Tails

#1 Updated by sajolida 2016-08-07 11:20:36

• Subject changed from Applications>Utilites>System log asks for password, but works if password not entered to Don't ask for administration password to open System log (as it's not needed)
• Priority changed from Normal to Low

Right, so I’m renaming this ticket to make it clear that should be done

I’m also marking is as Low prio, unless someone wants to work on this soon.

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2016-08-09 13:27:43

• Assignee set to sajolida
• QA Check set to Info Needed

> Error:
> - System log appears

Right. Here, after logging in without setting an admin password in the Greeter, System Log displays some log files one can read without special credentials, fully ignores logs it cannot read (e.g. the most important one, i.e. the systemd Journal), and displays a warning about some other, non-existing log files.

emmapeel:
> Expected behaviour
> - System log window should not appear

sajolida:
> Don’t ask for administration password to open System log (as it’s not needed)

I’m confused by these analysis of the problem, and the two corresponding proposals. The way I understand it, System Log asks for credentials it would use to display more information, and in the absence of such credentials, it only displays the information it can. I understand that the UX could be better, but:

• it seems nice that System Log display the logs it can, even if it cannot access and display some other logs; so the “entirely refuse to open System Log if no admin password is provided” proposal seems to kill useful functionality to me;
• it seems nice to give the user the chance to type an administration password in, in order to provide full-featured access to system logs; so the “as it’s not needed” statement feels erroneous to me.

#3 Updated by sajolida 2016-08-30 08:57:30

• Assignee changed from sajolida to intrigeri

So I compared what you see with or without an administration password and I see the same files:

• With an administration password (my Tails), I’m asked for a password, enter my password, and then I see: dpkg.log and Xorg.0.log.
• Without an administration password (vanilla amnesia Tails), I’m asked for a password, enter none, and then I see: dpkg.log (empty but it had done no dpkg operation so maybe that’s expected) and Xorg.0.log.

intrigeri: do you think I should see more files when an administration password is set?

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2016-08-30 09:35:58

• Assignee changed from intrigeri to sajolida

> So I compared what you see with or without an administration password and I see the same files:

Thanks for testing!

> intrigeri: do you think I should see more files when an administration password is set?

No (in part because the list of log files System Log displays by default is quite incomplete in the context of Tails, and in part because we’re not shipping any syslog daemon anymore). But FWIW you can “Open…” more files (e.g. /var/log/tor/log).

(Side note, in passing: we might want to include gnome-logs in addition, or instead of, gnome-system-log. So that users have graphical access to the systemd Journal, where most logs go these days.)

#5 Updated by sajolida 2016-08-31 03:24:11

• Assignee deleted (sajolida)
• QA Check deleted (Info Needed)

Ok, so it’s confirmed that as of now we are asking for a password that is not needed (and doesn’t even exist in vanilla Tails). This is a UX bug. I’m fine saying that we don’t care and won’t fix it.

#6 Updated by intrigeri 2016-08-31 03:56:35

• Status changed from Confirmed to Rejected

> Ok, so it’s confirmed that as of now we are asking for a password that is not needed

I still feel that we are not really on the same page (and in particular I would disagree with the solution that the ticket title proposes), but given what follows: whatever, I’ll shut up :)

> I’m fine saying that we don’t care and won’t fix it.

OK, so let’s leave it at that. It’s not worth spending hours arguing about what would be a solution that makes all of us happy since there are little chances that we actually implement it, so rejecting this ticket: whoever wants to improve the UX of this part of Tails should work on it directly in GNOME anyway.

#7 Updated by intrigeri 2017-01-30 11:10:39

• related to Bug #12133: Check what to do in Stretch wrt. gnome-system-log and gnome-logs added