Submitted by This howto will show you how to store your users in LDAP and authenticate some of the services against it. It will not show how to install particular packages, as it is distribution/system dependant, instead it will focus on pure configuration of all componenets needed to have LDAP authentication/storage of users. The howto assumes that you are migrating from a regular passwd/shadow authentication, but it is also suitable for people who do it from scratch. On other business/networking software news, check this review of the Hula calendaring server and app.
LDAP Authentication In Linux; Hula Review
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Eugenia Loli
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This is a good article on LDAP implementation (or conversion really) though I do question its relevance to this site, given it’s not talking about any particular new operating system features and is over a fortnight old.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to share this sort of material, just not worthy of an “news article” given its age and subject matter, in my opinion. It’s more a how-to in my view, not an osnews.com worthy article.
Edited 2006-09-03 13:06
OSNews is not just about news (just like TheOnion has nothing to do with onions). It is about a whole lot of things, about all geeky or technical things. Next time you have such thoughts please email the osnews-crew team.
Sure thing.. I just don’t see how an LDAP how-to is “Exploring the future of computing”. It’s been around for so long and there are so many LDAP implementation how-to and reference articles out there.
Wow! I’m impressed by the slick interface of Hula. When this project started I had a lot of ifs and buts. But maybe this project can really become a very good open source groupware solution.
I’m impressed by the slick interface of Hula. When this project started I had a lot of ifs and buts. But maybe this project can really become a very good open source groupware solution.
There are quite a few open source, mature and full featured groupware options such as OpenGroupware, eGroupware and Kolab. They’re all pretty good. If Hula has something that any of these other open source options have then that’s good, but it doesn’t.
Just because something is produced by Novell and open sourced, it doesn’t mean it’s going to amount to anything faced with the near ubiquity of Exchange. That’s just one problem that open source software faces, and where Novell’s commercial Groupwise option has long since failed.
I’ve never resorted to personal attacks, segedunum, and I won’t start now.
However.
Hula has a chance over OpenGroupware and the other contenders you mention because, as numerous marketeers have found out, man (m/f) isn’t purely homo economicus. If s/he was, the only car brand left would be Toyota. People — and I include admins in that category — are influenced by software that’s not only functional, but also pretty. Hula scores in that respect.
As for the maturity of Hula: it’s based on Netmail which has been a pretty rock solid piece of software for the past 6 years or so.
I’ve never resorted to personal attacks, segedunum, and I won’t start now.
And? Is this some form of ‘higher being’ comment?
Hula has a chance over OpenGroupware and the other contenders you mention because, as numerous marketeers have found out, man (m/f) isn’t purely homo economicus.
Has a chance of doing what, exactly?
People — and I include admins in that category — are influenced by software that’s not only functional, but also pretty. Hula scores in that respect.
In a way, yes, but you need more than just a pretty logo to get anywhere. Besides, you still haven’t come up with any solid reasons as to why anyone will choose it over the other options available, or how anyone in the ‘pretty’ Exchange world will end up using it.
As for the maturity of Hula: it’s based on Netmail which has been a pretty rock solid piece of software for the past 6 years or so.
It was open sourced because Netmail as a product got as far as an asthmatic ant with some very heavy shopping (apologies to Blackadder). That’s the reason it was open sourced – it’s already gone nowhere.
Has a chance of doing what, exactly?
Have some succes in the area of groupware/mail. Isn’t that what we’re talking about?
Besides, you still haven’t come up with any solid reasons as to why anyone will choose it over the other options available, or how anyone in the ‘pretty’ Exchange world will end up using it.
‘Prettyness’ is a solid reason, like it or not. And you haven’t seen me write that it’s a direct contender to Exchange, although there is some space in the market. There always is.
It was open sourced because Netmail as a product got as far as an asthmatic ant with some very heavy shopping (apologies to Blackadder)
You may liken Netmail to a nonagerian Norwegian grandmother with a basket full of lutefisk (apologies to Tom Robbins), but you missed the point: whatever it’s sales succes may have been, Netmail was a pretty solid piece of code.
Have some succes in the area of groupware/mail. Isn’t that what we’re talking about?
Kolab, OpenGroupware and eGroupware are already doing it – open source wise. You’ve also got Open Exchange doing well as well, which Novell dropped in the form of SLOX (a pretty decent and established product at Suse) for some reason in order to concentrate on Groupwise (dead, and no growth in sight) and Hula (a dead product turned into a project with a pretty logo for technology wankers).
Success in the groupware area means making headway against Exchange, and there’s no evidence that any of these alternatives will be doing that. There’s certainly no evidence that an open sourced bit of code, and yet another groupware server, with a pretty logo will do it either.
Certainly, in the commercial world Groupwise has been an unmitigated disaster. I suppose the worst Novell could do is switch to Hula.
‘Prettyness’ is a solid reason, like it or not.
Exchange didn’t get to where it is by being pretty.
And you haven’t seen me write that it’s a direct contender to Exchange, although there is some space in the market. There always is.
It’s highly congested, and the space is already taken. I did hear Nat Friedman once talk pie-in-the-sky about a competitor to GMail and Google Calendar. Dream on.
You may liken Netmail to a nonagerian Norwegian grandmother with a basket full of lutefisk (apologies to Tom Robbins)
You missed the meaning I think…….
…but you missed the point: whatever it’s sales succes may have been, Netmail was a pretty solid piece of code.
The code can be as solid as it likes, but there are plenty of other examples of ‘solid’ code in the open source world of e-mail and groupware worthy of attention. It certainly didn’t make Netmail a success, nor does it make Hula any different.
You’re forgetting one important thing that Hula has over OpenGroupware, Kolab, etc. Ease of set up. It’s extremely easy to set up. I’ve tried setting up Kolab (unfortunately there isn’t a Evolution plugin for it yet, and since I am a Gnome user, that’s important for me.) OpenGroupware is also more or less a pain to set up.
With Hula, it was really easy, though they have redone the interface since I first started using it, so now you have to use the command line to add new users, it’s still very easy and nice to use.
Alternatively of course, a distribution could package a good graphical front-end with a configured OpenLDAP set up and none of this would be necessary. You could configure a server easily, and then configure your clients quickly and easily to get their authentication information from it.
If you want to beat Active Directory for Windows, do that first.
Actually, there are several that already do that. Xandros, Fedora Core, Mandrake. These all have configuration editors for logging into a Active Directory or LDAP server.
I’d really like to see ubuntu and Debian packages for a gdm-ldap or something similar that will connect gdm up to an ldap server for corporations. Perhaps with Hula/Ldap/GDM we can get the perfect active directory replacement.
I’d really like to see ubuntu and Debian packages for a gdm-ldap or something similar that will connect gdm up to an ldap server for corporations.
GDM uses PAM, and PAM has LDAP and Kerberos connectors.
I’ve used ’em, they work good.
How to configure Ubuntu to authenticate to Active Directory:
http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/HOWTO:_Configure_Ubuntu_…