A question about unnecessary authentication

Hi, guys:

These two days I meet a boring thing on my suse 11.4.(I know this version is a little old, but I love it, So I am using it for some years ).

A small hint window always pops out when I use my pc machine. It says that “Authentication is required to suspend the system”.
So it need my root password for this action. I don’t know why it need to perform this action, and I never see this before.

The details are below:

“Action: org.freedesktop.upower.suspend
Vendor: The UPower Project”

After I follow this, It seems my computer go to sleep.

Thanks the help from you!

Lei

What are your security settings?

grep SECURITY /etc/sysconfig/security

They should be set to “easy local”, otherwise you have to enter the root password for suspend.

It display :

PERMISSION_SECURITY. If PERMISSION_SECURITY contains ‘secure’ or

PERMISSION_SECURITY=“secure local”

What did I change some setting? I don’t remmber I did.
Why do this suspend come ?

Set it back to “easy local” then to fix your “problem”.

You can either edit the file directly with a text editor.

Or use YaST->Security and Users->Security Center and Hardening->Miscellanous->File Permission (on 13.2 at least, 11.4 might slightly differ but you should find it I suppose). Choose “Easy” there.

What did I change some setting? I don’t remmber I did.

You must have.
“easy local” is the default.

Why do this suspend come ?

Again, with “secure” settings, suspend requires the root password, and many other things too.

“secure” is not really suited for a great desktop experience, and that’s not what it aims at either.

Thank your help very much. I have changed it back, hoping that it work.
But I still don’t understand why this cauthentication hint occur.

If you have KDE it can be changed there also. You must have changed it as some point

Because “secure” settings require the root password for suspend.
The security team decided on the default settings, they should know why.

But just think of a system that offers Network/Internet services. It would probably be bad if any “normal” user could just suspend it.

I’m not aware of any place in KDE where this could be changed.

You probably think of the polkit config module that got removed years ago, because it was broken by design (it modified completely wrong files) and didn’t really work (IIRC, the settings in /etc/polkit-default-privs.* would take preference anyway).
And even if it did work for a specific action, updates would revert your changes.

I’m not sure whether it was still part of 11.4 though.

But this did not allow to change the system security level (i.e. modify /etc/syconfig/security), it allowed you to change the requirements for each separate action.

Configure Desktop - Login Screen - Shut-down

That’s for shutdown/reboot, not suspend. KDM, the login screen doesn’t even allow you to suspend.

Got lost though shut down was the subject

Unfortunately, It still happen! And maybe you don’t get my point. I don’t know why this action occur to suspend the system.
By the way, I use GNOME 2.32.1

You need to run this to actually apply the change:

sudo /sbin/set_polkit_default_privs

Sorry, forgot to mention that.

And maybe you don’t get my point. I don’t know why this action occur to suspend the system.

No, I don’t get your point.

I already told you why you need to enter the root password for suspend: because the “secure” security settings require it.
If that’s not what you want to know, then please try to formulate your question differently.

Could it be that this turns out of the blue, without you actually telling the system to suspend?
Well, in that case, the only thing I can think of is that the battery level is low, if it is a laptop. The system probably tries to suspend/hibernate automatically then to save power.
Might even be a hardware problem (bad battery?).

Ok, I will express more clearly next time. Thank your explanation again.
However, this is a desktop computer. I use it for more than four years. Is it possible?
I don’t know which battery I need to change?

So, the system suspends by itself?
Without you clicking on anything?

However, this is a desktop computer. I use it for more than four years. Is it possible?

I was talking about the rechargeable battery in a laptop. If it is nearly empty, the system suspend/hibernates automatically so you don’t loose your work suddenly because of power outage.
If the battery is old, it might not be possible to fully charge it any more, or it might loose power too fast. Or the charge state might be misdetected, but that’s unlikely if it only started to happen recently, I suppose.

I don’t know which battery I need to change?

On a desktop, none.

Yes, it will come out periodically.

Hm. I can only guess here.

Maybe a misconfigured ACPI daemon?
Try stopping it (“sudo /etc/init.d/acpi stop”), does that help?

Maybe your keyboard has a “Suspend” key which is stuck, or you press accidentally?

Maybe you have some application running that tries to suspend periodically? Or maybe there’s a GNOME setting for that?
The dialog that asks for the root password should show which application requests the action.
(I don’t use GNOME though)

Ok, I will try that. By the way, two days ago, I opened my computer crate and make some clean.
Do you think it is relative to that?

In KDE there is a setting that to suspend after X amount of time. Have no idea where it is in Gnome