RE: su for dummies

["Gerry Chu" <gerry gerrychu com>]

I read somewhere that ximian is working on something called "root-manager"
which I think will do what you have in mind.

Gerry
gerry gerrychu com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org
> [mailto:gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org]On Behalf Of Jonas De Vuyst
> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 7:05 AM
> To: gnome-gui-list gnome org
> Subject: su for dummies
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I wonder what will be the plan in Gnome 1.4 (or Gnome 2.0) for getting
> root priviliges. Right now I seem to have the options of logging in as
> root and opening a gnome-terminal, typing su and executing the program.
>
> Logging in as root is something I'd rather not advice to friends coming
> from Windows. It is insecure and applications as gmc, Nautilus and
> [x]chat keep reminding you of that (rightfully so).
>
> Explaining the gnome-terminal way is quite embarrasing too. We've got
> beautiful software like Nautilus, Evolution and Red Carpet but can't
> accomplish a simple thing as getting root priviliges.
>
> Obiously we need a "become root" dialog!
>
> The KDE way of doing this would be to have menu items choose the user as
> which the programs should run. This would be an easy fix and Good Enough
> for most applications, so perhaps this should be done even if my next
> suggestion was implemented.
>
> As a lot of the applications that need root (or any other users)
> priviliges can also work without them it might be nice to provide an API
> for this. Say I was running Nautilus and I wanted to enter /root/, a
> dialog box could come up and ask me to enter the root password or
> cancel. Another example would be gmenu, if I wanted to edit the
> system-wide menus then I shoud be able to do this by hitting an "unlock"
> button. One more example, it would be nice if I could run Red Carpet as
> a normal user, see if there were any updates and if so ask me for a
> password if I wanted to install them.
>
> Of course I'm assuming here that you haven't already thought of this.
>
> - Jonas
>
>
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