Comment 4 for bug 267331

I suspect policykit because attempts to use the "Shut down the computer" applet leaves the following snippet in /var/log/syslog (take particular note to "Not privileged for action".

Sep 25 03:10:34 comet console-kit-daemon[5895]: GLib-GObject-WARNING: IA__g_object_get_valist: value location for `gchararray' passed as NULL
Sep 25 03:10:34 comet last message repeated 2 times
Sep 25 03:10:34 comet console-kit-daemon[5895]: WARNING: Couldn't read /proc/13008/environ: Failed to open file '/proc/13008/environ': Too many open files
Sep 25 03:10:34 comet gnome-session[13008]: WARNING: Unable to stop system: Not privileged for action: org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop no
Sep 25 03:10:34 comet console-kit-daemon[5895]: WARNING: Couldn't read /proc/13008/environ: Failed to open file '/proc/13008/environ': Too many open files

I'm pretty sure I can fix the powerdown problem by running polkit-auth to add the permission to the user. However, trying it out first by adding org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.suspend to the user did not result in the ability to suspend. I was seeing a similiar message related to suspending when closing my laptop immediately after upgrading, but before a reboot, after which, suspension was no longer offered as an option.

This system predates policykit, so I suspect that the package is assuming settings made during initial install that are not provided during upgrades.