KPackageKit fails to obtain authentication

Screenshot.

I have this as well, the dialogue is also unhelpful as it is not specified which username is used to verify the password entered with. (Neither the current user's nor the root's password work)

In my case I was opening a website with a video in a tab of akregator for which I didn't have the plugins installed. some gstreamer extra packages were found, but I couldn't install them via this route, since the authentication didn't happen.

I have the same version of kpackagekit installed on Natty.

/Simon

Error message when trying to select a different default language

I think this is because the user was not a member of the group "admin", I don't know if this is changed behaviour since 10.10, because I only notice this now. Previously the user was a member of adm, but not admin.

In user management, selecting "user may administer the system" invokes this change.

IMO, If this was a change from 10.10 to 11.04, it's a bug in the upgrade process, otherwise I don't think this is a software bug, but more likely a documentation bug in some way?

I have the same bug as the original poster. I think Simon Oosthoek has a different bug. He seems to have seen a password requester which fails to recognize the correct password.

I have what Vladimir Kolesnikov describes - run KPackageKit, no password requester shows up, but message saying I've failed to provide authentication does. Won't let me update.

I am part of admin, and have a check in the box for "user may administer."

Workaround: sudo kpackagekit in a terminal

Solution at bottom of <http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3112819.0> worked for me:
>> sudo chown -Rv username:username /home/username
Caused by me running a gui app with sudo from the command-line. My bad.

I have a quite similar problem here: whenever I must enter my password to change some system settings (e.g. in kpackagekit), the password dialog appears only for the blink of an eye and is immediately replaced by an info box saying "Failed to obtain authentication".

When starting kpackagekit from the command line, the following is printed:

Application asked to unregister timer 0x38000002 which is not registered in this thread. Fix application.

I'm running Kubuntu 11.04, new install (no dist-upgrade). And it used to be working, this bug appeared about a week ago on my box.

Same problem here. Cannot update packages (except from commandline with apt-get) , and cannot use services like 'sharing'. In the last case, my name and password appear, but the 'apply' button remains greyed out... Really very annoying.

Paai

Same problem here on Kubuntu 11.04

Same problem here on Kubuntu 11.04 with KDE 4.7.0

I also suffering under this bug on Kubuntu 11.04 since Update to KDE 4.7

I solved the problem. Just open a terminal and type:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and then:

sudo aptitude install -f

and then reboot. I solved this way. Anyway there's a workaround if you want to update your system just type in a terminal: kdesudo kpackagekit

and then update it normally, hope this helps :)

@ PJW and Thunder: I tried both proposed solutions of you, but had no luck with it. I'm still getting "Failed to obtain authentication".

I found the solution for this bug. KDE needs the package "polkit-kde-1" to popup the authorization dialog for system updates or network shares. It seems that the package does not install when installing the "kubuntu-desktop" meta package. Looks like a dependency problem in the packages.

Nevertheless, if you want to get rid of this bug, just install "polkit-kde-1" and all problems are gone.

I have polkit-kde-1 installed and running, so that is not the problem. I cannot run kpackagekit as root, because it willl not connect to the X server and anyway, the administration of network shares is not in kpackagekit.

Essentially I can only use apt-get and all other services are unavailable. As I said before: annoying!

Paai

Workaround after encountering this problem: Restart the KDE policykit daemon:

$ /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1

which is usually start by /usr/share/autostart/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1.desktop (look into this file to see the command above).

This is also why logging out and logging back in again usually works.

TheGhost is correct. I installed Ubuntu, got fed up with Unity, and installed kubuntu-desktop. polkit-kde-1 did not get installed when I did that. Also, rubik-cube's advice does indeed work (once polkit-kde-1 is installed), although the dialog is a bit slow to appear, so I didn't think it worked at first.

None of the solutions offered above did work. Things are as before: I cannot do anything from the System Settings that need a certain authenticiation. E.g. I can change my printer settings, but not install new software. Even trying to change the time gives "Unable to authenticate/execute the action: 4, "

Thank god, I can do most things as root or sudo from the commandline, but some other things I need to do from System Settings, and that does not work.

As I am not the only one, I wonder what the Kunbutu guys are doing with these reports.

Paai

I'm still seeing this while trying to change Locale settings in KDE Settings....