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Since yesterday nights, there are those updates: enter image description here When I go on and update, there is on loop a crashing authentication dialog that shows up:

enter image description here

enter image description here

The two dialogs are flickering super quickly, you cannot enter the password. I also tried to paste the password, but it does not work.

Any idea?

Outputs are as follow:

edo@XPS:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 14328 gen 15 14:18 /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1

edo@XPS:~$ file /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1
/usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=642077ae71b5ca8f6f12f66f0b92e896adbfc68b, stripped

UPDATE

After the suggested command line, the auth window seems to be fixed. But when I update through AppCenter, I have the following and the update does not start.

enter image description here

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    Can you please edit your question post the output of these commands ls -l /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1 and file /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1?
    – Daniele Santi
    Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 11:28

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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On my Juno system:

→ ls -l /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1 
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 14328 gen 15 14:18 /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1

→ file /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1 
/usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1: setuid ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=642077ae71b5ca8f6f12f66f0b92e896adbfc68b, stripped

as you can see the executable polkit-agent-helper-1 has the setuid bit set:

-rwsr-xr-x <-- the "s" in "rws"

and

/usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1: setuid ELF 64-bit LSB shared object <-- file aknowledges the executable has the setuid bit set

Looks like on your system the seuid bit "got lost", as the first error shown on your screenshots correctly reports.

A fast workaround is to give the setuid bit explicitly:

$ sudo chmod u+s /usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1

That said, you should investigate on why the setuid bit was removed as usually it's not something that "disappears" on itself.

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  • Thank you for your help. With your command now the auth window stopped to freak out. But, when going in AppCenter and launching the pending updates, not much happens, I have updated the original post with a screenshot.
    – Travis
    Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 15:57
  • The only out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened prior to all this, was just the laptop turning itself off (or maybe suspending?) for a 0% battery. Tried a restart too.
    – Travis
    Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 16:07
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    @Travis for the "new" problem, try the solution to this question. If it doesn't work I suggest asking a new question instead of editing this one as it might be against the site "etiquette".
    – Daniele Santi
    Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 16:27
  • Great, that solution worked too! Thank you very much. I have yet to understand WHY all of this happened though.
    – Travis
    Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 20:08
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    I had the same problem, with no obvious cause. THe solution here (and for the "new" problem also worked for me.
    – Mark Corti
    Commented Oct 1, 2019 at 10:45

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