Unlocking administration tool gives an unexpected error

[arian]

Binary package hint: policykit

I'm using Hardy Heron alpha 6 with all updates under VMWare Server.

When you press unlock in any settings tool under System > Administration and wait for about 25 seconds without entering your password, a pop-up is displayed saying authentication failed and that an unexpected error occurred. Even more annoying is that this messagebox cannot be closed until the authentication window is closed. If you close it with the cancel button, then you can try again and enter the password right away, in which case all is well.
However, when you press authenticate to close the authentication window, any further clicking on the unlock button will result in the same popup appearing. You then have to close the entire tool and try again before you can procede with your changes.

If this is caused by a time-out (as added security perhaps), then the message should be more informative and less annoying. Otherwise, this is an annoying bug which should be fixed.

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

I can confirm this issue.

I believe it is caused by a timeout on the dbus request as you
suspected.

I agree, either the timeout should be dropped, or the error
message should be improved.

Thanks,

James

[Patrick Kilgore (patrick-kilgore)]

Confirmed under a normal non-VM ubuntu installation.

[Patrick Kilgore (patrick-kilgore)]

Upgraded to medium importance due to moderate impact on core application. I'd normally consider un-usability a severe impact but since its such an obscure way to trigger the bug, I'm dropping to moderate. Either way, a bug in a core util should probably be medium importance.