On 9/16/19 6:12 PM, Ben Koenig wrote:
run synaptic from the command line without sudo and see what it says.
[By mistake, I did a reply instead of a reply-list for a few messages.
I'll summarize here, and we'll see if anyone else on the list has
experience with it.]
On 9/16/19 9:09 PM, Dick Steffens wrote:
A window opens that says,
"Starting "Synaptic Package Manager" without administrative privileges
You will not be able to apply any changes, but you can still export
the marked changes or create a download script for them."
Also, at the command line:
dick@ENU-1:~$ synaptic
Gtk-Message: 21:06:15.530: GtkDialog mapped without a transient
parent. This is discouraged.
On 9/16/19 9:20 PM, Ben Koenig wrote:
so it worked as expected. Thats good.
The launcher in your menu refers to a file that contains the command
used to run the program. Take a look at the .desktop files in
/usr/share/applications. Most of the files in that folder should have
the extension .desktop, but they are really just text files. They are
launcher definitions, if you open one up and look for the "Exec" line
it will show you the command that runs when click on it via the menu.
But I don't know what the filename is for synaptic's .desktop file,
that's an ubuntu-specific thing.
In /usr/share/applications/ there is a file named Synaptic Package
Manager. It shows no extension, but the type says "desktop
configuration file" and has the following contents:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Synaptic Package Manager
GenericName=Package Manager
Comment=Install, remove and upgrade software packages
Exec=synaptic-pkexec
Icon=synaptic
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=PackageManager;GTK;System;Settings;
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=synaptic
The problem exists on my machine ENU-1, running Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. It
was originally installed as Ubuntu, but later I switched to the Xfce
desktop. On another machine, ENU-2, running Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS but
installed as Xubuntu, I have the same file in /usr/share/applications,
with the same content. But on ENU-2, clicking the icon from the
Applications>System menu brings up Synaptic and asks for my password.
On 9/17/19 1:29 PM, Ben Koenig wrote:
What happens when you run "synaptic-pkexec" from the commandline? No
sudo, just do it as a regular user.
dick@ENU-1:~$ synaptic-pkexec
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ===
Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
Authenticating as: Dick Steffens,,, (dick)
Password:
polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon:
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ===
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized
This incident has been reported.
dick@ENU-1:~$
Some context on why I'm suggesting this:
The files in /usr/share/applications are all launchers. Your file
manager is automatically parsing them and assigning icons and names
based on the contents of each file. That's why you aren't seeing the
extension. If you list the contents on the command line you will see
very different filenames.
In this "[Desktop Entry]" definition you are seeing, each line serves
a purpose. It names an Icon, Name, and Description. It even provides a
way to specify if a terminal should be launched in order to monitor
error messages. The Exec= line specifies the command being run to
execute the program.
There are a couple ways to troubleshoot:
1) Compare this file on ENU-1 and ENU-2. Since you say that ENU-2
works, I bet the Exec= line is different.
The files are identical. ENU-1 and ENU-2 both have Exec=synaptic-pkexec.
2) Run the Exec= command directly yourself in the terminal. It will
probably return and error that will tell us why it fails.
It looks to me like the command being run when you click on the menu
is not the same as the command you used manually, explaining why
running from the terminal works. I wonder what synaptic-pkexec is
referring to?
On 9/17/19 3:29 PM, Ben Koenig wrote:
Huh. That's a strange error, but it definitely tells us what is wrong.
PolicyKit has been around a while, slackware has it but I have to be
honest I don't know much about it.
This might be worth posing to the list as it's own question. There is
probably an easy fix but I don't really know what off the top of my
head. It's possible someone else in the PLUG group would have more
experience with the packages and temp files related to policykit.
So, anyone have PolicyKit experience that might shed some light on this?
--
Regards,
Dick Steffens
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