dbus/hal local user policy

[Simon Huggins]

Hi,

I'm a bit confused by what the approved way for dbus to work out who is
a local user on the console so that things like rebooting the
machine/mounting USB sticks etc can all just work for people at the
console.


dbus 1.0.2 has _dbus_user_at_console which seems to check
/var/run/console/ for magic files.  I understand redhat has/had
pam_console to create these though can't find sources for it easily.

There is now a libpam-foreground in Debian and Ubuntu at least which
seems to do similar but requires a change to dbus before it'll work with
at_console.  See http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=422349
Is this the new way now?  Is this ever likely to get into your
repository?

Debian is currently relying on groups which works but is a little clumsy
for users and impractical in a lab situation where many users want to
use one shared computer and all would have to be part of the group.


PolicyKit and ConsoleKit seem to be mentioned when I search for things
like this but I'm not sure how far along they are or even if they are
still the current goal.


If libpam-foreground is the best way forward for linux distros then
would you consider taking that patch?

Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction.


Simon

-- 
... "A short description of how to reproduce it, and I'll be on it like a
    fly on a week old dead donkey" -- Linus Torvalds