Question

3

pkexec won't launch polkit GUI in Lubuntu / LXDE

rated 0 times [ 3] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 11981 / 1 Year ago, fri, january 20, 2023, 10:55:52

I performed a fresh install of Lubuntu 12.04 with minimal desktop, as described here.

To clarify, I did a command-line install from the Lubuntu alternative install disc, then I did an apt-get install --no-install-recommends lubuntu-desktop.

Everything is working fine, except that Synaptic will not run from the menu entry in the panel. I am not prompted for a password, and no window of any sort appears after clicking the menu entry. I installed lxshortcut to see what the shortcut was running, and the command is synaptic-pkexec. If I type this command into the "Run" menu, I get the same behavior (or lack thereof).

I can get Synaptic to open up just fine by typing gksudo synaptic at the "Run" menu. Also, if I run "synaptic-pkexec" from the terminal, then I am prompted for my password within the terminal, and after that Synaptic opens normally.

Can someone please suggest the right way to get Synaptic working? I could just change the menu entry to "gksudo synaptic", but I'm guessing that it's set to synaptic-pkexec for a reason. I have a vague understanding that this pkexec business has something to do with PolicyKit, but I don't really know what PolicyKit is or how to tell if something is broken with it.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

pilun

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 270

Total Questions: 100

Total Answers: 94

Location: England

Member since Sat, Feb 13, 2021

3 Years ago

answered 1 Year ago truwom · Accepted Answer

It turns out that I needed to install the policykit-1-gnome package. Once I installed this package and rebooted, Synaptic worked normally.

I installed the complete Lubuntu desktop in a VM for comparison with my minimal installation, and that's how I discovered what was missing. According to the package description:

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

Obviously, without the described functionality, I was never going to get a GUI authentication prompt to open Synaptic.

synaptic is a dependency of the lubuntu-desktop metapackage, so it was installed by default in my minimal installation. Shouldn't policykit-1-gnome be a dependency of lubuntu-desktop as well, since Synaptic won't work without it? Do you think I should report a bug?