Re: CD burning without root priviligdes
I'm glad to finally see a discussion of this subject. I find the
structure of CD recording software in Linux quite outdated and
inadequate for a multi-user environment (note that this isn't a KDE
problem). The software was clearly conceived to be used by someone
with root access sitting on the console of the machine, which is
almost the opposite of what is necessary for a CD-recorder server.
I'd like to have something similar to what we have for scanners: a
daemon (that may run as root if necessary) waiting for connections
through the net and operating the device, or interfacing with a
driver. The user interacts remotely with a client software (of course
the user may via localhost as well). This approach has many
advantages:
a) it removes permissions problems from the scene;
b) no need for authentication of users, because it's not the user that
has access, it's the daemon. Access to the daemon is controlled by
standard methods (firewall, tcp wrappers, etc.);
c) it allows the use of the recorder by users in other machines. This
way we can have a diskless machine with just a recorder and users
connect from a login server via the client software. I have here a
scanner connected to such a machine that also controls the printers
and works as a X-term, while the login server remains locked in
another room and users reach it from X-terminals.
I use this approach for CD readers, floppy drives, scanners,
printers, zip drives, but I cannot do it for CD recorders :-( :-(
I understand that cdrecord and family were written at a time when
recording a CD was a delicate operation. However with the fast
machines and network of today the picture has changed completely, and
it seems to me that a revamp is really necessary. In the process we
could perhaps get rid of scsi emulation...
The same strategy is used in the Network Audio System (NAS) developed
by NCD and available in the libaudio-dev package. Next is the camera :-)
Any volunteers? :-)
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