This started a few days ago after I edited some restricted files using Kate, every time I open the program it gives me an authentication popup for apparently no reason. Journalctl’s logs are no help either, but this is the context around when I open Kate:
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC systemd[909]: Started Kate - Advanced Text Editor.
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: kate.time: QApplication initialized in 277 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> katefiletreeplugin load in 7 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> katesearchplugin load in 21 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> kateprojectplugin load in 3 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> externaltoolsplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> katekonsoleplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> lspclientplugin load in 6 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> tabswitcherplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> textfilterplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> compilerexplorer load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> katefilebrowserplugin load in 15 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> kategdbplugin load in 5 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> keyboardmacrosplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: -> openlinkplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: All plugins loaded in 65 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: libkate.time: Created KateMainWindow in 150 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC kate[2246]: kate.time: KateApp initialized in 438 ms
Feb 10 12:42:20 aleats-PC systemd[1]: dbus-:1.2-org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper@0.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC systemd[1]: Created slice Slice /system/dbus-:1.2-org.kde.kio.admin.
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC systemd[1]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.kde.kio.admin@0.service.
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Listener adapter polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: GSimpleAsyncResult: 0x5c16763de1e0
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication callback for 0x5c16763da880
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Initiating authentication
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Action description has been found
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: User: "unix-user:aleats"
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Trying again
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: REQUEST
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Request: "Password: "
Feb 10 12:42:21 aleats-PC systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 10 12:42:25 aleats-PC systemd-timesyncd[419]: Contacted time server 168.181.126.28:123 (2.manjaro.pool.ntp.org).
Feb 10 12:42:25 aleats-PC systemd-timesyncd[419]: Initial clock synchronization to Mon 2025-02-10 12:42:26.129218 -03.
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Dialog cancelled
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: COMPLETED
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Completed: false
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finishing obtaining privileges
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Listener adapter polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication_finish
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication_finish callback for 0x5c16763da880
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finish obtain authorization: false
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finishing obtaining privileges
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finish obtain authorization: false
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC polkitd[607]: Operator of unix-session:2 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for action org.kde.kio.admin.commands for system-bus-name::1.101 [/usr/bin/kate -b] (owned by unix-user:aleats)
Feb 10 12:42:26 aleats-PC kate[2246]: "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied" ""
Feb 10 12:42:31 aleats-PC systemd[909]: app-org.kde.kate@39efae9f81d546d39cd03654254b0439.service: Consumed 710ms CPU time, 74.9M memory peak.
I really don’t see exactly what the problem could be here, when the authentication prompt is closed the program behaves as expected, and I haven’t modified the .desktop file to open Kate or anything else of the sort.
For completeness, this is what happens if I successfully authenticate when the prompt pops up:
Feb 10 12:57:09 aleats-PC systemd[909]: Started Kate - Advanced Text Editor.
Feb 10 12:57:09 aleats-PC kate[4618]: kate.time: QApplication initialized in 251 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> katefiletreeplugin load in 1 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> katesearchplugin load in 6 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> kateprojectplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> externaltoolsplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> katekonsoleplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> lspclientplugin load in 2 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> tabswitcherplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> textfilterplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> compilerexplorer load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> katefilebrowserplugin load in 9 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> kategdbplugin load in 3 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> keyboardmacrosplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: -> openlinkplugin load in 0 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: All plugins loaded in 27 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: libkate.time: Created KateMainWindow in 77 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC kate[4618]: kate.time: KateApp initialized in 359 ms
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Listener adapter polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: GSimpleAsyncResult: 0x5c167640c940
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication callback for 0x5c16763da880
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Initiating authentication
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Action description has been found
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: User: "unix-user:aleats"
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Trying again
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: REQUEST
Feb 10 12:57:10 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Request: "Password: "
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Dialog accepted
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: COMPLETED
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Completed: true
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finishing obtaining privileges
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Listener adapter polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication_finish
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: polkit_qt_listener_initiate_authentication_finish callback for 0x5c16763da880
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finish obtain authorization: true
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Dialog cancelled
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finishing obtaining privileges
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1[1117]: Finish obtain authorization: true
Feb 10 12:57:14 aleats-PC polkitd[607]: Operator of unix-session:2 successfully authenticated as unix-user:aleats to gain TEMPORARY authorization for action org.kde.kio.admin.commands for system-bus-name::1.141 [/usr/bin/kate -b] (owned by unix-user:aleats)
It doesn’t really tell much, but maybe it could be of use to try and figure this out.
Did you already tried to clean up the recent files used list?
I don’t exactly know, if it would solve your problem.
But in the past I sometimes had the problem, that kate wanted to access a file on a network share, which was used before.
After purging the recent used list the problem was solved.
Sounds a little be worst, so please don’t bother me, if it doesn’t works.
I didn’t investigated not much time on this behaviour.
I tried both potential solutions, but neither worked. Strangely, deleting ~/.local/share/kate and allowing it to regenerate when Kate opened again did fix it. I guess the default session broke somehow, though I didn’t manage to catch a snapshot of it, and putting the old folder back in didn’t bring the problem back at all. I suppose I’ll chalk this one up to Manjaro having a weird hiccup, as editing the file I modified again didn’t cause problems.