In “System Settings” ("Configure Desktop) applet In “Personalization” block - “Account details” one can add some personal information to it’s own account - email, profile picture and (i assume) change a password, although once in password field i’m getting pop up window to enter and re-enter new password without “enter old password first” field.
But anyway, when i try to add profile picture i am being asked for root password. Although when i click on “cancel” my picture still being assigned.
I do understand root (admin) password request if i would try to change anything for another user, but it seems to me excessive to be asking root password for anything concerning my own account.
Could you please check if you experience same behavior, and if yes i would like to submit a bug request.
This seems to be for a desktop environment. Can you please explain which one?
Guessing KDE and that is in the login options screen and in general that requires root since the login is part of system and not for the most part under user control since the options are used before a user is logged in thus system.
On 2015-09-15 14:06, gogalthorp wrote:
>
> Guessing KDE and that is in the login options screen and in general that
> requires root since the login is part of system and not for the most
> part under user control since the options are used before a user is
> logged in thus system.
I’m not sure about that; a user should be able to change his own choices.
I would have a look at “man chfn” - see:
The chfn command changes user fullname, office room number, office phone number, and home phone number
information for a user’s account. This information is typically printed by finger(1) and similar
programs. A normal user may only change the fields for her own account, subject to the restrictions in
/etc/login.defs. (The default configuration is to prevent users from changing their fullname.) The
superuser may change any field for any account. Additionally, only the superuser may use the -o option
to change the undefined portions of the GECOS field.
So, the next step is checking that “/etc/login.defs” 
Of course, then what the desktop does, I do not know.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
On Tue 15 Sep 2015 12:28:06 PM CDT, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Of course, then what the desktop does, I do not know.
Hi
In gnome-shell just copy the image your wanting to use as a
profile picture as ~/.face
I would imagine it’s common across DE’s.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel
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Well in KDE the page that has the option also has system options on other tabs so yes it is confusing
Sorry everyone for delayed reply… but i’m working, indeed, in KDE (plasma5) environment (5.4.0-1.1).
Hm, it even crashes here if I try to set a different picture… (13.2 with Plasma 5.4.1)
The “new”* user manager just seems to be buggy in general.
- It’s not really new, AFAIK it was developed and used by KUbuntu years ago already (for KDE4) and has been pushed into Plasma5 by them now to replace the “official” one… :-/
Don’t you mean ~/.face.icon ?
At least that’s what I have here with KDE…
On Thu 17 Sep 2015 08:46:01 AM CDT, wolfi323 wrote:
malcolmlewis;2728262 Wrote:
> Hi
> In gnome-shell just copy the image your wanting to use as a
> profile picture as ~/.face
>
Don’t you mean ~/.face.icon ?
At least that’s what I have here with KDE…
Hi
No, just .face, maybe that’s the difference? a .icon extension.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel
3.12.44-52.10-default If you find this post helpful and are logged into
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Ok, apparently both is possible.
From KDM’s changelog (an entry from 2003):
* The location of the administratively set user faces is now specifiedby the FaceDir option and the pictures have a .face.icon extension
(or .face for “natural” images, possibly photos).
Or its config description file:
Key: FaceSource
Type: enum
AdminOnly/FACE_ADMIN_ONLY: from <filename><<option>FaceDir</option>>/$<en
var>USER</envar>.face.icon]</filename>
PreferAdmin/FACE_PREFER_ADMIN: prefer <<option>FaceDir</option>>, fallbac
k on $<envar>HOME</envar>
PreferUser/FACE_PREFER_USER: ... and the other way round
UserOnly/FACE_USER_ONLY: from the user's <filename>$<envar>HOME</envar>/.face.
icon]</filename>
Default: AdminOnly
User: greeter
Instance: #*/PreferUser
Comment:
Specify, where the users' pictures should be taken from.
Description:
If <option>UserList</option> is enabled, this specifies where &kdm; gets the
images from:
</para>
%ENUM%
<para>
The images can be in any format Qt recognizes, but the filename
must match &kdm;'s expectations: <literal>.face.icon</literal> should be a
48x48 icon, while <literal>.face</literal> should be a 300x300 image.
Currently the big image is used only as a fallback and is scaled down,
but in the future it might be displayed full-size in the logo area or a
tooltip.
To be accessible to &kdm;, the images must be world readable and their
parent directories must be world executable.
And see also LightDM - ArchWiki :
Users wishing to customize their image on the greeter screen need to place an PNG image called .face or .face.icon in their home directory.
The “AccountsService” way mentioned there is not supported by KDM AFAIK.
It should work with LightDM and GDM though, and support for that has been added to SDDM recently too AFAIK (but it’s not yet in the current 0.12).
Maybe that’s what the “new” KDE user manager tries to do and needs the root password for.
Hi
I’ve been using the same jpg (100x88) file for the last ~8+ years on my systems as a .face file, but only with gdm… I can understand a system wide setting require root user, so I guess as a user create a image file and rename (or softlink to an image) would be the quick way…
Yeah, and my 60x60 PNG ~/.face.icon shows up fine in KDM since years, too. (I don’t remember exactly when I set it, but it must have been around 2005 or so)
And it also does in GDM and SDDM, although at some point it has been copied to /var/lib/AccountsService/icons/ too, so I’m not sure which one GDM actually uses now… 
Anyway, I think the size specification is just a recommendation. If it doesn’t fit, it probably will be scaled…
Guys, just to be clear, my profile pic shows up fine as well on login/lock screen even after rejecting root password requests. So this action doesn’t require root password, which is very nice, but still asking for it.
Creating the ~/.face and ~/face.icon files does not require root permissions, but creating /var/lib/AccountsService/icons/xxx does.
I tried again here, with a smaller image it didn’t crash. It copied it to ~/.face, created a symlink ~/.face.icon to ~/.face and copied it to /var/lib/AccountsService/icons/wolfi as well.
If your user is a “Administrator” (you can activate that in the user manager too), you don’t have to enter the root password though.
Actually the default polkit permissions for AccountsService do allow modifying your own user account, /etc/polkit-default-privs.standard contains this:
org.freedesktop.accounts.change-own-user-data yes
But the user manager always uses the action org.freedesktop.accounts.user-administration (even when changing your own account), which does require the root password.
Looks like an upstream bug to me.