gksu problems after update

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nico87

gksu problems after update

Post by nico87 »

Hi

I'm taking a look to LMDE. I'm just thinking about switching my PC from Mint 9 to LMDE so I've installed it on my laptop to give it a spin.
The boot went ok so I've upgraded it using first

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apt-get upgrade
and then

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apt-get dist-upgrade
The update went smooth but now I can't do any change in my control panel because if I click on "Click here to make changes", the gksu window is not shown anymore.
I've made a search in the forum and I've found that some users had troubles with sudoers. I've restored the old one but, even after restart, the problem is still here.
Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you all!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Silent Warrior
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Posts: 505
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:10 pm
Location: Göteborg, Sverige

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by Silent Warrior »

Just to make sure: Did you enter the commands

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apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-upgrade
without doing

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apt-get update
?

I think you can do yourself a favour by running this:

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apt update && apt install debdelta && debdelta-upgrade && apt dist-upgrade
If you haven't actually updated the package cache lately, this might take... a while, just so you know. I recently reinstalled LMDE (Eh, let's just say I had one foot in Unstable/Experimental for Gnome 3 - see the latest about libc6... :oops: ), and having Synaptic read a previously saved record about what I had installed resulted in upgrade and installation of some 2500+ packages - never mind downloading the stuff, just unpacking them all probably took hours!
nico87

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by nico87 »

Hi

Yes, I've done the sources update before upgrading the system.
Now I've tried to do

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apt-get upgrade
on a clean install and everything is working. Today I've downloaded all the packages needed by the dist-upgrade but I haven't done their installation yet. The dist-upgrade command is definitively the one which installs the package which causes the breakage of gksu and sudoers.
Tomorrow I will try your solution before doing the dist-upgrade. :wink:

Thanks for your help!
nico87

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by nico87 »

Tried it now. No way. I had the same problem. Now I have to find how to fix sudoers and gksu, I don't want to reinstall everything again... :(
Silent Warrior
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 505
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:10 pm
Location: Göteborg, Sverige

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by Silent Warrior »

I can't say I have any great suggestions, as I've never had that problem - maybe the other threads will turn up something. When asked during the update if you want to replace the configurations for sudoers and such, what do you do? When you try starting the apps that should give you a gksu-prompt, do you do that immediately after the upgrade, or do you reboot in between/wait more than 15 minutes before trying again? Have you tested so you know for sure you can't do administrative stuff? (It might just be PolicyKit not bothering to show the gksu-prompt if you've entered your password in the near past, see. But then administrative actions wouldn't be a problem whatsoever.)

How about manually starting the programs with 'gksu program-name-here', does that work?
nico87

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by nico87 »

Silent Warrior wrote:When asked during the update if you want to replace the configurations for sudoers and such, what do you do?
In different installations, I've tried both. Actually, there's no difference.
Silent Warrior wrote:When you try starting the apps that should give you a gksu-prompt, do you do that immediately after the upgrade, or do you reboot in between/wait more than 15 minutes before trying again?
I've rebooted.
Silent Warrior wrote:Have you tested so you know for sure you can't do administrative stuff? (It might just be PolicyKit not bothering to show the gksu-prompt if you've entered your password in the near past, see. But then administrative actions wouldn't be a problem whatsoever.)

How about manually starting the programs with 'gksu program-name-here', does that work?
gksu works if I use it in the shell to start programs. It doesn't work when it's called from a gnome window which contains administrative configurations (such the gnome-control-center login settings window).
nico87

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by nico87 »

I've ran:

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gksu gnome-control-center
When I click on the login settings, the window looks like it was called by a normal user, not root.
Could it be a useful information?
CiaW

Re: gksu problems after update

Post by CiaW »

I just had a thought that may or may not be helpful. I think the issue may be with Policykit or sudoers. Generally su is considered root, and sudo will default to the first non-root user to perform tasks with root privileges. So, unless you have enabled root access (for user root, not the sudo user); it's disabled by default on Ubuntu and also Mint I believe.

So, after all of that, when you're using gksu I think it's looking for a root user. If you don't have a specific root account enabled, try gksudo instead and see if that works. And there may be some setting to fix in sudoers or Policy kit so it prompts for the (root or sudoers) password outside of launching it in a terminal, but I"m not sure what it is.
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