os.getlogin() Error

[Wildman]

I wrote a Linux only GUI program using Tk that reports various system
information using a tabbed Notebook.  I have tested the program on
Debian, SoldyX and MX-15 and the program runs perfectly.

I tried testing on Mint and Ubuntu and the program would crash.  The
GUI would appear briefly and disappear.  On Ubuntu a crash report was
created so I was able to figure out what was going on.  It had the
traceback and showed that os.getlogin threw an error.  This is from
the crash report:

PythonArgs: ['/opt/linfo-tk/linfo-tk.py']
Traceback:
 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/opt/linfo-tk/linfo-tk.py", line 1685, in <module>
     app = Window(root)
   File "/opt/linfo-tk/linfo-tk.py", line 1393, in __init__
     txt = function()
   File "/opt/linfo-tk/linfo-tk.py", line 316, in userinfo
     user = os.getlogin()
 OSError: [Errno 25] Inappropriate ioctl for device

The program installs using the Debian package system (.deb) and an
entry is created in the Applications Menu.  The strange thing is
that the crash only occurs when the program is run from the menu.
If I open a terminal and run the program from there, the program
runs fine.

I found a little info on the web about this but it was not clear
whether it is a bug in Linux or a bug in the os module.  I also
found a couple of work-arounds but neither of them will work for
my purposes.

    user = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid())[0]
    user = getpass.getuser()

I will try to explain...
The program reports system information based on the user's name.
Things such as passwd, groups and shadow info.  However, the
program must have elevated privileges to get the shadow info so
the program has the option to 'restart as root' so the shadow
information will be obtainable.

If the program is restarting as root, the work-arounds report
the user as 'root'.  Then the system information for passwd,
groups and shadow will be reported for 'root' and not the
user that ran the program.  The actual user name that ran
the program is needed for the program to report correct
information.

It seems that only os.getlogin() reports the true user name no
matter if the program is run as a normal user or restarted as
root.

Is there a way to get the actual user name or is there a fix
or a better work-around for the os.getlogin() function?

-- 
<Wildman> GNU/Linux user #557453
The cow died so I don't need your bull!