(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Ok, forget the poll, that's ancient, but I have a new package for browsing as Spot
(that is, not the "root" user). It has the option of installing an icon to the desktop.

It's still ONLY compatible with mozilla browsers, that is, Firefox, Seamonkey (and if you still use them Netscape and Mozilla,
but if you are worried about security then these old beings would be long dead).

________________________________________________________________________

I never use Spot, but would vote 'yes' to keeping it simply because I hate to lose any facility.

Ahhggghhh! stoopid polls! (yeah I'll blame them, or bugman or cthisbear, not my fault)

This the second one I've managed to foobar, actually it's my second one

I'm not editing again! Any new stuff goes here!

DaveS wrote:I never use Spot, but would vote 'yes' to keeping it simply because I hate to lose any facility.

I agree.

I prefer being root and I'm comfortable being root............................but for those who aren't it probably would be useful.

01micko wrote: 1) I'll splash a message that Spot can only download to /root/spot and that Spot can't really download much at all.

An average user doesn't know what spot is. Ahem, user friendliness? Better do it silently and make sure the user doesn't even notice he's running the browser as spot. Make it transparent to the user.

Also, let's say you want to start the browser through the console. You type "firefox" or whatever and your browser opens, but without your settings and under root's GTK theme. That's bad. If you intend to create a wrapper for each browser that does "su -c $browser" that's a different story, but face it, some people download their browser from its website, they won't have your spot thing.

Another thing to consider is the mess in /root/spot. /root/spot/Downloads and /root/my-documents ... I think it's quite confusing to have two locations for personal files.

Moreover, let's say you want to download stuff to somewhere in the file system ... or let's say you want to download a PET. Normally, you'd open it with PPM and install it right away instead of downloading it ... but with spot you just can't. Now you need to modify PPM to alert you're not root. But hey, the user doesn't know what spot is ... so that's an epic fail. But that's just my opinion, do whatever you want.

01micko wrote: 2) I think the gtk theme not being present is kinda cool It certainly lets you know that you are browsing differently. Perhaps a special gtk colour them could be made just for spot. That would be even cooler .

It's just one application that runs with a different theme. That's weird. Also, you'll need to write some wrapper for gtk-chtheme that generates color schemes for each theme you pick. You'll have to take all colors from a theme in hex, then perform some math on each hex and save them. BUT, some themes don't have the colors, because they use the engine's default, so you can't do that with some themes.

I think that if you can't do that with all themes perfectly, you shouldn't bother. I want my system easy to use and working. 100% working. If it doesn't work under all cases, better leave it. Again, that's my opinion.

Hi Iguleder

I like your comments. Not that I agree with all of them but I like them

Here's the deal. If spot didn't exist I would not care. I'm not the one who wants to browse as spot, it's others.

As for user friendliness, which I agree totally with you on that one, if this thread takes off then that will evolve. If it dies then so be it!

But the fact that some users want to browse as user "spot" isn't going away. I answered a post about this today. A fellow reckons he couldn't browse as "spot" in Puppy 5. He didn't read the manual too well and posted a bug report!

Of course browsing as "spot" does work in Puppy 5/501. It's actually really useless to me and I might drop it completely. Anyone can post whatever solution to whatever problem (re topic) they want right here.

The discussion has started now and we'll let it roll along.

Cheers

I don't use spot but it might come in handy someday. So I have to go with DaveS on this one.

I actually had a copy of Multi-User Puppy here on my machine once for just such purposes. I can't recall who created that version, but I recall he did it mostly to show others how it could be done for those that don't want to run as root. While running as root is condemned by The Ten Commandments For Linux Users, it is still a whole lot safer than using Win, where everyone is root also.

At least now there's another choice for folks that don't want to run as root. By the way....the multi-user version should be in the archives under 4.x series, and I found it to be somewhat touchy....or is that buggy? It may need some tweaking, so if anyone tries that, be sure to read the docs. It may save you some grief.

73

If browser can run as spot, so can gtk theme changer
will setup spot's gtk theme.

As for downloads problem maybe a symlink in /root to spot's Downloads dir?

That solves the problem with Firefox ... well, sort of. But what if it's another program that uses .config or something? What if a user wants to create backups of all configuration files?

The average user is used to a single-user system as in Windows. A "user" is a person who uses the computer for the average user. He or she has no idea what a system user is or what "spot" is.

Now go and tell people there are different users in Puppy, but they're not users, they're users

You can't tell people they have to choose 2 GTK themes.

Different browsers don't use different gtk configs, it's always the same one ~/.gtkrc
plus copy of gtkrc can be in spot's dir by default or it could be symlink to root's gtkrc
When root changes theme from main menu in gtk theme changer, spots gtk will read same file.

For browser config files every browser creates own .dot config automatically, users that don't know about spot user will likely not be at that level of manually editing config it's done thru browser preferences settings.

BTW Mick, why it works only for mozilla based browsers, can't you do su spot -c defaultbrowser ?
Not sure why it wouldn't for others, any of them have permission to make own config dir in spot's home dir, if permissions are bad then
I saw many applications complaining for running as root, but not for running as restricted user
Anyway, I think browsing as spot IS more secure, does user know or not know how is different story.

New version uploaded, takes care of gtk theme and also adds a desktop icon (optional )

Only supports mozilla browsers

See main post

Hi,

I have installed the pet and opted for the desktop icon.

Firefox 3.6.16 is set as my Lupu 5.25 default browser.

If I click on my original browse icon Firefox loads with my installed add-ons and bookmarks, but

if I click on my new browsesafe icon I see a pristine Firefox without add-ons or bookmarks.

Would someone please be so kind as to advise how I can load the add-ons and bookmarks using browsesafe?

My regards

Addendum:

I apologize as I forgot to say my .mozilla folder is in /mnt/home and my .mozilla folder in root is an absolute link,

Jasper wrote:Hi,

I have installed the pet and opted for the desktop icon.

Firefox 3.6.16 is set as my Lupu 5.25 default browser.

If I click on my original browse icon Firefox loads with my installed add-ons and bookmarks, but

if I click on my new browsesafe icon I see a pristine Firefox without add-ons or bookmarks.

Would someone please be so kind as to advise how I can load the add-ons and bookmarks using browsesafe?

My regards

I am not sure since I can't run anything as spot so I can't test it, but I suppose you can fix it like this:
Run the browser again and see if you got all your preferences back. If that doesn't work, try again like this:
Or perhaps you could symlink one to another, so both are always "in sync."

Good luck.

Hi Luluc,

Thank you for your input. However, I apologize as my .mozilla folder is in /mnt/home and my .mozilla folder in root is an absolute link,

I have played with my absolute links without any success and I will amend your code for the different location and try it later today unless, meantime, anyone else has a definite solution.

My regards

Yes I need such too. I have the .mozilla on mnt/home and an absolute link to it. Does one need a relative link then?

How does one change the password for spot and what does it have now?

Thanks to L18L

nooby wrote:How does one change the password for spot and what does it have now?

Cheers
spot since 10 minutes

Edited: but more important is to change root's password
by simply typing in a console

Dillo works under spot in Wary 500.
Dillo is relatively secure as root but Spot digs the hole deeper to bury his paranoid bones.

Dillo is secure to the extreme. No Flash. No Javascript. It can't be hacked.

But it's too much of a sacrifice IMO. It's ugly, renders badly, has no features...