applications requiring root permissions not working

[fingers99]

AMD 64, Jessie, KDE, bang up to date

Obvious symptoms: from "kickoff" menu "shutdown" and "restart" do not work. I can do su & shutdown (etc), and works fine: Apper does not display the "permissions" widget & consequently I can't install anything through it. (It used to work, so I know how it should be). I can do installs from the c/l.

Less obvious: Volume control and clipboard tool don't appear on taskbar. kdesu seems not to work (trying to use gvim as root),

All used to be fine, so I'm thinking either a security policy change or something broken.

Thanks for reading.

[arochester]

I wonder if the problem is polkit-kde-agent-1...

PolicyKit is an application-level toolkit for defining and handling the policy
that allows unprivileged processes to speak to privileged processes.

It is a framework for centralizing the decision making process with respect to
granting access to privileged operations (like calling the HAL Mount() method)
for unprivileged (desktop) applications.

PolicyKit-Kde provides a D-Bus session bus service that is used to
bring up authentication dialogs used for obtaining privileges.

Re-install it. Make sure that it is autostarted.

kdesu seems not to work

kdesudo?

[fingers99]

Starting at the top!

Re-install it. Make sure that it is autostarted.

Re-installed. No change. How do I check it's autostarted?

ps aux gives:

root@silverslug:/home/john# ps aux
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND

//big snip!//

root 789 0.0 0.0 71840 5128 ? Ss 18:52 0:00 /usr/sbin/cups-browsed
root 790 0.0 0.1 290596 8884 ? Ssl 18:52 0:00 /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd --no-debug
root 796 0.0 0.0 14416 2044 tty1 Ss+ 18:52 0:00 /sbin/agetty --noclear tty1 linux

//big snip!!//

root 1443 0.0 0.0 19100 2548 pts/0 R+ 19:19 0:00 ps aux
root@silverslug:/home/john#

But is this correct way to check? Or definitive?

[stevepusser]

kdesu seems not to work

kdesudo?

kdesu still works, it's just not in your path any more.

I'm not on a Linux box right now but what I did was created a symlink in /usr/bin for kdesu.

Somebody who *is* on a Linux box can help (or you can use locate to find it, but it'd be something like

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sudo ln -s /path/to/kdesu /usr/bin/kdesu

Hope this helps -

Here you go, assuming you have sudo enabled:

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sudo ln -s /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/kdesu /usr/bin/kdesu

Can you create a new user and see if the same KDE problems happen in that session? (other than kdesu, that's just how Debian rolls). That way we can see if it's a system issue, or just something in your personal settings.

[fingers99]

Can you create a new user and see if the same KDE problems happen in that session? (other than kdesu, that's just how Debian rolls). That way we can see if it's a system issue, or just something in your personal settings.

Yet to try your previous suggestion, but new user works just fine (even has volume and klipper icons)

[fingers99]

Here you go, assuming you have sudo enabled:

Code: Select all

Code: Select all

 sudo ln -s /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/kdesu /usr/bin/kdesu

Yay! Did it as su, but seems to have sorted it. Thanks!

I wonder what caused it?

[fingers99]

Sorry folks, I can't work out how to label it as SOLVED. (Not in FAQS?]

[GarryRicketson]

Did you try editing the subject line in your first post ?
example:

Code: Select all

(solved)applications requiring root permissions not working 

[fingers99]

Thanks. I tried, but seemed - first time - to run out of characters. Copy n'paste did the job.

[stevepusser]

The kdesu problem is just how Debian ships KDE. I made sure to fix it when I did my own little "MX Linux plus Jessie's KDE plus some non-Debian KDE addons I like" remaster. It's not a FrankenDebian monster; it shows great hybrid vigor!

[fingers99]

I was premature in saying it had been solved. Sometimes everything is as expected, sometimes not. Eventually, after several reboots, things will return to normal.

Now, when it is "normal" the entire session is saved. Any file managers I had open are open. There seems no rhyme or reason to it.

I'd speculate - nothing more - that a script isn't always completing. Watchdog?

Ideas welcome!

[fingers99]

Note: I've since upgraded to 9.1 (Stretch). Too early to say if the issue is still there.

[steve_v]

from "kickoff" menu "shutdown" and "restart" do not work.

May or may not be related: A Systemd (surprise surprise) default has changed.
KillUserProcesses is now False, so any application taking too long to close will cause shutdown to silently fail.
In my case the prime culprit was Firefox. But seriously, if I say "shut down" I mean "now". Stupid change.

[dasein]

...any application taking too long to close will cause shutdown to silently fail.