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Tasklist

FS#2342 - Make Arch more user friendly by fixing user permissions on peripherals

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Eugenia Loli-Queru (Eugenia) - Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 06:15 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category System
Status Closed
Assigned To Judd Vinet (judd)
Architecture not specified
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version 0.7 Wombat
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 0%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

I would like to add for an Arch-specific script or application that would take care of the No1 problem new users have when move to Arch: setting up the right permissions on Udev. Instead of having the users reading that _scary_ udev tutorial on the wiki, I suggest you create a little app that takes care of peripheral usage. For example:
arch-permit -ALL <username>
would give permission to the user to all usb, fw, serial, parallel, optical, sound etc hardware devices as seen as both udev *and* hotplug (digicams, the most common kind of usb usage, must be set on hotplug for example). Ask the user if he really wants to do that, as it might be a security risk, but do offer this ability, because many users are trying to find a Mac OS X experience with Linux, where everything "just works".
other options should include:
arch-permit -optical <username>
to only give permission to optical hardware.
And also, an
arch-permit -R <username>
would remove these permissions from the user.

I think that creating Arch-specific tools that make the life easier of your users, it's an INVESTEMENT of your time towards the further success of the project.
This task depends upon

Closed by  James Rayner (iphitus)
Sunday, 15 October 2006, 10:38 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't fix
Additional comments about closing:  now groups for many of those device categories.

in the past, such configuration tools, have been looked down on, much of the idea of arch is to shy away from custom setups.

no demand, need, nor anyone with motive to complete this.
Comment by Eugenia Loli-Queru (Eugenia) - Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 06:20 GMT
Oh, I forgot. The -power switch should allow the user for running halt/reboot/shutdown/poweroff/acpi commands. The -pacman command should allow the user to run pacman and install apps (this might not be a great idea, needs discussion).

Basically, a user that was set as -ALL, -power and -pacman would be a kind of an administrative account, without being totally root. Just like on OSX or XP. Of course, the arch-permit application should notify the user of potential security risks this brings. But do let the user decide how to run Arch. Make it easy for him/her to run it on OSX-mode, or on raw Linux-mode.
Comment by Tobias Powalowski (tpowa) - Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 07:42 GMT
your user has only to be in the right group and you don't even have to take care about udev. all is done automatically.
if you want more user friendlyness use dbus and hal as addition.
new gnome and kde take full advantage out of it.
Comment by Eugenia Loli-Queru (Eugenia) - Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 07:59 GMT
This is not true. Adding the user on the "users" group does not fix anything. The user still needs to edit or create a 00.rules/00.permissions file or tell the scripts to allow for the "users" group to have 664 permissions on each and every line of the rules.udev script.

As for the rest of the groups, it only takes care of audio, optical, storage, scanner. If I want full access to the USB (be it a digicam, or an electronic microscope) or the serial port for my PDA or the FW for my iPod, I still need to go down dirty with udev.

What I am proposing here, is a utility that takes care of all these headaches for the user, once and for all, and make the OS more of what a Windows or OSX user would expect. The default Arch should remain as is but such a utility would make the life of most users much easier.
Comment by Tobias Powalowski (tpowa) - Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 10:32 GMT
i meant you have to add your user to all groups you need.

for usb it's not true, guess for what are the storage groups?
and if you have usb devices i would strongly recommend you to use dbus and hal then your mountpoints will be created automatically and you have full access to it.

and defining own rules is really easy, man udev or read the wiki, it's not black magic.
Comment by Eugenia Loli-Queru (Eugenia) - Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 16:50 GMT
But I have added my user on all available groups. And I start the dbus/hal services. And my user still is not able to use a digicam within gThumb or gtkam. My user still can't mount a partition. My user still can't use its webcam!

As for defining your own rules, it IS black magic. You need to step back and think like a user, not as a developer.
Comment by Olivier Médoc (oliv) - Sunday, 05 June 2005, 08:43 GMT
I have never defined my own rules to use sound, video or optical devices. I have juste added the video,audio,optical group to my user. But I don't know why, It have started to work only after rebooting (log out/in don't seems to be sufficient)

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