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Idea #19246: Permitting Forbidden Filesystem Actions in Nautilus if the user can Authenticate

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #4347: gksudo if I try to do an action I don't have access to.
Written by rbsfou the 16 Apr 09 at 08:02. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
Even if a user has the ability to sudo, but they tried to drag a folder into somewhere like /usr/local, the move/copy would be flat-out REFUSED.

Under OSX, you would be able to authenticate with your password and have the copy take place anyway!

e.g. Try and install a ScummVM game for all users of a machine without using the terminal...

52
votes
closed
Solution #1: gksudo
Written by rbsfou the 16 Apr 09 at 08:02.
Nautilus should be extended, so as to allow a user to authenticate with their password when a file copy/move violates unix permissions.

Discussion would need to take place as to whther the UID and GID of the destination file/folder(s) would be preserved, or derived from the UID / GID of the destination folder.
13
votes
closed
Solution #2: Advanced authentication dialog
Written by jamesisin the 18 Apr 09 at 22:41.
I like solution 1 but it still has a limitation. If you attempt an action which requires elevated privs and you are running as a non-privved user, entering your pswd is not going to work.

However, if the auth dialog had a small triangle, button, or whathaveyou which when clicked added a user field in addition to the password field you would then be able to authenticate using a different user account for that specific action.

(This is something I'd like to see on all auth dialogs for the obvious admin usage.)
-10
votes
closed
Solution #3: Ask user to run nautilus in privileged mode.
Written by Lachu the 19 Apr 09 at 08:28.
Some distribution have option to run filemanager as superuser in application/system menu.

Nautilus can show message that the action requires privileged mode and inform how to perform it.

Propose your solution

Attachments
forum Ubuntuforums.org thread #409852


Duplicates


Comments
rbsfou wrote on the 16 Apr 09 at 19:01
I've thought of another example - installing the 64-bit flash plugin that was released a while back - again, WITHOUT needing to use a shell.

I'm assuming this is now in the repositories anyway, but things like this will occur!

baldurpet wrote on the 17 Apr 09 at 01:34
I've thought about this many times before.
There is nothing wrong with an application doesn't let me delete an item because I'm not the administrator, but if you DO know the root password, and if you ARE the administrator you can't delete an item unless you open up a terminal, type "sudo rm /home/user/long/file/path \name/stupidfile.c".

This is punishing users that don't want to bother with the command line for being stupid, and punishing other users for not using the command line. This violates KISS and "Ubuntu for human beings".

Another problem is changing authentication if you don't have permission (even if you are root), without using 'chmod', 'chown' or 'chgrp'. I want a dialog box to pop up every time Ubuntu needs the root password!

rbsfou wrote on the 18 Apr 09 at 18:27
About re-chowning when you are in a different group, i agree with what you say here too baldurpet!

I think we need buttons saying

"Take ownership of this file / folder"
"Change ownership of this file / folder"



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