GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 714128
Geary occasionally "forgets" password
Last modified: 2019-01-15 03:40:37 UTC
---- Reported by eric@yorba.org 2011-10-13 18:29:00 -0700 ---- Original Redmine bug id: 4253 Original URL: http://redmine.yorba.org/issues/4253 Searchable id: yorba-bug-4253 Original author: Eric Gregory Original description: Once a day or so I get prompted to re-enter my password. This is a bug. Every time this happens, the following appears in the console: Gkr-Message: received an invalid, unencryptable, or non-utf8 secret Gkr-Message: call to daemon returned an invalid response: (null).(null)() Hitting cancel and restarting Geary solves this. My guess is this is a bug in the keyring system rather than in Geary, but we should see if we can work around it. Related issues: related to geary - Feature #5549: port to libsecret (Fixed) related to geary - 6219: Pluggable keyring support (Fixed) related to geary - 7157: Prompt for IMAP password then exit when entered (Open) ---- Additional Comments From geary-maint@gnome.bugs 2013-09-23 14:30:00 -0700 ---- ### History #### #1 Updated by Adam Dingle over 1 year ago * **Target version** deleted (<strike>_0.1_</strike>) #### #2 Updated by Jim Nelson about 1 year ago * **Category** set to _client_ Recent changes to Geary now log errors from the GNOME Keyring. I just had this problem and this was logged to the console: Gkr-Message: received an invalid, unencryptable, or non-utf8 secret Gkr-Message: call to daemon returned an invalid response: (null).(null)() ** (geary:14659): DEBUG: util-keyring.vala:78: Unable to fetch password in GNOME keyring: GNOME_KEYRING_RESULT_IO_ERROR Gkr-Message: received an invalid, unencryptable, or non-utf8 secret Gkr-Message: call to daemon returned an invalid response: (null).(null)() ** (geary:14659): DEBUG: util-keyring.vala:78: Unable to fetch password in GNOME keyring: GNOME_KEYRING_RESULT_IO_ERROR In the documentation, this error code is listed as meaning "Problem communicating with daemon." #### #3 Updated by Jim Nelson 10 months ago * **Target version** set to _0.3.0_ Hopefully this will shake out with the port to libsecret. #### #4 Updated by Jim Nelson 10 months ago * **Category** changed from _client_ to _client+engine_ #### #5 Updated by Jim Nelson 9 months ago * **Status** changed from _Open_ to _5_ * **Resolution** set to _invalid_ It looks like this is fixed in GNOME Keyring. We haven't seen this in a while. #### #6 Updated by Charles Lindsay 7 months ago * **Status** changed from _5_ to _Invalid_ #### #7 Updated by Eric Gregory 5 months ago * **Status** changed from _Invalid_ to _Open_ * **Target version** changed from _0.3.0_ to _0.4.0_ Unfortunately, the dreaded password forgetting bug is back. I'm now seeing this in the console when Geary forgets my password: [msg] 15:35:46 received an invalid or unencryptable secret #### #8 Updated by Jim Nelson 5 months ago I have an odd feeling that this is due to some kind of timing hole in the underlying libraries. I wonder if we retried a couple of times (after a brief delay) if that would solve the problem. #### #9 Updated by Jim Nelson about 1 month ago * **Target version** changed from _0.4.0_ to _0.5.0_ --- Bug imported by chaz@yorba.org 2013-11-21 20:25 UTC --- This bug was previously known as _bug_ 4253 at http://redmine.yorba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4253 Unknown milestone "unknown in product geary. Setting to default milestone for this product, "---". Setting qa contact to the default for this product. This bug either had no qa contact or an invalid one. Resolution set on an open status. Dropping resolution
I just updated to Geary 0.6.0 to avoid this bug, but and am still seeing it. When starting, Geary fails to access the keyring for passwords for some email accounts ( I have 4 configured), sometimes. Very annoying. Email accounts are IMAP, desktop is Gnome 3.10.2 on OpenSUSE 13.1 (64Bit). Error occurs intermittantly - when starting Geary. Debug shows : [deb] 12:07:00 0.332754 secret-mediator.vala:37: Unable to fetch password in libsecret keyring for user: fidlerstwo@yahoo.com It looks like http://redmine.yorba.org/ is not an active site so I am not sure where to file or follow up with this bug. Is this bug closed, or should I try to update libsecret? cheers, Joe.
This is the new location for the ticket for this problem, so following up here is fine. Unfortunately, this is a difficult problem to track down because it seems to come and go with no rhyme nor reason. As detailed above, it looks like libsecret is failing, possibly because it can't connect to the keyring service. It may be we need to retry fetching the password after a short delay. But, in my mind, this kind of thing is better handled by the library than the application.
Jim, thanks for the response. Yes the timing of the error is very fickle (and irritating). I have been hunting through my logs and debug messages but have not yet found any more info on the error. I agree it seems libsecret's Secret.password_lookup is occasionally - and incorrectly - returning a null value when keyring data actually exists. I am not even sure a delay in fetching the password would fix that reliably.
This bug still occurs on Geary version 0.10.0 on both Linux Mint 17.1 (XFCE) and after a fresh install of Linux Mint 17.2 (Cinnamon). I haven't pinned down what triggers it, but it happens to me almost daily. I love Geary but this bug is driving me crazy! I'd be happy to review logs or run tests, just tell me what information you guys need.
Mike: Are you seeing messages such as reported above in your debug log when this happens? E.g.: > Gkr-Message: received an invalid, unencryptable, or non-utf8 secret > Gkr-Message: call to daemon returned an invalid response: (null).(null)()
I just had this happen with debug running, which resulted in: > [msg] 19:37:18 0.022473 received an invalid or unencryptable secret > [deb] 19:37:18 0.067608 secret-mediator.vala:76: Unable to fetch password in libsecret keyring for redacted@redacted.com > ... > [msg] 19:37:22 1.544211 Remote error from secret service: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed: Couldn't create item: The secret was transferred or encrypted in an invalid way. > [deb] 19:37:22 0.000077 geary-controller.vala:1106: Unable to open account Other:redacted@redacted.com: Couldn't create item: The secret was transferred or encrypted in an invalid way.
*** Bug 713061 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The error message string "Couldn't create item: ..." is being reported by gnome-keyring, so I'm inclined to think this is a bug there. Bug 769666 has been filed under that.
Any more development on that bug ? It's very annoying and stop me from recommending geary. I get that password request multiple times a day.
(In reply to mrouilla51 from comment #9) > Any more development on that bug ? It's very annoying and stop me from > recommending geary. I get that password request multiple times a day. This issue in Geary is caused by an upstream bug in gnome-keyring, which is used by Geary to store passwords. It has been reported against gnome-keyring in Bug 769666. If you can reliably reproduce this, please mention so in Bug 769666, you may be able to help the gnome-keyring developers track down the cause so the bug can be fixed. If I can come up with a patch with a workaround in Geary, are you able test it out? It only happens to me somewhat randomly which makes it hard to test.
Thanks, sadly this happen also randomly but it seems to be mostly on one of my 3 accounts. I have both Mint Cinnamon 17.3 and 18 installed and it happen on both. If you have a workaround, I'll be willing to test it out for sure. Anything I can help you with. Tx
Created attachment 347254 [details] [review] Make it a bit less likely geary temporarily forgets passwords Hey all, the underlying problem in libsecret has been fixed (See Bug 778357), so when your system is upgraded to the next release of libsecret the issue should be fixed. In the mean time, the attached patch might make it less likely for this issue to crop up. Can people here try applying it against current Geary master and let me know if it helps? Ta!
I haven't seen this for a long time, so I assume that the gnome-keyring fix has become more widely available. If anyone still has this issue, please reopen and test out the patch I mention above. Thanks!