[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#501576: Bug#501576: libpolkit2: requires files from policykit, but doesn't declare that

[Michael Biebl]

James Westby wrote:
> Package: libpolkit2
> Version: 0.9-1
> Severity: important
> Forwarded: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17978
> User: ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
> Usertags: origin-ubuntu intrepid
> 
> Hi,
> 
> A full description of the causes of the problem are given
> in the upstream bug report:
> 
>   https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17978
> 
> 
> The summary is that if libpolkit2 is installed, but policykit
> isn't, calls to polkit_context_init fail due to PolicyKit.conf
> and other files not being present.
> 
> It may be that this is an upstream problem or a packaging
> issue. I hope the maintainer will respond promptly to the issue.

This is known issue.
I already discussed this with davidz quite some time ago (I noticed it
when I tried to enable the policykit support in consolekit).
There were also quite lengthy discussion about this topic on the hal
mailing list about circular dependencies between CK and PK.

We couldn't agree on a acceptable solution yet.
Some ideas floating around, were:
a.) ship PolicyKit.conf in libpolkit2. Imo a no-go, as it would make
future library transitions painful (libpolkit2 and libpolkit3 wouldn't
be co-installable)
b.) Create the config file in libpolkit2.postinst. Would be quite
hackish, and we'd have to move the user creation into
libpolkit2.postinst, so we can successfully chown the file.
c.) Move the *single* conf file into a separate package
libpolkit-common. Quite some overhead
d.) Do nothing within libpolkit2. Other software should gracefully
handle the case, when polkit_context_init fails.
e.) Change polkit_context_init to not fail if PolicyKit.conf is not
present. Don't think this is a good idea.

Cheers,
Michael

-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 260 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-utopia-maintainers/attachments/20081008/e3a0748d/attachment.pgp