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I have created following policy file at /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.xyz.xyz.policy

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC  "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"  "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1/policyconfig.dtd">     
    <policyconfig>   
        <vendor>XYZ Technologies Inc.</vendor>   
        <vendor_url>http://www.xyz.com</vendor_url>   
        <action id="org.xyz.policykit.pkexec.run-xyz">
            <description>Run XYZ</description>
            <message>Authentication is required to run XYZ</message>
            <defaults>
                <allow_any>no</allow_any>
                <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
                <allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
            </defaults>
            <annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path">/usr/bin/xyz</annotate>
            <annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui">TRUE</annotate>   
        </action> 
    </policyconfig>

and desktop file at /usr/local/share/applications/xyz-gui-root.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name[en_in]=XYZ administrator (root)
Exec=pkexec xyz
Comment[en_IN]=Launches XYZ administrator
Name=XYZ administrator (root)
Comment=Launches XYZ administrator
Icon[en_IN]=/xyz/xyzroot.png
Icon=/xyz/xyzroot.png

When I search XYZ and run through Activity->Search, it doesn't show any activity, not even ask for password. But double clicking on xyz-gui-root.desktop file it works as expected with password authentication.

If I change 

Exec=pkexec xyz

as 

Exec=gnome-terminal -x pkexec xyz

it works fine with Activity->Search with authentication, but it opens a unwanted terminal.

What I am missing in above files? How can I avoid unwanted terminal to open with gnome-terminal entry? Is there any way to execute GUI application with authentication using pkexec or any other method like consolehelper?

Thanks in advance!

Nitinkumar Ambekar
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1 Answers1

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The complete answer for my question is here. In short:

1) Create a shell script as /usr/local/bin/foo.sh:

#!/bin/sh
pkexec "/usr/sbin/foo" "$@"

2) Give executable permission to above script:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/foo.sh

3) If you are using .desktop file, change Exec value as:

Exec=/usr/local/bin/foo.sh

4) Make sure that your policy file in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/ has following entry to allow GUI:

<annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui">TRUE</annotate>

Thats it!

Nitinkumar Ambekar
  • 553
  • 4
  • 9