polkit not running after update

[Guido Falsi]

On 18/01/21 11:20, Gerrit Kühn wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I don't quite know where to take this, hopefully I'm not completely wrong
> here.
> 
> I've just updated a couple of machines using xfce from 12.1 to 12.2. Most
> work fine after the update, but one is slightly broken now. Here are
> some issues I see: XCFE starts just fine but refuses for open the xfce
> terminal (nothing happens). Also, logging out is not possible anymore
> (desktop gets dark, but not logout selection appears).
> 
> As written in the subject, I think the main reason for this is that polkitd
> isn't running. Sometimes I can see various error windows popping up
> complaining about things that point into this direction, also ps doesn't
> show a polkitd like on the systems that work fine.
> 
> In /var/log/messages I see the following error message from dbus:
> 
> ---
> Jan 18 10:58:57 beastie dbus-daemon[36795]: [system] Failed to activate
> service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1': timed out
> (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
> ---
> 
> 
> However, I'm unable to find out /why/ this happens and how to fix it. Any
> hints?

Not easy to guess. Also, while I do work on xfce ports I know little 
about polkit details. xfce uses it, but it's not part of xfce.

Some things you could check:

look into .xsession-errors, that's where output from user X11 session 
goes, maybe you can find some hint there. Do expect various scary 
warnings there, but most are really just noise.

Check if you have any core dumps from polkit laying around. I think the 
root directory is the most likely place.

You could also try launching polkitd by hand as a user or as root and 
see what it says It should also have a --debug flag.

Trying to reinstall it (via ports if using ports o with pkg upgrade -f 
if using binary packages) could help. Same for it's requirements, I get:

 > pkg info -d polkit-0.118
polkit-0.118:
	expat-2.2.10
	spidermonkey78-78.6.0_1
	glib-2.66.4_1,1
	gettext-runtime-0.21
	dbus-1.12.20_3


So pkg upgrade -f (or rebuilding from ports if that's your method) for 
all those is worth a try.

-- 
Guido Falsi <mad at madpilot.net>