5 ms·

Dtui – TUI for introspecting the state of the system/session dbus

156 points by diggan 2y ago

metadat 2y ago
No screenshots.. that's unfortunate for a TUI app on the front page of HN :) The odds I'll try it without having any idea of what it'll be are low. And this one might be really interesting and innovative! Edit: Ooh I see it now, thanks @dodos! My mistake, it didn't load before. Please flag this embarrassment :)
- dodos 2y ago
  I can see a screenshot in the readme.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
1oooqooq 2y ago
dbus and rarely used systemd features (like trusting values from BIOS to create files in your fs root) included for vms but left laying around on baremetal builds will be the major attack vectors on linux for years to come. upvoted as we need as much visibility on all this mess.
- aumerle 2y ago
  Wave your hands harder, you might achieve lift-off.
- creshal 2y ago
  It's not just a systemd thing, all the sandboxing/apppification frameworks (flatpak, snap, etc) heavily rely on dbus as their primary way of communicating with the sandboxed apps, and are constantly adding new dbus interfaces. It is the biggest and most obvious attack surface for sandbox escapes, and the more opaque dbus is, the harder it is to assess their risks.
- progval 2y ago
  > like trusting values from BIOS to create files in your fs root What are you referring to? And what's wrong with trusting the BIOS for that specific thing when you already trust it for everything else?
- NekkoDroid 2y ago
  > like trusting values from BIOS to create files in your fs root if you can't trust your BIOS, how are you going to be able to trust anything else on your system? It all starts with the BIOS being (password or otherwise) protected to not be modifyable without authentication and then goes into secure booting your signed UKI (or whatever other signed way). From there you can have it mount your encrypted drive or load another signed root image. That is like the minimum needed to be able to trust that what you are running is indeed something you can trust and nothing random has been inserted inbetween.
nonlogical 2y ago
Looks neat! It would be really nice if someone makes a fuse FS that allows exploring/interacting with dbus, in keeping with everything is a file UNIX philosophy.
integricho 2y ago
Is it normal for all rust projects to have sooo many dependencies? I tried scrolling through them to see what was used for the TUI itself, and was amazed by a neverending list of dependencies. Reminds me of the JS dependency hell that exists.. I somehow feel this is DRY gone in the wrong direction.
- Groxx 2y ago
  Relatively. tbh I think it's a natural outcome of any system where it's easy and reliable to add a dependency...... .. and where there isn't any ongoing feedback about the costs associated with doing so (binary side, build time, etc) so you don't notice things slowly getting worse. It's just "rust builds are slow" not "why does this one thing I don't use take two minutes". I'm not convinced the large number is actually a problem, but the lack of feedback definitely is.
  - creshal 2y ago
    > I'm not convinced the large number is actually a problem Supply chain security always matters, and the more random dependencies you introduce, the worse it gets.
    - _flux 2y ago
      But are the dependencies random?
      - creshal 2y ago
        If you have the time, I invite you to take the project's cargo lock file and analyse for every single one of them - what does it to justify its inclusion - who wrote it - who else has commit access to the repositories - how do these people secure their git access - are these people susceptible to state actor pressure - will these people never in the future add new maintainers who are moles/blackmailable/have sloppy security hygiene
        2y ago
troels51 2y ago
Author here: Great to see people be interested in my small project! I am currently working on getting method calls and properties working
bbkj 2y ago
[dead]
synergy20 2y ago
I use 'busctl tree', 'dbus-monitor', 'dsub-send' etc, so far worked well
bandie91 2y ago
it can not call dbus methods. can it? how is it better than say "qdbus" or dbus-call? apart of course from the TUI vs CLI aspect?
- troels51 2y ago
  It can't yet. That's currently what I'm working on. I am not trying to make something better than those tools, this is more like a TUI version of dfeet or d-spy
rjzzleep 2y ago
Not fully on topic but does any one know why people use seatd over logind? I noticed that when you use swaymsg exit and you exit the window manager to go back to sddm I noticed that the logind session is not closed. Why is that and how should that be fixed ?
hgkghjnnvnvbdk 2y ago
[flagged]

156 points by diggan 2y ago

No screenshots.. that's unfortunate for a TUI app on the front page of HN :) The odds I'll try it without having any idea of what it'll be are low. And this one might be really interesting and innovative! Edit: Ooh I see it now, thanks @dodos! My mistake, it didn't load before. Please flag this embarrassment :)

dodos 2y ago
I can see a screenshot in the readme.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

1oooqooq 2y ago

dbus and rarely used systemd features (like trusting values from BIOS to create files in your fs root) included for vms but left laying around on baremetal builds will be the major attack vectors on linux for years to come. upvoted as we need as much visibility on all this mess.

aumerle 2y ago
Wave your hands harder, you might achieve lift-off.
creshal 2y ago
It's not just a systemd thing, all the sandboxing/apppification frameworks (flatpak, snap, etc) heavily rely on dbus as their primary way of communicating with the sandboxed apps, and are constantly adding new dbus interfaces. It is the biggest and most obvious attack surface for sandbox escapes, and the more opaque dbus is, the harder it is to assess their risks.
progval 2y ago
> like trusting values from BIOS to create files in your fs root What are you referring to? And what's wrong with trusting the BIOS for that specific thing when you already trust it for everything else?
NekkoDroid 2y ago
> like trusting values from BIOS to create files in your fs root if you can't trust your BIOS, how are you going to be able to trust anything else on your system? It all starts with the BIOS being (password or otherwise) protected to not be modifyable without authentication and then goes into secure booting your signed UKI (or whatever other signed way). From there you can have it mount your encrypted drive or load another signed root image. That is like the minimum needed to be able to trust that what you are running is indeed something you can trust and nothing random has been inserted inbetween.

nonlogical 2y ago

Looks neat! It would be really nice if someone makes a fuse FS that allows exploring/interacting with dbus, in keeping with everything is a file UNIX philosophy.

integricho 2y ago

Is it normal for all rust projects to have sooo many dependencies? I tried scrolling through them to see what was used for the TUI itself, and was amazed by a neverending list of dependencies. Reminds me of the JS dependency hell that exists.. I somehow feel this is DRY gone in the wrong direction.

Groxx 2y ago
Relatively. tbh I think it's a natural outcome of any system where it's easy and reliable to add a dependency...... .. and where there isn't any ongoing feedback about the costs associated with doing so (binary side, build time, etc) so you don't notice things slowly getting worse. It's just "rust builds are slow" not "why does this one thing I don't use take two minutes". I'm not convinced the large number is actually a problem, but the lack of feedback definitely is.
- creshal 2y ago
  > I'm not convinced the large number is actually a problem Supply chain security always matters, and the more random dependencies you introduce, the worse it gets.
  - _flux 2y ago
    But are the dependencies random?
    - creshal 2y ago
      If you have the time, I invite you to take the project's cargo lock file and analyse for every single one of them - what does it to justify its inclusion - who wrote it - who else has commit access to the repositories - how do these people secure their git access - are these people susceptible to state actor pressure - will these people never in the future add new maintainers who are moles/blackmailable/have sloppy security hygiene
      - 2y ago

troels51 2y ago

Author here: Great to see people be interested in my small project! I am currently working on getting method calls and properties working

bbkj 2y ago

[dead]

synergy20 2y ago

I use 'busctl tree', 'dbus-monitor', 'dsub-send' etc, so far worked well

bandie91 2y ago

it can not call dbus methods. can it? how is it better than say "qdbus" or dbus-call? apart of course from the TUI vs CLI aspect?

troels51 2y ago
It can't yet. That's currently what I'm working on. I am not trying to make something better than those tools, this is more like a TUI version of dfeet or d-spy

rjzzleep 2y ago

Not fully on topic but does any one know why people use seatd over logind? I noticed that when you use swaymsg exit and you exit the window manager to go back to sddm I noticed that the logind session is not closed. Why is that and how should that be fixed ?

hgkghjnnvnvbdk 2y ago

[flagged]