Bug 28010

It sounds like you don't have a Polkit agent running.  Do you have the package mate-polkit installed?

Yes, polkit, mate-polkit, and lib64polkit1_0 are all installed.  Also, the polkit daemon is running.

Do you see the /usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1 process running?

If not, I'm guessing this could be an issue with the recent xdg-compliance (xdg-autostart) update.

CC: (none) => luigiwalser

Yes, I think this was the issue.

Hopefully fixed in xdg-compliance-1.3.1-2.mga8.

polkit-authentication-agen-1 process is the one that is running:

[david@localhost ~]$ ps -aux | grep polkit
polkitd   1485  0.0  0.1 1933908 17924 ?       Ssl  Jan01   0:00 /usr/lib/polkit-1/polkitd --no-debug
david    15021  0.0  0.0   9180   760 pts/11   S+   15:08   0:00 grep --color polkit
root     22936  0.0  0.0  11048  4880 tty2     T    Jan03   0:00 /usr/lib/polkit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1 root
[david@localhost ~]$

After installing the update, log out and log back in and you should have /usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1 running and drakconf should work.

Ok, My Cauldron install is fully up to date, to include xdg-compliance-1.3.1-2.mga8.  The problem remains.  Unsurprisingly, this works while running Mate.  In that case /usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1 is running.  It does not run while running fvwm2 or ICEwm.

What does:
echo $SESSION

show?

If you run:
xdg-autostart -v -d Old

does it run /usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1 ?  If not, what do you see in the output mentioning that?

While running Cauldron and fvwm2:
echo $SESSION returns nothing

running: xdg-autostart -v -d Old does start /usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1.  output thus:

/etc/xdg/autostart/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1.desktop: Delayed by 0 s | /usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1

starting drakconf as non privileged user presents the root password pop up window and mageia control center starts as expected.

Thanks.  /etc/X11/Xsession is what should be calling that (via /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart).

What does:
echo $DESKTOP

give you?  Probably nothing.  What does this give you?
/usr/sbin/chksession -F

While running Cauldron and fvwm2, weather or not xdg-autostart -v -d Old has been issued, echo $DESKTOP yialds no results, and /usr/sbin/chksession -f yields "Plasma"

This bug was for IceWM, not Plasma (where drakconf should have already been working fine).  Please check in IceWM.

Note, in my previous comment, I was running fvwm2, not plasma.  While running ICEwm, echo $DESKTOP yields no results, and /usr/sbin/chksession -F yelds "Plasma" just as it did while running fvwm2.

Hmm, I misread the script, so it just uses chksession -F if you choose "Default" in the display manager when logging in.  The display manager is supposed to set the value of DESKTOP, but only for the life of that script, it doesn't export it so that it's available in your session.

OK, let's do this to debug it.  Add the following to a file called /etc/X11/xinit.d/sessdbg:
# to be sourced
echo $SESSION > /var/tmp/sessdbg

then log in to fvwm2 or IceWM and see what:
cat /var/tmp/sessdbg

shows.

Hmmm..  /etc/X11/xinit.d/sessdbg did not exist.  I created it with the contents: echo $SESSION > /var/tmp/sessdbg  and made executable (chmod 755 sessdbg) of course.  On subsequent login to ICEwm,  /var/tmp/sessdbg does not exist, no doubt because echo $SESSION yielded no results.

No that won't work.  It shouldn't be executable, and it needs to have the "# to be sourced" comment in it.

Removed executable permissions (chmod 644), added "# to be sourced" line.  /var/tmp/sessdbg still does not exist.

Oops, my mistake.  It still needs the executable permissions.

executable permissions restored.  /var/log/sessdbg still does not exist.

What display manager are you using?  GDM, SDDM, ?  It may not be running Xsession correctly.

Whatever is the default out of the box.  Appears to be GDM.

if you edit /etc/X11/gdm/custom.conf

and uncomment the "WaylandEnable=false" line:
[daemon]
# Uncomment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
WaylandEnable=false


and reboot, does it work then ?

I uncommented the line:

WaylandEnable=false

in /etc/X11/gdm/custom.conf

This had no effect on the problem.

does it work better with: gdm-3.38.2.1-2.mga8 ?

upgrading to gdm-3.38.2.1-2.mga8 had no effect, whether or not WaylandEnable=false was commented out as above.

Can you try switching to SDDM (the Mageia control center in Boot > Set up display manager, gives you a way to do it), just to make sure there isn't something else we're missing?  I do believe GDM is the problem, just want to be 100% sure there isn't also something else at play.

I think you may be on to something.  SDDM worked.

Thanks.  That'll probably be your best bet going forward.  Apparently there's a known regression in GDM, and in typical GNOME fashion, people are taking the attitude that nothing matters but GNOME, which is entirely inappropriate for a display manager, which is supposed to be general enough to successfully log you into any window manager or desktop environment.

What known regression is that David, and who are those people?

It looks more like a heap of old ugly hacks have stopped working.

/etc/xdg/autostart/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1.desktop contains

  OnlyShowIn=MATE;XFCE;OPENBOX;Old;X-Cinnamon;

which requires XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP to be set to one of the above. It is set to "Old" in /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart if $SESSION matches

   icewm*|IceWM*|starticewm

But $SESSION is currently not set to anything when started by GDM.

CC: (none) => mageia

Martin, don't be a smart alec too.  What stopped working was something that was working fine for over 20 years and shouldn't have been changed.  The SESSION variable is set in /etc/X11/Xsession, either to chksession -F if you choose "Default" in your display manager, or to the value of $DESKTOP which is set by the display manager to the name of the session you chose to log in (not default).  GDM should still be running Xsession for non-GNOME sessions, not just trying to run xinit scripts directly itself.

Mageia isn't Devuan. We accept that things change and we have to adapt to that.

I logged the value of SESSION in /etc/X11/Xsession when using LightDM, and this is what I got for various different sessions:

SESSION=cinnamon-session-cinnamon
SESSION=/usr/bin/fvwm2
SESSION=/usr/bin/gnome-session
SESSION=startgnome_classic
SESSION=/usr/bin/gnome-session
SESSION=icewm
SESSION=icewm-session
SESSION=/usr/bin/startlxde
SESSION=startmate
SESSION=/usr/bin/startopenbox
SESSION=/usr/bin/startplasma-x11
SESSION=startxfce4

By the time it got to /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart this had changed to

SESSION=cinnamon-session-cinnamon
SESSION=fvwm2
SESSION=gnome-session
SESSION=startgnome_classic
SESSION=gnome-session
SESSION=icewm
SESSION=icewm-session
SESSION=startlxde
SESSION=startmate
SESSION=startopenbox
SESSION=startplasma-x11
SESSION=startxfce4

Turns out that if you don't have pulse audio installed, later scripts may not see what they expect!

Take a look at the scripts in /etc/X11/xinit.d and see how many you think are broken, given the above (DESKTOP is set to the same as SESSION, but doesn't get changed).

I have modified the GDM Xsession script to set DESKTOP and SESSION before running the xinit.d scripts. This fixes the reported bug for IceWM. Other lightweight DMs, such as fvwm2, have the fault regardless of which DM you use, because /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart only handles IceWM.

(In reply to Martin Whitaker from comment #31)
> Mageia isn't Devuan. We accept that things change and we have to adapt to
> that.

Well played sir :D

> I logged the value of SESSION in /etc/X11/Xsession when using LightDM, and
> this is what I got for various different sessions:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> By the time it got to /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart this had changed to
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Turns out that if you don't have pulse audio installed, later scripts may
> not see what they expect!

Yes, you're right.

> Take a look at the scripts in /etc/X11/xinit.d and see how many you think
> are broken, given the above (DESKTOP is set to the same as SESSION, but
> doesn't get changed).

Also correct.  It used to be that the Window Manager / Desktop Environment selections that you saw in your Display Manager came from files in /etc/X11/wmsession.d, in the format described here:
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/How_to_add_a_new_Window_Manager_or_Display_Manager

and the DESKTOP variable would be set to the value of NAME from the one that you chose.  Then this was changed to use xdg desktop file format files in /usr/share/xsessions, which is a similar but slightly different format, and as you demonstrated, now DESKTOP is set to the TryExec value, not Name.

I guess a lot of the xinit scripts were not reviewed when we made this transition.  I can see the following are incorrect on my mga7 system:
/etc/X11/xinit/XIM (from xinitrc)
/etc/X11/xinit.d/libcanberra-gtk-module.sh (from canberra-gtk)
/etc/X11/xinit.d/mgaapplet (from mgaonline)
/etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-user-dirs-update-gtk (from xdg-user-dirs-gtk)

Yikes!

> I have modified the GDM Xsession script to set DESKTOP and SESSION before
> running the xinit.d scripts. This fixes the reported bug for IceWM. Other
> lightweight DMs, such as fvwm2, have the fault regardless of which DM you
> use, because /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart only handles IceWM.

That's true.  I don't see anything in the fvwm2 package itself that handles starting a polkit agent, so I can't imagine this was even working in fvwm2 before.

Status?

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins

TODO: fix xinit scripts

We are back to the same state as Mageia 7 (and earlier), so I would leave the xinit cleanup as a high priority task for Mageia 9.

So there is no problem for one-DE install of any of 
 MATE, Xfce, Cinnamon, Plasma, Gnome?
Then I agree to lower it from release blocker.

Users running lightweight desktops are generally more friends with CLI.

To put in errata:
If user experience this, in terminal become root and urpmi <what> ?
i.e some polkit agent? 
Or some other method.

Priority: release_blocker => High
Keywords: (none) => FOR_ERRATA8
Target Milestone: --- => Mageia 9
CC: (none) => fri
Summary: Under certain circumstances, some (all?) programs that require root privileges will fail authentication when launched as normal user. => On some lightweight desktops only install, programs that require root privileges will fail authentication when launched as normal user.

Nothing is needed except fixing the xinit scripts.  Been busy, on my TODO list (others are free to help).  Original bug should be okay already.

Target Milestone: Mageia 9 => ---
Keywords: FOR_ERRATA8 => (none)

> I guess a lot of the xinit scripts were not reviewed when we made this
> transition.  I can see the following are incorrect on my mga7 system:
> /etc/X11/xinit/XIM (from xinitrc)

Could be fixed, but it's looking for commands like ami_applet and wmami that don't exist any more, so not very impactful...

> /etc/X11/xinit.d/libcanberra-gtk-module.sh (from canberra-gtk)

If fixed would just prevent setting an environment variable on GNOME which is probably harmless anyway...

> /etc/X11/xinit.d/mgaapplet (from mgaonline)

Presumably prevents mgaapplet from running any more in IceWM and Fluxbox unless this gets fixed, unless we've come up with some other way to make it run there.  I'm not sure if anyone has checked that.  Would need to be fixed in git though, rather than the package.

> /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-user-dirs-update-gtk (from xdg-user-dirs-gtk)

xinit file was supposed to make xdg-user-dirs-gtk-update run when logging into GNOME, KDE, and XFce, but I think /usr/share/autostart/user-dirs-update-gtk.desktop handles that now.

Did you see any other scripts that could be fixed Martin?

> > /etc/X11/xinit.d/mgaapplet (from mgaonline)
> 
> Presumably prevents mgaapplet from running any more in IceWM and Fluxbox
> unless this gets fixed, unless we've come up with some other way to make it
> run there.  I'm not sure if anyone has checked that.  Would need to be fixed
> in git though, rather than the package.

So I asked about this on the qa-discuss list and people responded on IRC.  It sounds like mgaapplet is running in IceWM.

mgaonline does have a /etc/xdg/autostart/mageia-mgaonline.desktop file.  In fact, so /etc/X11/xinit.d/xdg-autostart, which I fixed earlier in this bug should be running that.

So it doesn't sound like any of these scripts really *need* to be fixed.  Some could be trimmed or removed.