[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#653760: consolekit conflicts with device user groups (introduces regression, fails to deliver functionality)

[C. Gatzemeier]

Package: consolekit
Version: 0.4.1-4

On the general level:
Consolekit seems to switches permissions on devices,
but it does not support, actually conflicts, with the unix/debian way of
limiting the access to devices with user groups.

On the specific level:
Consolekit fails to switch permissions for sound devices, if a
member of the audio group is logged in and the console user
changes ("fast user switching").
A more specific bug description is "Only one user gets sound with
privilege "Use audio devices" [the audio group]" Details at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/consolekit/+bug/433654

For a brief explanation see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/TheAudioGroup


Debian will have to come to a general decision on how to solve the
issue.

The consolekit docs seem to suggest to drop the hardware groups
altogether, and thus stop admins from being able to grant permissions
to just some users (privileged users allowed to make announcements for
example) simply by managing group memberships.

Yet, this does not seem to integrate well for a universal OS used for
systems of a broad range of sizes and complexities.

Another solution that avoids this conflict and regression may
be to let consolekit respect the audio group (and other
hardware groups) and only give a console user access if found in the
appropriate group. As well as find a way to switch permissions between
users that are in the group.

Some specific ideas at gentoo:
http://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-dev/msg_c5ea1c211d36bf8823ea5cb8ab40ca07.xml