Root account required to install program

[Connor Imes]

Binary package hint: software-store

When trying to install a program in software-store (like 3dchess), the program prompts for a root password. It does not accept a sudo password. Since root is disabled by default in Ubuntu, this doesn't work out-of-the-box. It only works after setting up a root user.
Screenshot attached.
Thanks.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 12 12:51:42 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: software-store 0.3.2
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.32-generic
SourcePackage: software-store
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

[Andrew (and471)]

This should not happen, and doesn't happen for me, I get the policykit dialog that you enter your own password into, can you check whether this only happen on your machine?

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean, I only have one machine running Karmic and this is what happens. It is probably worth noting that I have NOPASSWD set in /etc/sudoers on the Karmic testing box, so it is a bit strange that any authentication window should pop up.

[Andrew (and471)]

What I mean is that no-one else experiences this behaviour, it should ask for the user 's own password in order to do sudo, so it may just be your configuration.

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Ok, I found the source of the problem. Somehow my user got removed from the admin group, but was in the sudo group which meant I could use sudo because of this line in sudoers:

   %sudo ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

Is that a problem with policykit? Should it accept sudo credentials from those in the sudo group but not in the admin group? If so, we can reassign this but to policykit, otherwise we can close it.
Thanks.

[Andrew (and471)]

@Connor

Does this affect anything else that uses policykit (like the gnome user manager), if so, reassign to policykit and they can decide whether it is a bug or not

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

It seems to only ask for root's password when there aren't any users in the admin group. When logged in with a user without sudo privileges, it asks for another user's password who does have permission (rather than root's). Therefore, I don't think there is a problem. Thanks for your responses.