PolicyKit failing to start with error: polkit.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Issue

  • Commands are failing or timing out (after 10 minutes) with dbus and polkit / PolicyKit errors, e.g.:

    dbus-daemon: dbus[996]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' unit='polkit.service'
dbus[996]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' unit='polkit.service'
systemd: Starting Authorization Manager...
systemd: polkit.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd: Failed to start Authorization Manager.
systemd: Unit polkit.service entered failed state.
dbus-daemon: dbus[996]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1': timed out
dbus[996]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1': timed out

Resolution

  1. Ensure the existence of a polkitd system user & group
    Copy/paste the following 2 compound-commands to a root terminal to check for and conditionally create the user/group

    getent group polkitd >/dev/null && echo -e "\e[1;32mpolkitd group already exists\e[0m" || { groupadd -r polkitd && echo -e "\e[1;33mAdded missing polkitd group\e[0m" || echo -e "\e[1;31mAdding polkitd group FAILED\e[0m"; }
getent passwd polkitd >/dev/null && echo -e "\e[1;32mpolkitd user already exists\e[0m" || { useradd -r -g polkitd -d / -s /sbin/nologin -c "User for polkitd" polkitd && echo -e "\e[1;33mAdded missing polkitd user\e[0m" || echo -e "\e[1;31mAdding polkitd user FAILED\e[0m"; }

  2. Reset the permissions and user/group ownership for all files provided by the polkit and polkit-pkla-compat packages
    Copy/paste the following compound-command to a root terminal to check for and conditionally reset user/group perms & ownership

    rpm -Va polkit\* && echo -e "\e[1;32mpolkit* rpm verification passed\e[0m" || { echo -e "\e[1;33mResetting polkit* rpm user/group ownership & perms\e[0m"; rpm --setugids polkit polkit-pkla-compat; rpm --setperms polkit polkit-pkla-compat; }

  3. Reboot
    A reboot of the machine will be required to make sure that all changes take affect and that polkit has reconnected to the dbus

    shutdown -r now

  4. Open a support case if there are still issues

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