ksmarttray and updates

[Basil Chupin]

Stephen Boddy wrote:
> On Sunday 06 August 2006 05:07, Basil Chupin wrote:
>> Christoph Thiel wrote:
>>> On Fri, 4 Aug 2006, Stephen Boddy wrote:
>>>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>>>>> He most likely just started ksmarttray via his start-menu. It makes
>>>>>> sure to run ksmarttray as root, which is the only way to go ATM.
>>>>> <my meaningless and wrong-headed tangent deleted>
>>>> What I should have said is that he insisted he wasn't entering the root
>>>> password (using the Ignore button on the kdesu dialogue) but KSmartTray
>>>> would still blink when there were updates. This is what I couldn't
>>>> understand, as it made no sense from my understanding, tests, and
>>>> reading of the code.
>>> Right -- don't believe him ;)
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> 	Christoph
>> Yeah, I wouldn't believe the bum either :-) . He is a native of Elbonia and
>> therefore has problems with expressing himself in the English language.
>>
>> If I read it correctly, what he actually stated (in messages you cannot
>> "say" anything, just "write" or "state", unless it is a 'talking
>> e-mail') about the usage of the root password was:
>>
>> QUOTE
>>
>>
>> SB>> Yeah, I think we're both still not on the same
>> SB>>wavelength/terminology here TBH. At the risk of flogging the proverbial
>> SB>>deceased horse:
>>
>> SB>> There are three pertinant smart operations:
>> SB>> check    - Is smart cache aware of any updates
>> SB>> update    - Look for new packages on repos, and update cache
>> SB>> upgrade    - Install new packages from repos.
>>
>> SB>> The old (<=10.0) susewatcher tray app could do the equivalent of
>> SB>>update & check without requiring root password or priv. The Smart
>> SB>>equivalent of the susewatcher app (ksmarttray) can only do check unless
>> SB>>you run it as root. I do not want to enter the root password every time
>> SB>>I login.
>>
>>
>> BC> Well, we are slowly narrowing it down...
>>
>> BC> At my end, smart, in the system tray, does do the update and
>> BC>checking without requiring the root password. When there are updates,
>> BC>the icon blinks. Only when I want to actually do an upgrade do I need to
>> BC>enter the root password.
>>
>> BC> As I mentioned earlier, had you not entered the root password at the
>> BC>first running of smart - where you had the option of answering IGNORE -
>> BC>then you will not be asked to enter the root password. In fact, I think,
>> BC>from memory, you are asked for the root password at every logon so next
>> BC>time answer IGNORE. smart remembers this setting and won't ask you for
>> BC>it (it doesn't do it at my end) and the icon in the system tray will be
>> BC>running in "user mode". (Perhaps re-installing smart might make it
>> BC>behave 'normally'?)
>>
>>
>> SB>> By clicking on the ksmarttray I also am able to enter my root
>> SB>>password, and upgrade packages, but unless I enter my root password
>> at login
>>
>> BC> See above.
>>
>>
>> SB>> I will not see the blinking tray icon to tell me I need to click on
>> SB>>the thing.
>>
>> UNQUOTE
>>
>>
>> Cheers.
> 
> Hello Basil, fancy meeting you here :-D
> 
> I'm curious what the permissions are on your smart-update binary. It appears 
> that by setting mine to setuid I can run smart as a regular user and get the 
> blinky icon and it works how I want it to. i.e.
> 
> # ls -la `which smart-update`
> -rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 4464 Jul 30 18:09 /usr/bin/smart-update
> 
> This is the command that ksmarttray runs every five minutes. This is a small 
> wrapper program for running "smart update --after 60", which will only 
> perform the update if it has been at least 60 minutes since the last update.
> 
> Regards

The permissions are no different to what you have:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4464 Aug  7 01:25 smart-update

And I haven't touched anything.

As far as being surprised meeting me here, I did suggest that you join 
this forum (or did I suggest this to someone else?). I don't suggest 
anything to anyone unless I 'been there, done that' myself :-) .

Cheers.


-- 
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