The conversation with "su" has failed

[Supersayano]

When I go into 'System Preferences' and 'Controller Manager' and enter the password, the drivers are not shown because it gives this error that I show in the screenshot:



The conversation with "su" has failed.

How can I solve this problem and have the drivers display normally?
Thanks and regards...

[Schwarzer Kater]

Welcome.

Hm. Strange.
The first time I tried this I had the same result (only in German ). I vaguely remember that there was a Polkit issue some time ago…
I then just clicked "[Aceptar]" a second time and it worked… Now it always works (in this session).

You can also start the graphical "driver manager" from the Konsole terminal emulator with sudo kubuntu-driver-manager instead.

[Supersayano]

I know I can launch the "driver manager" from the console, but is there a solution to my problem and be able to make that section of the "System Preferences" work correctly?.
Greetings...

[RedGreen925]

I know I can launch the "driver manager" from the console, but is there a solution to my problem and be able to make that section of the "System Preferences" work correctly?.
Greetings...

Yes open a Konsole and use sudo passwd root to set the password you want used for the root user then you can actually use the su command which it is used for to change to the super user (su). I have my root user enabled here and it worked without problems as I had suspected when doing this test due to that.

[Schwarzer Kater]

If you do want to enable root and use su I would think it is possibly better to use su - instead of su.
Otherwise with only su your user's /home directory/environment is used as the one for root which could lead to strange things - but this also depends…
Oh: and if you became root with su - you can exit root again by simply typing exit (this works with su too, of course).


PS: Especially for less (CLI-) experienced users I would strongly recommend to use sudo instead of su - .
With sudo one can only bork one single command while with su - one can bork a lot more if one is not very careful and knows what one is doing…
Using sudo instead of su - can sometimes "save you from yourself".

[Supersayano]

I activated the Root account with "sudo passwd root", so I had it for a few days. But then I disabled it with "sudo passwd -l root". I don't know if this has anything to do with it.

I do not understand well what you are telling me because I do not have a good command of the English language. Please try to be more clear and EXACT when telling me what I should do.
Thank you.

[Schwarzer Kater]

So use sudo passwd -u root to unlock the root acount again.
Log out and in again or restart your system afterwards.

[Supersayano]

I entered the indicated command "sudo passwd -u root" and this was the result:

julio-cesar@mi-equipo:~$ sudo passwd -u root
[sudo] contraseña para julio-cesar:     
passwd: contraseña cambiada.
julio-cesar@mi-equipo:~$

Unfortunately nothing has changed.
Thanks and regards...

[Supersayano]

Now I realize that this error not only occurs in the driver manager but also in other applications that require the password to run and that dialog has to appear asking for it, such as the "Grub Customizer" as seen in the capture.
Is there no solution to this annoying problem?
Thanks in advance and greetings...

[RedGreen925]

Is there no solution to this annoying problem?
Thanks in advance and greetings...

Well if you do not put check mark in the Recordar la contraseña box which is remember the password in English it will ask for it every single time you open it. I just checked it testing it again here and the next time I opened it the password was not required only the dialog chosen opened.

[Supersayano]

I checked the box, and now nothing just opens. I click on the "Grub Customizer" launcher and nothing happens. And the driver manager does the same, that is, it doesn't just not open.
Greetings...

[RedGreen925]

I checked the box, and now nothing just opens. I click on the "Grub Customizer" launcher and nothing happens. And the driver manager does the same, that is, it doesn't just not open.
Greetings...

Well then you have a unique system then. I had never tried any of this until your postings and every step I have tried has worked here. Including today where checking that box allows it to open those root needed setting page now without the password since checking the box. The check of that box now I just checked it once more does not seem to survive a logout and login, which seems rather stupid as you would think a remember password check box would actually remember the password. The solution to your not working problem now seems to be the logout and back in, mine was due to reboot for new kernel install today so do that if the logout and login does not work and it appears the useless design of the dialog means you are stuck with it. I would also check to see if it will allow you to be logged in as root by using the su command in Konsole to confirm the password is set for that account.

[spikederailed]

is you user a member of wheel or sudo groups? open terminal and type id %username% whatever your username would be. Like in my case see below.

rpclark@rpc-nixdt:~$ id rpclark
uid=1000(rpclark) gid=1000(rpclark) groups=1000(rpclark),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30( dip),46(plugdev),122(lpadmin),133(lxd),134(sambash are),138(libvirt)

[Supersayano]

RedGreen925 indeed, upon restarting the session, the dialog to enter the password appears again, but as before it continues to give the same error "The conversation with "su" has failed".
And as for your suggestion to check the Root account, this is the console output:

julio-cesar@mi-equipo:~$ su
Contraseña:
root@mi-equipo:/home/julio-cesar#

spikederailed here the console output to the mentioned command:

julio-cesar@mi-equipo:~$ id julio-cesar
uid=1000(julio-cesar) gid=1000(julio-cesar) grupos=1000(julio-cesar),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),114(lpadmin),988(sambashare)
julio-cesar@mi-equipo:~$

For what it's worth, I realized that if in the dialog box that gives the error, after this happens I click on the "Ignore" button (as seen in the screenshot) this second dialog box appears (also shown in the screenshot) in which entering the password effectively opens the application (in this case Grub Customizer). It seems that applications that use this other dialog window, such as "Synaptic", do not have this problem.
Greetings...

[RedGreen925]

RedGreen925 indeed, upon restarting the session, the dialog to enter the password appears again, but as before it continues to give the same error "The conversation with "su" has failed".
And as for your suggestion to check the Root account, this is the console output:

julio-cesar@mi-equipo:~$ su
Contraseña:
root@mi-equipo:/home/julio-cesar#

I am out of ideas on this one then, it appears the account can access root via the su command like mine but does not exhibit the same behavior so that theory I had is blown all to hell. Even looking at the groups the user belong to I have the lxd in addition to every single one you have.