update-manager, gksu, and gconf2 in testing

radiodee1 · 03-08-2009, 06:54 AM

I'm following testing. I'm having a problem with update-manager and gksu. I think the two problems are related.

When there are new updates available, nearly every day, I see the update-manager icon in the notification area of the gnome desktop. When I click on it I see the gksu box that asks me for my password. I enter the correct password and nothing happens. The gksu box goes away, but the update-manager window never appears.

I can get the update-manager on the screen by going to the menu "System -> Administration -> Update Manager". From there the update manager works as it should. I can also get the following error info from typing "update-manager" at the command line as root.

Code:

warning: could not initiate dbus
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/update-manager", line 76, in <module>
    app = UpdateManager(data_dir)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py", line 400, in __init__
    self.restore_state()
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py", line 831, in restore_state
    expanded = self.gconfclient.get_bool("/apps/update-manager/show_details")
gobject.GError: 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://www.gnome.org/projects/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.)

I googled some of this message and got this post:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...848e15e6fd27b5

So from this post I think it has something to do with gksu or maybe gconf2, BUT the recommendation of the poster was to use gconf2 2.24.0-7 and that's the version presently in testing (I think sid too). So is there another option, and I'd really like to know if anyone else has this problem and what they're doing about it??

Thanks in advance.

linx win · 03-10-2009, 11:22 AM

I got the same problem over here after a dist-upgrade yesterday. Programs can run as root only with gksu, i.e. $ gksu nautilus. But some actions such as open as root (nautilus-gksu) does not run and does not show up on the right click menu any more.

linx win · 06-05-2009, 08:21 AM

Did any body come up with a solution for this issue?

radiodee1 · 06-05-2009, 08:30 AM

Now I don't have this problem. I think something was updated in squeeze and the problem is solved, but that's just my system. I have used sources from sid on occasion, so maybe this is not solved for you yet. As they say, "Your mileage may vary"...

jdkaye · 06-05-2009, 10:48 AM

Have you tried updating by another method? You may get more and better info that way. For example if you run

Code:

sudo aptitude update

what is the output? If the info does not provide an obvious answer you can post the output and maybe someone will be able to sort you out.
cheers,
jdk

linx win · 06-08-2009, 02:02 PM

I will try again and see.