[ubuntu-dev] Bug#790322: /usr/share/gdebi/gdebi-gtk: prompt for root password returns incorrect password

[Michael Weghorn]

Hi,

I just experienced the described problem as well.

As far as I understand it, the problem is not specific to gdebi, but is
a more general problem with the 'gksu' command. This problem is also
described in the Debian bug reports #481689 [1], #570700 [2], and
#700162 [3].

The workaround of explicitly setting the gconf key
'/apps/gksu/sudo-mode' to 'true', e.g. by using the command

    gconftool-2 --set /apps/gksu/sudo-mode --type boolean true

as described in #570700 works for me.

#867236 [4] mentions that 'gksu' is deprecated and is planned to be
removed for the next Debian release (buster) and the right way for an
application to request elevated privileges is to use PolicyKit instead.

Are there currently any plans to drop the use of 'gksu' in gdebi?


    Michael

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=481689
[2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=570700
[3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=700162
[4] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=867236

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 21:05:06 -0400 Seryn Rosenblum <debugdo at riseup.net>
wrote:
> Package: gdebi
> Version: 0.9.5.5+nmu1
> Severity: important
> File: /usr/share/gdebi/gdebi-gtk
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> When selecting a .deb file to open with gdebi from within thunar the user is
> prompted to enter an admin password. After selecting 'ok' the prompt returns
> 'incorrect password'. Open a terminal open gdebi with sudo (same password)
> and the user can select the same file and install it.
> 
> 
> -- System Information:
> Debian Release: 8.1
>   APT prefers stable-updates
>   APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
> Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
> 
> Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
> Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
> Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
> 
> Versions of packages gdebi depends on:
> ii  gdebi-core        0.9.5.5+nmu1
> ii  gir1.2-gtk-3.0    3.14.5-1
> ii  gir1.2-vte-2.90   1:0.36.3-1
> ii  gksu              2.0.2-9
> ii  gnome-icon-theme  3.12.0-1
> ii  python3-gi        3.14.0-1
> pn  python3:any       <none>
> 
> Versions of packages gdebi recommends:
> ii  libgtk2-perl      2:1.2492-4
> ii  lintian           2.5.30+deb8u4
> ii  shared-mime-info  1.3-1
> 
> gdebi suggests no packages.
> 
> -- no debconf information
> 
>