28 ms·

why does it require sudo?

• wizzwizz4 5y ago
  Same reason you need `sudo` to change screen brightness with the /dev/ files; unless you have special group permissions set up, normal users can't directly access hardware devices. It's a Linux convention.
  • d110af5ccf 5y ago
    > It's a Linux convention. It's just basic security. Direct access (ie no trusted intermediate software layer) to physical hardware is a minefield.
    • wizzwizz4 5y ago
      Well, yeah, that's the reason for the convention – but it isn't quite that simple. Control of the PC speaker should really be available to all users in `audio` by default, because in most setups it has exactly the same attack surface; running software as `sudo` instead is worse from a basic security perspective. In this case, the driver is a trusted intermediary layer – at least, I think it is.