Remove obsolete fax, tape, scanner privilege groups

Bug #188759 reported by Tormod Volden
22
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu)
Expired
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubiquity

After a default, clean install of Ubuntu Hardy Alpha 4:
The user that I defined during installation doesn't belong to all the groups as an "administrative" user that I create in users-admin.
The user created by ubiquity lacks these groups: fax tape scanner fuse

Revision history for this message
Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) wrote :

In Ubuntu 8.04 final it is the {fax, tape, scanner} groups that are missing. fuse is included now.

Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote :

These groups should not be added in gnome-system-tools rather. We do not use fax and tape at all, and scanner is deprecated since Hardy (replaced with dynamic ACLs).

Changed in gnome-system-tools:
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Pjotr12345 (computertip) wrote : Re: do not put desktop users into fax, tape, scanner groups

I disagree. The administrative user should have all rights by default. By definition.

In a few cases this could even be essential, so there's practical relevance as well.

Revision history for this message
Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) wrote :

In Intrepid and Jaunty, the user defined during installation is not member of the "video" group. Would you like a separate bug filed for this?

The "video" group is used for /dev/dri/card0 and avoids chmod 666 on it.

Jaunty:
$ id tormod
uid=1000(tormod) gid=1000(tormod) groups=1000(tormod),4(adm),20(dialout),24(cdrom),46(plugdev),108(lpadmin),122(admin),123(sambashare)

Also "audio" is missing, which is used for /dev/audio and /dev/snd/*

What is maybe confusing here, is that the obsolete groups show up in gnome-system-tools at all.

Revision history for this message
Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan) wrote :

Martin Pitt: users-admin lists the privilege groups that are present on the system. If they are not created, they stay hidden. So I'd say there's a bug in Ubuntu, with some packages creating those unused groups.

summary: - do not put desktop users into fax, tape, scanner groups
+ Remove obsolete fax, tape, scanner privilege groups
Changed in gnome-system-tools (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) wrote :

This is still untidy and confusing in Karmic. gnome-system-tools still lists a long list of privileges. For instance "Connect to wireless and ethernet networks" is not even selected for a new Administrator. So it is probably not in use (it works fine without) and should not be listed. If we can not delete these groups (from base-passwd?), we should patch gnome-system-tools to ignore them.

Revision history for this message
Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan) wrote :

I think your statement is flawed by the assumption that we cannot remove those groups. They should at least not be created, and when upgrading, update-manager could remove them, especially if they are empty. Leaving them on the system is confusing anyway, even if it's to a lesser extent.

Revision history for this message
Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan) wrote :

As I said, that's not primarily a users-admin problem for me. Anyway, in Lucid we now hide the detailed privileges in an Advanced dialog.

affects: gnome-system-tools (Ubuntu) → ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu)
Changed in ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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