Immediately after login, my 12.04 LTS desktop asks for my password for "Authentication is required to change user data"

Question

I have two Ubuntu 12.04 systems, one a desktop, and the other running as a NIS/NFS server (a desktop with lightdm disabled). When I login, I get the dialog (not error) "Authentication is required to change user data" The Details section of the dialog says "org.freedesktop.accounts.user-administration"

Any help helping me figure out how to make this dialog go away is appreciated.

BTW, not entering the password has no effect whatsoever.

Could you solve this problem? I have the same issue on a range of machines authenticating via Active Directory (centrify). — uzhoasit, Jun 05 '13 at 17:49
@uzhoasit: Sorry, no luck yet. I am not sure what the problem is, still. — Sonny, Jun 05 '13 at 18:03
Seems to be an issue with Unity. I try to fix it with support from Canonical. I'll post back the results. — uzhoasit, Jun 10 '13 at 05:25
How do you authenticate your users? Normal local users with local passwords? — uzhoasit, Jun 13 '13 at 15:41

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '13 at 13:56

You need to set the usernames (local:bob, network:bob) to have the same UID. You would likely want to change the local account as opposed to the network one.

In my setup: I ran id bob to get the AD/network UID. Then I edited /etc/passwd and changed the UID of the local bob account. (This can be dangerous, if you mess up!)

If you have a graphical environment go to Users and Groups -> Click on the user account in question, Advanced Settings, and then change the UID there.

The indicator-applet issue will not be fixed in Ubuntu (even though it is caused by an Ubuntu specific patch): You can see more details here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-messages/+bug/1192300

uzhoasit · Answer 2 · 2013-06-28T18:27:49.690

1

Seems to be an issue with messaging indicator.

As an intermediate solution you can remove the messaging indicator with sudo apt-get remove indicator-messages

edited Jun 28 '13 at 18:27

answered Jun 13 '13 at 15:40

uzhoasit

1,633

Though this was the solution I adopted, the reply due to gQuigs below gave me a better picture of why. I hope you don't mind me selecting the answer due to gQuigs. – Sonny Jul 08 '13 at 22:06
@Sonny: The solution from qQuigs is the official one. So its ok to select it as solution. – uzhoasit Jul 09 '13 at 00:04

Immediately after login, my 12.04 LTS desktop asks for my password for "Authentication is required to change user data"

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