Ubuntu Software-center: no permission to install software

I've just installed a fresh install of Ubuntu 17.10 Desktop. I've barely made any changes. Just trying to configure XRDP now according to this description.

Now I'm trying to install an app (Gnome Tweak) from the Ubuntu Software-center. However, this fails. "Unable to install "[app]": you do not have permission to install software.

I've looked for a solution and found this. However, my there's nothing wrong with my org.debian.apt.policy file.

Using sudo in a terminal doesn't give an error.

How to fix this?

Solution 1:

I had the same problem. Try running the store as: sudo gnome-software This should resolve the issue.

Solution 2:

I'm having the same problem in Ubuntu 17.10 . Checked org.debian.apt.policy and all permissions are auth_admin or auth_admin_keep. Synaptic and Aptitude work fine if I start them as root.

My real problem, however, was that I was trying to install software from 'software-center', which after some research I discovered is now called gnome-software, I would get the same error that you listed. After finding this policykit addition, which didn't work in my case even after I updated the filename to match the new software-center, I found the problem.

This is apparently a little known bug with XFCE in Ubuntu where it tries to use policykit-1 instead of policykit-1-gnome. Even running 'pkexec synaptic' on the command line would fail (just as described in the bug). Installing policykit-1-gnome fixed this issue for me.

I hope this helps.