Redshift user service disallowed from using GeoClue2

Question

I can't get Redshift to retrieve geolocation information from GeoClue2. The state right now, after a reboot and without having changed any packages or configuration since the reboot, is that

• the GeoClue service is running:

  $ systemctl status geoclue.service
  ● geoclue.service - Location Lookup Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/geoclue.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-09-05 18:49:03 NZST; 3s ago
   Main PID: 8489 (geoclue)
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 4915)
     Memory: 2.1M
     CGroup: /system.slice/geoclue.service
             └─8489 /usr/lib/geoclue
  
  Sep 05 18:49:03 machine systemd[1]: Starting Location Lookup Service...
  Sep 05 18:49:03 machine systemd[1]: Started Location Lookup Service.
  

• the packages are up to date:

  $ pacman --sync --info geoclue2 redshift
  Repository      : extra
  Name            : geoclue2
  Version         : 2.4.12-1
  Description     : Modular geoinformation service built on the D-Bus messaging system
  Architecture    : x86_64
  URL             : https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/GeoClue/
  Licenses        : LGPL
  Groups          : None
  Provides        : None
  Depends On      : libsoup  json-glib  libmm-glib  avahi  libnotify
  Optional Deps   : None
  Conflicts With  : geoclue
  Replaces        : None
  Download Size   : 154.42 KiB
  Installed Size  : 1206.00 KiB
  Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <[email protected]>
  Build Date      : Sun 02 Sep 2018 07:42:59 NZST
  Validated By    : MD5 Sum  SHA-256 Sum  Signature
  
  Repository      : community
  Name            : redshift
  Version         : 1.12-2
  Description     : Adjusts the color temperature of your screen according to your surroundings.
  Architecture    : x86_64
  URL             : http://jonls.dk/redshift/
  Licenses        : GPL3
  Groups          : None
  Provides        : None
  Depends On      : geoclue2  libdrm  libxcb  libxxf86vm
  Optional Deps   : python-gobject: for redshift-gtk
                    python-xdg: for redshift-gtk
                    gtk3: for redshift-gtk
  Conflicts With  : None
  Replaces        : None
  Download Size   : 130.88 KiB
  Installed Size  : 851.00 KiB
  Packager        : Evangelos Foutras <[email protected]>
  Build Date      : Tue 24 Jul 2018 03:19:05 NZST
  Validated By    : MD5 Sum  SHA-256 Sum  Signature
  

• GeoClue is configured to allow access from Redshift:

  $ tail --lines=4 /etc/geoclue/geoclue.conf
  [redshift]
  allowed=true
  system=false
  users=
  

and yet Redshift is unable to start:

$ redshift
Trying location provider `geoclue2'...
Using provider `geoclue2'.
Using method `randr'.
Waiting for initial location to become available...
Unable to start GeoClue client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying.
Unable to get location from provider.

The user service exhibits a different behaviour:

Trying location provider `geoclue2'...
Using provider `geoclue2'.
Using method `randr'.
Waiting for initial location to become available...
Unable to start GeoClue client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: 'redshift' disallowed, no agent for UID 1000.
Access to the current location was denied by GeoClue!
Make sure that location services are enabled and that Redshift is permitted
to use location services. See https://github.com/jonls/redshift#faq for more
information.
Unable to get location from provider.

There seems to be a hack available to work around a similar problem - the error message above is different from that page when starting the program manually - but I'm interested in whether a more permanent fix is available or being worked on.

Answer 1

This is a known issue in the GeoClue program but is has already been fixed in version 2.5.0. Upgrading to that version should solve your problem.