pulseaudio keeps complaining: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist

[Martin Pool]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I'm running pulseaudio from a terminal after debugging other issues (which are now fixed) and see that it repeatedly prints out

E: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist

This seems to be only cosmetic though?

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: mbp 19052 F.... mixer_applet2
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Headset'/'Logitech Logitech USB Headset at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5.1.4, full speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:0a01'
   Controls : 6
   Simple ctrls : 2
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x41e0x30d3'/'USB Device 0x41e:0x30d3 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5.1.3, full speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB041e:30d3'
   Controls : 7
   Simple ctrls : 3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.14-0ubuntu20.1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package

[Paco Riviere (pacoriviere)]

Same bug - INFO:
--- syslog:
Jul 11 09:00:01 system pulseaudio[5516]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist
Jul 11 09:00:01 system pulseaudio[5516]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist
---
~$ uname -a
Linux phenix 2.6.28-13-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 30 22:12:12 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
---
~$ pulseaudio --version
I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
I: caps.c: Dropping root privileges.
I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
pulseaudio 0.9.14
---
~$ gdm --version
GDM 2.20.10

[Paco Riviere (pacoriviere)]

After unistalling libacr38* message pulseaudio does not complain any more, and mouse does not crash any more.
sudo apt-get remove libacr38*

Bug may be related to libacr38*

[Simon Schmidig (schmidig)]

Same on our LTSP-server.
-- uname -a
Linux ltsp 2.6.28-13-server #45-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 30 22:56:18 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
-- pulseaudio --version
I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
I: caps.c: Dropping root privileges.
I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
pulseaudio 0.9.14
-- syslog
Jul 13 08:06:41 ltsp pulseaudio[16204]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist
Jul 13 08:06:41 ltsp pulseaudio[26203]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist
Jul 13 08:06:41 ltsp pulseaudio[30487]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist

[David (phoned-gmail)]

I'm getting this as well, with no libacr* packages installed.

[aslam karachiwala (akwala)]

Linux xxxx 2.6.28-14-generic #47-Ubuntu SMP Sat Jul 25 01:19:55 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

pulseaudio 0.9.14

Aug 16 19:10:01 xxxx pulseaudio[10133]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist

Note: libacr38* _not_ installed.

[Stephen Phillips (stephen-kent-phillips)]

I noticed the same messages in my user.log. I don't have libacr* installed.

uname -a
Linux pecan 2.6.28-15-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Tue Aug 18 18:40:08 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

user.log
Sep 12 09:40:44 pecan pulseaudio[16319]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Sep 12 09:40:44 pecan pulseaudio[16319]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Sep 12 19:17:01 pecan pulseaudio[16319]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist
Sep 13 03:00:01 pecan pulseaudio[16319]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist
Sep 13 08:17:46 pecan pulseaudio[3489]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Sep 13 08:17:48 pecan pulseaudio[3489]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Sep 13 14:27:35 pecan pulseaudio[3325]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Sep 13 14:27:36 pecan pulseaudio[3325]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Sep 14 07:07:41 pecan pulseaudio[3328]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Sep 14 07:07:43 pecan pulseaudio[3328]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Sep 14 08:03:09 pecan pulseaudio[3328]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Sep 14 08:03:09 pecan pulseaudio[3328]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 2 channels, changed to 1.
Sep 14 08:34:34 pecan pulseaudio[3328]: module-combine.c: Assertion '!op->outq_rtpoll_item_read && !op->inq_rtpoll_item_write' failed at modules/module-combine.c:691, function sink_process_msg(). Aborting.
Sep 14 13:59:19 pecan pulseaudio[3559]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Sep 14 13:59:19 pecan pulseaudio[3559]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 2 channels, changed to 1.
Sep 14 13:59:33 pecan pulseaudio[3559]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Sep 14 13:59:33 pecan pulseaudio[3559]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Sep 15 06:25:01 pecan pulseaudio[3559]: module-console-kit.c: GetUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "GetUnixUser" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" doesn't exist

dpkg -l | grep -i pulseaudio
ii gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio 0.10.14-1ubuntu0.1 GStreamer plugin for PulseAudio
ii libpulse-browse0 1:0.9.14-0ubuntu20.2 PulseAudio client libraries (zeroconf support)
ii libpulse-mainloop-glib0 1:0.9.14-0ubuntu20.2 PulseAudio client libraries (glib support)
ii libpulse0 1:0.9.14-0ubuntu20...

[Stephen Phillips (stephen-kent-phillips)]

After some more searching, I noticed:

Debian has a similar bug listing:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=527016

Some one else reported that it seemed to be related to his kernel version -- he was on 2.6.26 and the problem started when he went to 2.6.30. This maybe unrelated, but just a thought:
http://www.linux-archive.org/debian-user/353103-sound-volume-went-waaaay-low.html

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Please reproduce this symptom using the most current daily-live desktop Lucid image.

[Maik Holtkamp (s-y-l)]

Same problem here after updating my ThinkPad T400 to lucid yesterday:

---cut syslog---
May 1 07:51:13 t400 pulseaudio[2003]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-console-kit" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
May 1 07:51:13 t400 pulseaudio[2003]: main.c: Module load failed.
May 1 07:51:13 t400 pulseaudio[2003]: main.c: Konnte Daemon nicht initialisieren. #couldn't initialize daemon
May 1 07:51:14 t400 pulseaudio[1966]: main.c: Start des Daemons fehlgeschlagen. #starting daemon failed
May 1 07:51:14 t400 pulseaudio[2042]: module-console-kit.c: GetSessionsForUnixUser() call failed: org.hed freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFailed: Failed to execute program /lib/dbus-1.0/dbus-daemon-launch-helper: Success
---cut---

maik@t400:~$ uname -r
2.6.31-19-generic

Had problems with network-manager, too, switched to wicd - fixed. However, still no chance to get sound alive again. Not sure if this is the problem of my sound issue but in spite Debian report is thinking it's cosmetic, I am afraid not for me, as it is the only hint I found fixing my sound issue :(.

[Maik Holtkamp (s-y-l)]

Found a workaround in the gentoo BT.

---cut /etc/pulse/default.pa---
### load-module module-console-kit ##changed 2010/05/01 see Gentoo BugTracking
.ifexists module-console-kit
load-module module-console-kit
.endif
---cut---

[Leigh L. Klotz, Jr. (klotz-graflex)]

I saw this on an upgrade from Koala to Lucid, manifest as high CPU usage for dbus-daemon run by messagebus user.
#11 fixed it.

[Tom Howland (tom-tomzilla)]

Before I tried comment #11 sound preference app never comes up. It is waiting for to come up.

After trying comment #11, sound daemon is started, but it doesn't know about any sound devices.

Here is the message in syslog repeated hundreds of time before I applied #11.

pulseaudio[2789]: module-console-kit.c: GetSessionsForUnixUser() call failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFailed: Failed to execute program /lib/dbus-1.0/dbus-daemon-launch-helper: Success
Jun 17 16:22:43 zzz pulseaudio[2789]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-console-kit" (argument: ""): initialization failed.

I'm running a fresh install on

Linux zzz 2.6.32-22-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 3 19:31:57 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux