[maemo-developers] Subtle difference in behavior of installation packages

[From: Pali Rohár]

Hi,

On Wednesday 08 February 2012 13:10:25 John Pietrzak wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I've been working on a small Maemo app, and have reached the point where
> I've pushed it up to Extras-Devel.  Almost everything works perfectly,
> except for one item: I've created a sudoers file for the app, in order
> to allow it to call "modprobe" to load a kernel module.  (This is the
> "lirc_rx51" module, needed for access to the IR hardware.)  This file
> needs to go into the /etc/sudoers.d directory.
> 
> I can install and uninstall the file just fine using the debian package
> I've constructed locally.  When installing the app from the Extras-Devel
> repository, however, the application manager can place the file into
> /etc/sudoers.d, but seems unable to remove it when uninstalling.

Try to run apt-get remove <package> in xterm. This is what application manager 
doing... Also see error in application manager log.

> 
> I'm using the Qt SDK, and have recently upgraded to Qt Creator 2.4.1, so
> maybe the latest Qt software creates debian packages differently than
> the Extras system does...
> 
> So, I guess these are my questions:
> 
> 1) Do I need to do something special to install/uninstall files to the
> /etc directory in Maemo?

I think nothing special. Only add your /etc files to conffiles in debian 
package, but this is done by debhelper script for dpkg-buildpackage. So really 
nothing.

> 
> 2) Should I even be using /etc/sudoers.d to let my app access modprobe?
> What is the preferred way for an app to make requests of the kernel?

Yes add sudoers file, run script for updating sudoers.d and use:
sudo modprobe <module>

> 
> Thanks!
> 
> --John

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-developers/attachments/20120208/1d32bcba/attachment.pgp>