[Bug 2102028] [NEW] localectl set-locale fails with access denied

[Nick Rosbrook]

Public bug reported:

On plucky, run:

root at plucky:~# localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Failed to issue method call: Access denied

This is because of /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/systemd-localed-read-
only.conf shipped in Debian and Ubuntu. This extra policy exists because
of incompatibilities between "Debianisms" like /etc/default/keyboard,
and more widely-adopted configurations like /etc/vconsole.conf.

In the case of locale, though, it seems relatively safe to allow on
Ubuntu systems. We have /etc/default/locale -> /etc/locale.conf, and
systemd-localed uses locale-gen as needed, which is what
locales.postinst does on install. Manual testing indicates that
localectl set-locale and update-locale play well together.

Furthermore, this restriction changes behavior that the desktop relies
on. Until a stronger reason can be demonstrated NOT to allow the
SetLocale dbus API to be used, we should remove the restriction.

** Affects: systemd (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2102028

Title:
  localectl set-locale fails with access denied

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  On plucky, run:

  root at plucky:~# localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8
  Failed to issue method call: Access denied

  This is because of /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/systemd-localed-read-
  only.conf shipped in Debian and Ubuntu. This extra policy exists
  because of incompatibilities between "Debianisms" like
  /etc/default/keyboard, and more widely-adopted configurations like
  /etc/vconsole.conf.

  In the case of locale, though, it seems relatively safe to allow on
  Ubuntu systems. We have /etc/default/locale -> /etc/locale.conf, and
  systemd-localed uses locale-gen as needed, which is what
  locales.postinst does on install. Manual testing indicates that
  localectl set-locale and update-locale play well together.

  Furthermore, this restriction changes behavior that the desktop relies
  on. Until a stronger reason can be demonstrated NOT to allow the
  SetLocale dbus API to be used, we should remove the restriction.

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