Re: i/o permissions again

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From: Jay Link (jlink@ilbbs.com)
Date: Sun 25 Feb 2001 - 04:45:23 IST


> I'm not clear on why the executable must be owned and setuid to root. 
> Isn't this a bad thing?  Why is a user logged in through a console not
> able to execute SVGAlib programs on that console?

SVGAlib is faster than X because it writes directly to the video card.
However, in Linux, programs that access hardware directly must be either
run by root, or else setuid root.

It's not a bad thing because vga_init() relinquishes root priviledges.

Further, I believe that Matan is making the 2.x version of SVGAlib in such
a way that you no longer have to be root, because it writes to a new
device called /dev/svga.


-J


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