Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

man Xvesa says something about security holes if you allow users to use 
Xvvesa.  A web search on Xvesa and suid root says 'kdrive servers must be 
suid root wo work, which is _not_ a good thing.  Maybe it is possible to 
use the old wrapper that X used for this purpose but this has not yet been 
investigated'.

Hal said there were two ways to make something suid root (superuser ID 
soMething or other - can anyone explain more?) with chmod and numbers or 
u+s by the new method.  Another online search found someone trying to use 
samba and being told something had to be run suid root and to do this type 
chmod +x /path/filename  so I typed (as root) chmod +s Xvesa (from the 
directory where it resides).

I hope someone more experienced can explain what suid root is and why you 
are supposed to type u+s or +s (same thing?).

I can now use Xvesa as 'user', and thus print from within xv or opera 
(xpdf?) once I replace the linux-incompatible MGA-parport card.  
Anyone trying to print graphics in BL3 might need to install the packages 
needed to set up user (getty and I forget what else) and chmod +s Xvesa.

I still cannot use SVGAlib as user: svgalib:  cannot get I/O permissions.  
Back to the web for help. I set gs to use vgalib as the default device.  
But I think I can still print to -sDEVICE=epson or deskjet as 'user'.
BL3 does not use SVGAlib but BL2 uses it for graphical links without X.
I have gs set to display with vgalib as the default device (a subset of 
svgalib).

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> I can use Xvesa in BL2 as root but not as user.  I get a fatal server 
> error if I try to do so, telling me I need to be suid root.
> 
> I looked on line and found two related postings and the solutions are:
> 
> install /usr/ports/x11/wrapper
> 
> and in /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config 

This wrapper stuff probably pertains only to traditional X.  Is it a way 
of setting things up so as not to need suid root?