GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 603350
Sometimes correct password is not accepted
Last modified: 2014-08-20 20:23:43 UTC
[reported first at <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/435928>] Sometimes, after the computer has been locked for a while (around an hour seems to be the lower limit), I'm unable to dismiss gnome-screensaver with my regular password. I've verified that I'm using the right input mode (USA Dvorak International) by clicking "Leave Message" and typing the password there. I've also changed the input mode to my second option, Norwegian, and typed the password (it's all a-zA-Z0-9 characters). I also verified that I'm able to log in in the first virtual terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F1) with the same password. This has happened on Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 (with gnome-screensaver 2.24.0-0ubuntu6) and 9.10 (with gnome-screensaver 2.28.0-0ubuntu3) running on an ASUS EEE 900. Workaround <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1741067/see-gnome-terminal-output-in-virtual-console>: Ctrl-Alt-F1, login, killall -9 gnome-screensaver. The last time this happened is a few days ago, so I don't have all the logs anymore. Which files / lines should I include in this report?
Silly question: are you using sticky keys? Bug 603427.
Mikel: No, and I've verified that I can write the password correctly in the "Leave Message" text box.
Created attachment 151681 [details] Debugging output Gathered with the following command: gnome-screensaver --no-daemon --debug > /tmp/gs.log 2>&1 &
Yeah looks like your authentication is failing. Something in your PAM stack has a timeout or cookie or something. Can you turn off your screenlock, wait the same amount of time, then try using the test-passwd tool that is in the gnome-screensaver sources? That will help peek into what PAM is doing. Thanks.
(In reply to comment #4) > Can you turn off your screenlock, wait the same amount of time, then try using > the test-passwd tool that is in the gnome-screensaver sources? That will help > peek into what PAM is doing. Could you please provide some command line to do this, and the name of the Ubuntu package (if any)? I'm not familiar with test-passwd. Also, is there some way I could verify my gnome-screensaver installation, as hinted in <http://live.gnome.org/GnomeScreensaver/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#Why_does_the_screensaver_unlock_dialog_always_think_my_password_is_invalid.3F>?
William, can you address the questions raised by the reporter in comment #5?
The screen lock is now implemented directly in gnome-shell, not in gnome-screensaver (as it was with older version of GNOME 3 and GNOME 2.x). If the reported problems persists in recent versions of GNOME, please file a new bug against gnome-shell with the "lock-screen" component selected. If your installation is an older version of GNOME that cannot be upgraded (such as an enterprise version), please use the appropriate support mechanism from your vendor, or your distribution instead.