gnome system log menu item doesn't function for normal users

[parkland99@…]

AMD64/1.4.0

The view system log option is on the menu, but never works by default becuase ordinary users are not granted privilege to view system logs.

Also the application does not generate any meaningful messages if you do not have access to the logfiles - this can cause confusion to the unwary.

Sudo'ing the command from the terminal also fails to work.

The option can apparently only be made to work if you subsequently grant log file access in the user account.

To avoid confusion to the unwary: Would it be acceptable to grant log file access to 64studio users? Could the system log viewer be made to prompt for password before use (like synaptic)? if not, would it be sensible to remove the item from the menu?

[daniel@…]

I agree, it is weird to have it there if we don't allow root to log in to Gnome. Normal users should be able to view their X.org logs, but if they have X run already they probably don't need to :-)

Does adding your user to the adm group help? You may need to log out and back in to Gnome for the change to take effect.

[daniel@…]

See also http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=217783

[daniel@…]

Alternative solution is here:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=266518

Modify the menu item to run:

gksu gnome-system-log

instead of just:

gnome-system-log

and it works fine, no need to change /etc/groups. However it's a bit clunky having to type the root password just to view logs.

[parkland99@…]

Does adding your user to the adm group help? You may need to log out and back in to Gnome for the change to take effect.

I don't have an adm group created by default; should I create it, or is there some other problem which meant that adm was not created?

Regarding how this could work better.....

On the basis that the menu item is infrequently used (i.e. only during troubleshooting), I prefer gksu because it doesn't affect the security setup.

If something isn't done, users are confronted with an error message like "/var/log/messages is not a log file." which is utterly misleading, especially at a time when you have a system problem you are trying to troubleshoot !! :)

steve~

[daniel@…]

Adding the user to the adm group works for most log files, other logs are in group 'root' but are word-readable. The only drawback to using gksu is that other items on the System Tools menu don't require it, we usually only have gksu for items under Desktop -> Administration.

We might consider adding the adm group to our default setup for a new user, along with the stb-admin group required by the other Gnome tools.

[parkland99@…]

Replying to daniel@64studio.com:

Adding the user to the adm group works for most log files, other logs are in group 'root' but are word-readable. The only drawback to using gksu is that other items on the System Tools menu don't require it, we usually only have gksu for items under Desktop -> Administration.

confirming that manually adding adm group and assigning user solves the problem.

[free]

(In [158]) * Create adm group and include in it the default user (closes #329)