Kernel 2.6.21.5, GNU (Slackware 12.0).
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.1.2

KDE 3.5.7
artsd 1.5.7
KsCD 1.6

Hi:

I have strong reasons to believe my O.S. is corrupted. And
no matter how many times I reinstall it. It becomes
corrupted in a very short time:

(a) apropos repeats the same lines over and over again.
E.g., when the output should be of the form
a
b
c
it in fact is, say,
a
b
c
a
b
a
b
c
(only an example).
(b) /var/log/messages: here I see an intruder trying to get
into the system every 2s (seconds) or less. For example,
'Invalid user elsa from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx', but the next
time (less than 2s afterwards) it is elton instead of
elsa and so on (here they are using strict
lexicographical order, I now see). The intents are more
serious as time goes by. Even some messages are more
explicit: "POSSIBLE BREAK-IN ATTEMP!".
(c) MPlayer, just built and installed from the slackbuilds
sources and script for Slackware 12.0 fails when playing
audio CDs. I mean the sound has clicks at intervals, as
if being given only a very short CPU time or being
continuously interrupted (although KsCD running on KDE
has no problem at all).

In fact, this thing of /var/log/messages I've been
seeing it for over six months now. I once wrote to LQ
but nothing definite was said or done by me. The
answers I got where too technical for me. For example,
changing the port.

I begin by not knowing if I have a firewall installed
and running. I did 'apropos firewall' and I found
xfwp.
I then did 'ps -e|grep xfwp' and nothing was output,
notwithstanding I was running X at that moment.

Please understand I'm really a newbie in these sucurity
things. But nothing could make happier than stop seeing
those messages in /var/log/messages.

I see two ways in front of me: 1. By means of an
exhaustive description of the problem, to get a solution
from you. 2. Study all those guides I've downloaded from
the linux documentation project, especially that about
network adm and, by trial and error, arrive at a
solution.

For the time being, I've chosen the first. With time, I'll
become a better linux user/programmer. Thanks in advance.

Hi stf92,

It's good that you're dedicated and willing to work on this.
My suggestion would be to open a new post for each of the
three issues you mention. It gets confusing when posts are
not very specific.

The most important one is about the failed login attempts.
As long as you have a good password (upper case, lower case,
numbers and special characters) you don't need to worry about
the system integrity. Please run "last | more" and see if
there have been logins that you don't remember.

You gave two ways to approach learning, and I don't recommend
either one. A better way is to ask for tips or suggestions
on a specific topic and then study the specific item. If
needed, continue asking for tips while you are studying.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you for your kind reply. I'll follow your suggestions. All the best.