security sub system or pam is preventing mounting partitions

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

Hi I am Rupesh from India and I brought a new system with AMD Ryzen zen3 5500GT APU and Asus prime b450 motherboard. I have installed gentoo linux four months ago and it is working fine except there are some issues related to mounting partitions through gui file manager.

Upto now I have updated my system upto 10 times and at present everything is working fine except I can't mount exFAT or other partition types through gui file manager.

I am able to mount through command line but I can't mount directly through gui file manager like nemo and thunar etc.,.

Yesterday before updating my system I am able to mount but after updating the problem appeared.

I am getting error as can't mount Authorization not permitted.

I think that all the required software to run the system is installed but while updating settings related to security are changed.

I think that the main problem is Personal Authentication Module or PAM is preventing mounting partitions directly through gui file manager like nemo and thunar.

I have created similar threads before but there's no proper response and so I have created new one.

Kindly try to suggest how to mount other partitions through gui file manager like nemo and thunar.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

eccerr0r · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 6:55 am Post subject:

emerge --info ?

Are you using either systemd or elogind, and using udisks and polkit? These are necessary for gui-based automount to work. PAM, the pluggable authentication module, I've rarely found to be the issue though it's possible if you mucked with the pam config that screws up polkit.
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Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

yes I am using systemd but I cant say about udisks and polkit

I am providing USE variable written in make.conf below

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

I have searched and found that my USE variable consists of udisks and policykit.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

rab0171610 · Guru Joined: 24 Dec 2022 Posts: 467

It might be polkit rules.
I have a rule to allow me to mount within the file manager without authentication.
(If you want to configure the file manager to prompt for authentication every time, that is another issue.)

eccerr0r · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 7:21 pm Post subject:

The defaults provided by Gentoo/Freedesktop within the packages should work as-is, I did not need to change the default polkit/udev rules in any of my machines and did not have to be in the 'wheel' group to auto mount removable media at console (usb, cdrom, etc.), so something is going on.

The usual suspects are first not having dbus working, and then not getting a 'seat' (run 'loginctl to verify you have a seat') at the console but having systemd-logind should have solved that. Using 'startx' to start your gui without starting a dbus session in the past was also a very common reason for it not working, but this should be a distant memory by now...

With these working udisks handles the actual mount and polkit gives permissions to mount.
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

rab0171610 · Guru Joined: 24 Dec 2022 Posts: 467

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

Hi I am able to mount other partitions without permissions.

I think everything other will work fine
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

Another issue is when I press shutdown button from power menu the system is not getting down instead getting logged out. After that I have to press shutdown button again to halt.

How to halt directly through gui.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

Goverp · Advocate Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 2202

rupeshforu3, as far as I can see, you don't say which desktop you are using. I had similar problems some time ago using LXDE on Arch Linux which was caused by not having GVFS installed.
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Greybeard

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

I am using desktop environments called

Cinnamon
Mate
Xfce
Lxde

Mounting problem exists on all of the above and now it is solved.

At present the main issue is I can't shutdown directly while working in the above desktop environments. I mean when I select shutdown button in power menu the system is getting logout instead of shutdown.

In the display manager again I have to select shutdown option.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

rab0171610 · Guru Joined: 24 Dec 2022 Posts: 467

rupeshforu3,
I am glad that you solved one of your problems. It is good that you can ask for help and others will take their time to work with you. In return, it would be beneficial if you could explain how you solved your mounting problem that you originally asked for assistance with in this thread. This has possibility to help others in the future.

rupeshforu3 · n00b Joined: 19 Aug 2024 Posts: 57

Originally I installed Gentoo Linux from the beginning before four months back and after that I have updated my system upto 10 to 12 times.

Non source code based distributions just downloads packages from repository and copy files to local directories and after that apply hooks or post configuration steps. Mostly I think that they do not delete existing files or directories.

Take for example polkit.

But Gentoo Linux is based on source code and before updating the system the source code is compiled and after that copied to local storage.

I think that each and every package comes with use case and often it changes.

Each and every time while updating I got a request like " The package needs use case and do you accept it".

I say yes and after that all the downloaded source code is compiled and updated.

I think that use cases of different packages are in conflict with each other.

Also I think one package update may delete or alter the contents of other package.

According to the above scenarios polkit files which were present previously are deleted and so I have created a new file related to polkit and finally worked.

Gentoo is great but I think portage must check whether package update is going to delete or alter files related to other packages. Each and every package must contain a specification that the package consists a list of files and directories which are going to copied after compilation phase.

Other distributions check at the initial stage itself whether the current one is going to delete or alter files related to others. If it is the installation or update process is aborted.

I have expressed my views and hope helpful to the remaining community.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

eccerr0r · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 6:14 pm Post subject:

rab0171610 · Guru Joined: 24 Dec 2022 Posts: 467

eccerr0r,
For the record I did not indicate you "have" to add yourself to the wheel group. Creating or modifying polkit rules is acceptable and can customize default behaviors.
If I wanted to automount removable media automatically when logging in or immediately when plugged in I would not need the rule. I can set that in System Settings. However, I do not and the final solution did not apply to my preferences so I keep the polkit rule so I do not have to deal with the password prompt when mounting filesystems. It has nothing to do with updating config files or dispatch-conf. Thanks anyway.

I suggest it as a troubleshooting mechanism to see if it alleviated the symptoms, especially since the OP refers to mounting filesystems within the file manager, not the console. If not requiring permissions the user is the enable to mount in the file manager, it is a permissions problem. If, even without need for permissions, user is unable to mount in the file manger then it is likely not a permissions problem.
Regardless, he has solved that problem and that shipped has sailed.