Thread: om on ubuntu/kubuntu

Originally Posted by justchat_1

Just tattoo it on your head-its easier.......

On that note..is there an easy way for a program running as root to detect if the local user has access to a certain directory? (So I can try to discourage excessive use of root)

You can always just query the file/folder ownership...

installing things is a normal root operation. For just running applications, apps shouldn't be writing anywhere but /home/[username] or possibly /tmp. If there is a directory in the users home directory that the user can't access, that user probably did something wrong (like running user apps as root for instance).

That said, what's the exact issue here? Maybe there is a use-case I'm not thinking of...

Also, don't run user apps with sudo... same issue.

Originally Posted by chronoglass

i have to admit.. i've lost my mind.. I don't know if I just have every possible version of audio hardware that is unsupported or what.. but as a test i decided it was time to install OM on a windows machine.. I just want to see the new music skin! WAAAHHH

Windows xp, Lenovo t43 laptop.. install OM... can't get to the music skin.. it won't load.. whiskey.. tango.. foxtrot.

It's driving me crazy too!! I installed on regular netbook and kubuntu and everything worked...but if gstreamer works (which it does since you can play music in other apps) it shouldn't be a hardware issue. I'm banging my head against a wall with this stuff.
XP i've never had anyone report that kind of issue...can you re-install the music skin and om player just as a double check? (and was that regular 0.8 or one of the 0.9 trunk builds)

Originally Posted by tripzero

You can always just query the file/folder ownership...

installing things is a normal root operation. For just running applications, apps shouldn't be writing anywhere but /home/[username] or possibly /tmp. If there is a directory in the users home directory that the user can't access, that user probably did something wrong (like running user apps as root for instance).

That said, what's the exact issue here? Maybe there is a use-case I'm not thinking of...

Also, don't run user apps with sudo... same issue.

Yea we try to follow that dynamic...root for OM installation and for plugin installation but everything else runs as the regular user. I'm wondering if depending on the installation path can we get rid of the root to install plugins requirement? In order to do that....after the user installs OM we would need some kind of check when creating the shortcuts to determine if that path can be accessed by the local user or only by root.

Querying who has permissions for a folder isn't too hard....but if your running as root how do you know who the regular user is? or is there a group we can check for to see if the regular user has access?

Originally Posted by justchat_1

It's driving me crazy too!! I installed on regular netbook and kubuntu and everything worked...but if gstreamer works (which it does since you can play music in other apps) it shouldn't be a hardware issue. I'm banging my head against a wall with this stuff.
XP i've never had anyone report that kind of issue...can you re-install the music skin and om player just as a double check? (and was that regular 0.8 or one of the 0.9 trunk builds)

Sorry, it was regular 0.8
I might grab a trunk build as well for the gits and shiggles.

Originally Posted by justchat_1

Yea we try to follow that dynamic...root for OM installation and for plugin installation but everything else runs as the regular user. I'm wondering if depending on the installation path can we get rid of the root to install plugins requirement? In order to do that....after the user installs OM we would need some kind of check when creating the shortcuts to determine if that path can be accessed by the local user or only by root.

Querying who has permissions for a folder isn't too hard....but if your running as root how do you know who the regular user is? or is there a group we can check for to see if the regular user has access?

who installs plugins OpenMobile.exe or some other process? If OpenMobile installs them, I'd either install them in the users home directory (~/.config/OM/plugins/ wouldn't be a bad place) or I'd offload installation to another app that OM.exe calls with gksudo or similar so that the system security policy can manage what permissions to grant that app (most systems would just spawn a password dialog to the user).

This is an interesting issue that's the side effect of using your own package management system (which btw, I understand the reasons for using).

Originally Posted by tripzero

who installs plugins OpenMobile.exe or some other process? If OpenMobile installs them, I'd either install them in the users home directory (~/.config/OM/plugins/ wouldn't be a bad place) or I'd offload installation to another app that OM.exe calls with gksudo or similar so that the system security policy can manage what permissions to grant that app (most systems would just spawn a password dialog to the user).

This is an interesting issue that's the side effect of using your own package management system (which btw, I understand the reasons for using).

Currently our package manager handles installation and its launched with gksudo (or similar depending on the distro). Its kind of a toss up though....keeping apps in a protected directory is a great security feature (we know they can't be tampered with)....but at the same time prompting for a password in order to handle installation isn't exactly user friendly. I was thinking that if the user wants security we keep password prompts but if a user wants convenience they use a non-secure directory. Which then brings us to the problem of trying to figure out which is which.

For regular Linux use its obviously essential to have password prompts for any potentially dangerous tasks....but in a car that would be a giant inconvenience. I know android and iOS use a package management service that runs as root but can be called from anyone (using some kind of IPC i believe) but us getting to that point is probably a few months away.

Unless there's some other option to maintain security but also keep things user friendly?

Originally Posted by justchat_1

Currently our package manager handles installation and its launched with gksudo (or similar depending on the distro). Its kind of a toss up though....keeping apps in a protected directory is a great security feature (we know they can't be tampered with)....but at the same time prompting for a password in order to handle installation isn't exactly user friendly. I was thinking that if the user wants security we keep password prompts but if a user wants convenience they use a non-secure directory. Which then brings us to the problem of trying to figure out which is which.

For regular Linux use its obviously essential to have password prompts for any potentially dangerous tasks....but in a car that would be a giant inconvenience. I know android and iOS use a package management service that runs as root but can be called from anyone (using some kind of IPC i believe) but us getting to that point is probably a few months away.

Unless there's some other option to maintain security but also keep things user friendly?

In LinuxICE we cheated a bit by giving the user root-level access specific commands in the /etc/sudoers file. We could get away with that because we are the operating system. You wouldn't be able to do things like that.

Your idea of having a special package management daemon that is started by init and listens on the dbus system bus for commands is probably a decent route to go.

Originally Posted by chronoglass

Sorry, it was regular 0.8
I might grab a trunk build as well for the gits and shiggles.

ok, so a full uninstall and reinstall on the xp machine worked... BUT i had to search out any OM dirs.
so now I've seen and tested the skin.. I'm a bit happier! lol

back to terminal land.. i've done the install on a completely clean install of multiple ubuntu distros with no luck still.. BUT i'll try and clean everything up and see what I can make happen.

far from done beating this beast into submission!

Originally Posted by tripzero

In LinuxICE we cheated a bit by giving the user root-level access specific commands in the /etc/sudoers file. We could get away with that because we are the operating system. You wouldn't be able to do things like that.

Thats a clever idea... couldn't anyone running as root edit that file though? even an installer?

Giving the package manager passwordless root access could probably solve the issues.

Originally Posted by chronoglass

ok, so a full uninstall and reinstall on the xp machine worked... BUT i had to search out any OM dirs.
so now I've seen and tested the skin.. I'm a bit happier! lol

back to terminal land.. i've done the install on a completely clean install of multiple ubuntu distros with no luck still.. BUT i'll try and clean everything up and see what I can make happen.

far from done beating this beast into submission!

Some users have everything installed and working (like in the other linux thread) in 20mins.....and on some installs it seems to have issues no matter what is tried. I really wish I could figure out what the difference was.