Ubuntu App Centre cant install apps

[KieranReck]

• I've run a search on the existing bug reports to make sure I'm not filing a duplicate (you can use the search box at the top left corner)
• I've read the Regolith documentation and didn't find any relevant topic

Describe the bug
When trying to install apps using Ubuntu's App Centre you get a rather unhelpful error message stating "something went wrong..were sorry, but we're not sure what the error is."

The has happened with every app I have tried to install unsing App Centre (eg Opera, freeCAD, etc), and has also happened when I try to use App Centre to install a .deb package.

This error doesn't occur if I log out and run a standard Ubuntu session on the same install.

The point at which Regolith seems to be falling down is when App Centre tries to pop up an authentication dialog asking for your password to confirm the install. Looking in the logs this is backed up by a polkit error from snapd access.go:66: polkit error: Authorization requires interaction

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

• Fresh Regolith3.2 install on an already existing Ubuntu 24.04.1 setup (which has already had i3 installed previously, not sure if that is relevant).
• Open "App Centre" and try to install anything, you get the error message

Expected behavior
A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

• Open App Centre
• Find an app
• Click "Install"
• Enter your password in the popup authentication dialog
• install happens

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Configuration file(s)
Please attach or mention any customization you've done to configuration files which might have an impact on the bug you are describing. It'll help us determine the root cause of your issue.

• It doesn't feel like any of my customization would be related to this issue, let me know if you need more info

Installation Details

• Regolith Install Stage: (stable)
• Regolith Version: [3.2]
• Host OS: [Ubuntu 24.04.1]

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

I looked around for solutions and I saw mention of needing to change permissions on a polkit file, however I quickly felt out of my depth trying to judge if these solutions were even related to this issue, so I didn't try any of them. I did notice that /usr/libexec/polkit-agent-helper-1 seems to have a broken link of some kind? I have included a screenshot that i'm sure you guys will understand better than I do.

Please feel free to ask me to try things!

[SoumyaRanjanPatnaik]

Can you check if mate-polkit is running? Make sure it is, and try running pkexec. LMK if you don't get the authentication dialog.

[KieranReck]

running systemctl status mate-polkit resulted in:

"service could not be found"

running systemctl status polkit resulted in this set of messages:

Nov 02 06:56:46 kieran-XPS-ubuntu systemd[1]: Started polkit.service - Authorization Manager.
Nov 02 06:56:46 kieran-XPS-ubuntu polkitd[23283]: Acquired the name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 on the system bus
Nov 02 06:56:47 kieran-XPS-ubuntu polkitd[23283]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:6694:11878 (system bus name :1.529 [pkexec], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)
Nov 02 06:56:47 kieran-XPS-ubuntu polkitd[23283]: Identity unix-group:admin' is not valid, ignoring: No UNIX group with name admin: No such file or directory
Nov 02 06:56:49 kieran-XPS-ubuntu polkitd[23283]: Operator of unix-process:6694:11878 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for action org.freedesktop.policykit.exec for unix-process:6694:11878 [bash] (owned by unix-user:kieran)
Nov 02 06:56:49 kieran-XPS-ubuntu polkitd[23283]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:6694:11878 (system bus name :1.529, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)

Running pkexec prompts me to enter my password, then throws this error:

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

---

I looked up these errors online, but I didn't want to jump into things like adding my user to the admin group if that isn't the correct process, so I haven't tried anything further yet to solve these errors. Do you have any suggestions?

Additionally, I looked into polkit, polkit-mate, and authentication agents. Am I right in thinking that Regolith should have come with one already installed and running? Possibly the built in Gnome flashback authentication agent?

Treat me as a noob here, I'm still trying to get my head around all of this stuff

[eldenpark]

Having the same issue here. Running Regolith 3.2 on a fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04.1.

"Ubuntu user authentication popup" does not show up (or rather it is immediately closed in a blink of a second when it was supposed to wait for a user to type in the password)

As a workaround, I can run the following command and then keep the process running to show that popup.

/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1

But this isn't the way we would go after. Waiting for some thoughts!

[lcswillems]

@SoumyaRanjanPatnaik Any further guidance on how to resolve this issue?

[SoumyaRanjanPatnaik]

Try installing regolith-sway-polkit and restart the session.

[lcswillems]

@SoumyaRanjanPatnaik I'm on Regolith i3. I guess this would not work?

[SoumyaRanjanPatnaik]

@SoumyaRanjanPatnaik I'm on Regolith i3. I guess this would not work?

i3 session uses gnome flashback which uses gnome polkit agent. You can still try mate polkit.

[SoumyaRanjanPatnaik]

@SoumyaRanjanPatnaik I'm on Regolith i3. I guess this would not work?

i3 session uses gnome flashback which uses gnome polkit agent.

I think you can try installing mate polkit and update your i3 config to exec it during startup. You might have to kill the gnome polkit agent and well

[lcswillems]

And with the gnome polkit it doesn't work, right?

[SoumyaRanjanPatnaik]

It should. Would have to debug a bit more. Can you manually try starting gnome polkit?

[lcswillems]

In my case, policykit-1-gnome was not installed, so I did sudo apt install policykit-1-gnome.

[SoumyaRanjanPatnaik]

It was not? @kgilmer should we add this as a dependency to the flashback session?

[lcswillems]

No, it was not installed. I upgraded from Ubuntu 22.04 and Regolith 2 to Ubuntu 24.04 and Regolith 3, and maybe it got lost somewhere? I remember that when I was using Ubuntu 22.04, it was working somehow.

[kgilmer]

I don't see any concerning dependencies to the package, and it does look like some other DEs express a dependency upon policykit-1-gnome:

~/dev/repos$ apt list --installed | grep policykit-1-gnome

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

policykit-1-gnome/noble,now 0.105-7ubuntu5 amd64 [installed,automatic]
~/dev/repos$ apt rdepends policykit-1-gnome
policykit-1-gnome
Reverse Depends:
  Depends: cinnamon (>= 0.105-6)
 |Depends: timekpr-next
 |Depends: riseup-vpn
 |Depends: update-manager
  Recommends: unity-control-center
  Depends: ubuntu-unity-desktop
  Recommends: ubuntu-budgie-desktop-minimal
  Recommends: ubuntu-budgie-desktop
 |Depends: timekpr-next
 |Recommends: thunar
 |Depends: riseup-vpn
  Recommends: pcmanfm
 |Recommends: lightdm
  Depends: libqapt3-runtime
 |Depends: gnome-system-tools
  Suggests: cpupower-gui
  Depends: cinnamon-control-center
 |Depends: network-manager-gnome
  Depends: apper
 |Depends: update-manager