new thing to make people turn crazy

[fred smith]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 09:08:51PM +0100, François Patte wrote:
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> Bonsoir,
> 
> I plugged an usb drive on my computer and, instead of being mounted as
> usual, a popup window opened claiming that some application was trying
> to mount a device and... I had to enter the root password!!!
> 
> What's this mess?

I have no experience with that, but having said that... It's certainly
a security mechanism to keep any joe blow from walking up to the 
unattended machine and sticking in a USB device that may be used for
nefarious purposes. You should be able to change it to work like you
want if that isn't a concern for you.

> 
> The story is not finished: I discovered a config tool for this in
> System>Prefs>system>permission which run the polkit-gnome-authorization.
> 
> *As a simple user*, not root, I found a line:
> 
> "mount file systems from removable drive" for which the permission is
> set, by default, to: "No" for everybody.
> 
> *as simple user* (again), I changed this permission to yes for everybody!!!!
> 
> I am wondering what is the meaning of this: either it is something that
> everybody can do and no tool is needed, or it is important that only
> root can modify some system wide config and, in that case this tool is a
> nonsense.
> 
> Same thing as for the gnome keyring manager (see another post on this
> list): I cannot disable it and everytime I want to ssh a remote host a
> popup ask me for a password, I refuse to give a password (I was not
> asked to define one) and I can ssh.... For what purpose are these stupid
> tools?
> 
> I tried to yum remove these things but it is impossible: so many
> packages depend on them: scim!!! evince!!! totem!, eog, f-spot....
> 
> In f11, shall we be forced to set a password to log-in, another to use
> emacs, another to use TeX, another to see the result of what we have
> typed with emacs/tex...
> 
> Is this security policy a heritage from Bush administration?
> 
> - --
> François Patte

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ------------------------ ----
                    Do you not know? Have you not heard? 
    The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. 
  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
----------------------------- Isaiah 40:28 (niv) -----------------------------
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