Startup Notification broken

I also see the issue. It didn't happen in 6.06. It now happens in 6.10 whether it's installed to the disk or running from the live CD.

I think it would be the best just to remove the "Starting administrative application" in the panel because nobody need this.

It's not only "Starting administrative application" in task list, it is mouse cursor set to busy clock as well. It really should be fixed properly ;-)

My 6.10 installation (with last updates) also shows this problem.

It is still problem with current Feisty.

I've looked for the code which must be edited in the source of gksu und the libgksu but couldn't find it. Does anyone know where this taskbar entry is created and where the mouse button is changed?

I think the real problem is not recognizing administrative application's opened main window.

In my oponion this feature of gksu should be deleted, because it's no need for: You clicked on the application so you know yourself that your are starting it. Also you know that it's an administrative application because you clicked at something in the administrative menu and you must enter your password.
So the easiest way to fix this is removing the "starting administrative application", which looks imo in any case ugly.

As Jan mentioned in an earlier comment, it's not just the task bar item. It also switches the mouse to a busy indicator.

Startup notification is currently broken in both edgy+feisty.

I've somehow broken startup notification code while reorganizing gksu inner workings; the attached patch fixed the problem for Debian Etch.

This bug doesn't appear to me in feisty anymore, at least when starting synaptic. Other administration utils not tried yet.

This bug has driven me crazy!

So I wrote a patch :D

gksu is called quite often with the startup notification. I think ubuntu devs thought the solution was to get rid of the startup notification, since libgksu has its own one. That's why synaptic does not have this behaviour anymore, but most admin apps still do.

What I have done is added a simple gdk_notify_startup_complete (); in gksu when the intilization is complete. (libgksu will create its own startup notification for the actual application that will be run as a different user.)

I hope the patch is how it's meant to be (place it under the debian patches folder) --- I am new to ubuntu/debian development.

NOTE:
libgksu still has quite a few bugs. If you push cancel it still has the notification for ~15 seconds. Also if you wait or take over 15 seconds to type your password then the notification for the application being launched will not be present, because it would have timed out.

I will try and get a nice patch for libgksu soon :)

The attached patch fixes most problems that users will see though...

Oh one more thing.

The software sources has this as its command:
gksu gksu --desktop /usr/share/applications/software-properties.desktop /usr/bin/software-properties-gtk

This causes issues with the startup notification again :(. I don't know if we should handle this strange case in gksu, or if this package needs fixing...

Another patch that fixes the startup notification when you push cancel.

It is not possible without huge changes to fix the problem of the notification timing out if you take a while to enter your password. This is because sudo is run by libgksu over the whole time passwords are entered. When a password succeeds sudo just runs the application. This means you must give the startup notification ID to sudo...

On a side note, it would be much better if ubuntu used something more like vista's UAC. E.g. instead of entering a password you just push Allow or Deny. The reason for this is that entering your password is annoying, and is open to phishing style attacks. With just a simple allow or deny it would be secure against phishing attacks. Implementing it securely would not be an easy task.

Will take care of this one.

Attaching gksu debdiff - patch

Attaching libgksu debdiff - patch
Will assign to Michael.

Is this still an issue in Hardy? If so, the patch should be updated.

If not: is it something that should really go through http://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates ?

Works OK in Gutsy. Thanks!

It is still problem in Gutsy for me

I see this problem again, now in Hardy.

Just confirming what Jan Mynarik said. The bug is back again.

It is a problem in Lucid Lynx for me right now. It never happened to me in the earlier versions, just recently after I upgraded.

I don't suffer from that regresion in Xubuntu 8.04 LTS (hardy) since I'm using Xfce I guess.

"On a side note, it would be much better if ubuntu used something more like vista's UAC. E.g. instead of entering a password you just push Allow or Deny. The reason for this is that entering your password is annoying, and is open to phishing style attacks. With just a simple allow or deny it would be secure against phishing attacks. Implementing it securely would not be an easy task." -- Is a good thin IMKO and I will put it to Ubuntu brainstorm. ;-)

Please open a new bug, if you believe you have this issue in a supported release. Thanks!