Cant get into administrator mode

[ellbrant]

Im running Kubuntu (swedish) vers 6-something, and I have a problem with the administator mode. I installed Kubuntu two days ago, and yesterday, all of the sudden I cant change anything. When Im trying to change my resolution this is what happens: I click on administrator mode and kubuntu asks for a password, I type my password (the same password that I have used the day before). The password seems to work, since the "password-window" disappear. BUT nothing happens, Im back where I started. I cant change anything. So I try again. Nothing happens. This is what happens when I try using Adept: The password windows pops up, I type my password. The window disappear (and Im thinking GREAT it works) but NO, the program wont start.

Ive tried typing "username ALL= (ALL) ALL" in /etc/sudoers, but nothing. Please can someone help me? I hate to reinstall it again.

[slackrat]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

a couple of questions....one, have you changed your clock since you set it up and two, have you tried 'sudo kcontrol' ?

try the sudo for root access on command line and see if it works or what the error turns up. I think, iirc, that its a kde bug that wont allow you to sudo into admin functions on the control center. It wants a root account (su) and kubuntu is set to run with sudo not, su. Does your password allow you to use other admin tools outside the scope of kde control center?

also beware of the possibility when resetting your clock....it may give a warning 'timestamp set too far in future' or 'connection to su failed' ....if thats the warning youre getting , its an easy fix......let me know how its goiing when you check those two things above....

cheers

[Detonate]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Check this thread. this is probably the solution for your problem. It was for me.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=11612

[slackrat]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

also, for firing up graphic utlities from command line there is kdesu.....tends to stop those annoying messages that pop up before a command line tries to fire up a gui application, tho it usually does fire up.

There are a number of apps, and im inclined to believe many of them i have problems with are actually gtk gnome based, and kubuntu is kde ....where i have to click on the app icon twice to get anything to happen at all.......which sounds like the link detonate pointed out. It can happen with kde apps at times but most of my reclicks seem to focus on apps originially designed for gnome....

hope this helps

[ellbrant]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Ive already looked at: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=11612 , but it doesn´t work =(.

I can use the password when I log onto my computer, and when I use "sudo .. " in the command window the password works.

The only time I changed the time was when I installed it. Let me get back to "kde kcontrol".. I think I have tried that, and it didnt work, something about "can´t connect to the X server" ...

[slackrat]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

er, thats either 'kdesu kcontrol' which is more correct than my lazy way which gives warnings bout x but works.... sudo kcontrol....... the actual app name that your system will recognize for 'kde control center'.....after kdesu kcontrol it should ask for your password and youll be in kcontrol center as admin

[ellbrant]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

When I try 'kdesu kcontrol' this happens:


'X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 154
Major opcode: 145
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 154
Major opcode: 145
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device
xauth: (argv):1: bad display name ":0" in "list" command
kdesu (kdelibs): WARNING: No X authentication info set for display :0
xauth: (argv):1: bad display name ":0" in "list" command
kdesu (kdelibs): WARNING: No X authentication info set for display :0
xauth: (argv):1: bad display name ":0" in "list" command
kdesu (kdelibs): WARNING: No X authentication info set for display :0
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib:
No protocol specified

kdeinit: Can't connect to the X Server.
kdeinit: Might not terminate at end of session.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib:
No protocol specified

kded: cannot connect to X server :0
DCOP aborting call from 'anonymous-7373' to 'kded'
kded: ERROR: Communication problem with kded, it probably crashed.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib:


Ive tried to reinstall by typing:
'sudo apt-get install kcontrol --reinstall' (this didnt improved anything)

Hope someone can make something of this =) Thanks for your help!

[slackrat]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

I get those warnings, and Kubuntu isn't the only distro giving them these days....except for the end....mine ends this way:

Failed to open device
kdeinit: Shutting down running client.
---------------------------------
It looks like dcopserver is already running. If you are sure
that it is not already running, remove /root/.DCOPserver_mephisto-laptop__0
and start dcopserver again.
---------------------------------

KDE Daemon (kded) already running.


amd then the gui asks for password and kde control opens and i can make my changes as root. You didnt specify which 6.x release....im running drake version 6.0.6.1

If you're running 6.10 (Edgy) you should check with edgy specific docs....

Let us know precisely which version and how up to date it is.....

I also have quite a bit installed here, including the other desktops,,,often , after a new install, there are packages you just 'expect to be there' and they aren't . Most often, a misfiring app will warn you wnats missing, but not always. If you notice my system says kdcop is already running, when i see an error like that, i log out and log into new session...it may not be opening cause it thinks it is alreday open.....on a couple of distros lately, ive seen kdeinit spawn runaway processes and had a pita of a time trying to kill processes etc......but drake is the very stable Long Term Support so it is running more smoothly at the moment than more recent distro and kde releases.....

are we having fun yet?

good luck....we;lll get this sorted....

cheers

[ellbrant]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Well, this was quite a handful =). However I must start by a slight embarrassing question: How can I see which version I have ? =)

From what the help can tell me its KDE 3.5.5, but Im almost certain that I downloaded ver 6 something... I downloaded it recently (3 days ago, swedish language) so I guess I have the latest version. I have opened my download list to universe & multiverse and I have used : "sudo apt-get upgrade" so I should be quite updated right?

I saw my process list and found that dcopserver was running, and when I killed it my I get logged out, & when I log in again the problem is still there.

[dibl]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

You can learn your Kubuntu version by typing "uname -r" at the command line.

[ellbrant]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Great, thanks.

So: My version is 2.6.17-11-generic. Hope this helps helping me =P

[slackrat]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

er, uname -r just shows the kernel version and even uname -a (all info) doesnt tell the distro version....to find your distro version , use:

lsb_release -a (which gives you 'all' the kubuntu info)

fyi, im guessing that weird command lsb is for linux standard base? if that makes it easy to remember it....release is the release, and -a is usually a shorthand for all info....

Nothing to be embarrased about.....commands like this, or whoami are needed to remind us sometimes, on which box we are working, as who , and where we are in the system............lots of people got lost wondering in unix and linux before us obiviously :-P

let us know which release your running to help narrow down your problem..........cheers

[ellbrant]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Okey =) so this is the result for 'lsb_release -a':


No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 6.10
Release: 6.10
Codename: edgy

Seems a bit weird since Im sure that I have Kubuntu, anyway hope this will give a clue to the solution of my problem.

[ellbrant]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Oh by the way... Someone really weird thing happened. Everything worked all of the sudden, I got in to adept and I could make changes in the network configuration. High on happiness close the adept and tried again, but this time nothing happened.. It never opened, not even the password window appeared.. So I tried reboot, but then I was back where I started with the same problem as before... AAH!!

Maybey there is some program that starts with Kubuntu that shouldnt? This is my best guess so I will show the list of every process that are running:

4439 3997 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/x-session-manager
4480 4439 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session x
4483 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session x-session-manager
4484 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 9 --print-address 7 -
4517 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 start_kdeinit --new-startup +kcminit_startup
4518 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 kdeinit Running...
4521 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 dcopserver [kdeinit] --nosid
4524 4518 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 klauncher [kdeinit] --new-startup
4526 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:01 kded [kdeinit] --new-startup
4532 4439 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 kwrapper ksmserver
4534 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 ksmserver [kdeinit]
4535 4518 0 22:40 ? 00:00:01 kwin [kdeinit] -session 1014110214e14400011724418300000004639
4537 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:01 kdesktop [kdeinit]
4539 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:05 kicker [kdeinit]
4540 4518 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 kio_file [kdeinit] file /tmp/ksocket-user/klaunchercRk0qc.sl
4544 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 kio_uiserver [kdeinit]
4560 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 kaccess [kdeinit]
4561 4518 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -s 60 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi
4568 1 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 kmix [kdeinit] -session 10d8cecf96000111065458100000063760027
4569 4518 0 22:40 ? 00:00:00 katapult -session 10d9d39668000112680660600000081280032_11727
4577 4569 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 aspell -a -S -C -d sv -Tutf8 --encoding=utf-8
4578 4518 0 22:41 ? 00:00:01 konsole [kdeinit] -session 100000000117278419800000046130015_
4580 1 1 22:41 ? 00:00:10 kopete -session 1014110214e144000117244941800000045330077_117
4584 4578 0 22:41 pts/0 00:00:00 /bin/bash
4588 1 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 knotify [kdeinit]
4598 1 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/python /usr/share/python-support/kde-guidance/guidan
4609 1 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 adept_notifier
4610 1 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 kbluetoothd --dontforceshow
4692 4598 0 22:41 ? 00:00:02 /usr/bin/python /usr/share/python-support/kde-guidance/guidan
4718 1 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 kwalletmanager --kwalletd
4728 1 0 22:41 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/kdesud
5140 4518 6 22:48 ? 00:00:21 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
5149 1 0 22:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2 13
5160 5140 0 22:48 ? 00:00:00 [netstat] <defunct>

And by the way, when everything was working as it should, my internet connection was not on, but I doubt that should make a difference, right?

[slackrat]

Re: Cant get into administrator mode

Ok, you're running Kubuntu Edgy (KDE+ubuntu).....your processes seem alright cept for the kdesudo near the bottom.....make sure you don't have adept running on the taskbar somewhere, while youve been trying to open another session. You might find this thread helpful, its starting to sound like a problem with sudo and kdesu:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...prev_next=prev

read it carefully and make sure you have all previous sudo processes killed , based on that thread. In my opinion, I ll stick with synaptic for a gui package manager, which is older and i beilieve far more stable and user friendly. sudo apt-get install synaptic....once, that is we solve your sudo problem.

That thread is the closest thing i found seems like youre problem is with sudo, adept and /or kcontrol......mainly sudo. See if the steps taken in that thread allow you to do something simple like 'sudo apt-get update' which will update your repos and take a few seconds on command line. If that works, then it points to a gui problem if you still get headaches with adept. With sudo working on command line , you shouldnt have problems with starting up kcontrol though.....when in doublt, google the keywords you see as the problem.

I could be completely wrong but it looks like maybe you have a few sudo processes running and then youre trying to sudo....if the fault is with adept, remember adept is tied to your entire package management system..apt-get, dpkg , etc.....which is why i recommend synaptic even if its gonna install some gtk/gnome libs to run properly.

Let me know what happens next.....

cheers