KPackageKit does not prompt for a Password

[Jesse Sweetland]

Binary package hint: policykit-kde

(Opening a new bug report since https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/353278 was reported against Jaunty and is currently in status "Fix Released".)

On a fresh install of 10.04 LTS (final) with a new user account KPackageKit will initially open an authentication dialog when installing new packages. However, at some point it ceases to do so, and displays the "Waiting for authentication" dialog for 5 minutes until it times out with a failure message. Creating a new user account seems to solve the issue for a time until the new user account becomes affected.

Running `kdesudo kpackagekit` is a workaround, but it does not handle situations in which there is a crash and the user is prompted to install debugging symbols, or when prompted to complete the installation of language packs, or other automated prompts (codecs, flash, proprietary drivers, etc.).

I ran polkit-auth --obtain org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-update and the the command now returns immediately with no output. Return value is 1. No authentication dialog appears (Gnome or KDE).

Here is the output of dbus-monitor --session as I ran the polkit-auth command:

signal sender=org.freedesktop.DBus -> dest=(null destination) serial=17 path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus; member=NameOwnerChanged
   string ":1.130"
   string ""
   string ":1.130"
method call sender=:1.130 -> dest=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=1 path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus; member=Hello
method call sender=:1.130 -> dest=org.freedesktop.PolicyKit.AuthenticationAgent serial=2 path=/; interface=org.freedesktop.PolicyKit.AuthenticationAgent; member=ObtainAuthorization
   string "org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-update"
   uint32 0
   uint32 1945
method return sender=:1.129 -> dest=:1.130 reply_serial=2
   boolean false
signal sender=org.freedesktop.DBus -> dest=(null destination) serial=18 path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus; member=NameOwnerChanged
   string ":1.130"
   string ":1.130"
   string ""

I tailed dbus-monitor --session when attempting to install something via kpackagekit and I see a lot of org.kde.KNotify stuff, but nothing to do with AuthenticationAgent.

[Jesse Sweetland (sweetlandj)]

I did some reading up on polkit on the Ubuntu Manpage, and that pointed me to /etc/polkit-1/localauthority and /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority. The only pkla file I could find in either location was /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d/com.ubuntu.desktop.pkla. So I edited that file and added the following:

[KPackageKit]
Identity=unix-group:admin
Action=org.freedesktop.packagekit.*
ResultActive=yes

And now KPackageKit doesn't prompt me for a password, but it doesn't wait forever for authentication, either. I don't know if this is the correct solution, but it seems to resolve it temporarily...

[Rutger Hendriks (rutgerhendriks)]

I've added the lines you mentioned, but that doesn't solve it for me
Luckily the workaround 'kdesudo kpackagekit' works ok for now