Is polkit necessary (or useful?) in antiX?

[Member stevesr0]

I thought I was running antiX 17.1 (daily updates) without polkit. Today, an antiX specific update appeared and I installed it and found a number of polkit related packages coming onboard with it.

I have avoided polkit when running Debian in the past (no special problem; just never saw reason to use it).

So, is it (a) recommended and/or (b) useful in antiX for a particular purpose?

Thanks for comments.

stevesr0

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Being on my chrooted Ubuntu Chromebook . I figured I would throw the polkit it comes with to compare with AntiX. I can’t answer the OP question.

(xenial)harry@localhost:~$ locate polkit
/etc/polkit-1
/etc/pam.d/polkit-1
/etc/polkit-1/localauthority
/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d
/etc/polkit-1/nullbackend.conf.d
/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/50-localauthority.conf
/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/51-ubuntu-admin.conf
/etc/polkit-1/nullbackend.conf.d/50-nullbackend.conf
/lib/systemd/system/polkitd.service
/usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1
/usr/lib/policykit-1/polkitd
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-agent-1.so.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-agent-1.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-backend-1.so.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-backend-1.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-gobject-1.so.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-gobject-1.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/polkit-1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/polkit-1/extensions
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/polkit-1/extensions/libnullbackend.so
/usr/share/polkit-1
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-agent-1-0
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-backend-1-0
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-gobject-1-0
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-agent-1-0/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-agent-1-0/copyright
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-backend-1-0/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-backend-1-0/copyright
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-gobject-1-0/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/libpolkit-gobject-1-0/copyright
/usr/share/man/man8/polkit.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/polkitd.8.gz
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.ubuntu.release-upgrader.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.ubuntu.update-notifier.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.aptxapianindex.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.RealtimeKit1.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.color.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.hostname1.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.locale1.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.login1.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.policykit.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.systemd1.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.timedate1.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks2.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.xfce.power.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.xfce.session.policy
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.xfce.thunar.policy
/var/lib/polkit-1
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64.md5sums
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64.shlibs
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64.symbols
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-agent-1-0:amd64.triggers
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-backend-1-0:amd64.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-backend-1-0:amd64.md5sums
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-backend-1-0:amd64.shlibs
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-backend-1-0:amd64.symbols
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-backend-1-0:amd64.triggers
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64.md5sums
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64.shlibs
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64.symbols
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libpolkit-gobject-1-0:amd64.triggers
(xenial)harry@localhost:~$         

`

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Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

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How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Anonymous]

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“it” is necessary. Several programs present within antiX 17 Full depend of “it”.
( may not be the case for Base or Core antiX editions )

So, is it (a) recommended and/or (b) useful in antiX for a particular purpose?

You can arrive at answers to these yourself.

Launch synaptic. Search “polkit”. (tip: separately, search “policykit”)
Click the “Installed version column” to sort the installed packages to top of list.
Click to focus an item of interest, then right-click and click “Mark for removal”.

When you do so, a popup dialog will advise you “removal of this would also cause removal of the following packages”.
After reading the list, and maybe jotting notes of any unfamiliar package names to research later, click “Canel”. No harm done.

As for the purpose of “it” (the PolicyKit mechanism ~~ which, after exploring via synaptic, you now realize encompasses several moving parts), websearch “What is policykit” and you’ll discover that it provides an authentication mechanism.

an antiX specific update appeared and I installed it and found a number of polkit related packages coming onboard with it.

Historically, “consolekit” was the widely-used analagous auth mechansim. Because consolekit has languished, unmaintained, for several years (it’s a mature project, idunno that any grave outstanding bugs exist) and because policykit is the newer cool kid on the block… program authors (and throughout debian, in general) are switching to use of policykit as the auth mechanism supported by, expected by, their program(s). {———– yah, an oversimplified explanation

[Anonymous]

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sadfasdfsdf

[Anonymous]

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Potentially helpful choreography sources for the somewhat contorted dance away from the *kits (and dbus, and on and on):

reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3h9z06/the_journey_of_purging_polkit_from_your_system_on/

medium dot com slash
@gdm85/xfce4-restart-shutdown-without-systemd-polkit-consolekit-you-name-kit-8e52ab608ddf

(All the edits were about trying to get reddit not to embed a giant thumbnail)

[Member stevesr0]

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Thanks all. I realize I was lazy to ask the question without checking the usual sources, but I recall removing/avoiding it in the past on debian and thought there might be some variety of views about it to enlighten me.

I will look through the suggested sources.

stevesr0

[Member fungalnet]

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Isn’t consolekit2 a fork that has continued development and is current? It provides consolekit but it is fresh.
I have opted to live without consolekit or elogind where used but I see some of this functionality and of polkit sort of a luxury that one can live without.

In general I see this as a problem similar to the experiment with chimps and bananas, after some generational effects kick in there is nobody around that has experienced what it is to live without “systemd” contraptions.

anti-X - Adélie - obarun - systemd Free Space

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