Re: Wheezy release: CDs are not big enough any more...
Bjørn Mork wrote:
> Timo Juhani Lindfors <timo.lindfors@iki.fi> writes:
>> You also need to have root access to some machine to create the USB
>> media.
>
> No, you don't. On a default Debian system you need to be a member of
> the "floppy" group. From /lib/udev/rules.d/91-permissions.rules :
>
> # default permissions for block devices
> SUBSYSTEM=="block", GROUP="disk"
> SUBSYSTEM=="block", ATTRS{removable}=="1", GROUP="floppy"
Yep.
>> This means you can't create the installation media at most
>> university or library machines unlike with CDs.
>
> You mean that they allow you to burn a CD but not write to a USB stick?
> Sounds like they have a support problem which I don't think Debian can
> solve for them.
On large installations (think "computing cluster"), adding untrusted
users to the floppy group is not a great idea, since then they would
have remote access to removable media other users insert. For CDs
and DVDs, consolekit addresses the problem out of the box and roughly
speaking lets each user access media that they have inserted. Last
time I checked[1] (a while ago), the same rules did not apply to USB
sticks.
Hope that helps,
Jonathan
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/585463
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