Bug 274229

Summary:	media-libs/alsa-oss doesn't work with suid applications
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Mikhail Krivtsov <mikhail.krivtsov>
Component:	[OLD] Library	Assignee:	Gentoo VMWare Bug Squashers [disabled] <vmware+disabled>
Status:	RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Severity:	minor
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Mikhail Krivtsov 2009-06-15 11:34:11 UTC

I use "media-libs/alsa-oss" to share "/dev/dsp" between several instances of VMware Workstation. After each [re]installation of "media-libs/alsa-oss" I have to manually add suid bit to "/usr/lib/libaoss.so.0.0.0" file to make it work with "/opt/vmware/workstation/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx" which already has suid bit. This is necessary because non-suid library can't be preloaded for suid application.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Use VMware workstation to start 2 virtual machines both using "/dev/dsp" for sound output.
Actual Results:  
Second virtual machine complains that "/dev/dsp" is busy.

Comment 1 Wormo (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2009-06-24 03:34:54 UTC

Sorry but I don't think maintainers will want to add suid bit just because some particular suid application wants to use it; this library normally works fine without suid, and distro-wide default settings should not add setuid bit unless it's crucial to normal operation. 

It could be pretty annoying to try to figure out that you need to add the setuid bit to make vmware happy however, so maybe there could be an info message during vmware installs that warn the user about adding setuid bit.

Comment 2 Andreas K. Hüttel archtester

2013-06-21 19:26:45 UTC

Is this still a problem today?

Comment 3 Mikhail Krivtsov 2013-06-24 08:49:03 UTC

(In reply to Andreas K. Hüttel from comment #2)
> Is this still a problem today?

New VMware Workstation has native ALSA support and "media-libs/alsa-oss" isn't necessary any more.