Update 2.6 - xscreensaver stopped working (+solution)

[ju916]

Problem Since the (automatic) upgrade to 2.6, unlocking xscreensaver with howdy fails:

xscreensaver: 13:44:44:   pam_authenticate (...) ...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/lib/security/howdy/compare.py", line 23, in <module>
    from recorders.video_capture import VideoCapture
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'recorders.video_capture'

The weird thing is, that sudo for example works with the same configuration. That brings me to the core of the problem: unlike sudo xscreensaver runs with my uid -- and does not have access to the directory recorders/:

root@ju-PC:/lib/security/howdy# ls -al recorders/
insgesamt 80
drwxr--r-- 3 root root  4096 Jun 30 13:36 .

Knowing this, the solution is straight forward:

FIX:

# chmod a+x recorders

works for me ...

[Digisaurus]

Thanks for your issue report ju916!

I had the same problem of xscreensaver lock generating the error with howdy after the upgrade:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/lib/security/howdy/compare.py", line 23, in <module> from recorders.video_capture import VideoCapture ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'recorders.video_capture'

The same chmod solved the problem for me: $ sudo chmod a+x /lib/security/howdy/recorders

The thing that confuses me is although it's been some time since I installed xscreensaver (after having first installed Howdy), I don't recall ever having to modify permissions to get them to work together...?

[crowlogic]

Confirmed, sudo chmod a+x /lib/security/howdy/recorders did the trick. someone should fix the debian build scripts it seems easy enough

[crowlogic]

Idgaf