Bug 51823

Summary: DNS autoconfiguration is broken
Product: [Unmaintained] kppp Reporter: Andreas Hartmann <andihartmann>
Component: generalAssignee: Harri Porten <porten>
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED    
Severity: normal CC: grundleborg, little_big_man_655
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 2.1.2   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Compiled Sources   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Andreas Hartmann 2002-12-12 20:08:10 UTC
Version:           2.1.2 (using KDE 3.1.0)
Installed from:    compiled sources
Compiler:          gcc version 3.2
OS:          Linux (i686) release 2.4.20

It is impossible to choose automatic DNS configuration in dialogbased provider configuration because the option is always disabled.

Regards,
Andreas Hartmann
Comment 1 Harri Porten 2002-12-12 20:48:23 UTC
That should be the case only if your pppd version is too old (or isn't
executable). Which version do you have ? What permissions does it have ? Which
one does kppp have ?
Comment 2 Andreas Hartmann 2002-12-13 09:44:36 UTC
Subject: Re:  DNS autoconfiguration is broken

Harri Porten wrote:
> That should be the case only if your pppd version is too old (or isn't
> executable). Which version do you have ? What permissions does it have ? Which
> one does kppp have ?

pppd-version: 2.4.1


You're right, it's a permission problem:

kppp: -rwsr-xr-x	root root
pppd: -rwsr-sr--	root dialout

The user who starts kppp is not member of the group dialout. Anyway, if 
the user supplies a DNS address, he can successfully dialout.

Another user, who is member of the group dialout, can do DNS 
autoconfiguration.

All in all, I can't understand why the user, who is not in dialout, cannot 
do DNS autoconfiguration: kppp is installed setuid root and can be started 
from everybody. When dialing in, kppp can start pppd too. It makes to me 
no sense that just some part is not working.

On the other hand, my configuration is not consequent at all, too (kppp 
should be root:dialout to permit only members of the dialout group to 
dialout).

Would it be possible e.g. to show a warning message in kppp if there is a 
permission problem or a inconsistence like here? I could have solved the 
problem of my own, if I got a hint or if the dialin hadn't worked at all.


Regards,
Andreas Hartmann

Comment 3 Harri Porten 2002-12-13 09:51:45 UTC
The box is grayed out because the pppd version is checked without root
permissions. A warning should be doable.
Comment 4 George Goldberg 2007-12-19 03:59:40 UTC
Is this bug still there in a recent version of KDE, such as 3.5.8 or KDE4.0 RC2?
Comment 5 Andreas Hartmann 2007-12-19 19:22:40 UTC
I don't use this tool any more (I do have DSL now) and I don't know, if it
is fixed meanwhile.

Kind regards,
Andreas Hartmann
Comment 6 Patrick 2009-01-06 02:16:37 UTC
I have also experienced this problem. I've never had any problems with kppp under the KDE 3.5.x releases, but all of the KDE 4 releases I've tried have given me trouble. Specifically in the past 2 days I've tried Fedora 10 which ships with KDE 4.1.2, and I've tried PC-BSD 7.0.2 which ships with KDE 4.1.3. The radio button which allows automatic DNS configuration is greyed out and will not allow itself to be selected. I can connect to my ISP using kppp, but nothing can access the internet (I've tried Firefox and Konqueror browsers, and I've tried Pdgin IM client). However I opened a terminal and was able to ping the IP address I that hosted my dialup connection.

Later I found out what IP addresses are used for my ISP's primary and secondary DNS servers, and now everything works with the manually added DNS servers. But I also use Windows XP and have used other versions of kppp with automatic DNS and have had no trouble. Examples of kppp with no trouble were when using Kubuntu (all versions previous to 8.04 with KDE 4.0.3), Fedora 8, or Sabayon Linux 3.4 and 3.5.

I have researched this topic, and some people with similar problems suggest it may have something to do with the default permissions set for /etc/resolv.conf and the use of the setuid command. I'll look into this further and tinker with it.
Comment 7 Christoph Cullmann 2025-06-09 20:48:31 UTC
This project is unfortunately no longer maintained.

If a new maintainer wants to step up and take care, the project is archived here:

https://invent.kde.org/unmaintained/kppp

You can just clone it in your private namespace on invent.kde.org and if you have started to work on it and fixed/implemented something get it reviewed and the project unarchived.

Sorry for the inconveniences.