CloclApplet in KDE

CloclApplet in KDE

[Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS)]

Hi,
I am running RedHat 8.0 and kde 3.1.2 . When I login as a normal user, I
am unable to change the system date. I am trying to do this. I am right
clicking on the clock applet on the panel, and then from the popup menu,
I am clicking on "Adjust Date & Time ..." and nothing comes up.

I know user will not be having permisssions to execute the binary to
change date. But I am wondering where we can find which binary it is
trying to execute? Is it redhat-config-date or dateconfig or something
else? I would like to give sudo permissions to the user, so I want to
edit this. Please help me in knowing where to find and edit the binary
execited from the clock applet?
Thanks in advance...

Re: CloclApplet in KDE

[Rex Dieter]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 678 bytes --]

On Friday 06 June 2003 11:00 am, Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) 
wrote:
> Hi,
> I am running RedHat 8.0 and kde 3.1.2 . When I login as a normal user, I
> am unable to change the system date. I am trying to do this. I am right
> clicking on the clock applet on the panel, and then from the popup menu,
> I am clicking on "Adjust Date & Time ..." and nothing comes up.

How did you install kde 3.1.2? (ie, where did you get it from)?

hint/fyi: KDE built from sources won't work.  (-:  The RPMS included in rh9 
and from both kde-redhat.sf.net and kde.org include a patch (attached) to 
make the "Adjust time & date" option invoke the redhat-config-date 
program.

-- Rex

[-- Attachment #2: kdebase-3.1-clock.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-diff, Size: 719 bytes --]

--- kdebase-3.1/kicker/applets/clock/clock.cpp.clock	2002-11-20 17:27:29.000000000 -0500
+++ kdebase-3.1/kicker/applets/clock/clock.cpp	2002-11-20 17:27:00.000000000 -0500
@@ -928,11 +928,15 @@
 		_settings->openPreferences();
 		break;
 	case 103:
-		proc << locate("exe", "kdesu");
-		proc << "--nonewdcop";
-		proc << QString("%1 clock --lang %2")
+		if ( QFile::exists( locate("exe", "redhat-config-date") ) )
+			proc << locate("exe", "redhat-config-date");
+		else {
+			proc << locate("exe", "kdesu");
+			proc << "--nonewdcop";
+			proc << QString("%1 clock --lang %2")
 				.arg(locate("exe", "kcmshell"))
 				.arg(KGlobal::locale()->language());
+		}
 		proc.start(KProcess::DontCare);
 		break;
 	case 104:

Re: CloclApplet in KDE

[Jeff Largent]

Letting a user change the date/time is generally not a good thing.
It can cause problems with nfs, cvs, and make just to mention a few.

If you are having problems with the time not being right set up ntp
to set and maintian the time on the systems.



Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) wrote:
> Hi,
> I am running RedHat 8.0 and kde 3.1.2 . When I login as a normal user, I
> am unable to change the system date. I am trying to do this. I am right
> clicking on the clock applet on the panel, and then from the popup menu,
> I am clicking on "Adjust Date & Time ..." and nothing comes up.
> 
> I know user will not be having permisssions to execute the binary to
> change date. But I am wondering where we can find which binary it is
> trying to execute? Is it redhat-config-date or dateconfig or something
> else? I would like to give sudo permissions to the user, so I want to
> edit this. Please help me in knowing where to find and edit the binary
> execited from the clock applet?
> Thanks in advance...
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 
> 

-- 
Jeff Largent                   ImageLinks, Inc.
Sr System Admin                Melbourne, Fl 32935
(321) 253-0011                 fax: (321) 253-5559

Re: CloclApplet in KDE

[terry white]

on "6-6-2003" "Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS)" writ:

: not be having permisssions to ... change date.

... this is for a reason.  changing system time works toward accuracy,
and is best left to the system administrator.  the 'user' has NO need to
change system time.

    there is however, a good reason to want that.  if a user can change
time, then other 'time' based processes can be compromised.  log files
come immediately to mind.

    "DENY" everything, and "GRANT" with caution ...

-- 
... i'm a man, but i can change,
    if i have to , i guess ...

RE: CloclApplet in KDE

[Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS)]

I compile the KDE-3.1.2 RPMs from source for RedHat 8.0 i.e I have taken
source RPMS from RedHat 9 and recompiled them for RedHat 8.0. 
I know that "Adjust Time & Date.." invokes redhat-config-date . But I
want to know , in which file it is configured to invoke
redhat-config-date? For example , say by clicking on "Adjust Time &
Date.." , I want to invoke another program(say, redhat-config-network
for example) instead of redhat-config-date, where can I change this? Is
there any config file or .rc file or something like that where I can
edit this? 
Thanks a lot for your response...

-----Original Message-----
From: Rex Dieter [mailto:rdieter@math.unl.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 11:12 AM
To: Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS); linux-admin@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: CloclApplet in KDE


On Friday 06 June 2003 11:00 am, Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) 
wrote:
> Hi,
> I am running RedHat 8.0 and kde 3.1.2 . When I login as a normal user,
I
> am unable to change the system date. I am trying to do this. I am
right
> clicking on the clock applet on the panel, and then from the popup
menu,
> I am clicking on "Adjust Date & Time ..." and nothing comes up.

How did you install kde 3.1.2? (ie, where did you get it from)?

hint/fyi: KDE built from sources won't work.  (-:  The RPMS included in
rh9 
and from both kde-redhat.sf.net and kde.org include a patch (attached)
to 
make the "Adjust time & date" option invoke the redhat-config-date 
program.

-- Rex

Re: CloclApplet in KDE

[Rex Dieter]

On Friday 06 June 2003 11:54 am, Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) 
wrote:
> I compile the KDE-3.1.2 RPMs from source for RedHat 8.0 i.e I have taken
> source RPMS from RedHat 9 and recompiled them for RedHat 8.0.
> I know that "Adjust Time & Date.." invokes redhat-config-date . But I
> want to know , in which file it is configured to invoke
> redhat-config-date? For example , say by clicking on "Adjust Time &
> Date.." , I want to invoke another program(say, redhat-config-network
> for example) instead of redhat-config-date, where can I change this? Is
> there any config file or .rc file or something like that where I can
> edit this?

There's no config for it.  Look at the patch I sent you.  It's hardcoded, 
so you'll need to patch (as you see fit) and recompile.

-- Rex

RE: CloclApplet in KDE

[Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS)]

What is this patch for? By applying this patch, will a normal user be
able to change system date and time through the clock applet?

Thanks


-----Original Message-----
From: Rex Dieter [mailto:rdieter@math.unl.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 12:00 PM
To: Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS); linux-admin@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: CloclApplet in KDE


On Friday 06 June 2003 11:54 am, Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) 
wrote:
> I compile the KDE-3.1.2 RPMs from source for RedHat 8.0 i.e I have
taken
> source RPMS from RedHat 9 and recompiled them for RedHat 8.0.
> I know that "Adjust Time & Date.." invokes redhat-config-date . But I
> want to know , in which file it is configured to invoke
> redhat-config-date? For example , say by clicking on "Adjust Time &
> Date.." , I want to invoke another program(say, redhat-config-network
> for example) instead of redhat-config-date, where can I change this?
Is
> there any config file or .rc file or something like that where I can
> edit this?

There's no config for it.  Look at the patch I sent you.  It's
hardcoded, 
so you'll need to patch (as you see fit) and recompile.

-- Rex

Re: CloclApplet in KDE

[Rex Dieter]

On Friday 06 June 2003 12:03 pm, Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) 
wrote:
> What is this patch for? By applying this patch, will a normal user be
> able to change system date and time through the clock applet?

FYI, the patch I sent was what redhat uses to hook in their 
redhat-config-date (which prompts for root password on envoking).  If you 
want different behavior, you'll need to modify it.

-- Rex

RE: CloclApplet in KDE

[Scott Taylor]

Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) said:

> What is this patch for? By applying this patch, will a normal user be
> able to change system date and time through the clock applet?

That's the second stupidest thing I've read today.  Why in the world
would you want normal users to have privileges to do things that only
root should have?

Someone mentioned NTP earlier (the only good answer).  Keep the clock
in sync with the truth is the only way you should be changing it. 
Anything else sounds like you are trying to become a spammer or crash
someones system.

Only the system administrator, or root, should have access to system
functions, anything else is just dangerous and or stupid.

RE: CloclApplet in KDE

[Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS)]

Jeff, can you please tell me how the date/time change by a user is going
to cause problems with nfs, cvs, make etc?
Because I need to know it clearly before I can decide whether to give my
users this date/time change access or not. 
Thanks a lot in advance..


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Largent [mailto:jlargent@imagelinks.com]
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 12:24 PM
To: Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS)
Cc: linux-admin@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: CloclApplet in KDE


Letting a user change the date/time is generally not a good thing.
It can cause problems with nfs, cvs, and make just to mention a few.

If you are having problems with the time not being right set up ntp
to set and maintian the time on the systems.



Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) wrote:
> Hi,
> I am running RedHat 8.0 and kde 3.1.2 . When I login as a normal user,
I
> am unable to change the system date. I am trying to do this. I am
right
> clicking on the clock applet on the panel, and then from the popup
menu,
> I am clicking on "Adjust Date & Time ..." and nothing comes up.
> 
> I know user will not be having permisssions to execute the binary to
> change date. But I am wondering where we can find which binary it is
> trying to execute? Is it redhat-config-date or dateconfig or something
> else? I would like to give sudo permissions to the user, so I want to
> edit this. Please help me in knowing where to find and edit the binary
> execited from the clock applet?
> Thanks in advance...
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin"
in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 
> 

-- 
Jeff Largent                   ImageLinks, Inc.
Sr System Admin                Melbourne, Fl 32935
(321) 253-0011                 fax: (321) 253-5559

RE: CloclApplet in KDE

[Glynn Clements]

Sadanapalli, Pradeep Kumar (MED, TCS) wrote:

> Jeff, can you please tell me how the date/time change by a user is going
> to cause problems with nfs, cvs, make etc?

Lots of programs use relative timestamps to determine whether data is
valid. E.g. if it caches some data, that data remains valid so long as
it is newer than its source. If the user changes the time backwards,
the cached data may have a timestamp in the future; in that situation,
even if the source is updated, the cached version will still appear to
be valid even though it isn't.

Also, lots of programs use timeouts; data is discarded when it is too
old. I know of several cases where people discovered this the hard way
when they tried to check whether their systems had Y2K problems by
setting the clock forward by a few months. The consequences included
mail software which decided that all of the messages were several
months old and so should now be deleted.

> Because I need to know it clearly before I can decide whether to give my
> users this date/time change access or not. 

Do not let users change the time. There is a reason why the system
calls for change the time require root privilege.

Users don't need to change the time. If you need to keep the clock
synchronised, use an automated mechanism such as NTP or rdate.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements@virgin.net>