13.10 Upgrade: Not Authorized to Update, Mount Drives, even Play DVD - or Shutdown!

[OzzyFrank]

OK, this is has got to be one of the messiest upgrades I've encountered since I first started using Ubuntu in 2006. Besides everything else that has gone wrong, like not even being to shutdown without hitting the PC's button, it seems I don't have permission on my system to do just about anything. My first inkling there was some kind of permissions screw up was when I went to install updates after the notification popped up, and it told me I wasn't authorised to use the Software Updater (same with Muon in my KDE desktop). Sure, I can run update-manager as superuser to get around that, but this permissions screwup is affecting some of the simplest things I used to take for granted.

Now I can't even mount and use my removable drives like I did before the upgrade, not without running Nautilus as superuser (make that Dolphin, as unlike the former, this will show the removable devices and other partitions in the left pane in superuser mode). And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, inserting a DVD (or rather clicking on it to mount it via the shortcut in the left-pane of any file manager) gives me the error message: "Unable to access "DVDVIDEO". Not authorized to perform operation."

At first I thought the mounting failure was just in KDE, as I've used that the last couple of days since it isn't as screwy as Unity and Gnome Classic, but logging back into Ubuntu/Gnome shows it is system-wide. Does anyone know how to rectify this? And while we're at it, why Shutdown no longer actually turns off my computer? Many thanks in advance.

[Bashing-om]

OzzyFrank; Hi !

My 1st thouhgt, the "sudoers" file !



Sudoers - Community Ubuntu Documentation
Mar 17, 2010 ... The /etc/sudoers file controls who can run what commands as what users on what machines and can also control special things such as ...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sudoers

My working file for reference:


sysop@1304mini:~$ sudo cat /etc/sudoers
[sudo] password for sysop:
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# Please consider adding local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ instead of
# directly modifying this file.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults env_reset
Defaults mail_badpass
Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/binsbin:/bin"

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
%sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

# See sudoers(5) for more information on "#include" directives:

#includedir /etc/sudoers.d
sysop@1304mini:~$



just try'n to help

[ptrakk]

um the user that you are on needs to be added to the correct groups.. i know that much.. you may try the useradd and usermod command.

[OzzyFrank]

um the user that you are on needs to be added to the correct groups.. i know that much.. you may try the useradd and usermod command.

Thanks, but could you please info on correct usage? I haven't had to worry about anything like this in 7 years of using Ubuntu, so am clueless on the proper syntax.

[OzzyFrank]

[QUOTE=Bashing-om;12856236]OzzyFrank; Hi !
My 1st thouhgt, the "sudoers" file !
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sudoers

Thanks, but mine looks the same as that, so I guess that means it isn't the answer. I can't even get my head around why an upgrade would do this to me...

[ptrakk]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1583028

[OzzyFrank]

OK, running cat /etc/group shows me my username is next to a bunch of things like adm:x:4: and admin:x:119:, and even cdrom:x:24: and a few others. At http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1583028 it shows me how to add a username to a specific group, but what group do I need to (re)add myself to to give me access to my DVD and removable drives/other partitions on my internal drive (and things like being able to run Software Updater)?

Edit: The forum put the smiley faces in - they're supposed to be : x : without the spaces.

[ptrakk]

'id' is a good command. i don't know i run as root all day long. this might help you it's my /etc/group



root:x:0:
daemon:x:1:
bin:x:2:
sys:x:3:
adm:x:4:
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:
lp:x:7:
mail:x:8:
news:x:9:
uucp:x:10:
man:x:12:
proxy:x:13:
kmem:x:15:
dialout:x:20:
fax:x:21:
voice:x:22:
cdrom:x:24:
floppy:x:25:
tape:x:26:
sudo:x:27:
audio:x:29:pulse
dip:x:30:
www-data:x:33:
backup:x:34:
operator:x:37:
list:x:38:
irc:x:39:
src:x:40:
gnats:x:41:
shadow:x:42:
utmp:x:43:
video:x:44:
sasl:x:45:
plugdev:x:46:
staff:x:50:
games:x:60:
users:x:100:
nogroup:x:65534:
libuuid:x:101:
crontab:x:102:
mysql:x:103:
fuse:x:104:
scanner:x:105:saned
messagebus:x:106:
colord:x:107:
bluetooth:x:108:
utempter:x:109:
kismet:x:110:
netdev:x:111:
ntp:x:112:
Debian-exim:x:113:
mlocate:x:114:
ssh:x:115:
avahi:x:116:
beef-xss:x:117:
lpadmin:x:118:
dradis:x:119:
pulse:x:120:
pulse-access:x:121:
haldaemon:x:122:
powerdev:x:123:
ssl-cert:x:124:postgres
postgres:x:125:
stunnel4:x:126:
sambashare:x:127:
sslh:x:128:
Debian-gdm:x:129:
rtkit:x:130:
saned:x:131:
snmp:x:132:

[ptrakk]

Wait. you may have joined this group:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-desktop-privileges/+bug/1240336

brainbug found a solution. comment #33
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-desktop-privileges/+bug/1240336/comments/33

[OzzyFrank]

Hi again. Solution #23 in comment #33 in the Launchpad link provided by ptrakk worked for me, so many thanks! For those who want to try it, here are the steps:

gksu gedit /etc/pam.d/lightdm

Under the first line "#%PAM-1.0" paste the following:

session required pam_loginuid.so
session required pam_systemd.so

... then log out and back in again. If need be, run "dpkg-reconfigure gdm" and select "lightdm" (that was already selected in my case, so I don't know if OKing it actually made any difference). You shouldn't need to reboot, but do so if a simple logout doesn't do the trick.

Many thanks for all your help, guys - it's people like you who make the Ubuntu community so awesome! Cheers

[Bashing-om]

OzzyFrank;

Glad ya have resolution !

ubuntu, one for all and all for 1