Gnome2 config files weirdness

[stan]

On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 10:00:33PM +0000, Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 21:58, stan wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 12:16:15PM -0400, Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 12:09, stan wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 10:14:59PM -0400, Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
> > > > > On Wed, 2003-08-20 at 21:01, stan wrote:
> > > > > > I'm trying to get Gnome 2 up and running on a TABLE machine. I've built the
> > > > > > gnome2 port, and I'm getting gdm2 as a login screen. I'm able to log in as
> > > > > > a normal user. But when I change something. it thinks it's changing roots
> > > > > > Gnome config. And indeed all changes I make are affecting all users.
> > > > > 
> > > > > What changes?  There are a lot of configurable options in GNOME.  Care
> > > > > to narrow it down a bit?
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > additions to the panel.
> > > 
> > > Additions to the panel (like adding a launcher) only affect the current
> > > user.  I've tested this.  The only difference would be if you're running
> > > as root.  Then, you can actually edit the /usr/X11R6/share/gnome space,
> > > and you could make global panel changes.  You may want to verify you
> > > haven't set anything setuid to root, you're not actually logged in as
> > > root, and you don't have any write permissions under
> > > /usr/X11R6/share/gnome.
> > > 
> > We agree that is how things _should_ be. However it's not how things _are_
> > on this box. Actually I just started checking around, and when I log in as
> > myself (non root account), I have now found that if I bring up a terminal,
> > and type "who am i" the answer is _root_!. So perhapsh this is a gdm bug?
> 
> What version of gdm do you have installed?  Are you using the default
> configuration?  I use gdm on all my GNOME 2 machines (4 in all), and I
> have never seen this problem.  Did you setuid root any of your gdm
> binaries?
> 

I decided to rebuld gdm. When the rebuild was finished, I noticed a note
telling me _NOT_ to run gdm from /etc/ttys, but instead to use the supplied
shell script in /usr/X11R6/etc/init.d. I had missed this on the rebuild to
switch from Gnome 1 to 2. So I did as instructed, which fixed the problme.

Thanks for the help on this.

I must say this seems like a reather huge security hole!


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