Unresponsive Elements in Control Center

Hello all,

Without much warning nor without any direct explanation that I can think of, I suddenly am faced with some unexpected behaviour coming from Ubuntu MATE 17.04.

In the control panel, I am suddenly no longer allowed or able to open (for example) the Firewall Configuration. It simply does nothing when I click it. No disk activity either. This is just one example.

Here is another one, Control Panel -> User Settings:

In here, I am suddenly no longer able to open Advanced Settings or Account Type. I am however able to open the name and the password tab. I also am no longer able to add a user. Like with the Firewall Configuration example above, simply nothing happens. No permission indiciation, no request for a password, no error window. Nothing.

Not entirely sure when this started to happen, only noticed it just now.

The one thing I can think of that I did leading up to this behaviour is adding a new usergroup (to manipulate per application Internet access) and adding myself to that usergroup. However, to rule this out as a cause, I removed said group and rebooted. The behaviour did not stop.

Anyone have any thoughts?

What exact command did you use to do that?

Check that you are still in the normal groups by using the command:

grep `whoami` /etc/group

you should get something like that as a result:

ouroumov@Edge:~$ grep `whoami` /etc/group
adm:x:4:syslog,ouroumov
cdrom:x:24:ouroumov
sudo:x:27:ouroumov
dip:x:30:ouroumov
plugdev:x:46:ouroumov
lpadmin:x:120:ouroumov
ouroumov:x:1000:
sambashare:x:129:ouroumov

As to your first question, see:

As to your 2nd, ā€˜groupsā€™ by itself in a terminal will list all groups youā€™re a member of. As ā€˜whoamiā€™ is a variable which not every terminal will pick up. For example, in my case I had to $(whoami) to accomplish your result:

adm:x:4:syslog,ment
dialout:x:20:ment
fax:x:21:ment
cdrom:x:24:ment
floppy:x:25:ment
tape:x:26:ment
sudo:x:27:ment
dip:x:30:ment
video:x:44:ment
plugdev:x:46:ment
nopasswdlogin:x:118:ment
lpadmin:x:120:ment
ment:x:1000:
sambashare:x:129:ment

Nothing seems to be missing. Going to try graphics drivers now, and kernel version. Both are non-stock in my case. Graphics is Oibaf PPA / Padoka PPA, depending on application dependencies. Kernel is Liquorix. Didnā€™t previously cause issues but well, no sense in not trying.

Edit 1: Reverting to stock graphics stack did not solve the issue. This is entirely as I expected, actually.

Edit 2: Reverting back to stock kernel did not resolve the issue either. Which too is entirely as expected. Starting to think that something broke that cannot be fixed without reinstalling.

Check if you have PolicyKit agent enabled in Startup Applications Preferences (mate-session-properties).

If itā€™s enabled there, then check if itā€™s actually running:
$ ps aux | grep polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1

2 Likes

[quote=ā€œmonsta, post:4, topic:12835, full:trueā€]
Check if you have PolicyKit agent enabled in Startup Applications Preferences (mate-session-properties).

If itā€™s enabled there, then check if itā€™s actually running:
$ ps aux | grep polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1
[/quote]It was disabled indeed. Enabling it and relogging the user resolved the issue. Serves me right forā€¦ experimenting, I suppose. Probably disabled it thinking I did not need it. Apparently I did. Lesson learned.

Thanks.

1 Like

Update: A restart resolved the issue. Disregard comments below.

I have also discovered that elements in Control Center that require superuser privileges are unresponsive.

Click on ā€¦

  • Login Window - nothing happens
  • Users and Groups - panel opens with no password prompt; cannot add a new user
  • Firewall Configuration - nothing happens

When I did a fresh install of 18.04 I opened the Login Window once to change the background image. That is the only change I made and that was the first and last time the panel opened. I confirmed that the PolicyKit agent is enabled in Startup applications and that polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1 is running.

Any ideas on how to fix this issue?