Renewing Kerberos tickets in Gnome3 

UPDATED… Some smart arse in the office pointed out that you can change this more easily as follows:

  • Click on your name in the top right of the screen.
  • Click System Settings in the drop-down menu.
  • Click Kerberos Authentication.
  • Type your preferred Kerberos principal into the Kerberos Principal text field.
  • Close the Kerberos Authentication window.

The original advice remains below as an exercise in humility.

With a large number of configuration utilities removed from Gnome3, I found it hard to adjust the principal that krb5-auth-dialog uses when refreshing my Kerberos ticket.

The principal I need to use is sheldonh/root@STARJUICE.NET. Unfortunately, krb5-auth-dialog defaults to sheldonh@STARJUICE.NET.

Happily, you can change this as follows:

  • Install and run gconf-editor.
  • Click to expand /apps in the tree view on the left.
  • Scroll down and click on /apps/krb5-auth-dialog in the tree view on the left.
  • Double-click on principal in the detail view on the right.
  • Type your preferred Kerberos principal into the Value text field and click OK.
  • Close gconf-editor.

Now when you click on “Get Ticket” in krb5-auth-dialog, you’re prompted for the password for your preferred principal.

Tags: work