i am running 64-bit bodhi 5.0 and after my most recent update most programs (timeshift, gparted and gsmartcontrol) that require root access will not launch through esudo. strangely enough eepdater still launches just fine. trying to launch timeshift et al yields a warning that moksha cannot run the application. they all launch from the terminal just fine.

i did notice that there were some changes to polkit in the update. it seems to me there was some discussion a while ago that polkit and esudo are interrelated to some degree. i can dig that thread up if i need to.

to make sure it was the update which caused the issue, i went ahead and reset my system through timeshift. everything launched as usual. decided to update through eepdater since it gives the option to skip certain programs. i thought i chose all of the polkit options. however, after the re-update esudo is back on the blink.

i can obviously just reset with timeshift again, but was wondering if there was any way to update and figure out what the problem is with esudo. thanks in advance for any help

Does running esudo in a terminal work as in

If so esudo is not broke.

What do you mean by "they all launch from the terminal just fine."?

Are you launching them as appname or as esudo appname?

And lastly what is the complete list of programs you have installed that are unable to get root access?

ylee - i updated and upgraded all 3 laptops this am - not sure what to check since i know so little but for my needs they seem to be OK. esp the daily one i use. the others are off due to storms etc.

let me know if i need to check anything as a comparison if that will help.

I updated bl5.0 from an just installed state to full dist-upgrade in a VM this morning just to test. esudo works fine. But nonetheless I sorta know what the OP's issue is. They have some programs installed that are trying to use pkexec and ... details omitted ... typically those types of programs don't play well with esudo. There are several ways of dealing with this issue.

However this is just a educated guess on my part I sorta want more info from the OP to make things clearer to me as to the issue and what they expect as a 'solution.'

no problem. :-)))

yes, that particular command works. eepdater and tuxboot are the only two that launch esudo from clicking a gui shortcut and proceed to open.

when i wrote my initial post i was launching them as sudo appname, but esudo appname also works.

gparted, gsmartcontrol, timeshift, synaptic package manager all fail to launch from their gui shortcuts (both favorites menu and applications menu) and produce a warning message that "moksha was unable to run the application", but do work when launched from the terminal with sudo. so root access is still available seemingly just not through the gui.

your mention of pkexec helped me track down the thread that i mentioned in my first post. it is here:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...3/#post5918787

at that time, following Stefan's suggestion in post #9 to change the exec entry fixed the issue with gparted and gsmartcontrol as indicated in my later posts. i do not recall if timeshift or synaptic package manager had any issues at that time. your follow-up posts (15 and 18) were helpful (if well over my head technically) in understanding some of the interactions. i did not recall the specifics of that post or link the similar behaviors in my mind or i would have tried Stefan's solution again before posting this thread.

before replying here today i did tried this fix again, but it did not remedy the present issue.

i feel like i understand what you meant in the 18th post of that other thread when you said "Bodhi is minimal meaning you are going to have to install some things, or load some extra modules or modify this or that to get some stuff to work."

part of the reason i have enjoyed my time using bodhi is that it has given me the opportunity to attempt modifications and tinker to the best of my somewhat limited ability. to that end i didn't post this with any expectations of a solution. i was just looking to see if someone could help (as stated in the initial post) point me in a direction to make things work like they did before the update.

you said there are ways of dealing with the issue and i am more than happy to try them

as ever, i appreciate yours and Stefan's presence here and willingness to lend a hand when and if you have the time and knowledge. thank you for your replies

glad you worked it out!

OK this may not make things work exactly the same way they worked before but it is what I would do. So here goes:

First of all I suspect the package policykit-1 was updated and it overwrote a symbolic link created by the esudo package.


Before the update and as BL 5.0 is after installation: After the update of policykit-1:

So please verify this by running the command in a terminal:

The output should look like the second picture. If it doesn't please run command :

Now try the ls command above one more time. In theory it should look like the output in the second pic above.

I am assuming it does and going to the next step.

Now let's make your system use policy kit on apps that take advantage of this (ie apps that want to use pkexec) instead of trying to use esudo. We have to add PolicyKit Authentication Agent to the Mokshas startup program list.

Open Moksha's settings Panel: Menu ⟶ Settings ⟶ Setting Panel
And add it your startup programs as pictured below:



Be sure you click the Apply Button!

Now reboot. And all programs attempting to open as root using pkexec should work properly

I would prevent esudo from updating in the future unless absolutely needed. You should be able to do so by:

EDIT:

if you don't have PolicyKit Authentication Agent in Mokshas startup program list, then install policykit-1-gnome:

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that was definitely included in the update. my ls output was as you suggested it should look in the second screenshot, so i didn't need to reinstall.

i am guessing that is the difference between the two authentication dialog boxes that pop up. one is obviously esudo and the other is pkexec .

as advertised, everything opens again! thank you so much for your help and clear step-by-step instructions.

done and done. i wasn't aware a program could be put "on hold". interesting thanks for the extra tip.

OK. I did this once. Then I had to reinstall due to something else I did (stupid, or n00b). Upon reinstall, I did the --reinstall policykit-1. When I went to add it to my settings, PolicyKit Authentication Agent wasn't there. Now what? (And Grub Customizer does not run, something which this suggestion fixed.)

Oh, great. gDebi doesn't run either.

do not remember - but did you reboot the system and look for policykit?

did you do this last bit?

did not catch that cordx. that could be it too.

I will try this. Preferably before trying to reinstall again.