ACUA FAQ
Some questions are asked again and again, so I have finally decided to create a FAQ for ACUA. The FAQ's purpose is to provide concise answers to common questions. Unlike the HOWTO, the FAQ does not aim to give detailed explanations of how to accomplish specific objectives with ACUA. Where appropriate, references will be made to the relevant documentation and other sources of information.
NOTE: this FAQ will grow over time -- right now it only includes those FAQ's that came immediately to my mind.
Q.
ACUA doesn't work properly when I have usernames that start with a numeric digit (e.g. "2cool").
A.
Don't have usernames that start with a numeric digit.
Q.
ACUA doesn't work properly when I have usernames longer than 8 characters.
A.
Don't have usernames longer than 8 characters. ACUA can support long usernames, but Linux really can't support them properly. This might change, but until it does you need to stick to 8-character or shorter usernames.
Q.
I have RedHat 5, but I can't install the binary rpm -- it complains about dependencies.
A.
You probably need to get gcc-2.8.x. As of this writing, it's available at:
- ftp://ftp.redhat.com:/pub/contrib/hurricane/i386/gcc-2.8.1-1.i386.rpm
- ftp://ftp.redhat.com:/pub/contrib/hurricane/i386/gcc-c++-2.8.1-1.i386.rpm
Q.
The binary rpm requires libraries I don't have and I don't really want to upgrade libraries. How can I get ACUA installed?
A.
If you don't want to upgrade libraries to get ACUA going, there is another way: rebuild the package from the sources.
If you have rpm installed, it's done like this:
- rpm -i acua-2.x-1.src.rpm
- cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
- rpm -bb acua-2.x.spec
- cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386
- rpm -Uvh acua-2.x.i386.rpm
If you've used a utility to get a .tar.gz of the sources, you could build and install the package like this:
- tar xzvf acua-2.x.tar.gz
- cd acua-2.x
- make dep
- make clean
- make install
If the build fails for some reason, then you'll have to fix it yourself or get help from other users.
Q.
The supplied programs acua117-200 and acua200-202 don't seem to work properly. What's the deal?
A.
glibc's uid_t is 32 bits, whereas Linux's uid_t is 16 bits. acua117-200 assumes that Linux's uid_t is being used, whereas acua200-202 assumes that glibc's uid_t is being used. These assumptions will be true in most cases, but not always. Hopefully everyone will be switched over to glibc soon and this won't be an issue anymore.
Q.
Can ACUA support the following access policies?
// fill in access policies here
A.
I haven't met an access policy yet that ACUA couldn't do. Many common access policies are very simple to implement, whereas some require a better understanding of the package, and maybe even some shell scripting. Read the manuals, then read the HOWTO and ensure you understand the examples it contains. Once you gain an understanding of how ACUA works and what it can do for you, I hope you will find it can be a great help to you. I have tried to ensure ACUA is powerful and flexible enough to enable a great degree of automated access control.
Adam McKee
Last modified: Sat Apr 11 23:53:15 CST 1998