nm-applet and nmcli work for WiFi but "Insufficient privileges" for ethernet

[OldButNotGuru]

As per title, NetworkManager works from my normal user login for WiFi. But trying to configure the em1 ethernet interface with a static IPv4 address, netmask, gateway, and nameserver fails with "Insufficient priveleges". Neither nm-applet nor nmcli work, and neither prompt for a root password.

Online help suggests adding/changing something in the /etc/polkit-default-* or /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/*.rules files, but frankly I'm a bit lost. Most of what I found was specific to Ubuntu, and there's the usual distro mismatch between what goes in the main /etc files vs the individual rules.d files. The solution is probably simple, and any suggestions for what to add/change in which file, or if there's an nmcli or other command to use instead, would be greatly appreciated.

As an aside, this is my first experience with WiFi. I've always used a combination of YaST, editing /etc/resolv.conf, and the ifconfig or ip commands to set up static ethernet connections. My recent 15.1 install on a WiFi laptop did Wicked as a default and it failed miserably -- didn't connect during install, and only worked post-install after extensive manual configuration. Even then it required running wpa_supplicant and ip commands from a root shell after each reboot. (It was a steep learning curve and this is as far as I got.) Note that the WiFi access point uses WPA2-PSK;I believe Wicked works fine with lower security protocols. NetworkManager with nmcli and nm-applet does everything I need, from a non-root login, except for this ethernet problem.

Thanks for any help, and for listening to the Wicked-vs-NetworkManager install feedback.

[nrickert]

I have used "nmcli" in the past to make changes to the Wired connection. However, I ran that command as root. I am not surprised that it does not work as an ordinary user for the Wired connection.

As far as I can tell, "nm-applet" works fine.

I logged into Icewm. I then started "nm-applet" as a background process. And I started "/usr/lib/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1" as a background process.

It took a minute or two before the nm-applet tray icon was responsive. But I was then able to right-click on the icon and select "Edit connections". I then made a change to the "Wired Network 1" network. I was prompted for the root key on saving the changes. It looks to me as if the change worked. However, I changed it for IPv6, and I don't have any IPv6 service from my ISP. So I am unable to check whether it really changed. The configuration file in "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections" does show the changes.

Note that I did this test in a virtual machine.

[OldButNotGuru]

I have used "nmcli" in the past to make changes to the Wired connection. However, I ran that command as root. I am not surprised that it does not work as an ordinary user for the Wired connection.

As always, thanks nrickert. I agree it's not surprising from a policy standpoint, although an ordinary user *can* configure the WiFi interfaces. I still believe some kind of polkit configuration would allow them to also do ethernet.

As far as I can tell, "nm-applet" works fine.

I logged into Icewm. I then started "nm-applet" as a background process. And I started "/usr/lib/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1" as a background process.

That's probably the problem. My "note" is that I'm running FVWM. OpenSUSE YaST/zypper does an amazingly good job at handling GNOME/KDE dependencies outside of a full install of their desktop environments, but it fell down here. I only have /usr/lib/polkit-1/{polkit-agent-helper-1,polkitd}. I didn't know I needed a GNOME-ish authentication daemon because when I bring up `yast --qt` from a user login it prompts me for the root password. But I guess that's coming from KDE-land.

In any case, the problem has "fixed itself"(!!) I had run `nm-connection-editor` from a root shell and used the gui to configure em1. That worked, but wasn't something I wanted to have to do every time I booted the laptop (my desktop machines stay up for months on end; not so the laptop). However, I won't have to. I didn't know it when I posted my question, but on reboot (actually power down and back up) NetworkManager remembered the em1 config and brought up networking on it automatically. Note that the ethernet cable was already plugged in -- maybe I'll have to do something manually if it's disconnected at boot and then connected afterwards, but that's a rare use-case and I'll deal with it if I have to.

It took a minute or two before the nm-applet tray icon was responsive.

That's another thing that threw me off. Every time I made changes I thought they weren't working, but then they were after a minute or two. The final problem was getting ssh to work, which didn't despite making sure that em1 was in the correct firewall zone and restarting sshd in YaST "Service Manager". But this also "fixed itself" on reboot, so I think I'm good to go.

Thanks again. While searching for answers before asking here I came across posts of yours on similar topics dating back to at least 2011. I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates your long (and continuing) history of helping others.

[nrickert]

I think it would also work with the KDE polkit agent, but I have not tested that recently.

It is:

/usr/lib64/libexec/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1

and it is from the package "polkit-kde-agent-5".

Since nm-applet is Gnome-related, I would normally suggest the Gnome agent with it.