2 ms·

In case helpful for you or anyone else, you can find out whether polkit would allow a request for an action with pkcheck(1), for instance: "pkcheck --action-id

by yrro 5y ago

In case helpful for you or anyone else, you can find out whether polkit would allow a request for an action with pkcheck(1), for instance: "pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.RealtimeKit1.acquire-real-time --process $$" and check the exit status. What is missing in all these complaint threads (and this isn't aimed at you specifically) is the complainers' proposed alternatives. It's very easy to write a glib comment about "sudo already does this" "groups already do this" which indicates only that the person writing the comment doesn't understand the problem that PolKit is trying to solve.

Beltalowda 5y ago
As near as I could figure out RTkit asked Polkit "do I have permissions to set this real-time?", and Polkit said "no". But perhaps I'm wrong; I found it all very hard to debug as mentioned before, and I didn't care that much just to play some game. I don't have the game on my laptop any more; I'll have to try your pkcheck command next time (although that still won't fix anything, but might get me closer; thanks!) What I lament is not so much that things have changed, but that things have changed in ways I no longer understand or can debug. Back in the Old Days™ you could more or less understand your entire system from a few very basic principles. If something didn't work, you could go in there and usually figure it out on your own. Not that I have rose-coloured glasses about the Old Days™. I remember having to run that horrible "xfree86 -configure" thing when I was starting out with this whole Linux thing. Clearly, things are better now because the last time I had to look at "configuring X" is so long ago I don't even remember how to do it (or even what that filename was; /etc/x.conf? Or /etc/x11.conf? Not sure). I don't think it has to be like this. Just because "su" and "sudo" aren't sufficient and the concepts in e.g. Polkit are good doesn't mean the implementation of these concepts also is.
- yrro 5y ago
  As they say, change is the only constant. I won't say PolKit's implementation is the best ever. But it exists, and solves real problems, enough so that applications choose to use it and distros choose to ship it. One thing I can say in PolKit's favour is that it's well documented--which is important for such a critical component.

by yrro 5y ago

Beltalowda 5y ago

As near as I could figure out RTkit asked Polkit "do I have permissions to set this real-time?", and Polkit said "no". But perhaps I'm wrong; I found it all very hard to debug as mentioned before, and I didn't care that much just to play some game. I don't have the game on my laptop any more; I'll have to try your pkcheck command next time (although that still won't fix anything, but might get me closer; thanks!) What I lament is not so much that things have changed, but that things have changed in ways I no longer understand or can debug. Back in the Old Days™ you could more or less understand your entire system from a few very basic principles. If something didn't work, you could go in there and usually figure it out on your own. Not that I have rose-coloured glasses about the Old Days™. I remember having to run that horrible "xfree86 -configure" thing when I was starting out with this whole Linux thing. Clearly, things are better now because the last time I had to look at "configuring X" is so long ago I don't even remember how to do it (or even what that filename was; /etc/x.conf? Or /etc/x11.conf? Not sure). I don't think it has to be like this. Just because "su" and "sudo" aren't sufficient and the concepts in e.g. Polkit are good doesn't mean the implementation of these concepts also is.

yrro 5y ago
As they say, change is the only constant. I won't say PolKit's implementation is the best ever. But it exists, and solves real problems, enough so that applications choose to use it and distros choose to ship it. One thing I can say in PolKit's favour is that it's well documented--which is important for such a critical component.