Idea - Synaptic user verification & (future) automated updates

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2004 at 09:26:30AM -0500, Eric Dunbar wrote:

> Right now Synaptic requires admin (sudo) authentication BEFORE it starts
> up. In future, it might be worth-while to have the authentication happen
> when the update is to be applied (i.e. click Apply or whatever Apply
> morphs into).

I expect that this would be quite complex to implement using the Unix
security model and the existing APT API.

> The reason I suggest this sequence is that this way "normal" users can
> use the computer and automagic checks for updates (security and/or
> stability and/or major features) can be scheduled to occur (let's say)
> weekly and to fire up Synaptic if important updates are present. The
> "normal" user would then have the option of post-poning the update if
> they don't have access to an admin account/password or they could
> inform the admin of the computer to check up on things.

I'm not sure that this would improve usability significantly; root
privileges will always be required in order to install updates, and we
already provide a facility to automatically notify the user when updates are
available without launching synaptic or requiring a privilege escalation
(upgrade-notifier).

-- 
 - mdz