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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    User idea for GSOC: the end of "you don't have enough permissions".
From:       Diego <panda84 () inwind ! it>
Date:       2009-02-27 16:08:44
Message-ID: 49A8100C.9020700 () inwind ! it
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Hello everybody,

DISCLAIMER: I'm a user, not a developer, and I know nearly nothing about 
real programming.

Some time ago I had an idea and I reported to the bugzilla. Now I found 
in the page of GSOC that it possible for users to propose some 
additional ideas.
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Summer_of_Code/2009/Ideas#Adding_a_Proposal
Like suggested in that page I contacted a developer, Dario Freddi, 
because I already know him a bit and because, as a newbie as I am, I 
thought PolicyKit could be involved in the process of "fixing the 
bug"/"implementing the feature".

After a brief chat he told me that PolicyKit doesn't have much to do 
with this feature, but he suggested me to write in this mailing-list 
because the idea itself is not that bad (not exact words, just a resume) 
and could be discussed further.

So here I am. :)

Let me do a brief mandatory introduction.
As I know from my experience with the local LUG the most of the times a 
new Linux user gets into troubles the solutions resides in a 
modification to a configuration file somewhere outside the user 
directory or in copying some files in a specified path (I can't count 
how many times I've explained how to copy a wireless firmware to 
/lib/firmware). The most of the explanations on how to solve these 
problems suggest to do weird things like Alt+F2 "kdesudo kwrite 
/boot/grub/menu.lst", or rely on the usage of Konsole. These kind of 
solutions let the users a bit confused, as they don't get what they're 
doing; most of the times they just blindly follow these "black magic 
recipes".
A solution to the problem could be to improve the graphical interfaces 
to be able to perform single actions as another user. Are you dragging a 
file to some other user's home directory? Then the file manager should 
ask for the other user's password, not just complain "you don't have 
enough permissions". That's a bit sadic...

Here's the original bug / proposal:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=179289
The bug is filed against Dolphin but in reality (I think) is something 
that could affect most of the KDE system. For example, it could be 
applied with little modifications to the save file dialog.
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=178590


Regards,
Diego
 
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