Tips and tricks for ConsoleKit, PolicyKit, and udev helpers

[ad_meis]

I am still not done with the de-hal transition. I have two systems: laptop + desktop.
I have performed all the steps in the checklist, but only the laptop is doing good.

On the desktop I still cannot mount/unmount usb from thunar, and I cannot suspend/hibernate...
For instance when I insert a USB, thunar shows it correctly, but when I try to display its content I get the message "Failed to mount KINGSTON not authorized"

To myself it is not obvious what I am missing. Please suggest me what relevant output I can produce to give useful information.
One piece of info I can give is that when I do ck-list-sessions on the desktop I get

Session1:
unix-user = '1000'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat2'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ':0'
x11-display-device = ''
display-device = ''
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-04-22T11:14:32.572190Z'
login-session-id = '1'

Which I don't think is nice. I have to do manually from the shell ck-launch-session, in order to get

Session2:
unix-user = '1000'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat1'
session-type = ''
active = TRUE
x11-display = ':0.0'
x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
display-device = '/dev/pts/1'
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-04-22T11:33:53.385686Z'
login-session-id = '1'
Session1:
unix-user = '1000'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat2'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ':0'
x11-display-device = ''
display-device = ''
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-04-22T11:14:32.572190Z'
login-session-id = '1'

which I think is better. However, even after this, I cannot mount/suspend... etc
I really hope somebody can give some hints, I have been stuck with this for a few weeks by now

[m0p]

You need to launch your desktop with something like this (replace the end with the session manager of whatever DE you use):

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exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session --sh-syntax openbox-session

It should go in your xinitrc.

And for udisks auth, I have this:

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# nano -w /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/15-org.freedesktop.udisks.pkla
[users]
Identity=unix-group:users
Action=org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-mount;org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-check;org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-lsof;org.freedesktop.udisks.drive-eject;org.freedesktop.udisks.drive-detach;org.freedesktop.udisks.change;org.freedesktop.udisks.luks-unlock;org.freedesktop.udisks.inhibit-polling
ResultActive=yes
ResultInactive=no
ResultAny=no

Not sure about suspending because I don't do it.

[ad_meis]

I tried this:

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session --sh-syntax startxfce4

and I also created the file you suggested /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/15-org.freedesktop.udisks.pkla (which I didn't have) but I still cannot mount USB and still get this output for ck-list-sessions

myy@xxx ~ $ ck-list-sessions
Session1:
unix-user = '1000'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat2'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ':0'
x11-display-device = ''
display-device = ''
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-04-22T17:20:50.562543Z'
login-session-id = '1'

[m0p]

What's your output for this?

Code: Select all

grep AUDIT /usr/src/linux/.config

You need CONFIG_AUDIT and CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL enabled for ConsoleKit to work. I accidentally disabled them before and had the same problem.

[ad_meis]

Thanks for your answer, I think that one I have set correctly, as it was part of the original checklist

yyy xxx # grep AUDIT /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_AUDIT_ARCH=y
CONFIG_AUDIT=y
CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL=y
CONFIG_AUDIT_WATCH=y
CONFIG_AUDIT_TREE=y

What other output could help to clarify the issue?
thank you all

[InvisibleRasta]

# ck-list-sessions
Session4:
unix-user = '1000'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat4'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ':0'
x11-display-device = '/dev/tty5'
display-device = '/dev/tty1'
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = FALSE
on-since = '2011-04-24T10:52:51.962155Z'
login-session-id = ''
Session1:
unix-user = '1000'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat1'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ''
x11-display-device = ''
display-device = '/dev/tty1'
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-04-24T10:44:54.929673Z'
login-session-id = ''
idle-since-hint = '2011-04-24T10:53:20.332437Z'
after following this guide

[|Quantum|]

If just found out you also need to be in the polkituser group:

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passwd -a «USER» polkituser

ATM Restart and Shutdown are still greyed out, though.

Wrong. There is no such group or need for it. Such group is a relic from old "policykit", not used by "polkit". You can safely remove the group from your system.

You're right, in the end it didn't work.
After I installed udiskie, it did work.

However, on my other computer (at home, I don't use a DM), it only works if I start udiskie from the command line followed by startx. It does NOT work if I add the line

Code: Select all

udiskie&

to my $HOME/.xinitrc.

[FrancoisVal]

I have done everything listed in this howto for KDE and I have 3 very annoying problems:

1) The battery status is not shown. When I run solid-hardware query 'IS Battery'
, I get this:

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Object::connect: No such signal QDBusAbstractInterface::DeviceAdded(QString)
Object::connect: No such signal QDBusAbstractInterface::DeviceRemoved(QString)
Object::connect: No such signal QDBusAbstractInterface::DeviceAdded(QDBusObjectPath)
Object::connect: No such signal QDBusAbstractInterface::DeviceRemoved(QDBusObjectPath)
Object::connect: No such signal QDBusAbstractInterface::DeviceChanged(QDBusObjectPath)
virtual QStringList Solid::Backends::UPower::UPowerManager::allDevices()  error:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFailed" 

But, the battery is well detected by the kernel: ls /sys/class/power_supply/BAT1 return this:
alarm charge_full charge_full_design charge_now current_now cycle_count device@ manufacturer model_name power/ present serial_number status subsystem@ technology type uevent voltage_min_design voltage_now

2) k3b doesn't find any optical drives, even when I run it as root.

3) policykit gives a segmentation fault each time kde starts.

Does anybody know a solution to all these problems ? All this occured when upgrading from 4.4 to 4.6 and until now, it doesn't work as expected.

[Wolfbone]

Is it just me or has the GNU/Linux box gradually turned into a buggy bloated nightmare of increasing complexity and undocumented incomprehensible unconfigurableness for others in recent years?

I just wanted to run X, a WM and a few apps, for pity's sake!

[eehmke]

After reading all this thread, and several more, still I cannot start KDE 4.6.2 without hal. The KDM login works, the KDE splash screen appears, but the last Icon (KDE) is never shown. The same happens when I run startx from the standard user shell. In this state nothing ever happens. I can log in to the tty. How to proceed?

[ExecutorElassus]

Thanks for this guide. I finally got k3b working post-Hal.

<3

EE

[FizzyWidget]

Is this required if you use E17 or any of the other WM's?

[m0p]

Is it just me or has the GNU/Linux box gradually turned into a buggy bloated nightmare of increasing complexity and undocumented incomprehensible unconfigurableness for others in recent years?

I just wanted to run X, a WM and a few apps, for pity's sake!

Turn off dbus/consolekit/policykit USE flags, newuse, depclean, suid root on mount/umount. Problem solved. You now (probably, I haven't tried removing any of those things myself) have a 'bloat'-less box where you need dodgy suid binaries and sudo to perform the most basic of tasks like rebooting and mounting removables.

As for configuration, polkit is well documented and easy enough to figure out, dbus tends to just work with the default configuration, consoleKit doesn't need any configuration 99% of the time, etc, and barring any bugs (mainly in the big bloated DEs), misconfigurations (like people turning off syscall auditing in the kernel), or unusual setups like people trying to remove PAM, it all tends to just work.

[cwc]

I could not find this flag on my system :

CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND=y

I take that back I finally found it and enabled it.


azzerare ~ # uname -a
Linux azzerare 2.6.38-gentoo-r6 #4 SMP Thu Jun 9 23:47:16 PDT 2011 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

[FizzyWidget]

I could not find this flag on my system :

CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND=y


azzerare ~ # uname -a
Linux azzerare 2.6.38-gentoo-r6 #4 SMP Thu Jun 9 23:47:16 PDT 2011 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Does it have another flag on this kernel?

This might help

Required kernel options:

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CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND=y    <- Required for properly shutting down and powering USB hubs, for like, external USB HDD.
CONFIG_IDE=n                    <- This breaks both udev, and udisks.
CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL=y   <- This is really required, it might work out of fluke with gnome-base/gdm but that's pretty much it.

Just to help with these kernel options (under 2.6.37) you can find them under...

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-> Device Drivers
   -> USB support (USB_SUPPORT [=y])
      -> Support for Host-side USB (USB [=y])
             [*]    USB runtime power management (autosuspend) and wakeup   CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND=y    <- Required for properly shutting down and powering USB hubs, for like, external USB HDD.
-> Device Drivers 
  [ ] ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support (DEPRECATED)   CONFIG_IDE=n                    <- This breaks both udev, and udisks.

-> General setup
  -> Auditing support (AUDIT [=y])
    [*] Enable system-call auditing support  CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL=y   <- This is really required, it might work out of fluke with gnome-base/gdm but that's pretty much it.

Also CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND is dependent upon...

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 -> Power management and ACPI options
    [*] Run-time PM core functionality  PM_RUNTIME

..which I didn't have selected and had me scratching my head for a minute or two (until I actually read the information on dependencies from searching menuconfig with '/' and searching for USB_SUSPEND)

[cwc]

I followed the guideline and this is what I got:
active = FALSE it should be active = TRUE

I'm not sure what to do here set active = TRUE

cwc@azzerare ~ $ ck-list-sessions
Session1:
unix-user = '1001'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat1'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ''
x11-display-device = ''
display-device = '/dev/tty1'
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-06-12T21:03:29.828240Z'
login-session-id = '1'

[the_mgt]

That was easy............

Thanks a lot for this guide, I finally managed to get usb stick mounting again. Totally painless....

With HAL, I just put a user into the plugdev group and all was golden, now I have to dance naked in full moon and smear myself with menstruational blood from a 85year old virgin while juggling a dead chicken, a chainsaw and barrel full of ferrets...

Anyway, the important part was the removal of the pam nox11 entry, after relogging into my system, it all started working:

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session         optional        pam_ck_connector.so

You need to delete nox11 there and you need to logout and login again, in order for this to take effecct!
And it might brake after you exited your wm.... At least that happened here. Important line in your ck-list-session is:

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active = TRUE

Check with

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udisks --mount /dev/sdX

if it works. If you are not authorized, it wont work *Cpt. Obvious to the rescue!*

(edited to make the pam part stick out more, sorry for obnoxious markup!)

PS: For all you advocates of consolekit: Restart, shutdown, etc. was possible before ck, polkit, upower and whatnot. Yes, either through suid scripts (at least it fails in obvious ways, not like tons of interacting LOC hacked together as replacement for a fineworking HAL) or through acpid and hardware buttons/events. The latter is much more useful on laptops.

PPS: No, I am no fanboy of HAL, I just dont think the current approach is any good, if we need 13 pages of a forum thread to get it working for individual users.

[hal2050]

For those having problems with consolekit and qingy in regards to autologin, there's a patch on sourceforge for this issue. It finally fixed everything on my box.

Bugreport: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=de ... tid=567417
Patch: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=de ... tid=567419

[cwc]

That was easy............

Thanks a lot for this guide, I finally managed to get usb stick mounting again. Totally painless....

With HAL, I just put a user into the plugdev group and all was golden, now I have to dance naked in full moon and smear myself with menstruational blood from a 85year old virgin while juggling a dead chicken, a chainsaw and barrel full of ferrets...

Anyway, the important part was the removal of the pam nox11 entry, after relogging into my system, it all started working:

Code: Select all

session         optional        pam_ck_connector.so

You need to delete nox11 there and you need to logout and login again, in order for this to take effecct!
And it might brake after you exited your wm.... At least that happened here. Important line in your ck-list-session is:

Code: Select all

active = TRUE

Check with

Code: Select all

udisks --mount /dev/sdX

if it works. If you are not authorized, it wont work *Cpt. Obvious to the rescue!*

(edited to make the pam part stick out more, sorry for obnoxious markup!)

PS: For all you advocates of consolekit: Restart, shutdown, etc. was possible before ck, polkit, upower and whatnot. Yes, either through suid scripts (at least it fails in obvious ways, not like tons of interacting LOC hacked together as replacement for a fineworking HAL) or through acpid and hardware buttons/events. The latter is much more useful on laptops.

PPS: No, I am no fanboy of HAL, I just dont think the current approach is any good, if we need 13 pages of a forum thread to get it working for individual users.

A truely noob question but: I'm having trouble setting

Code: Select all

active = TRUE

. Is that done via kernel make or is it edited in a script and where is the script?
Thanks

[the_mgt]

A truely noob question but: I'm having trouble setting

Code: Select all

active = TRUE

. Is that done via kernel make or is it edited in a script and where is the script?
Thanks

Actually, this should be the outcome of the rituals you should performe according to the firtst post in this thread. ck-list-sessions is a cli command to see the ongoing sessions on your computer and only if you did everything right will you see the:

Code: Select all

active = TRUE

Full list looks like this:

Code: Select all

Session5:
	unix-user = '1000'
	realname = '(null)'
	seat = 'Seat1'
	session-type = ''
	active = TRUE
	x11-display = ':0'
	x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
	display-device = '/dev/pts/2'
	remote-host-name = ''
	is-local = TRUE
	on-since = '2011-06-13T22:12:58.876061Z'
	login-session-id = '5'

So, follow the steps in the OP (first post in this thread), take especially care of the pam setting, log out of your current WM, log out of console, if you started with "startx", log in again and type ck-list-sessions. If you now see a line containing the TRUE, you are on the right path. Fire up your WM (with ck-launh-session!) and you might be able to mount usb devices. Good luck!

[cwc]

A truely noob question but: I'm having trouble setting

Code: Select all

active = TRUE

. Is that done via kernel make or is it edited in a script and where is the script?
Thanks

Actually, this should be the outcome of the rituals you should performe according to the firtst post in this thread. ck-list-sessions is a cli command to see the ongoing sessions on your computer and only if you did everything right will you see the:

Code: Select all

active = TRUE

Full list looks like this:

Code: Select all

Session5:
	unix-user = '1000'
	realname = '(null)'
	seat = 'Seat1'
	session-type = ''
	active = TRUE
	x11-display = ':0'
	x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
	display-device = '/dev/pts/2'
	remote-host-name = ''
	is-local = TRUE
	on-since = '2011-06-13T22:12:58.876061Z'
	login-session-id = '5'

So, follow the steps in the OP (first post in this thread), take especially care of the pam setting, log out of your current WM, log out of console, if you started with "startx", log in again and type ck-list-sessions. If you now see a line containing the TRUE, you are on the right path. Fire up your WM (with ck-launh-session!) and you might be able to mount usb devices. Good luck!

thanks for the line. I went through the steps again. I did not emerge "emerge -av1 --noconfmem consolekit pambase shadow" correctly.
Now when I login to console on boot i get: "active=TRUE" but when I startx I lose TRUE and get "active=FALSE". ? ? ?
This is how I startx:

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 export XDG_MENU_PREFIX=gnome-; startx;            

[cwc]

logout
cwc@azzerare ~ $ ck-list-sessions
Session1:
unix-user = '1001'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat1'
session-type = ''
active = FALSE
x11-display = ''
x11-display-device = ''
display-device = '/dev/tty1'
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-06-15T07:21:40.748793Z'
login-session-id = '1'
idle-since-hint = '2011-06-15T07:22:16.160642Z'
Session2:
unix-user = '1001'
realname = '(null)'
seat = 'Seat1'
session-type = ''
active = TRUE
x11-display = ':0'
x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
display-device = '/dev/tty1'
remote-host-name = ''
is-local = TRUE
on-since = '2011-06-15T07:21:50.123362Z'
login-session-id = '1'


!! now i need to remove hal from my tree

[the_mgt]

thanks for the line. I went through the steps again. I did not emerge "emerge -av1 --noconfmem consolekit pambase shadow" correctly.
Now when I login to console on boot i get: "active=TRUE" but when I startx I lose TRUE and get "active=FALSE". ? ? ?
This is how I startx:

Code: Select all

 export XDG_MENU_PREFIX=gnome-; startx;            

Well, yes, it seems, that only the CLI/Xsession you currently use to type in "ck-list-sessions" is marked active (makes sense to me, at least). But you seem to have found out for yourself
I hope that automounting works for you, now.

[Epaminond]

I also had problems with mounting/unmounting. Solved by editing /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks.policy file. (Changed "no" to "yes" in <allow_any></allow_any>). To bring back shutdown and reboot buttons I edied org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy.

But still can't get suspendand hibernate buttons. Tried to edit org.freedesktop.upower.policy, but it didn't help. Could you please give an advice to a newbie?

P.S. Followed all the instructions in the sticky.
P.P.S. Found an advise to add ck-launch-session to login_cmd line in /etc/slim.conf, but it didn't work. Actually it was suspected, because I have it in my ~/.xinitrc:

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exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch --exit-with-session startlxde

[Epaminond]

But still can't get suspendand hibernate buttons. Tried to edit org.freedesktop.upower.policy, but it didn't help. Could you please give an advice to a newbie?

The working advice for newbie was to update my lxde-base/lxsession from 0.4.4 to 0.4.5. But thanks for that first post anyway. ))