Bug 2335477

Summary: Password authentication fails when trying to write an image to USB stick
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: livechatter
Component: polkit-kdeAssignee: marcdeop
Status: NEW --- QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 43CC: 8ru2u4gz, jgrulich, jreznik, kde-sig, livechatter, marcdeop, m, ngompa13, rdieter, than
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Desktop
Target Release: ---Flags: 8ru2u4gz: needinfo? (marcdeop)
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
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Description Flags
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Description livechatter 2025-01-03 20:37:58 UTC 
When I try to write a Fedora image to a USB stick using the Fedora Image Writer application I get asked to authenticate using either my registered fingerprint or the user account password.
Using my finger gives no problem but typing my password makes the authentication dialog ¨think" for about 20 seconds and then close. I say think because the dialog is not completely frozen; the password field becomes greyed out but you can still cancel and move the dialog box. See screenshot-1.

The mediawriter application shows its error screen with the message "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". See screenshot-2. A desktop notification is also launched but only on the first try after opening this application. See screenshot-3.

Clicking "Retry" opens the authentication dialog again with the same result.

Clicking "cancel" on the authentication dialog makes mediawriter also error with the message "Not authorized to perform operation". See screenshot-4.

Using the application to "restore" (wipe) the USB stick seems to work although the authentication dialog still needs to "think" about 20 seconds before accepting my password.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Launch Fedora Media Writer
2.Tick "download automatically" and click "next"
3.Choose any Fedora edition, Click "next". 
4.Choose any "write options". Click "next"
5.Click "write", click "write" again in the confirmation dialog.
6.Type anything (your password or anything else) in the authentication password box.
Actual Results:  
The authentication dialog box freezes and mediawriter shows an error. I am not able to write an image to my USB stick.

Expected Results:  
mediawriter downloads the Fedora image I chose and writes it to my USB stick

Fedora 41 KDE plasma 6.2.5
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen9
Application version: mediawriter-5.2.1-1.fc41.x86_64
Comment 1 livechatter 2025-01-03 20:39:12 UTC 
Created attachment 2064608 [details]
Screenshot-1
Comment 2 livechatter 2025-01-03 20:39:54 UTC 
Created attachment 2064609 [details]
screenshot-2
Comment 3 livechatter 2025-01-03 20:40:29 UTC 
Created attachment 2064610 [details]
screenshot-3
Comment 4 livechatter 2025-01-03 20:41:13 UTC 
Created attachment 2064611 [details]
screenshot-4
Comment 5 Jan Grulich 2025-01-06 08:14:09 UTC 
This doesn't look like an issue in Fedora Media Writer, but in Polkit, which is where the dialog comes from.
Comment 6 livechatter 2025-03-02 11:03:58 UTC 
No movement since 3 months. Anything I can/should still do?
Comment 7 Adam Williamson 2025-12-02 02:05:41 UTC 
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 41 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 41 on 2025-12-15.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
'version' of '41'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora Linux version. Note that the version field may be hidden.
Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see it.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora Linux 41 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version
prior to this bug being closed.
Comment 8 livechatter 2025-12-02 08:58:31 UTC 
Bug still present on Fedora 43 with following component versions:

Linux/KDE Plasma: Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition 43 with Kernel 6.17.9-300.fc43.x86_64
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Polkit version: 126-6.fc43
Polkit-kde version: 6.5.3-1.fc43
polkit-qt6-1 version: 0.200.0-4.fc43
Comment 9 Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2025-12-25 22:29:48 UTC 
Is https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/run0-return-s-ed-failed-to-start-transient-service-unit-access-denied/177866/36 a corroboration of this?
Comment 10 livechatter 2026-01-11 16:31:16 UTC 
(In reply to Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) from comment #9)
> Is
> https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/run0-return-s-ed-failed-to-start-
> transient-service-unit-access-denied/177866/36 a corroboration of this?

I don't use (or I think I don't use) run0 so I can't tell about that. However I don't think polkit crashes, it just does not seem to respond.
Comment 11 Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB) 2026-01-11 17:13:21 UTC 
Likewise; I don't observe it crash, per se (Abrt and CoreDumpD capture no trace, nor event). Instead, it merely returns an error — https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/run0-return-s-ed-failed-to-start-transient-service-unit-access-denied/177866/37. Do you observe that error in JournalCtl, too?
Comment 12 livechatter 2026-01-12 11:43:31 UTC 
When reproducing I see dbus throwing the following:

systemd[1]: dbus-:1.3-org.kde.kded.smart: Deactivated successfully.

And Dolphin throwing:
dolphin[7106]: "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply" "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 line I also see when reproducing by trying to elevate a Dolphin file explorer window.
Comment 13 livechatter 2026-01-12 11:45:13 UTC 
Issue still present after updating:

Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition 43
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.22.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel 6.18.4-200.fc43.x86_64
Polkit version: 126-6.fc43
Polkit-kde version: 6.5.4-1.fc43
polkit-qt6-1 version: 0.200.0-4.fc43