Athmane Madjoudj wrote:

On 07/13/2011 05:00 PM, Nicolas Thierry-Mieg wrote:

...

Hi,

I'm trying to use gnome PackageKit (gpk-application) on a centos 6 x86_64 system. When I am sitting at the machine it works ok, but most of the time I am accessing that C6 system via ssh from my centos 5 desktop. In this scenario gpk-application starts ok, lists packages, resolves deps, etc... but then it doesn't pop up the box asking for the root password, and aborts with a message "Failed to obtain authentication". I know I can use yum, but occasionally I like using a GUI to browse through available packages.

Is there any way to use PackageKit remotely via ssh?

pkcon is what you need

$ man pkcon

man pkcon is terse to say the least, it basically says: "The programs are documented fully on http://www.packagekit.org"

But http://www.packagekit.org barely contains any documentation.

In any case, pkcon is CLI and doesn't seem to bring much over yum. What I would like is to run a GUI such as gpk-application (the gnome PackageKit GUI) remotely, via ssh. For some use cases, I find a GUI is quite useful for browsing and searching available packages etc... It mostly works except I can't authenticate as root when needed, so saerching for packages, solving deps etc is OK but installing or removing packages fails. So: sorry if my question wasn't precise enough, what I really wanted to ask was: is there a way tu use a PackageKit GUI remotely via ssh?

Les Mikesell wrote:

On 7/13/2011 11:55 AM, Nicolas Thierry-Mieg wrote:

...

So: sorry if my question wasn't precise enough, what I really wanted to ask was: is there a way tu use a PackageKit GUI remotely via ssh?

Ssh (-Y) in as root or 'su -' before starting it. Whatever it is doing to escalate permissions for the install doesn't seem to mesh well with the desktop being remote - or maybe you need to start some agent within the session to make it work.

thanks Les, 'su -' works! I had tried with sudo (which fails) but not su. This is not perfect, because the whole GUI runs as root whereas the packageKit model is to have the GUI unprivileged and obtain root credentials only when needed, but at least it works. I disable root access via ssh, so couldn't test your first solution.

Thanks again.

John R Pierce wrote:

On 07/13/11 10:18 AM, Les Mikesell wrote:

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On 7/13/2011 11:55 AM, Nicolas Thierry-Mieg wrote:

...

...

So: sorry if my question wasn't precise enough, what I really wanted

to ask was: is there a way tu use a PackageKit GUI remotely via ssh?

Ssh (-Y) in as root or 'su -' before starting it. Whatever it is doing to escalate permissions for the install doesn't seem to mesh well with the desktop being remote - or maybe you need to start some agent within the session to make it work.

3 steps...

1. log into a user account via: ssh -X user@hostname
2. drop to root with: su -
3. copy the Xauth file from the user account: cp /home/user/.Xauthority

/root && chown root:root /root/.Xauthority

NOW you can run remote X apps via the ssh tunnel

Would it work if you tried ssh -A -X user@hostname?

mark

John R Pierce wrote:

On 07/13/11 12:46 PM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:

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Would it work if you tried ssh -A -X user@hostname?

I've not used that option, and the man page isn't explaining it to me such that I quite understand what it does.

I use it all the time. -A forwards authentication, if you've got an agent running. Most likely, you've got ssh-agent as a daemon (check via ps). If you've got a key in ~/.ssh/, like id_dsa & id_dsa.pub, and have used ssh-add to add it, and the .pub is in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the targets, you can go from one machine to another to another, without have to come back.

mark

Les Mikesell wrote:

On 7/13/2011 3:19 PM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:

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John R Pierce wrote:

...

On 07/13/11 12:46 PM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:

...

Would it work if you tried ssh -A -X user@hostname?

I've not used that option, and the man page isn't explaining it to me such that I quite understand what it does.

I use it all the time. -A forwards authentication, if you've got an agent running. Most likely, you've got ssh-agent as a daemon (check via ps). If you've got a key in ~/.ssh/, like id_dsa& id_dsa.pub, and have used ssh-add to add it, and the .pub is in the ~/.ssh /authorized_keys on the targets, you can go from one machine to another to another, without have to come back.

How does that get you to root on the remote for the install step? Do you have to have your key in root's authorized_keys?

Yep, that's exactly what you do.

mark

On 7/13/2011 12:31 PM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic wrote:

Nicolas Thierry-Mieg wrote:

...

In any case, pkcon is CLI and doesn't seem to bring much over yum. What I would like is to run a GUI such as gpk-application (the gnome PackageKit GUI) remotely, via ssh. For some use cases, I find a GUI is quite useful for browsing and searching available packages etc... It mostly works except I can't authenticate as root when needed, so saerching for packages, solving deps etc is OK but installing or removing packages fails. So: sorry if my question wasn't precise enough, what I really wanted to ask was: is there a way tu use a PackageKit GUI remotely via ssh?

Possible approach would be NX (Nomachine) or FreeNX client/server. Connection is via SHH but you get full GUI Access and sound and (local?) printer. NX server is easier to install, but is free only for max 1-2 clients at the same time.

Has anyone packaged the freenx server for 6.x yet?

Les Mikesell wrote:

Has anyone packaged the freenx server for 6.x yet?

aTrpms has them.

Ljubomir