Is polkit broken?

Support System Updates
1

Since this was moved to its own thread, I’ve added some background for others who might land here. I did the Anh-Linh Preview update (using Add/Remove) and all was good but I went back to the video-nvidia-575xx driver due to screen/window flickering. Video editing, OBS, Steam games, etc. all worked fine after switching the Nvidia driver.

On Jan 6, 2026 I did the Manjaro 26.0 update (using Add/Remove) and I started having “Authentication Failed” in both Add/Remove and using pamac from the terminal. When I reboot, my system loads fine but I cannot do anything with pamac.

The FIRST thing I did was to follow the instructions in the Known Issues and Solutions wiki, “problems with polkit”. All of my permissions were correct but my system does not have a /usr/lib/polkit-1/rules.d/ folder.

My System:

System:
  Host: pc2019 Kernel: 6.1.159-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO (WI-FI) v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends
    v: 0602 date: 10/19/2018
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: Intel Core i9-9900KF bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/5000 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
    5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 13: 800 14: 800
    15: 800 16: 800
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070 Lite Hash Rate] driver: nvidia
    v: 575.64.05
  Device-2: Logitech C920 PRO HD Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 2560x1440~60Hz
    2: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 575.64.05
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070/PCIe/SSE2
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo de: xfce4-display-settings
    gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr

Here’s the output:

$ pamac update
Preparing...
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Design215 (design215)
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error: Authentication failed

Next I tried reinstalling polkit, and then restarting it:

$ sudo pacman -S polkit
warning: polkit-127-3 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) polkit-127-3

Total Installed Size:  1.95 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:      0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] Y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                                           [########################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                                         [########################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                              [########################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                                        [########################################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space                                      [########################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) reinstalling polkit                                                [########################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/6) Creating system user accounts...
(2/6) Reloading system manager configuration...
(3/6) Restarting marked services...
(4/6) Creating temporary files...
(5/6) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(6/6) Reloading system bus configuration...


$ sudo systemctl restart polkit

$ pamac update
Preparing...
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Design215 (design215)
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error: Authentication failed

A “dry run” doesn’t show any errors:

$ pamac upgrade --dry-run
Preparing...
Checking gcc14-libs dependencies...
Cloning gcc14 build files...
Generating gcc14 information...
Checking gcc14 dependencies...
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...

To build (2):
  gcc14-libs  14.3.1+r420+g039a62bd2e0c-1  (14.3.1+r25+g42e99e057bd7-1)  AUR
  gcc14       14.3.1+r420+g039a62bd2e0c-1  (14.3.1+r25+g42e99e057bd7-1)  AUR


Transaction successfully finished.

Checking permissions on polkit:

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   4096 Jan  6 15:38 polkit-1

$ cd polkit-1
$ ls -l
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  18456 Dec 28 07:12 polkit-agent-helper-1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 129392 Dec 28 07:12 polkitd

I’m not sure what to try next.

2

Are you sure you actually need the old gcc? You are not supposed to build it, generally.
It is a good practice to update separately the base system and the aur

3

I’m not sure whether I need gcc14 or not but pamac is broken at the moment. It won’t even let me delete my old cache files. I get the same ==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ==== message

4

Lucky there is also pacman. So you can update with sudo pacman -Syu and clean the cache with sudo pacman -Scc if you have to. And then look again at the options for polkit recovery. I cannot help more since i didn’t have this problem and can only read what people wrote above. It should be connected with some specific configuration since only some users get this bug, but what exactly…still a mystery.

5

The people affected by this are probably the people who updated their system through pamac, rather than by way of pacman. :thinking:

I updated my system through pacman, and I did get the problem when running pamac from the command line in order to try and update my AUR packages, but a simple reboot solved it.

6

I typically use Add/Remove Software, which I believe is pamac.

If I use pacman, I get:

$ sudo pacman -Syu
[sudo] password for design215: 
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
 there is nothing to do

Add/Remove is now broken and it won’t let me update Chrome or anything. My system is currently working (as far as I can tell) and I do have recent snapshots in Timeshift. Do you have any suggestions? What if I rolled back in Timeshift, then used pacman?

Should I start a separate thread?

Thanks

7

First of all, I would recommend a reboot, followed by reinstalling polkit. :backhand_index_pointing_down:

sudo pacman -S polkit

We can always split off these posts if the above advice does not work. :wink:

8

try restarting polkit.service after enabling/starting polkit-agent-helper.socket, this restores functionality without reboot

1 Like
9

Well, I’m assuming that one would reboot immediately after updating, as one should. :wink:

10

Well, as soon as the polkit changes are at filesystem level it is kinda “broken” for follow-up actions like updating AUR packages. So we have to see it case by case …

2 Likes
11

Exactly. I’ve amended the wiki post accordingly. :wink:

12

This is one of the first things I tried and its listed in my first comment. I can try it again.

EDIT: rebooted and tried it again. Still doesn’t work

13

I think this is what you wanted me to try right?

$ systemctl status polkit-agent-helper.socket
● polkit-agent-helper.socket - Authorization Manager Agent Helper
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/polkit-agent-helper.socket; static)
     Active: active (listening) since Wed 2026-01-07 04:23:16 EST; 5min ago
 Invocation: 530089a8b35047cca2dcfa66ea668ad3
   Triggers: ● polkit-agent-helper@4-12289-6816-1000.service
             ● polkit-agent-helper@0-1-3071-1000.service
             ● polkit-agent-helper@1-4097-3071-1000.service
             ● polkit-agent-helper@2-4098-3071-1000.service
             ● polkit-agent-helper@3-8193-6757-1000.service
       Docs: man:polkit(8)
     Listen: /run/polkit/agent-helper.socket (Stream)
   Accepted: 5; Connected: 0;

Jan 07 04:23:16 pc2019 systemd[1]: Listening on Authorization Manager Agent Helper.

$ sudo systemctl restart polkit
[sudo] password for design215: 

$ pamac update --aur
Preparing...
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Design215 (design215)
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error: Authentication failed
14 
sudo pacman -Rns polkit
sudo pacman -S polkit

You might also try resetting permissions as indicated in post#4:

Reboot.

15 
$ sudo pacman -Rns polkit
[sudo] password for design215: 
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by accountsservice
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by colord
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by cups-pk-helper
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by flatpak
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gamemode
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gconf
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gksu-polkit
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gnome-settings-daemon
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gnome-shell
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gufw
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by gvfs
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by iio-sensor-proxy
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by libpamac
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by libvirt
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by lightdm
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by modemmanager
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by nomachine
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'libpolkit-gobject-1.so=0-64' required by pcsclite
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by polkit-gnome
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by polkit-qt5
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by polkit-qt6
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by rtkit
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by spice-gtk
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by udisks2
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'libpolkit-agent-1.so=0-64' required by udisks2
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'libpolkit-gobject-1.so=0-64' required by udisks2
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by upower
:: removing polkit breaks dependency 'polkit' required by xfce4-session

I didn’t go any further from there.

I also checked the permissions on those folders. That’s one of the first things I did. I also tried sudo chmod 4755 /usr/lib/polkit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1

Could pamac be broken? Maybe my polkit is ok?

16

If you read the announcement thread you’ll find your answer.

17

That is the first thing I did and I tried all of those things. The permissions have always been correct.

18

Fair enough.

Your posts have been moved to a dedicated topic.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

See what result you get with

pamac update --no-aur --force-refresh
19

Thank you!

$ pamac update --no-aur --force-refresh
Preparing...
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.manjaro.pamac.commit ====
Authentication is required to install, update, or remove packages
Authenticating as: Design215 (design215)
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error: Authentication failed

Its the same.

Are there other ways to test polkit and see if it’s working properly? I also have earlier Timeshift snapshots that I could roll back to.

I have to go to an appointment but I’ll be back in a few hours.

20

My opinion is that is the workarounds mentioned in:

didn’t work, it could be a different issue, but I don’t know what that might be.

That might be an option as a last resort. At least then you might be able to make different update choices; for example:

  • Use sudo pacman -Syu to perform the update.
  • Follow recommendations in problems with polkit and others, as needed.
  • Reboot.
  • And finally, update any AUR applications as needed using pamac update --aur.

Most problems seem to stem from using pamac-manager (Add/Remove Software) pamac on the command-line. Perhaps avoiding that and using pacman from the onset will help avoid the issues.

At this point starting from a restored snapshot is at least worth trying; again, as a last resort.

Regards.

Whether this is useful at this time remains to be seen, so consider this for future reference:

@Yochanan recently mentioned topgrade for performing updates.

It’s basically a script that performs the required tasks by calling the tools needed and issuing commands “the right way” – if you have yay installed, it will use it in preference to pamac.

sudo pacman -S yay topgrade
  • topgrade requires only one command: topgrade
  • sudo is not required.