#932088 gdebi doenst ask for a root password. just silently closes

#932088#5
Date:
2019-07-14 20:46:59 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

I would want to report a bug in package gdebi. When i attempt to install some package
with gdebi it just closes without displaing any error. I found a error message in
.xsession-errors saying "Refusing to render service to dead parents.". Tried on my host
system with debian 10 and not modified debian 10 in vbox.

Gdebi is not usable.

#932088#10
Date:
2019-07-14 21:37:30 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

When attempting last try through cli i managed to get to the authentication
phase, but auth with correct password failed. The failure was with following
message
 "polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ===
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.
".

#932088#15
Date:
2020-01-30 10:06:29 UTC
From:
To:
This might be the same problem I encountered on a clean install of buster. In
my case it turns out gdebi-gtk is dependant on package dbus-x11, but it's not
listed as a dependency.

Could you try to install package dbus-x11 and see if it solves your problem?

#932088#20
Date:
2020-05-06 12:38:40 UTC
From:
To:
Hey,
on bullseye, with dbus-x11 installed, same bug with gdebi-gtk about
crashing whenever I click "install". Crash and in the loggs I can read
"refusing to render service to dead parents."

The workaround I found for now is just "wrapping" debus-gtk in a
shell (as I discovered that launching gdebi-gtk from a terminal emulator
worked).

That launcher work :
Exec=sh -c "gdebi-gtk %f"

Why ? I have no clue.

#932088#25
Date:
2020-12-15 04:09:47 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

I meet the same bug.

I use Buster 10.7, I installed XFCE,MATE,GNOME desktop in my computer.

But this bug only occur in XFCE, MATE and GNOME is no problem.

BTW:
dbus-x11 is already installed in my compurter.

I also strace the pid of gdebi-gtk, the last error lines is following:

mprotect(0x7f6abcb42000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abc710000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abc6ff000, 32768, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abc7b4000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abc9ce000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abc9af000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abcb53000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x55c84fb26000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f6abcba2000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
munmap(0x7f6abcb57000, 147011)          = 0
set_tid_address(0x7f6abbcfa810)         = 25973
set_robust_list(0x7f6abbcfa820, 24)     = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGRTMIN, {sa_handler=0x7f6abc9896b0, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_SIGINFO, sa_restorer=0x7f6abc995730}, NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGRT_1, {sa_handler=0x7f6abc989740, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART|SA_SIGINFO, sa_restorer=0x7f6abc995730}, NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [RTMIN RT_1], NULL, 8) = 0
prlimit64(0, RLIMIT_STACK, NULL, {rlim_cur=8192*1024, rlim_max=RLIM64_INFINITY}) = 0
brk(NULL)                               = 0x55c851978000
brk(0x55c851999000)                     = 0x55c851999000
statfs("/sys/fs/selinux", 0x7ffd9c0c23b0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
statfs("/selinux", 0x7ffd9c0c23b0)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/filesystems", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
read(3, "nodev\tsysfs\nnodev\trootfs\nnodev\tr"..., 1024) = 377
read(3, "", 1024)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/selinux/config", F_OK)     = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
futex(0x7f6abcaedf58, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 2147483647) = 0
futex(0x7f6abcaedf58, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 2147483647) = 0
geteuid()                               = 1001
openat(AT_FDCWD, "lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/charset.alias", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gconv/gconv-modules.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=26402, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 26402, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, 3, 0) = 0x7f6abcb74000
close(3)                                = 0
futex(0x7f6abc97ca08, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 2147483647) = 0
write(2, "pkexec must be setuid root\n", 27) = 27
exit_group(127)                         = ?
+++ exited with 127 +++

Is this bug possible have relation to the selinux ?

I'd installed the package about selinux:

 dpkg -l|grep selinux
ii  libselinux1:amd64                    2.8-1+b1                                     amd64        SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii  libselinux1:i386                     2.8-1+b1                                     i386         SELinux runtime shared libraries

#932088#30
Date:
2020-12-15 09:56:38 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/gdebi-gtk process don't has correct PPID in XFCE, the parent ID is 1 in the XFCE.

atzlinux    3424       1 24 16:09 ?        00:00:10 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/gdebi-gtk /home/atzlinux/download/qqmusic_1.0.5_amd64.deb

                      ~~~

When I click Install button,I get the error info in .xsession-errors:

Refusing to render service to dead parents.


But in MATE, the gdebi-gtk process has the PPID of caja:

atzlinux    1631    1455  1 15:52 ?        00:00:02 caja
atzlinux    2023    1631 11 15:54 ?        00:00:10 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/gdebi-gtk /home/atzlinux/download/qqmusic_1.0.5_amd64.deb

The caja is the file manager of MATE.

When I click Install button, there is a root password input display, the process user became the root, pkexec can been invoked:

atzlinux    1631    1455  1 15:52 ?        00:00:02 caja
root        2023    1631  6 15:54 ?        00:00:10 pkexec gdebi-gtk --non-interactive /home/atzlinux/download/qqmusic_1.0.5_amd64.deb

The deb package can install success.

#932088#35
Date:
2020-12-15 09:30:38 UTC
From:
To:
在 2020/12/15 下午12:09, xiao sheng wen 写道:


/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/gdebi-gtk process don't has correct PPID in
XFCE, the parent ID is 1 in the XFCE.

atzlinux    3424       1 24 16:09 ?        00:00:10 /usr/bin/python3
/usr/bin/gdebi-gtk /home/atzlinux/download/qqmusic_1.0.5_amd64.deb

                      ~~~

When I click Install button,I get the error info in .xsession-errors:

Refusing to render service to dead parents.


But in MATE, the gdebi-gtk process has the PPID of caja:

atzlinux    1631    1455  1 15:52 ?        00:00:02 caja
atzlinux    2023    1631 11 15:54 ?        00:00:10 /usr/bin/python3
/usr/bin/gdebi-gtk /home/atzlinux/download/qqmusic_1.0.5_amd64.deb

The caja is the file manager of MATE.

When I click Install button, there is a root password input display, the
process user became the root, pkexec can been invoked:

atzlinux    1631    1455  1 15:52 ?        00:00:02 caja
root        2023    1631  6 15:54 ?        00:00:10 pkexec gdebi-gtk
--non-interactive /home/atzlinux/download/qqmusic_1.0.5_amd64.deb

The deb package can install success.

#932088#40
Date:
2022-11-11 03:58:34 UTC
From:
To:
control: found -1 0.9.5.7+nmu6
control: reassign -1 thunar

Hi,

     IMHO, #932088 is the bug of Xfce file manger Thunar, not the bug of
gdebi itself.


I find some infos about it:

Fixed in xfce4-panel:

https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/issues/52
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/issues/407

But this bug still exist in thunar.

#932088#51
Date:
2022-11-11 07:28:48 UTC
From:
To:
control: found -1 4.17.11-1

Hi,

I'd test this bug in thunar  4.17.11-1 in experimental,
It's exist too.

Login in to Xfce use normal user account,
when I double click one deb package file in thunar, the gdebi start up
on screen,

The parent ID of  "/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/gdebi-gtk" is 1:

ps -efww|grep gdebi
atzlinux   68506       1 56 15:17 ?        00:00:02 /usr/bin/python3
/usr/bin/gdebi-gtk /path/any.deb

When I click install button, the gdebi crash,

~/.xsession-errors  has the error info:

Refusing to render service to dead parents.

as it can't invoke pkexec to input root password.

I guess  this is a bug of upstream.


在 2022/11/11 11:58, xiao sheng wen (肖盛文) 写道:
Regards,

#932088#58
Date:
2024-07-14 17:16:37 UTC
From:
To:
The symptoms here sound very much like
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdebi/+bug/1854588 which has
now been fixed in Ubuntu, but not submitted to Debian

There was also a fix drafted in
https://salsa.debian.org/atzlinux-guest/gdebi/-/commit/1de6b00bef539de4458021dc02ed2110f76ab630
but not record if it worked. It wasn't uploaded to Debian.

I think the root cause why gdebi is broken is that it is unmaintained.

Looking at https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gdebi the source code
hosting points to
https://code.launchpad.net/~gdebi-developers/gdebi/trunk. Last version
in this source code was 0.9.5.7 in 2015, followed by commit that
source code moved to
https://code.launchpad.net/~gdebi-developers/gdebi/+git/main in 2022,
yet that location has zero new commits since the 0.9.5.7 in 2015.

If it was maintained, and there was a git repository people could
contribute to, many of these bugs would have been fixed. Currently it
is just maintainers doing one-off emergency fixes without storing
anything in git in a way that would allow for contributions from users
like Doug Brown in LP#1854588.

#932088#63
Date:
2026-01-25 20:52:46 UTC
From:
To:
Control: reassign -1 gdebi

Agreed there, and reassigning back to gdebi.

Regards,

#932088#72
Date:
2026-01-25 21:17:57 UTC
From:
To:
Can anybody reproduce this in Debian with an up to date version? To me
it looks like this was fixed by this commit

https://salsa.debian.org/debian/gdebi/-/commit/467def1dc59d3e2427b7fa9788c8c3abf74506a0

which is present in gdebi 0.9.5.7+nmu8, which already is in trixie?

Please inform me if I am mistaken.

best
/Andreas Rönnquist
gusnan@debian.org

#932088#77
Date:
2026-01-25 22:20:08 UTC
From:
To:
I just tested on forky, and on my end it silently closes *after* asking
for the root password now.
This is both when opening the .deb using Firefox or Nemo. I tried it
with this .deb file:
https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_13/amd64/thunar-megasync-Debian_13_amd64.deb
Starting from command line, in the hopes of getting more information,
yields it just not asking for root:

juliangro@x299-workstation ~/temp> gdebi
./thunar-megasync-Debian_13_amd64.deb
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/bin/gdebi", line 76, in <module>
     debi = GDebiCli(options)
   File "/usr/share/gdebi/GDebi/GDebiCli.py", line 67, in __init__
     self._cache = Cache(tp, rootdir=options.rootdir)
                   ~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 149, in __init__
     self._check_and_create_required_dirs(rootdir)
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/cache.py", line 191, in
_check_and_create_required_dirs
     open(rootdir + f, "w").close()
     ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '//etc/apt/sources.list'
juliangro@x299-workstation ~/temp [1]>


—Julian Groß

#932088#82
Date:
2026-01-25 22:17:22 UTC
From:
To:
Also see the last comment at the Ubuntu bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdebi/+bug/1854588

which confirms my thoughts - marking as fixed with version number.

/Andreas Rönnquist
gusnan@debian.org
andreas@ronnquist.net

#932088#89
Date:
2026-01-25 22:50:00 UTC
From:
To:
Control: notfixed 932088 0.9.5.7+nmu8


Thanks - marking as not fixed again (I did send my previous mail before
seeing your message, it was just slow getting delivered to the BTS).

best
/Andreas