Polkit authentication fails in Lubuntu

[Jānis Kangarooo]

Binary package hint: gnome-system-tools

Xubuntu 10.04
installed Lubuntu-desktop
now in Lubuntu
opened preferences -> Users and groups
Next to my username is button Change..
it doesnt reacts.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gnome-system-tools 2.30.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.36-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Jun 27 18:08:46 2010
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SourcePackage: gnome-system-tools

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Thanks for your report. Usually, reporting two very close issues is not a good idea because they are likely to be related. In your case, authentication failure is probably the cause of both.

Please run 'users-admin' from a console and post the output here.

Also, please run
/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
and retry.

I don't know how LXDE works, but I'm not sure at all users-admin is supposed to work there. Maybe it doesn't start the authentication tool to save some RAM. You'd need to find a Lubuntu developer (on IRC or a mailing-list maybe).

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

Nothing changed after runing command.. heres result

kng@kng-digitron:~$
/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2625): GLib-GObject-WARNING **:
cannot register existing type `_PolkitError'

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2625): GLib-CRITICAL **:
g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

** (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2625): WARNING **: Unable to
register authentication agent: Remote Exception invoking
org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Authority.RegisterAuthenticationAgent() on
/org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authority at name
org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1: org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed:
An authentication agent already exists for session
Cannot register authentication agent: Remote Exception invoking
org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Authority.RegisterAuthenticationAgent() on
/org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authority at name
org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1: org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed:
An authentication agent already exists for session

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

in terminal users-admin didnt gave any output

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

What does these commands say?
pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.set --process $PID -u
pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.self.set --process $PID -u
(replacing $PID with the output of the command 'pidof gnome-settings-daemon' for example).

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.set --process $PID -u
gives http://pastebin.com/vKuSVkyD
pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.self.set
--process $PID -u
gives http://pastebin.com/JwGreCZK

but cant get pidof gnome-settings-daemon even when opened users-admin

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Hm, that didn't work , probably because you didn't provide a PID. I was silly, since you're on Lubuntu, gnome-settings-daemon isn't running. So start users-admin, get its PID using 'pidof users-admin', and replce $PID with this value in the command.

BTW, you can paste command outputs directly here. In this case they were too long because there was an error, so you could just have told that the manual page was shown. For long outputs, attaching a log file is best.

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

started users-admin
got pidof users-admin is 8762

kng@kng-digitron:~$ pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.set --process 8762 -u
Not authorized.
kng@kng-digitron:~$ pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.self.set --process 8762 -u
Not authorized.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Is the user member of the 'admin' group? Are you logged in remotely (VNC...)? What's the output of 'ck-list-sessions'?

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

i dont know. im the only user of my computer. clean installation of
xubuntu i set my user
i think im just in users group that was the default..

ck-list-sessions:
Session23:
 unix-user = '1000'
 realname = 'kng'
 seat = 'Seat1'
 session-type = ''
 active = TRUE
 x11-display = ''
 x11-display-device = ''
 display-device = '/dev/tty7'
 remote-host-name = ''
 is-local = TRUE
 on-since = '2010-07-03T13:31:35.384657Z'
 login-session-id = ''
 idle-since-hint = '2010-07-03T13:32:06.000403Z'
Session24:
 unix-user = '1000'
 realname = 'kng'
 seat = 'Seat1'
 session-type = ''
 active = FALSE
 x11-display = ':0'
 x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
 display-device = ''
 remote-host-name = ''
 is-local = TRUE
 on-since = '2010-07-03T13:31:35.587532Z'
 login-session-id = ''

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

You can check easily what groups you are in by running the 'groups' command.

Could you run the two pkcheck commands again, but after having run
sudo killall polkitd
sudo /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd

and post the three outputs here? (Don't stop the last command while running the two pkcheck ones.)

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

kng@kng-digitron:~$ groups
kng adm dialout cdrom plugdev lpadmin admin sambashare

after running
sudo killall polkitd
sudo /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd
tryd
kng@kng-digitron:~$ pidof users-admin
gave nothing so pkcheck cant be made again

BTW
kng@kng-digitron:~$ sudo /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd
Registering null backend at priority -10
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Monitoring `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority' for changes
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Monitoring `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority' for changes
Using authority class PolkitBackendLocalAuthority
** (process:2922): DEBUG: Added authentication agent for session /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2 at name :1.29 [/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1], object path /org/gnome/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.utf8
^Z
[1]+ Stopped sudo /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd

[simulyant (valery-otryvankin)]

I have the similar issue.

val@val-netbook:~$ ck-list-sessions
Session2:
 unix-user = '1000'
 realname = 'Валерий'
 seat = 'Seat1'
 session-type = ''
 active = TRUE
 x11-display = ':0'
 x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
 display-device = ''
 remote-host-name = ''
 is-local = TRUE
 on-since = '2010-08-15T03:31:56.224923Z'
 login-session-id = ''

val@val-netbook:~$ groups
val adm dialout fax cdrom floppy tape audio dip video plugdev fuse lpadmin netdev admin sambashare

val@val-netbook:~$ sudo killall polkitd
[sudo] password for val:
val@val-netbook:~$ sudo /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd
Registering null backend at priority -10
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Added `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d' as a local authorization store
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Monitoring `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority' for changes
** (process:4457): DEBUG: Monitoring `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority' for changes
Using authority class PolkitBackendLocalAuthority

(process:4457): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(process:4457): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_handler_disconnect: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(process:4457): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(process:4457): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(process:4457): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_handler_disconnect: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
Error registering authority: Could not become primary name owner for org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1** (process:4457): DEBUG: Purged all local authorization stores

val@val-netbook:/usr/lib/policykit-gnome$ users-admin
val@val-netbook:~$ pidof users-admin
4459
val@val-netbook:~$ pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.set --process 4459 -u
nothing. Running in backhroun so I stopped it
pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.systemtoolsbackends.self.set --process 4459 -u
nothing. Running in backhroun so I stopped it

val@val-netbook:~$ /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:4636): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot register existing type `_PolkitError'

(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:4636): GLib-CRITICAL...

[simulyant (valery-otryvankin)]

The issue solved by reinstalling package policykit-1:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall policykit-1

[Jānis Kangarooo (kangarooo)]

heres the fix then. make on update this programm reinstall itself?!

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

That's not the solution, we'd need to find the underlying bug that reinstalling the package fixes. But now that you don't experience the bug, it's impossible to discover what was going wrong before.

Sorry for the lack of answer on my part last month, but now I can only close the bug - if somebody reports the same problem, we'll try to find out what's happening before it fixes it, and maybe we'll be able to fix it for good. Thanks for reporting, though, and please continue reporting bugs in the future!

[flm (flmommens)]

I've got the same issue and it hasn't been corrected by reinstalling the package.
I think this is linked with another issue I share with several other people: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9454085

This is the trace I get:

** (process:7760): DEBUG: system-bus-name::1.33 is inquiring whether system-bus-name::1.31 is authorized for org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-mount
** (process:7760): DEBUG: user of caller is unix-user:root
** (process:7760): DEBUG: user of subject is unix-user:mommens
** (process:7760): DEBUG: checking whether system-bus-name::1.31 is authorized for org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-mount
** (process:7760): DEBUG: 0x9a12550
** (process:7760): DEBUG: subject is in session /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session4 (local=1 active=0)
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/20-org.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/30-site.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/90-mandatory.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d'
** (process:7760): DEBUG: Dropping all .pkla caches for directory `/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor...

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

flm: If you're not using Lubuntu, please file this as a new report. At any rate, please follow the instructions I've given in all my comments above, and provide us with this information. Thanks!