Unable to start `pkexec swhkd`

[alexindigo]

Version Information:

• Distribution Information ( run uname -a )

Linux arch 6.6.67-1-lts #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu, 19 Dec 2024 20:39:01 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

• swhkd version ( swhkd -V )

Simple-Wayland-HotKey-Daemon 1.3.0-dev

Describe the bug:
I was able to install it finally (#281). And following next steps in the readme, trying to start it manually:

Running swhks & works fine, or at least no errors,
but running swhkd, I get:

$ swhkd
[2025-01-07T07:02:36Z ERROR swhkd::perms] Failed to set EGID: EPERM

Expected behavior:
Not to error and run.

Actual behavior:
Errors out.

To Reproduce:
Install from AUR, and then run swhkd.

Additional information:

If I try to run via systemd service with pexec swhkd I get sudo request, and then bunch of errors as well:

$ pkexec swhkd -d
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.policykit.exec ====
Authentication is needed to run `/usr/bin/swhkd -d' as the super user
Authenticating as: alex
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Logger initialized.
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting EGID...
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting EUID...
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting initgroups...
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd] Wating for server to start...
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z INFO  swhkd] Env refreshed
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Environment Aquired
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Setting process umask.
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Reading /run/user/1000/swhkd_1000.pid file and checking for running instances.
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd] Previous PID: 775931
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd] Using config file path: "/home/alex/.config/swhkd/swhkdrc"
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Attempting to find all keyboard file descriptors.
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: Lid Switch
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: Power Button
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd] Keyboard: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: PC Speaker
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: FRMW0004:00 32AC:0006 Wireless Radio Control
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd] Keyboard: FRMW0004:00 32AC:0006 Consumer Control
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: PIXA3854:00 093A:0274 Mouse
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: PIXA3854:00 093A:0274 Touchpad
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: Video Bus
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH Headphone
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=8
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=9
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z DEBUG swhkd] 2 Keyboard device(s) detected.
[2025-01-07T06:53:47Z ERROR swhkd] Err: Os {
        code: 19,
        kind: Uncategorized,
        message: "No such device",
    }

[manthanabc]

just a wild guess but can you check weather /dev/rfkill exists on your system?

[alexindigo]

@manthanabc

$ ls -la /dev/rfkill
crw-rw-r--+ 1 root rfkill 10, 242 Jan  5 23:22 /dev/rfkill

Thank you for getting back to me.

[alexindigo]

Looks like it's trying to raise privileges:

swhkd/swhkd/src/perms.rs

Line 16 in 75bcd8d

set_egid(0);

Not sure why it's trying to do that, and if I should it run as root, although in the readme, it doesn't talk about sudo.

[alexindigo]

But if I run it with sudo, it's trying to read config for the root user:

$ sudo swhkd -d
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z TRACE swhkd] Logger initialized.
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting EGID...
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting EUID...
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting initgroups...
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z DEBUG swhkd] Wating for server to start...
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z INFO  swhkd] Env refreshed
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z TRACE swhkd] Environment Aquired
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z TRACE swhkd] Setting process umask.
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z TRACE swhkd] Reading /run/user/1000/swhkd_1000.pid file and checking for running instances.
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z DEBUG swhkd] Previous PID: 6347
[2025-01-09T04:18:29Z DEBUG swhkd] Using config file path: "/root/.config/swhkd/swhkdrc"
thread 'main' panicked at swhkd/src/config.rs:7:80:
called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: ConfigRead(ReadingConfig(Os { code: 2, kind: NotFound, message: "No such file or directory" }))
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
Aborted

[alexindigo]

Looks like it might be related to #156

[alexindigo]

Hey @manthanabc, I'm curious why you asked about rfkill?

I think I was able to successfully run swhkd, not sure if I can reproduce it, as I had to use pkexec when running manually from command line.

Here is the log:

$ swhks & pkexec swhkd -d
[1] 6513
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.policykit.exec ====
Authentication is needed to run `/usr/bin/swhkd -d' as the super user
Authenticating as: alex
Password: 
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ====
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Logger initialized.
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting EGID...
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting EUID...
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd::perms] Setting initgroups...
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd] Wating for server to start...
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z INFO  swhkd] Env refreshed
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Environment Aquired
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Setting process umask.
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Reading /run/user/1000/swhkd_1000.pid file and checking for running instances.
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd] Previous PID: 6399
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z INFO  swhkd] Env refreshed
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd] Using config file path: "/home/alex/.config/swhkd/swhkdrc"
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Attempting to find all keyboard file descriptors.
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: Lid Switch
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: Power Button
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd] Keyboard: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: PC Speaker
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: FRMW0004:00 32AC:0006 Wireless Radio Control
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd] Keyboard: FRMW0004:00 32AC:0006 Consumer Control
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: PIXA3854:00 093A:0274 Mouse
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: PIXA3854:00 093A:0274 Touchpad
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: Video Bus
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH Headphone
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=8
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=9
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z TRACE swhkd] Other: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse
[2025-01-09T04:41:35Z DEBUG swhkd] 2 Keyboard device(s) detected.
client_loop: send disconnect: Broken pipe

But also, for some reason, it killed my wifi, and i see rfkill mentioned in systemctl status NetworkManager.

[alexindigo]

And this is what I see when I try to run it as part of systemd

Jan 08 23:19:03 arch swhkd-service.sh[11211]: Error creating textual authentication agent: Error opening current controlling terminal for the process (`/dev/tty'): No such device or address

$ systemctl --user status swhkd.service

This is my service file:

$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/user/swhkd.service
[Unit]
Description=swhkd hotkey daemon
BindsTo=default.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/swhkd-service.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

And this is the script:

$ cat /usr/local/bin/swhkd-service.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash

killall swhks

swhks & pkexec swhkd

[manthanabc]

Hey @manthanabc, I'm curious why you asked about rfkill?

swhkd momentarily disables rfkill to create a new virtual switch device, to do so it opens /dev/rfkill if that device is not found it results in same error that encountered earlier, thats why i asked

But also, for some reason, it killed my wifi, and i see rfkill mentioned in systemctl status NetworkManager.

Yeah thats a known issue #174 and #267

And this is what I see when I try to run it as part of systemd ...

ig you would have to run swhkd/scripts/bulid-polkit-policy.sh to have polkit not ask for authentication
otherwise you would need some polkit auth agent like (lxqt-policykit-agent) to ask for authentication via gui, since no terminal is available otherwise

[alexindigo]

Thanks @manthanabc for detailed answer.

I'll check out those issues.

As for polkit, I see that it was removed, and said that it's no longer necessary – #270

That part is a little bit confusing, curious if you have more context there.

[manthanabc]

As for polkit, I see that it was removed, and said that it's no longer necessary – #270

Did not know this, will look into it thanks!

[alexindigo]

also @manthanabc this is what made it work for me: #285