Re: [Setup-tool-hackers] users-admin has trouble with groups,empty lists

[Tambet Ingo <tambet ximian com>]

Hello, and thanks for Your report.

> (note: this is from cvs.gnome.org, which is the main source, right?)

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!)

The distiction between normal and system users is done considering
variables from /etc/login.defs file (UID_MIN, UID_MAX, GID_MIN,
GID_MAX). I consider all those groups You listed system groups, cause
there's no real user behind them. RedHat defaults to make new group to
every user and assigns first gid available which is >= GID_MIN (which is
500 in my RH 6.2). All groups smaller than GID_MIN are considered system
groups.

> 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.

That is a bug. But with default redhat You really should have at least
one group which is named after Your username.

> 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...'

That's what is happening. 'Add' adds new group with first available GID
starting from GID_MIN. But yes, Advanced mode should have GID entry as
well. For now You can edit GIDs inline in Groups list (adv mode only).

> 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.

Most of distros behave like RH, giving new group for every user. I think
we should follow that trend and be consistent with others...

> 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.

You got point there and we'll consider this (Note: What others think of
that idea?)

> Why aren't the `Group' and `Comment' columns shown in the `more
> options' user scrollbox???

What do You mean by 'user scrollbox'? Main window's user listing? If
that's the case then You can add/remove/ columns, sort/group by columns
etc... To do that right-click on table header and popup menu appears
with all these options. Note that Your designed table layouts get saved
through sessions.

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

Yup. Will remove that.

> 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).

I don't think it's confusing. It's for advanced mode and everyone who's
even little bit advanced should know about variables (in our case $var
is variable in both shell and perl). It's like that in Windows also so
it shouln't be confusing for windows users either.

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

Yes. I didn't get it ready for 0.4 release and it's not checked in yet.
Will be very soon though.

>     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)

We do the checking using libcrack and if user doesn't have it installed
then it's kinda hard to check it's quality. So if the user doesn't have
libcrack installed, there isn't that checkbox (Actually it is but it is
known bug :)

Tambet


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