Ubuntu
gksu package

Administration tasks requiring password hangup without asking for password

Bug #62706 reported by noahbronstein
0
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gksu (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Using Dapper Drake 6.06 LTS on a Compaq nc4010 business laptop with a Pentium 4 processor, for what it's worth.

Whenever I click system>administration>(task that requires password), Ubuntu tries to load the password dialogue box, but is unable to. The "Starting Administrative Application" window shows up in the Window List bar, as does the application I'm trying to run. Neither one, when clicked on, does anything. After about 15 seconds, both go away.

It happened around the same time that I uninstalled a few audio programs.

Also at the same time, I became unable to install or uninstall anything. I can start the add/remove applications window, tell it to uninstall something, and it just sits there spinning its wheels forever. Probably because it's trying to ask for a password but can't.

I'm extremely new to this system (48 hours new), so don't throw too much crazy code talk around without explaining it, please.

See original description
noahbronstein (bronstnd)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote :

Thanks for your bugreport.

Can you please open a terminal application (Application/Accessories/Terminal) and type:
$ gksu id
and paste any messages that are displayed there to this bugreport?

Thanks,
 Michael

Changed in gksu:
status: Unconfirmed → Needs Info
Revision history for this message
noahbronstein (bronstnd) wrote :

noahbronstein@:~$ $ gksu id
bash: $: command not found
noahbronstein@:~$ gksu id
sudo: unable to lookup via gethostbyname()

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor) wrote :

Please choose a hostname for your system. You can start your system in recovery mode to set it: hostname NAME

This is a security feature of sudo.

Revision history for this message
noahbronstein (bronstnd) wrote :

noahbronstein@nc4010:~$ gksu id
sudo: unable to lookup nc4010 via gethostbyname()

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor) wrote :

is your hostname in /etc/hosts ?

Revision history for this message
noahbronstein (bronstnd) wrote :

typing in /etc/hosts resulted in an error due to insufficient permission, even when logged in as root.

noahbronstein@noahbronstein:~$ /etc/hosts
bash: /etc/hosts: Permission denied

changing my hostname to the same as my username seems to have made a difference in the initial problem, though. Now I am being asked for my administrative password again. I'll see if it stays on reboot.

noahbronstein@noahbronstein:~$ gksu id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)

Revision history for this message
noahbronstein (bronstnd) wrote :

Okay, I spoke too soon. After a reboot, problem is back to being problematic.

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor) wrote :

/etc/hosts is a config file and not an application. you have to use an editor to modify it. run "editor /etc/hosts" in a terminal. could be that you need to boot into recovery mode to do the corresponding changes or even use a desktop cd and access your file system from the live system.

Revision history for this message
noahbronstein (bronstnd) wrote :

problem completely solved by modifying /etc/hosts so that my hostname is 'localhost'.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for gksu (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

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