I just experienced this bug on Ubuntu 13.04 amd-64 desktop. The following appeared in /var/log/auth.log after attempting to install a VirtualBox extension package:
Jul 30 12:47:54 will-desktop su[9696]: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/pts/5 ruser=will rhost= user=root Jul 30 12:47:56 will-desktop su[9696]: pam_authenticate: Authentication failure Jul 30 12:47:56 will-desktop su[9696]: FAILED su for root by will Jul 30 12:47:56 will-desktop su[9696]: - /dev/pts/5 will:root Running gksu-properties, it seems that the 'authentication mode' is originally set to 'su', which does not work when there is no root administrator password set (default + strongly recommended for Ubuntu desktop installation, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo). Switching the option in gksu-properties to 'sudo' and then using the logged-in user's password fixed the issue. It seems this default should really be fixed in Ubuntu's default install, but application developers could also call 'gksudo' instead of 'gksu', which seems to use 'sudo' properly regardless of the gksu- properties setting. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1173013 Title: Administrative Password Not Recognized To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdebi/+bug/1173013/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
