QNX Technical Articles

Date of this edition: June 09, 2008

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For the most up-to-date version of these notes, go to our website, www.qnx.com, log into your myQNX account, and then go to the Download area.

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Contents...

• What's new in this product suite?
• Security updates
• Troubleshooting: safe mode
• Video support
• Known issues
• Where to find release notes for specific products
• Online documentation
• Technical support

What's new in this product suite?

This archive includes:

• an ISO of the QNX 4 Product Suite June 2008
• a copy of the license agreement
• installation and release notes

This edition of the product suite has the same content as the July 2003 Product Suite CD, except for the following:

• Fsys.atapi block driver — this driver adds support for the latest IDE/SATA chipsets in legacy and native modes (see below).

  For information about this driver's options, type use Fsys.atapi.

• dinit, fdisk utilities — these utilities support booting on large drives.

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If your QNX 4 computer has a SATA drive, modify the BIOS so that the controller uses IDE legacy/compatibility mode. (Ref# 56067)

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The Fsys.atapi driver supports the following IDE, EIDE and SATA chipsets:

Security updates

In 1990, we wrote the QNX qcrypt() function, using our own methods of encryption. DES was available at that time, but the export restrictions in place meant that we wouldn't have been able to ship our products internationally. This simply wasn't an option at the time.

Subsequently, we heard that the QNX 4 crypt() function had been cracked. We immediately created Security updates that use the standard Unix DES crypt() methods.

Components

The Security updates change the encryption method used in /etc/shadow, which is used by the products listed below to verify passwords.

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You must install the Security update for all of the following packages that you've installed. For example, if you install the update for Photon but not for the QNX 4 OS, phlogin will fail because it isn't using the same encryption as login.

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The only fixes in the Security updates are those related to crypt().

Installation issues

Only root users can affect security on your system — normal users don't have read access to the /etc/shadow file.

Before you install or uninstall a Security update, we recommend that you back up /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow, perhaps on a diskette. If you find that users can't login after the installation, copy these files back to their original locations.

During installation, the install program first backs up all files that need to be updated. The backup files are named filename.qcrypt.

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To maintain a secure system after installing the Security update and making sure that all users can successfully login, be sure to remove /etc/shadow.qcrypt.

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After installing the Security update, you must relink any executables that use the crypt() library function against the updated libraries. Otherwise, the decryption will fail.

Source code

The Security update includes a utility, fix-shadow, that decrypts the current /etc/shadow file and then encrypts the shadow file again using the standard Unix crypt().

Under /etc/readme/security, we've included the source code for the files that we used to create the fix-shadow utility:

main.c

Main function

quncrypt.c

Decrypt function

crypt.c

Standard Unix crypt() function

We used this cc command line to build the fix-shadow executable:

cc -l main.c quncrypt.c crypt.c -o fix-shadow

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We've included the source code used to fix the security problem for your information. You don't need to actually build and run the fix-shadow utility, because installing the Security update automatically produces a secure /etc/shadow file for you.

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Troubleshooting: safe mode

When your machine first boots from the CD, you'll see a message telling you to press any key for safe mode. If you do this, you'll see a menu of installation instructions containing several options:

Diagnostic Mode – F1

This option lets you specify the hardware that will be auto-detected. If you have any unusual devices, you may choose to select/unselect them. After Auto-detection, you may add additional devices manually by using the Add... button.

VGA 16 Color only – F2

You can use this option if any video problems appear when first booting or entering graphics mode. Later on during the installation, you'll be prompted for a video probe to obtain the better resolution.

Keyboard only (no PS/2 Mouse) – F3

If you have problems with your keyboard or pointing device, you may try this option.

Verbose – F4

This option will display all the available information when device drivers or other programs are run. You may find this option useful if there's a problem that's difficult to recognize/diagnose. The additional details provided may be required to help resolve problems.

Reset Keyboard – F5

If you have problems with your keyboard or pointing device, you may try this option.

Reset PS/2 Mouse – F6

If you have problems with your PS/2-compatible pointing device, you may select this option. Some controllers don't get initialized properly.

Emulate Video BIOS – F9

You can use this option if any video problems appear when first booting or entering graphics mode. Often laptops will “emulate” video chipsets through software.

Video support

Some video cards (e.g. in some portables) might not be supported in Photon. Even though the Product Installer can support many of these cards, in order to run Photon itself on such computers you might need a newer version of the Photon graphics drivers.

If this is the case, install all of the latest patches for Photon from the CD. If your video card still isn't supported, please contact Tech Support.

Known issues

The known issues for this edition of the QNX 4 Product Suite include the following:

• The CD installer won't run if your system has more than 1 GB of RAM. (Ref# 55856)
• The Fsys.atapi driver supports SATA drives only in legacy IDE mode. (Ref# 56067)
• If you insert a USB key (or other types of USB devices) into the Dell T3400, the entire system will stop responding. (Ref# 56626).

Where to find release notes for specific products

Each product we ship includes an online “readme” file that contains important information for each release (e.g. recent changes, known problems, configuration hints, and so on).

The files containing the release notes for each of the products you purchased are as follows:

Online documentation

You can read our HTML-based online documentation by using the Photon Helpviewer or a browser, such as our Voyager HTML browser.

Technical support

To obtain technical support for any QNX product, visit the Support + Services area on our website (www.qnx.com). You'll find a wide range of support options, including community forums.