Wrapped in gaffa

I’ve recently gone back to the roots and installed Debian testing to replace Ubuntu. I would like to keep the concept of a disabled root account from Ubuntu, I tried for a long time using trial and error until I Read The Fucking Man page and found the solution to configure PolicyKit for sudo users. I’ve chosen to use a new group I called admin like the one from Ubuntu, although using the sudo group would fit the purpose on my single user machine.

As usual:
su root
adduser <username> sudo
visudo

With visudo make sure you have a line like this:
%sudo ALL=(ALL) ALL

Expire the root password and set sudo mode in gnome:
sudo passwd -l root
gconftool --type bool --set /apps/gksu/sudo-mode true

Create the group admin and join it:
addgroup admin
adduser <username> admin

Edit /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/50-localauthority.conf:

Change this:
[Configuration]
AdminIdentities=unix-user:0

To this:
[Configuration]
AdminIdentities=unix-user:0;unix-group:admin

This setup is the one I’ve chosen, with disabled root and a permissive sudo group. There is endless possibilities if you read the man pages of sudoers and pklocalauthority.

That’s it! I hope…

Ari had a an important comment to make:

That configuration file says not to edit it. Just copy the file to something like 90-customauthority.conf with the same customized contents.

The tags used by the auto-complete feature (Scintilla only) in Anjuta can be updated by running this script:

/usr/share/anjuta/scripts/create_global_tags.sh

The script automatically scans your /usr/include folder. It is also running pkg-config to update dependencies for packages.

Maybe there is a way to do this from within Anjuta, but if if there is, it is so unintuitive that it was more obvious for me to open a terminal and write dpkg -L anjuta-common to locate a script ;)

I’m having some issues with the Devhelp extension for Anjuta on Ubuntu 7.10, I’ll post something if I find some time to debug it. I know it crashes on running gtk_moz_embed_realize, but I don’t know why yet ;)

Graphics (5/10):
Good looking 2D graphics.

Sound (5/10):
The music is great, but I get the feeling it isn’t synced to support the gameplay. The fighting sound effects are good, but that is all the sound effects there is. No audio in dialogs.

Gameplay (8/10):
8! 8!? Yes, 8. At first the game looked like something I would throw away before I even completed the first level, but as I began to think of the turnbased gameplay as a boardgame/puzzle I got addicted. Who doesn’t like puzzles? The rules are simple, but that is what makes it great. It is not an RPG you get lost in. You have a castle where you can recruit players with your main character. You can take over houses to get more money and your characters get 8 healthpoints if they skip a turn staying in a house. Your characters have experience points and can be promoted when they get enough experience. You can use the environment to your advantage. You can hide in a forrest or fight an enemy standing in water. The evil races increase their chances of a good hit by 25% by night and yours are down 25%. The rules are pretty simple, and I like the simplicity. I’m not much into RPGs because you have to devote so much time to learning and understanding them. Battle of Wesnoth is simple and great!

Community (10/10):
The team behind Battle for Wesnoth has brilliantly included the users in the making of the game. It is easy to modify the game and all you need to know is one click away on Wesnoth.org. Wesnoth.org also has a great forum, where users gather to create art, music/sound, translations and maps with peer reviewing. This project has the spirit of Free Software.

Overall (8/10):
You might not agree, but luckily I’m the one who decides which games are great and which games are not. I can guarantee that this game is a top scorer and that 8/10 wont be topped in the next couple of games I review. As a plus it works on Linux, Windows and MacOSX. I couldn’t connect to the official internet server as the version in Ubuntu Edgy repositories is older than the server version, but I doubt multiplayer would have changed my rating of this game.

Go grab it!