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pythonlinuxrootsudodbus

Using policykit+dbus instead of gksu to run graphical application

I'm searching for a command that does gksu or beesu job, but depends on policykit.

The policykit and dbus documentation is somehow very complicated and not clear.

I found "pkexec" but it shows errors when trying to run a graphical application

pkexec gedit

results:

(gedit:7243): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:
Solution

  • You need to create an action definition file in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions written in XML.

    Copy this to /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.example.gedit:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1/policyconfig.dtd">
<policyconfig>

  <action id="com.example.gedit">
    <message gettext-domain="gedit">Authentication is required to run gedit as root</message>
    <icon_name>accessories-text-editor</icon_name>
    <defaults>
      <allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
      <allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
    </defaults>
    <annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path">/usr/bin/gedit</annotate>
    <annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui">true</annotate>
  </action>

</policyconfig>

    The value org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui = true will allow gedit to connect to your Xorg server. It'll automatically pass XAUTHORITY and DISPLAY to it.