GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 683179
polkit authentication dialog fails
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:34:17 UTC
Created attachment 223177 [details] polkit errors from auth.log Sometimes the polkit dialog fails to work properly. I will start typing my password and before I have finished, I get the yellow "sorry, that didn’t work" message and then the dialog closes. At no stage have a hit enter to actually send my password.
You seem to have configured pam_winbind (kerberos/active directory), but your user is unknown.
When it works (which is about half the time), it uses pam_unix to authenticate, however when that fails as per first line in above log, then it fallsback to pam_winbind which is not even configured on my system. If I run pkexec from a terminal, then I get a console based auth dialog and this works correctly 100% of the time.
I bumped into a similar issue, and I can reproduce it this way: 1. Open 'Activities' 2. Type the name of a programme which requires authentication (e.g. Synaptics, GParted, etc) in order to select it 3. Hit 'Enter' (don't click the icon) 4. The 'Authentication Required' dialog pops up. After about 3 seconds you'll get the message 'Sorry, that didn't work' (no need to actually type anything) On the other hand, everything works fine if you follow these steps: 1. Open 'Activities' 2. Type the name of a programme which requires authentication (e.g. Synaptics, GParted, etc) in order to select it 3. Click the programme icon (don't hit 'Enter') 4. The 'Authentication Required' dialog pops up, and everything works as expected (i.e. you can type in your password and start the programme) Hope this helps
I get this often with plain `pkexec`, and with any other terminal commands that require polkit authentication... It just depends on how long the Enter key was held down, not on any particular PAM config.
I also encountered the problem. 1. search gparted and press enter in gnome-shell -> fail most of the time 2. search gparted and click the icon in gnome-shell -> works 3. type gparted-pkexec in terminal -> works
Here is the bug report in Archlinux https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/33471, where there is a Xface user who also has the problem either.
(In reply to comment #5) > I also encountered the problem. > > 1. search gparted and press enter in gnome-shell -> fail most of the time > 2. search gparted and click the icon in gnome-shell -> works > 3. type gparted-pkexec in terminal -> works You might be hitting bug #692937 here.
On Gnome 3.8.4 I frequently run into problems with the Gnome Shell password prompt. It repeatedly rejects my password, but then after a while it starts accepting it. It is very random and hard to pin down. Sometimes it rejects the first time and accepts it the second time. Sometimes on the third time. Occasionally it works on the first try. Sometimes it just keeps rejecting it. (Yes, I am typing my password correctly.) I usually open programs by searching applications menu and hitting enter, if that makes any difference.
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version, then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a new ticket at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.