Timeline for Ask Ubuntu Troubleshooter - Defining a Tool that New Users Will Use
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
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| Jan 13, 2013 at 17:35 | history | edited | nanofarad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 12, 2013 at 22:07 | history | edited | nanofarad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 12, 2013 at 2:37 | comment | added | Nathan Osman | Whoah wait a minute - no commands are going to get run without prompting the user first. For example, if you click a link with the URI scheme for the troubleshooter in Firefox, first you will be asked by Firefox if you want to launch the default application for the URI. Secondly, the app will display the exact command that will be executed and confirm that you want it run. I don't see how this is any worse than telling people to copy-and-paste a command? | |
| Jan 12, 2013 at 0:22 | comment | added | Mateo | All right then @gertvdijk , lets put this discussion towards progress, and clean up Oli's answer that has not much to do with this, meta.askubuntu.com/a/5760/47291 I think most of the security points brought up were covered, If you think there are more we would be glad for the input. | |
| Jan 11, 2013 at 16:21 | comment | added | Seth | @ObsessiveSSOℲ George Edison is the one to talk to not me :P (I'm supposing you meant him) | |
| Jan 11, 2013 at 12:22 | comment | added | nanofarad |
@iSeth Can we possibly create a minimal live CD that can start a troubleshooter in text/ncurses mode, and chroot into the Ubuntu installation as needed?
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| Jan 11, 2013 at 10:12 | comment | added | gertvdijk | @GeorgeEdison "allowing us to give a "link" to the OP that runs a diagnostic test on their machine." <-- That is plain shell injection you're proposing there. Please, don't do this. Serious security threat. Have to downvote for this idea. You may call me a security monkey or a party pooper, but this will certainly kill it. see chat here | |
| Jan 11, 2013 at 4:22 | comment | added | Nathan Osman | Last but not least (this really should have been another answer :P), I would love to eventually see this get included on the Ubuntu DVD by default since Ask Ubuntu is a support channel mentioned in the installer. I've even been dreaming of creating a Firefox extension that adds a button to the editing toolbar to launch the application if it is installed locally. We could even take this a step further and create a URI scheme for launching the troubleshooter - allowing us to give a "link" to the OP that runs a diagnostic test on their machine. I am so excited about this. | |
| Jan 11, 2013 at 4:18 | comment | added | Nathan Osman | Or even better, I'll add a page to my website where the user can upload the special file and it will take care of processing it by creating pastes for each of the log files inside and generating the markdown. The only problem left is the question of running a GUI app when X won't start. And really - that's not a problem if you think about it. If the user is left with a terminal anyway, they either are completely lost or they can run the log commands directly. | |
| Jan 11, 2013 at 4:17 | comment | added | Nathan Osman |
@Oli: I'm glad you asked. First of all, this is going to be a single binary / .deb file that only depends on packages included by default with Ubuntu / Kubuntu. The next problem is uploading the information without an active network connection - but I've got that one covered too. After the wizard completes, if it detects that there is no active Internet connection, it will offer to store the results on a flash drive or other storage. In fact, this is a cross-platform app so there can be two parts to this - the troubleshooting binary & a cross-platform app that uploads the logs to a pastebin.
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| Jan 10, 2013 at 17:27 | comment | added | Seth | That's true. If you don't have internet and don't have a GUI, your stuck. | |
| Jan 10, 2013 at 17:25 | comment | added | Oli Mod | But I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to know how to mount a USB drive from init1 and then run the application | |
| Jan 10, 2013 at 17:20 | comment | added | Seth | +1 for running without seeing a GUI. As for the USB thing, the OP should know how to move a file from the desktop onto a flash drive. | |
| Jan 10, 2013 at 10:54 | history | answered | OliMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |