When I switch users after authenticating in GDM I get a dialog that says "authentication is required to update metadata". I have to give my password to two of these dialogs in succession for it to go away. This happens when switching between to admin accounts in either direction, haven't tried with non-admin account. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. create two admin accounts 2. log in to one account 3. switch users and log in to the other 4. switch back to see the authentication dialog Actual Results: two dialogs in succession asking for admin password Expected Results: having just authenticated in GDM I wouldbn't expect to be asked for the same password twice again
Hello, this is usually PackageKit requesting authentization to get authorization for updating repository metadata. Can you please confirm by running `journalctl -S -2m -u polkit.service` in terminal right after this happens and copying the output lines here? Thank you.
thanks, here's the log: [martin@localhost-live ~]$ journalctl -S -2m -u polkit.service Oct 19 22:15:19 fedora polkitd[27417]: Operator of unix-session:19 successfully authenticated as unix-user:martin to > Oct 19 22:15:21 fedora polkitd[27417]: Operator of unix-session:19 successfully authenticated as unix-user:martin to > Oct 19 22:15:26 fedora polkitd[27417]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-session:c19 (system bus name :1.368>
Hi, I have hit a similar issue on a new box where I'm segregating accounts. I have one unprivileged account ($UNPRIVUSER) with user flatpaks from the flathub repo and one privileged account ($PRIVUSER) to install system flatpaks from the fedora repo. With Fedora 39, switching between sessions with ctrl + alt + # throws up the authentication request: "authentication is required to update metadata" when switching from privileged account => unprivileged and again when switching back. I've reproduced it onto a clean install in a VM using one --user flatpak (flatseal) and one system flatpak (epiphany). When switching to unprivileged user Operator of unix-session:9 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for action org.freedesktop.Flatpak.metadata-update for system-bus-name:: 1.733 [/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service] (owned by unix-user:$UNPRIVUSER). Or Operator of unix-session:1 successfully authenticated as unix-user:$PRIVUSER to gain ONE-SHOT authorization for action org.freedesktop.Flatpak.metadata-update for system-bus-name::1.87 [/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service] (owned by unix-user:$UNPRIVUSER) When switching back to privileged user Operator of unix-session:9 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for action org.freedesktop.Flatpak.metadata-update for system-bus-name:: 1.189 [/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service] (owned by unix-user:$PRIVUSER). Or Operator of unix-session:4 successfully authenticated as unix-user:$PRIVUSER to gain ONE-SHOT authorization for action org.freedesktop.Flatpak.metadata-update for system-bus-name::1.194 [/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service] (owned by unix-user:$PRIVUSER) Prompt does not appaer when switching back if I authenticated during the initial privileged => unprivileged switch. It's probably possible to resolve it with polkit rules. It may need to be reported upstream? Unsure of the "problematic" component between polkit, flatpak, gnome-software or something else altogether. I don't have the time to learn about it so for now I "fixed" it removing gnome-software since I do everything on the command line anyway. I had another issue where all user platpaks refs where temporarily broken and I could not update at all, but I could not reproduce it after a reboot of my main box. Some posts which are likely related: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/authentication-is-required-to-update-metadata/78226 https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/authentication-is-required-to-update-metadata/78226 And bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2055956
Hello, here it is in the [report](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2244876#c3) provided by Thomas. Thanks! I suspected packagekitd, but it's generally gnome-software and the repository backend it uses. You know, apps and services define their actions and rulesets to polkit so it can authentize/authorize users (whether automatically or not) to execute those actions accordingly to the rules. These kinds of information are defined in files vendored within that app/service itself, because they're the ones to know best what they want (their users) to do. It is out of hands of polkit. Polkit just takes the information, interprets it and executes it when needed. This issue can be resolved by Flatpak maintainers by extending file /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/org.freedesktop.Flatpak.rules with the new action rule (or merge the followin if-block in the existing rules): ``` polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) { if (action.id == "org.freedesktop.Flatpak.metadata-update") { return polkit.Result.YES; } return polkit.Result.NOT_HANDLED; }); ``` I don't know the details about Flatpak, but I guess updating metadata should be a safe operation for all users.
Fedora Linux 38 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2024-05-21. Fedora Linux 38 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see the version field. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an active release. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.
This is still happening in Fedora 40 and is very annoying.
This was not happening for me on 38, but since I upgraded to 40 it seems to happen often. Here"s my `journalctl -S -2m -u polkit.service` output: journalctl -S -2m -u polkit.service Oct 20 08:13:45 fedora polkitd[1161]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:c3 (system bus name :1.492 [/usr/bin/gnom> Oct 20 08:13:55 fedora polkitd[1161]: Operator of unix-session:2 successfully authenticated as unix-user:morgan to gain ONE-SHOT> Oct 20 08:13:57 fedora polkitd[1161]: Operator of unix-session:2 successfully authenticated as unix-user:morgan to gain ONE-SHOT> Oct 20 08:14:01 fedora polkitd[1161]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-session:c3 (system bus name :1.492, object path> I see someone saying that it is due to how a flatpack is coded, but that is not terribly helpful to an end user. Is there a way of identifying whick flatpak is the issue?
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 40 is nearing its end of life. Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 40 on 2025-05-13. 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 '40'. 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 40 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.
Fedora Linux 40 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2025-05-13. Fedora Linux 40 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see the version field. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an active release. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.