Computer should NOT shutdown from Guest or Standard user while an Administrator user is still logged in

[Marc Deslauriers]

On 14-04-02 06:49 AM, Amr Ibrahim wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I filed this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/1300658
> and here is its description:
> 
> Computer should not shutdown/restart from a Guest session or from a Standard
> user session while there is still an Administrator user logged in. This is a
> major regression from Ubuntu 12.04 and poses a huge data loss potential.
> 
> The easy way to solve this is to follow 12.04's policy. The computer can not
> shutdown/restart from any session while there are any other session logged in
> regardless it is an Administrator, Standard or Guest session.
> 
> The hard way is to follow this proposed policy:
> 
> (A) Guest session can not shutdown/restart while there are any sessions logged
> in regardless they are Standard or Administrator users.
> 
> (B) Standard user can not shutdown/restart while there is an Administrator user
> or another Standard user logged in.
> 
> (C) Standard user can shutdown/restart while there is a Guest session logged in.
> 
> (D) Administrator user can shutdown/restart while there is a Standard or Guest
> session logged in.
> 
> (E) Administrator user can not shutdown/restart while there is still another
> Administrator user logged in.
> 
> 1- In case of (A), a Guest tries to shutdown/restart, a message should pop up
> telling the Guest that s/he can not shutdown/restart but the session can be
> logged off, and maybe give a reason for that.
> 
> 2- In case of (B), a Standard user tries to shutdown/restart, a message should
> pop up telling the Standard user that s/he can not shutdown/restart but the
> session can be logged off, and maybe give a reason for that.
> 
> 3- In case of (C), a Standard user tries to shutdown/restart, a message should
> pop up telling the Standard user that s/he can shutdown/restart but the Guest
> could lose their data if not saved on external storage such as a USB stick, and
> advice him/her to log off that session first then shutdown/restart.
> 
> 4- In case of (D), an Administrator user tries to shutdown/restart, a message
> should pop up telling the Administrator user that s/he can shutdown/restart but
> other users could lose their data if not saved, and advice him/her to log off
> those sessions first then shutdown/restart.
> 
> 5- In case of (E), an Administrator user tries to shutdown/restart, a message
> should pop up telling the Administrator user that s/he can not shutdown/restart
> but the session can be logged off, and maybe give a reason for that.
> 
> I hope this issue is fixed by the time 14.04 is released because I think this
> poses a huge data loss potential.
> 

I disagree with your reasoning. It's preventing users who have console access
from shutting down the machine that will result in data loss, as they will
simply fallback to using the power button or the magic sysrq key.

If the user does not have console access, then it's reasonable that they would
not be allowed to shut down if other users are logged in.

Marc.