Xfce: Allow shutdown for non-root users

shutdownxfce

How do I allow shutdown for normal users in xfce?

Currently, the log-out/restart/shutdown box only allows the log-out option, and having to switch to the console, logging in as root and shutting down from there is always a bit annoying.

Best Answer

The xfce wiki offers a number of different solutions. The one I prefer uses hal and dbus.

Step 1: Find out how the user group for all things power is called in your distribution. Quoting the wiki:

Your /etc/dbus-1/system.d/hal.conf should contain a section similar to this:

<policy group="power">
  <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement"/>
  ...
</policy>

Here, the user group is called power. On my debian installation, I found it is called powerdev.

Step 2: Again, from the wiki:

Add the user to the power group (root):

gpasswd -a <username> power

When you logout and login again, the shutdown and restart buttons should be sensitive. Note: Reboot or restart of the deamons required; just logging out to the xdm login screen is not sufficient.

Edit: The solution above didn't work on a fresh install. The following trick worked (Source):

Create /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/shutdownreboot.pkla and add the following:

[restart]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart
ResultAny=yes

[stop]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop
ResultAny=yes
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