Why doesn't Fedora include gksudo/gksu as a package

Todd Zullinger tmz at pobox.com
Thu Dec 7 18:48:46 UTC 2006


Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> Todd Zullinger wrote:
[...]
>>I think you'd have to admit that using consolehelper to start up
>>various programs -- somewhat random depending on the user's
>>needs/wants -- is a pain in the ass.
> 
> It's not what consolehelper is designed to do. It is meant for
> *applications*. Not directly by end users.

Agreed.  And that makes it the wrong solution for the task Bill was
asking about.

>>Am I missing something about the consolehelper method that would
>>make this process quicker and more flexible?
> 
> There is a view point that su helpers are a wrong model.
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/portland/2006-April/000384.html

I don't disagree that a better method than su helpers would be ideal
for desktop and gui users.  The problem is that those methods don't
exist yet and there are more than a few users who would like to do
things that require root privileges using some sort of gui.

Since Fedora has disabled fast user switching in gnome (which I
completely understand, as it makes for some interesting permissions
issues), this leaves those users with the alternative of starting a
terminal and running sudo appname or logging out as a user and logging
in as root.  Neither of which are as nice as it'd be to be able to
create a launcher that did this.

I'd say that in the interim until su helpers aren't needed something
like gksu would be an improvement to many users.

>>Just out of curiosity, is there a way to start up a file browser as
>>root without a terminal in a default Fedora setup (meaning a Gnome
>>desktop) short of logging out of your user account and logging in as
>>root?
> 
> kdesu? ;-)

Oh man, now I have to get my flame retardant suit on in case that
starts a KDE versus Gnome knock-down-drag-out battle. ;-)

But it does point out that such a su helper is shipped with KDE so
including one for Gnome wouldn't be so wrong.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
======================================================================
To err is human; to blame it on somebody else is even more human.
    -- John Nadeau

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