[use proxy e.g. for cockpit-packagekit]

[Der PCFreak]

Hi,

I recently retried cockpit and then I remembered that when tested last 
time I could not find out
how *cockpit-packagekit* could use a proxy server for retrieving updates.

I am behind a firewall and have configured a proxy in 
|/etc/dnf/dnf.conf| which works perfectly with dnf.

But within cockpit this setting is not recognized. I also experimented 
with overrides for the
docker.socket service and setting the |http_proxy| and |https_proxy| 
variables there but
not chance to get it working.

Am I missing something or is it so, that this has not been adressed, yet?
Or will it ever?

Found old bug reports about that e.g.

https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=16587 
https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=16587
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348843 
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348843

Any idea how to set a proxy for cockpit-packagekit or is packagekit 
still not supporting it?

Thanks in advance

PCFreak

​

[Martin Pitt]

Hello PCFreak,

Der PCFreak [2021-03-12  9:17 +0100]:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348843
>
> Any idea how to set a proxy for cockpit-packagekit or is packagekit still
> not supporting it?

That bugzilla's comment #14 says:

You need to set the ProxyHTTP= key in /etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf – this came up on #fedora-kde today and setting the key worked.

Does that work for you?

Note, you can test this outside of cockpit with e.g.

pkcon refresh --force
  pkcon get-updates

or

pkcon update

Martin

[Der PCFreak]

Hi Martin,

thanks for the fast reply. I only had an Oracle Linux Box as a VM 
available at home but I did some tests and think they are also meaningful.

Actually the correct command to refresh is |pkcon refresh force|.
Setting a proxy within |/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf| with 
|ProxyHTTP=| was not even recognized or interpreted I think.
I ran packagekitd manually in verbose mode and saw nothing about a proxy.
In the end your mail took me in the right direction pointing me at 
PackageKit.

I created an override for the packagekit.service as 
|/usr/lib/systemd/system/packagekit.service.d/override.conf| with
the following content:

|[Service] Environment="http_proxy=http://10.11.12.13:8080/" 
Environment="https_proxy=http://10.11.12.13:8080/" |

Now cockpit worked but this “was not a nice approach”.

But then my inventive spirit was awakened and i checked a CentOS7 
applicance we got from a 3rd party at work that i know connects via 
proxy to the updates
and the updates also work via cockpit. While I am not allowed to change 
config there to play arround I could find out, where this box has the 
proxy settings in
place:

|find /etc/ -type f -exec grep -Hni '10.11.12.13' '{}' ; 
/etc/yum.conf:28:proxy=http://10.11.12.13:8080/ 
/etc/sysconfig/proxy:1:HTTPS_PROXY="http://10.11.12.13:8080/" 
/etc/sysconfig/proxy:2:HTTP_PROXY="http://10.11.12.13:8080/" 
/etc/sysconfig/proxy:4:PROXY="http://10.11.12.13:8080/" |

On this Centos7 appliance box updates via yum and cockpit (PackageKit) 
work like a charm.

So I added the same settings to my test VM and removed the previously 
added override directory |/usr/lib/systemd/system/packagekit.service.d/| 
entirely.
I did a reboot then and aftewards everything worked (including |pkcon|).

It would be nice if someone could just confirm if |ProxyHTTP=| should or 
is really and still recognized by PackageKit or if it is only one more 
rumor.
I think currently it is not used in any way.

Thank you very much for your reply and idea. At least I have now a 
working way.

Regards

Peter aka PCFreak
https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/de/programm/beitrag/193 
https://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2021/de/programm/beitrag/193

Am 12.03.21 um 10:36 schrieb Martin Pitt:
> Hello PCFreak,
>
> Der PCFreak [2021-03-12  9:17 +0100]:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348843
> >
> > Any idea how to set a proxy for cockpit-packagekit or is packagekit still
> > not supporting it?
>
> That bugzilla's comment #14 says:
> You need to set the ProxyHTTP= key in /etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf – this came up on #fedora-kde today and setting the key worked.
>
> Does that work for you?
>
> Note, you can test this outside of cockpit with e.g.
>
> pkcon refresh --force
>    pkcon get-updates
>
> or
>
> pkcon update
>
> Martin
> _______________________________________________
> cockpit-devel mailing list -- [e-mail]
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Am 12.03.21 um 10:36 schrieb Martin Pitt:
> Hello PCFreak,
>
> Der PCFreak [2021-03-12  9:17 +0100]:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348843
> >
> > Any idea how to set a proxy for cockpit-packagekit or is packagekit still
> > not supporting it?
>
> That bugzilla's comment #14 says:
> You need to set the ProxyHTTP= key in /etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf – this came up on #fedora-kde today and setting the key worked.
>
> Does that work for you?
>
> Note, you can test this outside of cockpit with e.g.
>
> pkcon refresh --force
>    pkcon get-updates
>
> or
>
> pkcon update
>
> Martin
> _______________________________________________
> cockpit-devel mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedorahosted.org/archives/list/[e-mail]...
> Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure

​

[Martin Pitt]

Hello Peter,

thanks for your investigations!

Der PCFreak [2021-03-12 22:56 +0100]:
> Actually the correct command to refresh is |pkcon refresh force|.

Oops, sorry, yes -- (non)intuitive syntax for the win :-/
> Setting a proxy within |/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf| with |ProxyHTTP=|
> was not even recognized or interpreted I think.

Indeed:

# strings /usr/lib64/packagekit-backend/libpk_backend_* | grep Proxy
(nothing)

# strings /usr/libexec/packagekitd | grep Proxy
CannotSetProxy
SetProxy method called: %s, %s

/usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/org.freedesktop.PackageKit.xml indeed offers a
SetProxy() method, but `rpm -ql PackageKit | xargs grep SetProxy` does not show
any binary for that -- i.e. it seems nothing implements that interface.

I followed up to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348843 to point
that out, so that other people don't get misled either.
> I created an override for the packagekit.service as
> |/usr/lib/systemd/system/packagekit.service.d/override.conf| with
> the following content:
>
> |[Service] Environment="http_proxy=http://10.11.12.13:8080/"
> Environment="https_proxy=http://10.11.12.13:8080/" |
>
> Now cockpit worked but this “was not a nice approach”.

Indeed, so that is actually not a bad approach -- $http_proxy etc. are standard
env variable, and injecting them into services that way is a standard approach.
Of course it sucks a bit that this needs to be done for every service
individually.
> /etc/sysconfig/proxy:1:HTTPS_PROXY="http://10.11.12.13:8080/"
> /etc/sysconfig/proxy:2:HTTP_PROXY="http://10.11.12.13:8080/"
> /etc/sysconfig/proxy:4:PROXY="http://10.11.12.13:8080/" |

Interesting! I don't see PackageKit to even look at /sysconfig (according to
`strings`), but if this works, so much the better!
> It would be nice if someone could just confirm if |ProxyHTTP=| should or is
> really and still recognized by PackageKit or if it is only one more rumor.
> I think currently it is not used in any way.

Correct.. Possibly this?

Version 0.8.14
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Released: 2013-12-02
[...]
Deprecations and Removed Features:
 - Do not allow the user to specify the proxy in PackageKit.conf (Richard Hughes)

Thanks!

Martin