no policy kit auth dialog to install or remove a snap

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement]

I've core installed from candidate
tracking: candidate
installed: 16-2.28.1 (3017) 87MB core

and copied the policy kit file io.snapcraft.snapd.policy to /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/

I was already authenticated against U1 and did a snap logout. I also restarted the system.

When I install or remove a snap there is no authentication dialog but when I install a snap from the command line the policykit authentication dialog shows up.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: gnome-software 3.26.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-12.13-generic 4.13.3
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Oct 9 11:15:57 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-09-03 (1496 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64 (20130902)
InstalledPlugins:
 gnome-software-plugin-flatpak N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-limba N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-snap 3.26.0-0ubuntu3
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-software
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

It happens on a fresh installation. The first time you install a snap there is no policy kit dialog.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

The U1 dialog is displayed instead and triggers bug 1723312

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

This must surely relate to the snapd package - shouldn't it be providing the .policy file?

[James Henstridge (jamesh)]

I set up a clean VM running up to date artful, which includes snapd-2.28.5+17.10 (so no copying of policy files or changing channel for core snap), and couldn't reproduce this. I started gnome-software, and tried to install the Hiri snap and got the expected polkit prompt.

I did get the following message though:

    Unable to install Hiri
    Failed to read from snapd: Error receiving data: Connection reset by peer

Snapd restarted during the install, presumably after it installed the core snap, so this seems like another variation of bug 1718170.

If you got a polkit prompt from the command line "snap" utility but not in gnome-software, that would indicate that it was not sending the X-Allow-Interaction header. We added that in snapd-glib 1.19, and you've got 1.23 installed.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

I filed bug 1723874 for the "Connection reset by peer"
I'm marking this report as incomplete until I find a way to reliably reproduce it and downgrading the importance to high.