Do B2QT programs always have to run as root

[GregWilsonLindberg]

We're building a system that runs in a Raspberry Pi3 using B2QT. Is seems to me that applications compiled to run under B2QT are always run as root. Is this true?

[SGaist]

Hi,

Boot2Qt being a commercial product, you should bring this question to the Qt Company. You can try the interest mailing list. You'll find there Qt's developers/maintainers. This forum is more user oriented.

[magriada]

Wouldn't it be very relevant to users of the non-commercial meta-b2qt layer?

http://blog.qt.io/blog/2016/07/01/aligning-with-the-yocto-project/

[SGaist]

Sure it is, however, I don't know have many of the forum users may have used that meta layer and could answer that question hence pointing @GregWilsonLindberg to potentially better place to get an answer.

[magriada]

@SGaist Okay, I get you. Seemed like you might have been saying such questions were inappropriate for here. Cheers.

[diegor]

@GregWilsonLindberg said in Do B2QT programs always have to run as root:

We're building a system that runs in a Raspberry Pi3 using B2QT. Is seems to me that applications compiled to run under B2QT are always run as root. Is this true?

It is indeed possible to run a B2Qt application as user (not root), but of course the user needs access to required devices, the most fundamental ones being video and input devices.

As a small example add your user to the video and input groups:

usermod -a -G video,input myuser

and then create an appropriate XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:

mkdir /run/user/1000

and set the corresponding value in /etc/default/qt.
Last, adjust the value of User= parameter in the systemd service (e.g.: /lib/systemd/system/qtlauncher.service).

Additional permissions may be required for other features like reproducing audio, etc, but with the above tweaks the application should at least start the B2Qt application as myuser.