“Failed to apply network settings” right after boot

Question

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 and I keep facing this error message in a dialog box, right after I boot up my computer (already in graphical mode):

Failed to apply network settings

org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.PermissionsInvalid: The permission of the setuid helper is not correct

You might not be able to connect to the Bluetooth network via this machine

Worth mentioning is that I did accept some updates in the update manager prior to this error showing up.

The symptoms following the error message is that I can't find my other hard drives on the computer.

I seem to have proper Internet connection, though - contrary to what one would think, regarding the error message title.

Also I can't shut down the computer. I can log out, but then nothing happens when I choose the "Shut down" menu option (I simply have to long-press the power button for 8 seconds or so).

So! Do you guys know What the error message means? And more importantly; how I can fix the underlying fault? I have google-d the issue but with no further success.

Cheers, dbm

Answer 1

It seems like I, by mistake - naturally (*blushing*), did interrupt my update process. The reason why I think so is that I tried to sudo apt-get on some other packages when I got the following error message in the terminal:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

Following the very instructions given in the message (i.e. issuing the sudo dpkg --configure -a command) solved my problem. The error messages, "Failed to apply..." and "E: dpkg was interrupted..." are gone and my system is back to a happy state, as am I.