yesterday, Oct 14, 2015, YOU (Yast Online Update) updated 3 PolicyKit (polkit) packages from 0.112-3.5.1 to 0.113-3.8.1.
The 3 packages were: typelib-1_0-PolKit-1_0, libpolkit0, polkit.
After these updates, I could not use the KDE System Tray Device Notifier to mount
external USB (2.0) drives MORE THAN ONCE. I could mount a drive, browse the drive,
then un-mount (via the KDE Notifier) the drive. If I later (even after a logoff/logon) tried
to mount the USB drive a popup dialog requesting the root password would appear.
Only after rebooting could I again mount/un-mount an external USB drive - but again JUST ONE time.
This morning I reverted the three PolicyKit packages back to version 0.112-3.5.1.
Now mounting/un-mounting external USB drives via the KDE System Tray Device Notifier works as expected,
and as it always has.
What is the exact reason why the root password is requested?
You can find out by clicking on “Details…” in the authentification dialog.
Maybe that would provide a clue…
If you need the password every time, it could be that the drive is misdetected as an internal (system) one or something like that (which would probably be unrelated to the polkit update though), or that your polkit rules are messed up.
But I have no idea what could cause it to work once and then afterwards require a password.
Action is Mount a file system
It is polkit-subject-PID 11154 for what that is worth
So it is polkit and this did not happen before the last update The op says dropping back pol-kit fixes it. The question is this intentional or just a bug
Yes, that is ok, and should be possible without a root password with the default (“easy”) rules.
It is polkit-subject-PID 11154 for what that is worth
That’s irrelevant, it’s just the process ID of the application that wants to mount the filesystem.
So it is polkit and this did not happen before the last update The op says dropping back pol-kit fixes it. The question is this intentional or just a bug
It’s definitely not intentional, but I’m not sure yet it is a bug.
And as mentioned, I don’t have such a problem here.
Just to be clear here: you get that every time, or does it work without a password the first time as the OP wrote?
Those would probably be two completely different issues.
Well, as I wrote, that’s likely a different issue then. For the OP it seems to work without a password the first time, only subsequents mounts need a password.
Your problem could be caused by too strict security settings, or that your user session is not registered.
So what is the output of those commands I asked, please?
Tried with both Windows and ext4 file systems
The filesystem type shouldn’t really make a difference.
I don’t mount USB that much and may not have noticed except I was checking the OP’s report.
So you are not even sure that it worked before the update?
Have you tried to downgrade polkit?
Looks ok.
The last ‘yes’ means that a locally logged in user should not need a password for mounting filesystems.
So, is the session listed by “loginctl”?
Otherwise you are not regarded as “locally logged in user”.
Yes, since yesterday:
wolfi@amiga:~/Desktop> rpm -qi polkit
Name : polkit
Version : 0.113
Release : 3.8.1
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Mit 14 Okt 2015 11:25:34 CEST
Group : System/Libraries
Size : 257725
License : LGPL-2.1+
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Mit 14 Okt 2015 09:08:38 CEST, Key ID b88b2fd43dbdc284
Source RPM : polkit-0.113-3.8.1.src.rpm
Build Date : Tue 06 Oct 2015 19:31:24 CEST
Build Host : build21
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : http://bugs.opensuse.org
Vendor : openSUSE
URL : http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/polkit/
Summary : PolicyKit Authorization Framework
Description :
PolicyKit is a toolkit for defining and handling authorizations.
It is used for allowing unprivileged processes to speak to privileged
processes.
Distribution: openSUSE 13.2
wolfi@amiga:~/Desktop>
And I have rebooted a few times since, so it is definitely in use as well.
That said, I also have the reverted systemd update installed (it didn’t give me any problem, as grub2-mkconfig doesn’t add a ‘ro’ to the kernel command line on my non-EFI system), maybe that contains a fix that causes it to work for me and not for you.
I’ll try to revert that and see if it still works then.
The YaST history on this machine goes back to 26-Oct-2014.
So 13.2 has been installed for a year.
During all that time the external USB drive mount/unmount function via the KDE System Tray Notifier
has always work as intended - no password required, USB devices mounted in /run/media/<username>/<devicelabel>,
e.g. /run/media/larry/seagate3TB
Only with yesterday’s PolicyKit updates to 0.113 did this change. After the update I can mount/unmount
an external device JUST ONE TIME. On subsequent mount attempts a popup dialog requests the root password.
I’m not about to give the root password to all users of this machine.
Rebooting the machine again allows mounting/unmounting an external USB drive JUST ONE TIME.
After the first unmount (eject/Safely Remove via the KDE Notifier) subsequent mount attempts
via the KDE Notifier (e.g. Open With File Manager), cause a popup dialog for the root password.
I rolled back the 3 PolicyKit packages to 0.112 and now mounting/unmounting external USB drives once
again works the way it has for the past year (see paragrah 2 above)…
Well, this is a machine installed in 2003 and upgraded since…
Only with yesterday’s PolicyKit updates to 0.113 did this change. After the update I can mount/unmount
an external device JUST ONE TIME. On subsequent mount attempts a popup dialog requests the root password.
I’m not about to give the root password to all users of this machine.
…
Yes, I understand that, and did right from the start.
gogalthorpe’s problem was a different one though.
Still, I don’t see this problem here.
This appears to be a bug in 0.113 PolicyKit.
Maybe, but you seem to be the only one affected, at least nobody else has reported such a problem yet AFAIK, not even gogalthorpe as it turned out…
And I am following the mailinglists too.
Actually, the only reasons I can imagine for something like this to happen at the moment are those:
for some reason, the device is regarded as “system device” after the first unmount. That should be unrelated to the polkit update though IMHO.
something (polkit related?) crashed after you unmount the device.
So, can you please also post the actual polkit rule that asks for the root password? (i.e. what the “Details…” button mentions when you are asked for the password)
Maybe also the output of “dmesg|tail” would tell something, when you unmounted the filesystem and immediately mount it again? (but that’s just a guess)
I never upgrade versions; I always do clean install with format.
So this machine has had a year of 13.2 without any mount issues.
I run YOU weekly.
I did revert the buggy systemd update a few weeks ago (NO red items listed in YaST package lists).
OK, I had mounted/umnounted the external USB drive twice in the last few hours.
Than I ran YOU which updated the 3 PolicyKit packages back to 0.113.
Without rebooting or doing a logout/login, I clicked the Device Notifier to mount (again)
the external drive, and as soon as I clicked the “Open with File Manager” button
in the Device Notifier the root password dialog appeared:
"Authorization is required to mount disk /dev/sdc1 - PolicyKit1-KDE"
Action: Mount a filesystem
Vendor: The udisks Project
polkit.subject-pid: 8778
polkit.caller.pid: 2153
The dmesg data appears to be from the earlier successful mount??
arry@rna0128715:~> dmesg | tail
64.789383] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
72.218681] fuse init (API version 7.23)
2005.875444] perf interrupt took too long (2501 > 2500), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 50000
9430.143258] nvidia 0000:04:00.0: irq 51 for MSI/MSI-X
9430.723018] sound hdaudioC1D0: HDMI: invalid ELD data byte 25
[10142.542602] EXT4-fs (sdc1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[12281.948271] EXT4-fs (sdc1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[12308.343734] EXT4-fs (sdc1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[15353.360427] nvidia 0000:04:00.0: irq 51 for MSI/MSI-X
[15353.892012] sound hdaudioC1D0: HDMI: invalid ELD data byte 19
larry@rna0128715:~>
Reverting the 3 PolicyKit packages back to 0.112-3.5.1 fixed the issue.
I can mount/unmount repeatedly without incurring
a root password dialog. No reboot or logout/login was required - the affect
was immediate.
A curious thing - I had done 3 mount attempts using 0.113;
each popped a dialog which I Cancelled (no mount occurred). When I reverted to 0.112
and did a mount (the 4th attempt) with Device Notifier - THE MOUNT SUCCEEDED AND FOUR FILE MANAGER WINDOWS
OPENED - all pointing to the newly mounted drive.
I closed all 4 windows, unmounted the drive then remounted it - then just the expected single
file manager instance opened.
I did have the problem of requiring a root password here but it asked ever time not once did it not want a password to mount or unmount until I rebooted then it work correctly
The systemd update was not buggy, the problem was that grub2 adds “ro” to the kernel command line on certain systems which was now actually respected by systemd, causing a read-only root filesystem.
And that update was a week ago, not weeks.
Anyway, it still works fine here after reverting it too.
Than I ran YOU which updated the 3 PolicyKit packages back to 0.113.
Without rebooting or doing a logout/login, I clicked the Device Notifier to mount (again)
the external drive, and as soon as I clicked the “Open with File Manager” button
in the Device Notifier the root password dialog appeared:
"Authorization is required to mount disk /dev/sdc1 - PolicyKit1-KDE"
Action: Mount a filesystem
Vendor: The udisks Project
polkit.subject-pid: 8778
polkit.caller.pid: 2153
You should have rebooted.
That doesn’t tell anything now, as we found out it’s apparently “normal” that this happens if you don’t reboot after the update.
Please update again, and post the action when the root password is asked after a reboot.
The dmesg data appears to be from the earlier successful mount??
I hoped that it shows some crash.
But one question that isn’t really clear to me now:
does the mount succeed when entering the root password, or does it fail?
A curious thing - I had done 3 mount attempts using 0.113;
each popped a dialog which I Cancelled (no mount occurred). When I reverted to 0.112
and did a mount (the 4th attempt) with Device Notifier - THE MOUNT SUCCEEDED AND FOUR FILE MANAGER WINDOWS
OPENED - all pointing to the newly mounted drive.
That’s probably a glitch in KDE, unrelated to your actual problem.
If you click on “Open in file manager”, the file manager is started apparently even if the mount fails for some reason.
ran YOU. It updated the PolicyKit pkgs to 0.113 again -and- updated Flash for the 2nd time in 2 days.
used the device notifier to mount the external drive - a root auth dialog popped up.
rebooted then logged in to KDE
used the device notifier to mount the external drive - a root auth dialog popped up.
shut down the machine for 15 minutes - powered off and pulled the power cord (it is a desktop tower).
made coffee and had a cinnamon roll.
reconnected the power cord and powered up the machine (cold start)
logged in to KDE
used the device notifier to mount the external drive - the drive was mounted and opened in the file manager.
closed the file manager and used the device notifier to unmount the drive.
11 repeated steps 9 and 10 FIVE times - success each time - NO root auth dialogs popped up.
I have no idea why rebooting (warm start) did not work but cold starting did.
I had rebooted (warm start) numerous times in the last 48 hours.
I don’t believe in magic, so the real cause of the original problem remains a mystery.
