Johnny | 11 Aug 2012 12:06
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[STUMP] Authentication agent under stumpwm - lxpolkit?

Hi,

What is the preferred way to run an authentication agent under
stumpwm? I have stumpwm installed on a Fedora LXDE install, so have
lxpolkit available but this is not automatically started by the stumpwm
session. To e.g. run a virtual machine, an authentication agent must
run, so I just 

: /usr/libexec/lxpolkit &

Is there a better way to run an authentication agent under stumpwm? How
do other users do?

Cheers,

Johnny

--

-- 
Johnny
Diogo F. S. Ramos | 11 Aug 2012 14:01
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Re: [STUMP] Authentication agent under stumpwm - lxpolkit?

Johnny <yggdrasil <at> gmx.co.uk> writes:

> Is there a better way to run an authentication agent under stumpwm? How
> do other users do?

I'm not entirely sure what an "authentication agent" is, but whenever I
have to run something along with stumpwm, I put it in my ~/.xinit or
start it from ~/.stumpwmrc.

I even saw people running ssh-agent from ~/.xinit.
Johnny | 11 Aug 2012 14:46
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Re: [STUMP] Authentication agent under stumpwm - lxpolkit?

diogofsr <at> gmail.com (Diogo F. S. Ramos) writes:

> Johnny <yggdrasil <at> gmx.co.uk> writes:
>
>> Is there a better way to run an authentication agent under stumpwm? How
>> do other users do?
>
> I'm not entirely sure what an "authentication agent" is, but whenever I
> have to run something along with stumpwm, I put it in my ~/.xinit or
> start it from ~/.stumpwmrc.
>
> I even saw people running ssh-agent from ~/.xinit.

I don't understand the full workings, but basically an authentication
agent is used by an application to run as another user, e.g. in this
case I am running virt-manager as a normal user, and the authentication
agent (when running) pops up and lets me run the application by giving
root credentials. Without this, virt-manager will not let me access the
virtual machines.

I could probably put the command in one of the init files, but I am sure
other users must have similar applications and wonder if there is a
better way to resolve authentication?

--

-- 
Johnny
Eric Abrahamsen | 12 Aug 2012 04:57

Re: [STUMP] Authentication agent under stumpwm - lxpolkit?

On Sat, Aug 11 2012, Johnny wrote:

> diogofsr <at> gmail.com (Diogo F. S. Ramos) writes:
>
>> Johnny <yggdrasil <at> gmx.co.uk> writes:
>>
>>> Is there a better way to run an authentication agent under stumpwm? How
>>> do other users do?
>>
>> I'm not entirely sure what an "authentication agent" is, but whenever I
>> have to run something along with stumpwm, I put it in my ~/.xinit or
>> start it from ~/.stumpwmrc.
>>
>> I even saw people running ssh-agent from ~/.xinit.
>
> I don't understand the full workings, but basically an authentication
> agent is used by an application to run as another user, e.g. in this
> case I am running virt-manager as a normal user, and the authentication
> agent (when running) pops up and lets me run the application by giving
> root credentials. Without this, virt-manager will not let me access the
> virtual machines.
>
> I could probably put the command in one of the init files, but I am sure
> other users must have similar applications and wonder if there is a
> better way to resolve authentication?

It's the thing that lets you mount USB drives and shutdown without the
use of sudo, for instance! It's a big deal, and the main reason that I
ended up using stumpwm inside xfce, instead of on its own. So no, I
don't have any real solution for you, but I'd be interested to hear if
(Continue reading)

Diogo F. S. Ramos | 12 Aug 2012 05:47
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Re: [STUMP] Authentication agent under stumpwm - lxpolkit?

Eric Abrahamsen <eric <at> ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> It's the thing that lets you mount USB drives and shutdown without the
> use of sudo, for instance! It's a big deal, and the main reason that I
> ended up using stumpwm inside xfce, instead of on its own.

Mounting USB drives is an interesting problem. Not that StumpWM should
do everything, but still.

I don't know about other distributions, but on Ubuntu one can mount
things using `umount' so you don't need to use `sudo' nor mess with
`fstab'.

Some time ago I tried to code something with DBUS so it would automount
stuff, but it was too much for me.
Eric Abrahamsen | 12 Aug 2012 08:40

Re: [STUMP] Authentication agent under stumpwm - lxpolkit?

On Sun, Aug 12 2012, Diogo F. S. Ramos wrote:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric <at> ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>> It's the thing that lets you mount USB drives and shutdown without the
>> use of sudo, for instance! It's a big deal, and the main reason that I
>> ended up using stumpwm inside xfce, instead of on its own.
>
> Mounting USB drives is an interesting problem. Not that StumpWM should
> do everything, but still.

Well the idea here wouldn't be that stumpwm itself was doing it, but
that it was tying into polkit or something, using the right tool for the
job.

> I don't know about other distributions, but on Ubuntu one can mount
> things using `umount' so you don't need to use `sudo' nor mess with
> `fstab'.

There are certainly workarounds (pmount?), but a *lot* of stuff can be
made easier with proper authentication policy. NetworkManager is another
one that really relies on authentication. Incidentally, WPA2 wireless
security management is another big reason I decided not to run bare stumpwm.

> Some time ago I tried to code something with DBUS so it would automount
> stuff, but it was too much for me.

I have to admit I've failed to write Dbus scripts, as well.

Gmane