RFC: Moving KWallet Password dialog into Plasma

[David Edmundson]

On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 4:58 PM, Martin Gräßlin <mgraesslin at kde.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> the problems around review request #105628 and getting KWallet's Password
> dialog properly raised above the window it is asking the password for just
> triggered a thought process.
>
> The main problem here is that $service ask for a password through
> $otherservice. This utterly fails because the $service is not linked directly
> to a window which the window manager would need to properly stack the window.
>
> Now if we think about it in most cases $service is actually a "system" service
> which can be considered belonging to the workspace. E.g. checking for mail,
> logging into your telepathy account and so on.
>
> Providing a password safe and asking for the master password is also a
> "system" service and should belong into the workspace.
>
> So here my idea: let's move the password dialog into the desktop shell. Have
> it as a so-called "persistent" notification popping out of the panel and be
> shown on top of all other windows till the user either dismisses it or enters
> the password.
>
> I think this would solve most of our current issues. There would be one place
> where the dialog is shown to ask for the password, it is visually clear that
> it's a system service which asks for the password and not some random malware
> and if several applications want to open the wallet this problem is also
> nicely solved by e.g. saying "Mail Dispatcher Agent and Telepathy need to
> unlock the wallet".
>
> So what do you think?
>

This problem also applies to Authkit/Polkit prompts as well as
Telepathy windows (from personal experience) and anything else
dbus-activated.
Dbus-activated apps being launched are (probably) going to be even
more common in the future, and we'll see this problem in many more
places.

"Fixing" kwallet by moving it into a different place will fix it in
this one instance, but it's simply avoiding the problem that will come
back again.

> Best Regards
> Martin Gräßlin