Authentication Agent "Authenticate" button incorrectly greyed out

[Frank Worrell]

[Impact]

When running a privileged application, such as Synaptic, under gnome-flashback an Authenticate dialog box pops up.

After I upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04, the Password box and Authenticate button are now incorrectly greyed out.

[Test Case]

- Make sure there is at least two users with account type set to administrator.
- Try to run any privileged application.
- If dialog has already selected user then password entry should not be disabled.
- If there is no selected user, the password entry should be disabled until the user is selected.

[Proposed Fix]

The fix is a backport of upstream commit:
- https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-flashback/commit/?id=5cfd4d000520e39b45c
“polkit: do not disable password entry”

[Regression Potential]

The commit in question only changes the sensitive property of prompt_label, password_entry and auth_button. This property was always FALSE before the commit, now it is TRUE in some cases. So the only possible regression could be that the entry and button are wrongly enabled when it should not. This is covered by the last item of the test case.

[Other Info]

I discovered a simple but very annoying workaround:
if I pull down and select a different user then pull down a second time to select myself, the Password box and Authenticate button are no longer greyed out and I can successfully authenticate.

The "Details" pull down in the Authenticate box shows
"Action: com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic" and "Vendor:".

This bug showed up after upgrading, and might not be directly related to the upgrade, but possibly due to uninstalling alternate desktops (Xubuntu and Lubuntu.)

[Alberts Muktupāvels (muktupavels)]

I was able to reproduce and it seems that it only happens if you have at least two users with Administrator as account type. Please open upstream bug:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=gnome-flashback

[Alberts Muktupāvels (muktupavels)]

Fixed upstream - https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-flashback/commit/?h=gnome-3-18&id=2cd25de59a5c4705bb2de28100cd963800e12ea5

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-flashback - 3.24.0-1ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-flashback (3.24.0-1ubuntu2) artful; urgency=medium

  * Backport upstream commit to fix the disabled Authenticate button in the
    Authentication Agent dialog (polkit-password-entry.diff; LP: #1698994).

 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Mon, 31 Jul 2017 20:40:12 +0300

[Robie Basak (racb)]

> [Regression Potential]
>
> None.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure

[Robie Basak (racb)]

For example: are there any cases where the Authenticate button should be disabled, but is now incorrectly enabled? Presumably there are cases where the Authenticate button should remain disabled - otherwise this code wouldn't exist. Couldn't at least one of these cases be checked during SRU verification?

[Alberts Muktupāvels (muktupavels)]

It should be disabled only if there is no selected user; user should choose which user he wants to use. By default current user is selected if it can be used for authentication.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Please add to the test case in the bug description such that we make sure that the usual behaviour case is tested in addition to the fix for this particular bug, so that we make sure to have verified the package isn't broken in an unintended way before releasing the update.

Please amend the regression potential section in the bug description according to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure so that testers know what types of problems to look for during testing.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Hello Frank, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-flashback into zesty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-flashback/3.22.1-0ubuntu1.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-zesty to verification-done-zesty. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-zesty. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[alfredo (alacis)]

Is someone able to update 16.04 LTS as well, please - not just Zesty?

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

@alfredo: Not before someone tests the fix on Zesty. If you are interested in this bug, please help testing.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

I have tested myself and the fix behaves as expected.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-flashback - 3.22.1-0ubuntu1.1

---------------
gnome-flashback (3.22.1-0ubuntu1.1) zesty; urgency=medium

  * Backport upstream commits to fix crashes on computers with touchscreens
    (fix-touchscreen-crashes.diff; LP: #1706572).
  * Backport upstream commit to fix the disabled Authenticate button in the
    Authentication Agent dialog (polkit-password-entry.diff; LP: #1698994).

 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Thu, 03 Aug 2017 23:06:07 +0300

[Robie Basak (racb)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for gnome-flashback has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Sheryl Zettner (szettner)]

I just upgraded to 16.04 on my old computer, and it has this problem. It was a nasty installation because of some unfixed bug that appears to have been around since 2004 where it doesn't install sysv-rc.

But consequently, one of my accounts was really wonky, but another one was less so. I think they both had admin privileges, but added the good account to the sudo and root groups and moved all my files.

I was hoping to delete the wonky account, but when I open Synaptic Package Manager, the password is grayed out.

Synaptic doesn't offer flashback in the 3.22 (only 3.18.2-1ubuntu1.) I downloaded this 3.22.1 package, but I am a bit out of my depth in how to install it. I clicked the install file, which goes on about the shell command. It also says that you should follow the instructions in the README, except the README was blank (0 bytes.)

Maybe I will just have to live with this till the 3.22 version is available through synaptic. Like one of the gentlemen here mentioned, I also discovered that if I picked another user and then went back to my own user name that it was no longer grayed out. But I actually changed that other account from Administrator to a normal account, so there are no longer two administrators, but I still have to flip to the other account and back before it will let me enter my password. That seems so odd, considering that I added this account to the sudo and root groups. It seems like it should trump the other account, but instead I can't even enter the password without it.

Anyway, wish I understood the instructions better.

[Alberts Muktupāvels (muktupavels)]

Can you upgrade to 18.04, bug should be fixed there... 16.04 will not get gnome-flashback 3.22.