Urbackupclientgui GTK+ error in Debian 10

client
1

Hi!

I have followed instructions to compile and install urbackupclient in Debian 10, it looks like it runs fine, but when I try to access to “Add/Remove backups paths” or “Settings” I got this error in terminal (and no window opens):

Could not load password file!
gksudo: not found
kdesudo: not found
gksu: not found
kdesu: not found
No protocol specified
23:48:54: Error: Unable to initialize GTK+, is DISPLAY set properly?

I guess that since gksu and so on are deprecated it should be run with pkexec?

2

That or hack about with lxqt-sudo which can substitute for gksu et. al. pulls in various qt deps though, & you may need to manually create a sym-link to make it be triggered in place of one of the other items listed as “not found” if you go that route rather than pkexec.

3

It looks like lxqt doesn’t work either… maybe the issue is wayland?

4

Wayland you’ll need the pkexec route, or plain old sudo in a terminal, lxqt-sudo won’t work with that, only under X.

5

I have create this policy (/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.debian.urbackupclientgui.policy)

<?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.debian.urbackupclientgui“>
  <description xml:lang=”es”>Runr urBackup Client Gui as root</description>
  <message xml:lang=”es”>Authenticaiton needed to run urBackup Client Gui</message>
  <icon_name>evolution</icon_name>
  <defaults>
    <allow_any>no</allow_any>
    <allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
    <allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
  </defaults>
  <annotate key=”org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path”>/usr/local/bin/urbackupclientgui</annotate>
  <annotate key=”org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui”>true</annotate>
</action></policyconfig>

But I still get this error after entering the password:
Error: Unable to initialize GTK+, is DISPLAY set properly?

Am I missing something?

6

I don’t know tbh, it’s a couple of years since I last played with policykit & even then it usually took me nine attempts to make anything work, you’ll need someone more up to date with Linux than me I suspect.

Can you start the gui from a terminal?
What about using sudo there?

I’m rusty & somewhat out of my depth, it’s a miracle I remembered lxqt-sudo as a substitute for gksu :upside_down_face:

About all I can offer as out of date & practice as I am, is a link to the manpage for pkexec.
pkexec(1): Execute command as another user - Linux man page (die.net)
I’m really much more familiar with Windows, hopefully someone will happen along who can help more.

7

Hi there,
working in Ubuntu 21.10 (Ubuntu Default Gnome Desktop Environment) it seems not a to be a Wayland issue because in a Wayland session the tray icon does not show up instead a is thrown at me, see: Client GUI on Ubuntu 21.10 in a Wayland session shows GTK assertion error
With a Xorg session, I can reproduce the "Could not load password file! " error @joe mentioned in the top posting of this thread.

8

Hi there,
For Ubuntu 21.10 (Ubuntu default Gnome environment) I found a workaround for that daunting "Could not load password file! " error showing up when one tries to open Settings or Backup Paths in the Client GUI tray icon. The workaround is inspiured/based on the zensu package (https://github.com/Chrysostomus/zensu) which is a simple gksu replacement. The zensu package is available for installation on Manjaro or Arch Linux distros but I could not find it for Ubuntu/Debian. With zensu in place, it brings up a Zenity dialog box asking for the root password when selecting Settings or Backup Paths etc. in the tray icon. However, it is a rather straightforward:

  1. Create a file called “zensu” and paste the raw content of https://github.com/Chrysostomus/zensu/blob/master/zensu.sh to it:
    1a. sudo nano /usr/bin/zensu
    1b. Paste the raw content of zensu from GitHub to it
    1c. save and close zensu

  2. Maken zensu executable: sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/zensu

  3. Create a symlink: sudo ln -s /usr/bin/zensu /usr/bin/gksu

  4. reboot your system