Re: Display Catch-22
On Mon, May 24, 2004 at 04:09:51PM -0400, Thomas H. George wrote:
> On Mon, May 24, 2004 at 10:57:52AM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote:
> > Thomas H. George wrote:
> > > My Belkin UPS probably saved my computer from the power surge but its
> > > internal programming is probably fried. I reinstalled the software from
> > > the Linux tarball changing all the ownerships to root:tom and all the
> > > permissions to 770.
> >
> > Please be specific. What software did you reinstall? Did you
> > reinstall Debian?
>
> Sorry, I took it for granted that I was reinstalling the Belkin Bulldog
> software for linux which came with the UPS. It is the internal
> programming in the Belkin UPS that is probably fried. The computer and
> the Debian kernel and software were unscathed.
> >
> > > This allows me to display the monitor but I cannot
> > > change the setup. When I originally installed the UPS I did all this as
> > > root and was able to change the setup. This is no longer possible as
> > > security changes do not allow me to open a display as root.
> >
> > What software are you talking about here? Belkin UPS monitoring
> > software? From Debian or from elsewhere?
>
> The Belkin Bulldog software. Is there a good Debian alternative?
Maybe. Some Belkin UPS appear to be supported by the "nut" package,
which has both linux and windows versions. I have not used this
but you might look into it. If you are using a Belkin universal UPS,
you might need to look into the latest version, nut 2.x which has not
yet made it into the Debian archives, but the source is available from
their homepage. Note that the stable tree appears to have a quite old
nut package (I don't know if it supports Belkin UPS), the one in
Sarge/testing supports some Belkin UPS, the 2.x version supports more.
I don't know if there are other packages that support Belkin. If you
have to buy another UPS, you may want to check out which ones are well
supported by some UPS packages first (it seems a lot of APC ones are
supported).
> >
> > > The only thing to change is the com port which I was certain I had right
> > > in the first place. To be sure I uninstalled the programs and
> > > reinstalled them changing from /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/ttyS1. Neither works
> > > though /dev/ttyS0 retrieved some information but in either case the
> > > installed software generates periodic messages that the UPS device is
> > > unreachable. This is what makes me believe the UPS internal software is
> > > fried.
> > >
> > > Before replacing it I would like to be sure that the display problem is
> > > resolved. I have searched the X11, xdm and icewm setup files trying to
> > > remove the restriction preventing opening a display as root. My plan
> > > would be to take the computer offline (The connection is wireless so
> > > ifdown wlan0 does this) during the time the root prohibition is overwridden.
> >
> > I usually use 'ssh -l root -X localhost' to log into the machine as
> > root and tunnel the display back. But other suggest other options.
> >
> I haven't studied ssh and will do so. I did try entering the command
> exactly as given above and got "connection refused". I'll work on this.
You probably don't have a sshd running?
If I understand correctly, you are talking about a local X display, but
you are (correctly) prevented from logging into X as root?
You can log in as your normal user, open an xterm, "su" to root and
then run the Belkin software (as root). It sounds like this is what
you are wanting. You can also look into "sudo" for allowing users to
execute some commands with root privileges.
--
Chris Harris <charris@rtcmarketing.com>
-------------------------------------------
GNU/Linux --- The best things in life are free.
Reply to: