[systemd-devel] Restoring systemd-ui?

[Ben Boeckel]

On Thu, Dec 05, 2024 at 08:11:50 +0100, Ben Boeckel wrote:
> At $DAYJOB, we started migrating to 2FA for VPN which has caused me to
> look at how I can get the system service to provoke my user session to
> ask me a prompt for the password. Of course, systemd has a solution for
> it that:
> 
>     https://systemd.io/PASSWORD_AGENTS/
> 
> which I *can* use, but I need to do plumbing on my side because I use a
> desktop environment cobbled together from pieces :) . I found
> `systemd-ui` which provides a useful tool for those with "minimal"
> desktop setups:
> 
>     https://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd-ui
> 
> which is…dormant to say the least. Is there any appetite to resurrecting
> this on Github? I have patches to make it work with modern Vala/GTK3
> here:

Ping?

Is there any interest in reviving this codebase?

>     https://github.com/mathstuf/systemd-ui/tree/modernize
> 
> and metadata needed for actual deployment here (polkit rules and user
> units though install rules are lacking; the agent is also missing a
> manpage):
> 
>     https://github.com/mathstuf/systemd-ui/tree/modernize-metadata-wip
> 
> FWIW, I think renaming the agent to `systemd-gtk-ask-password-agent`
> might be useful as there's nothing actually GNOME-specific about it.

I've made a few other enhancements since then:

  - support for systemd 257's user password request directory
    * TODO:
      - command line arguments to take `--system` and `--user` arguments
        to limit where it listens
  - notification timeout is tied to the `NotAfter=` time (if any) in the
    request

Things I'd like to do:

  - port to GTK4 (to support Wayland)
  - port to meson (discovered the hard way that the dependency chain in
    autotools from `.vala` -> binary is broken (the C file is generated,
    but never recompiled and linked without a clean build).

Thanks,

--Ben