update manager no longer asking for password in 11.10

[sktsee]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:17:26 +0100, Colin Law wrote:

> On 20 October 2011 17:16, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
>> On 20 October 2011 17:06, Cybe R. Wizard <cyber_wizard at mindspring.com>
>> wrote:
>>> Only if doing so would answer the question of why, which it would not.
>>>
>>>
>> The question could be posed there, or the developer could be discovered
>> (Martin Pitt) and could be asked, which might be more useful than
>> asking here where the developer isn't subscribed.
>>
>> I don't know why, I'm trying to point people to the best place to
>> figure out why, whilst trying to understand what the actual problem is.
> 
> Logically you may very well be correct in that there is not really a
> problem.  There is the issue of consistency however.  I think that
> update manager effectively does apt-get update and apt-get upgrade
> without authentication, but if we do the same from the command line then
> we do have to authenticate.  It just does not seem right, whatever the
> logic says.
> 
> Colin

Naw, you don't have to authenticate using the command-line...

For example, On oneiric - i386

$ sudo apt-get remove alsa-utils
(removes alsa-utils and ubuntu-desktop)

$ wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/pub/ubuntu/pool/main/a/alsa-utils/alsa-
utils_1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8_i386.deb
(get previous package version)

$ sudo dpkg -i alsa-utils_1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8_i386.deb
(install it)

Now comes the magic...

$ aptdcon -c
[+] 100% Successful 
(refreshed package list cache, no auth)

$ aptdcon --safe-upgrade
The following package will be upgraded 
(1):                                     
  alsa-utils
After this operation, 4096 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 136398 files and directories currently 
installed.)        
Preparing to replace alsa-utils 1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8 (using .../alsa-
utils_1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8.1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement alsa-utils ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Setting up alsa-utils (1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8.1) ...
[+] 100% Successful

No authentication required for refreshing package cache and
upgrading already installed packages!

See also:

No authentication needed:

for mount/unmount filesystems, fsck filesystems labeling filesystems, etc.
through udisks and palimpsest (Disk utility)

and

for adding/changing network connections in Network Manager

and 

for setting the clock

and

for everything else listed in

/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d/com.ubuntu.desktop.pkla

If you really dislike being able to install updates without authentication
then edit the file mentioned above and change the line "ResultActive=yes" 
in the stanza "[Update already installed software]" to 
"ResultActive=auth_admin".

-- 
sktsee