Path: vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!illuminati.io.com!nobody
From: dfloyd@pentagon.io.com (Douglas R. Floyd)
Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery
Subject: Little nuggets of <?>
Date: 30 Mar 1995 22:24:01 -0600
Organization: Illuminati Online
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <3lg051$j1p@pentagon.io.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pentagon.io.com

Little nuggets of wisdom:

If a computer comes preinstalled, back it up and low-level format it.
Most likely SOMETHING is broken.

cat /dev/root > /dev/tape is NOT a reliable way to do backups.  Neither
is dd.

If wuarchive is mounted, remember to unmount before doing a find or
a backup, unless you like waiting and/or using tons of tapes.

CD-ROM writers are not the best thing for backing up a file system.

Avoid formatting the root partition as UMSDOS, unless you like pain.

If you have to run a mud, create its own user.  Never run it as root,
especially untested LP code.

Removing the spindle screw out of a hard drive while its spinning is NOT
a way to preserve data.  Neither is removing the controller ROM.

Hot-plugging SCSI devices does NOT make them last longer.

Configuring the machine to boot from the scanner is not a good idea.

Avoid formatting the drive you are booted off of, unless its a CD-ROM.

Never mount a tape as the root filesystem.

Need printouts?  Jack lpr to print through the local mainframe.

Avoid having a null password as root on the firewall.

"It doesn't work" is not a proper complaint.

SoftPC on an Onyx IS "better windows than windows".

No, rm does NOT zero out the first character in a filename...

If the OS has more kernel rebuilds that you have to pay for than Linux,
chuck it and get a generic BSD.

SMIT is NOT the king of admin programs.  Neither is cadmin or admintool.
vi has this honor (vipw for you BSD folks).

user nobody does not belong in wheel, no matter what your users say.

SCO UNIX is not a way to make friends or influence people.  That's
AIX/PS2's job.  (Yes, there is a version of AIX for Intel computers...
run to your IBM dealer for your CD of it and feel the power...)