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Bug 694284 - net-misc/modemmanager: combining polkit and plugdev group looks suspicious
Summary: net-misc/modemmanager: combining polkit and plugdev group looks suspicious
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Gentoo Linux
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Current packages (show other bugs)
Hardware: All Linux
: Normal normal (vote)
Assignee: Freedesktop bugs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-09-13 11:50 UTC by Michał Górny
Modified: 2023-08-05 05:40 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---


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Description Michał Górny archtester Gentoo Infrastructure gentoo-dev Security 2019-09-13 11:50:27 UTC
I think we generally use polkit when we mean to enable access to the user who is on console (via logind or whatever), not to use plugdev group.
Comment 1 Pacho Ramos gentoo-dev 2022-12-10 08:24:47 UTC
Passing --with-polkit=permissive (as it is used, for example, in fedora) and using default udev rules would allow us to avoid plugdev usage I think
Comment 2 Larry the Git Cow gentoo-dev 2023-07-29 11:51:54 UTC
The bug has been closed via the following commit(s):

https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=bc4da903011348c12f5fc058b25dba3db6b69c71

commit bc4da903011348c12f5fc058b25dba3db6b69c71
Author:     Pacho Ramos <pacho@gentoo.org>
AuthorDate: 2023-07-29 11:50:09 +0000
Commit:     Pacho Ramos <pacho@gentoo.org>
CommitDate: 2023-07-29 11:50:11 +0000

    net-misc/modemmanager: add 1.20.6
    
    Also stop using obsolete plugdev group and follow other distributions for
    polkit setups.
    
    Thanks-to: Matt Turner
    Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/694284
    Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/899226
    Signed-off-by: Pacho Ramos <pacho@gentoo.org>

 net-misc/modemmanager/Manifest                   |   1 +
 net-misc/modemmanager/modemmanager-1.20.6.ebuild | 122 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 123 insertions(+)
Comment 3 Sam James archtester Gentoo Infrastructure gentoo-dev Security 2023-07-29 12:25:29 UTC
Shouldn't we keep plugdev for USE=-polkit?
Comment 4 Pacho Ramos gentoo-dev 2023-07-30 10:42:59 UTC
(In reply to Sam James from comment #3)
> Shouldn't we keep plugdev for USE=-polkit?

I am unsure about the policy for keeping plugdev stuff forever. If I remember correctly, even udisks dropped its support long time ago. 

Looking to the reverse deps of acct-group/plugdev I am really unsure if it is still being really effective (in 2023) to avoid polkit deps and not need to become root for certain tasks :/ 

Also, looking to them, it seems plugdev is being used for different purposes too making the situation even more chaotic as some of them would require users to be added to plugdev group even on polkit setups (for example media-libs/libmtp), others pull it for unknown reasons (net-wireless/gnome-bluetooth)...

In my opinion, for this exact case I would wait until someone still running that setup demands it. For the general use, probably we would need to review every reverse dep to verify how the group is really being used, but that would be more for a QA team task, I think, as we need to clarify its purpose and verify if it is still possible to rely on plugdev group to have a similar experience as with polkit.