Ubuntu
gnome-volume-manager package

bugs when multiple users are logged into same machine ....

Bug #60705 reported by Dennis English on 2006-09-16

266

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	gnome-volume-manager (Ubuntu)	Invalid	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

When more than one user logs into a computer, and automated events ( started due to a dbus/hal event ) occour, the program that starts automatically starts in the wrong user's x session.

For example:

1. I burn a dvd using growisofs, it finishes and the dvd gets automatically ejected and re-inserted. When totem starts up automatically due to it being a video dvd it does so on a different user's gnome desktop instead of mine.

2. I plug in a digital camera and a program is configured to automatically start, but it does so in the wrong user's gnome desktop. The media card is also assigned to that user so I cannot even manually open and delete photos I want. It's not even possible to import the photos because the other user has full permissions whereas I have none.

This is a BIG bug in a house where more than one person share the use of the same computer but use different logins and don't want to keep logging in and out to swap over.

The solution is for the computer to be aware of the user who currently has the active x session locally and assume that is the user who has initiated the event.

This is, potentially at least, a security vuln as user might not want the other user to see what they might see as a result. Imagine a usb stick being inserted with sensitive data and another active user being logged in remotely .... "oooo what's on that usb disk, let's take a look", and there goes the privicy and security of that data.

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Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote on 2006-09-25:

This makes me think about bug 37181, but gnome-volume-manager has been patched in dapper and edgy to work around this bug.

Can you please do the steps on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingRemovableDevices (first half of the page) and attach the logs?

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Dennis English (launchpad-nomoreheroes) wrote on 2006-09-26:

I'll give that a go ASAP.

Incidentally, what is that test trying to achieve ? I'll do it, but I'm just curious.

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Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote on 2006-09-26:

The gnome-volume-manager outputs (preferably from *both* users that are logged in) should tell me when and why the wrong one picks up the event. In earlier Dapper times I added a workaround for bug 37181 and added some debugging output.

However, this workaround does a quite nice job for me, I cannot reproduce this misbehaviour. That's why I need your help for tracking it down. Thank you!

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Haggai Eran (haggai-eran) wrote on 2006-11-19:

Logs when a usb device is inserted to a multiuser desktop Edit (21.1 KiB, application/zip)

Hi
I encountered the same problem, so I'm attaching the debugging logs you mentioned.

User in console #1 (gvm.1.log) is running in the foreground, while the usb device is inserted. It is mounted to user #2's console (gvm.2.log).

The info requested in the wiki:
$ id (#1)
uid=1000(haggai) gid=1000(haggai) groups=4(adm),20(dialout),24(cdrom),25(floppy),29(audio),30(dip),40(src),44(video),46(plugdev),100(users),109(lpadmin),111(scanner),114(admin),1000(haggai)
$ id (#2)
uid=1001(shoshan) gid=1001(shoshan) groups=4(adm),20(dialout),21(fax),24(cdrom),25(floppy),26(tape),29(audio),30(dip),46(plugdev),100(users),111(scanner),1001(shoshan)
$ id hal
id: hal: No such user
$ id haldaemon
uid=106(haldaemon) gid=110(haldaemon) groups=110(haldaemon),24(cdrom),25(floppy),46(plugdev)
$ uname -a
Linux mrblack 2.6.17-10-generic #2 SMP Fri Oct 13 15:34:39 UTC 2006 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Thanks,
Haggai Eran

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2007-09-21:

[Expired for gnome-volume-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

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Dan Christensen (jdc) wrote on 2010-05-31:

I get this problem consistently on my jaunty machine. I log in first. Then my kids log into their account using the fast user switcher. Then I switch back to mine and connect a camera. Very often the camera device ends up being owned by the kids and gnome pops up a window on their desktop asking what they want to do.