rpm vs xo & activity updates

[Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)]

> Can you expand on this idea? My main complaint with what I've seen from
> previous non-OLPC mechanisms is that root/super-user privileges are
> required. We can wrap any old CLI in a shiny, pretty, GUI. But it needs to
> work in a sane, safe way without passwords for small human beings.

If I'm not mistaken, PackageKit uses PolicyKit.

And PolicyKit can be configured to either:
- ask for the root password each time
- ask for the root password and keep permission for the active session
- ask for the root password and keep permission indefinitely
- same 3 above cases but with the user's own password instead
- always grants permission to the user
- always deny permission to the user

All those possibilities can be configured for a lot of different
actions needing administration permissions, among which is « update my
system » or « install new software ». :-)

You can look at how it works by running the «
/usr/bin/polkit-gnome-authorization » tool on a Gnome desktop.


----------

Mathieu Bridon (bochecha)