Your message dated Sat, 19 Jul 2025 16:50:17 +0000
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Bug#1090384: fixed in xfce4 4.20.1
has caused the Debian Bug report #1090384,
regarding xfce4: desktop environment metapackage should provide a polkit agent
to be marked as done.
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If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
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1090384: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1090384
Debian Bug Tracking System
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--- Begin Message ---
Package: xfce4
Version: 4.18
Severity: important
As discussed on #1076728, there is a de facto expectation that each "good"
desktop environment will provide a polkit authentication agent that is
suitable for it, similar to the expectation for o.fd.Notifications.
I've reported this as a bug in the xfce4 metapackage, but it might
make sense to push it down into a "smaller", lower-level package like
xfce4-session (I am not familiar with the details of XFCE's design).
There are two main ways to get a polkit agent:
1. Integrate it directly into the desktop shell, as has been done by
GNOME since 3.0 and various GNOME derivatives like Phosh.
XFCE has not done this, that I know of.
2. Depend on a separate polkit agent UI program that is appropriate for the
desktop environment, and arrange for it to be started during graphical
session login, either via /etc/xdg/autostart or by explicitly
starting it. XFCE does not have its own polkit agent
(https://github.com/ncopa/xfce-polkit exists, but is unmaintained and
has not been packaged in Debian) so it will have to borrow
someone else's.
One straightforward way to implement (2.) would be to add a dependency
on a specific polkit agent implementation that fits well into XFCE, or
an or-group (Depends: impl1|impl2|...) for more than one implementation,
where each implementation has an /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop whose
ShowIn and/or OnlyShowIn fields allow it to be run under XFCE.
If the chosen implementation is desktop-specific, it would be best to
contact its maintainers, let them know that XFCE is also relyiing on
that implementation, and perhaps offer to co-maintain it.
Note that merely adding a direct or indirect dependency on the
polkit-1-auth-agent virtual package is *not* enough to resolve this bug:
that virtual package is provided by some polkit agents that are either
integrated into a different desktop environment (gnome-shell, etc.),
or standalone programs that have an OnlyShowIn that excludes them from
being used by XFCE (polkit-kde-agent-1, etc.). Installing one of those
will not provide a working polkit authentication agent under XFCE.
Historically, policykit-1-gnome has been treated as the polkit agent of
last resort. However, it was originally intended to be GNOME-specific,
and is a GNOME-2-era implementation which is no longer maintained
(see #990271), so I don't think anything involving a dependency on
policykit-1-gnome would be a good solution to this issue. If the XFCE
downstream or upstream maintainers feel that policykit-1-gnome is the
implementation they want to be using, then someone will need to fork
it under a less misleading name and become the fork's new upstream
maintainer. Borrowing a polkit agent from LXDE or MATE would probably
be a better solution.
I suspect that new installations of XFCE are currently pulling in the
unmaintained policykit-1-gnome by default, possibly via a long and
unintended dependency chain.
Comparing with some other major distros:
- Arch seems to install (their equivalent of) policykit-1-gnome by default,
despite it being dead upstream, but offers xfce-polkit as an alternative;
- Fedora ships xfce-polkit
Please choose a suitable polkit agent and add it as a dependency, or at
least as a Recommends.
Thanks,
smcv
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Source: xfce4
Source-Version: 4.20.1
Done: Yves-Alexis Perez <[email protected]>
We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
xfce4, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.
A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [email protected],
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Yves-Alexis Perez <[email protected]> (supplier of updated xfce4 package)
(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing [email protected])
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
Format: 1.8
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:32:45 +0200
Source: xfce4
Architecture: source
Version: 4.20.1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian Xfce Maintainers <[email protected]>
Changed-By: Yves-Alexis Perez <[email protected]>
Closes: 1090384
Changes:
xfce4 (4.20.1) unstable; urgency=medium
.
* d/control: update standards version to 4.7.2
* d/control: recommends mate-polkit (Closes: #1090384)
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