Open Bug 529748 Opened 15 years ago Updated 8 months ago

[Linux] App update should request privileges (sudo?) when the user doesn't have privileges to update

Categories

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect, P5)

x86
Linux
defect

Tracking

()

People

(Reporter: robert.strong.bugs, Unassigned)

References

Details

spinoff for the Linux work for bug 318855.
"Reported: 2009-11-18 22:45"  Guys!
(In reply to Todd from comment #3)
> "Reported: 2009-11-18 22:45"  Guys!
Can you provide us a link to an open source app that provides updates outside of the Linux distribution's package manager that deals with requiring root? I don't know of any and that way we can leverage previous work on this issue.
(In reply to Robert Strong [:rstrong] (do not email) from comment #4)
> (In reply to Todd from comment #3)
> > "Reported: 2009-11-18 22:45"  Guys!
> Can you provide us a link to an open source app that provides updates
> outside of the Linux distribution's package manager that deals with
> requiring root? I don't know of any and that way we can leverage previous
> work on this issue.

Take a look at the manual pages for polkit and pkexec ("man polkit" and "man pkexec").  These are the built in command in Linux to elevate
I know about the API's though I don't know if all distros have them available or if there are bugs with them that make them unusable for our requirements. What would be handy is "a link to an open source app that provides updates outside of the Linux distribution's package manager that deals with requiring root?"

It would be a good thing to have a solution for this bug but as can be seen by the duplicates there have been very few requests for this over the years likely due to people using their distro's package manager to get and update Firefox which is what we recommend.
Hi Robert,

I would be shocked if polkit and pkexec were not found in ALL Linux distros.

For all the complaining I see on the Linux mailing lists, and it is a lot, I am surprised at this not being complained about on this bugzilla far, far more often.  Please fix this.  It has been open far too long.

You might take a look over in /usr/bin/system-config-network, which prompts you for your root password.  Maybe you could take a peek inside and see how they do it.

"Supposedly", according to "yum", this utility is included in

http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/26/dist/74/size/1622378/name/system-config-network-1.6.0.el6.2-1.el6.src.rpm

-T
(In reply to Todd from comment #7)
> Hi Robert,
> 
> I would be shocked if polkit and pkexec were not found in ALL Linux distros.
Well, sudo isn't available on all installed distros which I found rather shocking. ;)
> 
> For all the complaining I see on the Linux mailing lists, and it is a lot, I
> am surprised at this not being complained about on this bugzilla far, far
> more often.  Please fix this.  It has been open far too long.
The reason it has been open so long is "likely due to people using their distro's package manager to get and update Firefox which is what we recommend."

Also, length of time a bug has been around in no way dictates a bug should be fixed. If anything the fact that there have only been a couple of duplicate bugs filed and no one volunteering to fix the bug says that the bug isn't important to most people. Having said that, patches to fix this bug would be welcome.
(In reply to Robert Strong [:rstrong] (do not email) from comment #8)
> The reason it has been open so long is "likely due to people using their distro's package
> manager to get and update Firefox which is what we recommend."

And when they do such, they still get the heck annoyed out of them with the update prompts.  Any way to turn off the prompts when folks is using the package manager?
Are you referring to the Firefox app update prompt? All of the distros I know of build Firefox with Firefox's app update disabled which of course disables the app update prompts entirely (as a matter of fact the app update code that checks for updates, notifies of available updates, and applies updates isn't even included in the build). If you know of any distros like this please file a bug against the distro to add ac_add_options --disable-updater to their mozconfig when building as most are already doing.

In the meantime, you can set app.update.enabled in about:config to false
No longer blocks: 318855
Summary: App update should request privileges (sudo?) when the user doesn't have privileges to update → [Linux] App update should request privileges (sudo?) when the user doesn't have privileges to update
If a user doesn't have privileges to perform an update, there is little point in harassing that user with constant popup reminders.
Priority: -- → P5
Severity: normal → S3

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 4 duplicates.
:Amir, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Flags: needinfo?(ahabibi)

The last needinfo from me was triggered in error by recent activity on the bug. I'm clearing the needinfo since this is a very old bug and I don't know if it's still relevant.

Flags: needinfo?(ahabibi)
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