Hi everyone!
I have a problem that I'm trying to solve.
I would like to change the W-Lan settings using the function in Control
center. But without having to type in root's password.
I think it could be done by changing some file but I haven't got a clue on
witch file or even where KDE hides everything.
Tried to STFW and found a lot of answers but not anything that could help
me.
An ordinary user should be able to do this I think. I don't feel like giving
away the password for root to everyone that borrows my computer and uses it
in different environments.
Can anyone help me with this?
Thank you.

//Micke

micke <micke@home.here> wrote:
> An ordinary user should be able to do this I think. I don't feel like giving
> away the password for root to everyone that borrows my computer and uses it
> in different environments.
> Can anyone help me with this?

I have no experience from Wifi or your KDE tool, but you should probably
be able to fix this with sudo. If you configure sudo to delegate root
privileges to this tool for this user the user could start the program
from a terminal window with something like:

sudo kde-wifi-tool

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc1(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost

On Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:56:05 +0000, micke wrote:

> Hi everyone!
> I have a problem that I'm trying to solve.
> I would like to change the W-Lan settings using the function in Control
> center. But without having to type in root's password.
> I think it could be done by changing some file but I haven't got a clue on
> witch file or even where KDE hides everything.
> Tried to STFW and found a lot of answers but not anything that could help
> me.
> An ordinary user should be able to do this I think. I don't feel like giving
> away the password for root to everyone that borrows my computer and uses it
> in different environments.
> Can anyone help me with this?
> Thank you.
>
> //Micke

Sounds like a job for sudo.

Thanks for you tips, but it doesn't work with sudo, I solved it by making a
bash script that can be started from KDE. It's a bit of a cruel way of
doing it but it works.

Seems like this KDE thingies doesn't accept sudo but using sudo, iwlist,
iwconfig dhcpc and ifconfig worked as it should. But it would have been a
nicer way to use the already built in tools don't understand why a basic
thing like changing network on a workstation must be a job for root.

//Micke

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:47:09 +0000, micke wrote:

> Thanks for you tips, but it doesn't work with sudo, I solved it by making a
> bash script that can be started from KDE. It's a bit of a cruel way of
> doing it but it works.
>
> Seems like this KDE thingies doesn't accept sudo but using sudo, iwlist,
> iwconfig dhcpc and ifconfig worked as it should. But it would have been a
> nicer way to use the already built in tools don't understand why a basic
> thing like changing network on a workstation must be a job for root.

Not sure it'd be what you wanted but KDE uses its own avatar
of 'su' twonked in a GUI : 'kdesu yourcommand'
The first time you'll have to enter the password but you
can select '[x] Remember password' associated to 'yourcommand'
and never have to type the pass again.

loki harfagr wrote:

> Not sure it'd be what you wanted but KDE uses its own avatar
> of 'su' twonked in a GUI : 'kdesu yourcommand'
> The first time you'll have to enter the password but you
> can select '[x] Remember password' associated to 'yourcommand'
> and never have to type the pass again.

Thank you!
I have to try this. If it works it would be the best solution.

//Micke

micke wrote:

> loki harfagr wrote:
>
>> Not sure it'd be what you wanted but KDE uses its own avatar
>> of 'su' twonked in a GUI : 'kdesu yourcommand'
>> The first time you'll have to enter the password but you
>> can select '[x] Remember password' associated to 'yourcommand'
>> and never have to type the pass again.


Been there, done it, tried it, didn't work.So I won't get the T-shirt .

I'll stay with my homebrewed script. It works, not nice, but it works.

//Micke

micke <micke@home.here> wrote:
> don't understand why a basic thing like changing network on a
> workstation must be a job for root.

On Unix/Linux root is the administrator account. Network settings like
changing IP adress, netmask and gateway address is the work of the
administrator. If any user in any network would be allowed to alter these
things we would se a lot of problems like multiple machines with the same
IP-address. I have an example from real life:

A rather skilled user on a company was allowed to administer his own box.
He was going to set his box IP address. He knew the hostname of the box
and used nslookup to find out which IP address it should have. He did
something like this:

balrog:~> nslookup hydran
Server: 192.168.43.5
Address: 192.168.43.5#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: hydran
Address: 192.168.43.6

Above you can see that the machine "hydran" should have the IP address
192.168.43.6. Unfortunately this user read the result a little bit to
quick and took the first IP address he found. Above that is the address
192.168.43.5 which is the address of the DNS server.

So this user configured his machine to take the IP adress of the companys
DNS server. The result was that about 500 people was unable to use their
network as they without DNS couldn't lookup Web servers or even the NFS
servers with their home directory. It was rather easy to find out that
something was wrong with DNS, but there was nothing wrong with the DNS
server and it wasn't as easy to find out which machine had taken the IP
address of the DNS server.

The above is an example of what a user with administrating powers are able
to do. However, you don't need root privileges to stop a network. I have
another example of a user which wanted to connect a VCR to his computer.
This was before TP network was common and ethernet used coaxial cable
instead. The BNC connector on the VCR was a perfect match for the network
cable. Who needs a framegrabber when we have ethernet :-). Once again the
entire network stopped.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc1(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost

Henrik Carlqvist wrote:

> micke <micke@home.here> wrote:
>> don't understand why a basic thing like changing network on a
>> workstation must be a job for root.
>
> On Unix/Linux root is the administrator account. Network settings like
> changing IP adress, netmask and gateway address is the work of the
> administrator. If any user in any network would be allowed to alter these
> things we would se a lot of problems like multiple machines with the same
> IP-address. I have an example from real life:
>
> A rather skilled user on a company was allowed to administer his own box.
> He was going to set his box IP address. He knew the hostname of the box
> and used nslookup to find out which IP address it should have. He did
> something like this:
>
> balrog:~> nslookup hydran
> Server: 192.168.43.5
> Address: 192.168.43.5#53
>
> Non-authoritative answer:
> Name: hydran
> Address: 192.168.43.6
>
> Above you can see that the machine "hydran" should have the IP address
> 192.168.43.6. Unfortunately this user read the result a little bit to
> quick and took the first IP address he found. Above that is the address
> 192.168.43.5 which is the address of the DNS server.
>
> So this user configured his machine to take the IP adress of the companys
> DNS server. The result was that about 500 people was unable to use their
> network as they without DNS couldn't lookup Web servers or even the NFS
> servers with their home directory. It was rather easy to find out that
> something was wrong with DNS, but there was nothing wrong with the DNS
> server and it wasn't as easy to find out which machine had taken the IP
> address of the DNS server.
>
> The above is an example of what a user with administrating powers are able
> to do. However, you don't need root privileges to stop a network. I have
> another example of a user which wanted to connect a VCR to his computer.
> This was before TP network was common and ethernet used coaxial cable
> instead. The BNC connector on the VCR was a perfect match for the network
> cable. Who needs a framegrabber when we have ethernet :-). Once again the
> entire network stopped.
>
> regards Henrik


Thanks I know this. Been working with network for the last 20 years now, so
I know what will happen if someone f-cks around with the addresses.

What I was and still is after is something that I think every user should be
able to do, select the correct network and get the correct IP-address from
this network. Not to be allowed to set their own IP-address.
I have as I wrote earlier made a script that shows the user a list of
Networks, (only two so far) the user selects the network she/he would like
to use, receives an IP-address from the chosen network, thats all. This is
usefull when traveling with the laptop and being able to select any free
network.
Using iwlist with the scan function worked god then only to chose the
network. Do a dhcpcd of the correct card was simple, then it was up running
as it should.
I agree NEVER EVER let them set their own IP-address! This script forces
them to make a choice between two networks (more can be added if needed,
but as now it's more than enough) Lets say
1. NETGEAR
2.HOME
That is all info given to the user.
Type in 1 or 2
Then the rest is done in background without the user seeing it.
The end result is that they have got the correct network WITHOUT having to
tamper with the root account.

This should be done in the windowmanager but since I can't do any c++
programming I haven't got a clue how to do it. So I use what I can and
that is scripts.

//Micke

micke wrote:
> them to make a choice between two networks (more can be added if needed,
> but as now it's more than enough) Lets say
> 1. NETGEAR
> 2.HOME
> That is all info given to the user.
> Type in 1 or 2
> Then the rest is done in background without the user seeing it.
> The end result is that they have got the correct network WITHOUT having to
> tamper with the root account.
>
> This should be done in the windowmanager but since I can't do any c++
> programming I haven't got a clue how to do it. So I use what I can and
> that is scripts.

perhaps you can use xdialog to nicify your script a little bit:

<http://xdialog.dyns.net/>



--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)