Access Partitions Without Entering a Password

Overview

Note

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This fix has already been implemented in the official releases of Manjaro 0.8.4 (i.e. the XFCE, Cinnamon, and Openbox flavours).

A particular nuisance for many users is the need to enter a password in order to access other partitions present on their hard disk. In addition, those who installed Openbox 0.8.3 have also encountered the additional issue of having to enter a their passwords in order to eject removable media such as USB sticks and CD/DVDs.

This is due to the default policy/pemissions settings implemented by a program called UDisks2, which itself is responsible for mounting partitions and removable media. In essence, permissions for mounting are set by default to Root / Administrator level only, rather than the user. Fortunately, this issue can be easily --and permanently-- resolved by creating a special file called 99-manjaro.rules to override the default permissions, consequently resulting in no further need to enter a password.

Step 1: Creating the 99-manjaro.rules File

You will need to first open your terminal in order to create the 99-manjaro.rules file. The syntax of the command to edit the mirrorlist is:

sudo [text editor] /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/99-manjaro.rules

For example, if you wish to edit the file within the terminal using nano (a standard terminal-based text editor) then enter:

sudo nano /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/99-manjaro.rules

Otherwise - if you have installed the full version of Manjaro (i.e. not the NET-Edition) - you may find it easier to use a text editor like Gedit or Leafpad instead. This will create and open the 99-manjaro.rules file up as a document, making it easier to read and edit. To use Gedit instead, the command is:

gksu gedit /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/99-manjaro.rules

Step 2: Editing the 99-manjaro.rules File

Warning

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If you decide to manually type in the necessary command yourself, ensure that it is entered exactly as illustrated below.

Once the blank file has been opened, copy and paste in the following command to override the default permissions used by UDisks2:

polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
		if (action.id.indexOf("org.freedesktop.udisks2.") == 0 && subject.isInGroup("storage")) {
			return polkit.Result.YES;
		}
	}
);

Once you have completed the new file, save the changes and close it by:

• nano: Press CTRL and 'x' to exit, 'y' to save, and <enter> to finish, or
• Gedit or Leafpad: Select the 'save' option and then close the window.

Now reboot your system for the changes to take effect.