Howdy: IR camera flashing loop after auth

[ericvhileman]

After authentication IR camera continues flashing on/off on loop until disabled.

Linux Mint 19.1 tessa. Same problem on Kubuntu 18.10.

Howdy version: 2.5.0

Did not have this problem on 2.4.0. Started with 2.5.0.

Lenovo x1 extreme laptop.

[boltgolt]

So _after_ a successful auth Howdy keeps looping, even without any authentication prompts open?

[ericvhileman]

Correct, after successful authentication. I see it when doing sudo from shell and also when prompted to auth inside ui. Login is another story, that doesn't appear to work at all on mint cinnamon, but did on other distros... so thinking diff issue.

[boltgolt]

Could you take a look at /var/log/auth.log and see if there are any python errors or login loops logged there?

[ericvhileman]

It auth's ok but then loops this line many times, ir lights flashing, eventually stopping on it's own:

Feb 4 15:33:05 oomkillah sudo: eric : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/eric ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 4 15:33:05 oomkillah sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 4 15:33:05 oomkillah sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root

And ends with:
Feb 4 15:33:12 oomkillah sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 4 15:33:12 oomkillah sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 4 15:33:17 oomkillah sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
Feb 4 15:33:17 oomkillah sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): auth could not identify password for [eric]

[boltgolt]

Could you try setting dismiss_lockscreen back to false? It's experimental and can misbehave on some systems.

[rgarcia7]

Hi, I get the same behaviour, to login I have no_confirmation = true
based on this https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy/issues/28#issuecomment-396231042
and I have dismiss_lockscreen = false

Howdy version: 2.5.0
My system runs LinuxMint Cinnamon 19.1 Tessa
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Series

[rgarcia7]

I get auth could not identify password for [username] on the log, but the lockscreen gets unlocked succesfuly with no problem, just the loop that keeps flashing the IR Led

Feb 12 14:54:20 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 cinnamon-screensaver-pam-helper: gkr-pam: no password is available for user
Feb 12 14:54:21 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:21 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:21 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:22 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:22 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:22 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:23 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:23 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:23 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:25 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:25 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:25 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:26 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:26 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:26 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:27 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:27 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:27 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:28 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:28 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:28 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:29 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:29 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:29 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:30 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:30 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:30 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:34 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 14:54:34 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 14:54:34 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 12 14:54:39 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
Feb 12 14:54:39 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): auth could not identify password for [username]

[rgarcia7]

This is the log when I do sudo -i on the terminal

Feb 12 15:00:47 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/bash
Feb 12 15:00:47 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 15:00:47 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: username : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/username ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/timeout 1 loginctl unlock-sessions --no-ask-password
Feb 12 15:00:47 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 12 15:00:47 linuxmint-Inspiron-7573 sudo: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root

[boltgolt]

Are you sure that dismiss_lockscreen is set to false? The loop is caused by the unlock-sessions command asking for authentication, which a new Howdy instance tries to provide.

[rgarcia7]

Yes i'm sure about the dismiss_lockscreenset to false
After the installation, i realize it didn't work on lockscreen so i changed it to true, but even with that it ditn't work
So I revert dismiss_lockscreen back to false, and follow the guide to enable no_confirmation
And this time the screen unlocks but with IR led loop

Could it be that once its set to true the command gets changed permanently?

[rgarcia7]

This behaviour can be shown in any application that doesn't have a tty attached
For example login screens, or a auth dialog for sudo

The dialog gets authenticated, but it keeps flashing the IR led

[ericvhileman]

My dismiss_lockscreenset to false as well and I have same problem.

[boltgolt]

So i found the bug, the line reading the dismiss_lockscreen config value is:

if config.get("core", "dismiss_lockscreen"):

Which reads the value as a string instead of a boolean and the value is thus always read as true. A temporary fix for this would be to empty the config value. For example:

# Auto dismiss lock screen on confirmation
# Will run loginctl unlock-sessions after every auth
# Experimental, can behave incorrectly on some systems
dismiss_lockscreen =

[rgarcia7]

Nice that you found the bug!
Just tested the temporary fix, and it works!

Thanks for your help

[ericvhileman]

Works for me everywhere after logged in. But doesn't work when trying to login. Maybe separate issue because login screen doesn't loop, just a quick flash then stops. I'll open a separate ticket.

Thank you for solving this one :+1:

[scarlehoff]

Just for completeness: I have the same problem in Arch (I'm using dwm). Setting the config to empty instead of false indeed fixes it.

[boltgolt]

Fixed in 2.5.1, as auto dismiss of the lockscreen has been removed