The Problem
Starting ssh services errors out and spool messages regarding polkit service.
# service sshd restart Redirecting to /bin/systemctl restart sshd.service Authorization not available. Check if polkit service is running or see debug message for more information.
Same issue is encountered when starting the polkit service.
# service polkit restart Redirecting to /bin/systemctl restart polkit.service Authorization not available. Check if polkit service is running or see debug message for more information.
The Solution
The symbolic link between /run, /run/lock to /var/run, /var/lock respectively was removed which causes the service not to properly run.
Restore the symbolic link between /run and /run/lock to /var/run and /var/lock using the following steps:
1. Backup the /var/run:
# mv /var/run /var/run.old # mv /var/lock /var/lock.old
2. Recreate the symbolic link:
# ln -s /run /var/ # ln -s /run/lock /var/
4. Verify if the link has been created:
# ls -l /var/run # ls -l /var/lock
Expected output:
$ ls -l /var/run lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 6 May 11 2016 /var/run -> ../run
$ ls -l /var/lock lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 11 May 11 2016 /var/lock -> ../run/lock
5. Sync the changes:
# sync; sync
6. Restart the server:
# reboot