Is there a way to stop the authentication prompts especially for Wi-Fi scans in settings?

Question

OS: Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 LTS

Accessing the settings on Ubuntu is giving me PTSD as whenever I seek to change anything, the first thing that has to pop up is Authentication required for Wifi scan.

You may think that "it's not bad" but it gets genuinely frustrating when you put the password in to continue with your day, just for the same annoying prompt to instantaneously appear again. I have gone through this too many times, and the idea of forcing my pc to shutdown isn't all that great considering the fact that I want to keep my HDD in good condition.

Therefore, is there a way to completely stop the authentication prompts? I would not even mind having one appear every 10 or so minutes for security, but it is not okay to have your screen locked by infinite "authentication".

Does this answer your question? "Authentication required. System policy prevents WiFi scans" in FocalFossa — Robert Longson, Oct 28 '22 at 09:07
Have you enabled automatic login? If so, just DON'T. Although all 3 major OS families still allow this, even if increasingly difficult nowadays for Windows and Mac, automatic login shouldn't be used, period. In Ubuntu it's counterproductive because what you "save" by not typing the password to login you¡ll "loose" later because the keyring where, among other things, the WiFi AP authentication is stored, must then be unlocked by... Typing your password. — ChanganAuto, Oct 28 '22 at 15:18

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 28 '22 at 16:03

To stop keyring authentication prompts entirely:

Your login password must match your keyring password.
You must use a password at login.

Any other combination won't unlock your keyring (which locks again quickly, leading to repeated prompts). And keyring authentication is required for network access (that cannot be waived nor disabled).

Keep in mind that while a user may find this sort of authentication requirement briefly annoying once or twice each day, compromised systems can be a real threat to everybody.

Is there a way to stop the authentication prompts especially for Wi-Fi scans in settings?

1 Answers1