gnome-system-tools can't authenticate

[Gabriel Speckhahn]

Binary package hint: policykit

After some updates, the "Unlock" button in the gnome-system-tools apps is not working anymore, failing with the following message: "Could not authenticate - An unknown error has occurred.". Running users-admin from a terminal gives the following message:

** (users-admin:6380): CRITICAL **: Unable to lookup exe for caller

The tools are rendered unusable even if they're running with root privileges. This is in a Hardy system upgraded from Feisty.

[Gabriel Speckhahn (gabspeck)]

By the way, only the Network and Users & Groups apps seem to open at all. Others such as Services, Time and Date and Shared Folders don't even show up, with the following messages in the terminal:

$ time-admin

(time-admin:6832): Gtk-WARNING **: <accessibility> is being ignored,
see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454653

(time-admin:6832): Gtk-WARNING **: Unknown property: GtkCalendar.display-options
Segmentation fault

$ shares-admin

(shares-admin:6983): Gtk-WARNING **: Unknown property: GtkComboBox.items

Segmentation fault

$ services-admin
Segmentation fault