Unknown Error 1 on GNOME

[MrGlue]

Howdy installed successfully, after a little help with pip install dlib. sudo howdy test and sudo howdy add also ran without errors or warnings.
While I can use sudo ls and sudo -i with face recognition, I cannot unlock my gnome screen. When I try, it cycles between these two states. I cannot type in the first state and the password field resets every cycle. Pressing enter with a wrong or empty password will not break the cycle. I have to rush in my password in the second state and press enter to unlock the device.

/var/log/auth.log adds the following when I lock the screen and log in again:

2024-06-02T17:38:21.495154+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: Failure, unknown error 1
2024-06-02T17:38:21.499315+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): authentication failure; logname=maxbauer uid=0 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser= rhost= user=maxbauer
2024-06-02T17:38:26.430992+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring

When adding this line to /etc/pam.d/gdm-password:

auth sufficient pam_howdy.so

the system cannot find the file (which does not exist on the file system). The auth.log changes as follows:

2024-06-02T17:41:27.615084+02:00 NewtonU gdm-password]: PAM unable to dlopen(pam_howdy.so): /usr/lib/security/pam_howdy.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2024-06-02T17:41:27.615179+02:00 NewtonU gdm-password]: PAM adding faulty module: pam_howdy.so
2024-06-02T17:41:30.096503+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: Failure, unknown error 1
2024-06-02T17:41:30.102745+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): authentication failure; logname=maxbauer uid=0 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser= rhost= user=maxbauer
2024-06-02T17:41:32.106062+02:00 NewtonU gdm-password]: PAM unable to dlopen(pam_howdy.so): /usr/lib/security/pam_howdy.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2024-06-02T17:41:32.106214+02:00 NewtonU gdm-password]: PAM adding faulty module: pam_howdy.so
2024-06-02T17:41:34.541674+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): authentication failure; logname=maxbauer uid=0 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser= rhost= user=maxbauer
2024-06-02T17:41:36.574158+02:00 NewtonU gdm-password]: PAM unable to dlopen(pam_howdy.so): /usr/lib/security/pam_howdy.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
2024-06-02T17:41:36.574325+02:00 NewtonU gdm-password]: PAM adding faulty module: pam_howdy.so
2024-06-02T17:41:38.488202+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring

So, when I modify the line and point to the right file:

auth sufficient /lib/security/howdy/pam_howdy.so

The auth.log changes as follows:

2024-06-02T17:44:36.460022+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: Failure, unknown error 1
2024-06-02T17:44:36.464432+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): authentication failure; logname=maxbauer uid=0 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser= rhost= user=maxbauer
2024-06-02T17:44:40.710721+02:00 NewtonU pam_howdy: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring

So, just as at the beginning of troubleshooting.

/etc/howdy has the following permissions:

maxbauer@NewtonU:~$ ls -la /etc/howdy/
total 28
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 2 10:22 .
drwxr-xr-x 145 root root 12288 Jun 2 16:48 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3912 Jun 2 10:18 config.ini
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:18 dlib-data
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 2 10:31 models

/lib/security/howdy has the following permissions:

maxbauer@NewtonU:~$ ls -la /lib/security/howdy/
total 148
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:13 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:14 cli
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3408 Feb 19 2023 cli.py
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12367 Feb 19 2023 compare.py
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 357 Feb 19 2023 i18n.py
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:13 locales
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3068 Feb 19 2023 logo.png
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 85048 Feb 19 2023 pam_howdy.so
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:20 pycache
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:14 recorders
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 2 09:13 rubberstamps
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1835 Feb 19 2023 snapshot.py
drwxr-xr-x 2 root maxbauer 4096 Jun 2 09:55 snapshots

My /etc/howdy/config.ini can be found here: https://pastebin.com/VCSrdeGT

A helping hand would be appreciated.

---

Linux distribution (if applicable): Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (noble)

Howdy version: Howdy 3.0.0 BETA

[mwotton]

i had to make the python files in /lib/howdy readable (and the recorders folder executable) for this to work - i guess the lock screen code is running as your user, and the login code is being run by root?
python3 /lib/security/howdy/compare.py $USER

was failing for me with the Error 1 message, fixing those permissions made it work for me.