KPPP

[Mark Greenwood]

On Wednesday 18 Nov 2009 00:39:08 Derek Broughton wrote:
> Homer wrote:
> 
> > Thank you for your comments:
> > 
> > On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Mark Greenwood <fatgerman at ntlworld.com>
> > wrote:
> >> On Tuesday 17 Nov 2009 18:30:37 Homer wrote:
> >>> Fresh install of 9.10.  In the past when I have done fresh installs,
> >>> I've been able to copy over my kppprc file and everything picked up
> >>> where I left off.  This time I'm experiencing something different...
> >>>
> >>> 1.  When I start KPPP I have to enter my password.  How can I set it
> >>> up so it runs as a regular user?
> >>
> >> KPPP needs root permissions because PPP needs root permissions. If it
> >> worked differently before then lord knows how they did that.
> 
> ppp (and kppp) _don't_, and never have, need to be run as root.  However, 
> back around 2000, a change was made in Debian, which is also in Ubuntu, that 
> used a default setting that _does_ need root.  It was a totally stupid idea, 
> caused numerous people to be confused and upset, and had exactly the 
> opposite effect to that which was desired, because most people simply 
> removed the setting anyway.  It quite rightly assumes that for _dial in_, 
> you should be root, but even then, if the option is set in one of the 
> "provider" configurations, rather than the base config, it doesn't require 
> root permission.  Of course, very few single user systems actually used 
> dial-in then, and even fewer now.  

Well that's news to me :) PPP on Linux has needed root permissions ever since I started using it.... ooo around 2001.. :)

Thanks Derek!

> 
> Now, since it's about 10 years since I needed to know this, I don't recall 
> the option - but try googling my name and ppp.  I explained how to fix this 
> numerous times back then...
>