Solaris

I'm a newbie to Unix, but am working with some people that are more knowledgable than I, and we're all stumped.

We are working to secure (Information Assurance) a Command & Control System that uses a Solaris 8 Application server. As part of this process, we are attempting to minimize the Solaris 8 installation. We're approaching this in steps. The system uses a removeable SCSI devices from Z-Microsystems all in TranzPak6 Module(s): hard drive (TP6MD36S-KS ); CD-ROM drive (TP6-MPCDW-00);Tape drive (TP6-MP8MM-20); & floppy drive(TP6-MPFLP-00).

As the first step we removed a number of packages that had not been accessed in over a year. We had also reviewed the package description to determine the likelyhood that the package contained some needed functionality. This proved to be mostly successfull, in that we only needed to re-install one package to be able to get the system to start up. Subsequent testing revealed no problems with our application software, BUT did reveal a problem with accessing the floppy disk.

We can access the CD-ROM drive successfully, but not the floppy.

Symptoms: When a floppy is inserted the drive light comes on shortly after the disk is inserted. The drive light remains on for 30-45 sec and while it's on, the system is non-responsive to the command prompt in the terminal window that we are using to access the Solaris 8 system. The drive light will then go out ( but will flicker occasionally ) for 10-15 sec and while it's out, the system IS responsive to the command prompt usually executing the several commands that we've attempted while the drive light was on.

Troubleshooting: We switched to a UN-modified ( no packages removed ), Hard drive, started the system and were able to access the floppy.

We used the listing in the attached file "packages removed.txt" as the source for a script that removed packages. The attached file "packages remaining.txt" are what we believe are the remaining packages. It was generated by taking the original listing of ALL the installed packages and transferring packages to a listing that ultimately drove the package removal script.

Our next step is to directly generate a list of the packages that are actually on the system and compare it to the list of what we *think* is on the system.

However, none of us are seeing any package(s) that look like they would cause the problem with the floppy that we're seeing.

We have also made some other configuration changes to meet security requirements & those are enumerated in the attachment "Post CT&E work 16 Nov.doc". Again, we're not seeing anything that looks like it would cause the problem with the floppy that we're seeing.

Roy

"Bumfuzzled in Utah"