kdesudo is missing

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1

Hello,

Does anyone know why kdesudo is not in OpenSuSE. Looking through KDE forums and docs, it has not been removed from KDE, so it seems that the OpenSuSE devs must despise kdesudo, but they either don’t hate sudo or were blocked from removing it as it is there and yast has a module for configuring sudo.

I ave tried installing a kdesudo rpm from the build service, but it did not work as expected, so I removed it. Has anyone gotten kdesudo working? If so, please provide some tips.

Some have posted that you can do everything kdesudo can with kdesu, bit no one ever offers information on how, so here are some things that I can do with kdesudo.

  1. I can give users access to specific things that normally require root access, but allow them to do these things without knowing the root password. Obviously, I would not give them access to anything that can change the root password or other users passwords.

  2. Admins can do anything using their own passwords. If you can’t trust your admins, then you have an issue that has nothing to do with Linux, OpenSuSE or KDE to resolve.

Thanks,

Rhongomiant

2

Why not use “kdesu” instead which is included?

Thank You,

3

Well, kdesudo is not and never was part of KDE AFAIK.
kdesu is.

But you can configure kdesu to use sudo instead of su, see here: Default kdesu to use sudo and not su | Free Techie Blog
It then respects the settings in /etc/sudoers where you should be able to configure the things you mention.

Hope that helps.

4

wolfi323,

Thanks for the response. None of the items on that post allowed me to use sudo. I tried running the kwriteconfig command making sure I used double - and I tried editing the kdesurc files directly and when kdesu opened a prompt asking for my password and not root’s password, yast2 would never open. In fact noting i tried opened. I have a feeling that kdesu has been hard coded to use su and not sudo for at least a number of operations.

Thanks,

Rhongomiant

5

No, this works fine here. If you want to run a programm as a different user, “su” is hardcoded, yes. But for root you can use “sudo” as well by that method in this article.

You have to kill kdesud first though, for the setting to work (or logout/login).

Does “sudo” itself work for you?

If kdesu asked for your password instead of root’s that would be an indication that sudo is used I would say, since sudo can be configured to ask for the current user’s password instead of the target user’s (and that’s the default on Ubuntu f.e. AFAIK)

6

wolfi323,

Something is definitely broken for me. This is what I get when I set kdesu to use sudo and try to launch something with kdesu.

sudo: rhongomiant : TTY=pts/13 ; PWD=/home/rhongomiant ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/lib64/kde4/libexec/kdesu_stub -
sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
su: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty=pts/13 ruser=rhongomiant rhost= user=root
su: FAILED SU (to root) rhongomiant on /dev/pts/13
sudo: gkr-pam: couldn’t get the password from user: Authentication failure
sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): auth could not identify password for [rhongomiant]

I know I am entering the correct user password and I have also tested entering the wrong password and that is a whole other endeavor. The kdesu password entry dialog remains on the screen and it is locked up not allowing me to do anything. It never tells me I entered the incorrect password nor does it allow me to attempt to enter another password. I have to kill the process manually. Below is the only log entry I get when I enter the incorrect password.

sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/pts/13 ruser=rhongomiant rhost= user=rhongomiant

I have none of these issues when su is used for kdesu. I am running OpenSuSE 12.3 x86_64 and below is the information related to KDE and kdesu.

Qt: 4.8.4
KDE Development Platform: 4.10.5 “release 1”
KDE su: 1.0

Thanks,

Rhongomiant

7

So does sudo itself work? (try to run “sudo whoami” to test f.e.)

sudo: gkr-pam: couldn’t get the password from user: Authentication failure

gkr-pam is short for gnome-keyring-pam, so something seems to be wrong with that. Maybe try to uninstall it? You shouldn’t need it on KDE.

8

wolfi323,

Sorry, I know you have asked about sudo a couple of times and I kept forgetting to respond to that. Yes sudo works fine. For example, I can sudo -i to get to root, sudo yast to access the ncurses yast, etc.

I will look in to removing gnome-keyring-pam.

Thanks,

Rhongomiant

9

There is an unsupported kdesudo in the Build Service. If you must have this, you can add it from there. You can also make a feature request, but it would be a while before it’s added to the standard repo.

Index of /repositories/home:/steffens:/lvermgeo:/client/openSUSE_12.3

10

Because that requires using the root password, which is completely inappropriate. There are many administrators per machine. Using root loses the tracking of what individuals do. If I am an authorized admin of a machine, and have sudo permission, do not make the enterprise admin share the root password with everyone.

11

Fresh install 12.3.11 32-bit:
me@mycomputer:~> sudo echo hello
root’s password:

Links, suggestions?

12

So, what’s your problem? That the root password is asked for?
That’s how sudo is configured by default on openSUSE. If you want it to ask for the user’s password, edit /etc/sudoers accordingly. (use “visudo” for that)

And why are you hijacking this thread? This one is about kdesudo missing, not about problems with sudo or how to configure it.
Better open a new one.

13

From what I can see, it’s both. Having used the solutions suggested the OP still can’t make it work.

I am not hijacking the thread, I have the same issue.

Showing root password from sudo in a konsole takes kde out of the equation, while demonstrating the same problem. Or one of the problems noted along the way. at least.

Now, I can say, a D’OH moment, I had not noticed in visudo:## installed system. When configuring sudo, delete the two

following lines:

Defaults targetpw
ALL ALL = (ALL) ALL

  • and commenting out the two lines does indeed restore the expected functionality to sudo. <sigh>

  • but adding the kdesurc lines noted does not help kdesudo (or kdesu), just as others have reported it not helping.

~/.kde4/share/config/kdesurc:[super-user-command]
super-user-command=sudo

… now I’m left with the (Alt-F2) ‘kdesu konsole’ doing nothing problem as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Assuming it did work, is ‘ln -s kdesu kdesudo’ reasonable?

14

(Pardon the repost, couldn’t edit to add the quotes fast enough.)

From what I can see, it’s both. Having used the solutions suggested the OP still can’t make it work.

I am not hijacking the thread, I have the same issue.

Showing root password from sudo in a konsole takes kde out of the equation, while demonstrating the same problem. Or one of the problems noted along the way, at least.

Now, I can say, a D’OH moment, I had not noticed in visudo:## installed system. When configuring sudo, delete the two

following lines:

Defaults targetpw
ALL ALL = (ALL) ALL

  • and commenting out the two lines does indeed restore the expected functionality to sudo. <sigh>

  • but adding the kdesurc lines noted does not help kdesudo (or kdesu), just as others have reported it not helping.

(Another D’OH moment being the need to logout/in.)

~/.kde4/share/config/kdesurc:[super-user-command]
super-user-command=sudo

… now I’m left with the (Alt-F2) ‘kdesu konsole’ doing nothing problem as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Assuming it did work, is ‘ln -s kdesu kdesudo’ reasonable?

Or:kdesu -u $USER -c {command}

?

15

No, the OP had sudo configured to ask for the user’s password and had it working in Konsole.
And by joining in here you create a mess IMHO, but anyway…

  • but adding the kdesurc lines noted does not help kdesudo (or kdesu), just as others have reported it not helping.

(Another D’OH moment being the need to logout/in.)[/QUOTE]
Right, kdesud has to be killed for the change to take effect.

… now I’m left with the (Alt-F2) ‘kdesu konsole’ doing nothing problem as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Didn’t you say it worked after logout/in?
Or does it still not work now?
If not, what do you get when running it in Konsole?

Assuming it did work, is ‘ln -s kdesu kdesudo’ reasonable?

No. Why would you want to do that?
Install kdesudo if you want to use that. Or use kdesu.

Or:kdesu -u $USER -c {command}

?

If changing to a different user, kdesu would use “su” again (that’s hardcoded).
kdesu only uses “sudo” for changing to root (with that configuration change), and you don’t have to specify “-u root” for that since that’s the default.

16

Not the way I read it.

Can you give us a break with the attitude, please?

Sorry if unclear. Fine now in konsole. Not in GUI.

Well … because that’s the way some people are used to using it.

Let alone … if the suggestions used (e.g. writeconfig) mean kdesu is now using sudo instead of su, the idea isn’t totally unreasonable.

zypper search kdesudo reveals no hits. Or, if you mean visudo by “install kdesudo”, then that’s been done. (Or I wouldn’t be here.)

Thanks for that.

So ‘kdesu -u {other user}’ isn’t viable to see how something appears to another user, then? (As su is?)

e.g. ‘kdesu -u {other user} -c konqueror’ (su {other user} konqueror) or ‘kdesu -u {other user} -c firefox’ (su {other user} firefox)

  • wouldn’t, for example, bring up firefox with the other user’s profile?
17

Well, then read again.
He has written this:

And he never asked about that anyway. So I assumed he would know this.

Can you give us a break with the attitude, please?

Who is “us”? Are you talking from you in the plural? That’s a fine attitude.
And what’s your problem with creating a new thread with your issue?

Sorry if unclear. Fine now in konsole. Not in GUI.

What? “sudo” or “kdesu”?

Well … because that’s the way some people are used to using it.

What people?
As I wrote in my very first answer here, kdesudo was never a part of KDE nor openSUSE. It may have been installed by default on other distributions, but that I don’t know.
And as somebody pointed out, there is a package available on openSUSE as well. Just install that and you can run “kdesudo”.
“kdesudo” is something completely different than KDE’s “kdesu”.
But of course you can create links on your system anyway you like.

Let alone … if the suggestions used (e.g. writeconfig) mean kdesu is now using sudo instead of su, the idea isn’t totally unreasonable.

Why? You do seem to want it to behave that way, don’t you?
“kdesu” is there mainly to run stuff as superuser. How it does that is a different story.

zypper search kdesudo reveals no hits.

I thought you have read this thread?
There was a link to the package.
Or use software.opensuse.org: Search to search for the package yourself.

Because you haven’t added that additional repo, “zypper search” doesn’t find it.

Thanks for that.

Yeah. So much for my attitude. :wink:

So ‘kdesu -u {other user}’ isn’t viable to see how something appears to another user, then? (As su is?)

Yes it is. And that’s what’s used if you select '“run as a different user” in the menu editor f.e.

But it uses “su” then to change to that user (if different to root), even if you configured it to use “sudo”.

e.g. ‘kdesu -u {other user} -c konqueror’ (su {other user} konqueror) or ‘kdesu -u {other user} -c firefox’ (su {other user} firefox)

  • wouldn’t, for example, bring up firefox with the other user’s profile?

See above. Yes, it does. But it uses “su” to change to that other user, not “sudo”.

18

Sorry, I misread your sentence as “the idea is totally unreasonable”
So please ignore my reply to that.

Of course it is not unreasonable to have kdesu use sudo. That’s why it is possible and why I suggested that config change.
But linking kdesudo to kdesu is unreasonable IMHO. It’s a completely different program, and may behave completely different (and may have different command line parameters as well, I haven’t checked).
Again, if you want to have kdesudo, just install it.

19

I give. Don’t need the abuse and aggravation. Moving on …

20

You’re a bit touchy, aren’t you?

Where did I “abuse” you? :
I just suggested that it would be better for you and the OP if you opened a new thread for your problem.

But sorry that I tried to help you.
I won’t do that anymore, promised.:sarcastic: