# What groups should my account belong to?

## wjholden

So I just committed a stupid. Instead of usermod -a -G wireshark john to append the group wireshark to those my account belongs to, I instead hit usermod -G wireshark john, which wiped all the additional groups I belonged to.

```
john@sisig ~ $ cat /etc/group

root:x:0:root

bin:x:1:root,bin,daemon

daemon:x:2:root,bin,daemon

sys:x:3:root,bin,adm

adm:x:4:root,adm,daemon

tty:x:5:

disk:x:6:root,adm

lp:x:7:lp

mem:x:8:

kmem:x:9:

wheel:x:10:root,john

floppy:x:11:root

news:x:13:news

uucp:x:14:uucp

console:x:17:

audio:x:18:pulse,john

cdrom:x:19:john

tape:x:26:root

video:x:27:root,john

cdrw:x:80:john

usb:x:85:

users:x:100:john

portage:x:250:portage

utmp:x:406:

nogroup:x:65533:

nobody:x:65534:

man:x:15:

sshd:x:22:

cron:x:16:

locate:x:249:

mail:x:12:

postmaster:x:248:

messagebus:x:247:

ssmtp:x:246:

crontab:x:245:

john:x:1000:

ldap:x:439:

colord:x:244:

pulse-access:x:243:

pulse:x:242:

games:x:35:john

sabayon-admin:x:241:

gdm:x:240:

ntp:x:123:

android:x:122:john

transmission:x:121:

lpadmin:x:106:

openct:x:105:pcscd

pcscd:x:104:

vboxusers:x:103:john

hsqldb:x:102:

asterisk:x:101:

dialout:x:20:asterisk

mysql:x:60:

apache:x:81:

tcpdump:x:999:

wireshark:x:998:john

john@sisig ~ $ groups

wheel audio cdrom video games cdrw users vboxusers android wireshark john
```

Does the above look reasonable?  I don't recognize a lot of these and worry I might need them.

----------

## olek

According http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/PerfectSetup

 *Quote:*   

> Should users be in the "audio" group?

 

and http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PulseAudio#Fast_user_switching

 *Quote:*   

> For ConsoleKit managed permissions to be respected no one may be part of the audio group (not even even the user pulse). In fact, for users to be able to output sound vai PA they do not have to be part of any specific group. Also it is recommended that the acl USE flag is globally enabled (Desktop profiles do this by default).

 

no one should be part of the audio group.

Everything else seems fine. I just wonder why you haven't got a plugdev group?

----------

## khayyam

olek ...

well, "according to freedesktop" I should have xdg-utils installed, and six or seven other packages that are xdg-utils dependencies, so that I can use wiresharks "help" ... but of course if I Edit => Preferences I can set whatever browser I want and the "Help" will work just the same. So, freedesktop's guidance amounts to little more than "must have because the user is too dumb to use the preferences", and that isn't advice or guidance I'm prepared to take.

So too with ConsoleKit ... sorry, no ConsoleKit here, and I am part of the audio group and have been since I first installed gentoo in '02. All of this seems to me no more than peddling a certain idea of what redmondhat think my OS should consist of, or whatever "good idea" freedesktop happen to be pushing this week. As GnomeOS starts to dig deeper and deeper into the "system" and user-facing components become dependencies for protocol stacks (as is the case with dbus and bluez) then I'm about ready to disregard anything that freedesktop has to say, and if it continues this way I'll seriously start considering *BSD for my personal needs.

As for groups ... the gentoo FAQ provides the following as an example:

```
useradd -m -G users,audio,wheel username
```

and the Quick Install Guide "Code Listing 2.33: Add a new user" has:

```
useradd -g users -G lp,wheel,audio,cdrom,portage,cron -m john
```

In my case I have the following:

```
% groups

wheel cron audio cdrom video users ngrep wireshark tcpdump portage
```

So, it's not consistant for all users, but the above should provide some idea of whatever was provided the user before the appendastrophy.

best ... khay

----------

## olek

I don't think one should follow a tutorial or advice without thinking about it either. But this suggestion is also mentioned in the Gentoo-wiki and - the freedesktop's one is differentiated, as one should run "ls -l /dev/snd" to find out if his system's build in a way you should belong to audio group or not. And not to be in the group was at least the result I got by running a Gentoo back whne I installed it straight forward he way that was suggested the standard way by the handbook and official dokus.  But this is getting off topic.

----------

## khayyam

 *olek wrote:*   

> I don't think one should follow a tutorial or advice without thinking about it either. But this suggestion is also mentioned in the Gentoo-wiki and - the freedesktop's one is differentiated, as one should run "ls -l /dev/snd" to find out if his system's build in a way you should belong to audio group or not. And not to be in the group was at least the result I got by running a Gentoo back whne I installed it straight forward he way that was suggested the standard way by the handbook and official dokus.  But this is getting off topic.

 

olek ... sorry if I came over as implying that you were "wrong" or such, that wasn't my intention at all, I was meerly pointing out that freedesktop's "standards" are really not standard at all, but more refective of the their particular idea of what an OS should consist of. Its an "idea" that I'm more and more at odds with because it seems to be pushing dependencies (for "The Desktop", etc) deeper into the OS, its a one-size-fits-all solution to a "problem", the "user", that disregards actual "use". So, yes, if a system is using ConsoleKit then they should follow freedesktop's, or the Gentoo wiki's, advice ... but not everyone is.

best ... khay

----------

## olek

alright  :Wink: 

----------

## wjholden

Gentlemen, I deeply appreciate your prompt responses and I apologize for not having the time to reflect on them. I will read your responses this week and respond, as appropriate.  Thank you.

----------

