Re: [gentoo-user] Re: KDE slow / console-kit-daemon POLKIT_IS_AUTHORITY failed

[Samuli Suominen <ssuominen@gentoo.org>]

On 16/01/14 19:39, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jan 2014 10:19:22 -0600, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
>
>>>> Helmut is still using consolekit.  Are you still using consolekit?  
>>> Yes, it's the default for kdm so it is enabled on both computers.  
>> I don't think it will be the default for much longer; it's unmaintained
>> code which sooner or later will start to bitrot. Unless someone steps in
>> and starts taking care of it.
> Quite likely, but for now it is the default and in use on both systems in
> question.
>
>>>> I have no idea if consolekit is relevant here, but Canek has been
>>>> telling us that consolekit is abandonware and we should stop
>>>> depending on it.  
>>> That's part of the drive to put everything in systemd, which I do not
>>> use.  
>> Fact is, nobody is maintaining ck; from its homepage[1]:
>>
>> "ConsoleKit is currently not actively maintained. The focus has shifted
>> to the built-in seat/user/session management of Software/systemd called
>> systemd-logind!"
> That's what I was paraphrasing above. I checked the latest status on that
> page before replying.
>
>> That message has been there for months; in general ck kinda still works,
>> although it never really solved the problem of properly tracking user
>> sessions, which is why everybody involved with it quickly jumped ship to
>> logind, where the problem is properly solved.
> The issue for many is that logind is so closely tied to systemd.
>
>> However, as the interfaces in the stack evolves, unmaintained code like
>> ck will simply stop to work. ConsoleKit uses dbus heavily, and with the
>> introduction of kdbus[2] and the inevitable changes that will happen to
>> dbus, combined with nobody taking care of ck, I don't think it will keep
>> working much longer.
> That's a reasonable prediction.
>> Ubuntu and Debian (now that is seriously discussing which modern init
>> system to use) have been discussing an alternative, API compatible
>> implementation of logind, but I don't know if it has got nowhere. I
>> think that has more future than ck, but again, nobody (AFAIK) has
>> stepped in and do the heavy coding.
> Leaving aside my concerns about systemd, I am not happy with the "all
> eggs in one basket" direction things seem to be taking. Whatever happened
> to tolls doing one job and doing it well?
>
>> Independently, though, I think is safe to say that ConsoleKit is a dead
>> end.
> In the future, most probably. but right now it is the preferred option
> for KDM.
>
>

Right, only GDM (the display manager for GNOME) has dropped ConsoleKit
support so far, that I know, in versions 3.8 and later
So other than GNOME, ConsoleKit is still a go -- thus, compatible with
OpenRC based system

For KDE it might be something else than dbus-glib that needs a
recompile, I'd imagine something like kdelibs or polkit-kde-agent, or both
It could be something else too, but setting the suid bit on
dbus-daemon-launch-helper is stupidest idea ever, that *really* allows
anyone to gain root
However if you run a machine with single user and no open ports on the
machine whatsoever, the attack vector is propably very small, but I still
wouldn't do it

- Samuli