@(#)RELNOTES 6.10 01/04/04 XMCD/CDA RELEASE NOTES ---------------------- This distribution comes with several 32x32 pixmap files suitable for use as an xmcd desktop icon. These are installed in XMCDLIB/pixmaps: xmcd.icon - for Novell/SCO UnixWare, 2 colors xmcd_a.px - for SCO Open Desktop (XPM2 format), 2 colors xmcd_b.px - for SCO Open Desktop (XPM2 C format), 2 colors xmcd.xpm - for other systems that use XPM format, 2 colors You can use the appropriate icon setup utilities under each of these environments to create an xmcd icon (with which you can use to launch xmcd). Xmcd and cda must be installed as a suid-root program on virtually all platforms. This is because these utilities use the SCSI pass-through mechanism to control the CD-ROM drive, which requires root privilege on most systems. Security issues have been addressed, however, since neither application will send read/write commands to a device. They will also refuse to send any more command to a device if the initial inquiry shows that the device is not a CD-ROM or CD-R. Also, xmcd changes the uid and gid to that of the real user before reading/writing any files, accessing CDDB services or executing external programs. On systems that do not require super-user privilege for SCSI pass-through, it is actually more secure to turn off the user and group permissions of the SCSI device nodes, and make xmcd and cda suid-root. This prevents malicious users from writing other programs that send arbitrary commands to the devices. Xmcd and cda have also been developed, debugged and rigorously tested with security as a very high priority. If, despite this, you feel uncomfortable about the suid aspect of xmcd/cda then please do not use these applications. Exceptions to the suid-root requirement: If you configure xmcd and cda to operate the drive via the "SunOS/Solaris/Linux ioctl method" the "FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD ioctl method" or the "AIX IDE ioctl method" (see the NON-SCSI CD-ROM DRIVES section below), suid-root privilege is not required. Likewise, suid-root permissions is not required on Solaris systems. Also, the suid requirement does not apply on the Digital OpenVMS platform. Lastly, suid-root privilege is required on QNX. If your platform does not require suid-root priviledge and you are installing xmcd and cda as a non-root user, then you must have read and write permissions to the specified BINDIR, XMCDLIB and MANDIR directories. If you run xmcd/cda without suid-root privilege, then you must make sure that the CD-ROM drive devide node has the appropriate permissions for "other" users. On most platforms it is sufficient to have read-only permission, others may also require write permission. Your xmcd/cda binary should only be run on the same OS platform group that it was compiled on. For example, UNIX SVR4.0 binaries must not be run on a UNIX SVR4.2 system. Likewise, a binary compiled on a SunOS 4.x platform cannot be used on a Sun Solaris 2.x and later system. The XMcd.ad file contains several long lines broken into separate lines using the "\" continuation marker (in particular, the "XMcd*someWidgetName.fontList" lines). This has been known to cause error messages on some Motif implementations. To remedy this, remove the "\" continuation markers and join the multiple lines back into a single line. Do not use xmcd/cda if the CD-ROM drive contains a mounted filesystem data disc (ISO-9660, High Sierra or other formats). Always use the "df" or "mount" command to check if such a filesystem is mounted before invoking the application. Certain OS platforms will print console error messages or record error messages in a log file if the CD device is accessed without a CD loaded in the drive. If you encounter this situation, the workaround is to load a CD in the drive before starting xmcd or cda, and refrain from leaving xmcd in the "no disc" state for an extended period of time. Unless otherwise instructed by your OS or system hardware vendor, it is generally a bad idea to turn off the power of the CD-ROM drive while the operating system is running. Cycling the power may cause the CD-ROM drive to assert a SCSI bus reset or otherwise glitch the SCSI bus, which is not always gracefully handled by the SCSI adapter or your system's SCSI device driver (i.e., possible system hang or crash). Thus, it is best to turn on the CD-ROM drive before booting the OS, and do not turn it off until after OS shutdown. Although xmcd and cda should run reliably on the supported platforms and CD hardware as noted, if you encounter a problem, please send a report to "xmcd@amb.org" with detailed descriptions of the configuration and problem symptoms. It would also be helpful to reproduce the problem while running either application with the -debug option (see the xmcd(1) and cda(1) man pages for the appropriate debug levels to use), and capture the diagnostic output. Send the output to the author for examination. Please also include detailed information about your software and hardware configuration. Better yet, send bug fixes! The modular design of xmcd and cda is such that support for other UNIX environments and CD-ROM drives can be readily added. See the PORTING file for details if you are interested in contributing to the development effort. Before you start a porting effort or add significant code, contact the author to ensure that this effort isn't being duplicated by others. If you wish to remove xmcd and cda from your system, this is how to do it: 1. Log in as root 2. cd BINDIR rm xmcd cda .xmcd_start 3. rm -r XMCDLIB BINDIR is the executable directory that you specified when installing xmcd. XMCDLIB is the top level directory of the xmcd library directory hierarchy. In addition, each xmcd user will have a $HOME/.xmcdcfg directory that may be removed. You may also remove the CDDB library symbolic link, if it exists. These are usually named libcddb.so.1 and libcddb2.so, installed in the /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib directory on your system (on HP-UX, the file is libcddb2.sl).