Howdy is broken in Linux Mint 22 - Python errors and lock screen bug

[seths22]

I have spent a large amount of time trying to get Howdy working in Linux Mint 22 (based on Ubuntu 24.04), which came out this week. I had many issues right off the bat, including the externally-managed-environment python error (see issue #807) which has apparently been occurring for a while after an update to Python, and many others. I was finally able to get Howdy to work on initial login and with sudo by following all steps in the last post of issue #927 and manually creating the /lib/security/howdy/snapshots directory. However, it also broke my lock screen functionality. When I tried to unlock my computer from the lock screen, my IR emitters briefly turn on but I am unable to actually unlock the screen. I am also unable to use my password to unlock the screen in this state, when I enter it I simply see the "checking" message indefinitely. The only way to unlock is to manually power the computer off and restart it. I ended up removing Howdy, as I need the capability to lock my screen without having to power off my computer, and after removing Howdy my lock screen functioned normally. Does anyone know what could be causing this issue, or how it could be fixed?

Another semi-related question: I really love this project, and have been using Howdy for years, but it is getting very hard to make it work with the recent changes to Python that break installation (as can be seen with the many issues created related to this problem). Is there an update planned that will fix this?

Linux distribution: Linux Mint 22

Howdy version (sudo howdy version): 2.6.1