[Xastir] bootstrap.sh

[Curt Mills, WE7U]

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, Raymond Quinn wrote:

> The first time, I made and installed as ROOT. This time, I am using a user
> other than ROOT. I remember someone mentioning permissions with
> /dev/ttyS1(mouse on /dev/ttyS0) with users other than ROOT. If I am correct,
> what is required to resolve this?

Read the stuff in the INSTALL file about it.  What I like to do is
install it SUID root by typing "chmod 4555 /usr/local/bin/xastir"
after I install Xastir (type that command as root).  That lets Xastir
run as root when it needs to, but it drops priviledges down to normal
user priviledges the rest of the time.

Other options are:
------------------
A) Add the user to the group that has access to the serial ports, and
make sure the permissions for group are read/write for those ports.

B) Run as small shim program that talks to the ports and Xastir can
connect to.  This has one advantage in that a small program is more
easily checked for security problems than all of the Xastir code.

C) Make the port read/write for everybody, but that's not generally
recommended.  It lets anyone with access to your machine mess with
your serial ports.

D) Run as root all the time.  Definitely not recommended.  People can
use security holes in Xastir to gain control of your system, or
Xastir could go bonkers and delete any/every file on your system.

Curt, WE7U.				archer at eskimo.com
http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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