Can't start slimserver in win2000 as a normal user

[jturner]

Earlier today I installed slimserver 6.1 on Windows 2000.
It seems to be working fine, but I can't start or stop slimserver as a normal unprivileged user. Nothing happens when I select "start slimserver" or "stop slimserver" from the slimtray icon, unless I am logged into the administrator account.

I came across this because the service suddenly seemed to turn off after I had been using it for a while and I couldn't then re-enable it until I logged in as administrator.

Is there something special that one needs to do in order to allow starting a service as an unprivileged user?

Thanks!

[mherger]

> Is there something special that one needs to do in order to allow
> starting a service as an unprivileged user?

It's one of the differences between privileged and unprivileged users that
you can't manage services as the latter. You could try to run the
slimserver trayicon as a privileged user using the "runas
/user:myprivilegedusername slimserver.exe" or similar command.

--

Michael

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[webboy]

I too am having the same problem. But i am trying to run slimserver as Administrator. The icon in the tray just blinks and blinks saying slimserver starting...
You cant get more privlidged then admin
<EDIT>
I just downloaded the nightly build of slimserver and now it starts. It wont find my music library but at least it starts...
</EDIT>

[TinkerMan]

I too am having the same problem. But i am trying to run slimserver as Administrator. The icon in the tray just blinks and blinks saying slimserver starting...
You cant get more privlidged then admin

Check out this thread, it may explain why it didn't start properly first time and why it worked second.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=16473

[jturner]

Thanks Michael - that's a great help! I didn't know how to run programs as a different user in Windows.

Having said that, it would be very nice if the developers could find a way to make slimtray "just work" for ordinary users (or at least document the fact that it doesn't or even give an error - sorry if I have overlooked something, BTW). The problem with "runas" is that it requires the admin password, so I don't think it can be used to start slimtray automatically. I was searching google for a windows equivalent of SUID, but I didn't find much.

It's one of the differences between privileged and unprivileged users that you can't manage services as the latter.

The way I phrased my question, I suppose it was almost self-answering! But I was starting from the point of "Joe user" who just installed a program on his computer and then expected the tray icon to work :-). Took me a while to figure out that it had something to do with Windows services...

Anyway, thanks again. I suppose if I go away, I'll just have to tell my wife to reboot the computer if the slim server stops, assuming the service will come back up then. Ah, the inevitable Windows reboot ;-).

James.

[mherger]

> have overlooked something, BTW). The problem with "runas" is that it
> requires the admin password, so I don't think it can be used to start
> slimtray automatically.

You could try to pipe the password to the command. Something like

echo mysecretpassword | runas....

Not sure whether this will work, sorry. XP learnt a little bit and can
remember the password once you've run runas with the /savecred parameter.
But this is not available with W2000.

--

Michael

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[jturner]

You could try to pipe the password to the command. Something like

echo mysecretpassword | runas....

Just for the record that didn't work... but thanks for the suggestion. Maybe if I can run w2k under Linux in future...

One good comment though - I confirmed that when I "open slimserver" from a slimtray running as administrator, it starts a Web browser with normal (non-admin) privileges - so leaving it running as administrator doesn't seem like a problem. Also the slimserver has not (yet) failed a second time anyway. So I suppose that covers most cases. Now I just need a hardware squeezebox :-).

James.