Package Manager Denies Permission to Install

[R. G. Newbury]

 >> No nuanced and masterfully persuasive oratory can disguise the fact that
 >> >>    someone has made *and enforced* a decision that *they know better
 >> >> than the user* how "THINGS MUST BE DONE" purely because the doing, is
 >> >> considered to be 'not best practice'.
 >> >>
 >> >> In this particular case, the 'best practice' enforcement approaches
 >> >> religious fervour in its application. In the particular instance 
which
 >> >> started this thread, PolicyKit nags about being root, and then 
*refuses*
 >> >> to allow the installation of an rpm! It does not deny the right to
 >> >> download and install the rpm in a console....It just denies the 
user the
 >> >> advantages of using PackageManager to resolve dependenices directly.
 >> >>
 >> >> And *exactly* what nuanced extra is added to the equation, by forcing
 >> >> the administrator to log out of root, to log in as a user, to do the
 >> >> same thing? Especially in a circumstance where the install is 
actually
 >> >> desired to be general and not user-local? This position is idiocy.
 >> >>
 >> >> I don't mind a nag. I DO mind unknown and unaccountable people
 >> >> attempting to enforce their quasi-religious beliefs on me (by
 >> >> quasi-religious, I mean the attitude which equates doing anything 
while
 >> >> root is akin to giving booze and car-keys to seventeen year old boys:
 >> >> instantly and always catastrophically dangerous.) I know using 
root can
 >> >> increase the probability of disaster. But I want to be able to decide
 >> >> what the limits of my risk tolerance are, not have someone else 
do it.
 >> >>
 >> >> That argument, the libertarian argumnent is one of the underlying 
bases
 >> >> of the free software movement. Let's have it recognized and 
venerated in
 >> >> the code!
 >> >>
 >> >> Geoff
 > > My memory is that the designer of PackageManager indicated on the list
 > > that running PackageManager as root has security problems that running
 > > it as a user and entering the root password does not have. I believed
 > > him. Your objection is that it makes you log as a user rather than as
 > > root.
 > >
 > > I believe in the theory that "freedom" derives from the words free doom
 > > indicating that everyone has a right to commit suicide in his (or her)
 > > own way. I strongly support your committing suicide in any way you
 > > desire.
 > >
 > > Aaron Konstam

 >I would like to know why the developer of PackageManager makes a
 >distinction between a root and a user login? Cut out extraneous code.
 >Make any user enter the root password.
 > Kam Leo

That works for me. I don't object to entering my root password to do 
something. I do object to being told that in effect I don't own my own 
box and I therefore cannot do something as root. But I do own the box. 
And if I break it, I will have to fix it.

Someone previously noted that I should fix the code. I would do that, if 
there were any reasonable prospect that my patch would be applied to the 
code base. And since there is no such reasonable prospect, I am not 
going to waste my time doing that.
Geoff




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