#2065: Remove the "usb" group
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Reporter: ra...@… | Owner: bdu...@…
Type: task | Status: reopened
Priority: normal | Milestone: future
Component: BOOK | Version: SVN
Severity: normal | Resolution:
Keywords: |
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Comment(by alexan...@…):
> Why do we need to remove the usb group completely? I would think it
would be useful to have a default group for usb devices.
The "usb" group has been created by me as a very insecure solution to the
problem "no way to access a scanner as a user" that appeared just before
LFS-6.0 because the old /dev/scanner node was no longer supported by
linux-2.6.x, and because the more fine-grained access control mechanism
(hotplug scripts) was explicitly disallowed for LFS-6.0 by Matthew
Burgess. The fine-grained permissions problem no longer exists, so nothing
needs this group, possibly except emulators that need to access arbitrary
USB devices in a generic way. IMHO, a group is useless if it is not used.
In order to close this ticket:
* the "usb" group should not be created by default, exactly as we don't
create the "scanner" group by default (here you may disagree);
* all the information about this group (including the udev rule from the
libusb page) should be moved to one place (maybe, the "about devices"
page);
* the reader should be informed about the possible use cases for this
group (i.e., a list of applications that may need this group and can't use
fine-grained permissions) and the risks associated with membership in it.
> Second, with the exception of the 'About Devices' section where there is
an example line:
> usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=14,devmode=0660 0 0
> my search showed no references to the usb group in all of BLFS. I could
have missed it though.
Yes, you have missed the libusb page:
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/libusb.html
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Ticket URL: <http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/ticket/2065#comment:18>
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