When I start a program from the command line that requires the root password, the pam panel icon does not appear in the panel. However, ps shows that the process is running. If I start another application, I am not prompted for the root password. This can cause some security concerns because the system is caching the root password but it's not clear to the user that this is happening and there is no way to forget the authorization.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the pam-panel-icon behaves properly if I launch the app from the menus. Something about starting the app from the command line is causing the problem.
Like sudo in its default configuration, pam_timestamp uses per-tty caching. If there is no controlling tty, then "unknown" is used as the tty's name. (The icon, when launched by the panel, will check the cache which applications launched by the panel will access.) Without introducing a configuration file shared by both the icon applet and the pam_timestamp module, this default can't be changed.
If a common configuration file is needed, then that's what we should do. Currently, the OS behaves differently depending on how the application was launched, which is bad from a usability perspective. The non-technical user doesn't understand about ttys and such...all they know is that the OS isn't behaving consistently.
[This is a mass update sent to many bugs that missed earlier such messages due to having their version set to a test version.] This bug was originally filed against a version of Fedora Core which is no longer supported, even for security updates. Many changes have occured since then. Please retest this bug against a still supported version. Note that FC3 and FC4 are supported by Fedora Legacy for security fixes only. If it still occurs on FC5 or FC6, please assign to the correct version. Otherwise, if this a security issue, please change the product to Fedora Legacy. Thanks, and we are sorry that we did not get to this bug earlier. This bug will be closed after a few weeks if no information is given indicating that the bug is still present in a supported release.
Closing per lack of response to previous request for information. This bug was originally filed against a much earlier version of Fedora Core, and significant changes have taken place since the last version for which this bug is confirmed. Note that FC3 and FC4 are supported by Fedora Legacy for security fixes only. Please install a still supported version and retest. If it still occurs on FC5 or FC6, please reopen and assign to the correct version. Otherwise, if this a security issue, please change the product to Fedora Legacy. Thanks, and we are sorry that we did not get to this bug earlier.