Improvement: `setup-shell`: Skip `allow`, `disallow`, `login` steps when rootless

[edmcman]

Generally: install is doing a bunch of stuff I don't want, like trying to edit /etc/shells. I can avoid this by not selecting anything, but why is dorothy prompting about this in the first place while installing? Dislike.

More seriously: install forced me to run chsh which fails on my system because I don't have permission to change my shell. Please don't do this. I did not see a way to opt out of this.

[balupton]

Hrmmm. I just tested the flow, and pressing escape/q then enter to skip a step, works on all steps. The log still says applying modifications, but no operation will actually be done - besides installing bash.

$ setup-shell

Which shells to install?
[ nothing selected ]

Which shells to upgrade?
[ nothing available ]

Which undesired installed shells to uninstall?
[ nothing selected ]

Applying install/uninstall modifications...
The ❬bash❭ utility is already installed. ✅

Which installed shells to enable Dorothy?
[ nothing selected ]

Which undesired configured shells to disable Dorothy?
[ nothing selected ]

Applying configure/deconfigure modifications...

Which shells to allow as system login shells?
[ nothing selected ]

Which undesired allowed shells to disallow as system login shells?
[ nothing selected ]

Applying allow/disallow modifications...

Which single allowed shell to use as your default login shell?
[ nothing selected ]

Applying login modifications...
Updated configuration file: /home/balupton/.local/share/dorothy/user/config/setup.bash

The new setup-shell, is being explicit now about things Dorothy's installation has always done. Before Dorothy's shell setup experience would do confirm prompts for each shell, then prompt for the login shell, which it would then allow and select. Same process here, but it is now extremely explicit and each step is opt-out.

The new explicitness is done is done to address several issues that the average user (who has no idea about configured shells, allowed shells, login shells) encountered with Dorothy - with their desired shell not loading in their Terminal because they skipped the allow/login steps, or Dorothy not loading because they skipped the configure steps, because they didn't know what those steps were, so defaulted to no. Now everything is informed and explicit, and.... optional.

Is the opting out not working for you? Which steps do you want to skip in the future? setup-shell supports options like --no-allow --no-disallow --no-login however dorothy install currently can't forward them..

[balupton]

Re the no-root stuff, that is still incoming. I haven't forgotten about your need there. This was also work done to facilitate that, as compared to the old installer. I haven't tested what happens if a selected step fails, say if chsh won't authorise - did the setup process crash, or continue? Sounds like it just crashed for you.

[balupton]

Once #233 lands, in full or in partial, the allow/disallow and login steps will be automatically skipped.

[edmcman]

Hrmmm. I just tested the flow, and pressing escape/q then enter to skip a step, works on all steps. The log still says applying modifications, but no operation will actually be done - besides installing bash.

I did not realize that it was possible to skip steps.

Here's a screenshot of what I was seeing.

Some constructive criticism:

• There are a LOT of key options at the bottom.
• I understand what this dialog is asking, but it's not clear why or what the consequences will be. Maybe saying something like "this will rewrite /etc/shells with your selections" would be helpful.
• In my case, I didn't install any new shells. Why would I want to change /etc/shells?
• I see now that "Cancel" is present at the bottom with Esc. UIs are hard though. What does cancel mean/do? Cancel what? This step? The installation? "Skip step" or "Skip screen" might be more intuitive.
• Generally speaking, I was surprised to find myself at this screen. Maybe a little more hand-holding about what is happening, or even asking if the user wants to configure their shells before jumping into the screens.

With regards to chsh: I tried again and it just gets stuck here:

I tried again outside of the installer and it prompts me for the password:

[eschwartz@XXX local]$ chsh -s /usr/bin/bash eschwartz
Changing shell for eschwartz.
Password: 

Interestingly, if I press enter in the dorothy installation screen when it appears stuck, it does go to chsh, and I also see the "Password:" prompt. Just to state this again, I don't see the "Password:" prompt until after I press enter.

At this point, chsh failed because I didn't type my password, and the dorothy setup exits. Was it supposed to exit there?

Once #233 lands, in full or in partial, the allow/disallow and login steps will be automatically skipped.

I appreciate that and your work on #233 in general! That being said, I don't think anything in this issue is necessarily specific to being rootless (though obviously prompting about changes that require root does not make a lot of sense). In other words, all of the above still applies on my machine even where I do have root access.

[molleweide]

These are great feedback points. You well articulated some feelings I had when installing on a buddie's machine a few days ago. I think we know why it gets stuck after applying login modifications.

Both I and Ben agree with you that this should move towards the smoothest non-intrusive flow possible for sure.

[balupton]

Which distro are you using? I'll see if I can replicate the password issue.

For the rest, I'll keep it in mind for when I get to that code again. For now there are other tasks more priority, and I do agree this feedback will apply regardless of rootless support, however handing the rootless side of this will bypass some of this roughness; as well as the escape awareness.

For future reference, the choose prompt will have CANCEL if it is optional, and ABORT if it is required. Abort will be involved and have different messaging. The choose command is used throughout Dorothy, so there is a learning bump for reward there.

Ideally, I think a lot of this will also be massaged by better documentation and videos and walkthroughs and explainers and whatnot that will accompany Dorothy once #309 are closed.

That said, this is all good feedback, and I'll keep it all in mind on the next revolutions of the responsible code.

[edmcman]

Which distro are you using? I'll see if I can replicate the password issue.

It's RHEL 9. I am authenticated with Kerberos; I'm not sure if that is a factor.

[balupton]

The password prompt hiding is now fixed as of 48ab4f6

Will keep open until the other tasks of this issue are solved.