gdebi should have a option to define what authentication backend to use (gksu/gksudo/something-else) without patching the source

[Elliott Hughes]

running gdebi-gtk 0.1.5 from nautilus on Debian testing/unstable (i don't have Dapper Drake yet), i get the prompt "Enter your password to install 'whatever'", but the error message i get when i type my password implies (seemingly correctly) that i'm being asked for the *root* password.

this is unfortunate because (a) it's misleading and (b) it doesn't help me if i'm in sudoers but don't actually have root's password. so ideally the fix would be to require my password rather than to correct the message in the dialog ;-)

[Elliott Hughes (enh)]

here's a patch:

--- /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/GDebi/GDebi.py.orig 2006-05-11 17:19:56.000000000 -0700
+++ /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/GDebi/GDebi.py 2006-05-11 17:32:15.000000000 -0700
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@
             if res == gtk.RESPONSE_OK:
                 msg="<b><big>%s</big></b>" % \
                     (_("Enter your password to install '%s'") % self._deb.pkgName)
- os.execl("/usr/bin/gksu", "gksu", "-m", msg,
+ os.execl("/usr/bin/gksudo", "gksudo", "-m", msg,
                          "--", "gdebi-gtk", "--non-interactive",
                          self._deb.file)
             return

 --elliott

[Shriramana Sharma (jamadagni)]

Even if I use kdesu for adept or whatever, I am prompted for my password. What is wrong in this?

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

@Elliott Hughes:
Thanks for your bugreport.

This is entirely intentional that gdebi uses gksu for ubuntu. We use the gksu gconf key sudo-mode key to make it always use sudo (as ubuntu has no root user by default).

For debian (or other distros with a different policy) your patch is correct, but it does not apply for ubuntu. I will retitle this to a whishlistbug to make the behaviour configurable in a easier way than patching the source.

Cheers,
 Michael