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 16 characters.
 

A.

Don't have usernames longer than 16 characters, or you can modify common.h in the ACUA source and change LAX_LOGINCHARS to be a bigger value, then re-compile ACUA.  Some versions of Linux really can't support long usernames properley.  Any modern distribution should be able to cope with 16-charactor usernames though.


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:

If you've used a utility to get a .tar.gz of the sources, you could build and install the package like this: If the build fails for some reason, then you'll have to fix it yourself or get help from other users.


Q.

Can ACUA support the following access policies?

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.

Q.

acua_updated dies occasionally and I don't know why. Help!
 

A.

Please do the following:



Robert Davidson