AIX/IA64 Software Repository

Project Monterey runs again!

Introduction

This repository contains a modest collection of ready-to-run precompiled software packages for IBM AIX 5.1L for Itanium (IA-64), previously known as Project Monterey.

Overview

• These are Itanium (IA-64) packages! They will not work on standard IBM POWER systems!
• All packages extract to ./opt/freeware and may be unpacked from the root directory for installation.
• All packages are built statically to avoid complex package interdependencies, unless otherwise indicated.

Notes

All users of these packages should read the following notes:

• Care has been taken to retain interoperability with the installed system tools; users who prefer a GNU-style shell environment may safely add /opt/freeware/bin to the start of their PATH.
  • Some binaries have been renamed to avoid conflicts (e.g. gmake) when the packaged tool is incompatible with the system tool.

• Installation of the ncurses package is always recommended; ncurses applications (e.g. aclock, elvis, g, etc.) will load terminal definitions at runtime.

• Shells intended for interactive login use (e.g. mksh, bash, etc.) should be added to both /etc/shells and /etc/security/login.cfg.

• gcc-3.1.1-2.tar.Z depends on the GNU assembler (gas) included in the binutils package. The bootstrap compiler is an experimental standalone cross-compiled variant useful for compiler development but not required for regular usage.

• The elvis editor is compiled with basic X11 support. The required X11 system libraries are included in the default AIX installation.

OpenSSH

openssh-9.1p1-1.tar.Z is available as an experimental (but extremely functional) package! Hooray!

1. Only pubkey-based authentication is supported by the sshd daemon.
   • All other authentication methods are currently unsupported.
2. utmp/wtmp/btmp is not updated by the sshd daemon. Use ps to view sshd logins as workaround:
   • ps auxw | grep 'sshd: ' | grep -Ev '(^root|grep.*sshd: )'
     • The following shell aliases, while optional, may be useful:
       • alias w="w;ps auxw | grep 'sshd: ' | grep -Ev '(^root|grep.*sshd: )'"
       • alias who="who;ps auxw | grep 'sshd: ' | grep -Ev '(^root|grep.*sshd: )'"
3. The sshd daemon requires a sshd user and group to be configured.
   • The primary group of the sshd user must be the sshd group.
   • The sshd user account must be locked, but with logins allowed.
   • The sshd user should be configured to use /usr/bin/false as the login shell.
     • /usr/bin/false must be configured as a valid login shell (in /etc/shells and /etc/security/login.cfg)
   • The home directory of the sshd user should be /var/empty, with 755 permissions.
4. AIX/IA64 5.1L provides no CSPRNG. Only system state is available. As a workaround:
   • The prngd daemon (not yet packaged) is supported as an entropy source.
5. The security of the sshd daemon (and AIX/IA64 5.1L in general) is not guaranteed.
   • The AIX/IA64 5.1L system should not be directly exposed to the Internet.
   • Use of a properly secured firewall and/or bastion/jump host is strongly recommended.
6. The performance of the sshd daemon is lackluster. As a workaround:
   • Avoid the rsa and ecdsa key algorithms; use ed25519 instead.
   • Avoid the 3des cipher; use aes or chacha20 instead.
   • Avoid the SSH compression feature.
7. Specify a log file path when starting the sshd daemon. For example:
   • As root: /opt/freeware/sbin/sshd -E /var/tmp/ssh.log.
8. No SRC service configuration is currently provided for the sshd daemon.
   • SRC setup (documented elsewhere) is left as an excercise for the reader, or,
   • sshd may be started from the standard /etc/rc.local startup script.

Errata

While no guarantees are made, all packages are thoroughly tested, and the following issues have been identified:

• mksh-r59_20220928-1 has a bug affecting signal handling and delivery (#15).
  • No workaround is available. The issue is currently under investigation.

• elm-ME+2.5.alpha60-1.tar.Z requires the elm binary to be setgid mail for proper operation:
  • As root: chown root:mail /opt/freeware/bin/elm && chmod g+s /opt/freeware/bin/elm

• top-3.8beta1p2-1.tar.Z requires the top binary to be setuid root for proper operation:
  • As root: chown root:system /opt/freeware/bin/top && chmod u+s /opt/freeware/bin/top

• coreutils-9.1-1.tar.Z has the following two (2) known issues:
  1. GNU sort has a bug affecting configure scripts (#6). As a workaround:
     • Rename sort to gsort. As root: mv /opt/freeware/bin/sort /opt/freeware/bin/gsort
  2. GNU ls has a bug which causes numeric UIDs/GIDs to not be printed (#13).
     • No workaround is available. A fix will be included in the next release.

• libressl-3.6.0-2.tar.Z has the following two (2) known issues:
  1. The vsyslog_r function is missing (#14). An empty stub may be used as a workaround:
     • void vsyslog_r(int pri, struct syslog_data *data, const char *fmt, va_list ap) {}
  2. LibreSSL headers normally include stdint.h, which is not available on stock AIX/IA64. As a workaround:
     • Include unistd.h and/or sys/types.h in your application ahead of the LibreSSL headers.

• jzip-borg-2.1p2-1.tar.Z may drop keystrokes or have poor performance (#7). As a workaround:
  • This issue can only be replicated using a TELNET connection. Use an SSH connection or a local console instead.

• And last, but not least, our compiler has many bugs.
  • There is currently no debugger, and no support for languages other than C (#4).
  • All compiled executables must be comprehensively tested to ensure proper function.
    • Successful compilation does not mean you have a working binary.
    • Using automated tests with a high level of code coverage is strongly encouraged.