Re: [PATCH 1/2] add helper for highmem checks

Borislav Petkov
2013-02-11T23:00:10Z

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 02:46:43PM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> The X server itself used to do that. Are you saying that wdm is a
> *privileged process*?

Nah, it is a simple display manager you start with /etc/init.d/wdm init
script. Like the other display managers gdm, kdm, etc.

But it looks like wdm has copied stuff from xdm (from the README):

"Wdm is a modification of XFree86's xdm package for graphically handling
authentication and system login. Most of xdm has been preserved (XFree86
4.2.1.1) with the Login interface based on a WINGs implementation using
Tom Rothamel's "external greet" interface (see AUTHORS)."

And from looking at the part in the source which does the /dev/mem
accesses, it comes from XFree86's source apparently, this is at the
beginning of src/wdm/genauth.c:

/* $Xorg: genauth.c,v 1.5 2001/02/09 02:05:40 xorgcvs Exp $ */
/*

Copyright 1988, 1998 The Open Group
...

so this explains why it behaves like the X server in that respect.

--
Regards/Gruss,
Boris.

Sent from a fat crate under my desk. Formatting is fine.
--