Xserver needs to run as "root" on Linux / was: Re: [Xorg] Server side widgets

Jon Smirl jonsmirl at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 13 05:03:50 PDT 2004


--- Torgeir Veimo <torgeir at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-07-12 at 11:29 -0700, Jon Smirl wrote:
> > e idea being discussed is to use the kernel for login. Something
> like
> > SysReq or Ctrl-Alt-Del would be used to interrupt the kernel. The
> > kernel would then draw the login screen using a device drivers like
> > drm/fbdev. As part of the login process the ownership of the device
> > node would be transfered to the logged-in user.
> 
> Wouldn't it be better to leave control to a separate program after a
> sys-req event, like init, and use a special run-level? A separate
> program could then handle both text mode and graphical login?

The idea of a kernel based login is that it is completely secure and
can't be trojaned. A key that can't be intercepted is used to trigger
login. The kernel catches this and clears/draws the screen in a way
that can't be stopped. The keyboard is then directly read for the login
data.


> 
> -- 
> Torgeir Veimo <torgeir at pobox.com>
> 
> 
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> xorg at freedesktop.org
> http://freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
> 


=====
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl at yahoo.com


		
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