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Author Topic: [Solved] Cannot open the default browser under Linux  (Read 5310 times)

MarkMLl

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Re: Cannot open the default browser under Linux
« Reply #15 on: October 23, 2020, 10:56:21 am »
I am 'root' in development only. I always test afterwards, regularly, the software as 'user01'.

You're missing the point. The IDE is an extremely complex piece of software, which activates an enormous number of libraries handling rendering etc. as the same user with which you invoke it. It's also prepared to fire up a browser etc. for external reference material from external sites.

By running the IDE as root, you're giving software writers that you should not be trusting free rein over your development system, which you should now be considered to be compromised.

There is no reason to do this, and you shouldn't be doing it.

MarkMLl
MT+86 & Turbo Pascal v1 on CCP/M-86, multitasking with LAN & graphics in 128Kb.
Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
GitHub repositories: https://github.com/MarkMLl?tab=repositories

devEric69

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Re: [Solved] Cannot open the default browser under Linux
« Reply #16 on: October 23, 2020, 11:46:23 am »
Quote
The IDE is an extremely complex piece of software, which activates an enormous number of libraries handling rendering etc.

I'm aware of this: it's now an old and huge piece of programming, very large and too complex for a small head like me.

Quote
There is no reason to do this, and you shouldn't be doing it.

For sure: as 'root', I'm launching mountains of source code, which may contain malicious code... potentially breaking my computer. But exactly as I answer "yes" to the UAC under Windows, which asks me to take my responsibilities before launching a program that can break the Windows shell, I take these responsibilities with the shell of Nunux. So, if I run a silent hard disk formatting without a shell accountability message, I will only be able to blame myself >:( .
« Last Edit: October 23, 2020, 12:36:24 pm by devEric69 »
use: Linux 64 bits (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).
Lazarus version: 2.0.4 (svn revision: 62502M) compiled with fpc 3.0.4 - fpDebug \ Dwarf3.

MarkMLl

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Re: [Solved] Cannot open the default browser under Linux
« Reply #17 on: October 23, 2020, 12:57:51 pm »
I presume that you are familiar with Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust" lecture.

I don't know whether anybody has considered such a thing with FPC, but there's really no defence against that sort of thing without robustly signed binaries: something that unix isn't very good at, and which could almost certainly be circumvented by the local root user.

MarkMLl
MT+86 & Turbo Pascal v1 on CCP/M-86, multitasking with LAN & graphics in 128Kb.
Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
GitHub repositories: https://github.com/MarkMLl?tab=repositories

devEric69

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Re: [Solved] Cannot open the default browser under Linux
« Reply #18 on: October 23, 2020, 02:20:39 pm »
Okay, fine: I surrender :'( .
I'll switch the launch of Lazarus, as belonging to 'user01', as soon as possible :) .
« Last Edit: October 23, 2020, 02:24:05 pm by devEric69 »
use: Linux 64 bits (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).
Lazarus version: 2.0.4 (svn revision: 62502M) compiled with fpc 3.0.4 - fpDebug \ Dwarf3.

MarkMLl

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Re: [Solved] Cannot open the default browser under Linux
« Reply #19 on: October 23, 2020, 02:47:26 pm »
If you need a hand with capabilities or debugging yell. I've spent the last few weeks on something that ran as an ordinary user but had elevated capabilities so that it could create a unix domain socket in /var/run and a UDP socket below 1024, and debugging using gdbserver (which does have to run as root).

Only significant issue- as mentioned much earlier- was being unable to debug running a shell script directly.

MarkMLl
MT+86 & Turbo Pascal v1 on CCP/M-86, multitasking with LAN & graphics in 128Kb.
Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
GitHub repositories: https://github.com/MarkMLl?tab=repositories

 

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