GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 690928
"Authentication error" prevents unlocking lock screen - requires hard reboot
Last modified: 2014-04-26 14:56:11 UTC
I've been living with this bug on 2 computers for a while now because I have no idea how to reproduce it or how to begin diagnosing it. However, I've lost too much time and unsaved work to ignore it any longer. As an Ubuntu user I'm also aware that I may be pointed at launchpad.net, but (a) launchpad.net is awful and (b) I've uninstalled every Ubuntu-specific package and am using a gnome3-ppa - as "vanilla" a gnome3 desktop as I'd imagine one could find. *Any* pointers or workarounds are appreciated. The issue: Sometimes (seemingly randomly, I have no idea how to reproduce) - perhaps 1/20 locks - after I slide my lock screen up to reveal the password/switch-user form the text "Authentication error" appears below the form before I'm even able to press a key (much less enter my password). The lock screen then slides back into place, and repeated attempts at unlocking meet with the same fate until I power off my computer and reboot (thus losing unsaved work). The Cancel button seems to be the only one I can click on the lock screen, and it just lowers the lock screen faster. When I try to switch to a virtual console to try to diagnose the issue or force kill the lock screen the lock screen laughs at me by bouncing up & down sadistically in response to my keypresses. System specs (both systems are nearly identically setup): 64bit Ubuntu 12.10 with unity, compiz, lightdm, and other Ubuntu-isms *uninstalled* gdm 3.6.1 (3.6.1-0ubuntu1 from quantal) gnome-power-manager 3.6.0 (3.6.0-0ubuntu1 from quantal) gnome-screensaver 3.6.0 (3.6.0-0ubuntu2 from quantal-updates) gnome-shell 3.6.2 (3.6.2-0ubuntu0.2 from quantal-updates)
Created attachment 234109 [details] Log after "Authentication error" bug
Hi all, I'm facing the same problem 64bit Ubuntu 12.10 with gnome-shell using gdm as Display Manager System specs: gdm 3.6.1 (3.6.1-0ubuntu1 from quantal) gnome-power-manager 3.6.0 (3.6.0-0ubuntu1 from quantal) gnome-screensaver 3.6.0 (3.6.0-0ubuntu2 from quantal-updates) gnome-shell 3.6.2 (3.6.2-0ubuntu0.2 from quantal-updates) I've noticed that when the problem occurs at next reboot I see in /var/log/gdm/:0-slave.log.1 (attached): Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 keygdm-simple-slave[1496]: WARNING: Unable to connect to display :0 [...] gdm-simple-slave[1496]: WARNING: Unable to connect to display after 10 tries - bailing out I enabled the debug option, hope to report something more useful in a few days (problem seems to occur randomly so I have to wait it happen agian :( )
Created attachment 239542 [details] slave.log DEBUG on after the "authentication error problem"
Created attachment 239543 [details] .log DEBUG on after the "authentication error problem"
Created attachment 239544 [details] greeter.log DEBUG on after the "authentication error problem"
Attached the three logs file after "authentication error problem" (recovered after reboot) with debug mode activated
None of the provided logs are useful to diagnose this issue, as they capture the output of the gdm greeter, but as far I understand, this is about a locked running session. We need the output of ~/.cache/gdm/session.log. (Ctrl+Alt+FN should work even if the screen is locked, as they're handled by X and cannot be captured by applications)
Ok, I see what you mean. I'll wait till it happen again and provide that log. But on the Ctrl+Alt+FN trust me, they don't work either (maybe something about the "combo" being interrupted by other events?)
Created attachment 240056 [details] Session log file after "Authentication error" bug
I was bitten by this bug a few times, I hope the uploaded session.log can help. I can confirm that Ctrl+Alt+FN doen't work, also after connecting via network and restarting the gnome-shell process I tried to lock again X and the authentication error reappeared.
Ok, so the error is GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Unable to find appropriate session for user claudio This is a gdm error, probably caused by ConsoleKit misconfiguration. This unfortunately all we know, if you want to debug it further, next time it happens you can try introspecting org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit (using gdbus introspect) or calling o.fd.ConsoleKit.Manager.GetSessionForUnixProcess with the gnome-shell pid.
This is happening to me. gnome-shell-3.6.3.1 More: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=800742 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=699806
This is definitely related to consolekit seeing your session as ACTIVE with "ck-list-sessions". In my case, I had a terminal logon with the same username previously open. This seems to have confused whoever was seeking that "authentication channel".
Maybe related with https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=67267
Marking as obsolete - there don't seem to be any more reports since 3.6, and we no longer support locking the screen when using ConsoleKit.