I have recently upgraded to Lubuntu 18.04 by means of the option provided by the Lubuntu Software Updater. This upgrade proceeded successfully. However, when I try to start Synaptic and other software, such as Software Updater and the graphical front-end for UFW, they simply do not start. This issue occurs when I try to start these from the existing links on the menu system.
I recall that all such applications when they started from the menu before the above upgrade would then prompt me for the admin password when they started, and would then duly start when this was input. Indeed, following the upgrade to 18.04, I can start these applications from the terminal by calling them with ‘sudo’. However, this would imply that for some reason the upgrade to 18.04 no longer allows applications requiring administrator privileges to start from the menu when I am logged in as a non-administrator user. This of course would make sense, but crucially before the upgrade, I would be provided with the opportunity to enter the administrator password from the graphical front-end, rather than needing to start them from the command line with ‘sudo’.
Would anybody know the reason for the upgrade to 18.04 seemingly having resulted in this, and whether this can be rectified. I am imagining that within the command section of the menu properties for each application I could simply add ‘sudo’, but am not sure if this is the correct and best way to do this.
Thank you for looking at this. Results are as follows; I ran both commands using my usual non-administrator user (jason_general) and when prompted by the first command below, correctly entered the password for the administrator user (jason):
jason_general@jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G:~$ synaptic-pkexec
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ===
Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
Authenticating as: Jason, (jason)
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.
jason_general@jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G:~$ systemctl status polkit.service
● polkit.service - Authorization Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/polkit.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-04-04 14:38:44 BST; 2h 4min ago
Docs: man:polkit(8)
Main PID: 638 (polkitd)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 2132)
CGroup: /system.slice/polkit.service
└─638 /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd --no-debug
Apr 04 14:38:44 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G systemd[1]: Starting Authorization Manager…
Apr 04 14:38:44 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd[638]: started daemon version 0.105 using authority implementation local' version 0.105’
Apr 04 14:38:44 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G systemd[1]: Started Authorization Manager.
Apr 04 16:41:50 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd(authority=local)[638]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:7153:740909 (system b
Apr 04 16:42:11 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd(authority=local)[638]: Operator of unix-process:7153:740909 FAILED to authenticate to gain au
Apr 04 16:42:11 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd(authority=local)[638]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:7153:740909 (system
lines 1-15/15 (END)…skipping…
● polkit.service - Authorization Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/polkit.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-04-04 14:38:44 BST; 2h 4min ago
Docs: man:polkit(8)
Main PID: 638 (polkitd)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 2132)
CGroup: /system.slice/polkit.service
└─638 /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd --no-debug
Apr 04 14:38:44 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G systemd[1]: Starting Authorization Manager…
Apr 04 14:38:44 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd[638]: started daemon version 0.105 using authority implementation local' version 0.105’
Apr 04 14:38:44 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G systemd[1]: Started Authorization Manager.
Apr 04 16:41:50 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd(authority=local)[638]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:7153:740909 (system bus name :1.112 [pk
Apr 04 16:42:11 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd(authority=local)[638]: Operator of unix-process:7153:740909 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for ac
Apr 04 16:42:11 jason-Nokia-Booklet-3G polkitd(authority=local)[638]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:7153:740909 (system bus name :1.112,
~
Thank you, this has worked perfectly - I am now able to start the applications from the menu, at which point I am prompted to enter the administrator user password as I was with the previous version of Lubuntu.