Feature changed by: Bernhard Wiedemann (bmwiedemann) Feature #310622, revision 6 Title: Run xserver without root privileges openSUSE-11.4: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: Jose Ricardo De Leon Solis (derhundchen) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: Now that we have KMS enabled in the distribution we are a step closer of being able to run the xserver with just user privileges, and thus making openSUSE more secure. About a year ago I read a blog post of a moblin developer stating that achieving this is not that hard, but I've yet to see another distro achieving it. Nevertheless I think we can start to think about it. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: It all boils down to increase the security of openSUSE, as stated below. Discussion: #1: Bernhard Wiedemann (bmwiedemann) (2010-10-02 21:32:27) I am thinking about the big variety of graphics chips supported by a modern X-server. e.g. I am currently writing this on VIA unichrome graphics. But I have no idea how many of those do not have KMS yet / would not work with a root-less xserver. Once this question has a nice answer, moving towards a root-less xserver is probably a good option. #2: Tom Zöhner (zoehneto) (2010-10-02 22:37:27) (reply to #1) This is a very important point, because for example the proprietary NVIDIA driver doesn't support KMS. #3: Jose Ricardo De Leon Solis (derhundchen) (2010-10-03 06:03:22) (reply to #2) And probably never will (unless of course nvidia driver goes open source). Perhaps I should have added that we should provide a root-less xserver when possible. + #4: Bernhard Wiedemann (bmwiedemann) (2010-10-03 09:50:48) (reply to + #3) + It is technically possible to start a process with root privileges and + drop those as early as possible. e.g. apache does that after binding + port80. + So optimal solution would be that xserver starts as root, figures out + if it can work root-less and if possible drops privileges. This + Improves security while maintaining compatibility. It also allows + drivers to be upgraded to root-less operation when they are ready. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/310622