Bug 135645

I have no problems using kdesu, but my password isn't remembered in the 15 minutes I have asked for.
I am using kde 3.5.5 newest debian packages. (base and libs debian version 3.5.5a )

Same bug as described: on two separate machines, both running Debian Etch 2.6.16-2-486, both occurred after update to KDE 3.5.5 (kde 5:47, kdebase 4:3.5.4-2, kdelibs 4:3.5.5a-1, kdelibs4c2a 4:3.5.5a-1).

Other parts of system (e.g. shell, gksu) accept password correctly.

Resetting root pw with passwd, or resetting to text-only pw has no effect.

Possibly related?: unmounted partitions do not appear on desktop, but floppy does. Mounting works with mount command, but newly-mounted partition does not appear on desktop. / appears correctly.

Problem with icons for partitions is present here too. Doesn't make a difference whether they are mounted or unmounted. 

Downloading and installing the previous version of kdelibs, kdelibs4c2a and kdelibs-date (version 4:3.5.4-3) solved the problem with kdesu, but the problem with the icons for partitions on the desktop remains.

Same problem with kdesu and root password after update to KDE 3.5.5. The problem only exist with kdesu! Running Debian Etch with kernel 2.6.16-2-686 on i686.

Problems with mounting (Floppy and CD/DVD) disappeared after upgrading Konqueror to 3.5.4. The hald (harware  abstraction layer daemon) got updated simultaneously and may have had something to do with this.

I'm already running Konqueror 3.5.4 (4:3.5.4-2+b1), but still have the missing unmounted partition problem.  Don't recall seeing any recent HAL updates, but might have missed it (Current versions - HAL: 0.5.8.1-1, libhal1: 0.5.8.1-1, libhal-storage1: 0.5.8.1-1).

By way of testing, I have created a new user account, and then attempted to use kdesu to run a process with the new user's account, from the old user account, i.e. kdesu -u testuser NameOfProcessToRun.

In this case, kdesu was able to correctly determine the correct and incorrect passwords supplied.

Therefore, it appears this problem is confined to kdesu being able to authenticate root.

The media:/ and company bug is unrelated. See #391020.
This bug was fixed on the only system I experienced it by upgrading kdebase to 3.5.5, so is most likely an incompatibility between kdebase 3.5.4 and kdelibs 3.5.5. I suppose this can be considered closed upstream. For tracking the status of this bug in Etch, see #393159.

HAL: 0.5.8.1-1, libhal1: 0.5.8.1-1,libhal-storage1: 0.5.8.1-1 are the
latest updates, so I guess my suggestion was wrong then.
I have only had mounting problems with floppy & CD/DVD drives, and only
when   I used Konqueror.

Other updates that may be relevant:
udev 0.100-2
mount 2.12r-11

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=135645




------- Additional Comments From s.liby bgnett no  2006-10-15 22:24 -------
HAL: 0.5.8.1-1, libhal1: 0.5.8.1-1,libhal-storage1: 0.5.8.1-1 are the
latest updates, so I guess my suggestion was wrong then.
I have only had mounting problems with floppy & CD/DVD drives, and only
when   I used Konqueror.

Other updates that may be relevant:
udev 0.100-2
mount 2.12r-11

I have exactly the same problem with kdesu running on etch, after upgrading to the 3.5.5 version...

Same problem as above comments, using etch, upgrading to 3.5.5...
Can't log on in kdesu as root...
Has someone found a work around?
su, gksu and normal root account works fine, only kdesu broken.
Currently using gksu in kde where I can.

I'm using the same workaround, mostly - gksu. Worst case scenario, I log in as root to get something done, then back out again.

Earlier comments (Filipus Klutiero) suggest 2, better, fixes:

1) Downgrade KDE to 3.5.4, or 

2) Upgrade kdebase to 3.5.5

Presumeably (I'm quite new to Linux and Debian) kdebase 3.5.5 is currently in Unstable, but hasn't found its way to Testing yet. So, if Filipus is right, this will automatically be fixed when kdebase 3.5.5 appears in our apt-get upgrade list. So, we either wait, or perform the up/downgrades above. 

I tried instructing apt-get to install the previous kde version, but it couldn't find it... perhaps a sources.list tweak is required to get old versions.

Apt-get installing doesn't work, since it will only install the current version. I've downloaded the previous version of kdelibs, kdelibs4c2a and kdelibs-data (4:3.5.4-3) somewhere from packages.debian.org (don't have exact link anymore). With Kpackage you can install them. Then log out, kill the Xserver and log back in and use Synaptic to lock the version of these three packages. It works for me, but I'm not sure whether to update any other kde-related packages until 3.5.5 is completely in testing. I'm have no experience in locking older versions, so I hope this keeps working without breaking other packages.

Okay, I've upgraded kdebase to the latest version available in sid. This has fixed both the missing drives and kdesu problem.

This link:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html#s-default-version

explains the process of configuring apt-get to enable you to get packages from sid on top of your etch distro, without disturbing the rest of the packages.

It goes something like this:

1. Edit (or create it, if it doesn't exist) /etc/apt/apt.conf
2. Insert the line: APT::Default-Release "Etch";
3. Save the file.
4. You should probably set the permissions to the same as sources.list (# chmod 644 apt.conf)
5. Open up sources.list, and copy all the lines relating to the official etch repositories (you probably don't need them all, but that's what I did) and paste them underneath. Now change each line so that wherever it says 'etch', it now says 'sid'.
6. Save file, reset the permissions as req'd.
7. Open a root shell, and do: apt-get -t sid install kdebase
The latest version of kdebase and various dependencies will be installed.

That's it. kdesu and mount icons are all fixed (hopefully). 

At this point, it might be wise to reverse the changes to sources.list, clear the apt-get package cache and do apt-get update/upgrade... I just tried it with the changes in place and there's about a million updates waiting, which makes me think that if I let it, it will pretty much convert etch to sid, which I don't want.

Good luck.

I've commented out the 'sid' entries in sources.list, and used the cache-clear options in kpackage. apt-get update/upgrade now reports no more packages to install... success!

(But remember, I'm new to this - don't blame me if it all goes wrong later! (seems okay so far)).

Mixing Etch and Sid like this sure works. In a situation like this, with a 
malfunctioning Kdesu, I think it's worth it.

Thanks a lot ..

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve" <steven-wilson@ntlworld.com>
To: <s.liby@bgnett.no>
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:57 PM
Subject: [Bug 135645] kdesu fails after upgrading to kdelibs4:3.5.5a-1 
(incorrect password)


[bugs.kde.org quoted mail]

The kdesu bug appears to have been fixed in the current kdebase package in testing, as of 25 November 2006, so using the sid package should no longer be necessary. An ordinary upgrade should fix it. "It worked for me."

From comment #12, #14, #16, and #17 it sounds like this issue is fixed. I'm closing the report. Should you still see this problem, please open a new report. Thanks.