System-tools-backends

[Larry Maloney]

Markus,

I would like to get an idea of the scope of work before committing myself.

If it's just path conflict, and integration work, maybe it's not too bad.

At first thought, seems like this could be easily done in some C code.

Can anyone give me an idea of the scope of work, and identify a todo list?  Anything at all to help
me evaluate this project?

One of the problems I have, is that when I run users and groups within gnome, and I try to modify an existing
user, the changes aren't persistently.  I don't see any changes that I make with "Users and Groups" reflected in 
/etc/passwd.

Is this a typical issue with system-tools-backends, or do I have something wrong in my environment/config?

Thank you.

Larry

On Sat, 2009-04-18 at 17:29 -0700, Larry Maloney wrote:

> > Marcus,
> > 
> > I am trying to use gnomes "users and groups" app in gnome on BSD, but 
> > I'm having problems.
> > 
> > I do have the latest and greatest system-tools-backends, but based on 
> > this summer of code recommendation, it seems that my problem might be 
> > everyones problem.
> > 
> > What exactly is NOT working in System-tools-backends for freebsd with gnome?
> > 
> > I may have to work on this, just to get what I need done.
>   

Thanks for your interest.  As you have already seen, "Users and Groups"
has problems.  Essentially, every module needs to be made to work.  This
means hacking the backend Perl code to respect FreeBSD paths, helper
applications, etc.

If you're serious about fixing this code, I recommend you send an email
out to gnome at FreeBSD.org and ask for specific problems.  I haven't used
these tools in a while since I've known they did not work.  In
particular, modifying services used to mess up the box so bad, it would
just crash.

You're the first to step up to this challenge, so I certainly hope
you'll consider doing the work.  If you do, I would like you to take
ownership of this module moving forward.  That is, you would be the one
responsible for making sure the FreeBSD support doesn't rot.  The
FreeBSD GNOME team is hurting for contributors right now, so we're very
eager to get new blood.

Joe

-- Joe Marcus Clarke FreeBSD GNOME Team :: gnome at FreeBSD.org FreeNode / 
#freebsd-gnome http://www.FreeBSD.org/gnome

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