[Setup-tool-hackers] users-admin has trouble with groups, emptylists

[Nils Barth <nils_barth post harvard edu>]

Hiyas-

While testing out users-admin on RedHat 7.1, I noticed the following
problems:
(note: this is from cvs.gnome.org, which is the main source, right?)

If `Show all users and groups' is unchecked, then by default (on my
system) NO groups show up.
This is because RedHat defaults to making the `users' group 100, and
all other groups under about 250.
However, many packages create groups between 100 and 500
(pppusers, popusers, xfs, wine -- just for starters!)

Thus, one should either default to showing all groups from 100 up, or
special case users/GID 100.

*********** Bug report starts here ***********

If `show all users and groups' is unchecked (as it always is for `fewer
options'), then on a default RedHat installation (5.2,6.x,7.x at
least...), `User Settings...' throws:

Gtk-CRITICAL **: file gtkcombo.c: line 849 (gtk_combo_set_popdown_strings): assertion `strings != NULL' failed.

b/c there are no groups visible.

---------------------------

The `Add group...' and `Groups/Settings...' dialogs are missing
a key feature: GID!
`Add' should set a default GID (starting at 500, say) (not displayed
on `fewer options'), and the GID should be editable through
`Settings...'

This causes a problem when you `Apply': since no valid GID exists,
groupadd/groupmod fails.

 *********** Bug report ends here ***********
(should I file these in bugzilla.ximian.com?)
(now back to design recommendations ;-)

--------------------------

The default group for new users should be `users', not themselves.
Think of the following case:
J. Newbie creates two users: foo, bar
There are now 2 users, and 2 groups.
However, foo can be a member of foo and bar and bar can be a member of
bar and foo.
What are these `group' things again???
Otoh if there's just one group, users, to which everyone is added,
this doesn't arise.

In fact, a novice user shouldn't be dealing with group/have any need
for groups anyway, right?
They basically add/remove users and change passwords; the concept of
`group' is kinda confusing, and unnecessary for simple desktop
maintainance.
Thus, the `Groups' tab should be eliminated from the main window
`fewer options' and from the `Settings...' dialog w/`fewer options',
as should the `Group' column from the users scrollbox.

--------------------------

Why aren't the `Group' and `Comment' columns shown in the `more
options' user scrollbox???
In particular, this prevents one from being able to see the group or
comments for users with UID < 500.

--------------------------

In `Users', when `fewer options' is set, the search options should not
contain `UID is' or `GID is'.

--------------------------

In the `User settings' dialog:

the use of `$user' is likely confusing to anyone who's not familiar
with shell variables -- it would be better to instead include the
user's name (yes, this would mean updating the default home directory
whenever the admin changed the username -- it should be clear to them
what's going on, since they are both visible at once).

  Password tab:

    The `Enter a new password' button is gratuitous: just include two
    boxes (enter password, confirm (`confirm' greyed by default)).

    The `Generate a random password' button should be an advanced feature,
    (it's not in the `New User' druid!)
    and could be called `Assign a random password', which is a bit more
    accurate/clear.

    `Check password quality' should be checked by default.
    (same in the add user druid)
    Actually, in the `add user druid' there shouldn't be a checkbox --
    it should require that the password be of good quality
    (if you need a druid to add a user, you need to be prevented from
    setting your password equal to your username)


Hope these help...

-- 
cheers,
  -nils
Public key: http://www.nbarth.net/~nbarth/pub-key.txt
http://www.sneakemail.com/   ** Free disposable email addresses!

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