I have exactly the same problem after upgrading from 14.04 to 15.10. I have two users (referred here as X and Y) in sudo group. When I run 'pkexec bash' from terminal I get following message. It doesn't make any difference if I try to authenticate as X or Y.
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.policykit.exec === Authentication is needed to run `/bin/bash' as the super user Multiple identities can be used for authentication: 1. X,,, (X) 2. ,,, (Y) Choose identity to authenticate as (1-2): 1 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. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to policykit-1 in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1288786 Title: pkexec does not launch graphical authentication Status in policykit-1 package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Installed Trusty Tahr Lubuntu Beta1 version and added xubuntu desktop. In buth desktops, I tried to launch synaptic to install some packages. If I try to launch from menu, nothing seems to happen. From a terminal, I ran pkexec "/usr/sbin/synaptic" and saw that it asks for password in the terminal window, instead of popping up an authentication window like previous Ubuntu version did. That was why I saw no authentication request when launching from menu.. I have a workaround)launching from Terminal window), but this should be fixed before release. ralph@minnie:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu Trusty Tahr (development branch)" ralph@minnie:~$ pkexec --version pkexec version 0.105 Thanks To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/policykit-1/+bug/1288786/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
