I've installed Mandrake 6.1 on a new laptop (an early Christmas
present :) and notice a little trouble with the RPMs. Somehow, they
include the old postgresql-clients-6.4.2 package as well as all of the
-6.5.1 packages. I assume that RedHat 6.1 does not show the same
problem?

Does anyone already talk to the Mandrake folks, or run Mandrake and
would like to pursue this?

btw, the RPM installation was *really nice*!!!!! For some reason the
server packages were not installed when I built the system, and I
installed later so got to see it happen. The RPM automatically
unpacked everything, did the initdb, and a
"/etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql start" got me a server.

One detail: Mandrake defines a Postgres user, but disables the
password. I added the password and was then able to log in as the
Postgres user and add other users. Is that the preferred way to do
it??

                   - Thomas

-- 
Thomas Lockhart				lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu
South Pasadena, California

Fri, 19 Nov 1999 15:40:30 +0000
Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu>
Mandrake Postgres RPMs
> One detail: Mandrake defines a Postgres user, but disables the
> password. I added the password and was then able to log in as the
> Postgres user and add other users. Is that the preferred way to do
> it??

I usually 'su' to the postgres - user from root, and then create a
super-user-account
for myself, and then do all the other stuff from there.
I don't know how other people think about this, but I have found that
the less passwords there are into a system, the harder it is for people to
break in.

Joost Roeleveld


Fri, 19 Nov 1999 16:56:48 +0100
"J. Roeleveld" <j.roeleveld@softhome.net>
Re: [HACKERS] Mandrake Postgres RPMs
Thomas Lockhart wrote:
> I've installed Mandrake 6.1 on a new laptop (an early Christmas
> present :) and notice a little trouble with the RPMs. Somehow, they
> include the old postgresql-clients-6.4.2 package as well as all of the
> -6.5.1 packages. I assume that RedHat 6.1 does not show the same
> problem?

That is a Mandrake problem.  They haven't really followed the
development of the new RPM's like RedHat did for RedHat 6.1.  So, they
shipped mutually exclusive RPMs for PostgreSQL because they didn't pay
close enough attention.  Also, the RPM's shipped with Mandrake 6.1 are
somewhat older than what shipped with RedHat 6.1.  And RedHat 6.1 does
not include any older RPMs of PostgreSQL.  (http://www.cheapbytes.com
for real cheap RedHat CD's..... :-))  HOWEVER, f you have a laptop, you
may want to wait until RedHat 6.2 is released, as there are some issues
with some laptops and RedHat 6.1's kernel -- although I think that most
of the troubles are with Toshiba's.

> Does anyone already talk to the Mandrake folks, or run Mandrake and
> would like to pursue this?

I have e-mailed the Mandrake folks on two occasions -- haven't received
a reply.  HOWEVER, they will pull whatever is the current RPM set from
ftp.postgresql.org when they get to another release point (AFAIK).

> btw, the RPM installation was *really nice*!!!!! For some reason the
> server packages were not installed when I built the system, and I
> installed later so got to see it happen. The RPM automatically
> unpacked everything, did the initdb, and a
> "/etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql start" got me a server.

Well, thank you.  It is virtually impossible to force the installation
of the server package for the OS install without forcing it for all
installs -- which I believe we didn't want -- the purpose of splitting
it out, IIRC, was to allow a client-only installation for those who
might want such a beast.

As I said, that was a slightly older RPM set than RedHat 6.1 shipped --
Mandrake 6.1 shipped before RH 6.1 by a couple of weeks. The Mandrake
people pulled the 6.5.1-0.8 RPM's off of RawHide -- apparently about two
days before I finalized the upgrading stuff -- but after I put in the
automatic initdb, I believe.

> One detail: Mandrake defines a Postgres user, but disables the
> password. I added the password and was then able to log in as the
> Postgres user and add other users. Is that the preferred way to do
> it??

RedHat 6.1 also does this.  This way, passwordless accounts are not left
after an installation as a security hole.  BTW, this is the way I
normally run -- if I want to do stuff as postgres, I su to root then su
to postgres, as I don't want to allow direct logins to postgres.  Of
course, to each his own.  The RPM post install script could feed a
default password in, but that would be just as bad as no password at
all.

Glad you're enjoying it....

--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Fri, 19 Nov 1999 12:14:20 -0500
Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org>
Re: Mandrake Postgres RPMs