I cannot get the shutdown and reboot options

[Terry]

Mark Grieveson wrote:
>> Yes, thanks. Your wording is similar to that in the forum message. 
>> I've altered the sudoers file to read as follows: %terry ALL=(root) 
>> NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper The only other uncommented line 
>> is: root ALL=(ALL) ALL I'm not sure how relevant the sudoers file is 
>> on my system. PCLinuxOS basically uses root rather than sudo. 
>>     
>
> "sudo" is a package that is intended to "provide limited super user 
> privileges to specific users."  The ability to reboot and/or shutdown in 
> xfce4 requires super user powers; so, if you want your regular user to 
> be able to reboot, you need to set up sudo to do this.  So, install the 
> package sudo from synaptic, and attempt to edit your sudoers file.
>
>   
>> I just tried running the command with the following result: 
>> [terry at localhost ~]$ /usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper XFSM_SUDO_DONE 
>> [hangs so I press ENTER again, then:] FAILED Oh, the pain. I get the 
>> same result after changing sudoers to %terry 
>> ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper and: %users 
>> ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper There is no "user alias 
>> specification" in sudoers. The man page is so much geekese, so I'm not 
>> even sure I need one, let alone understand how to format it.
>>     
>
> The man pages are painful, no doubt about it.  When I first struggled 
> with this, I thought, "Good Lord, can't anyone write a simple faq?"  
> When I found a faq on this subject, it basically said, "read the man page".
>
> I did find a couple of sites that were helpful, though:
> http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Allow_users_to_shutdown
> http://forum.xfce.org/index.php?topic=2890.msg12174
>
> In Debian, the "xfsm-shutdown-helper" file is locate at 
> /usr/sbin/xfsm-shutdown-helper.  To find out where it's located on your 
> system, run the updatedb command (as root), and then "locate 
> xfsm-shutdown-helper".  I'm guessing your xfsm-shutdown-helper file is 
> located at /opt/xfce4/libexec/xfsm-shutdown-helper.
>
> Find below a description of what I did to enable regular users to 
> shutdown and/or reboot:
>
> First, in a terminal, as root, enter "visudo -f /etc/sudoers"
>
> This will allow you to edit the sudoers file.  By doing this, you will 
> be giving everyone, and not just root, the power to either reboot or 
> shutdown the computer.
>
> In Debian systems, add:
>
> %users ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/sbin/xfsm-shutdown-helper
>
> in mine, I have:
>
> mark ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/sbin/xfsm-shutdown-helper
>
> I'm the only user; so, I just set it up for user "mark" (note, there's 
> no percent sign).
>
>
> For other systems, I think the command to add to the sudoers file is:
>
> %users hostname=NOPASSWD:/opt/xfce4/libexec/xfsm-shutdown-helper
>
> or, it may be:
>
> user ALL=(root) NOPASSWD:/opt/xfce4/libexec/xfsm-shutdown-helper
>
> or, perhaps,
>
> terry ALL=NOPASSWD:/opt/xfce4/libexec/xfsm-shutdown-helper
> (the above being specifically for user terry)
>
> I got these from googling.  After hacking around, I finally did find one 
> line that worked on my system (see above); so, I'm sure you'll likewise 
> find one.
>
>
> Mark

Thanks, Mark.  I don't believe there is any magic about the way the file 
is edited but I've now used visudo and it made no difference.

The file is located in /usr/lib

I've tried several formats.  I don't see any material difference in them 
and none work.  Only the first (IIRC) is mentioned in the documentation.

%terry localhost=NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper
%terry ALL=(root) NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper
%terry ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper
%users ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper
%users localhost=NOPASSWD:/usr/lib/xfsm-shutdown-helper

Perhaps another task for a long, rainy afternoon.


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