Re: [Xpert]Re: User-level Tasks in Hotplug Scripts?

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Dr Andrew C Aitchison <A C Aitchison dpmms cam ac uk> writes:

> On Sat, 2 Feb 2002, Jim Gettys wrote:
> 
> > OK, folks (both X and wm-spec-list folks, that is, that I've added to
> > this thread):
> > 
> > How do we want to solve this problem?
> > 
> > We need a secure, interoperable way for configuration scripts running
> > as root to pop up configuration GUI's on user's servers, and we need it soon
> > (yesterday), as hot-plug is now a reality on Linux systems....
> 
> Are you sure you want to do this ?
> Are you *absolutely* sure you want to enable this in the default installation ?
> 
> If the root script cannot open a popup on the display, maybe it is because
> the display is currently being used by someone who shouldn't have access 
> to the popup.
> If I have a stand-alone machine, sure I want a popup when I install a new 
> printer/camera/player/reader in the USB/Firewire/PCMCIA socket.
> However, if this is a classroom machine I might not wish to allow any user
> to just plug in their device and use it. If the root script pops up a 
> config on their window they have just acquired more priviledges than I 
> wish to give them.

There's no reason at all that the configuration GUI has to 
automatically have root privileges; I would tend to expect
something along the lines of:

 A new device "USB Magic Camera" has been detected.
 Please enter the root password to configure this
 device:
           ..............

                            [ Cancel ] [  OK  ]

Regards,
                                        Owen