After encountering some rather weird behavior from a remotely located
Linux box running a 2.2.5 kernel I decided to upgrade the kernel in hopes
that the upgrade would fix the problem. After a long upload of a
precompiled 2.2.13 kernel and its instalation, kppp would fail to start
trying to establish a PPP connection. It would fail to connect with an
error in which it stated that the kernel lacked PPP support (not true).
After a look through the CVSed source code to kppp I found a note in the
latest changes in which the code that check for PPP support was bypassed
because a security fix in 2.2.13 broke it (for non-root users at least). My
old kppp binary of course lacks that change. Well because of the constraits
of the remote machine upgrading kppp is pretty much unfeasable (too slow a
link, too slow a remote computer, too little remaining space on that remote
computer to take all the files needed for a full upgrade, and the lack of a
compiler on the remote computer). I tried just upgrading the kppp binary
but that wasn't enougth (binary probably needed other associated files)
besides which the kppp binary may very well need to match up with the
installed version of KDE which by now I am uncertain of what it may be. My
question is if there is a way to either turn off that security fix or bypass
it for kppp. From the kppp source it appears that the fix had something to
do with running an ioctrl on a ppp device.
As a side note:
The initial problem is really weird. Logins coming from that machine
over a PPP link appear to mess up parts of the wyse50 emulation. The entire
system worked previously when the logins were going to a Solaris box (still
work too). Those logins now go to a Linux box and some of the keys do not
function as they should. Problem also occurs if I telnet to that box and
then back to the login server using wyse50 emulation. However that problem
doesn't occur if the telnets occur from one of our other (local) Linux or
windows/terminals boxes (All running either 2.2.13 or 2.0.38). I've already
tried playing with the termcaps and terminfos on both machines. Problem may
also not be entirely consistant. No completely sure about this but the
problem may only occur 98% of the time. We've tried figuring out all the
possible causes of the problem and for now are only left with either the
kernel or pppd deamon as being the root cause of the problem.
Thank for any help.
- A. Barbachan
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