Re: gsu (Was Re: More Political Stuff)

[Vince Hodges <vhodges home com>]

>>>>> "Sean" == Sean Middleditch <sean.middleditch@iname.com> writes:

    >> >>>>> "Sean" == Sean Middleditch <sean.middleditch@iname.com>

    Sean> Everyone (leading GNOME developers) complains that
    Sean> gnome-libs aren't secure enough for gsu like app when a
    Sean> distribution like Mandrake tries to include it.

The implementation in gnome-utils/mini-utils uses a helper program
that specifically does not link against gtk/gnome to help avoid this. 
It's basically, GNU's su communicating over a pipe to the ui side.

    >> <snip>

    Sean> It'd be nice to just have an option for items on
    Sean> menu/panel/desktop (for the life of my I forget the name of
    Sean> them, and I'm in too much of a hurry to check...) for "Run
    Sean> as User".  Then, I could add Helix-Update to the panel with
    Sean> "Run as root".  gsu would just pop up, get the password and
    Sean> run the app... 'twould be nice.

This is easily done, just create a desktop entry called '
~/.gnome/apps/RootShell.desktop' like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Root Shell
Comment=Launch a shell as root.
Exec=/usr/bin/gsu -c "gnome-terminal --display=:0.0 --title='Root Shell'"
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-term.png
Terminal=false
MultipleArgs=true
Type=Application

gsu supports all (I think) of the options available with normal su, so
running a shell or app as a specific user is possible too.

    Sean> Sean Middleditch


-- 
Vince Hodges                             "Beware geeks bearing diffs"
vhodges@home.com 
http://members.home.com/vhodges/