Hi. I have this machine "alexandria" onto which I installed Debian
yesterday:

eben@alexandria:~$ cat /etc/debian_version
12.10

It has a video card and a keyboard, but to log in there I have to get
down on the floor, so I usually access it via ssh. Right now I'm trying
to use synaptic to install some software, but I get this when I try as me:

,--
| eben@alexandria:~$ synaptic-pkexec
| ==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ====
| Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
| Authenticating as: root
| Password:
| polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon:
| GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for
|cookie
| ==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
| Error executing command as another user: Not authorized
|
| This incident has been reported.
| eben@alexandria:~$
'--

As root it's even shorter:

,--
| root@alexandria:~# synaptic
| Failed to initialize GTK.
|
| Probably you're running Synaptic on Wayland with root permission.
| Please restart your session without Wayland, or run Synaptic without
| root permission
| root@alexandria:~#
'--

xev works as not-root, so X clients in general work. So how do I get
around this? Installing not-Wayland is an option, but I probably should replace it with some WIMP interface so if I need it, it's there. Thanks.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Hi,

I believe you are using a terminal from another computer, and not using a remote X or Wayland client like VNC? (e.g. "I usually access it via ssh")

If so, please use apt to install software.

for example, become root
$ sudo -i or just su (which is what I use) $ su
After logging in as root

# apt install <packagename>

or to update the currently installed packages
# apt update
# apt full-upgrade --autoremove -y

If you need to reboot to complete the installation
# systemctl reboot

to run synaptic you would need to do this on the computer itself, not remotely unless you are using a remote X or Wayland client like VNC.

Apologies if I have misunderstood your question.

George.




On Saturday, 05-04-2025 at 03:07 Eben King wrote:

Hi. I have this machine "alexandria" onto which I installed Debian yesterday:

eben@alexandria:~$ cat /etc/debian_version
12.10

It has a video card and a keyboard, but to log in there I have to get
down on the floor, so I usually access it via ssh. Right now I'm trying
to use synaptic to install some software, but I get this when I try as me:

,--
| eben@alexandria:~$ synaptic-pkexec
| ==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ====
| Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
| Authenticating as: root
| Password:
| polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon:
| GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for
|cookie
| ==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
| Error executing command as another user: Not authorized
|
| This incident has been reported.
| eben@alexandria:~$
'--

As root it's even shorter:

,--
| root@alexandria:~# synaptic
| Failed to initialize GTK.
|
| Probably you're running Synaptic on Wayland with root permission.
| Please restart your session without Wayland, or run Synaptic without
| root permission
| root@alexandria:~#
'--

xev works as not-root, so X clients in general work. So how do I get
around this? Installing not-Wayland is an option, but I probably should replace it with some WIMP interface so if I need it, it's there. Thanks.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 4/4/25 16:41, George at Clug wrote:

Hi,

I believe you are using a terminal from another computer, and not using a remote X or Wayland client like VNC? (e.g. "I usually access it via ssh")

That is correct, ssh in bash in xfce4-terminal in XFCE in X11 under
kernel 6.1.0-32-amd64.

If so, please use apt to install software.

If you need to reboot to complete the installation
# systemctl reboot

shutdown doesn't. I mean it acts like it does, goes through the
motions, and ends up with a computer that's unresponsive and off the
network, but fans & drives are still spinning. "poweroff" works, but I
don't know if it shuts down the OS gracefully or is equivalent to
pulling the plug. Also it suspends the OS after a few minutes, so I
gotta find out where that's controlled.

to run synaptic you would need to do this on the computer itself, not remotely unless you are using a remote X or Wayland client like VNC.

So ssh is right out? That sucketh much. It's not all X clients that
don't work, so what's the determinant for not working? Those that use
root? GTK?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 17:00:09 -0400
Eben King <eben@gmx.us> wrote:

to run synaptic you would need to do this on the computer itself,
not remotely unless you are using a remote X or Wayland client like
VNC.

So ssh is right out? That sucketh much. It's not all X clients that
don't work, so what's the determinant for not working? Those that use
root? GTK?

Not necessarily. I routinely ssh into all my computers, to their root
and user accounts, and then use GUI programs which display properly on
the machine from which I SSHed in. The trick is in setting up your
target computer's ~/.ssh/config correctly. E.g:

host dragon
Protocol 2
ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes

and similarly for the target's /root/.ssh/config.

This may also involve setting up the target's /etc/ssh/sshd_config
correctly; I don't remember.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 4/4/25 18:08, Charles Curley wrote:

On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 17:00:09 -0400
Eben King <eben@gmx.us> wrote:

to run synaptic you would need to do this on the computer itself,
not remotely unless you are using a remote X or Wayland client like
VNC.

So ssh is right out? That sucketh much. It's not all X clients that
don't work, so what's the determinant for not working? Those that use
root? GTK?

Not necessarily. I routinely ssh into all my computers, to their root
and user accounts,

So you ssh-login as root, or do you login as a user then su to root?

and then use GUI programs which display properly on
the machine from which I SSHed in. The trick is in setting up your
target computer's ~/.ssh/config correctly. E.g:

host dragon
Protocol 2
ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes

That last line might be the critical one. I'll check next time I boot
whether that does the trick.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 18:13:40 -0400
Eben King <eben@gmx.us> wrote:

Not necessarily. I routinely ssh into all my computers, to their
root and user accounts,

So you ssh-login as root, or do you login as a user then su to root?

I log in as root. "ssh root@dragon.example.com".

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 4/4/25 17:00, Eben King wrote:

Also it suspends the OS after a few minutes, so I
gotta find out where that's controlled.

/etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults looks to be a likely candidate, as in

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/748759/disabling-suspend-etc-on-debian-12

I changed it like so:

# Automatic suspend
# =================
[org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power]
# - Time inactive in seconds before suspending with AC power
# 1200=20 minutes, 0=never
sleep-inactive-ac-timeout=0

and restarted gdm:

root@alexandria:~# systemctl restart gdm3

so I'll see if that did the trick.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Eben King <eben@gmx.us> writes:

xev works as not-root, so X clients in general work. So how do I get
around this? Installing not-Wayland is an option, but I probably should replace it with some WIMP interface so if I need it, it's there. Thanks.

So, as xev works, X forwarding works and it's not your problem. While I
don't use Synaptic it seems to me your problem is covered e.g. here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1243897/pkexec-authentication-fails-over-ssh-x11-forwarding-why

You could try sudo synaptic-pkexec or run /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1& before
running synaptic-pkexec.

My experience with GUI apps remotely as root is limited to gparted and
it works with sudo, although I've usually had to fiddle with xauth
first.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)