gksudo without sudo

[Tom Smith]

Darryl Clarke wrote:

>On 09/02/06, Tom Smith <tom71713-ubuntu at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>I'm a bit new to Ubuntu so I wanted to discuss this here before
>>submitting bug reports or whatnot...
>>
>>I performed an "expert" install to minimize the number of packages that
>>were installed in the "Desktop" setup. Doing so, sudo wasn't configured
>>by default--that is, I was prompted for and entered a root password and
>>no accounts (other than root) were added to sudoers.
>>
>>The problem is that when running Synaptics, for example, from the Gnome
>>menu (as a non-root user), I'm unable to access it--it's using gksudo to
>>launch. Many other admin-related menu entries are doing the same thing.
>>If I run the same command from the command line using gksu it works
>>fine--for example, I'd execute "gksu synaptics" and it would load after
>>I entered the root password.
>>
>>The fix is simple... I just needed to add myself to sudoers and gksudo
>>began working.
>>
>>I don't fully understand Ubuntu's security architecture yet so I'm not
>>sure if this is expected behavior or an oversight. With the way the
>>system (Gnome, mainly) is currently configured, it requires that one
>>configure sudo in order to run any of the admin apps from the Gnome menus.
>>
>>Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
>>    
>>
>
>It would be that 'expert' (server) mode:
>
>a) isn't expecting to install the gui/desktop env.; which has all
>Admin launchers configured to use gksudo, as per the normal Ubuntu
>sudo behaviour.
>
>b) is expecting you to understand Ubuntu's security arch. and know
>that you have to add your real user (and any others who should have
>admin rights) to the admin group. (you actually don't have to touch
>the sudoers file, unless you are specifying different rules)
>
>--
>~ Darryl  ~ smartssa at gmail.com
>~ http://darrylclarke.com
>  
>
With all due respect...

I think it's a bad assumption to say that sudo /is not/ configured in
"server-expert" for no other reason than no GUI is going to be
installed--if this were the case, why would sudo be configured during a
standard "server" install?

Further, I do have a default Ubuntu "Desktop" configuration (expert) and
the only "admin" group I have is "adm"--of which my account has been a
member, and I created my account during the installation. Despite this,
neither gksudo nor sudo worked *until* I configured sudoers.