Xfce Forum

otyugh

Member

Registered: 2015-01-11

Posts: 38

Xfce without polkitd : fix those greyed out power options ?

Hey,
I was wondering if there was a way to make xfce to behave without polkit (I'm trying to do things without systemd see if I can).

Is there a way to replace the shutdown/reboot/suspend (that are greyed) with a custom commandline ? (I guess mine would be using "doas cmd" and I'll just allow those for wheel group without password prompt)

Last edited by otyugh (2026-07-07 21:56:19)

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 988

Re: Xfce without polkitd : fix those greyed out power options ?

How are you using polkit now? What user agent? xfce-polkit?

If it's set up properly there should be anything greyed out. It is possible to not use polkit  through the use of rules buts that"s beyond me.

---

But it's all right, when you're all in pain and you feel the rain come down
It's alright, when you find your way, then you see it disappear
It's alright....
Chris Cornell

CwF

Moderator

Registered: 2018-01-28

Posts: 326

Re: Xfce without polkitd : fix those greyed out power options ?

As regular user try with the full path.

/usr/sbin/shutdown

or /usr/sbin/reboot

If your distro uses systemd, it uses systemd.

otyugh

Member

Registered: 2015-01-11

Posts: 38

Re: Xfce without polkitd : fix those greyed out power options ?

How are you using polkit now? What user agent? xfce-polkit?

I'm not using polkit at all actually. I don't think there is any way to use it without using systemd stuff ?

If your distro uses systemd, it uses systemd.

I'm not. I use OpenRC for the most part (debian isn't condemned to systemd even if it's the mainstream way to do things nowadays), I'm trying to have a working xfce without using systemd/elogind/polkitd : the question is how to "un-grey" theses buttons without going back to systemd. Can it be done or is the polkit dependance hardcoded and a walkaround should be written ?

EDIT : just got reminded this is about xfce4-session-logout, I can just check the git of that ! https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-sess … type=heads

seems like it's hardcoded to rely on dbus, and then dbus ask for polkit. I guess. If there is room for tweaking it'd be on the dbus side then (if I am using the logout thing... Maybe it's easier to just take a small app the does the exact same)

if (opt_halt)
    {
      result = g_dbus_proxy_call_sync (proxy, "Shutdown",
                                       g_variant_new ("(b)", allow_save),
                                       G_DBUS_CALL_FLAGS_NONE,
                                       -1,
                                       NULL,
                                       &err);
    }

Last edited by otyugh (2026-07-08 11:00:41)