Ubuntu
kdesudo package

kdesudo --nonewdcop option breaks the system

Bug #182403 reported by Rivo Laks
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
kdesudo (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

When kdesudo is executed with --nonewdcop option, then it fails to start because of communication problems with klauncher.

To reproduce:
* Install Kubuntu Gutsy.
* Boot into installed system, update and upgrade with apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
* Start systemsettings, click on "Date&Time" module, then on "Administator mode" button.
* systemsettings tries to execute something like "/usr/bin/kdesu --nonewdcop -n -d -idate /usr/bin/kcmshell kde-clock.desktop --embed-proxy 54529312 --lang et" which fails, so you go back to the non-admin mode

Same happens when you try to execute "kdesudo --nonewdcop kcmshell clock" or "kdesudo --nonewdcop konqueror" from Konsole.

The terminal output when systemsettings tries to execute kdesudo is:
    ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ systemsettings
    adding Date & Time /usr/share/applications/kde/clock.desktop
    /usr/sbin/ntpdate
    WARNING: Waiting for already running klauncher to exit.

    WARNING: Waiting for already running klauncher to exit.

    WARNING: Another instance of klauncher is already running!

    kdeinit: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!

    kio (KSycoca): ERROR: No database available!

    kio (KSycoca): ERROR: No database available!

    kio (KSycoca): ERROR: No database available!

    kcmshell (kdelibs): WARNING: Could not find module 'kde-clock.desktop'.

    /usr/sbin/ntpdate

The bug is not present before doing the upgrade and seems to be caused by kdesudo version 1.1-0ubuntu2.2 (and the bug is also present when upgrading just kdesudo). I also tried to build my own gutsy package using kdesudo-2.0 (using current hardy's package as source) but this had the same problem.

On LiveCD executing "kdesudo kcmshell clock" worked and after this executing "kdesudo --nonewdcop kcmshell clock" also worked. On installed system it seems to work only if I haven't started kdesudo with the --nonewdcop option before. If I have, then I need to restart the system before kdesudo works again.

Bugs #175909 and #176518 might be related.

Revision history for this message
Sergey Korobitsin (tha-undertaker) wrote :

Confiming bug in Kubuntu Gutsy, kdesudo version 1.1-0ubuntu2.2, version 1.1-0ubuntu2 works normally.

Revision history for this message
Anthony Mercatante (tonio) wrote :

That will hardly be fixed in gutsy, since this is more a kde bug than a kdesudo one.
The issue is that for some reason, kcontrol/kcm modules are broken on new accounts on some computers.
That's the famous "kcontrol is empty bug".
There is not much we can do with kdesudo yet, since the user->root was done for security issues...

Changed in kdesudo:
status: New → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Richard (rd1) wrote :

I have the same problem on Kubuntu Gutsy, upgraded from Feisty. This breaks Kubuntu quite severely, as you can't do any system admin through the KDE tools at all - some sort of fix or workaround is essential if I'm to carry on with Kubuntu.

Is this fixed in Hardy?

Any suggestions on a workaround, as I'm not a KDE guru?

Revision history for this message
Richard (rd1) wrote :

I found quite a good workaround (gksudo kcontrol) that seems to fix the DCOP server setup so that plain kcontrol works afterwards - not sure how long the fix will last though.

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4977989#post4977989 for more discussion, and link to another Launchpad bug page with workarounds.

Revision history for this message
Richard (rd1) wrote :

I believe this is a dupe of 175909 - my gksudo workaround has persisted across reboots, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kde-systemsettings/+bug/175909 for details.

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