policykitsoftware installationsoftware-center
How can I set the Software Center to allow non-root users to install stuff from the Ubuntu repos without having to type in their password?
I'm fully aware of the security implications, and I am willing to take the risk. Fedora 12 shipped with something like this. (By modifying the PolicyKit configuration, I believe)
As already said, the problem may be your PolicyKit configuration. I would be interested in the contents of the files in /etc/polkit-1 directory and the file /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policy. The output can be lengthy, so you may want to compress it and upload it somewhere rather than copy it here...
grep -IR '^[^#]' /etc/polkit-1
cat /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policy
EDIT: After you've uploaded the files I can see that the problem is in your /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/20-xbmclive.pkla file which seems to have been installed by XBMC and effectively turns off all authentication via polkit (why it has done so and if it is really needed I don't know, I don't use this software).
[XBMC-Live user permissions]
Identity=unix-user:azizjoh
Action=*
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes
Step one: Open up the Software Center.
To do that, open the Dash and search for Software - you'll see something like the screenshot below:
Open the Software Center by clicking on it. Wait for it to load.
Now, search for the software you want to install - in this example, "Chromium Web Browser".
Then, select the software and click the "More info" button.
From here you can view the version, the total amount of space it will take up once you've installed it, etc.
To install it, click the "Install" button on the right.
Once you've done that, you'll be asked to enter in your password - do that, then sit back and relax and Chromium will be installed.
You can change "chromium" to anything else that you need to get installed - Wunderlist, Geany, etc.
Best Answer
You can modify the PolicyKit permissions to allow the users to access the aptdaemon backend that Software Centre uses.
dpkg --listfiles aptdaemonshows that/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policyis the file specifying the actions possible on the aptdaemon backend.Looking in that file, the
< action id="">tags specify the possible actions. You'd probably wantorg.debian.apt.install-packagesto allow users to install new packages from the archive, andorg.debian.apt.update-cacheto allow users to update the package lists.See
man pklocalauthoritywhich documents how to set local permissions on PolicyKit actions. Putting the following into/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/10-allow-users-to-install.pklawill allow any user logged in to the local machine to install packages after typing their own password (even when they're not in the admin group) and to update the package cache without typing any password.