Re: XF86 with MATROX Millenium II

[Andreas Johansson <ajo wopr campus luth se>]

On Tue, 12 May 1998, Michal Jaegermann wrote:

> > This is usually done
> > by setting the suid bit and letting the server be owned by root.
> > 
> > chown root /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA
> > chmod 4711 /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA
> 
> The above opens somewhat recently found security hole.  There is
> XFree86-xwrapper rpm in updates (not only for Alpha).  Check errata

Oh, long time no updates checking...

> for installation details.  You do not run your server suid root
> anymore.

Ok, thank you for telling me. I wasn't aware this was changed. It's
quite nice not to need suid root to run the x server. But I'm not with you
how it works, you still needs access to the registers in the gfx card, and
there is still no ggi in the kernel. So how does this work without suid
root?

> As a side effect it makes easier to switch servers when you are
> experimenting (no headaches with links and permissions :-).

Well, I don't think that was a big problem earlier either. Maybe others
do.

/Andreas