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On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, Sindi wrote:
>
> > Are you saying that simply HAVING chgrp on the computer fixed your
> > problem, or you used it to change permissions of pty? and tty? so rxvt
> > would work?
>
> I'm saying that simply having the chgrp binary on the system caused it all
> to work. I didn't need to change permissions on anything. rxvt works as
> user when I issue

In BL2 I have chgrp but I STILL had to chmod o+w ttyp? and ptyp? in order 
for rxvt to work as user.

> ---------------
> su user -c rvxt
> ---------------
>
> But, as you may understand, I'm logged into the system as root. So
> essentailly everything is running as a process started by root (e.g.,
> xvesa) except those things I cause to be started by user. That means
> mainly things in the jwm menu: yes, I'm using jwm and not going to the
> console. I offer it as an alternate way of configuring the BL3 machines
> you've been setting up for people on the assumption that most of them will
> be spending all their time in BL3's graphical environment.

In which case they also won't want to be using non-graphical links, in my 
experience.  Everyone preferred Opera.


> So, I had no need to change permissions on any device. From what I gather
> about the way you've been setting up these machines, it may be far simpler
> to do what I've done: add the passwd.tgz package, create your user, add
> the chgrp binary from Slack4 (or some other would likely work just as
> well), then edit all the jwm menu items to su to user when clicked so that
> they run under the unpriviledged account. So far as I can see, the only
> thing you'd want to leave as started by root would be the dialer. Setting
> up the machines that way would save you the problem of changing
> permissions on all those devices. Does it make sense?

I think you would still need to change a few things such as /tmp.

> Then, if the folks ever needed help from you, you could simply sit in
> front of their PC and hit ctrl-alt-F2 and have a root console for system
> admin purposes.

The people I make computers for don't live near enough.  I almost never 
hear back from them after pickup.  (One person emailed asking where to 
plug in the phone line and I had to remind her she decided against a modem 
for her kids' computer).  This has to be something maintenance-free.

> Anyway, let me know if you'd like any further clarifications.
>
> James
>
> PS You'd probably want to remove some or all the items from jwm's "edit
> settings" submenu so your users could muck up important config files.

The BL3.50 version of jwm does not automatically shift the focus to the 
most recently made rxvt, which means you either need to remember how to do 
it with the keyboard, or move the mouse, therefore I would put on icewm 
instead since the computers we give away have at least 64MB memory.
I could remove the menu editor for icewm.

Sindi