How can I make shutdown not require admin password?

Question

If more than one person is logged in on my computer, Ubuntu requires super user authentication when shutting down the computer. How can I make it so that any user can shutdown the computer without being asked for a password?

score 40 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 16 '17 at 20:33

Richard Holloway's answer is not actually the way PolickKit authorisations are meant to be granted. The files installed under /usr/share/polkit-1/actions are not meant to be modified. Instead, you should modify the authorities under /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/.

Here's how you do it for this question:

Create a file named /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/allow_all_users_to_shutdown.pkla and edit it using sudoedit to look like this:

[Allow all users to shutdown]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes

Then create another .pkla file in the same directory. Use any name you like ending with .pkla, for example, allow_all_users_to_restart.pkla, and fill it with these contents:

[Allow all users to restart]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes

References:

score 29 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 10 '12 at 11:45

You do not need a workaround, just change the policy to allow you to shut down without authenticating as admin for shutdown and reboot when multiple users are logged in.

Edit the file /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy using your favorite text editor. You will need root permissions.

Change the section relating to shutdown when others are logged in from

  <action id="org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users">
    <description>Stop the system when multiple users are logged in</description>
    <message>System policy prevents stopping the system when other users are logged in</message>
    <defaults>
      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
    </defaults>
  </action>

to

  <action id="org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users">
    <description>Stop the system when multiple users are logged in</description>
    <message>System policy prevents stopping the system when other users are logged in</message>
    <defaults>
      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
    </defaults>
  </action>

and the section relating to rebooting when others are logged in from

  <action id="org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users">
    <description>Restart the system when multiple users are logged in</description>
    <message>System policy prevents restarting the system when other users are logged in</message>
    <defaults>
      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
    </defaults>
  </action>

to

  <action id="org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users">
    <description>Restart the system when multiple users are logged in</description>
    <message>System policy prevents restarting the system when other users are logged in</message>
    <defaults>
      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
    </defaults>
  </action>

And that will allow you shutdown and reboot the PC when multiple users are logged in. Whether you want to do that is a different question.

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 06 '10 at 07:31

There is a better way. If you have dbus-send installed, you can shutdown via dbus without the need to escalate to root privileges.

I can't remember the page where the documentation is, but one Archlinux user figured this out.

Shutdown:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Hal \
          /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer \
          org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement.Shutdown

Reboot:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Hal \
          /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer \
          org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement.Reboot

Suspend:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Hal \
          /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer \
          org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement.Suspend int32:1

Hibernate:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Hal \
          /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer \
          org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement.Hibernate

Regards.

esamatti · Answer 4 · 2012-10-16T03:32:08.837

HAL seems to be now depcrecated and not installed in latest Ubuntu releases.

You must use ConsoleKit and UPower dbus services to manage power state

Shutdown:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit" /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Manager org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager.Stop

Restart:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit" /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Manager org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager.Restart

Suspend:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend

Hibernate:

dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Hibernate

Thanks to Arch Linux forums.

This works for now in Precise and Quantal, but don't know for how long since the Freedesktop focus seems to be shifted from ConsoleKit to systemd. Don't know whether Canonical cares...

score 10 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

This works on 14.04. An updated variation of the previous, IMO, correct answer by Flimm.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d
sudoedit /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/allow_all_users_to_shutdown_reboot_suspend.pkla

Paste this inside:

[Allow all users to shutdown]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.power-off-multiple-sessions
ResultActive=yes

[Allow all users to reboot]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.reboot-multiple-sessions
ResultActive=yes

[Allow all users to suspend]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-multiple-sessions
ResultActive=yes

[Allow all users to ignore inhibit of shutdown]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.power-off-ignore-inhibit
ResultActive=yes

[Allow all users to ignore inhibit of reboot]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.reboot-ignore-inhibit
ResultActive=yes

[Allow all users to ignore inhibit of suspend]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-ignore-inhibit
ResultActive=yes

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 17:06

There is no way to circumvent the prompt for a superuser password when rebooting while other users are logged in short of opening a terminal window and issuing the reboot command as root:

sudo reboot

Even still, if not configured to bypass password prompting for your user account, sudo will also prompt you for your password.

Don't worry, these are GOOD things. Rebooting should be rare and a simple admin password prompt saves accidentally hosing yourself!

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 16:16

0

I believe this is only an issue when doing it through the command line.

If so here is a link that can help with your problem.

answered Aug 05 '10 at 16:16

myusuf3

35,659

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 22 '11 at 21:55

0

Add halt and/or reboot into sudoers file assigned to the group/user you wish to allow to perform this task. That way you can still control who can shutdown, but without giving them full root access to the machine..

http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/315/how-to-shutdown-and-reboot-without-sudo-password/

edited Jun 22 '11 at 21:55

ændrük

78,496

answered Dec 06 '10 at 15:19

tommed

999

score -1 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 16:58

Apparently, you are able to shut down without root from the GUI because gdm runs as root. Gnome tells gdm to shut down, and gdm does it.

You could do something similar with a script. I'm not sure how handy you are with BASH, but I believe one could write a script that runs as root and, when it receives a certain signal, runs the shutdown command.

Keep in mind that this may pose a security problem.

How can I make shutdown not require admin password?

9 Answers9

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