HELP ! Please.I am currently on Zorin 16.3 Lite and attempting to upgrade to 17.1 Lite.
I get this message each time:
"Sorry, password authentication didn't work.Please try again.
To upgrade Zorin you need to authenticate"
I am not certain at all what to do here.I am logged in obviously and I have never encountered this before.
Hi, and welcome!
In order to run this upgrade you need to do so with elevated privileges, as an admin. Normally, on a single user account, your user's password should suffice.
You can check what type of account you are using in Settings -> Users And Groups.
When you installed Zorin OS 16.3 Lite for the first time, did you check the box that said "don't ask password at login" (or something of that sort)?
And a quick test: open up a Terminal and type sudo test and press ented. You should be prompted for your password. If nothing happens (no errors or warnings) that's a good sign, and that is the same password you should enter when upgrading.
Okay according to "Users and Groups" I am the administrator.
I don't recall what was checked at the initial set up unfortunately but I do have to log in every time I waant to use the laptop.
When in terminal and I type "sudo test" it did not ask me for my password.
Can you please reboot. Then log in.
At the desktop, launch terminal and run
sudo -i
After verifying your password, run
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/zorin-os-upgrader/zorin-os-upgrader
in the terminal. You can copy the command and paste it in terminal with ctl+shift+v or Right Click > Paste.
Okay this is what came back.Where it says MYNAME it had obviously a different name.Thanks for all help :
root@MYNAME:~# /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/zorin-os-upgrader/zorin-os-upgrader
** (zorin-os-upgrader:1725): CRITICAL **: 10:18:01.049: string_contains: assertion 'self != NULL' failed
** (zorin-os-upgrader:1725): CRITICAL **: 10:18:01.049: string_contains: assertion 'self != NULL' failed
** (zorin-os-upgrader:1725): CRITICAL **: 10:18:01.049: string_contains: assertion 'self != NULL' failed
root@MYNAME:~#
Welcome to the Forum!
Maybe a Reinstall will help. Open the Terminal and type sudo apt reinstall zorin-os-upgrader
This looks to me like a failure on the admin access check.
@Ponce-De-Leon suggests reinstalling it which can be done with
sudo apt install --reinstall zorin-os-upgrader
That unfortunately didn't do anything either, I pasted it in and then restarted and it still came back with
"Sorry, password authentication didn't work.Please try again.
To upgrade Zorin you need to authenticate"
That error message makes me think that you don't have a password set. You can go to settings again and change your user's password. Although that might require entering the a password which you don't have. If that is the case, open up a terminal and run:
sudo passwd <your_username>
This will prompt to change your user's password. After that, you should be asked to enter a password when running sudo commands moving forward. Also, you can use this for authentication when prompted like during the upgrade.
Okay I changed my password and restarted the laptop again and it still said the same thing :
"Sorry, password authentication didn't work.Please try again.
To upgrade Zorin you need to authenticate"
Well, final attempt: change the root user's password:
sudo passwd root
The root user is also referred to as the super user. It can do anything in the system, basically. So, needless to say, make sure this password doesn't fall in the wrong hands.
Once that's done try to run the upgrader again using this new password. Maybe a restart is needed, I'm not sure so try if it doesn't work at first.
No that didn't work either.
I changed it and restarted it and the same message was there.
The only other option I can think of is creating a new user account, and use that to perform the upgrade. Make sure you assign a password to this account, and that is an administrator as well.
Otherwise... I'm just as confused as you are 
You can always make a backup of your data and install from scratch.
It won't let me create a new user.I don't know why.I click it and nothing happens at all. I then logged out and logged back in and tried the same thing under my friends user name and again nothing happens when I click it.
First run apt update and upgrade
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
reboot and check again
I am at a loss on this one but from everything stated, it sounds a bit like an issue with the sudoers.
@Helpmeplease24, at any time have you aver adjusted the ownership or permissions of directories and files? Maybe when trying to solve a different issue in the past...
Are you the person who installed Zorin OS?
When I was trying to set up xrdp I followed a guide and it told me to create a file called /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/02-allow-colord.conf
After creating the file I had the same issue with authentication and the upgrader.
Maybe you followed the same guide?
I deleted the file with this command:
sudo rm /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/02-allow-colord.conf
Try through the terminal:
sudo useradd <new_username> -G sudo
And I'm also curious if you've made any modifications to system files before?
First run apt update and upgrade
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
reboot and check again
Okay I did this and rebooted and logged back in and tried again but it didn't work, just the same message.Thank you though for trying.
Yes I installed it originally and have never had issues with it.