On Mon, 2003-12-29 at 16:47, Ray Strode wrote: > >I hope that any changes that will let users shutdown and/or reboot a > >computer from within their session comes with the provision for the > >system administrator to disable this so that there are no reboot and/or > >restart and/or shutdown menu items visible to the user. > > > >I can not perceive of any reason why a _user_ should be able to reboot > >or shutdown a computer. There are many occasions were this is definitely > >not desired. > > > > > I can see what you are saying. It would not be a good thing is some > random user, logging in > remotely, could shutdown a large multiuser system. I think if a desktop > manager is loaded, > the desktop manager should be in charge of deciding whether the shut > down request > coming from the session manager is valid or not. If there is no desktop > manager, then > that leaves the session manager with two options.. > 1) Use console helper if available or (iow, get a password) > 2) don't offer reboot/halt at all. Hi, of course I wouldn't want a remote user shutting down a multiuser system, but I was really thinking about a local user, ie. a user logged into gdm and physically sitting in front of the machine. Why should such a user not be able to shutdown the computer? Imagine a setup of computer labs. Those machines should always be running. In our setup for example a machine that has been shut down would stop responding to mon inquiries and so look like a machine requiring administrator attention causing a system administrator to be dispatched. Since the physical button are not accessible to users, that machine would in fact be out of usage until the administrator reboots it. Andreas -- Prof. Dr. Andreas J. Guelzow Dept. of Mathematical & Computing Sciences Concordia University College of Alberta
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