Security?

[opensorce]

A random console window popping up and asking for a sudo password during the latest steam update is not going to sit well with many Linux users...

[dirrtymartini]

opensorce a écrit :

A random console window popping up and asking for a root password during the latest steam update is not going to sit well with many Linux users...

Can you possibly provide any less information about this mystery window, Mr. "opensorce" ?

Many Linux users would include stuff like "I'm running Ubuntu 12.10 and was installing the latest Steam update using Synaptic / apt-get / whatever. The update downloaded ok but a Terminal opened up asking for my root password! What gives? I wasn't running Synaptic or apt-get as root. Could that be the cause?"

"Oh, btw, the Steam version I was updating to is v1.0.0.31"

[opensorce]

I wasn't aware that much more information was required Mr. "gsharp" as my post was relatively straight forward. However, I'll indulge:
During the latest self update of Steam (where it pops up a window asking you to restart) on my Ubuntu 12.04 system a console window pops up with the heading "Package install" and says
"Steam needs to install these additional packages:
steam-launcher
[sudo] password for (username omitted):"

I assumed others had seen this as well since it's been mentioned in the freenode chat channel.

I should also add that it fails to install with the error: "E: Unable to locate package steam-launcher"

[dirrtymartini]

opensorce a écrit :

I wasn't aware that much more information was required Mr. "gsharp" as my post was relatively straight forward.

If by straightfoward, you mean devoid of any useful information to allow someone to research an issue or provide help, ok, I'd agree with you. :P

(and I put your name in quotes only because of its unique spelling.)

opensorce a écrit :

However, I'll indulge:
During the latest self update of Steam (where it pops up a window asking you to restart) on my Ubuntu 12.04 system a console window pops up with the heading "Package install" and says
"Steam needs to install these additional packages:
steam-launcher
[sudo] password for (username omitted):"

Thank you. That helps a LOT more than your first post. That's a known and well-documented problem that surfaced recently. There are a couple of threads that might help.

opensorce a écrit :

I assumed others had seen this as well since it's been mentioned in the freenode chat channel.

The freenode IRC channel on whatever IRC network you were using is unrelated to this forum. Some users might mingle between the two but they are separate entities.

[opensorce]

I was not asking for help. I was stating that "A random console window popping up and asking for a sudo password during the latest steam update is not going to sit well with many Linux users". It was a comment, not a request for assistance :-)

As for your classification of this event being a "problem" I don't think it is as far as Valve is concerned. In order for this window to appear it would have to do so by design. Hence my comment that it is not a good idea.

Finally, yes, I'm fully aware of the separation of the freenode chat channel from these forums. I mentioned the channel to show that I am not the only user to have seen this and been put off by it.

[dirrtymartini]

opensorce a écrit :

I was not asking for help. I was stating that "A random console window popping up and asking for a sudo password during the latest steam update is not going to sit well with many Linux users". It was a comment, not a request for assistance :-)

A fair point.

opensorce a écrit :

As for your classification of this event being a "problem" I don't think it is as far as Valve is concerned. In order for this window to appear it would have to do so by design. Hence my comment that it is not a good idea.

It sounds like unusual or unexpected behavior and that might not ba a good thing.
(snip IRC stuff)

Is everything else working ok? How long have you been a Linux user? (out of curiousity)

[Sekioh]

Yeah I got this too on 12.10, but I trusted that it was just a few files that weren't under the user and so it elevated to get something into the other directories outside of user tree.

In any case for me it was more annoying because it looped 3 times, it downloaded that whole 120mb worth or so, then came up with a terminal saying that the "package could not be found, press return" and then started downloading with a more generic white progress dialog instead of the desktop, did the terminal again, then the third time it did the common steam upgrading dialog and finally loaded and logged in. So I basically had to download it 3 times in a row, for each environment (bland themeless progress bar, ubuntu themed download bar, then steam themed download bar) and in between those three it required the password. Quite a silly bug.

[toastiety]

The Steam folks need to work on their DEB packaging frankly. And I say that with a lot of love and appreciation for Steam.

[opensorce]

dirrtygsharp a écrit :

Is everything else working ok? How long have you been a Linux user? (out of curiousity)

Yes, I manually updated it outside of the Steam client and it's all working. I've been a Linux user since 1996 and a *nix user since a few years before.

P.S. The unique spelling of my name comes from a BBS argument with another coder where I stated "There is no U in Open Source!". I meant to say "no I in Free Software" but it was 4am. I've been called OpenSorce ever since :-P

[[Linux] unbridledExüberance]

I just figured you were an opensorcerer practicing opensorcery

[opensorce]

Linux unbridledExüberance a écrit :

I just figured you were an opensorcerer practicing opensorcery

Haha! I've actually never heard that one before... We could have Free Magic!

[dirrtymartini]

opensorce a écrit :

dirrtygsharp a écrit :

Is everything else working ok? How long have you been a Linux user? (out of curiousity)

Yes, I manually updated it outside of the Steam client and it's all working. I've been a Linux user since 1996 and a *nix user since a few years before.

P.S. The unique spelling of my name comes from a BBS argument with another coder where I stated "There is no U in Open Source!". I meant to say "no I in Free Software" but it was 4am. I've been called OpenSorce ever since :-P

Too funny. What a great story. Thank you for sharing that. Plus another person who actually dialed into a BBS? Outstanding!

My apologies for being...er...abrupt earlier. I had stick in a nether region. It's been removed.

[opensorce]

No offense taken, I assure you :-) I'm not a frequent poster here but after looking around a bit I see that most of the posts are support related so I get why you would be in that mode when answering a new post.

And yeah, I still have my original 300 baud cradle modem. It still has a handset duct taped to it from when the strap broke :-P

[dirrtymartini]

opensorce a écrit :

No offense taken, I assure you :-) I'm not a frequent poster here but after looking around a bit I see that most of the posts are support related so I get why you would be in that mode when answering a new post.

Well, I hope you at least hang a hat here and check back every now and then. We could always use another set of seasoned eyes on things. Plus, Valve devs frequent this forum so we get a peek behind the scenes and can weigh in (via github) on bugs, feature adds, etc.

(snip 300baud talk. don't make me go to garage and dig out mine. lol)

[slouken]

We've been talking with the Ubuntu folks about the best way to package Steam for 64-bit systems.

Because of numerous bugs with multi-arch handling on various releases of Ubuntu, including 12.04.2 helpfully uninstalling the X server if you install the stock 32-bit glx packages, they recommended that we install 32-bit dependencies separately. This gives us more flexibility and the ability to work around known issues at install time.

We are aware of the effect that showing a terminal window asking for a sudo password has, but we feel it's better than not being able to install Steam in certain situations.

[toastiety]

slouken a écrit :

We've been talking with the Ubuntu folks about the best way to package Steam for 64-bit systems.

Because of numerous bugs with multi-arch handling on various releases of Ubuntu, including 12.04.2 helpfully uninstalling the X server if you install the stock 32-bit glx packages, they recommended that we install 32-bit dependencies separately. This gives us more flexibility and the ability to work around known issues at install time.

We are aware of the effect that showing a terminal window asking for a sudo password has, but we feel it's better than not being able to install Steam in certain situations.

I don't mean to give feedback where it's not wanted, but many (most) projects I'm aware of have repos for different Ubuntu versions. All of the PPAs on Launchpad have different packages for different versions -- virtualbox uses different repos, etc. This would enable you to declare dependencies more explicitly on more updated systems, etc. Libc, ia32-libs, etc.

Disappointing to hear that multilib is broken in 12.04 (and moreso that it's an LTS release so it makes a lot of sense for you guys to target...) :(

I mean, at the very least, the DEB should have this:

$ apt-cache show steam
[...]
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15), xterm | gnome-terminal, zenity
[...]

replaced with:

Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15), xterm | gnome-terminal | konsole, zenity, steam-launcher

Shouldn't it? That ought to cause steam to pull in steam-launcher on update, unless it's only needed for the people in the beta channel. (Again, another thing that people largely use a separate repo or a separate package for. [ex/ steam-beta depends on steam, conflicts with steam... would cause steam-beta to replace steam or vice-versa depending on if the user wants to switch... but I of course appreciate that you have your own internal Steam beta distribution channel.