[arch-general] xflock4 password validation fails - Was: xflock4 and pambase

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi,

if I try to unlock the screen after running xflock4 by an fbpanel menu
entry or from command line, validation of the password fails. The
language settings are en_US.utf8 The keyboard layout is German. However,
the keyboard layout seems not to be related to the issue.

On Tue, 2019-02-12 at 07:22 +0100, Guus Snijders via arch-general wrote:
> Op ma 11 feb. 2019 19:14 schreef Ralf Mardorf:
> > After running xflock4 I can't unlock the screen anymore. I suspect that
> > this is related to the pambase update. [...]
> > 
> > Should I fix it myself or is a bug report within reason?
> 
> Give it a try first; if it works with a correct pam file in place: it's a
> packaging bug. OTOH, it could be a bug in your config, in that case a bug
> report is probably unnecessary.

I successfully used xflock4 for years. It stopped working this year. It
is/was not used with Xfce4. I'm running the openbox window manager
without a desktop environment.

After skimming /usr/share/doc/Linux-PAM/index.html I first tested:

$ cat /etc/pam.d/xflock4
#%PAM-1.0
auth       include	system-auth
account    include	system-auth
password   include	system-auth
session    include	system-auth

Since I'm using lightdm, which optional depends on accountsservice,
which is required by cinnamon-screensaver, I then tested a copy from the
cinnamon-screensaver's config:

$ cat /etc/pam.d/xflock4 
#%PAM-1.0
auth       include	system-auth
auth       optional     pam_gnome_keyring.so
account    include	system-auth
password   include	system-auth
session    include	system-auth

Both don't solve the issue, but they might be completyl wrong ;). FWIW I
never run cinnamon-screensaver or another screensaver, depending on the
work I'm doing, I enable screen blanking without locking the screen, or
never let the screen take a rest at all. I used xflock4 on demand.

For the moment I migrated to slock, which does work without an issue,
but unfortunately doesn't provide a clock, one of the features xflock4
does provide.

Now I wonder which of my configs might have become buggy, that xflock4
stopped working properly.

Regards,
Ralf