Hi, ext Aniello Del Sorbo wrote: > >> On the tablet you just install apps. Why should the installer need > to be root to do so? > >> A properly configured device (as it should have been) should NEVER > ask for root permissions. > >> All programs just copy their own executables and write their own > configuration in a file. It can be made in a user writable directory > (perhaps in the memory card too [see below]). > >> Same holds for libraries. > >> > >> I can think of very few .debs (if any) that need to be installed by > root on a tablet. > > > > What you are describing looks like the sandbox in /var/lib/install > used in IT2005 for all packages. It crippled device extensibility a lot > and was a true PITA. I'd never go back. > > > I do not know how it was done on the IT2005. Why did it crippled the > device extensibility ? > > (/var/lib/install looks like an odd place) > > I mean, if my apps need to be called as "helloworld" and it looks at a > conf file called "helloword.conf", why I have to copy the executable in > /usr/bin and the conf file in /etc while I can just copy it to > /usr/local/bin (owned or writable by 'user) and the conf file in > /usr/local/etc ? (just to give an example) and add /usr/local/bin to > the path? > > When the apps is build for Maemo you just need to pass > --prefix=/usr/local to the ./configure command and the app should know > where to look for the conf file. > > I don't see why it should limit somehow the exensibility of the device. > > Could you be more clear on that? Package not doing something != package being prevented from doing it. If package is done properly, it doesn't (by definition) break things. However, nothing in Debian package management is technically preventing package user installs from wrecking havoc on the user's system. Only thing preventing this is other users testing packages from the Debian repos (and complaining loudly if things break). - Eero
