emoticontest

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PDF generation: xmlroff
by Tim Waugh 31 Mar '05

31 Mar '05

Recently I've been taking a look at how far along the xmlroff project is (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmlroff) and whether it can meet the needs of the Fedora Project documentation yet. The short answer is that it cannot yet do all that we need; most notably, the implementation of images is in flux and so they do not work at the moment. The upstream maintainer looks to have a good idea of how it should be done, and has posted a step-by-step list on the xmlroff mailing list: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=6775778&forum_id=292… However, aside from images, what other things would we need from an XSL-FO processor? My thinking is that if "all" that's missing for us in xmlroff is the images rewrite, it might be quite a nice project to focus on. Tim. */

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Re: [RFC] Docs Self-Introduction
by Rahul Sundaram 31 Mar '05

31 Mar '05

Hi > * I hope the gpg key isn't a bad hurdle for writers > and editors who are > new to open source projects. It wouldnt be if the process of gpg key generation is documented or an external link is provided on the exact steps including the specific path where the key is stored Regards Rahul Sundaram __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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docs March 2005