Gnome Shell sudo dialog said "Sorry, that didn't work. Please try again" when opening Synaptic

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I do not think this is a fault in synaptic or gnome-shell. I can also trigger it by simply doing the following from a command line and then simply wait when prompted for my password:

# pkexec ls
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.

/var/log/auth.log then contains:

Nov 26 12:27:11 home polkit-agent-helper-1[3086]: pam_unix(polkit-1:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty= ruser=torsten rhost= user=torsten
Nov 26 12:27:15 home polkitd(authority=local): Operator of unix-session:/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for action org.freedesktop.policykit.exec for unix-process:2877:136066 [zsh] (owned by unix-user:torsten)
Nov 26 12:27:15 home pkexec[3084]: torsten: Error executing command as another user: Not authorized [USER=root] [TTY=/dev/pts/0] [CWD=/home/torsten] [COMMAND=/bin/ls]

So it looks like policykit is the culprit.

Thanks for the correction, I don't know what the actual cause.

This bug is incredibly annoying. I can reporuce it on both my machines running gnome-shell on ubuntu 12.10 (doesn't seem to happen for me in unity).

To reproduce it I type synaptic in gnome-shell and hit enter. Happens every time the dialogue immediately says to try again.

BUT If I type synaptic and instead of hitting enter to open it, I click it. its fine. It seems somehow its taking the enter key press I used in gnome-shell to open synaptic and doing it again in the policykit dialogue or something.

Is this only an issue in gnome-shell? Is anyone able to reproduce this in Unity?

I can see very similar issue in unlocking of gdm locked screen.
That was annoying more than launching synaptic, because I could start synaptic by gksudo or sudo synaptic on command line or in ALT+F2 dialog in Gnome-shell.

Not sure what it tries to get, but from auth.log

Dec 7 12:02:28 localhost gdm-password][7244]: pam_succeed_if(gdm-password:auth): requirement "user ingroup nopasswdlogin" not met by user "mnovotny"
Dec 7 12:02:30 localhost gdm-password][7244]: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring
Dec 7 12:05:01 localhost CRON[7519]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Dec 7 12:05:01 localhost CRON[7519]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user root
Dec 7 12:06:20 localhost sshd[1316]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
Dec 7 12:06:20 localhost sshd[1316]: Server listening on :: port 22.
Dec 7 12:06:27 localhost dbus[1563]: [system] Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.5" (uid=0 pid=1584 comm="gdm ") interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" member="GetAll" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.8" (uid=0 pid=1644 comm="/usr/lib/gdm/gdm-simple-slave --display-id /org/gn")
Dec 7 12:06:40 localhost dbus[1563]: [system] Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.5" (uid=0 pid=1584 comm="gdm ") interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" member="GetAll" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.19" (uid=0 pid=2399 comm="/usr/lib/gdm/gdm-simple-slave --display-id /org/gn")
Dec 7 12:06:43 localhost gdm-launch-environment][2415]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm by (uid=0)
Dec 7 12:06:43 localhost gdm-launch-environment][2415]: pam_ck_connector(gdm-launch-environment:session): nox11 mode, ignoring PAM_TTY :1
Dec 7 12:06:46 localhost su[2632]: Successful su for root by root
Dec 7 12:06:46 localhost su[2632]: + ??? root:root
Dec 7 12:06:46 localhost su[2632]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Dec 7 12:06:46 localhost su[2632]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user root
Dec 7 12:06:54 localhost dbus[1563]: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.38" (uid=124 pid=2790 comm="gnome-shell --mode=gdm ") interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" member="GetAll" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.24" (uid=0 pid=2422 comm="/usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon --no-daemon ")
Dec 7 12:06:54 localhost dbus[1563]: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.38" (uid=124 pid=2790 comm="gnome-shell --mode=gdm ") interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" member="GetAll" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.24" (uid=0 pid=2422 comm="/usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon --no-daemon ")
Dec 7 12:06:54 localhost polkitd(authority=local): Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session1 (system bus name :1.38 [gnome-shell --mode=gdm], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)
Dec 7 12:06:54 localhost dbus[1563]: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_...

I certainly cannot reproduce the problem under unity, while I can reproduce it easily under gnome-shell.

I've never been able to reproduce it under unity, I only see this problem under gnome-shell.

Hi,

Ik know this has been changed from: synaptic (Ubuntu) → policykit (Ubuntu)
But I only have this issue when in Gnome Shell I search for "package" and start the package manager.
But when I search for "synaptic" and start the package manager I don't have this issue.

I can't find out what the underlying problem is but maybe it helps someone else to home in on the problem.

sorry scratch my last remark.

I only have this issue when what I search for in Gnome Shell is NOT the first result in the application list.

So when searching for "p" and using arrows to move right and selecting the package manager or clicking on all programs and scrolling to synaptic package manager does not result in this issue.

Only when package manager is the first result when searching for "pack"

I, too, am unable to reproduce the problem when using the arrow keys prior to hitting enter on synapctic in gnome-shell's application overview. I can, however, still easily produce the problem with "pkexec ls" from a terminal.

This is not a Ubuntu-specific bug. I get the same error on Arch (gnome-shell 3.6.2-1).

This is an upstream bug in gnome-shell.

Basically the 'enter' key press (or release) gets passed through to the polkit dialog, if you press enter for too long when activating the search result.

This does indeed seem to be the culprit on my machine as well.

Seeing the same issue here.

That could even be security relevant if I am not paying attention wether the bug appears or not:
If I type and bug appears (in my case on gnome 3) the gnome shell search field gets the focus.
So every character I type after the focus change appears clearly visible for every person sitting around me (or following vnc stream etc).
Typing the passphrase of an super user in a clear text field is definitely something which is somehow relevant (at least in my opinion).

There appears to be an upstream gnome patch for this at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=692937, including for gnome-shell 3.6. Can we get this applied to Ubuntu?

I got there via bug #1167059 and then https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=690592.

It probably needs this patch as well, so as not to break the Login Dialog.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=695154

The attachment "Backport upstream fix" seems to be a debdiff. The ubuntu-sponsors team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review and hopefully sponsor the debdiff. If the attachment isn't a patch, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are member of the ~ubuntu-sponsors, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issue please contact him.]

Thanks Tim. Uploaded to the raring-proposed queue.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 3.6.3.1-0ubuntu5

---------------
gnome-shell (3.6.3.1-0ubuntu5) raring; urgency=low

  * debian/patches:
      - git_fix_autocompletion_in_dialogs.patch,
        git_fix_dialog_activate_signals.patch
          backport fix for incorrect activation of dialogs (LP: #1077546)
 -- Tim Lunn <email address hidden> Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:02:18 +1000