Hi,

I'm using Debian Squeeze. Just noticed that my system time has slipped back an hour and I can't adjust it because even though I give the root password, the buttons remain inactive.

I checked a few other apps that need root authorization and found that - System --> Administration --> Network behaves in the same way.

How can I fix this please?

Cheers.

Perhaps old or incorrect password values are stored in the keyring? Maybe look into clearing the keyring? Just an idea -- I don't really know.

Don't think so as I don't store the root password in the keyring.

Got some more info:

If I start from System --> Administration --> Time and Date

there is an "Unlock" button on the GUI. Pressing that brings up a message:

Could not authenticate
An unexpected error has occured.

Starting the Network GUI from the terminal like this:

network-admin

and then pressing the "Unlock" button, brings up the same error as with Time and Date.

Plus, in the terminal, I get:

After network-admin - hit return:

(network-admin:5891): Gtk-WARNING **: Unknown property: GtkComboBox.items

After clicking the "unlock" button:

** (network-admin:5891): CRITICAL **: The name org.gnome.PolicyKit was not provided by any .service files

is gnome-keyring installed ?
also check if dbus-x11 is installed.

Just a thought from some various bug reports..

Yes, both of those installed. I installed gnome-keyring-manager and checked my keyring, no root password in there. I give it everytime it is asked for and do not store it.

Cheers. Maybe it's something that got broken with an update and will get fixed with another update.

the reports I refered to were instance in which one or the other of those apps/dependencies didn't get installed.. since you have them both I guess that's not the issue

Ok, thanks. I found something else that might be related. If I try to open Nautilus from the terminal as root, I get these two error messages:

(nautilus:32586): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.

(nautilus:32586): Eel-WARNING **: GConf error:
Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)

The second part is repeated seven more times, one of them with a different start to the message:

GConf warning: failure listing pairs in `/apps/nautilus/preferences':

I thought they might be related because they are to do with authentication. Anyway, just thought it might be worth mentioning. Oh, and I have rebooted, so any stale locks would have been cleared, I think.

As a newbie I don't want to upset everybody by asking inappropriate questions, but having read the postings so far on this thread it seems I have exactly the same problem with Debian Lenny (could not authenticate when trying to access network-settings or time settings). I've checked ownership of /sbin/unix_chkpwd and /etc/shadow and they are both set as root shadow. What do I do next?

TIA

Richard

No further need for a response to my previous posting. I could not change settings to allow use of a new router which replaced a broken one, and have finally given up and have deleted/re-installed Lenny from DVD.