Unresponsive Elements in Control Center

Support & Help Requests
#1

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?

#2

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
#3

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.

#4

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
#5

[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
#6

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?