Skip to content

feat(linux): Allow running without root#1557

Open
darkwater wants to merge 2 commits intoraspberrypi:mainfrom
darkwater:main
Open

feat(linux): Allow running without root#1557
darkwater wants to merge 2 commits intoraspberrypi:mainfrom
darkwater:main

Conversation

@darkwater
Copy link
Copy Markdown

Closes #1354

An additional "continue anyway" button in the dialog might be nice too, but at least this now provides the possibility of running it without root.

@tdewey-rpi
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Collaborator

Thanks for the submission, @darkwater.

I'm not inclined to accept this.

Where I have explained why Imager behaves in this manner, the primary point is that failing early is better than failing later. Simply adding a way to circumvent the early failure, but without engaging the later failure, is not likely to result in a net confusion reduction. If anything, I could see an enterprising repackager put this flag into their .desktop file, and then create untold confusion in their user base.

To run without root, the application must be fractured into privileged and unprivileged parts.

@darkwater
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Author

I had Copilot add some UI to indicate unwritable devices. Would something like this suffice?

image

Running GUI applications as root is generally not a great thing. In fact, Wayland compositors normally don't allow connections from other users, even from root. If I do sudo rpi-imager right now, it simply doesn't work. I understand wanting to avoid confusion, but this cannot come at the cost of functionality.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

[BUG]: Imager refuses to run without root

2 participants