GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 692923
[Sharing] no unlock button for hostname in "Sharing"
Last modified: 2021-06-09 16:29:41 UTC
After I installed Fedora 18 I wanted to change the hostname. This can be done via "Details" in Systems Settings. Not sure why that isn't in "Network", which would make more sense. However, it can only be done if you open System Settings as root; not as a normal user. In other places, "Printers" for example, there are unlock buttons to this. Such an unlock button to allow changing the hostname would be useful here too.
That's "as-designed" only the administrator is allowed to change it.
But if I hit the unlock button in "Printers" I'm also asked for the administrator/root password. With an unlock button in "Details" it seems to me it would be exactly as you say: only the administrator would be allowed to change it. So your answer is a bit confusing to me.
We do not allow non-administrators to change the hostname in the details panel, or to request the permissions to do it. The sharing tab allows you that.
Where can I find this "sharing" tab? I've looked all over System Settings but I can't seem to find it?
(In reply to comment #4) > Where can I find this "sharing" tab? I've looked all over System Settings but I > can't seem to find it? It's in 3.7. You can also mark your user as an admin in the user accounts panel.
The problem arises on the Live CD, where the default liveuser is a standard user. The hostname of the Live CD needs to be changed before installing from the Live CD, because the Live CD installer does not support setting a hostname. Please see: doesn't ask for host name https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=904014
I'm on Fedora 19 with GNOME 3.8 now, but it seems that in "Sharing" it's not possible for non-root users to change the hostname there either. Is this correct? If I go to "Sharing" the field with the host name remains gray and there is no unlock button to enter the root password.
Created attachment 252104 [details] [3.8] screenshot showing "Sharing" dialog for standard user Confirming that a standard user cannot change the computer name from the control center "Sharing" dialog. A standard user can, however, enable sharing without entering a password. $ rpm -q control-center control-center-3.8.3-2.fc19.x86_64
(In reply to comment #7) > I'm on Fedora 19 with GNOME 3.8 now, but it seems that in "Sharing" it's not > possible for non-root users to change the hostname there either. Is this > correct? If I go to "Sharing" the field with the host name remains gray and > there is no unlock button to enter the root password. That is correct. Only administrator user accounts are supposed to be able to change hostname. (In reply to comment #6) > The problem arises on the Live CD, where the default liveuser is a standard > user. I suppose you are speaking about the Fedora live CD, which I just checked and it _does_ have its liveuser account set as an administrator and I can indeed change the hostname there.
I thought Steve Tyler might want to know that I've filed a new bug [1] at Red Hat's Bugzilla regarding this issue. I understand GNOME's position and think it is now up to the Fedora developers to revive the user-friendly option to change the computer name during the installation. [1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1028758
Reopening since unfortunately Bastien's statement in comment #3 is not true; for a standard user, the hostname entry on the Sharing tab is insensitive and there is no unlock button. I think every setting in control-center with the exception of hostname can currently be changed by a standard user with an admin password. I'm not sure that an unlock button would work well here, or in the Details panel either.
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version, then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a new bug report at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.