Arch Linux

grey

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2007-08-23

Posts: 679

Setting policykit authorizations in KDE [SOLVED]

I'm having problems setting policykit autorizations via KDE systemsettings, and when poking around a bit found the following:

[root]# polkit-kde-authorization
polkit-read-auth-helper: needs to be setgid policykit
[root]# ls -l /usr/lib/PolicyKit/polkit-read-auth-helper
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root tex 11352 2009-05-10 17:05 /usr/lib/PolicyKit/polkit-read-auth-helper

Both tex and policykit are in /etc/group. Could someone confirm / deny this?

Edit: reinstallation of policykit solved that particular issue. But I still cannot make any policy changes - the 'modify' and 'grant' buttons are greyed out.

Last edited by grey (2009-11-10 21:58:06)

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Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

grey

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2007-08-23

Posts: 679

Re: Setting policykit authorizations in KDE [SOLVED]

Ok, I figured it out. It's actually quite funny:
1. root is subject to policykit rules
2. authorization to modify policykit's policies in KDE's policykit tool is subject to policykit rules.
So even root is not allowed to grant authorization to a user unless it is authorized to grant authorizations, which by default it isn't. Not even to itself.
It's not a complete catch-22, because there are text files that can be edited (/etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf, /usr/share/PolicyKit/policy/*.policy).

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Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.