[Techtalk] Using kppp etc. as a user

[David Sumbler]

After a struggle, I have managed to get my winmodem working under both
Fedora 4 and Ubuntu 5.10.  I don't actually need the modem since I
have a broadband connection, but I wanted to learn how to go about
setting up a winmodem so that I can eventually install a useful Ubuntu
system on a computer for a friend who does not have broadband.

However, I haven't yet managed to work out how to get either kppp (in
Fedora) or the Gnome dialer (in Ubuntu) to function without su-ing or
sudo-ing.  In Fedora I tried setting the setuid bit on /usr/bin/kppp
(which is a link to /usr/bin/consolehelper), but this only caused kppp
to fail when I tried to launch it, instead of asking for the root
password.  When, as an alternative, I set setuid on /usr/sbin/kppp, I
still had to give the root password.

What I should like to do, eventually, is to be able to get the dialler
to connect automatically whenever a connection is needed, e.g. when
launching Firefox, and certainly without having to give a password.
Can someone give me some idea how to achieve this, please?

David

-- 

david at aeolia.co.uk