TL;DR: The only clue I could find in the logs is that on a working system /var/log/syslog reports AptDaemon's transactions like this: queuing - simulating - processing - finished. On my system it stops on 'simulating'.
Long version
The problem manifested after the upgrade from 18.04 that had Xfce 4.12 to 20.04 with its Xfce 4.14. Since 20.04 also had Software Updater remade to include snaps, I can't attribute the issue to Xfce only.
Software Updater works fine with the standard Gnome 3 on Xorg, Gnome 3 on Wayland, Gnome Flashback - all on the same Ubuntu installation. On Xfce, the following happens:
- The list of packages to install and remove is displayed correctly.
- After I click 'Install', the words "waiting for auth..." (can't read the rest this fast, but the idea is clear) appear for a split second and Software Updater closes.
Tried reinstalling this and that as suggested by Google; no dice. Of course, I can dance around it with the console. Would prefer to fix it, though.
ETA
Fixed by installing policykit-1-gnome. I'm still curious about the root cause.
0 Answers