Q4.3rc3 - USB Drives Not Readable

User Support
1

Fresh install, standard defaults (fedora template vms, etc).

Trying to restore my Qubes backup.

When I insert a USB drive and go to file manager for sys-usb and click on the drive (any drive i tried 10 different ones) I get the following error:

Failed to mount “xxxx drive name”
Not authorized to perform operation (polkit authority not available and caller is not uid (0)

This is 4.3rc3 only issue.
Works fine on 4.2.4.

i searched the forums no mention of this issue anywhere

all drives are unencrypted i even format some of them fat32 verified they mount on 4.2.4 try again on 4.3.4 nothing USB works

2

I have noticed same issue. If USB is attached to say ‘untrusted’ then drive is accessible. Not sure if this is a change for security or not. I had not had time to submit.

3

Feel like it solved in rc4, try to update dom0 and qubes.

4

Doesn’t seem to be fixed. Confirmed I am running RC4 with same issue.

5

I had the same rc3 issue with my fedora-42-xfce based sys-usb, however, attaching to a debian-13-xfce based qube allowed access to the usb drive without issue. I tried upgrading both fedora and dom0 to rc4 with current-testing enabled, but that did not resolve the sys-usb error message.

6

Same problem. I tried changing my sys-usb from fedora-42 to debian-13 but then the drive was not even detected.

7

i reinstalled new final 4.3 release

usb drives still can not be opened

they show but when you click on it gives polkit error

8

sys-usb has a package installed which restricts the services that run.
This is why you have the polkit error.

You can simply mount drives as normal, using mount as root.

dmesg will show you what drive and partitions are available on
inserting a device, but you can also see this in the devices widget.

I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.