KDE Discover You have no authorization to execute this operation (Kubuntu 20.04)

Question

Since yesterday every time I try to download something from KDE Discover on Kubuntu 20.04 I get the following error.

You have no authorization to execute this operation

The only way to download software is from the terminal which works without any issue.

Solution

You are missing polkit-kde-agent-1 . Here is the package info I got with sudo apt show polkit-kde-agent-1 :

Package: polkit-kde-agent-1
Version: 4:5.18.4.1-0ubuntu1
Priority: optional
Section: universe/kde
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <[email protected]>
Original-Maintainer: Debian/Kubuntu Qt/KDE Maintainers <[email protected]>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 430 kB
Provides: polkit-1-auth-agent
Depends: policykit-1, libc6 (>= 2.4), libkf5coreaddons5 (>= 4.100.0), libkf5crash5 (>= 4.96.0), libkf5dbusaddons5 (>= 4.97.0), libkf5i18n5 (>= 4.97.0), libkf5iconthemes5 (>= 4.96.0), libkf5widgetsaddons5 (>= 5.36.0+git20170804), libkf5windowsystem5 (>= 5.62.0), libpolkit-qt5-1-1 (>= 0.112.0), libqt5core5a (>= 5.12.2), libqt5dbus5 (>= 5.9.0~), libqt5gui5 (>= 5.9.0~) | libqt5gui5-gles (>= 5.9.0~), libqt5widgets5 (>= 5.9.0~), libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1)
Breaks: polkit-kde-1 (<< 5.1.95~)
Replaces: polkit-kde-1 (<< 5.1.95~)
Homepage: https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/workspace/polkit-kde-agent-1
Task: kubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop
Download-Size: 54,7 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: no
APT-Sources: http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
Description: KDE dialogs for PolicyKit
 PolicyKit is an application-level toolkit for defining and handling the policy
 that allows unprivileged processes to speak to privileged processes.
 .
 It is a framework for centralizing the decision making process with respect to
 granting access to privileged operations (like calling the HAL Mount() method)
 for unprivileged (desktop) applications.
 .
 PolicyKit-Kde provides a D-Bus session bus service that is used to
 bring up authentication dialogs used for obtaining privileges.

You should also take a look at the Debian info page for more information and a nicer representation of the info above.

If you feel confident enough to install it use

sudo apt-get update    
sudo apt-get install polkit-kde-agent-1

Make sure to check all the dependecies afterwards!

If you don't feel confident enough to do so you could also change the Discover shortcut to open with sudo. But beware that it will not prompt you for a password confirmation before intalling or updating from Discover. It will open Discover as root which is NOT recommended.

To do so it is easies to

1. Right-click on the Discover entry in the start menu and view the option to edit the application.
2. Then go to the programm tap
3. and edit the command to use sudo

you can copy this

sudo plasma-discover %F

Comments

[totalynotanoob]

are you using an account without admin rights?

[a-regular-pear]

On the User Manager it says my account has administrator privileges

[totalynotanoob]

Are you getting a prompt to enter a password? also check if you have the "polkit-kde-agent-1" installed with:"sudo apt show polkit-kde-agent-1"

[a-regular-pear]

I dont a prompt to enter a password. I used "sudo apt list --installed" to see if I have polkit-kde-agent-1 and I have it installed

[a-regular-pear]

I already had polkit-kde-agent-1 installed. I eventually fixed the problem by installing an unrelated program I wanted from the terminal and now Discover seems to be working properly.

[totalynotanoob]

oh sorry, I missread your comment and thougt you don't have it.

[casualcoder]

Same problem, solved easily with apt reinstall polkit-kde-agent-1. Sure seems that /usr/share/ is a more important directory than one would think.