August Karlstrom wrote: > I run Debian Wheezy with a simple window manager (Blackbox). If I remember > correctly, in Ubuntu some applications like Synaptic and Update Manager ask > for sudo password only when/if needed. > > How do I configure the system so I can launch for instance Update Manager as > normal user, check if there are any updates available and then provide the > sudo password only if the system is to be updated? As Far as I understand > the authentication is handled by Polkit. That is really harder to do than it sounds. The problem is that you don't know if you need root until you need it and not before. So you don't know if you need to use sudo until it is too late. Just an idea... It would probably be possible to run apt-get --simulate and see what it wants to do. If it doesn't want to upgrade anything then stop there and do nothing. But if the simulation wants to upgrade something then fire it for effect with sudo as a second pass. Bob
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