PolicyKit: "Not Authorized to make changes"

i have the same issue, but i think it may be because i am forced to start ubuntu using "startx" since running "gdm" causes the system to hang. are you starting in an unusual way?

yes I am, however this was happening before I modified the system for that

current config is to boot into text-login, and then a console.
I will revert this to see if it fixes the problem

nopes, reverted to previous settings and even with GDM starting normally(default-ly) policykit isn't working. Back to ground zero.

This is a real thorn in my side now. This problem started for me last week and I have not found any resolution. I'm running very up-to-date 10.8 using the default GDM configuration. For me, the things that are broken include: can't play audio, can't shut down the machine from indicator-applet-session (it just logs me out), can't mount USB connected drives. Before I shut down the PC at the end of Friday of the week before, everything worked just fine.

I looked into policy kit and its interactions with the volume manager but I'm not entirely certain where Ubuntu is in the transition from pre-policy kit. I'm fortunate enough to have a similar setup at home but I don't see any obvious differences between the two that would explain this problem.

So far, the only advice I've found for getting around this problem is reinstalling the OS. Since I just recently did that as a result of a failed HDD, I'm not too eager to go through that process again.

Correction to my previous comment: I'm running version 9.10 updated just today.

On request, here's the output of ck-list-sessions:

Session2:
 unix-user = '1114'
 realname = 'Dan Engholm'
 seat = 'Seat4'
 session-type = ''
 active = FALSE
 x11-display = ':0'
 x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
 display-device = ''
 remote-host-name = ''
 is-local = TRUE
 on-since = '2010-02-24T16:29:40.219433Z'
 login-session-id = ''

Can you attach your /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf file and show the output of the "id" command? pk should allow anyone in the "admin" group access to root things.

I don't know if this is the same root cause as the original reporter but I have my particular case resolved. The problem was caused by putting /etc under Subversion control. The .svn directory in /etc/ConsoleKit/seats.d messed up ConsoleKit. Simply removing this directory resolved all of my issues. Now ck-list-sessions reports seat = 'Seat 1'. Thanks, Chris and Robert.

PolicyKit.conf has the default contents provided by the installation:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- XML -*- -->

<!DOCTYPE pkconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Configuration 1.0//EN"
"http://hal.freedesktop.org/releases/PolicyKit/1.0/config.dtd">

<!-- See the manual page PolicyKit.conf(5) for file format -->

<config version="0.1">
    <match user="root">
        <return result="yes"/>
    </match>
    <define_admin_auth group="admin"/>
</config>

And this is my id output:

uid=1114(dengholm) gid=1000(dengholm) groups=4(adm),20(dialout),24(cdrom),46(plugdev),109(lpadmin),117(admin),122(sambashare),501(cvsusers),1000(dengholm)

Dan's issue is bug 478274

Dan: I tried finding the directory you mentioned causing your problem, file/folder does not exist, there is nothing about SVN in /etc/ConsoleKits/seats.d

Kees: uhhh hmm somethign must be really out of whack, I went to /etc/ and couldnt find a folder named "PolicyKit" the closest was polkit-1 and it had nothing in it really

output of "id" :
uid=1001(michalski-bj) gid=100(users) groups=4(adm),24(cdrom),25(floppy),29(audio),44(video),46(plugdev),100(users),104(scanner),106(fuse),108(lpadmin),114(netdev),118(saned),123(admin),124(sambashare),555(ssh-access),618(media)

I was having this same issue after installing Lucid last night, I had a CD I had burned a while ago of the Alpha1 install, that could be related as I had previously upgraded from 9.10 and not had this issue.

Same problems were occuring, "Not authorized" to mount usb devices, no sound, couldn't reboot without going to terminal, etc.

Read several posts and found here the info about Policykit being the cause of the problem. Checked my system and policykit had never been installed apparently!

So I know this doesn't really "Fix" the bug/issue as far as making it work automatically for everyone, but if you are in my situation and just want to get mounting working properly, and it's not due to the .svn issue above:

sudo apt-get install policykit policykit-gnome

Reboot and you should be good to go!

This is not my problem. PolicyKit _IS_ installed and not functioning. the problem still exists. I will be getting my laptop back in 2 weeks and will see if upgrading fixes the problem itself.