mintInstall doesn't open links in default browser about mintinstall HOT 4 CLOSED

I don't know if this was reported for the version of mintInstall in Mint 16, but I seem to remember there wasn't an option to open links in a web browser. I'm not sure, though.

As of Linux Mint 17, mintInstall 7.5.7 has an option in Edit -> Preferences to open links using the web browser. I tried it, and it opened a new instance of Firefox without any add-ons or bookmarks, which made me suspicious. I checked System Monitor, and it told me that the browser is indeed running as root.

I don't think this is an issue anymore, but I think we've gone out of the frying pan into the fire. Mint's web browser has Adobe Flash and Java plug-ins installed by default, which definitely increases the risk of a browser exploit. I've created a new issue about this root issue at #69

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You're right, using the default browser with all its plugins with root privileges is even worse. But if mintInstall uses its built-in browser component if this option is not enabled, things aren't much better: Perhaps there are not as many plugins installed, but some bug in the rendering engine or the JavaScript implementation might suffice to inject some code, running with root privileges.

I agree that this issue can be closed, but perhaps you could add to your bug report that not enabling this option isn't a proper workaround.

The expected behavior is that mintInstall does launch the default web browser, but running with user privileges.

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I agree, neither behavior is desirable. I edited my bug report to reflect the issue.

To be honest, I think both problems browser stem from the fact that mintInstall itself is run as root. If I remember correctly, Ubuntu had similar problems with the Software Center when they first introduced it a few years back. At first Software Center had to be run as root, but in a later release it was run with user privileges, and the user was only asked for a password when they attempted to install or remove software.

I might open a new bug report about this.

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Feature disabled due to running as root.

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