Common issues

This page lists known solutions to common problems. If you have an solution to a problem that's happening a lot, please add it below.

Issues

• Camera IR emitters not turning on (or turning off very quickly)
• Lockscreen not unlocking

Known solutions

Camera IR emitters not turning on

Setting a specific camera resolution

Some IR cameras only work at specific resolutions. Try running the following command: (replace DEVICE_PATH with the path found under device_path in sudo howdy config)

v4l2-ctl -d DEVICE_PATH --list-formats-ext

This command should list all available formats. For example, my cameras 340 by 340 resolution option is reported like this:

Size: Discrete 340x340

Experiment with these values by setting frame_width and frame_height in sudo howdy config.

Install linux-enable-ir-emitter

linux-enable-ir-emitter provides support for infrared cameras that are not directly supported (at the very least, the kernel must recognise your infrared camera). It can almost automatically, configure any infrared camera.

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Lockscreen not unlocking

Disabling confirmation messages

For some lockscreens, the "Identified face" message can stop a successful unlock. You can disable this message with the no_confirmation config option: (run sudo howdy config to open the config file)

no_confirmation = true

Lowering file security

Your lockscreen might not be running Howdy as root, which prevents Howdy from running. Setting the execution bit so every user can run Howdy might be the solution:

 chmod o+x /lib/security/howdy/dlib-data

Howdy PAM module does not load on screensaver

As reported in bug #28. In Mate/Cinnamon environments howdy may have problems running. The bug describes the way to recognize the problem (via /var/log/auth.log). If your problem is conversion, possibly the @sd65 user's solution¹ should work:

So I have a workaround. Please note I'm using Cinnamon Screensaver (should work on Mate too).

First as you said:

sudo chmod -R 755 /lib/security/howdy/

Then:

sudo howdy config

And set no_confirmation to true.

It's crashing when sending the confirmation message, so disabling it makes the trick. :)