[Regression] Computer should NOT shutdown from Guest or Standard user while an Administrator user is still logged in

[Amr Ibrahim]

Computer should not shutdown/restart from a Guest session or from a Standard user session while there is still an Administrator user logged in. This is a major regression from Ubuntu 12.04. This poses a huge data loss potential.

The easy way to solve this is to follow 12.04's policy. The computer can not shutdown/restart from any session while there are any other session logged in regardless it is Administrator, Standard or Guest session.

The hard way is to follow this proposed policy:

(A) Guest session can not shutdown/restart while there are any sessions logged in regardless they are Standard or Administrator users.

(B) Standard user can not shutdown/restart while there is an Administrator user or another Standard user logged in.

(C) Standard user can shutdown/restart while there is a Guest session logged in.

(D) Administrator user can shutdown/restart while there is a Standard or Guest session logged in.

(E) Administrator user can not shutdown/restart while there is still another Administrator user logged in.

1- In case of (A), a Guest tries to shutdown/restart, a message should pop up telling the Guest that s/he can not shutdown/restart but the session can be logged off, and maybe give a reason for that.

2- In case of (B), a Standard user tries to shutdown/restart, a message should pop up telling the Standard user that s/he can not shutdown/restart but the session can be logged off, and maybe give a reason for that.

3- In case of (C), a Standard user tries to shutdown/restart, a message should pop up telling the Standard user that s/he can shutdown/restart but the Guest could lose their data if not saved on external storage such as a USB stick, and advice him/her to log off that session first then shutdown/restart.

4- In case of (D), an Administrator user tries to shutdown/restart, a message should pop up telling the Administrator user that s/he can shutdown/restart but other users could lose their data if not saved, and advice him/her to log off those sessions first then shutdown/restart.

5- In case of (E), an Administrator user tries to shutdown/restart, a message should pop up telling the Administrator user that s/he can not shutdown/restart but the session can be logged off, and maybe give a reason for that.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: lightdm 1.9.13-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-20.42-generic 3.13.7
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Apr 1 10:33:39 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-08 (23 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140304)
SourcePackage: lightdm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I was told that packages affected by this issue may be systemd-services and/or policykit, but I don't know enough about it to add additional bug tasks. Hopefully someone else does. :)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

It is a very bad idea to prevent users who have physical access to the machine to shutdown if there are other users logged in.
This will simply likely result in them using the power button to shut the computer down, resulting in data loss.

If a user has console access, they should be allowed to shutdown the computer with a warning.

[Amr Ibrahim (amribrahim1987)]

OK, yes, at least give them a warning.

I think the better solution is to advice the user of the correct action (as described in the bug description) and let him/her decide.

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

There's some historical discussion, including some design work for warning dialogs in this bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-greeter/+bug/861171