Shutdown & reboot button not working in VNC started by cron

[fkbreitl]

The PIXEL desktop of Rasbian (Jessie) has a shutdown menu with Shutdown, Reboot and Logout. However, only logout works.

How can I get shutdown and reboot working?

[MarkyV]

All three buttons should work (they do on mine) - what may be happening is that something may be running in the background that is not doing its shutdown properly and keeping the OS waiting - is this a plain install or do you have additional hardware/software that has been installed?

Mark

[ShiftPlusOne]

If you run 'lxde-pi-shutdown-helper' from a terminal window and try to shutdown, do you see any error messages?

[fkbreitl]

Thanks for your hint!

As some user I see

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raspberrypi:~$ lxde-pi-shutdown-helper
User pi is logged in on seat0.
User pi is logged in on /dev/tty1.
Please retry operation after closing inhibitors and logging out other users.
Alternatively, ignore inhibitors and users with 'systemctl poweroff -i'.

So my first question: How can I ignore the `inihbitor` through this menu?

As user `pi` I see

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raspberrypi:~$ lxde-pi-shutdown-helper
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.login1.power-off ===
Authentication is required for powering off the system.
Multiple identities can be used for authentication:
 1.  ,,, (pi)
 2.  root
Choose identity to authenticate as (1-2): Failed to execute operation: Connection timed out
Must be root.

So my second question: What should I change to make it work?

[Martin Frezman]

And, besides that, what is an 'inhibitor' ?

[fkbreitl]

Update:

As I found out this only happens for my VNC desktop.

The reboot button works in the non virtual PIXEL desktop of user pi.

But in VNC I am user `pi`:

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raspberrypi:~$ whoami
pi

Why is this not working in VNC and how can I fix it?

I also discuss this problem at http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/q/64287/58211

[ShiftPlusOne]

Seems like a PolicyKit problem. Don't have a solution off the top of my head.

[ShiftPlusOne]

What VNC server are you using? I tried RealVNC and it worked great.

[fkbreitl]

I am using 'VNC(R) Server 6.0.2 (r26558) ARMv6 (Mar 14 2017 17:00:31), Copyright (C) 2002-2017 RealVNC Ltd.'

Could it be realted to the fact that I start it via pi's crontab with
@reboot local/bin/vnc.sh &

where vnc.sh contains

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#/bin/bash
export SHELL=/bin/bash
vncserver :2 -geometry 1280x720

[ShiftPlusOne]

Quite possibly. Why not use the service they provide?

[fkbreitl]

Because I need another resolution than my HDMI screen.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Do you get a window with an error message when it's first started and you log in?

[fkbreitl]

Yes every time something with PID.
I haven't found a solution for it and people suggested to ignore it.

[ShiftPlusOne]

What does it say?

[fkbreitl]

A window says
'Error
No session for pid 1438
[Ok]'

[ShiftPlusOne]

I suspect the right pam modules aren't loaded when you start a process through cron.

[fkbreitl]

Makes sense!
And how can I correct this?

[Martin Frezman]

Reason #91272 why you shouldn't use 'cron' if you can avoid it.

Don't get me wrong; I know cron well and have used it for decades, but it is kinda "long in the tooth" in the context of modern Linux. The caveats and assumptions underlying it make it a minefield for new users.

[fkbreitl]

I am open for alternative VNC startup suggestions.

I have also asked this question at http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/q/64393/58211.