pppd as normal user (solved, thanks!)

m1rage · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2004 Posts: 82

Hi everyone,

I've got just about everything setup correctly now so I'm trying to get normal user to connect to the internet using pppd so that I wouldn't have to su to root to just connect.

I tried this with sudo

1) nano -w /etc/sudoers

I added this :
%wheel ALL=(root)NOPASSWD:/sbin/pppd

Then I created a script in /usr/local/bin/ named pppd
#!/bin/bash
sudo /sbin/halt

I made it executable
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/pppd

---------------------

I repeated the step for pon and poff

I rebooted just to make sure even though I don't think I needed to....

Now when I try as a user I get this :

Sorry, user X is not allowed to execute /sbin/pon as root on Y

I obviously didn't get it right :wink:

is there any way to get pppd for normal user as well? I would like to use with with the modem-light applet in gnome...thanks!
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m1rage

Valhlalla · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:01 am Post subject:

I cant remember if I had to change some other things but the way I did it was to chgrp pppd to some new group 'dialout' or whatever and chmod pppd to 775 and put user into dailout group.

Maby this helps.
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Pork Chop Sandwiches, Oh Sh*t!

m1rage · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2004 Posts: 82

Hi Valhlalla!

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I started by creating the group pppuser and added the user I wanted to it.

Then it was just a matter of getting my permissions right.

You have to change the permission for pppd not to rwx, but to rws otherwise you get : /usr/sbin/pppd: must be root to run /usr/sbin/pppd, since it is not setuid-root

Then you have to change the permission for everything that pppd need in /etc/ppp

Thanks again

P.S. question that's not really related but what exactly does setuid-root does?

EDIT : Just thought I would add that you need to change the permissions of pon and poff also if you plan on using those two connect/disconnect...
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m1rage

Valhlalla · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:12 am Post subject:

Glad I pointed you in the right direction anyway

Details were poor as it is a while since i did it.

the setuid bit is kind of like sudo , in this case it means that when you start pppd as a member of pppuser pppd is run as if root started it.
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Pork Chop Sandwiches, Oh Sh*t!