I just recently had this exact same problem with Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04).
It had been working fine for months until today, when for some reason
authentication through PolicyKit started failing and any apps that
needed elevated privileges would just hang. Here's what I did to fix it:
1 - Open up the PolicyKit configuration file (gksudo gedit
/etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf)
2 - Find this section:
<match user="root">
<return result="yes"/>
</match>
<define_admin_auth group="admin"/>
...and change <match user="root"> to <match user="root|you"> (with "you"
being your user name, not the word "you"). This will essentially give
you root access to everything. Now open up System > Administration >
Users and Groups and you'll notice that everything will be unlocked
without you having to click the unlock button. While you're here, make
sure your main group is admin - if not, change it. Close the Users and
Groups window, then go back to PolicyKit.conf and remove your user name
from the file (meaning it should just say <match user="root"> again).
Now if you open Users and Groups again, all the other user names should
be grayed out, and the unlock should be active again. Click it and you
should see the familiar authentication prompt asking for your password.
--
Admin. progs. hang before prompting for authentication
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/236232
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