User receives prompt on login: "Authentication is required to create a color managed device"

[Daniel Richard G.]

This concerns colord 1.4.4-2 in Ubuntu focal. (xiccd 0.3.0-1 may also be relevant.)

I log into the Xfce desktop environment, and immediately see an "Authenticate" window pop up:

    Authentication is required to create a color managed device

    Password for root: ________

    Action: org.freedesktop.color-manager.create-device
    Vendor: System Color Manager

I see this in syslog:

    Apr 8 05:38:30 test-ubuntu64 dbus-daemon[573]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.ColorManager' unit='colord.service' requested by ':1.35' (uid=1000 pid=1475 comm="xiccd " label="unconfined")

This prompt is confusing to ordinary users, and I do not understand why it should even be necessary.

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

Note: My use case involves logging into the desktop remotely, via XRDP. This issue appears to affect other remote-login implementations as well.

Related:

https://github.com/TurboVNC/turbovnc/issues/47

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1149893

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-settings-daemon/issues/273

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sam Darwin (samueldarwin)]

Could someone comment about this issue, even if it's not fixed?
- Why is the popup needed?
- What is the effect if you agree, and provide auth information?
- What is the effect if you don't agree, and don't provide auth info? Will something not work, if you don't proceed with auth?

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

Hi Sam,

The popup is "needed" because special permission is required to "create a color managed device." This is typically relevant to fancy color-corrected computer displays and the like. The problem is that when you are logging in via a remote connection like VNC or RDP, there is no directly-connected monitor, and thus little point to the request.

If you agree and provide the auth info, the system will probably be able to create that "color managed device," but it is unlikely to be noticeable in any useful way.

If you don't agree, I believe nothing is harmed, and you can proceed with your session as usual.

What it boils down to is that the system is asking you for authentication to do something that is entirely unnecessary in the context of your (remote) login session.