Ttgjyuk

I have been using an upgraded xubuntu machine (16.04 to 18.04) for just under a year now. I use a root terminal extensively, so on about the 2nd day after my upgrade I figured out how to get it working with pkexec instead of gksu.

Today it stopped working, with no action on my part, and no updates applied. Rebooting had no effect.

Where do I start to troubleshoot this?

Here's my /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/xfce4-terminal.policy file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC
"-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"
"http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1.0/policyconfig.dtd">
<policyconfig>
<vendor>xfce4-terminal</vendor>
<vendor_url>xfce4-terminal</vendor_url>
<icon_name>terminal</icon_name>
<action id="org.freedesktop.policykit.pkexec.xfce4-terminal">
<description>Run "xfce4-terminal"</description>
<message>Authentication is required to run xfce4-terminal</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
</defaults>
<annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path">/usr/bin/xfce4-terminal</annotate>
<annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.allow_gui">true</annotate>
</action>

</policyconfig>

auth.log is showing no error. here is an example -- the first is launching gparted via pkexec. it works normally. The second is launching xfce4-terminal. xfce4- terminal never appeears.

Mar 22 22:31:05 ooboontwo pkexec: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root by (uid=1000)
Mar 22 22:31:05 ooboontwo pkexec[17035]: derek: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/0data/ssd0/home/derek] [COMMAND=/usr/sbin/gparted]
Mar 22 22:31:18 ooboontwo pkexec: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root by (uid=1000)
Mar 22 22:31:18 ooboontwo pkexec[17303]: derek: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/0data/ssd0/home/derek] [COMMAND=/usr/bin/xfce4-terminal]

Any help appreciated!