[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#658284: xfce4-session: Please review README.Debian

[Brian Potkin]

Package: xfce4-session
Version: 4.8.2-3
Severity: wishlist


Regarding using startx README.Debian says:

   This is because Debian now uses PolicyKit/ConsoleKit to manage
   policies for things like device and power management. If you run
   Xfce from a compatible display manager (like gdm or lightdm),
   they'll talk to consolekit so your X session will have the
   authentication tokens, but if you use startx, it won't.  There's
   a script shipped by default with ConsoleKit which will do that,
   in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90consolekit, but the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/
   scripts are only executed if you don't use any .xinitrc. See
   startx (1) for more information.

The implication is that the required authentication tokens will get to
Consolekit via the use of 90consolekit. However, ck-list-sessions shows
'active = FALSE' and 'is-local = FALSE' when startx is used. As a
consequence, Policykit does not permit the user to restart, stop,
suspend or hibernate the machine or mount USB devices. The same thing
happens if XDM is used to login. 90consolekit appears to do nothing more
than allow Consolekit to register a session.

In brief: /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/ seems to the place to
inform Policykit about local policy, so one solution would be for the
user to put .pkla files there. An example might be:

   [udisks]
   Identity=unix-group:plugdev
   Action=org.freedesktop.udisks*
   ResultAny=yes

to give the ability to view the contents of a USB device.

I wonder whether you would consider a change to README.Debian is necessary
and whether something along these lines would be useful and appropriate.




-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-1-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages xfce4-session depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0         2.2.0-2
ii  libc6               2.13-25
ii  libcairo2           1.10.2-6.2
ii  libdbus-1-3         1.4.16-1
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2    0.98-1
ii  libfontconfig1      2.8.0-3.1
ii  libfreetype6        2.4.8-1
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0  2.24.0-2
ii  libglib2.0-0        2.30.2-6
ii  libgtk2.0-0         2.24.8-3
ii  libice6             2:1.0.7-2
ii  libpango1.0-0       1.29.4-2
ii  libsm6              2:1.2.0-2
ii  libwnck22           2.30.7-1
ii  libx11-6            2:1.4.4-4
ii  libxfce4ui-1-0      4.8.1-1
ii  libxfce4util4       4.8.2-1
ii  libxfconf-0-2       4.8.1-1
ii  xfce4-settings      4.8.3-1
ii  xfconf              4.8.1-1

Versions of packages xfce4-session recommends:
ii  consolekit         <none>
ii  dbus-x11           1.4.16-1
ii  upower             0.9.15-1
ii  x11-xserver-utils  7.6+3
ii  xfce4-panel        4.8.6-1
ii  xfce4-utils        4.8.3-1
ii  xfdesktop4         4.8.3-1
ii  xfwm4              4.8.3-1

Versions of packages xfce4-session suggests:
pn  fortunes-mod  <none>
pn  sudo          <none>

-- no debconf information